Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1899 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

VOTES OF IHTEBEST ON AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. ■Mt Gmrth as Pall Planted Trees— Wsrkisz Tone Horses—Vnlne of Dairy Weeds Oats After Oats. etc. tepid Growth as Pall Planted Trees. At the Missouri botanical gardens, experiments show that fall planted trees make slight root growth before the leaves start in the spring. This indicates that in special localities fall planting gives gatil results. But In localities, however, when* the winters are open and dry fall planting has been found undesirable.

Working long Horses. A colt should be thoroughly broken the winter before he is two years old, and should be driven occasionally, both singly and with another horse, to keep in practice what he has learned, as well as to furnish the exercise required to keep his muscles in good condition. If put to work it should be only of the lightest character, and especial care should be taken at first not to gall the shoulders where the collar presses. All the work a two-year old colt will do without injury costs about as much as it is worth in extra care given to the young animal that it does not injure Mm.

Vnlne nf Dairy Peed*. Wheat bran anti wheat middlings pre-eminent milk makers, in the opinion of Professor IliiL He believes them absolutely safe when fed in any passible quantities. They carry considerable percentages of protein, and, at ruling prices, are in every way desirable dairy feeds. Cornmeal he considers economical according to bow it is fed. Sometimes cornmeal may be used to advantage in a dairy ration. Some fault is to be found, however, with the extent of its use. It is wiser to feed com in the form of silage than to pluck and grind the ear. If. however. the silage is deficient in corn, it may be supplied in the form of meal. Indeed, np to the limit of making the ration too heating, it may sometimes be an advantage to add cornmeal to the ration even when silage is well eared, mare particularly because it tends to better the grain of the butter. Data After Oat a. All fanners know that oats are an exhaustive crop, also one that it is especially hard to get a clover or grass seeding with. Where winter grain is not grown, and oats are the chief small grain raised, one failure to seed is apt to be followed by others, until the land becomes so exhausted that neither oats nor grass can be grown. Most of these failures to seed with spring grain come from plowing the land in early spring, thus turning up a lower strata of soil that has not been properly mellowed by freezing. The remedy for this is to fall plow the laud, leaving it rough, and then so soon as it is fit to work, cultivate it lightly and put in the grain and grass seed before plowing can be done. If a frost freezes the soil an Inch or two after the grain and grass seed ara sown, it will be all the better for both. If the second crop of oats fails to give a grass and clover seeding, plow the stubble in the* fall after the oats ara off and sow wheat or rye. seeding with grass seed in the fall and with clover seed in the spring. This rarely fails to give a good grass catch, and if the season be favorable, there will be some clover with it. even on poor, thin soil.

Advantages of a Short Rotation. The past season was a good one for Illustrating the superiority of a short rotation. It was very dry up to the Ist of July, and the prospect for a fair crop of hay was small. The rain that came dming July benefitted the fields somewhat, but many portions were past help. Yield of hay on these was l very light, and hereafter they must be " devoted to other crops for a year or two. then fertilized and reseeded. On fields one or two years from seeding , the hay crop was the best. Meadows three years had commenced to fail. This, of course, is only one experience. bat, as a general rule, 1 find it pays best to-keep a field in grass | not more than three years. With a five years' rotation, corn mostly for | fodder, is planted the first year; the land is seeded to grass the second year with a crop of oats, usually; fertilizer Is applied to this crop, and generally a good catch is secured. 1 like a mixtote of red and alsike clovers and timothy. If it so happens that the clovers winter kill, the crop of hay is secured from the timothy and the oats. ■ This mixture Is excellent for dairy j cows. I The less productive fields cr parts of fields can be greatly improved by draining, cultivation and fertilization. If this is too expensive or difficult, then turn these fields to pasture and make up the deficiency in area by increasing the fertility. There are too many poor places on most farms which should be utilized in some way. Headlands. fence corners and other places where weeds and boshes grow should be kept dean, as such growth greatly detracts from the appearance and usefulness of the fasm-—E. R. Towle, in New England Homestead. rwwsMss mt Hsg Cholera. An evidence of the widespread interest In hog cholera and inquiry for a opecific remedy or preventive is the demand made upon the Department of Agriculture for Its publications iclatlng to hog cholera, and particularly the serum treatment of this disease and swine plague. But little faith was at first expressed through the country

In the efficacy of the serum and nv oculation method,* but continued experiments under the direction of the Bureau of Animal Industry have beyond a doubt proven that hog cholera can be successfully fought by means of properly prepared serum. It is, however, a somewhat troublesome and expensive operation, but the immunity secured to droves is an ample reward. The treatment Is still in what may be called on experimental stage, the department only operating upon a limited number of animals, because the quantity of serum manufactured is limited. Doctor Salmon, the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, states positively, however, that In his opinion, based on two years of careful experiments, serum treatment of hogs affords comparative immunity from cholera. Conditions through its use are practically reversed. In droves infected the losses range frequently from SO to 00 per cent. In droves which have been treated losses have ranged only about 12 to 15 per cent, while the animals saved have been from SO to 90 out of every hundred. Great care. Dr. Salmon says, is required in manufacturing the serum, and the department does rot recommend the proprietary articles on the market. Tlio. entire question of course depends upon the virtue of the serum, and the best method of its production is yet a matter which the department is experimenting with. Dr. Salmon believes that cholera among hogs will before long yield readily to treatment, as has blackleg among catttle through the vaccination methods inaugurated by his bureau.—Wisconsin Agriculturist

The Enemies of Corn. Corn has fewer enemies than most ol our grains, but they are numerous and powerful enough in some seasons to ruin the crop in many States, and to injure the corn more or less in all localities. One good reason for adopting a succession of crops, and not raising corn continuously on the same laud, is that it tends to break up and disperse the natural enemies of corn. Where corn is raised ou the same land for several successive years the cutworms multiply so in numbers that in time they threaten the existence of the plants, and In hot seasons they succeed in ruining many crops. But in adopting succession of crops for corn. I am inclined to think that clover is also bad for breeding the cutworms. Clover seed is one of the best crops for corn, and many farmers depend upon it for rotation as regularly as they do upon corn. There is no question but it is of great value in improving the soil and adding nitrogen to it ror the next crop of corn to take up. But considered from the point of view of harboring and multiplying the cutworms, it may not be the ideal crop. If the cornfield is full of cutworms, and they have l>eeu particularly aggravating in their depredation, I should avoid planting corn the next season even though it is clover’s turn. I should either break the sod for wheat, then oats, then clover and then corn. Ordinarily I would make the clover come between the wheat and oats, so that it will be separate from corn and not follow it in direct order. In this way we have a chance to break up the cutworms and lice, and clear the corn of the pests. Next to the cutworms and lice, the greatest danger to corn comes from the weeds and formation of a hard crust after the corn is up so that the cultivator cannot run through it This crust on most corn land becomes almost impervious to water, and after a rainstorm the soil is not wet more than an inch or two below the surface. Most of it has run off or settled in the hollows. A light shower which ought to refresh corn is thus rendered ineffective. Shallow and frequent tillage is therefore more essential to the corn than thorough cultivation. The top soil needs stirring as often as this top crust begins to form. The corn is in the worst sort of condition to stand dry weather when tqe surface is covered with a top crust The best thing that can be done is to see that this crust is broken as often as it forms. The more surface tillage we give to the corn the less likely this crust is to form. Frequent cultivation when the corn is young will usually pulverize the soil sufficiently to accomplish this result.—C, S. Walters, in Boston Culti- ’ ”'"F- ' ...

POULTRY NOTES. l>ou’t forget to give the hens some parched corn oeoasiom.lly. tVlien the bird’s bowels are right the bird, ns a jule is all right. If the biggest ducks are selected for breeding you will get larger dueks every year. Lettuce is cheap and easily grown. The young chick like it very much. Give them all they will eat Early maturity is an item with poultry, especially chickens and turkeys when raising them for market Prevention of disease is much easier than to cure it. Variety is necessary each day in the poultry food for rapid growth of chick and feathers. Boiled wheat for young chicks is considered a first rate food and the chicks greatly appreciate it. Whitewashing the interior of the poultry house not only kills mites, but makes the house doubly light. Prepared poultry grits are better than gravel from the fact that they do not wear down smooth in the gizzard. Second crop clover hay should be preserved for winter use, as it is one of the beet egg foods when given once a day. Brooder chicks are often over fed for the amount of exercise they get Feed much or little according to activity >