Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1896 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Homemade Potato Sprayer. The sprayer Illustrated hcrcwiyj Is inexpensive and easily made. First, a heavy Iron rod about 114 inches thick and G*4 feet long must be procured for an axle. This may be taken from Cn old grain drill, or elsewhere, and dapted to the present use. For wheels, take those of the hay-rake, as a high wheel makes the flow stronger. The shafts should be about eight feet long. They are bolted to the axle, fire feet apart, and fastened securely, that the rod may not turn. Two pieces of wood, three by three Inches and three and one-half feet long, are bolted across the shafts 12 or 15 inches apart, one of them being placed a trifle back of the axle, nnd the other farther in front of It. The singletree is attached to a third crosspiece farther forward. Two more pieces, two by six inches and two feet long, are bolted edgewise across the 3x3-inch pieces, two feet apart. These pieces are hollowed out at the top so that a barrel will rest on them securely. Two stopcocks are inserted.into the barrel opposite the bung, and two pieces of hose six feet long, terminating In a fine spray nozzle* attached to them. The bunghole Is turned upward and a funnel used in filling it. The horse walks between the rows of potatoes, the man follows ing and holding a nozzle in each hand above tho row, on either side. When at the end of a row, the hose may be laid across the barrel to stop the flow’. The pressure of the liquid In the barrel, if well elevated, Is sufficient to produce a steady flow, and the Jolting of the machine will keep the

paris green In solution. With a sprayer of this kind o:ie person can easily spray ten acres of potatoes In a day.— American Agriculturist. The Nooning Time. Ip the longest days of the year, and when oh the farm the hardest work of the year has to be done, there should be generally a longer rest at noon than is usually taken. The early morning and toward evening are the most cotiF sortable times to work' out of doors. But with a day nearly, or quite, fifteen hours long, there must be a considerable resting place in tho middle of the day if health Is to be preserved. The noon dinner may take half an hour or more, but after that should be a rest of a full hour or two, and if part of that time be spent in sleep both body and brain will be refreshed. Few know how great Is the dependence of 1 the nerves on sleep for their continuance in vigorous health. A noonday rest of not less than two hours will enable more work to be done than can be secured without It. If storms threaten when crops have to be secured the noon rest may be omitted, for in such case when rain comes there will be longer opportunities for resting and even for sleeping than will be desirable. 'i

Killing; Hose Slugs with Hot Wnter. It is very slow and difficult work thinning off the rose and pear slugs when they are found on pear and grape leaves. Not many people know that they can be easily killed by drenching the leaves with water heated to 130 to 140 degrees. This is death to nearly all kinds of bugs, and the water can be applied 10 to 20 Jegrees hotter than this without injuring the leaves either of the pear or grape vine. If, the water is applied by spraying, It should be some hotter than is required, so that it may reach the slugs at the temperature that is surely fatal to them. Very cold water or that which has had ice dissolved in It will kill the rose slugs If dashed violently against them, but it knocks off many more, and they are soon found at their work again. Felect the Beat. Did you fiter notice that certain hens In the flock always seemed more alert and active than others? See how perhaps half a dozen out of 1 thirty or forty are always running around, singing, perking their heads up in a “Don’t you see I’m a rustler” kind of way, and doing more work In an hour than the rest of the flock in four. Take care of these. Separate them from the rest of the flock. Look after them ylth great care, and by breeding them carefully to choice males, you can raise up a strain of fowls that will be phenomenal layers. Now don’t sneer at this idea. It Is a fact and one-that Is worthy of your looking Into. - v\ ■ Feeding: Bran In Summer* Cows at palture are greatly helped by feeding a bran mash morning and night when giving milk. Good as grass Is It does not furnish the full proportion of nitrogenous and mineral substance that the cow requires to give the largest quantity of milk, and bran Is a better food for this than Is grain or grain meal. Cows that will not eat corn meal when at pasture will eat and relish a bran mash made with water heated to blood temperature. By Products of the Dairy. Almost all great manufacturing enterprises now derive a great part of their profits from the careful saving and use of by products that were for-

merly wasted. It is much the same with the dairy. There Is no large margin of profit in making butter and cheese at present prices, and the question how to dispose of the by products left after these are made usually decides whether the result shall be on the loss or on the profit side. Making curd cheese without rennet from the skim milk is a profitable way to use It where a near market can bo had for it. Almost every eity or village would dispose of a large quantity every day if it were placed on market* Besides this, feeding skim milk to fowls, to pigs and to the cows are good ways to dispose of it. Which will be most profitable must depend on circumstances. Removing Fool Serda from Grain. As long as it remains true that as a man sows, so shall he reap, it behooves him to get all foul weed seed out of his seed grain. Some practice “swimming” it out, but the heaviest seeds

will not float—only the seed pods of weeds and the lighter stuff. Better sift the wild seed out, and the illustration shows how to do it easily and quickly. Removable wire mesh bottoms may be used and thus a choice made in the size of mesh to use with any particular grain or beans, peas, etc. It will pay to use a mesh coarse enough to permit all small and inferior kernels of grain to fall through with the weed seed. Then only the best and most vigorous kernels will be sowed. Such selection of the best seed year after year will bring up the quality of the grain wonderfully.— Farm and Home.

Helllrur lounc Plaa. There is always profit in breeding pigs, providing the breeder is not too greedy, and is willing to sell his stock at reasonable rates. Live and let live should always be the rule. In nothing is this more true than in the breeding and sale of stock. It is very easy to get a surplus of stock greater than can be either kept or fattened with profit. As the pigs grow older It costs more to produce a pound additional growth, and what Is worse, this‘extra weight Is not worth so much per pound as is that of the smaller pig. The sow pigs may be worth more as they grow older if set to breeding, but the farmer who breeds pigs largely to sell while young does not wait for the sows to get to breeding age before disposing of them. He leaves some of the profit to the purchaser of his stock, as every stock seller ought to do. If no one did this the race of buyers would quickly run out, and then the grower of young pigs would be worse off than ever. IrrWnulnr Hatching. There Is some variation in the time of hatching hen’s eggs, depending on the vigor of the fowls and the time eggs are left cold before being sat on. With strong vigorous fowls 110 dhys will see most of the chicks our. Late in the season the germ In the sometimes begins to evolve Into a chick even before it is sat on, from the heat of the weather. This has been known to occur in the house, and wo remember a neighbor who kept eggs in a basket not far from the kitchen who found a live chick among them unmothered. It had been hatched out from the heat of the stove in the next room. Rnsirins Grape*. Not so much is written now ns used to be about bagging grapes to keep them from insect enemies or fungous diseases. The object is much better accomplished by spraying with the Bordeaux mixture. The bags required a good deal of labor to apply, and at the low rate that grapes have lately cold for, it did not pay. Besides, It was found that the protection made ihe grape skins more tender, so that they were less prepared for long trnnsportatypp or for long keeping. Bagging grapes is still practiced by amateurs, but it is a practice likely to be confined to them.

Fence* Aronnil Gardena, There should be no fences except those put up for temporary protection, and that can be easily taken down around the garden. If a permanent fence Is built It is always in the Way, and becomes a harbor for weeds, which will grow at all the more luxuriantly because the garden is rich. Neither should fruit trees be planted around the garden for like reason. The fruit garden ought Jo be by Itself, and r n the farm it is better to grow all the tree fruits in the main orchard, that can then be fenced in and used as a pasture for pigs. Dairy Notea. The cow should have all the food that she will assimilate. A cow that Is heated and worried will not milk well and her milk will not make good butter. To make the very best profit the dairyman must own the best land, keep, the best cows and give them the best treatment. The dairyman should not only breed up hte cows, but by proper course of fertilization Increase the bearing capacity of the soil. The latest thing for the deception of the 4airy farmer is a bogus cottonseed m?al. It has been analyzed and detected by two of the experiment station*. Cows drink from four to five gallons of water dally on the average. This should be as free from all Impurities or surface drainage as the water used In the family. Not every farmer can feed his cows a wide ration, because Ht Is sometimes too costly to be available; but whatever the feed there should be plenty of It, and It should be accompanied by plenty of water.

QUEEN OF THE SILENT GAME. Mias Kata Wheelock Acknowledged to Be a Whist Expert. Among the'inost' Interesting of all delegates to the forthcoming meeting of the American Whist League in New York will be Miss Kate Wheelock, who Is well known in> this city and the Northwest generally as an expert at the silent game. Miss Wheelock was the first woman teacher of whist in this country. There Is only one other. She Is petite In figure, has regular features, a fresh complexion, a winning manner and has prematurely gray hair. She was born in Green Bay, Wls. Eleven years ago, when the female Interest In whist became a fad in the West, she lived in Milwaukee. While instructing a number of women the latter suggested that as it took up so much of Mias Wheelock’s time she ought to charge a fee. She did so. It opened np a new business. It grew. So did the size of her fees. As her fame Increased her travels extended. Since then she baa visited nearly every city in the country, remaining from four to six weeks in each place. At present she has about 4,000 whist pupils scattered all over the country. Women as a rule do not play as scientific a game as men, she says, but the most scientific of her pupils arc In the Hamilton Club of Philadelphia. Eugene Elliott, founder of the Whist League, cnlls her the “Daughter of the League,” and Cavendish, the great authority on the game, calls her the “Whist Queen.” For the last two years Miss Wheelock has been experimenting with a stereopticon, with a view to giving instruction

to a greater number of women at one time, and also reducing the charge of tuition so os to bring it within the means of women who could not otherwise afford the expense. The first experiment was made at Morristown, N. J., a few days ago, and wus voted a great success.

DEVICE FOB SPRAYING POTATOES.

SIEVE FOR SEED GRAINS.

KISS KATE WHEELOCK, WHIST EXPERT.