Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1896 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES

ITEMS OF TIMELY INTEREST TO THE FARMERS When Fences Are a Nuisance—The Asparagus Beetle—Nut Culture—The Feeding Value of Straw. Feeding Value of Straw.—To utilize straw for winter feeding it win be a good plan to put It into a mow in the barn in alternate layers of six or eight Inches with the green corn stalks. The straw will absorb the moisture from the corn, and both will be improved for feeding. This will be equally adaptable to a silo, and the ensilage thus made wifi be better than of the corn alone. Any kind of corn may be used in tfiis way, or clover, either. IRREGULAR 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. W ith strong, vigorous fowls twenty days will see most or the chicks out. Late in the season the germ fu the eggs 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 we 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. A GOOD GARDEN. In laying out your plot for garden make it longer than wide; begin at one side and set a row or two of blackberries, the same of raspberries, both red and black; then currants and gooseberries; and do not forget the luscious strawberries, of which it is said that perhaps God Almighty might have made a better berry, but he never has. I set these all in long rows, that they may be easily cultivated with a horse. While they are small, potatoes, peas or some other vegetable can be grown between them. Put in a row of asparagus; then in early spring sow spinach, lettuce, beets, and such hardy vegetables as a light breeze will not hurt. And put out some onion seed, i>arsnips and carrots. Later plant cucumbers and melons, sweet corn and tomatoes.—J. W. Brigham in Massachusetts Ploughman.

WHERE FENCES ARE A NUISANCE. When the haying is in progress one realizes the nuisance of the fences quite forcibly. Why should there be inside fences on any farm? Why should there be any fences? It is not easy for any one to satisfy his mind in regard to this matter, the real necessity for fences beistg wholly based upon unnecessary conditions altogether. But if there must be fences, they should be straight, and made of posts and wire. The borders of them will not then be mere nurseries of weeds and all kinds of yernjin, breeding pests to damage the' crops far more than is thought of. But if one will have fences, and not have his farm all out of doors, as has been said, let him have whatever kind he wishes, but only straight ones, taking up no more room than the width of the posts, and keep both sides well grassed. This strip of grass may be mown for hay, and will permit the horses used in the cultivation of the land to turn upon without damaging the crops. The edges of the cornfields are always more or less wasted or incumbered with weeds, on account of the difficulty in turning, by which It is not possible to clean the land just there. There will be nothing about the fuim more pleasing to the owner or the traveler passing by than these neat, clean, and smooth fence rows.— New York Times.

FOR POTATO BUGS. Plaster and paris green is with us the most satisfactory application for the potato bug, where the field is of moderate size, a tablespoon of green to a wooden pail of plaster. On fields where water can be had without trouble, liquid poison may be more convenient; but usually the water must be carried some distance, and is less satisfactory, because the poison will not remain evenly mixed. The plaster mixture, when once thoroughly prepared, will stay so, and 100 pounds of it will dust an acre of mod-erate-sized vines. It can be quickly mixed upon an„old piece of canvas with a hoe or # shovel; one pound of green to 100 pounds of plaster. If applied when the vines are wet with dew the mixture will stick until the next heavy rain. Care should be taken not to handle the mixture without gloves. Paris green will poison the skin, causing blisters, resembling the symptoms of ivy poisoning. The plaster in the mixture is worth all it costs as a stimulant to the soil, and for that reason it is just as well to apply it freely. Two thorough applications, paying special attention to the new leaves at the ends of the vines, will usually prove enough. Good sieves for applying dry poison can be had at the farm supply stores, or can be made by punching holes in the bottom of a tin dish. Cheap flour is used by many instead of the plaster. Flour will adhere longer upon vines, but its value as a dressing is of little account.—Massachusetts Ploughman.

NUT CULTURE. There is much encouragement to plant our native nuts, and some of the foreign ones. As a rule, our indigenous trees are good bearers, and In Mr. Van Deman’s opinion, they produce nuts of better quality than foreign ones. The chestnut is receiving the most attention now, and there are a few well-marked native varieties of value. Although they are smaller than the European varieties, they are of better quality and very productive. The best are Delaney. Excelsior, Griffin, Hathaway, Morrell and Otto. Rocky hillsides and other places unsuitable for tillage can be used with profit for nut trees, and they can be set about

buildings and in pastures. The Euro> pean varieties seem more profitable. It seems to be a rule that the more pubescence the nut has, the better it» quality. European varieties are more fuzzy than the Japanese, and less so than the American sorts. The most prominent of these are the Paragon, Numbo, Ridgely, and Hannnm. Japanese chestnut trees have a more dwarf habit, and the nut has a bitter skin. They graft quite readily on American seedlings, and the best varieties introduced are Alpha, Early, Reliance, Grand and Superb. Among the hickories. the best nut tree is the pecan, a native of our Southern States, and the shell bark hickory, common throughout the Northeastern States. A firm in Pennsylvania ships more than twenty tons of hickory nuts very year. T!fc nuts should be planted In rough places, four feet apart each way, and thinned as they grow. Sellings are variable, and so they must be grafted. The principal varieties are a large, thin-shelled sort; Leaning, Curtis, Elliott and Mulford. Among the walnuts, our native butternuts may, perhaps, be improved, but the so-called English walnut is the best of the family, although it is difficult to grow as far north as New York. * There is no doubt that nut trees are hard to graft and to bud. Evaporation should be prevented until the sap begins to flow. When the sap starts the grafts should be put in underground. The scions should be cut so as to have the pith all on one side, or, if necessary to graft above the ground, they should be covered well to prevent all evaporation possible—Garden and Forest. THE ASPARAGUS BEETLE. The asparagus beetle ■ was noticed many years ago in the vicinity of New Jersey.lt has been working northward ever since. It has done much damage on Long Island and in southern Connecticut, but lias been followed by a parasitic enemy that greatly aided farmers in keeping it under control. At one time it was hoped that the parasite would exterminate the beetle, but such is not the course of nature. Parasites suppress, but never exterminate. No war was ever known where all the combatants were destroyed. The beetle has been doing more or less damage in the vicinity of Boston, for a half-dozen years or more. It is not difficult to fight in old beds, as cutting the slioots destroys most of the eggs that are laid during the cutting season. The first crop of beetles (grown the year previous) usually gets through mating, eating and egg-laying by the middle of June, when peas are ready for picking. My rule is to cut asparagus till the last beetle is dead, then the new stalks will be free from eggs, and I will have no slugs. On new beds the case is different. Cutting here is not allowable, so the eggs hatch and the young slugs must be destroyed. If a careful gardener has a careless neighbor, the former will have a hard fight, as the second crop of beetles, appearing late in summer, will be sure to visit him in large numbers.

The best way to destroy slugs I have tried is to dust the foliage when wet with dew with air-slaked lime, using it quite freely. The slug is a softbodied thing, and the lime curls him up in short order. C. W. Prescott, of Concord, one of the most successful growers in this State, writes “The Farm and-Home’’ that he fights the beetle with chickens. Two men—one at each end—take a board, ten or twelve feet long, and, carrying it in front of them, brush the beetles from the foliage in the early morning, while they are in a semi-dormant state. Chickens are taught to follow, and they pick up most of the beetles. Mr. Prescott’s chief trouble is with neighbors’ beetles, propagated in fields that are badly neglected. It would seem but just that any one having such a nursery of mischief should be compelled to abate it or suffer the consequences. Poultry do not eat the slugs, so these must be killed by poison or by knocking off to die on the hot ground. Mr. Prescott says he has seen them dead in less than sixty seconds after falling on sand in the heat of a sunny day. Paris green will destroy the slugs or beetles if it can be made to stick to the foliage. Adding glucose or molasses to the water will help the matter somewhat. Of all the remedies I have tried, lime dust is the cheapest and most easily applied. One can throw a handful over quite a space and cover every leaf when wet with dew on a still morning.—A. W. Cheever, in New Eng. land Farmer.

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. There has been a good deal of poor lamb meat in the market this season. It is tough and tasteless. In seasons of scarcity of hay or where hay is w r anted for sale, and corn is cheap, horses, cattle and mules may be brought through the winter in admirable condition on straw, fed in con?nection with corn. Most vegetables, and especially potatoes, contain a large proportion of starch, which, in itself, is not a complete ration. There should be some nitrogenous material fed with the vegetables, and, if mixed with the feed, so much the better. Horses hard at work need water between the morning and noon meal, and also between noon and time for closing the day’s work If a handful of oatmeal is thrown in a pail of water it will prevent any danger of injury, and it will also give strength, as well as refreshment. Milk is a perfect food for young animals, it being what nature has provided. It contains all the nutritive elements called for by the system, in the proportions needed, and in such a condition as to be more easily available. Cow’s milk lias n nutritive ratio of about one to four, just what the young pig wants. Corn is the most valuable single stock fbod known, and if it were to be lost to us the calamity would be immeasurable. But its deficiencies must be made up before its full value is brought out. How shall we do this? By feeding it in connection with some substance which is rich in what it (the corn) is lacking, thus making one supplement the other.