Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1902 — GARDEN and farm [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN and farm

LICE ON CATTLE. The ordinary kerosene emulsion ( which is used in spraying trees is also excellent for destroying lice on cattle. The animals may be sprayed In the same manner as with trees, which is to apply a fine spray. Several applications are necessary to destroy lice hatched later. The emulsion is also excellent for ridding poultry houses of lice. CLOVER VARIETIES. • There afe several varieties of clover, some better adapted to certain soils than others. Alsike clover produces seed from the first crop, while red clover produces seed the second crop only. The alsike is fertilized by the honey t>ee and the red variety by the bumblebee. The latter i 3 being exported to some countries where clover has not heretofore flourished, in order to fertilize the blossoms. THE CORN CROP. The critical time with corn during the growing season is after it is up and well under way, as the drought may overtake the crop and injure its progress. ’lt has been demonstrated by experiment that there is nearly always sufficient soil moisture to assist a crop through the dry period if the farmer does not allow it to escape. Prevent evaporation of the water and it remains within reach of the plants. During a dry season the water will naturally rise to the surface of the soil, through capillary tubes in the earth. If these tubes are sealed at their upper ends the progress of the water to the surface is consequently arrested. This is performed by keeping the top soil loose with a cultivator, the loose, dry earth providing a covering over the tubes which effectually prevents the moisture from reaching the surface and passing off Into the atmosphere. But the cultivation must be repeated after each rain, as the rain drops beat down the dry dirt of the top soil, packing it, and therefore permitting the capillary tubes to the surface. The dirt covering made by the cultivator serves as a blanket, or mulch, and protects the roots of the plants, while the frequent cultivation effectually keeps weeds in check. The roots 01 corn plants feed very close to the surface, and extend in every direction, a cornfield being a thick network of roots but a few inches down. It is advisable to give shallow cultivation Jn order to avoid breaking or cutting the corn roots as much as possioie, stirring to a depth of only an inch or two. or just sufficient to make the dirt covering. By thus keeping the top soil loose the farmer may be able to secure a fair crop, even during a prolonged drought, where otherwise Mb crop would be a total failure. He cannot cause rain to fail, but he can at least save the moisture already existing in the soil—Philadelphia Record. CHANGES IN 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, j The old methods will no longer prove i profitable. We must raise for profit distinct types of horses for the market and not generally all round useful i horses. We must define in our own minds the different types of horses in j demand, and then work toward the production of the best specimens of one or more of these types. These I types, briefly stated, are the road, carriage and coach horse. The cab horse, the draught horse and the American trotter or road horse. One of these types should be selected in breeding horses for the market, and the peculiar characteristics of each one studied and carefully understood. Breeding for a specific class is the only | kind that pays today. The man who ! breeds on the old lines is doomed to failure. 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 yiinduced a surplus of horses which had no particular characteristics. They are not specially good in any line. Then a demand slowly grew up for horses which would excel in one particular class, and this has steadily increased until today it has become universal. The evolution In breeding has thus made It necessary for the farmer and breeder to know his particular class of horses thoroughly. Promiscuous breeding does not pay, j but special class or type breeding j does. Every horse must he bred for a particular purpose the sooner you ! can dispose of him the better. The small horse and the horse of mixed virtues have passed forever, and their 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 dally offered for the best animals of any class.—C. L. Betters, In Indiana Farmer. TO INSURE A GOOD GARDEN. Aside from the question of good seeds and frequent cultivation, the true basis of success In gardening rests upon the way the ground is prepared before the seeds are planted. We have tried deep and shallow plowing and spading, and in every ln-

Stance, other things being equal, ths ground that was- turned from the ■greatest depth has given the best results. In plowing the ground should be sub-soiled, and In spading it should be treated In very much the same way, the soil being turned under deep, and the sub-sorf brought to the surface. When practicable it should be top-dressed with well-rotted manure, which through rain and cultivation, will naturally word downward to about the seed level at planting time. A top-dressing of heavy, coarse manure before the first turning, would be an advantage. By all means the ground should be loosened up as far down as the roots of the vegetables are likely to penetrate. The advantages of such thorough and deep upturning of the soil before planting are apparent in a midsummer drouth. Then it will be seen that the effects of the drouth may be averted simply by keeping the surr face stirred about the growing crops. The loosened soil beneath acts as a reservoir for the moisture that still remains near the surface,, and loosened soil on top serves as a mulch to protect it from drying. With a shallow turned soil at planting time, there is a dry sulj-soil; when a drouth comes the effect is disastrous, because there is no reserve of moisture down out of reach of the sun's drying heat. By all means turn the garden soil deep so as to insure success regardless of the weather that may come after the plants are up and growing.—H. B. Geer, in The Enitomlst.

USE OF COVER CROPS.

Cover crops may in a measure take the place of fertilizers and manures. They are not, however, a universal panacea for all soil _ deficiencies, neither are they a full substitute in all cases for fertilizers. There Is always a wide field for the profitable use of either one or all of the concentrated forms of fertilizers named and in many cases there is also a special place for the use of fertilizers, therefore the more need of honest goods. Commercial fertilizers furnish available plant food, but no humus. r The cover crop furnishes both but it is only fair to say that the plant foods in the former are more quickly available than the latter. Cover crops improve the physical condition of the soil, lessening the cost of tillage. Physically, fertilizers benefit the soil little or none. The humus furnished by the cover “crops increases the availability’ of the plant food already in the soil; fertilizers do not. Cover crops shade the land and conserve moisture. It is impossible to accurately compare the cost of fertilizers with the cost of seeds for the cover crops and the preparation of the soil for them. The cost of increasing productively by extra tillage, by the use of fertilizers, by cover crops or by all three means can only be determined in each case by the farmer interested. I give below a single illustration of what a cover crop contains, knowing that another cover crop under other conditions might be either • more or less valuable. Second growth of clover furnished in roots and tops per acre the following: Nitrogen, 138.86 pounds; phospheric acid, 67.35 pounds, and potash, 109.96 pounds. There is removed by 25 bushels wheat and accompanying straw 43 pounds of nitrogen. 20 pounds phosphoric acid and 27 pounds potash. It is believed that most of the nitrogen taken up by legumes is secured from the uncombined nitrogen in the atmosphere. The clover did not add to either the store of phosphoric acid or potash. The plant took them from the soil and made them available. —I. P. Roberts, in American Agriculturist WATER ON A DAIRY FARM. The water supply should be even more scrupulously guarded than the food supply. It serves a double purpose, that of water for the cow and for the washing of the utensils. The water for both should be equally pure, and it ought to be made an axiom that water unfit to wash the pails or cans is unfit for cattle to drink. The milking cow requires large quantities of water, and whether it be capable of demonstration that impurities may find their way into the milk, it is safest to take the benefit of the doubt and use only pure water. A shallow dug well in the corner of the cow lot cannot escape contamination at some time. The contamination may not last all the time, and it may be, as is usually the case, that it is of a harmless character. The fact is that any contamination from the surface, no matter what may be its character, marks the well as one that may become infected and the cause of an epidemic. It only remains for the right kind of an infection to enter. It may require one year or forty years. The special forms which are partial to the water supply are the Intestinal germs that cause diarrhoea and the typhoid form. Many of the most alarming epidemics of typhoid have been traced to such source, it is not an easy matter to obtain an adequate supply of water at ail places about a city, but as far as possible It should be from driven well. As far as tested, all driven wells of more than twentyfive feet are supplying pure water. The hard-pan near the surface acts as an effective harrier to the passage of gerins, and those that come from below are harmless. A driven well of twenty-five feet Is a deeper well from a sanitary standpoint than any dug well. All dairies within the corporate limits of a city should be compelled to use city water. —New York Tribune Farmer. Among a certain class of people when a man stops lending money he ceases to be a good fellow.