Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1898 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARM AND HOME. Need of Agricultural Instruction in the Schools—Value of the GardenHints for Tobacco Growers—Soil Variation in Fields-Home Cheese. Agriculture in the schools. There is a general demand among speakers and writers on agricultural subjects, says the Farmers’ Journal and Livj Stock Review, for the adoption of some system of Instruction in country schools that shall include not only the elements, but the practice of farming and gardening. This is not only a sensible move, but it is already in practice in various parts of Europe, with such success that the term “marvelous” is sometimes applied to it, and already an elaborate system of instruction wifi traveling professors has sprung up in some countries, based on the actual results so far as well as the possibilities of more careful and extended instruction. While there Is much need of something of the kind in this* counitr it will have to be confessed that the problem Is a much more difficult one. The European country boy or girl is reared with the idea of remaining in the vocation of the family and will readily take to the study of tilling the soil, but the American youth, In couutrj' as well as city, is not attached to any particular calling or idea. Then the school systems of America are so different. In one of Alphonse Daudet’s short stories the hero is a country school teacher in France who has been at the head of the same school for forty years. Of course he lived on the school premises and had his garden, which, the children helped him cultivate. How easy It would be to teach agriculture In such a school. America as yet lacks the stability necessary to success in farming schools; lacks also the necessity of producing food at low cost. The conditions are not so unfavorable as they used to be, when the poor farmer, owing to the demand for his crops, could still make money, and it is time to be studying the problem, though half, the school districts do not own land' enough to carry on any sort of experiment in farming.

The Garden.

Many fail to make the most out of the garden by failing to keep the ground occupied all through the growing season, says N. J. Shepherd in Farmer’s Voice. Many take considerable pains to have a good early garden, but as fast as these mature and are used the weeds are allowed to take possession. With all of the early crops especially it is easily possible to grow two good crops in one season, and with a little planning this may be done wdth a number of later ones. And it is certainly a less drain on the available fertility to grow a crop of some kind of vegetables than to grow a crop of weeds. One is profitable, the other is not. On every farm there should be a supply of vegetables all through the growing season, and plenty to store for winter. Peas are about the only garden vegetable that does not thrive well in summer, and beans will take their place. But with nearly or quite all the others it is possible to have a supply all through the season, commencing with lettuce, onions, asparagus, spin{ich and radishes in the spring and flashing up with sweet corn, tomatoes, celery and cornfield beans in the fall, with cabbage, potatoes, turnips, celery, beets, parsnips, carrots and onions at least to store away and use during the winter. The garden is nearly always the richest part of the yard, and it should be made to yield all it will. And this will not only lessen the cost of living, but add greatly to the enjoyment of it. Better to have a little surplus to spare to those who have to buy than to be obliged to buy or go without yourself. There are few fruits or vegetables that the average farmer can buy as cheaply as he can grow, while with the majority depending on buying is equivalent to going without. Pointer to Tobacco Growers. Commenting on the of the tobacco market' by speculators, a correspondent in an exchange says: “There is a movement on foot by which that gigantic monopoly, the tobacco trust, will control the entire tobacco market of the United States, and in consequence the producer, or in other words, the tobacco raiser, will be at the mercy of the trust, and the prices will be put down to such low figures that it will be Impossible for the raisers to make any profit out of the raising of tobacco. W hat we propose for the farmers is to organize themselves, raise a fund sufficiently large to establish a market of their own, build large manufactories and dry houses’, and put stock out at $25 a share, to be held only by bona-fide tobacco raisers; elect men of their own class, or unquestioned business ability, pay them respectable salaries, and fight the trusts with their own weapons. By this move the organization could prevent,, in a measure, an overproduction of the crop and receive therefor an adequate and uniform price for the weed, and, as the majority of people are antagonistic to trusts, there will be no difficulty in disposing of the product of such an enterprising and self-protecting move. As the cost of manufacture of tobacco is about onetenth that of its raising, we could surely manufacture our own productions at handsome profits. Under this plan we would receive from S2O to S3O per 100 pounds for our tobacco, where now it is $8.50 to sls.’’ , Boil Variation in Fields. . It is a misfortune to a farmer to have different kinds of soil In the same field, though it may be an advantage to have variation in different fields on the same

farm, so as to grow a greater variety of crops. Difference in fertility only may be easily remedied with manure. But spots, sandy knolls and gravel beds all in the same field, uniformity of fertility cannot be expected. Cheese for Home Use. It Is surprising that farmers do not use more cheese. It is a healthy and nutritious article of food, and can be made far more cheaply than nitrogenous nutrition can be supplied in any other form. Another reason why farmers should use mare cheese is that it will prevent the glut in prices of milk which every year causes so many farmers t< sell milk at a loss. Such farmers do, we think, get In the habit of making more or less cheese, and their tables are well supplied. It is the farmers with only one or two cows who use least cheese. We used to make cheese on a farm when we had only two cows, putting night and morning’s milk together in a single cheese.—America Cultivator. The March of the Reaper*. As we list with the ear of the spirit There’s a sound on every hand—’Tis the stately march of the reapers Thro’ this glorious Western land, Where but yesterday was desert, Or sand dunes vast and lone, Or prairies, flower-studded, That the Indian called his own. Where lonely silence brooded And no other sound was heard Save the thunder of the buffalo Or the song of prairie bird. To-day o’er countless acres Waves now the harvest fair, And the marching of the reapers Is sounding thro' the air. Where the gulf waves wash fair Texas, May’s sunshine brings the gold Of the ripening wheat for harvest— Not the sickles, as of old— But with hum of vast steel reapers And the march of myriad feet, As northward moves the harvest Of the ever-ripening wheat. Next Oklahoma's valleys Take up the ceaseless tune, Then Kansas’ rolling prairies Ripen with the skies of June. Then northward, ever northward, Sounds the reapers’ busy hum, Till to far-off Manitoba The harvest home has come.

And this is what it meaneth, This vict'ry of the wheat, It is bread for earth's vast millions That they one and all may eat. And still its march is onward The barren lands -to save, Till from Southern coast to Northern shore Its fields in triumph wave; And greater still its victories, Till in the years to be, In lands now counted desert Its waving fields we’ll see, Till in place of famine’s wailing cry Shall be heard the reaper's tread, And far and near in every land The people shall have bread. —Kansas City Star. The Use of Ashes. Fresh wood ashes are often of little benefit. I think probably the caustic potash Injures the roots of the tendei plants In some cases, as I have tested by experience, in putting overdoses in the hill of corn with the seed or by putting around tender plants, as I have seen quite a number badly Injured. But the ashes socj lose their caustic properties. In the soil vegetable decomposition is constantly throwing off carbonic aeffi, and this, with the dampness of the soil, soon neutralizes the alkali of the potash. Old ashes, which have long been exposed to the air, absorb considerable amounts of ammonia, and to this leached ashes owe much of their value What potash they do contain aftei leaching is in the form of a nitrate and ready for immediate use. In early spring, before vegetation has made much start, they are one of the best manures which can be applied to the soil and all growing crops. On a thin plot of land I applied for two years In succession a double handful of leached ashes to each hill of corn when about six Inches high, with very decided ben efit.—Agricultural Epl tom Ist Potash to Make Grapes Better.. It has always been known that the vine Is a great lover of potash. It is necessary not only In perfecting the ' seeds, but It also heightens the color and improves the flavor of the fruit. No kind of fruit, not even excepting the cherry, requires so much potash as does the grape vine with its numerous seeds In the fruit and potash in leaf, branch and stem. Lack of available potash is in most cases the reason why grape vine and leaves mildew and the fruit rots. It Is true these are fungus dis eases, and the scientists have found that they proceed from spores, so that once the disease is started it can propagate Itself, even after plenty of potash is applied. Dress the vines, therefore, heavily with wood ashes or other form of potash, and then spray the vines with Bordeaux mixture or other fungi clde to kill the spores and keep foliage healthy.- In Europe vintners manure the vineonly with potash, using the asl from the burned prunlngs for this purpose. This Is probably not enough, as the fruit Is always taken off the land, and thus the supply of potash In the soil must constantly decrease. Bowins Grain for Fowls. The henyard ought to be large enough to allow a team with plow to go into it and turn the surface frequently. All that is needed is to expose a new surface of soil, burying the droppings of the fowls, aud also turning up worms, grubs and small Insects. If some oats or other grain is sown on this plowed surface, and slightly covered with soil, the heps wifi, scratch diligently until they j,et nearly all of it, clearing themselves of vermin by the dust which they purposely throw among their feathers. It is a dust bath, and-is as good for fowls as a water bath is for men and women. If some grains escape and come up the hens will eat the tender blade, and then dig down until they find the swollen grain.