Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1908 — HINTS FOR FARMERS [ARTICLE]

HINTS FOR FARMERS

Raising Calves by Hand. Probably the most serlons obstacle In raising calves by hand is scours. This is the most common ailment among band fed calves. Scours are caused by a number of conditions, mostly due to careless feeding. The most common causes and those which can be easily avoided are overfeeding; cold milk, sour milk, dirty buckets and the practice of feeding grain in the milk. Overfeeding has been mentioned before. The milk should be weighed or measured accurately at every feed. If it is found that the calf needs more milk, the amount should be increased gradually. Changing suddenly to n heavier feed is almost certain to cause scours. The milk should always be fed warm, and only sweet milk should be used. If it is impossible to have the milk sweet all the time, then it should always be fed sour. Good chives can be raised on sour milk, but if it is sour one feed and sweet the next the calves are almost certain to have trouble with scours. The buckets should be washed and scalded after each feeding, so that they will be clean and sweet.—Caleb Raukier in Farmers Advocate. Buckwheat Bran as a Btock Feed. Buckwheat feed, meaning the bran with most of the hulls removed, furnishes the very best of protein food for the dairy cow, writes C. D. Smead. V. S., lit National Stockman. When mixed equally with corumeal it makes a good fattening food for swine. When mixed with oats it is a grand feed for sheep. When mixed with wheat bran and cornmeal, all equally by weight, it makes a falf horse feed when the horse is being only moderately used. My hogs have this year fattened on it mixed as advised, any my milk cows are now eating ten pounds per day of this buckwheat feed with corn silage. My sheep have been fed on buckwheat feed for several years with silage and hay, with more or less oats. At present my horses are eating an equal mixture of wheat bran, buckwheat feed and oats and are doing well, aithough this is the first winter I have thus fed them. Shelter Cheaper Than Feed. Make the cow stable comfortable and sanitary and put the cows therein to stay unless the weather is so pleasant that you yourself would enjoy going out and taking a sun bath. Such a stable need not be expensive, but It must have light, pure air and cleanliness. Arrange it so the cows are comfortable at all times. A cow fastened in a rigid stanchion cannot be comfortable, nor if she must lie on a cold or filthy bed, and you need not take my word that it will pay you, because you will discover for yourself by actual experience that from the increased production and the decreased amount of feed needed you are getting a fine dividend on your investment.—L. W. Lighty in National Stockman. Sulphur Expelled the Rats. Here Is a Maine farmer’s mode of ridding his premises of rats and mice: •“If yon sprinkle sulphur on your bam floor and through your com as you gather it, there will not be a rat or mouse to bother. I have done this for years and have never been bothered with rats or mice. I have some old corn in my crib at present, and not a rat or mouse can be found. In stacking hay or oats sprinkle on the ground and a little through each load, and my word for it, rats or mice can’t stay there. A pound of sulphur will be sufficient to preserve a large bam at com and is good for stock and will not hurt the com or bread.”—American Cultivator. Farm Work. There is small excuse for being idle on the farm, says American Cultivator. No matter how bad the weather, the man who manages well will always find something for his bands and himself to do In the barn or the shed or the shop, and every farm should have a shop. There will be harness to oil or ladders to make or mend or axes to grind or saws to sharpen or a dozen and one things to do to have tools and utensils ready for bright days—plenty to do besides whittling and whistling. Ration For Laying Hons. An excellent ration for laying hens In the winter is equal parts of cracked com, oats * chop and shorts. To this add enough clover or alfalfa bay tea, with the partially cooked leaves aqd stems remaining in the tee, to make the mixture a stiff maBS. In addition, the birds should have plenty of grit and occasionally a little meat food. Meat meal or chipped meat. If the latter is not tainted, ia a good way to supply this feed. Cure For Qreaae Hsol. A subscriber writes that he has found the following treatment reliable for grease heel, say* the Chicago Inter Ocean: Wash the part with casttle soap suds till it la free from impure matter or sn balances, then apply coal tar disinfectants once each day till cure Is effected. If the scab becomes unhealthy, wash again with soapsuds and repeat with the coal tar. Be sure to keep animal in dry stall. Worms In Colts. For- Intestinal worms in colts the following mixture Is used by veterinarians: Mix together as a base one pound each of salt and granulated sugar. Ia this mix one-half pound of tobacco dost or fine cut tobacco, four ounces of sulphate of iron powder, six ounce* of powdered wormseed. Give a heaping teaspoonful in the feed at first once per day, then twice per day, and keep It up for three weeks. ' .vl