Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1896 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

ITEMS OF TIMELY INTEREST TO THE FARMERS. Grooming Horses—Symptom* of Tuber-culosis-Skilled Farm Laborers Demanded. Grooming horses is quite common among farmers, for far more men and boj stake delight in working around the horse than will do the same thing for the cow. Yet to brush and curry the cow, especially at the time she is shedding her coat, is even more necessary than to groom the horse. It will aid greatly in keeping the milk free from the dust and hairs which introduce bacteria into it. and make it impossible I to produce good butter from it. Besides. no domestic animal enjoys a thorough currying better than does the I cow. 'Try it and see. SYMPTOMS OF TUBERCULOSIS. These are first a cough, accompanied by quick breathing, then a discharge I from the lungs or throat, brightness of the eyes, loss of flesh, a bad-smelling i breath, in a cow thin blue milk, defl- I cient in caseine ithe curd, and rich in ■ fat. The skin becomes drawn and the j hair harsh and erect, the cough be- : comes worse; if the bowels are dis- j eased, there is an incurable fetid diar- j rhea, and as the disease progresses the animal becomes skin ami bone only, j and very weak and tottering. Finally i it lies down for the last time and slowly ; dies. If the milk organs are affected, as they may be, although the lungs and bowels may show the effects most, the milk is likely to affect persons who may use it, or the meat will be diseased and unfit for food, as carrying the germs of the disease with it, unless thoroughly cooked.

SKILLED FARM LABORERS DEMANDED. Notwithstanding the fact that machinery has been introduced that does away with much of the hard labor that was performed on the farm by hand a few years since, laborers seem to grow scarcer year by year, and at times it is very difficult for the farmer to command all the help needed to push forward his work in busy seasons; and it is skilled farm laborers that are needed. The man who doesn’t possess enough intelligence to hitch up to and operate most any sort of farm machinery isn’t wanted any longer on most farms.! In looking for a good hand the farmer now counts skill worth as mqeh as muscle. He knows, from sad experience, that in unskilled hands a machine will, in all probability, suffer injury and damage far beyond the amount of wages paid, and he strives to Stier clear of this sort of unprofitable labor. IMPROVED ONION CULTURE. The usual method of transplanting onions by hand and dibble is hard and tedious work. Often onion plants are set too deep in this way by the inexperienced, and the bulbs do not so readily form underground. During the first two years in my work with onions I have tested a method of transplanting young onion plants with a common turning plow, and found the method to work well. A furrow is opened with the plow, and the young onion plants are laid along on the straight side of the furrow, and then soil is thrown back on the roots with the same plow. After the earth is thrown on the roots it should be pressed with the loot by walking upon it, or a small roller may be used for the same purpose. In this way all the work may be done without bending the back except in dropping the young plants. Small boys may be employed for this work, and the setting of an acre can be done at a cost of $2.50. In starting onions early at the north, Mr. C. L. Hill writes to American Agriculturist: With varieties which require a long season for their full development, an early start in the spring is necessary. I plant the seed under glass in hotbeds, early enough to have plants of good size by the time the ground can be put in condition for setting out. The transplanting is something of a job, and yet it is scarcely more than would be the task of the first weeding that has to be done when the seeds are sown directly in the field. There is also a great gain in having well-filled rows of plants evenly distributed. Even if the seeding should be faultless, some seeds will fail to come up, and the rows will be more or less uneven. But the transplanting plan gives such even rows of fine plants as does one good to look at.