Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1902 — GARDEN AND FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN AND FARM

RAISING FALL PIGS. In my opinion, the best method of raising fall pigs for profit and best results Is to have them-farrowed in the latter part of August or first part of September. By so doing the pigs will get the age and growth on them before cold weather sets in, and will then be large and strong enough to keep on growing and make good.pigs with proper care and feeding. It is essential that they should have a warm, dry place to sleep in, free from draughts. The sow should be fed on shorts and soaked oats, with a quart of oilmeal in a barrel of slop. Do not feed a fall pig very much corn until after he is six months old. As a general thing, there is too much corn fed to young pigs, and I believe this is the cause of so many of them getting down on •their feet. Corn always causes indigestion among pigs. If they are early farrowed and kept growing they will prove a profitable investment.—W. R. Loveless, in American Swineherd. PREPARING FOWLS FOR EXHIBITION. . Good, vigqjous blood is important. Only robust birds can stand the strain of the exhibition season, and appear at their best. Some even die from the excitement and unnatural conditions. I do not feed them much different from ordinary while preparing for exhibition. If while at the show they are to be fed some patent preparation, I accustom them to that special food before sending them away. A good feed is half bran and half corn meal baked in a cake. Chopped cabbage has a loosening effect. While preparing for exhibition the bird should be placed in a coop by himself, but with company in coops close by to keep him lively and to get him used to show room conditions. Wash thoroughly a day before shipping. Clean the legs with soap and water, followed with vaseline, and wipe off. I use a knife with a thin blade to clean the dirt from under the scales. Wash head and feet, soap the bird thoroughly, rinse off, carefully putting a little bluing into the water, if a white bird. Dry near the stove, but avoid too strong heat. —T. A. Nourse, in New England Homestead.

FEEDING SHEEP IN COLD WEATHER. Careful feeding and regularity is the key to success in preparing stock for market. Begin early and prepare feed for winter. Don't wait till the time comes to feed, but be ready to take care of the stock. I have had much experience in sheep feeding for winter market. I don’t feed much corn till March, then I commence to feed it with oats and clover hay, and give them all they will eat. Six to eight weeks is long enough to feed lambs. Give them plenty of fodder and water. Soft water if it can be had to prevent kidney trouble. I am using cowpeas and alfalfa hay this year for my sheep. I think it is a grand feed. In buying up stock for winter market I find the best that I can and pay a little more for them than the market price. When fattened they bring a good price when shipped to market. I expect to shred fodder hereafter, so I can feed all my stock in the barn. Sheep must have a well ventilated stable. Keep salt where they can get it whenever they want it. I think sheep and lambs will bring a good price next spring. The late rains started the grass and helped to bring stock in better shape for winter. We can’t take too much care of our stock during the winter.—George H. Cresswell, in New England Homestead. CLOVER AS AN ORCHARD MULCH. Considerable publicity has been given to the remarks of W. T. Macoun of the experiment station at Ottawa, Ont., made at the American promological meeting In discussing the renovation of apple orchards. Mr. Macoun stated that the practice at the experimental farm had been to grow clover in the orchard throughout the year. As the clover reached the blossoming stage. It was cut and allowed to remain on the ground. The last growth of the clover in the autumn was not mowed, but permitted to stand as a cover during winter. This system is, in effect, a combination of green manuring and mulching. It differs from the ordinaray cultivation and cover Crop system in that cultivation is left out of the programme. A rather too wide application of Mr. hlacoun't remarks has been made. He was careful to state that this practice pertained to their own orchard and was the outgrowth of peculiar soil and climatic conditions. The subsoil of thia orchard is cold and impervious, lhe region in which it is situated is rarely visited with protracted drouths. The object in growing the clover is to aerate the soil, draw out Its surplus moisture and protest the trees from the effect of severe freezing In winter. Undoubtedly the clover mulching plan may be applied quite widely. I believe that It can be practiced with advantage in many of the colder apple growing regions, but I do not think it would be the best plan to follow in sections where rainfall during the growing season was et all uncertain. In such sections cultivation fs essential. The particular region described by Mr. Macoun is not a commercial fruit section. Apples are grown in an amateur way and fruit of fine quality Is produced, but no large areas are devoted to the industry. Possibly the business may develop later if thia plan

of orcharding is followed more carefully than It has been in the past— Professor John Craig, of Cornell University. SELL NEAR HOME. There is no better advice that can be given to any one who raises poultry and eggs for money than the above. Sell £our eggs and poultry near home, and in the end bet!-- profits will be realized It is astonishing how much the home markets are neglected in this respect. The summer hotels in the country, and the winter hotels in the South, frequently get all their supplies from some large cicv, even their poultry and eggs. I have asked a number of proprietors the reason for such an anomaly. I was astonish ? 1 at tire reply. In a few words he said that they could not rely on the homo supply of eggs or poultry. They Wuuld be willing to pay a little .more than the market rates for either, but the farmers had become so accustomed to sending their produce to the cities that they were slow in adopting anv other course. They would some days bring in plenty of eggs, and then for a week nothing would be heard of them. ■<Fhis Irregularity could not be endured. Yet as another instance of Jus! the opposite, there is an enterprising young woman who has a poultry farm not far from a summer resort. She has contracted to deliver ten dozen eggs a day through the summer season to the hotels at a uniform price of twenty-five cents per dozen The eggs are all fresh and she is to be relied upon. The hotels would even take more from her, and she Is making efforts to enlarge her plant. She says she is making more money with her summer eggs than with her winter products. Her ambition is to enlarge her poultry farm so she can supply the hotels with spring broilers and tender chickens all through the summer season. Her'income then will be entirely satisfactory. But even in ordinary towns and vil lages there aje always plenty of families who are willing to buy their eggs fresh every few days from some nearby poultry farm. The prices obtained in this way will be far more remunerative than those paid in some distant city. In the summer time fully forty per cent, of the eggs shipped fifty miles or more are partially or wholly ruined by hot weather. The loss sustained in this way is enormous, and the farmers are the ones to endure it. By all means the remedy is to cultivate the nearby markets. Do not try to ship eggs to New York, Philadelphia or other large cities if you live in the West or South. There are nearer markets which will pay you better.—Annie C. Webster in American Cultivator.

FARM HINTS. Turnips for mutton; corn for pork. In a well-run dairy only the poorer animals are for sale. A whole lot of dairy farmers do not get as much from their cows as their feed costs. A good food ration is shelled corn, one-half; rye or barley, one-quarter; oats, one-quarter. Don’t feed well and give good shelter; then allow your sheep to drink ice water to cool off: Oat fed lambs will stretch out, have healthy looking skin and red blood. Oats are muscle makers. Farmers should be careful that there are not any wastes. Such never benefit a farmer's financial condition. Whether young stock are a paying investment depends very largely on their care the first winter of their lives. It is a severe stram on the digestive organs of a sheep to feed corn alone in winter; put in a little rye. It is a laxative. In raising calves have a hand separator so you can give them fresh skimmed milk; then you have the prime requisites to success in calf raising. The cream will not rise as well or as fully, nor will it make as good butter after the milk has been exposed to a very low temperature for any length of time. By weaning the lambs early it gives the ewes a better chance to put on flesh, and if given good feed the lambs will make more satisfactory progress as soon as weaned. If the supply of water Is not abundant the cows become restless, feverish and fretful. One day passed in this manner will do very much Joward drying up the best cows. It is an important item to have a place for the milk where the proper conditions can be observed, as good butter cannot be made out of cream that has once got out of condition. Winter lambs require a great deal of attention, and unless this can be given, do not attempt to raise them. They usually sell for high prices and fully pay for all the extra effort expended. The hog compelled to go to bed hungry or thirsty will mulct his owner by running off one or more pounds of weight while fretting, grunting, squealing and clamoring for the missing ration. For the last month or six weeks before selling, the swine should be fed three times a day, and the feeding should be so timed that the animals will walk up to the trough and demand their feed.