Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1900 — FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

ITEMS OF INTEREST ON AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. Sheep’* Loss In Weight-Removing Honey From the Hives-A Little Foeding In-formation-Seed Potatoes-How to Fatten Mules—Etc., Etc. Sheep’s Loss In Weight. Farmers who keep common sheep and depend upon wool do not know how specimens of some breeds may be made to reach great weights. A two-year-old grade Liueoln wether in England was slaughtered, its live fat 34 pounds, the skin, blood and entrails DO pounds, and the waste 6 pounds. Sheep weighing 300 pounds live weight are numerous In the United States. Removing Honey From the Hiy»s. To have honey In the ty>st shape to sell It should be removed from the hives as soon as It is well capped over. The cappings are then white aud very Inviting’. If allowed to remain long in the hives after being capped, the cappings become stained by the bees and the appearance is injured, A Little Feeding Information. In Fall feeding of cattle. It seems, by taking the country at large, that the best method employed Is to feed grain while the steers are still on good pasture, feeding from ten to twenty pounds of corn meal per day. Some feeders commence to use their green corn crop just as soon as it commences to dent, but this Is not considered a good practice by many of tlie most successful feeders, and it is calculated that it siould require from fifteen to twenty days to change steers from grass to tlielr corn diet. Great care should be exercised to prevent the steers from losing any flesh in the transfer. Seed Potatoes. It is Important to guard carefully your seed potatoes. They should be fine and large, for potatoes are prone to retrograde. The sprouts should not be allowed to start; if they do. they must be broken off. To have the best seed you must plan in the fall. We read a good suggestion in an exchange: One way to prevent them from sprouting is when storing the potatoes away in the fall to leave vacant the same amount of room adjoining them, then when they show signs of sprouting scoop them into the adjoining bin. A good way when one saves only a few seed potatoes is to put them into barrels, leaving as many empty barrels as have been filled; then two men can pour them back and forth when necessary; they will not have .to be changed often. This may sound unreasonable, but just try it and see. The potatoes will be almost as solid in the spring as when stored away in the fall.—Farm, Field aud Fireside.

HoWto Fatten Mules. Put them into a shed or barn which can be closed up except the windows and doors. Hang up at all of these burlap fastened at the top so that it will blow in and out with the wind, and when quiet it will keep the place turned loose in barn, put in a good oak trough. If the trough is of pine, put a hoopiron hand on the edge, as mules are great to gnaw. Have a small lot adjoining in which you can turn them at night to roll. If they have collar sores, keep these well greased with axle grease. Flies do not like the smell and will not light upon the sore if it is well greased. Have a lmlf-barrel of water in one corner where the mules can go and drink at will. Put this up so high that they can only drink out of it and not get any litter into if. Place a box of salt and ashes where the animals can at all times go and lick it. Now commence feeding them lightly. Increasing until you give them all they will eat. Green corn, clover hay, oats, ground or soaked corn, bran and a little ollmeal and brown sugar. In sixty or ninety days they will be fat and fit for market, provided you have the right kind of mules to start with.— Orange Judd Farmer.

Fatal Effects From Creen Fodder. Because they have seen cattle eat young first growth and second-growth sorghum and Kafir-corn, and In some instances pretty nearly subsist on them without apparent harm, many persons are ready to maintain that these green growths are never dangerous. Yet, under circumstances and for reasons which no one Is yet able to explain, other persons In numerous Instances find to their sorrow that the plants are almost Immediately fatal. This suggests that no one Is Justified In taking any chances by permitting cattle to have access to such “greens.” Among others, Secretary Coburn of the Kansas Board of Agriculture cites three examples of their fatal effects, occurlng recently. Thomas Feakes, of Lincoln County, turned his cows Into an unused corral where a few scattering bunches of Kafir-corn were growing. In less than thirty minutes seven of the cows that liud nipped the growing blades were dead; several others were made very slek, but recovered. John Kaser, of Covert Osborne County, was driving a lot of young cattle through a pasture whore there were stools of green Kafir cam nnd sorghum. Within thirty minutes leu out of eleven heifers that had eaten of these sprouts were dead. C. F. Wadsworth, of the same county, nt

about the same time, lost six steers In the same way. Losses such as these are of annual occurrence, and a list of them would be very long. The fact that results are not always fatal should not furnish an excuse for taking risks so likely to prove extremely expensive. Certain safety is only assured by absolutely preventing cattle from getting within reach of the plants named, even for the briefest intervals. The Season’s Lessons From Dairymen. The season ended has many lessons for the thoughtful man. One of them is that general farming is in the long run most reliable. In many parts of the country dry weather has very materially shortened the hay crop. Where men did not foresee the coming trouble and put in liberal pieces of corn to supplement the shortage of hay, winter stares them In the face with empty mows and an abundance of stock on hand. This stock must either be carried through cold weather on grain or turned off at a loss. The result is, cattle are very low in price. Not once in a lifetime do we see cows selling as cheaply as at the present time in those sections which were most seriously affected by the drouth. Good cows coming into milk In the spring are to-day Worth only from sls to S2O per head. And many are selling for even less than that. Calves, sheep and lambs go along with cows in price. If we had been a little more cautious about getting overstocked with cows, we wObld be better off. The pendulum has been swinging toward dairying for a few years back, and now we are caught. We must get out the best way we can. But should we not firmly resolve that hereafter we will not run so largely to one branch of farming? Mixed farming is the safest. Again, we should learn from the experience of this year that it is wise to be prepared for any kind of a season that may chance to come. It is said that any fool knows enough tcy carry an umbrella when it rains. It is a wise man who takes one along when the sky is fair. WLo could have foretold last spring that the hay crop would be so nearly a failure in 1900? If we had all known that we would surely have planted a good piece of corn. But we didn’t know it, and many of us are sadly lamenting the fact now. Prudence would have suggested that we should be on the lookout for just the thing which did happen. Corn is a splendid crop to raise every year, drouth or no drouth. No one ever saw guilty of saying that he was sorry he had so much corn. The trouble is to get enough. Here is a chance to turn over a new leaf. If we err, let it be on the right side, and plant corn. Experience ought to have taught us this long ago.—E. L. Vincent, in American Agriculturist.

Short and Useful Pointaes. Linseed meal is excellent for thepoultry while moulting. Damp stables are injurious to the stock. Don’t have them. Select your future dairy cows from only the best heifers. Pop corn is better than field corn for hens, as it contains more nitrogen. Try changing the churning temperature of the cream if the butter seems long in coming. The largest profit always comes from the animal that has been fattened up in good shape. If your cows arc of the best the only way to Increase the yield Is by more and better feeding. Poultry do not require a large amount of charcoal, but they do need an uninterrupted supply. Keep the hens a scratching. When they are idle they get Into bad habits —especially that of feather pulling. You might as well farm with 'the old-fashioned Implements as to try and farm with the old-fashioned scrub stock.

Good beef cattle are only those that are able to take on flesh rapidly, mature early, and stand ready to be fattened at any age. Don't empty meat brine where the hogs can get it. The burying of hogs is a very unpleasant as well as unprofitable business to be In. The way some people who keep liens deprive them of a dust hath, you would think It was gold dust that was required instead of common road dust. The farmer who keeps hens must take his choice between lice or eggs. If he persists In allowing the liens to be lousy he must do without the eggs. It appears that the hog's digestive apparatus Is of the very best. In from thirty to forty-five minutes after he has eaten, his food will be fully digested. If the hens receive better onre, better bousing, and more comfort, It is equivalent to “pushing the button.” The hens may be depended upon to “do the rest." A farmer should not satisfy his own Ideas In breeding. Find out what the purchaser wants and try to comply with his Ideas of what constitutes a good animal. . If a cow can’t make nt least 150 pounds of butter In a year she.isn’t worth her keep. But before discarding her make sure that the fault la with the cow nnd not the owner. A new educational plan Is being tried In Copenhagen. No books are used, but the boys are Instructed orally when they perform nt the same time some light manual work.