Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1903 — GARDEN and FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GARDEN and FARM

CREAM SEPARATORS. Only yesterday, as It were, cream separators were looked upon as too complicated and costly to ever become common on the farms of this country. Now they have been so greatly eimpli* fled and so much reduced in cost that the farmer who keeps five or more cows cannot afford to do without one. It is true that comparatively few farmers have so far bought a separator, and that their use on farms Is ■till very exceptional, but that does not at all alter the fact that the separator while making it possible to keep more cows on the farm, without adding to the number of hours necessary to do the work; it makes it possible for the farm dairy to successfully compete with the creamery and pays for itself long before It becomes worn in the additional amount of butter that may be made from a given quantity of milk, also makes it easily possible to make the butter more wholesome. Some recent experiments along this line gave very interesting results. No j matter how much care is exercised, more or less foreign matter will get into the milk, from the time It is drawn from the udder until It finally used, and always there may be found bacteria of various kinds. Some of the impurities found in milk are solids and these it has been found are readily removed by the separator. WhUe it has not been possible to remove all bacteria from milk by separating it, it has been found that separated milk contains very many fewer bacteria than that which has not been separated. Separating the milk and thus removing from it the solid impurities and much of the other foreign matter which is carried out with the slime that is always found as a residue in the separator, and then removing, adding cream to the skim milk until it contains the desired percentage of butterfat, is a method followed by a good many milk dealers who desire to furnish an approximately clean product. Under severe tests this milk has been found to contain from less than half to less than 20 per cent, ns many bacteria as was. found in milk that had not been run through the separator. The additional value of the skim milk for feeding, the freedom from slavery to the milk pan and the facility with which conditions can be controlled all point to the separator as one of the absolute necessities to doing the best dairy work on the farm. There was a time when pianos, sewing machines, reapers, sulky plows and a hundred other things were looked upon as easily dispensed with luxuries on the farm. All these have come to be everyday articles on the farm and in the farmhouse. The time will soon come when separators will be just as generally used as sewing machines, and then we will look back and wonder how it was possible to get along without them. Any one who has had an opportunity to examine a separator after it had been used and before it had been cleaned will not care to make butter containing any part of the solids found there, and at least a portion of these solids are incorporated in butter made from cream that is separated by the gravity Rrocess. The hand separator is within the reach of every one who keeps five or more cows, and it is to be hoped its use will become universal within a very short time, because such use would add to the wholcsomeness of the products of the dairy and to the profits of the dairyman.—Dairy and Creamery. WINDOW GARDENS. A window-garden will transform the plainest room into an attractive abiding place. Delicate plants and flowers with their graceful foliage and delicious, subtile perfume have charms impossible to furniture or decoration. Their freshness and fragrance permeate the atmosphere and effect not only the physical senses, but also the mind. A delicate and artistic plant that grows the year round is the asparagus fern. It grows luxuriantly in dry or moist atmosphere and produces long, graceful, feathery fonds from 12 to 15 inches long. Another standby is the begonia, of which there is a variety of shades, from the vivid coral to the pale and brilliant pinks. The gloxinia is another decorative plant for the window. The blossom Is trumpet shaped, and the leaves are very handsome. The plant is a dwarf and is very easily cultivated. The bulb should be planted in a 5-inch pot. Chinese lilies and white narcissus are planted in a 6-inch bowl of gravel and water for each bulb, and in a larger bowl if more than one are planted at a time. 1

Hyacinths and Jonquils are the forerunners of spring and can flourish in narrower quarters than other plants. As many as five bulbs will grow in a flinch pot. The most fastidious, artistic temperament, as well as the more ordinary mortal, could not fail to admire a window box of delicate yellow jonquils peeping from a bed of green moss or surrounded by a fringe of green foliage. A few favorite plants for window boxes are the abutilon, begonia, sweet alyssups, fuchsia, ivy, geranium, mignonette, petunia and the new creeping lat&na. —American Queen. '

portant part of the business. While the successful hatching and raising de* pend largely on the proper handling of incubators and brooders, as well as care and food, our experience aatlsfles us that the foundation of success is in the breeding stock. Strong, healthy birds properly handled will produce eggs that are fertile and chicks that will thrive and grow even under unfavorable conditions, while eggs from Block that is not in a healthy condition for breeding will produce chicks that with the utmost care and attention possible to give them will mean loss and bitter disappointment to the breeder. Judging from articles writ* ten by poultry raisers and conversations we have had with many breeders, the success or failure of raising chicks is laid too much to the method of incubating, brooding and feeding, and what we believe to be the foundation of success (the breeding stock) is not given the attention by many that is necessary to produce good results. In a poultry journal of recent date a raiser tells how he feels to produce pullets that lay when four months old. If those pullets are used for breeding when the hatching season arrives, and are in good, healthy condition and lay eggs that are fertile and produce good, strong chicks, it is the first time we ever knew of such being the case.— (Charles F. Thompson, in Farm and Poultry Review.)