Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1909 — HINTS FOB FARMERS [ARTICLE]

HINTS FOB FARMERS

Give the Horse a Drink. When you go to the Held on a hot day—ln fact, almost any day—how careful you are to take along plenty of good drinking water and how you suffer unless you take a good drink every little while! Did you ever think of making any provision for watering your team during the half day, no matter how hot the day or how hard the plowing? The fact is the comparative size of your stomach to your weight is greater than that of your horse, and your horses use up water in drawing the plow faster than you do in holding it, and it is simply barbarous to compel them to go the whole half day with no water. It is an easy matter to place a barrel on a wagon or log boat and take to the field water and a pall, and every time you feel the need of a drink offer the team a sip. Just try the experiment and be surprised to see how quickly the team will learn to look for the water.—Rural New Yorker. Five Profitable Cows. One of the most productive business herds tn the country is probably the one owned by the Nebraska experiment station, says American Cultiva tor. There are five llolstelns. and in one year these five cows produced 75,760 pounds of milk, equal to about 35,000 quarts, which at 5 cents per ■quart equals $1,750. The calves from these cows at one year old sold for $1,275. These are actual figures derived from the books at the experiment station and show the possibility of pure bred cows, which are at the same time heavy ytelders of milk. The experiment station people are confident that a still better record will be made this year, but a yearly income of $3,025 from five cows seems to be toe large to be easily duplicated. Parasites on Sheep. Some writers claim that sheep ought not to be pastured on land more than, one year before it is plowed and re' seeded, owing to parasites, but it has been shown that sheep have been kept free from parasites by the use of tar. turpentine and salt. Bore two inch holes in a pine log. fill with salt and smear tar around the top. and sheep will tar their noses while eating salt. Sheep soon learn to eat tar. One sheep raiser keeps it mixed with turpentine and salt where it is accessible at all times. About one-half pint of turpentine to one peck of salt is the proportion.

Wood Ashes For Orchards. The ashes from apple, pear and peach trees contain about 70 per cent of lime, and the crops of fruit borne every year also contain lime. When orchards fall It is always profitable to apply lime, and It should be done nt least once In tlve years. Wood ashes are preferable to lime for orchards, but the lime is much cheaper. Lime will also prove of benefit to grass that may be growing in and it is destructive to certain grubs and other orchard enemies. It is best applied by plowing the orchard land and broadcasting the lime over the surface Handling Silage. We have used an Improved silage cutter with blower, a machine of great capacity, with only one fault—namely, that the knives are bard to set—but with tbe great advantage that It cuts one-quarter Inch pieces. These pack best In the silo because of their small size, and because of close packing they keep better than If larger. They are also better to mix with cut hay and

grain, since there is very little waste of uneven parts, such as cornstalk joints, in the manger.'— Rev. J. D. Detrlch, Chester County, Pa., in American Agriculturist. Sheep Are Good Stock. The census bureau cannot give the real value of sheep. Outside Tsf the value of sheep as producers 6t meat and wool there is a benefit conferred by them to laud. Pastures occupied by sheep become richer every year, and bushes, weeds and briers, which so rapidly grow where they are not desired, are kept down by sheep and their places occupied by grass. The poorest kind of land, if given up to sheep, even if it is necessary to allow feed to them, will be made productive in a few years. Alfalfa For Hogs. It is especially Important that alfalfa Intended to be fed to hogs should be cut early. An experiment at the Kansas station showed that a ton of early cut ! and well cured alfalfa hay fed with grain produced 868 pounds of pork, while a ton late cut and poorly cured fed with grain produced only 333 pounds. For fattening hogs it is well to feed about one ton of well cured alfalfa hay with each 250 bushels of grain.—Coburn’s “Swine In Amer lea." Rotation of Crops. When a plan of rotation is adopted the view of the farmer is changed. Instead of the one crop he is seeding he is looking ahead and planning to have that field prepared for crops one, two end even ten years ahead. By knowing what will be sown on a field for several years in advance labor may be saved, the yield increased and arrangements made for making the best use of the crops grown. The Farm Water Supply. Every farm should have a water system of some kind. This will include the house, too, if you believe in keeping the household conveniences upon a par with the other lines of farm work.