Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1896 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

ITEMS OF TIMELY INTEREST TO THE FARMERS. Orchard Craw With Clover— Trouble With the Milk—Seeding to Crass at Slight Ezpense. ORCHARD GRASS WITH CLOVER. Orchard grass goes with clover much better than timothy, though most farmers have got in the habit of seeding timothy and clover together. The orchard grass will not make a ]>erfect sod If sown alone, as its habit is to grow in bunches and spread after the first year. When sown with clover, the latter, as it dies out leaves not only room but plant food, which the orchard grass avails itself of. Orchard grass and clover are both ready to cut together, and if cut early, as both should be. two and even three crops may be grown on rich land in a season.—Boston Cultivator. TROUBLE WITH THE MILK. The food is generally the cause of trouble with the milk.and. not knowing what this is, it is difficult to guess the reason for the difficulty. With good hay—clover is the best—and cornmeal, with an equal quantity of bran, if desired, and good shelter and water, any cow should milk and give no trouble np to six weeks of the next calving; but feeding has very much to do with the behavior of the milk, and especially so in the winter. Exposure to cold will cause trouble with the churning of the cream, making the butter white and brittle, so that it cannot be gathered or worked easily. Too much cold at the time of churning, too. will cause the same trouble, as will also the freezing of the cream. Bitterness in the cream may result from weeds in the hay, or from a disordered condition of the liver, by which the bile is absorbed into the blood, and. consequently, gets into the milk. If this is the case, give one pound of Epsom salts in two quarts of gruel.—New York Times. SEEDING TO GRASS AT SLIGHT EXPENSE. A Connecticut, farmer, who gives no clue to the character of the soil, nor the kind of farming he is engaged in, asks advice about seeding clover to grass field that has been in hoed crops for two years, but for which be has no manure or fertilizer unless be buys on credit. If be has use for the fodder, a crop of oats and peas, and clover grown therewith, for plowing under in the fall, would be a good order to follow before seeding down. If this plan is adopted, I would advise the use of 500 pounds of bone and 200 pounds of muriate of potash per acre, when the oats and peas are sown. Sow lVi bushels each of oats and of peas as early as the ground can be worked; plow the peas under, and sow the oats and 15 pounds of common red clover seed after plowing, and harrow lightly. Unless the ground is quite dry, the clover seed should only be bushed in. If he has no use for fodder crops, I would advise that he plow under four inches deep, lVs bushels per acre of soy beans, sown broadcast about May 25. If the soil is of fair quality, this crop should give a good manuring for seeding down by the middle of August. This manuring alone ought to produce good grass, although it would be improved by the use of 200 pounds of muriate of potash and 300 pounds of fine bone.—American Agriculturist.

INVESTIGATE HOG CHOLERA. If hog cholera is a germ disease, as It is alleged to be, the most legitimate way to fight the disease is through the germ itself. By this we mean that the germ must be summarily destroyed or effectually kept within bounds. An intelligently planned quarantine is without doubt a great aid toward stopping the spread of the disease; but, at best, any stieli system can only approximate perfection. The great trouble is that when the average man’s hogs are discovered to have cholera he is ready to throw up the sponge,as the saying goes, and pays but little attention to the hogs. People are permitted to come and go without any reference to the fact that they may carry the disease with them to other herds. Such heroic measures as stamping out whole herds of sick hogs with our present ability and facilities for distinguishing one disease from another, is, in our opinion, entirely out of the question. It is our belief that traffic in diseased hogs should be brought entirely to a standstill. There should be cultivated a neighborhood sentiment that would stand back of the law upon this point, and make it impossible for to carry diseased hogs from one point to another, thus endangering the hog stock of whole communities and making it an absolute Impossibility to find a final stopping place for the disease.— Nebraska Farmer. ASPARAGUS CULTURE. In the spring when we commence to cultivate the asparagus patch, the earth should be thrown from the top of the crowns and a very liberal dressing of ssme high-grade commercial fertilzer, rich in phosphoric acid and ammonia be applied at the rate of at least 800 pounds per acre on the crowns,then the earth should he thrown back upon it with a large two-horse plow, rolled and harrowed to make a fine tilth and then wait for the genial sun to make it grow. When the stalks are up about five inches, take a chisel made for that purpose and cut three inches under the ground; then it should be nicely washed .and packed ig bunches four inches in diameter and eight inches long, securely bound with raphia, the butts of the stock cut evenly off with a sharp knife. When finished they will weigh about two and a half pounds, and you will have something that will be fit to send to your kitchen to be prepared for your own dinner, or you can send it to market and .get a good paying price for it. In the rearing of young plants, I would recommend to plant the seed in drills about two feet apart, and use a kitchen seed drill, and sow about as thick as you would radish seed. Keep them well worked and clean and they will be ready for transplanting the next spring. Young patches are subject to the ravages of the beetle, and I would advise the use of insectcides, Paris green or JU>ndon purple for their extermination.

As far as varieties are concerned, I do not think a grower would go amiss in planting Early Defiance, Barr’s Mammoth or Palmetto. Ido not know anything about the merits of Donald's Elmira. I would let Coroner's Colossal severely alone;it was. good in its day. but better varieties have supplanted it.—B. F. H. Clark, before the Horticultural Society at Dover, Dei. WHAT TWENTY-FIVE HENS DID. Knowing that you are interested in presenting facts In regard to poultry keeping, below I will give you details of what a small flock of twenty-five hens did from November, 1894, up to date, November, 1895. The flock were White Leghorns and Plymouth Rocks, and were kept in limited quarters. They averaged, by my egg record book, in which I keep a strict account of all eggs laid, and keep track of everything concerning my fowls, about one hundred and forty eggs for the year. The Leghorns laid the most eggs, but during the moulting season I find the Plymouth Rocks laying some, while the Leghorn hens had stopped, though they are fed the same, but not together. From these hens I raised 113 chicks, and only kept the very best of the pullets of both breeds for layers and breeders. I sold eggs and chickens to thl. amount of $99.99; total cost of feed (not including table scraps), $35.50; cleai profit, $04.49. almost $2.58 per head Do you consider that a good showing! I have had Plymouth Rocks to average 151 eggs, besides raising some chicks.—lndiana Farmer. - - GOOSEBERRIES. The gooseberry requires a low, cool soil to produce the best results, although some very good reports have come from plantations situated on higher soils. Soil should be of a loamy sort, and one which is in a condition to hold plenty of moisture and at the same time be cool and protected from the hot winds. Gooseberries require a very rich soil, and therefore plenty of farmyard manure should be applied. Before planting, plough deep and make the ground loose and fine by aid of spading and Acme harrow. Takeasmucli pains in the preparation of the soil to get it fine as if you were making a seed bed. Plant in rows seven feet apart and four feet apart in the rows. Set plants with a spade, digging the holes quite deep and setting the plants well in the ground, firming the soil about the roots. They can be planted in the late fall or early spring. In planting like the above, cultivations can be carried on both ways, and much labor saved. The first year low crops can be grown between the rows, and the crops made to pay for the expense of setting the plantation. Our two common varieties, the Houghton and Downing, are most extensively planted, and are both good, hardy varieties. The Houghton is pale red, and small in size. The Downing is a large green variety. Prune to keep the bush open, and to admit a free cir- . culation of air, as an absence of fresh air is apt to start mildew. Always keep as much new wood as old. Gooseberries should be mulched to keep the temperature of the soil cool about the roots, thus preventing it from becoming hard and baked. The gooseberry is easily propagated by either layering or by euttiugs. The lower branches can be covered with dirt in the spring and the following spring they will be rooted enough to separate from the parent plant and used to reset. The euttiugs are made from new wood in the fall after the wood is matured. They are buried in sand in a cellar and then planted in the nursery row and allowed to grow by themselves another year. They then will have a fine root, and make splendid plants for a new plantation. While it takes a longer time to procure plants by the cutting method, they are much better, having more of the small fibrous roots,lnsuring a much better catch. There Is a growing demand in the larger cities for gooseberries, but one must not wait too long before placing them upon the market. They sell much better in the green state than when ripened. The expense in setting an acre is soon made up by the crop. The gooseberry is a tremendous yielder, and the prices are good, compared with other small fruit. They probably rank next to the strawberry in bringing back quick results—Prairie Farmer.