Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1907 — Farm and Garden [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Farm and Garden

HAIRY VETCH. Thi* Crop la Particularly Valuable In tha North. Two vetches lu particular are cultivated In the United States, the common vetch, or tares, and the hairy, or Rnsslan, vetch. The former is much used as a winter crop for hay on the Pacific coast and In the southern states, being commonly sown with oats, rye or wheat. It is also extensively grown In the citrus orchards of California as a winter green manure crop.* In the northern states it is veTy likely to winter kill. Hairy vetch is in a general way like common vetch, but decidedly more re-

■istant to cold. It will ordinarily survive the winter in most parts of the United States and in Canada. In fact, it is more resistant to cold than any other annual legume grown. On this account it is particularly valuable in the north, according to the bureau of plant industry. In the Connecticut valley it has received much favor as a winter green manure and cover crop on tobacco lands. — Where the winter temperature is not cool enough to prevent growing, as in California, it has been found that hairy vetch grows much more slowly in cool weather than the common vetch, and the latter is therefore preferred. Hairy vetch, however, grows very rapidly as the weather becomes warm. Vetches are spmewhat objectionable where small grains are used in rotation, as they become somewhat weedy In grainfields. Except for this, vetches are a very valuable crop and deserve much more extensive cultivation. As a rule, hairy vetch can be safely sown from the 15th of August to the 15th of September, says an authority on this subject. When grown as a cover crop it should be sown alone.

What Overripe Hay Lack*. The, trouble with overripe or damaged hay is lack of palatability and, worse than this, indigestibility, remarks a writer in New T England Homestead. It bears the same relation to good hay that a skim cheese does to a full cream cheese. You eat the former and never want to see its kind again. Chemical analysis does not discover the trouble, but the stomach does. The city feeder is a much better judge of quality in hay than the farmer, because he looks for results. There has been less improvement along this than any other line of farm work. It should be a question of how good as well as how much. It is easy to cause a depreciation of 23 or . even 50 per eent in feeding value. The worst feature is the guilty party does not appear to notice the difference. Sweet Corn, In some Canadian tests the three varieties ,of sweet corn, Ringleader, Mammoth White Cory and Golden Bantam, required eighty-four, eightyseven and eighty-eight days respectively to mature for table use, according to New England Homestead. In comparative value Ringleader stands first, but in table quality Golden Bantam was the leader. Handy Pen Gate. The accompanying sketch shows a sheep gate in use on several sheep stations, for woolshed pens and outside'

pen gates. It works on a stout bolt at the foot of one of the uprights and runs between the post and an upright fastened as shown. On the opposite side the'

gate as it shuts drops in a sinfilar groove. This is said to work more easily than the guillotine gate and is less liable to get out of order. The gate as shown is half open. When fully open it Is thrown quite back, and to close the gate It is thrown forward till it falls into its place fn the opposite, groove.—Leader. For Dwarf Pears. For dwarf pears I would not advise any one to let the trees stand in sod, says T. G. in Farm and Fireside. It will mean ruination to the trees and unprofitable crops right along. The erdtnary run of standard winter pears are not so particular, and we have usually grown very good crops on trees even In sod.

HAIRY VETCH

SHEEP PEN GATE.