Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1895 — OUR RURAL READERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR RURAL READERS.

SOMETHING HERE THAT WILL INTEREST THEM. A Winter Poultry House that Has Much to Commend It—New Way to Keep Green Fodder—Hog-Kilims; Suggestion*— Home-made Scraper. Winter Poultry House. The accompanying illustration, taken from the Agriculturist, shows a poultry bouse that has much to commend it. For best results fowls must have a chance to scratch iu the open air iu winter and in stormy weather, and that, too, without being obliged to go on to the snow or out into the rain. An open scratching shed answers the purpose admirably. Such a house may be built to a somewhat extended length, as suggested in the illustration, ana so be used for a number of breeds, or for numerous flocks of the same breed; or it may be made of a length to have a single closed room and an accompanying open shed. The latter may have a stout cloth curtain to lit down snugly over the opening on days when the snow would drift into the sheds. Plenty of light would come through the cloth to make it a pleasant place for fowls to

scratch in, even on siormy days; or a light pair of doors, with some glass In them, could be used. Each closed room and open shed should have their yard la front, and litter should bo provided in the shed in which to scatter grain. Such a scratching room will also be found serviceable iu hot weather, when fowls are sure to seek shelter if it is to be found. Doors open straight through the entire building, these being located on the back side.' To Keep Green Fodder. In the first place, let me say that during the past year we have been struggling with the question of green feed, how to grow and how to preserve it. The trouble has been to preserve the food as nearly green as possible without danger of rotting, and without the expense of building a silo, and it was thought this might be accomplished by stacking the com when well cured between layers of straw. We commenced our stack with a foot of straw on the ground, then a layer of the green grain, then another foot of straw, and so on till the stack was completed, says the Manitoba Farmer. We now have a stack containing between fifty and sixty tons of feed. The fodder is in very good condition—the stack having been opened just shortly before I left. The corn did not freeze. We chopped it before feeding. I think I may say that we have solved the problem of green feed and its preservation. We averaged fourteen tons to the acre of North Dakota Flint, and It cost us at the rate of $1.40 per ton green. Home-made Earth Scraper. Iron shovels or scrapers for removing earth are somewhat expensive. A can be made at home, after the plan shown In the accompanying illustration. It should be of hard wood, and the edge in front should

be covered with sheet iron, after which an old piece of crosscut saw may be fastened beneath the edge and turned up at the sides, as shown in the sketch. The Iron straps to which the chain is attached should go around the back as well as the sides of the scraper, to give strength. Such an implement Is exceedingly handy on the farm for leveling off ridges and filling depressions, and for scraping up into heaps the manure that becomes scattered over the barnyard.—Orange Judd Farmer. A Pelect List of Apples. An enthusiastic reader of the Independent asks for a list of ten apples and ten pears for successive home use. He wishes them to cover the year from July to May. lam sure that, if such a list were made out once a month, more inquiries would come in covering the same ground. But here is a list that will go: Red Astrachan, Summer Rose, Early Strawberry, Gravenstein, Hubbardston, Pound Sweet, Fameure, Shlawasse Beauty, King, Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Swaar, Itoxbury Russet That is as near ten as I can get and not leave out too many. As it is, I omit half a dozen very choice fruits. As for ten pears, I should select Margaret, Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Sheldon, Hardy Seckel, Lawrence, Anjou, Josephine and Quince Bonne on quince stock. This does not include all really choice pears, but Is a good list, and will reach from August to April. Water in Bntter. On the question of water in butter, a butter-maker says in a dairy paper: “The amount of water that butter will retain depends on the temperature at which the creameries churn, , the size of the granules, and the way the butter is handled afterwards. I have found out that to have butter contain from twelve to fifteen per cent, of water, the following conditions must be observed: The cream must be rich and fat, and churned at a low temperature, washed just enough to get the milk out, and then worked once. I have had the butter analyzed every day for a year under these conditions, and it was found to contain about this amount of water at all times.” Hog-Killing Suggestions. The work of hog killing is always done in cold weather. The alteration of exposure to severe winds and to a temperature of scalding water makes the work doubly disagreeable. It will pay for health and comfort to have the work of dressing the hog done under a sited where snow and winds cannot

come. 'For“Vrry heavy hogs ropes and tackle to alii iu lifting the carcasses wHI be a great assistance and saving of heavy labor. It is well also to have a thermometer to test the water sot scalding. Many fanners think they can guess this closely enough, but they waste more time from having water too hot, thus setting the hair more firmly than would pay for a dozen thermometers. Tlie temperature of water sot sealding should be between 180 and 190 degrees. When the water is thrjwn on the hog covcr.it quickly with hair or woolen cloths, until the heat has effected the loosening of the hair. Slow and Fast Hanking. There is a great difference in the amount of corn that can be husked by men who have' had equal practice In the art. Much depends on how the husker began when he learned his business. We remember an old man who had always an apparently slow motion in handling stalks and detaching the husks from the cars. Yet he would husk forty to fifty*bushels of good corn in a day, putting up the stalks as he went along. The secret was that he made every motion tell. There was just the same way of seizing the stalk each time, and the name method of stripping the husks and breaking off the ear. It makes hard work for the hands if pursued all day. It usually takes sixty to seventy ears of corn to fill a bushel basket so that it will shell out a bushel. Multiply this by forty or fifty bushels, and It will be seen that there is no time to be lost by a husker who will get out that number of bushels of ears in a day.—-Ex.

A New Mechanical Milker. A continuous gas'pipe passes along the bottom of the manger iu front of each stall, and to it is attached a rubber hose four feet long, to which are attached the milking-cups. These cups are fastened over the teats of the cow, and are held there by air-pressure, the suction quickly drawing the milk from the udder. The pressure for the entire number of cows Is supplied by a machine outdoors, says Hoard’s Dairyman. The cows tuke very kindly to the new mechanism; in fact, If their actions count for anything, it Is away ahead of the old process. The Iron pipe leads to a large reservoir, and the most absolute cleanliness is insured. Two men can fasten the cups and milk one hundred cows an hour. Feed Your Grain. It sounds passing strange In these days of cheap oats, cheap corn and cheap barley, ami butter at a good price, to hear farmers talking about selling tbelr # grain, says Hoard’s Dairyman. There are three pounds of butter in a bushel of oats or corn or barley, when fed to a good butter-produc-ing cow. Can a man sell Ids grain at any better price, In theso times, than to turn It Into butter? Some men seem fearfully afraid of trusting the cow, while they will go it blind on a borso or a hog. bow IVnicon Wheels from Lotfa. Select a log of -the desired size fronl a gum sycamore, or any other hard timber that does not spilt readliy. Sony off the wheels, making them the •desired thickness, says the Agriculturist. Then take out the spokes from an old wagon wheel, square the hub and fit into the center of the log wheel. The wheel Is then completed, and will last many years on farms, or even for the road, If well taken care of. Many of these are in use in this locality, and are quite satisfactory.

Killing Insect*. Late frosts and severo winters will not kill insects in the ground. It is favorable to insects and parasites when the ground is hard and frozen throughout the entire winter. When the ground is plowed, however, late in the fall orearly in the spring, so as to subject Insects to dampness, as well as alternate warming and freezing weather, they are then destroyed. It is the exposure to the surface which they cannot endure.

Keep the Horao Mangers Clean. To clean out the feed boxes in the horse stable every day will be time well spent The leavings of cut feed will sour and become offensive to any animal, says the Massachusetts Ploughman, and, worse than this, it will be productive of dlseaso of various kinds. It is a good plan to lmvc a small shovel, such as is used with the kitchen stove, for this work, gathering the uneaten food dally, giving it to the pigs, which will dispose of it profitably. Cooked Feed for Stock. It costs something to cook food for stock, which lessens the gain by so doing, butSt should be a rule to give the stock cooked food at least once a week as a change of diet. Potatoes, turnips and carrots, cooked and thickened with bran and middlings, seasoned with salt and fed warm on cold days, will bo highly relished. To Keep Cut Flowers. It Is said that cut flowers will keep very fresh if a small pinch of nitrate of potash, or common saltpetre, is put in the water in which they stand. The ends of the stems should be cut off a little every day to keep open the absorbing pores. An Open Furrow. A ditch across a wot field will assist In draining a large area, and will perform valuable service by permitting the teams to work on such land early in the spring, Instead of waiting for the water to sink down or keeping the land wet. CWhitewash Trunks of Fruit Trees. A thick daubing of whitewash will bo an advantage to fruit trees, even at this season, and it may be sprinkled over the ground, around the trunks of the trees also, as a partial remedy for the destruction of spores. Ground Meat for Poultry. Ground, dried meat, which 1s a very cheap substance, is one of the best egg-producing foods for all kinds of poultry that can be used. It may be mixed with ground grain, and should be given once a day. To Make u Team Pull Even. It is said that if a team is inclined to pull unevenly, the trouble may be remedied by hitching the inside traces and crossing them, so as to have the' same horse attached to the s?me end of each single tree.

COMFORTABLE POULTRY HOUSE.

EARTH SCRAPER.