Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1902 — GARDEN AND FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN AND FARM

WARM QUARTERS PREVENT DISEASE. No farmer will burn corn or hay in a stove, in order to keep his animals warm in winter, but he burns extra quantities of such materials In the bodies of the aulmals when he does not provide warm quarters. Heat must be procured from fuel of some kind, and the animals must have the fuel or fall off in weight and production. Warm quarters save food and prevent diseases.

FAT HOGS VS. LEAN HOGS. Those who advocate the advantages of hogs with less fat and more lean are correct, so tar as market prices are concerned; but where a farmer has plenty of corn, it will pay him to sell fat hogs, for the reason that fat can be produced at less cost than muscle, and also because a fat hog removes less fertility from the farm than a lean one. Much depends upon the corn crop, however, as well as the market pricl of corn.

CARE OF YOUNG STOCK. Young stock is often too much neglected. It is looked upon as something of little present value, but to be of value bye and bye. Hence, it is left to shift for itself, and this, too, during the very period in its existence when it should be most cared for and when its future value can be most enhanced. When young stock is left to piclc up its food here and there, Just as it can get it, it fares badly; and this is a chance when It is fed with older stock. A common result is stunted growth. Good shelter should be provided during the winter months, and separate from that of older stock, or at. least so arranged that the young things may not be annoyed, for continued fear preys upon the young animal’s system and interferes with growth.

CORN A PROFITABLE CROP. In the eastern states, where dairying Is a large industry, more land may be devoted to corn, not for sale or exportation, but to feed on the farm from the silo, or as to grain to the cattle and hogs and thus save purchasing. For the protein needed to balance the ration, clover or alfalfa may bq grown for roughage, and soy beans will give the protein concentrate required. These crops should make the dairy farmer almost independent, as little bran would be required. Then let him weed out his dairy, keeping no cow that does not give over 6,000 pounds of milk, or make 300 pounds of butter in a year. Corn, in my opinion, cannot be grown in the middle and eastern states in competition with the great west, for shipment. The grain and stover must be utilized on the farm and marketed in live stock or dairy products, to make the corn crop profitable to the farmer of the Ohio valley or the older eastern states. —Orange Judd Farmer.

HANDLING SHEEP WITH PROFIT. I have a flock of about fifty ewes and keep them in a house 24x36 feet. This house is well ventilated, dry and I never allow my sheep to get wet during the winter, if lean help it. I have best results with lambs born during January and February. If the temperature is low all this time, so much the better. My single lambs average ten pounds apiece. When dropped I am on the lookout and transfer ewes and lambs to a basement pen with a temperature of thirty-five to forty and above. The ewe gets a quart of oats per day and when the lamb is seven days old it Is docked, and if a ram is castrated. I provide a box stall with a creep and in this I keep a supply of oats, so that the lambs can get at it when desired. I continue feeding them oats after grass comes. By this treatment January and February lambs sell at five cents a pound when six months old. They generally average 100 pounds per head. My ewe lambs kept over are sheared in July. During the season of ’9B I reserved twenty ewes. These were sheared in July, the smallest one producing two and one-half pounds of wool. My flock was sheared the last of March In 1899, a few of the lambs at twelve months shearing eleven pounds. I keep Shropshires and like them.—P. B. Dletes in New England Homestead.

THE FRUIT BARK BEETLE. * Considerable Interest has been aroused In not a few fruit growing localities over the depredations of what is known as the shot-hole borer. The following extracts taken from a report on this pest by Professor R. H. Petit, State Entomologist for Michigan, will probably be of Interest and valuable to many who have or are liable to come in contact with this pest. The first intimation of the trouble is the discovery of numbers of small drops of gum exuding from punctures in the body or limbs of peach, plum, cherry or apple trees. A closer examination reveals admail round hole a little Jess than one-sixteenth of ar. Inch in diameter under each drop of gum. If the outer bark around the hole be removed or pared away, a small burrow will be found to extend for a longer or shorter distance in the layer between the wood and the bark, sometimes branching conslderab'y. These burrows or galleries usually exhibit a definite arrangement when carefully examined. There Is an egg chamber, along the sides of which the eggs are laid. When the young grubs hatch they commence boring a tunnel

away from the brood chamber and continue until they attain their full size, when they go a little deeper and pupate, coming out in time through holes bored to the surface, as adult, winged beetles. The effect on a tree of a number of these borers usually leads to its death. The beetle itself is little more than one-sixteenth of an inch long, somewhat cylindrical, almost black in color, and is covered with minute punctures or pits. It belongs to the family of scolytidae or bark borers. The insect Beems to prefer to work on trees that are In an unhealthy condition, hence one should strive to keep all trees healthy and vigorous. When a tree is but sligntly attacked, the bark may be pared out where the tunnels are, or the trees coated with a whitewash mixed with paris green or arsenic. This wash 13 said to be an excellent preventative. If a tree is badly attacked, the cheapest and best way is to cut it out and burn it. If there happens to be a poor, worthless tree in the orchard, it is a good plan to girdle it in midsummer to induce the beetles to lay their eggs in it, and then cut it down and burn it before the beetles emerge, which is said to be about the middle of June. Several broods of inserts are matured in one season.

KEEPING APPLES OVER WINTER. At a meeting of the Missouri Valley Horticultural Society, one of the members gave a description of his method of keeping apples. His cellar is 80x40 feet, and about eight feet deep, built of stone. He sets the barrels (without heads) one on the other, three high. The cellar has a large double door in the end and regular temperature is maintained by opening and closing this. He opens at night to admit cool air and closes in the day time, and by this process a comparatively uniform temperature is maintained. The upper steft-y cannot be kept as cool as the lower, and in this he keeps the apples that are to be sold before the holidays. In building such a structure he advises the use of stone in the lower part, but wood for the upper, as it can be kept cooler. Another member reported that In his cellar he could keep from 3,000 to 4,000 bushels of apples. He first sprinkled a solution of coperas, then piled the apples in bins as high as possible. Upon being asked for his opinion on ventilation, he said that they did not want too much; that it was his experience that the apples exposed to the air, rotted worse than those in the middle. Apples left in piles have a greasy coating formed on the outside, and if they once reach this stage they are comparatively free from rot. This coating is formed in from six weeks to two months, and most of the rotting is done during this period. The cellars should be sprayed frequently to stop all fungus growth. He also advocated building storage houses over springs, as the flow of water will keep the house cool, and also give sufficient ventilation.

FARM hINTS. You cannot keep the poultry house too clean. If you keep six cows it will pay you to have a hand separator. There is not much profit in fattening pigs for spring porkers. Don't neglect to give the pig-pen a coat of whitewash as often as required. Avoid churning cream at a too high temperature, lest you injure the flavor and grain of the butter. Keep the stables free from foul odors and filth of all kinds. Milk absorbs these things very readily. Each cow should be milked by the same milker so far as practicable, and should have gentle treatment always. Don’t, dear dairyman, think of allowing any one to touch the butter by hand during the process of making it. Milk at the same hour every day, and milk clean. There is more in this than some farmers are willing to admit.

Warm quarters must be provided for pigs In winter, or there Is a waste of food to keep up the warmth, and growth is checked. Is any one prepared to deny the statement that a ton of well cured and well kept corn fodder is not worth as much to feed as a ton of hay? Don’t try to keep any more hogs than you can properly care for. A few well kept are more profitable than a large number Improperly kept.

A very good substitute for skim mlllr lor pigs in winter is fine wheat middling, with a tablespoonful of linseed meal to each quart of the porridge. A gallon of petroleum and a gallon of machine oil will make a mixture that will kill the lice on hogs. Mix It thoroughly and apply In a thin spray on the infested animals. Breeding ewes should be fed at all times so as to keep themselves and their lambs In healthy growing condition and the early lambs should be forced by means of extra food given to the ewes. Corn stalks, well cured, are a good roughage for cows, but where they are the principal feed, corn or com meal should go with them. Give a ration of carrots and mangels, with a sprinkling of meal. It will pay.