Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1901 — GARDEN AND FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN AND FARM

ITEMS OF INTEREST ON ACRICULTURAL TOPICS. Cleaning Eggs For Market-Banking Up Around Buildings—Feeding Mash to the Fowls-To Find Weight of Live CattleFeed Cutting-Etc., Etc. CLEANING EGGS FOR MARKET. I have been engaged for ten years In buying eggs and shipping them to market, and in almost every lot there have been more or less dirty and stained eggs. The only way of cleaning sueh eggs that I have found to give satisfaction was to wet a fine sponge, squeeze it as dry as possible, and use it to wash or rub off the dirt. As for stained eggs, they are unfit for market, and no hqnest person will sell them for that purpose, no matter how much they may have been cleaned with acids.—H. B. Howard, in Agricultural Epitomist. BANKING UP AROUND BUILDINGS. For banking up around buildings sawdust is without doubt the best. When it cannot be secured, use partly rotted manure, with a large portion of straw in it. That left about old straw stacks, around which stock run all' winter, will do very well if the banking up is done early, so it can have time to settle down before frost. This will resist cold wind and keep out frost wonderfully, and it will not heave or crack by frost, as soil or the more heavy kinds of manure will do. Partly rotted horse manure is also very good for banking up around buildings. FEEDING MASH TO FOWLS. The pet theory of feeding mash to fowls early in the morning has been exploded practical tests, which prove that fowls cannot be kept thrifty when given a full feed of soft mash for first meal. Fowls must be kept busy, and the only sure way to do this is to give only a small portion of what they actually require for first feed and then put them to work on grain of some kind buried in straw or litter. A full meal should be given just before dusk so that the fowls may go to roost with ! well-filled crops. A very good system of feeding is one ’ heaping tablespoonful of mash, made of boiled vegetables, scraps, etc., thickened with equal parts of cornmeal and middlings, for each grown fowl, given as -early as the fowls can see to eat, then follow this up with one quart to each twenty fowls of whole oats, I wheat millet or cracked corn. * If this amount apparently satisfies the fowls then decrease tire supply, but be sure to cover entirely with straw or litter of some kind, so that not a grain can be had without work.— Home and Farm. THE POULTRY AND EGG BUSINESS. It Is probable that if an accurate census of poultry and eggs can be taken it will be found that the value thereof will exceed $300,000,000. This is ah enormous sum am’ throws the ••fancy” part far into the shade. It is the great trainloads of poultry and eggs going to the large cities that show the magnitude of the poultry industry. With a population of 80,000,0)0 people, and estimating that each person consumes $5 worth of poultry and eggs in one your, the sum is S4OO 000.000. Then there is the large number of eggs used in the arts. Wo are sti>l importing eggs, npd our country does not supply itself. While the farmers largely assist in this production, yet the cities, towns and villages contnbi thousands who keep small flocks. The hen Is but a small creature, buc there are millions of hens, and they produce something every day in the year. In the face of a great array of figures and facts let the poultry business have its proper place, for It Is the rival of any other. Cattle, horses, sheep, swim* and even wheat are falling to the rear aehiud poultry. And yet it is styled a “fancy” business, and breeders fail to comprehend the figures.—Connecticut Farmer.

SHEEP AS FERTILITY CONSERVERS. A large proportion of the lambs which are rained In West Virginia for the production of mutton are tnarktteti In the fall, and although this Is iimloubtC4lly tlie simplest way of disposing of the surplus lambs, yet this practice possesses some serious defects, for when animals of any kind are constantly irnlng nokl from a farm, with now nnd then some hay or grain, the* fertility of the soil is continually carrletl away, and unless commercial f< rtlliters are employed to supply the deficiency of potash nnd phosphoric acid, the productiveness of the land must constantly diminish. On the other hand, if them* lambs can be profitably ffltteniHi during the winter they may be mntlc to consume the clover hay or other coarst* fodder of the fnnn which lias only a small commercial value. Also the farmer is enabltxi to feed his grain nt home instead of being obliged to draw It several miles to the railroad station. In addition to the grain which Is raised upon the farm, some of the concentrated feeding stuffs, such ns cottonseed meal, linseed meal or wheat bran, can generally be used to advantage In the fattening ratten, nnd as ench of. these materials contains a large quantity of nitrogen, phosphoric add and potash, which Is recovered In the manure, It is seen that when the policy of feeding lambs dur-

Ing the winter is intelligently carried out the land will gradually become richer, instead of poorer, because more fertility will be added by the manure than is carried away by the lamb crop. —West Virginia Experiment Station Bulletin.

TO FIND WEIGHT OF LIVE CATTLE. There are many rules for estimating the weight of cattle by measurement, but one of the authorities on the sublet says' that ‘ there is no rule that comes nearer- than good guessing,” and that “no two animals will weiglp alike according to measurements.” The same authority further remarks that a rule, as good as any, is to find the superficial feet by multiplying the girth, just behind the shoulder blade, by the length from the fore part of the shoulder blade to the root of the tail. Thus an ox girthing seven feet nine Inches and measuring six feet in length would contain seven and three-fourths times six, or forty-six and one-half superficial feet. For cattle, grass fed, the following is given as the weight per superficial foot: Girth less than 3 het 11 pounds Girth 3 to 5 feet it; pounds Girth 5 to 7 feet 23 pounds Girth 7 to IT feet .31 pounds Thus the steer, as per above measurements, should weigh 46.50 x 31, or 1,441 pounds gross. Under this rule, it is usual to deduct one pound in twenty on half-fatted cattle, from fifteen to twenty pounds on a cow having had calves and if not fat an equal amount. The author of this rule suggests its use only when the scale is wanting, as the scale is the only true standard.—Omaha World-Herald. FEED CUTTING. I have been asked what advantage there is 1n cutting feed; I would say the principal advantage Is the saving of waste. There is less opportunity for the stock to pick over and select out the best than when the roughness is fed whole. Then, too. there is a better opportunity for making up complete rations, as bran, middlings, cottonseed, and oil meal can all be used to a good advantage, rather better than with the feed given whole. Clover hay and bran or middlings, or, in fact, any kind of hay or straw run through a ?utting box and a small quantity of ground feed added makes a good ration for all kinds of growing cattle, sheep or horses. Unthreshed oats can be fed to O good advantage in the same way. In nearly every case where ground feed is fed, it will pay to cut a sufficient quantity of roughness to mix with it in feeding. All will be. eaten up dean, lie more thoroughly masticated and better digested and the animal will secure a larger amount of benefit, and at the same time save from thirty to fifty per cent, of your feed. The more we look into the question the more I am convinced that If the intelligent, economical farmer will save everything that grows on his farm suitable for feed, in five years he may be independent; able to keep a year’s supply on hand to tide over an occasional off year when it comes. The value of corn fodder and bright straw when reduced to a pulpy mass will be surprising, and is enjoyable food for the animal and a profitable one to the farmer and breeder.—William H. Patten, in Farmers' Guide. THE APPLE ORCHARD. Perhaps you know an orchard in which every tree had dead limbs on it the entire season. They were certainly not retained for ornament or utility, and that living the case, their retention cannot be accounted for, except upon the supposition that the management has been negligent. These disfiguring limbs should have been removed last spring, or earlier, but there have been times during the summer when they could have been taken from the trees. If the season has been as wet in any other locality as it has been in this section, there has been a great deal of time that the farmer could hardly employ to advantage in ordinary farm management. The ground was too wet to cultivate for many days, and the orchard could have been greatly Improved by lopping off dead limbs, and burning such portion of them as could not be used for fuel. But if the work has not been done, do it now, or just as soon as it can be done. Any tree that does not produce good apples is an ineumberer of the ground, a self-evident fact that none will care to dispute. If the tree is starved, it should l>e fed. If It needs pruning, prune it. If it needs cultivating, cultivate it. But these things need not Im? elaborated, for the necessity of doiu* them is well known. It ought to be well known, too, that a wedling tree that is worthless, ought not to Im* left standing without being grafted. Yet I know an orchard that contains 30 worthless seedling trees, good vigorous trees. It goes without saying that we have land In this country to waste and that we waste it In one way and another, but what can be the operation of the mind of a man. who will Incumber the ground with worthless trees that he might make valuable by so simple a process as grafting? The apple is good for years to come, and those who prepare to supply the demand will bo wise.—M. G. W., in The Epitomist. Corpses of paupers are being used as targets In testing rifles and field guns by German army experts. Australia, a country remarkable for Its large enters, has the h'lghest death rate. About 36,000)000 bableaare born Inta the world every year.