Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1901 — GARDEN AND FARM [ARTICLE]

GARDEN AND FARM

AN ORNAMENTAL PLANT. The castor oil bean plant is one of 1 the prettiest and most ornamental that can be used along borders, its leaves being a beautiful green. The cotton plant can be grown in this section to the blossom stage, but will not mature, though the seed should be planted in hotbeds early and transplanted. The canna is another very pretty showy plant, and it makes a fine contrast with castor bean plant. CULTIVATION SHOULD BE THOROUGH. Good cultivation need hot be deep, but should be thorough. Stirring the surface soil to the depth of an inch is sufficient if the weeds and grass are destroyed. The object of cultivation should be to stir the surface soil so as to provide a mulch as a covering. ADVICE TO BEGINNERS IN FARMING. Beginners in farming, especially those with limited capital, should endeavor to produce early and late crops, so as to have cash coming in all the time, if possible. One of the essentials for quick returns is poultry. The hens should lay every day, with good management. One or two good cows will also be found serviceable, as milk, butter and eggs are cash at all seasons. Small fruits, such as strawberries,, currants, gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries, soon give returns, but grapes and orchard fruit require more time. On a small farm it may not pay to depend upon the cereal crops. Stock, fruit and vegetables give better profits and bring in cash long before the harvest comes for corn. There is nothing that will give larger and quicker profits in proportion to capital invested than fowls, and as they multiply rapidly the number can be increased every year. The fowls will also consume much waste material that cannot be otherwise utilized.

DON’T CLIP WINGS. The clipping of wings is, to say the least, a cruel practice, and often results in the loss or injury of our most valuable fowls. The temptation to go to the highest portion of the roost is too strongly inbred in the fowls to resist, and they will invariably manage to get to the top. Then, in their haste to get down, they fall, head over heels, having no means of protection. I have seen fowls attempt to fly from a perch fully ten feet from the ground, invariably with the same results. The fence can always be built high enough to keep them in the yard, and, aside from all injury the clipping does, their beauty is so marred that one should refrain from such unnecessary mutilation. A fence four feet high will turn Brahmas, while six feet will keep the Leghorns at home. The co«t of wire is so moderate that every one may easily provide a good fence for the yards without resorting to any cutting of wings.— Home and Farm. WATER AND FEED FOR SWINE. Have a care that your hogs are comfortable at all times. One should be prompt in everything pertaining to their 1 care. Profhpt to feed at a certain tinje and prompt to water, and right here Is where many an otherwise good swine ■ breeder and feeder is remiss. He neglects or forgets to water the fattening hogs. or. as is often the case, he thinks it unnecessary. When hogs can get clean, cold water to drink, they always prefer it to dirty, unless their taste has 1 been perverted. Hogs fatten faster when given nothing but slops and the water they get from a filthy wallow. A hog wallow is a nuisance pure and ’ simple, especially if near the watering place of other stock. It is not of much value to the hogs. Let it be abated. A hog likes a variety in his diet. He will eat up all the small unsalable potatoes, and grunt his satisfaction while so doing. It is almost impossible to over- ! feed the hog if fed carefully.— Swine , Advocate.

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. A correspondent who signs herself "Granny," in the Pacific Farmer, has up-to-date ideas as to hatching chicks; I do not wish to detract one whit from the hen. bless her, but when I had fixed up a nice, warm, dean nest, with a set ting of eggs therein, and had place I biddy on them, I expected her to do her part, but lo I and behold when I peeped in, the next morning, to see how biddy was getting along. I beheld a conglomerate mass of straw and eggs, while biddy. standing up. resting. I suppose, after her recent work of destruction. I tried to possess my soul in patience while I emptied that nest and fixed it all over. Then 1 got another hen that I was sure wanted to set. from the way she clucked, but when in due time I looked at that hen also, the sight that met my eyes was enough to arouse the righteous indignation of almost anyone. Then I went and sat down and watched my incubators running until my anger cooled Hens arc all right to lay eggs, and to set, too, if you have the right kind, but you cannot depend on Leghorns, not even mixed ones; at least that is my experience. Sometimes they will set two weeks and then leave the nest. So I say give me an incubator every time, and right here let me tell you a secret about them. If the heat radiator and pipes are far enough from the eggs, you can put in two layers and thus make one machine do the work of two at the expense of one; but be sure and change them every day, putting the top ones underneath and vice veria. If you are not certain about the heat just put in a few at first and keep them on top until the first time you test them, when you can easily tell if it is too hot

In one of my machines the heat so 'close to the top laydr of effgs'that they were abdut- all' killed, but in my other erne two layers are just as safe as'one. • ; o FERTILIZERS FOR THE POTATO CROP- •> ' , The potato crop is a very important one, especially on land that is costly, aS the crop must first pay interest on the capital invested before it can give a profit. In those sections where early potatoes are grown for market, fertilizers are used in large quantities, and even the late potato crop is treated liberally in that respect. If the farmer does not use fertilizers he may lose in yield of crop, and if he ujes too much fertilizer the tost may be too great in proportion to the gain in potatoes. The most profitable crop is not necessarily the largest that can be grown, but the one that gives the largest crop at the least cost Experiments on Long Island, conducted by Professors Hall and Jordon, and published in bulletin No. 187, of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, show results that are contradictory to the practice in that section, and, as .custom and practice seems to be followed almost everywhere until overthrown, the Results should be interesting to all who grow potatoes. It has long been claimed that potash in the soil is the most essential plant food for potatoe>. but recent experiments teach that nitrogen and phosphoric acid, rather than potash, seem to be the ingredients most necessary for the production of good crops. The mixture used on Long Island contains 4 per cent, of nitrogem 8 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 10 per cent, of potash, equivalent to 80 pounds nitrogen, 160 pounds phosphoric acid and 200 pounds potash in each ton of fertilizer of the pure plant foods, and not “salts.” as the 200 pounds of actual potash would represent about 400 pounds of muriate of potash. Of course, where The land is rich in any one of the ingredients mentioned, or when stable manure has been spread, or seme leguminous crop turned under, the proportions of plant foods given as fertilizer must be governed by the conditions as well as by the previous crops grown on the land. Four years’ tests with various amounts of fertilizer, during which 500 pounds up to one ton per acre were used, show that 1000 pounds is the largest quantity that can be used with profit, the money gain on 1000 pounds being nearly twice as much a- for 500 pounds, hut the money gain grew’ smaller when more than 1000 pounds were applied. It is evident, however, that growers should use as much fertilizer as possible, or as much as the crop will bear, provided the gain in potatoes keeps pace with the expense. For instance, if 1000 pounds of fertilizer will give more profit than 500 pounds, allowing for all possibilities from manure, plowed-imder crops and other plant foods already existing in the soil, then it is cheaper to use too pounds than a smaller quantity. Growers who content themselves, therefore, with the application of from 200 to 400 pounds of fertilizer per acre on potatoes, may save the expense of fertilizer, but they lose the gain that might be derived from a greater amount. This rule applies also to other crops. The farmer who uses fertilizers should not be too economical in thejr application, as he loses time, labor and crop by not using the full limit of fertilizer that his crop will bear. On the Long Island farms the lapd is made to produce to its fullest capacity; hence as much as one ton of fertilizer per acre has been applied, and with profit; but the experiments show not that too much was used, but that half a ton gave a la/ger profit in proportion to cost, though rdoo pounds per acre is regarded by many farmers in the United States as an exceedingly heavy application upon one acre.

Which fertilizer to use for potatoes depends.< as stated, upon the conditions of the soil, climate, rainfall, etc., but the experiments mentioned demonstrated that the usual formula of 4 per cent, of nitrogen, 8 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 10 per cent, of potash is one that may be altered with advantage, as the potash may be decreased to one-half, or even one-third, without reducing the yield of potatoes. Nor did an increase of nitrogen over' the 4 per cent, make a gain in the crop. It is evident, therefore, that the potato growers have been too extravagant in the use of potash, and that a formula containing 80 pounds nitrogen, 160 pounds phosphoric acid and 70 pounds potash per ton will give as good results as the same proportion of nitrogen and phosphoric acid with 200 [•ounds of potash. It must not be overlooked that failure to secure a good crop may not be due to the fertilizers. If there is insufficient moisture, an inferior variety of potatoes used, or the land is not given thorough cultivation, there will be a diminished yield, but if the conditions are favorable the limit of 1000 pounds should be applied. The formula for potatoes given in the experiment is the result obtained on Long Island, where the soil may be very different from that of other localities; hence each farmer must understand the nature of his own soil, as some soils may be richer in one substance more than in others. Tn the use of nitrogen only a portion should be nitrate of soda, as it >s very soluble, dried blood or tankage supplying the remainder. Superphosphate is excellent for its phosphoric acid, and if from bone it will contain about 3 per cent, of nitrogen, but. as only 8 per. cent, of phosphoric acid is necessary, there will not be enough nitrogen from that source oaly; hence nitrate of soda should also be applied. Professor Lanciana declares that in ancient Rome there were buildings tex affd twelve stories high. Thus vanishes the claim that modern civilization is responsible for the “skyscrapers.” Mexico buys all of its shears and diarp-edged tools from the United States.