Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1912 — NOTES From MEADOWBROOK FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NOTES From MEADOWBROOK FARM

By Willam Pitt

Keep a spray calendar. Cut out the dead branches. i . . . '' Chickens relish fresh lettuce. Select your breed and stick to it. If you plant pear trees in rich soil you Invite blight It is work worth while to scald the calf’s feed pail every day. A peach tree will stand a heavier beading back than an apple tree. Do not allow the stock to run in the orchard during the winter months. Scatter the manure as you haul it, don’t put into little piles all over the land. Keep the feed troughs clean. It is a wasteful practice to mix manure with grain. Letting the calf suck the cow the first day or two lessens the danger of milk fever. If sows are expected to produce a fall litter, the spring litter should be weaned when abopt 10 weeks old. Five or six of the twelve or thirteen species of beetles attacking stored grains are found usually in farmers’ bins. If you are still so far behind the age as to be dairying with no separator, get one now, if you sell a cow to do it. An occasional colt or young horse to sell, even when one is not making a business of raising horses, is a help to any farmer. The litter carrier will do much to keep the barn clean, because it encourages the boys and men to do their work beter.

Calves should have plenty of water as early as they want to drink it, but it is best not to let them have it right after their milk feed. ■; ZT Where from four to eight cows are milked the churn should hold from six to ten gallons. Better a little large than too small. Currant bushes must also be watched, carefully, and be thoroughly sprayed at least twice or you will find more green worms on your bushes than fruit. A vessel which would hold 1,000 pounds of water would hold 1,032 pounds of whole milk. 1.038 pounds of skimmilk, or 1,000 pounds of good cream. When you see the little ghost-like winged creatures rising like tiny elouds from your rose bushes, bfe sure it is the aphis. Get after them with the spray. Young climbing roses ought to be cut back to a strong eye, and the side shoots pruned as grapevines are pruned—that is, a couple of eyes from the stem. When cream foams in the churn ancF butter will not come, put in a handful or two of salt and a little water, slightly warmed. This usually remedies the trouble. Get some variety in the poultry ration. If the chickens are not eating heartily they may need a little change In their food to put their appetites back in tone. Not a few of our dairy folks are going to raise a crop of cowpeas as bay feed for cows this year. Cowpeas hay Is next to alfalfa and clover in milkmaking qualities. Eggs to be preserved should be perfectly fresh and be placed in the solution the same day as laid to obtain rhe best results, although eggs several lays old will keep very well. Washed eggs should not be used . With gravel and sand to be had on nost farms, the purchase of some Portland cement will provide the en:ire material for a root cellar, a drinking trough, a milk house and many it her convenient buildings which will ast for many years. Where there is hardly enough milk from a single milking to make separating worth while it may be set away antil next milking time,' when the tream should be thoroughly stirred tn and the milk warmed up before running through the machine.