Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1900 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

ITEMS OF INTEREST ON AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. Indication of Bad Managemant-Portable Racka-Preventlng Hog Cholera-When • Horse is Worth Most-Clipping Clover Flelds-Etc-. Etc. Indication of Bad Management. Lice on animals indicates bad management. Horses or cattle In good condition seldom are afflicted with lice, but a low condition of the animal, the skin being hidebound, affords excellent Inducements for lice. Good feed and the use of a brush will rid animals of parasites, with the aid of other rente- 1 dies.

Portable Racks. For cattle, a good rack may be made with common ropgh boards and a few pieces of scantling. Make them four or five feet wide, ten or' twelve feet long, and two feet deep; have four by four inch scantling in the corners, and also in the center of the ends, running up twelve or fifteen inches above the top of the rack; to the latter nail in a center partition lengthwise; thus you have a double rack where cattle will eat contentedly. Do not have the end boards or pieces of scantling reach down as low as the side boards and then by rounding up the ends of the side boards, after the manner of sled runners, the racks may be easily drawn from one place to another. Preventing Hog Cholera Rules for the prevention of the fall outbreak of cholera In herds of swine may.be summarized as, follows: 1. Cleanliness is essential, in yards, pens, water, feed and everything. 2. Give plenty of pure water and do away pools. 3. Use such as ashes, lime aud carbolic, acid. 4. Feed a variety, especially such condiments as charcoal, ashes and salt. 5. Give as much grass range as needed. 6. Breed from hogs of strong constitution. 7. Feed new corn cautiously, if at all. 8. Allow no chance of infection from diseased herds by visitors or dogs.

When a Horse Is Worth Most The age at which a horse is worth the most depends very largely upon his breeding and raising. In nearly all cases well bred and well kept horses will stand hard usage better at an early age than horses that have had a struggle for existence and have Inferior quality of blood in their veins. When a horse has been well fed and cared for from birth so as to maintain a steady growth, he ought to be well matured by thb' tlme he is five years old, and from that time till he is seven ought to be at his best. Other horses that are let run, receive but litle care, are not fed as they should be, will make a slower growth and may not mature until seven years. A horse should be fully matured before be can be considered at his best, no matter what his breeding may be. Clipping Clover Fields. A writer in Ohio Farmer advocates the clipping of clover the first year after the wheat is off, and even twice if necessary to prevent it from blossoming, as sthat weakens the next year’s growth. This year he clipped on August 1 and-elipped again In September. He has done so for several years until year before last, and he said jie would never omit it again. The hay last year where it was not clipped was very dirty, full of stubble and trash, while where too large a growth was made before winter, it lodged and smothered out the crop. He cuts high, removing the swath board, and likes to cut just after a rain, leaving nil the growth on the ground as mulch, which protects the roots in winter aud keeps the ground more moist in summer, it might be pastured off and get some growth for cattle or sheep, butrthey will not feed on the ranker growing places, and feed the other too closely, thus making them liable to lie whiter killed. He does not think this pays, and would prefer to grow green crops to help out the pasturage than to use the newly seeded fields. He wants to leave clover six inches high when winter comes. Winter Preservation of Squashes. My method has been to place the squashes upon shelves In a well-venti-lated cellar. The shelves are four feet next to the sides of the cellar. The remaining ones are six feet wide, with a!l6y on each side. The first shelf is six Inches from the floor and then they are tWo feet apart until the celling is reached. I use two by four Inch Studding for uprights and crosspieces and one by six inch strips for bottom of shelves. One of these strips is sufticirut for the side. The uprights should-be placed four feet apart, as the load they have to sustain Is considerable. The temperature sboultl be as fffgh.,as possible without hsfntf’ artl- • Uclafe; hegt an(t Interfering wjtij pood Vantiiatlon. W<’ls I><& t&oslllhed tey ifceplng. .the dn. Jery cold drfys and particularly during periods of foggy and rainy weather.

Choose the bright days for opening during the middle of the day. i With the best of conditions and best of care there is quite a loss and more depends upon time and manner of gathering crop than all else. Because the squash has a hard shell and does not show the effects of a slight frost, it is often left too long on the vine. I plan to gather them just before the first frost. This can usually be accomplished If I am ready to put all my help to work as soon as I think a frost is on the way. I pick them and place In piles about six rods apart, covering them with their own vines. As the weather becomes colder I draw them on truck wagon with springs and hay rack with about six Inches of marsh hay on that. I handle them as carefully as possible, loading only three or four deep on the wagon and carrying them into the cellar in baskets aud placing on shelves two deep. lam careful to sort them, using the soft and bruised ones for feed or sell them for immediate consumption. Delbert Otter, in New England Homestead. The Cucumber's Foes. Professor Charles D. Woods, director of the Maine Experiment Station, has issued ,a valuable leaflet dealing with cucumber enemies? The essay takes up the striped beetle as follows: This well-known insect, with its yellow coat and black stripes on the wing covers, feeds on all kinds of cucurbitaeeous plants cucumber, melon, squash, pumpkin, etc., aud often appears in such numbers as to ruin the entire growing crop. Remedies: 1. Plow out and destroy all cucumber and squash vines as soon as the crop is off to destroy any larvae that may then be in the roots. 2. Planting an excess of seed, to distribute the injury, is a common practice, as is also the system of starting the seed in pots, boxes or sods, and transferring the plants to the field after they are well established. 3. A free use of tobacco dust, lime or land plaster about the bases of the young plants is often recommended. 4. In large fields "driving” is sometimes practiced. Before the middle of the day the farmers sow air slaked lime with the wind, and this seems sufficient to drive most of the insects to the leeward. 5. The planting of a few large hills of squash among the cucumbers, as traps, is sometimes recommended since the insects seem specially partial to the squash. 6. Spray the plants with Bordeaux mixture and paris-green (formula 2), being careful to reach the under sides of the leaves. 7. One of the surest preventives is to cover the hill at the time of planting with a box over which is placed mosquito netting.

Artificial Broilers. A flock of four or five hundred ers paysa handsome profit if one raises them in time for the best markets, and then gets his price. Broilers sell from $1.50 to $2 per pair in the best season, but the one who raises them rarely averages more than 75 cents to $1 per pair. There are those who get the latter on the average right along. That is, they receive more than this in the best season, and less during the season of plenty, but they average the sales of $1 per pair. But on the other hand there are some who find broiler raising a total failure, and they do not get their money back from the investment. Some reasons for this success or failure should be apparent. To start a good colony of broilers for the early markets the incubators should be started to work early in November, and then the broilers will be ready for market early in March, the season when the highest prices are paid. For 400 broilers one needs at least 800 eggs, for one cannot depend on more than 50 per cent, hatching. These eggs should cost all the way from $lO to sls, according to the price of fresh eggs in the locality. I The cost for time, labor and similar items cannot be taken into account, for these represent the working capital of the farmer, and must be given in return for a living and anything over. Careful attention to business details is necessary for success with the broilers from the ttme the eggs are purchased until they are sold. The chickens cannot be fed for nothing, and the question of profits win largely depend upon how this work is done, It la here that profits are cut down and actually turned into losses at times. One must study the economy of winter feeding more than anything else. Granted that; the whole expense of winter feeding and raising should amount to SIOO. we then have a profit of SIOO to slww for 120 days or three months. This is not great, and would be very unsatisfactory if one had to depend upon it alope for a living. But added to the othejr. profits from eggs, and the farm crops in summer, it will do to encourage us to make more of our winters. Usually this seems to be a season of Idleness on the farm, and if we can convert It Into a season when we can make SIOO there is no reason to complain.—Annie C. Webster, in American Cultivator. - • ~ : ; ,- i Short and-Alseful Pointers. A can always profit by observation •s will a| | experience. It doag Jfiot-lake Ipng for the reckl||s his foolishness. Sdme farmers feed celery to their hens to improve the flavor of the meat.

Charcoal cannot be used as a grit sos poultry; It la too soft for that purpose. When handled rightly turkeys are amon£ the most profitable products of the farm. -During the lasj 100 years dairying has made more progress than any, other branch of farming. Burnt corn with the cob makes the best charcoal for hens. Twice a week is often enough to feed it. Farmers should keep themselves informed as to the markets, as they are constantly changing year by year. Don’t imagine that poultry do not require any care. It Is only those flocks that receive every attention that pay big profits. A point in favor of bees is that they insure the fertilization of fruit, which is an important matter that the American farmer has only lately began to realize. The care of poultry is not “women's work.” There is too much money In it for the men to slight it. Nobody, male or female, can afford to slight the hens. It's a good plan to assist the young pigs to make hogs of themselves, an<T after they have reached the hog stage assist them off to market. "Hast* makes waste” doesn’t- apply to marketing stock when they are once In marketable condition. It is said that an excellent way to deal with mice in an orchard is to procure small blocks of wood and bor« one and one-fourth inch holes In them, placing some meal mixed with tallow and rat poison in the bottom of each hole and leave these about the orchard. No other animal can reach the bait.