Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1902 — GARDEN AND FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN AND FARM

CABBAGE WORMS. As a remedy against cabbage worms mix a tablespoonful of red pepper, one of black pepper and one of ground yellow mustard with a pound of wheat flour. Once a week dust each cabbage with the prepared flour while the plants are moist with dew. A pound of flour will answer for dusting about 200 plants. LOSS OF WEIGHT IN STOCK. On the same diet an animal at rest will fatten more readily than one that takes exercise. No animal should be allowed to lose flesh, as the loss of a pound in weight is equivalent to a loss of two, for the reason that an animal should gain instead of losing. There is also a loss of time when thte animal ceases to make any gain in weight.

THE CAUSES OF GAPES. Gapes are caused by small worms which lodge In the windpipe. Feed of different kinds will not cause or cure it. The only sure cure Is to remove the worms with a horsehair, which requires skill and practice. Ground infected with gape worms should be spaded or plowed, and treated with a heavy application of lime. It Is safer to move the poultry to new ground.

CULTIVATING FOR MOISTURE. By plowing the soil and working it fine more water will be retained for use when the season is dry. To retain as much moisture as possible keep the soil loose between the rows. This can be done by cultivating about one or two Inches deep after each rain. The loose soil prevents loss of moisture by evaporation, and also destroys growing weeds, which will take up a large share of moisture if allowed to occupy the soil. /

FUNGOUS DISEASES. Bordeaux mixture Is a preventive and not a cure for fungous diseases. It should therefore be applied early, adding four ounces paris green to each forty or fifty gallons to kill insects. Bordeaux mixture will prevent apple rust and scab, fruit rot, blight of tomatoes, potatoes, rust of celery and in short all of the fungous diseases that begin on the surface of plants above ground. It should not be used on peach or plum, at strength indicated above, as it is liable to injure the foliage.

RENEWING A LAWN. A note from a friend in Connecticut thanks me for suggesting the dragging of lawns. This should be done just as early in the spring as possible, and just as the grass starts and the lawns look green put on your drag again. If there is much show of moss, as there will be under trees, tear it out freely. Sow grass seed or whatever you wish to put in, and drag once more. Your lawn will look rough, but no harm will follow. In large lawns, where you wish for clover, this is a good way to introduce it. I know beautiful yards which have gone entirely to moss. This can be partly remedied with severe raking. If you have a bit of a yard or a shrubbery cover it thoroughly with rich compost, and then rake it in; rake it often, and, let me add, don’t rake the leaves off in the autumns, especially to burn them. They are intended by nature as a winter mulch, to prevent the killing out of the grass. If they lie very thickly rake them in the spring, and put them in your compost piles. Save everything, every leaf, every bit of sod, what most people throw Into waste piles or roadways; put this into your compost piles, and with it let the liquid measures be also composed. Nature gives us all the manures we need. —E. P. P., in New York Tribune Farmer.

DAIRY BY-PRODUCTS. What are the by-products of the dairy, you ask? I answer, the manure, the calves, the skimmed milk, the butter milk, the pigs and the chickens. In a small dairy the by-pro-ducts amount to but little; with more cows they become a matter of much importance. But even with the ordinary farmer, whose cows are simply for family use, these extras amount to enough to merit his attention; yet the direct by-products, the manure, the skimmed milk and the butter milk are often cast away as refuse matter. This clear loss should make the larger part of the profits for the uptodate dairyman, since the butter yields but a limited profits above the actual cost of keeping the cows. If the manure be carefully gathered up every day and thrown in a heap through the tall and winter, the lit is kept clean, and in the spring some plot of poor ground can be made productive when the heap is scattered abroad. As to the skimmed milk, if before it begins to sour meal be stirred with it and it be fed to chickens, pigs, or calves, it will be found to yield a good per cent, of profit. Butter milk may be sold for ten cents a gallon in many places, otherwise it is excellent for pigs, chickens or calves. These suggestions apply about as well to one season of the year as to another. If observed they will greatly enhance the profits of all who milk cows.—-The Epitomist.

HORSE BREEDING. With the revival of horse breeding as a profitable industry the fact must be recognized that there has come a complete revolution in this business. The old methods will no longer prove profitable. We must raise for profit distinct types of horses for the market, and not generally all round useful horses. We must define In «ur minds

the different types of horses In demand, and then work toward the production of the best specimens of one or more of these types. These types, briefly stated, are the road, carriage and coach horse, the cah horse, the draft horse, and the American trotter or road horse One of these types should be selected jn breeding horses for market, and the peculiar characteristics of each one studied and carefully understood. Breeding for a specific class is the only kind that pays to-day. The man who oreeds on the old lines Is doomed to failures. His horses will bring so much less in the market that there will be no margin left for profits. One reason why horses became a drug in the market ten years ago was because farmers and breeders J produced a surplus of horses which had no particular characteristics. They were not specially good in any line. Then a demand slowly grew up for horses which would excel in one particular class, and this steaidly increased until to-day it has become universal. The evolution in breeding has thus made it necessary for the farmer and breeder to know his partictilar class of horses thoroughly. Promiscuous breeding does not pay, but special class or type breeding does. Every horse must be bred for a particular purpose, and if at the beginning the animal does not promise any good points for a particular purpose, the sooner you can dispose of him the better. The small horse, and the horse of mixed virtues, has passed forever, and his day will never return. Breed the large horse that is useful for particular lines on hauling, the road or coach horse which can travel well with a fair load, or the trotter which can make speed. In one of these classes every horse must excel or he cannot bring the high market prices offered. Premiums are daily offered for the best animals of any class. —C. L. Petters in American Cultivator.

PIGS AND COWS. The dairyman of today is of necessity a breeder of swine. The two go together so thoroughly that it would be a waste of good material and opportunity to neglect either. There can be no doubt that nature intended that the pigs should be the companion of the cows in the clover fields. But more than that, the swine should be fed on the skim milk that comes from the dairy. Pigs and shoats will thrive on this skim milk as on nothing else. The milk fed in this way will yield a larger profit than if sold in the ordinary market, w r here only a few cents a quart can be obtained, and often not that. The waste of time and material in trying to find a good market for skim milk is the most discouraging feature of the dairy business. Many a man has been induced to leave the business entirely on account of this. After settling up his accounts for the year he has found tnat he was actually no gainer for the year’s work. The only actual sure way of making money is to have a well organized dairy and pig farm. Enough of the latter should be kept at all times to consume the skim milk. By rapid growing and selling, turning the money over quickly, a good profit can be made for every quart of skim milk fed. Some keep their pigs too long. It is better to sell them as young pigs than to wait until they are so fat that few want them. A good healthy pig, with plenty of lean and fat on his sides, will usually sell better than the excessively fat hog. The clover and grass will always help to make the pig grow, and on a diet of good clover and plenty of skim milk there is no danger of hog cholera or other swine diseases in the hottest of weather. Corn and dry grain are the breeders of disease and illness in hogs during the summer. The hog cholera is undoubtedly the produce of overheated blood, superinduced by heavy corn and grain feeding. We cannot stamp out the disease until we change the diet. Let that be skim milk and green clover and grass from June 1 until the end of September, and any man can raise as fine a flock of clean, healthy swine as any marketman could ask for. And the market for such animals is always ready, with prices far more constant than for most farm products.—A. B. Barrett, in Indiana Farmer.

FARM HINTS. Keep all the dairy utensils spotlessly clean. Use common clover as a green soiling crop; it makes butter. The calf has a sensitive stomach. Beware of wrong feeding or overfeeding. The market demands the “long sided" pigs, not the short, “dumpy" kind. Do not permit man, boy or dog to hurry the cows to and from the pasture. Irregular feeding and milk at wrong temperature may cause scours in calves. Ewes that prove poor mothers, or refuse their own lambs, might as well go to the butcher. Make a free use of whitewash. It protects wood, and is a good disinfectant in all damp places. Keep the lambs growing from the start. If fat, sell them when they weigh thirty to fifty pounds. Give no sour and decayed vegetables even to hogs. Because they will eat such stuff is no sign that they will flourish on it. Feed the dairy calf to insure steady growth, Sour milk, sour palls, cold milk, Irregular feeding—these mean digestive troubles. Speak quietly to men and animals. Do not permit any loud or boisterous talking on your premises. Loud talk makes animals nervous and sanative as well as harsher treatment.—Now York Tribune Farmer.