Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1898 — THE FARM AND HOME [ARTICLE]

THE FARM AND HOME

MATTERS OF INTEREST TO FARMER AND HOUSEWIFE. New Method of Preserving Meat Discovered by a Danish Zoologist—How to Select a Good Cow-Pruning Grape Vines—Agricultural Notes. To Preserve Meat. A new method of preserving freshly killed meats has been discovered by the Danish zoologist, August Fjelstrup, already known through his method of condensing milk without the use of sugar. The system ((according to print»d reports) has stood a remarkably hard three months’ test at the Odense (Danish) company slaughter house in a very satisfactory manner. The method in itself is extremely simple, and might be of great service for the troops in Cuba. The animal to be used is first shot or stunned by a shot from a revolver (loaded with small slugs) in the forehead in such a way as not to Injure the brain proper. As the animal drops senseless an assistant cuts down over the heart, opens a ventricle and allows all the blood to flow out, the theory of this being thaj the decomposition of the blood is almost entirely responsible for the quick putrefaction of fresh meats. Immediately thereafter a briny solution—made of salt, more or less strong, according to length of time meat is to be kept—is injected by means of a powerful syringe through the other ventricle into the veins of the body. The whole process takes only a few minutes and the beef is ready for use and can be cut up at once. This method has been examined and very favorably reported on by many experts.

To Select a Good Cow. “One or two signs will denote a good tow. as well as twenty. In a poor cow the thigh runs down straight, so there is no space between the thigh and the udder on one side and the tail on the other. There should be plenty of daylight between the udder and the tail. One of the best ways to tell what kind of a cow you have is her temperament. A good dairy type has a sharp spine, strongly developed nervous system, and sharp hip bones. A good cow has a large, wedge-shaped stomach, for she must have a large and powerful digestive system to use up her food quickly and make the best returns for It. “Some of the animals the first year little over 200 pounds per cow, while others give over 300 pounds. We have kept up this record every year, and the last year our cows averaged 399 pounds per cow, and at a cost of only 4.2 cents per pound of butter for feed. One cow gave us 512 pounds during the year. These were hot picked, high-priced dairy cows, but the common run of dairy stock.”—Connecticut Dairyman’s Association.

Pruning Grape Vines. The trouble with an unpruned vine Is that it bears too much fruit, and this means poor quality. Let us take a thrifty Concord vine to Illustrate this matter. At the end of the season such a vine, in good soil, kept well tilkd, should have somewhere near to 300 fruit buds on the new growth of the past season; if it does this steadily year after year no more should !• expected. To bear that amount of fruit, not more than fifty buds are required. But we have smj ojy; vißp have about sir times that fifimber, WncTmal/ jn cF fess of the need. Leave the vine untrimmed, and the 300 buds will overbear, and the yield wiU be very Inferior. Prune to reduce the number of buds to fifty, and a good crop of fruit may be expected. That is the simple proposition needed for guiding your pruning knife. Cut away, therefore, enough of young canes to bring the buds down to the right number. A good rule with Concords is, remove all tire canes but five, and cut these back to nine to ten buds each, The Delaware class should have even less. Prune ind tie up so as to have a good distribution over the trellis. Fall is perhaps the best time for grape pruning.—Vick’s Magazine.

Grafting Wax that Will Not Crack. Take 10 pounds resin, 2 pounds beeswax, 1% pounds tallow and melt all together; then add when not too hot pounds finely pulverized charcoal; stir well in while warm, then have a bucket of cold water, pour on the water so it nearly coders, then with the fingers gather together and cool till you can take it In the hands and work it well. Make into rolls an inch or more thick; lay it on a board to cool. When you wish to use, break a roll and melt; apply with a small wooden paddle about one-half inch wide (not too hot). Close up all around well, and you need not look for cracks. Keep rubbing off the sprouts below the grafts as they appear. The wax kept In a cool place will never spoil.—Orange Judd Farmer.

Prepare far Molttn* Beason. The greatest care must be taken to keep fowls In good condition during the molting season. There is apt to be a laxity of attention to their feeding during this period on account of their cessation of laying, when, in fact, there should be more care taken. It Is a good plan to select all the’ fowls that It is desired to winter or keep for breeding and market/ the balance. Hens which will molt early if they are in good condition and comfortably housed will nearly always make the best winter layers, while the later jnolters will rarely lay until spring. These Jatter should have a place where they can keep warm and dry and be given an abundance of nutritions food, Always provide pure, fresh water and keep the quarters dean. Wheat, oats, linseed meal, meat scraps and fresh ground bone* made better food than corn or

anything that may be considered a fattening ration. While it may not be best fb feed the chickens all they will eat, in nearly all cases liberal feeding and the supplying a good variety will be found the most desirable thing to do. The hens need to take sufficient exercise to be healthy— Feather. Benefits of Irrigation. , . A perfect irrigation system constitutes a surface soil Scavenger for carrying away all impurities and poisonous odors from decaying vegetation. Malarial troubles are unknown in the land of irrigation because the spores do not form and cannot exist in a pure atmosphere. The water thoroughly washes the surface, depositing the decomposed substances in the waste ditches, from which it is carried to the streams and borne away,tor da case the waste does not return to the streams, the soil absorbs all disease germs and emits a healthful ozone to be wafted upon the breeze into the fields and homes of the farmers. In all cultivated areas, where irrigation is practiced, the surface soil is filled with channels cut by the water in its rush to the subsoil strata, preventing loggy or sour soil and furnishing a means for self-puri-fication in the air chambers beneath the low point This effects perfect drainage from the highlands and marshes, and leaves no stagnant pools to form miasmatic germs or disease.

Handiness with Tools. One of the most important qualifications needed in one employed in farm work is that he have sufficient mechanical ability not merely to use farm tools, but if need be to repair them. This is more than ever true now that so much of farm work is done through implements in which the horse, steam or wind power furnish the motive power, while the man’s work is only to direct and keep the implement doing Its work. Many of these farm tools require much mechanical Ingenuity to keep them in order. An unskillful man in charge of a reaper or mower will not only fall to accomplish much, but he will very probably have a broken machipe on his hands that it will require a good deal of expense to repair. It is far better to employ men as farm help who are ingenious enough to manage or repair all kinds of machinery, even though they require higher wages. It is this kind of skill that most surely commands good wages everywhere. The Guinea Fowls. These birds must be well known to be appreciated. They are no trouble whatever. They lay their eggs in nests which they make in ths grass and wheat fields; we often find nests with eggs piled on top of each other. From some of the nests we tab® part of the eggs and leave some of them to raise their young. They sit, hatch and raise their broods, and we often Jo not see them until late in the fall, when they bring their chicks home, sometimes as many as twenty in a flock. They are splendid meat to fry or roast or for pot-pie; and to enjoy the breast of fowl one should eat a guinea fowl. The eggs are considered the richest of all eggs and keep well. They may be put up for use in winter. If you try guinea fowls, you are sure to have eggs and fowls for your table, and no trouble tq get them.—Florida Farmer.

Value of the If any bats are found about ybtir barn or other buildings encourage their presence. C. F. fiodge, of Clark Wwegte?. Wj 1£ Country Gentleman, says tqat In an orchard hear his home h§ found pine grubs of the codling moth In one minute. Chancing to Visit another orchard not a mile from the first, he found only four grubs in an hour’s sonreh. The owner of the farms said that in an old barn near by live 75 to ICO bats, and his apples were always free from worms. The naturalist caught a bat and offered It some of the grubs, which were greedily accepted. The codling moth flies only at night; so does the bat—good circumstantial evidence that the bat is a useful friend to the applegrower. Dr. Hodge took haif a dozen bats home and kept them In the parlor. From time to time netfuls ot night-fly-ing insects were released In the room and never a bug remained ln<he morning. The bats took everything, from a spider to a polyphemus moth.

Buckwheat to Clean Land. The midsummer plowing which is required to fit land to seed with buckwheat kills many of the weeds plowed under at this time, and after the grain is up its broad leaf prevent* most of the annual weeds from starting. The buckwheat root and stalk are not eaten, so far as we know, by any kind of worm or Insect. The crop ft sometimes sown three years in succession to starve out cut worms and wire worms, where the land Is so Infested with them that no other crop can be grown. Old Potatoes and New. For some time after new potatoes come into market, the well-preserved old potatoes are best, and are preferred by the careful housewife, whp cares as much for nutritive value as for taste. In the old days, when some potato grated fine was always mixed with the rising for bread, housewives found • that the young potatoes frith very little starch were not so good for this purpose as potatoes grown the previous year. Late Beets. Beets for the table, for a late supply, can be planted until July. As beet seed germinate slowly, a small proportion of radish seed maybeadded, as the radishes will soon come through the ground and show the rows of beets, thus permitting the cultivation of the rows before grass and weeds get possession. It is also an excellent method of growing radishes, as they will be removed before the young beets get a good start.