Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1902 — GARDEN AND FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN AND FARM

A HARDY PLANT. The radish is a hardy plant and can bo grown every month from spring until late in the fall. But few should be planted at a time, as they soon become tough if left in the ground or are allowed to approach maturity. To have them crisp and tender they should be grown on rich soil and forced, as the sooner they reach the table stage the better their quality. CULTIVATING TURNIPS. To prepare for turnips the land should be plowed deep. Some may suppose that the turnip will grow under any conditions, even when the soil is plowed but a few inches, but the fact is that the turnip sends its roots deep into the ground and is a gross feeder. When turnips are plowed under they return a large amount of fertilizing material to the surface soil that is secured lower down than the plow reaches. INCUBATORS AND HENS. There Is sometimes a tendency, if an incubator does not hatch the eggs as well as expected, to lay the blame to that make of machine or to incubators in general. It would seem as if the incubator had not quite the same kind of vitalizing influence as the hen, especially on eggs in which the germ is weak, and a percentage of hatched chicks should be expected in proportion. To offset this disadvantage it is always ready, and a large number of eggs can be managed with less trouble than if bens are used. The chickens hatched will also be of more un’forin size. All hens do not hatch eggs well. Those that pluck the feathers from their breasts seem to do better than others, indicating a power of transmitting vital spree to the eggs. An incubator must have careful management, and a good operator will frequently get results where others have failed. If one takes the advantages of an incubator into consideration gives it proper care and is satisfied with a fair percentage of chicks from eggs, the result will usually be satisfactory.—New York Tribune Farmer. TRANSFERRING BEES. Transferring is usually done in spring time, though it may be done successfully almost any time during the summer; but owing to the fact that there are but few bees in the hives in early spring compared to the number that occupy them later, and also the condition of the combs having but little honey in them in early spring, it is not best to transfer too early and before the bees have begun work for the season. It Is beat to do the work about the time they are gathering their first honey and have considerable young brood in the hive. Transferring a hive of bees is a good lesson for the amateur. It is easily done and any one can do it. First get the new hive all in readiness to receive them, and by the use of a good bee smoker, smoke the oees in the old hive by raising it a little from the bottom board and blowing the smoke well up among the bees. Continue smoking them moderately for a few minutes to allow them to fill up on the honey, which thev will do when tmoked, and again apply the smoker as before. Now turn the old hive bottom up, and if the bees come to the top to any extent smoke them back down into the hive. Now with the necessary tools draw out the nails cr cut them off and take two sides off the hives. If any combs are fastened to the inside of these ÜB3 a knife with long blade to cut them loose. Now cut out the first combs, and with a feather from the wing of a turkey brush the bees off and cut the comb to fit inside of the new frame and fasten in there by wrapping the frames with hard twine and tying in several places. Proceed with the next combs and now brush the bees Into the new hive where the first combs are placed, and so on until all are in the new hive. —Agricultural Epitomist. BREEDING SWANS. Swans are the most graceful of all breeds of waterfowl and where one wishes to beautify a pond they add more than any other breed to the scenery, as the illustration so well shows. Their keeping is easy, provided surroundings are congenial. Ponds that are freshly fed by springs and that have shallow banks, covered with vegetation, are their favorite abiding places. Make an artificial float, covered with a small partly uncovered house, and anchor the same in the middle of the pond, and you have the best kind of breeding place for them. Cover it three inches deep with straw and allow their Instinct to do the rest. Swans mate in pairs and the female, if more than two years old, is a good persistent sitter and watchful mother. She will take her young within two days after hatching on the water and guard their every movement with maternal care. Feed them three times daily with chopped greens, such as lettuce, watercress and young rye, and when five days old add some finely broken bread. Throw this in the water, teach them a certain call and they will soon learn to come to you for their feed. When four weeks old wheat, buckwheat and cracked corn may be given them, placed in troughs along the water edge. A swan will lay from 22 to 30 eggs annually and if, as said, all conditions are favorable, a large percentage of them should hatch and live. They are hardy and do not need any extra houses or care, ev«i\ In the coldest

winter. Treat them as you would treat old and hardened geese. Great precaution should be exercised in buying mated stock birds, as many irresponsible breeders sell two male swans for a pair. The gooae test, if applied to swans, will reveal their sex.—Theo. T. Jager, in American Agriculturalist * STABLE DISINFECTION. The disinfection of stables after a period of constant use should be a part of routine practice. Dairy stables in particular should be disinfected twice a year and oftener if the conditions demand it. It is not possible to give many stables that thorough disinfection that is possible in houses, because their construction will not admit of it, but it is possibe to do very much and at little expense. The ideal method of disinfection is by means of a gas as that would have the power to penetrate everywhere. The effectiveness of this method depends upon securing a large volume of gas and maintaining it for some time. Unless the stable can be made tight, a gas will be of little use. For all practical purposes the gas produced by burning sulphur over a pot of coals is the best if used in connection with steam. The dry sulphur fumes have little germ killing power, but when combined with steam in the air it forms a compound that is deadly. The boiling of water and burning of sulphur should go together. Formaldehyde gas is not so efficient for stable disinfection as many would have us believe. A very practical means of disinfection that may be used under almost every stable condition is by white washing. This is not expensive for material and is very easily applied by means of an inexpensive fruit spray pump. The lime should be thoroughly slaked and strained through cloth and made just thin enough to work well through the nozzle. One man can apply two coats of whitewash with a pump and reach all parts of side and ceiling of a room in about onefourth the time required with tho brush. Whitewash will kill or hold the germs with which it comes in contact. It has the effect, too, of making the barn lighter and cleaner. After the first spraying, one application will usualy be sufficient if given regularly. As the business of supplying milk to cities and creameries is of large proportions and depends upon cleanliness, this precaution of disinfection should be regularly followed. —A. W. Bitting. Veterinarian, Indiana Experiment Station. ECONOMY IN SUMMER FEEDING. There should be a little more economy practiced in feeding in summer than in winter. Live stock do not require so much expensive foods to keep them in good condition during pasturing as they do in the winter, and if one is judicious in his selection and growing of food it is possible to equalize matters in feeding to bring down the cost to a very low point. Economy of feeding, however, does not mean starvation nor even deprivation of good, wholesome, nourishing food. The grass pasture should in particular supply the animals with a food that is both succulent and nourishing, but these should be in addition to such grain and coarse fodder given to make bone and muscle. A good deal of such food, however, can be obtained at little expense from large grain farms where the sweepings of the threshing barns are disposed of at nominal sums. Young corn raised for summer feeding should be fed in conjunction with pasture when the latter begins to dry up ami lose much of its succulent nature. The sav'ng of the pasture from Injury by too close cropping is sometimes economy in feeding of the most far-reaching character. Anything that destroys or permanently injures the pasture range is to be deplored, for sooner or later the loss will prove of the greatest importance. A good deal of economy in feeding is obtained by portioning out sufficient food for each meal, and not permitting a particle of waste. Whether grain, fodder or freshly cut grass is fed this rule should be closely followed. Waste is the worst form of loss that the farmer can endure. Sometimes better economy can be followed by cutting the grass and feeding It to stock in the yard. In this way we get the best from the pastures, and make the cattle eat up all parts of the grass. In a pasture field where the grass has reached a large size, stock will graze over the youngest and teqderest portions, and leave the large stalks standing. These latter are trampled under foot and wasted. There should be some method to prevent this, and cutting the long grass and feeding It in the yard or stable is sometimes the best way to do It. —C. L. Watertown, In American Cultivator.