Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1882 — FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN.

Keeping bees in the old-fasfcionned box hive is entirely out of date. The trouble with it is that the internal economy of the colony can not be regulated, but the bees must be left to do pretty much as they please. It is a fact often preached but seldom practiced, that bees need management and care.the same as hordes, cattle or poultry, or any other kind of farm stock. a Eight steers were lately butchered in Philadelphia whose aggregate weight was 6,575 pounds. Tne Germantown Telegraph says they were 4 years old, and a cross between the Durham and Alderney. It is lamentable that so few farms have a supply of small fruits. Many farmers never have a berry of their own raising, while that most hardy and generally liked fruit, the common red cherry, is not at all plenty. A north room in a house, properly ventilated, is a better place to keep milk in summer than half the so-call-ed milk cellars in the country. To obtain the most cream and best results, milk should stand thirty-six hours before skimming. The larvae of a small spotted insect called the lady bird feeds upon the aphis and other insects, devouring vast numbers of them. The lady bird is the gardener’s friend, and they shculd never be killed if it can be avoided. These little beetles are usually red or orange yellow, with small black spots; some kinds have only three spots; others have as many as nine. They are very common, and many has been the crime that has been laid to them of which they were entire y innocent. Most poultry keepers know that fowls possess an individuality, and that they could tell their feathered pets among strangers as readily as they could tell their own horses among a drove of strangers. Not every one, however, would be rs will ling to swear to the identity of achickeu as a horse; and vet in a case in Connecticut,a woman testified that “she knew her turkeys by their walk, their countenance and their manner of roosting.” A correspondent says his fowls have white scales on their legs, and askes what will cure it. The disease is known as scaly leg or elyhrntis, and is occasioned by damp fowl houses or exposure. It is caused by a minute parasite which burrows under the scales of the fowl’s leg. The best way of removing them is to grease the legs with a mixture of sulpnur and lard several times. Some use kerosene, but this is liable to make their legs sore. Nothing will better promote a good yield of wheat, oats or barley, for instance, next to an appropriate fertilizer, than the use of a roller in pulverizing the lumpy soil and setting the mould about the plant roots. After our rainy spring eur fields of springing grain will naturally become cloddy as dry weather approaches, and evenness of growth and ripening may both be promoted by using the roller. In new lands, where stumps are troublesome, short rollers, with strong, heavy frames, are preferable?. Experiments prove, says the Germantown Telegraph, that in order to insure the best growth of grass seed it should be covered to the depth of an inch, only about one-half of the seed will germinate, and if covered with tw > inches there will be no erowth. The kinds thus experimented with were red and white clover, timothy and orchard grass. Eggs are an article of cheap and nutritious food which we do not find on the farmer’s table in the quantity which economy demands. It is probably because they do not understand how valuable eggs are for food. One pound of fresh egg is worth as much for food as nearly two pounds of beef. They are easily digested, if not damaged in cooking, and may be eaten with impunity by children or invalids.

The following is a cheap rod very good paint for fences and outbuildings: Put a peck of lime in a barrel and add water enough to make a good whitewash, s irring well till all is dissolved. Then add 24 lbs. mineral paint, 25 lbs, whiting, and 25 lbs sifted road dust; stir well and add linseed oil to make a thick paste of it; then ihin with fresh buttermilk, adding slowly and stirring well. When thoroughly mixed, add half gallon soft soap. This amonnt will paint a large surface and will not cost over $2 or $3. For smaller surface, use proportionally smaller amounts of ingredients. Some of the cheap mixed paints do very well for inside work. Poor care, shelter and food will in a few generations make scrubs of the finest pure-bred stock, and chickens are no exception to the rule. Purebred scrubs are little better than natives, and the farmer who raises either will always be poor. Breeding the best stock, and keeping it in the best manner posiible, pays the largest. The editor of the American Bee Journal thinks that a shallow frame is much the best for comb honey, be- < ause of giving the bees less labor to climb up to the sections, and giving larger section surface above the frames. As much honey ca i be obtained in one and two-pound sections as in a larger box, out, of course the smaller the section, the more atten tson will be required in taking away or tiei g up promptly during a plentiful honey flow.