Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1895 — OUR RURAL READERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR RURAL READERS.

SOMETHING HERE THAT WILL INTEREST THEM. Lie vice for Unload ins and Stacking Hay, Straw and Fodder—A Temporary Shade sos Treeleaa Paatnrea— Fatten Piga Karly—General Notea. • Simple Stacking Device. Place a stout pole or mast (a), 30 feet long, six or eight inches in the ground within four feet of the end of the intended stack and two feet from the side, leaning over the stack in a slanting position, as shown in the illustration. The load f is on the opposite side of the

stack. There are strong guy ropes to hold the mast in position, and of such length that when in the position illustrated the two ropes d and g are tight, while the rope bis loose. The fork is pulled down and inserted in the load of hay and the horse attached at h, the load is lifted, and when it reaches the top a, a line of draft will pull the pole towards an upright position, al, the rope b becoming tight and the rope <1 loose. In this manner it is possible to swing the forkful of hay up over the stack, and if the ropes are properly arranged, to drop it anywhere along the center of the stack. As soon as the forkful of hay falls off, the mast is pulled back by the man who loads the hay fork. Of course, these guy ropes must be arranged so as to allow the mast to move In any desired position. This can be easily accomplished by any one tjho has average ingenuity. A pulley is needed at masthead for fork rope to run through. Also set a short post in the ground about two feet from the mast, parallel with the stack; put a pulley on this, run the fork rope through It, and hitch the horse to the end. With this simple device, twenty or thirty large loads of hay may be put in a single stack with very little manual labor.—American Agriculturist

At Milking Time. Cows, to make the most of their op portunitles, need to be milked in quiet, and a larger part of the hot months some sort of soiling crop must be fed to obtain the best results, which means prolonging the milk flow, and nowhere can this be so well done, and each cow receive her due proportion, as in the stable. It has been a matter of observation with us, says the Practical Farmer, that a cow soon comes to have a home place in the stable, and to be tied there twice a day and have some provender, grain or forage, on her arrival, gives her a matter to look forward to and evensong for, and in the afternoon the cows have a home longing and start for “the bars,” and getting up the cows with boy, horse and dog is an obsolete custom on such a farm. In this summer care of the cows their comfort should be looked after in the lot, seeing that there is plenty of good water and shade of some kind. A Fruit Tree Pest. One of the insects which annoys the fruit raiser and destroys many valuable trees is the pear tree psylia, shown in the accompanying illustrations. It,

however, has an inveterate enemy. The psylia is shadowed wherever he may go by a tall, dark insect, which skulks behind stones and under rotten bits of

wood, breathing hard and only waiting for a chance to fall upon his prey and cry, “Ah, ha! At last!” Weeds Rich in Nitrogen. Some kinds es weeds will only grow on very rich soiL Of this class is the common purslane known as chickweed or pigweed, and usually found in gardens. It makes an excellent feed for hogs when confined in pens, and they eat it greedily. These weeds contain a large proportion of nitrogenous matter and rot rapidly when entirely covered by soil. But their roots catch so easily on upturned soil that it Is safest after uprooting them in the garden to throw them to the pigs. Another weed that is rich in both nitrogen and potash is flreweed. It is a coarse-growing plant with rough, prickly stem, which springs up after fires In the woods. Horses will eat It, but we never saw it eaten by any other kind of stock. Fattening Beef on Grass. There is not nearly so much grassfattened beef as there used to be. One reason is that mm* of the pasture land has diminished in fertility and its grass does not make as rich feed as it used to do. Farmers have also discovered that a grain ration to stock that has good pasture pays better than it does to rely on the grass alone. The fattening is quicker, and a very small grain ration with animals on gsass makes an astonishing difference. Ais

probable that in proportion to Its tritire value grain U a cheaper feed than grass, and tha grass ration la chiefly important because It helps to iiecure better digestion. Stirring the Surface Soil. Frequent stirring of surface soil, with thorough subsoiling the previous fall to form a storage basin for water in dry soils, will enable many crops* to go through serious drouth with comparatively little damage. This, with the possibilities of windmill power for pumping water by irrigation, and the knowledge that a little water can be made to Irrigate a large area, says the Agriculturist, is robbing the annual drouth of much of its terrors. New forage crops are being adapted to our soils that will furnish feed during the dryest times. It is only recently that we printed an account of twenty-seven new forage crops at the Massachusetta experiment station, many of which are wholly new to most fanners, but so productive as to be’ well worthy of widespread trial. The farmer cannot control temperature or rainfall, but physical conditions of soil may be so altered that an unusual season can be overcome. We are just beginning to understand the soil and how to handle it to conserve its moisture. The drouth of 1894 was a severe, but a thorough, teacher. Early Fattening of Pork. There is great advantage In beginning to fatten young pigs while the weather is still warm and clover or grass Is abundant It takes very little grain to start young pigs to fattening when they have a run at pasture. That if possible, be something other than corn, for a part of the advantage of early fattening is that the fattening may begin when there is little danger of overfeeding with corn. Yet the farmer who Is fortunate enough to have a few thousand bushels of old corn in his crib can feed it with milk and wheat bran, so as to make It produce twice as much pork as the same value of new corn will make two or three months later in the season. Shades for Treeless Pastures. Where pastures contain no trees for shade in the strong heat of summer, It Is cruel not to afford some artificial

shade for the stock. Such shelter should be provided on humane grounds, but there Is a question of dollars and cents in it as well. Discomfort of any kind lessens productiveness and growth. A rough shed of boards, or even a rough framework covered with green boughs, will answer the purpose very well, but where lumber is expensive and green boughs are not at hand, cheap cotton cloth can be used very effectively and economically. Such cloth can be bought for five cents or less a yard, and can be stretched over a framework set up against the pasture fence. Preserving vs. Canning Fruit. The plan of canning fruit depending on the exclusion of air for Its preservation was a great improvement in most cases over the old plan of preserving it by putting it up with equal quantities of sugar. At the time it was adopted the canning process was also much less costly. Sugar then was high priced, and the saving of expense was a most important consideration. But sugar Is much cheaper now, and doing up some part of the fruit after the old way is generally advisable. This Is especially true of the very acid fruits, which require a good deal of sweetening after they are taken out of the can before being eaten. The improvement in putting up with equal weights of sugar Is almost as great with the sweeter kinds of fruit. These, when merely canned, are very insipid, and need a great deal of sugar to give the fruit a Added flavor. As a change from canned fruit almost everybody will welcome some that has been put up after the old formula with equal weight of white, sugar made with Its own juices Into a thick syrup.

An Old-Time Horse Trade. A papyrus recently dbg up in Egypt, supposed to be between 3,000 and 4,000 years old, gives an account of a horse trade in which the Egyptian who wrote the record tells how he was swindled by a Hebrew named Daniel. This could not have been the prophet of that name in our Bible, who was a resident of Babylon, and lived several centuries later. But the ancient record shows that as great uncertainty prevailed in horse trading thousands of years ago as there is at the present day. Renovating Old Pastures. There are many old pastures which can be much improved by harrowing with a forty-tooth drag that will admit the air to the places covered by moss, says the American Cultivator, and enable the grass to grow more vigorously. Of course, some of the roots of the grass will be destroyed; but the stirring of the soil will make more grow in their place. If there is much moss on the surface, it will require underdraining to remove surplus water to make a permanent improvement Uses of Timber Belts. Timber belts, by breaking off the severe wind in winter, often add onethird or more to the yield of a wheat crop, and prevent the lodging of both wheat and corn during summer storms; and in prairie counties it has been proved that with one-sixth of the land planted in timber belts the remaining five-sixths would produce as much grain as the whole without the timber. Common Soda for Skim Milk. Add a little common soda to the skim milk before feeding the calves. It is claimed that the soda stops the formation of the rubber-like curd in the calf’s stomach, that is so often found on examination of calves that have died from the dreaded calf disease. Loose, Dry Dirt Around Corn. Keep the ground loose around the corn. A."blanket of loose, dry dirt stops the evaporation of water from the soil. Go through the oom with the cultivator after each hard rain If practicable.

FOR UNLOADING AND STACKING HAY, STRAW AND FODDER.

THE PEAR TREE PSYLIA.

ENEMY OF THE PSYLIA.

TEMPORARY SHADE FOR STOCK.