Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1882 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

How to Hoed Bran. The Live Stock . Journal says that bran or ground feed is best fed to cows upon moistened hay; it being mired with the hay, all -will be eaten together and raised and masticated. Bat if it is not fed with cut hay it shonld be fed dry and in a small quantity each time, for if fed alone it is not raised and m isticated, bnt goes on to the third and fourth stomachs.* If fed in slop it is swallowed without any mastication and mixed with little or no saliva, but if fed drv it cannot be swallowed until it is mixed with saliva, and the saliva assists in digestion.* When food is masticated the act of rumination causes the saliva to flow and mix frith the food. We have experimented and find that when • fed alone dry ground feed is better digested than when fed wet. Seed Potatoes. The Rural New Yorker gives the following yields per acre as the result of experiments with different seed potatoes : Whole potatoes, large, yield: table potatoes, 149.2 bushels; small potatoes, 105.8,bushels; total, 255 bushels. , Whole potatoes, small, yield: table potatoes, 127.8 bushels; small potatoes, 65.15 bushels; total, 193.3 bushels. One eye to a hill, yield: table potatoes 60.1 bushels; small potatoes, 24.9 bushels; total, 85 bushels. Two eyes to a hill, yield: table potatoes, 83.9 bushels; small potatoes, 39.9 bushels. Three eyes to a hill, yield: table potatoes, 105.7 bushels; small potatoes, 48.4 bushels; total, 154.1 bushels. Seed end yields: table potatoes, 114 bilshels;, small potatoes, 68.7 bushels; total, 182.4 bushels. Stem end yields: ta ■le potatoes, 90.7 bushels; small potatoes, 61.8 bushels; total, 152.5 bushels. i Pumps. The patience of nearly every one has been so severely tried by pumps that the sight of the word nearly brings on paroxysms. It matters not whether iron or wooden, there is a radical defect in nearly all of them. The least defect in bucket or valves causes the water to run down, and. the pump has to be charged before it will operate. * It is often t)ie case that a pump in a stockwater well, at probably the extreme corner of the farm, needs, every time it is visited to water stock, to have a pail of water carried a half or three-quarters of a mile to charge it. If one happens to be at work on that part of the farm he has to go to the barn /or house before the pump will work. The same trouble has existed with pumps about the house and bam for sixty-five years, to our recollection. Pumps are nearly always out of order. They are poorly and cheaply made, and sold at stiff prices. The ouly way to have pumps, and prevent good men from violating some of the commandments, is to have the cylinder and lower valve down in the water of the well or cistern. Then your pump is always primed, even if there is a leak. In < this way the water is lifted, not depend- ’ ing upon the pressure of the air to raise it. And with the knowledge and experience the* w f orld now has with cheap and worthless pumps it is time for sensible men to refuse to buy any other kind, wood or metal. With the cylinder in the water, pumps will last four times as long, and so long as there is a good fragment of them left they are ready to raise water. Buy only such pumps as have at all times the cylinder at the bottom of the well in the water.— Des Moines Register. Tile Drainage. There is no rule which will apply to all kinds of soil to determine the distance drains should be apart. The nature of the soil and man’s good sense must determine this matter. A loose, porous soil, the deptli the tile is sunk, and the fall, enter largely into the question. Into a drain in loose soil, or if it be a little sandy, the water collects from a long distance. In a tough, compact clay soil, impervious to water, drains are required to be much nearer. Generally in our lowa prairie soil, with good fall, ten rods apart will do pretty well. But if it is stiff clay, or on black, sticky soil, the drains will have to be from four to six rods apart. An eight-inch tile is considered large enough to carry off the water from fifty acres. It will discharge about as much water as an open ditch four feet wide and two feet deep. In an open ditch the water is frequently impeded bv grass and weeds. But a tile, if laid deep enough and each end well protected, is clear and the water is discharged with great rapidity. We recollect some years since visiting a farmer who said his tile drain was obstructed. He ascertained as nearly as he could the location and he set his hands to work to dig down and ascertain the trouble. He found that the bottom of the ditch was uneven in the hardness of the soil, that the end of one section of tile had dropped down past the eild of the other. This gave the muskrats access into the tile, and several of them had crowded in and died there, and thus obstructed it. This impresses the importance of having the tile laid on a solid foundation, and of the ends being crowded close together. When thus placed one end cannot fall without the other end drops at the same time. Trees should not stand near the ditch, as the roots, instinct with vegetable life, will seek water drains, and if the roots grot large will obstruct or displace the tile. What is oalled horte-shoe tile is worthless, as the crawfish will soon fill it up. The longer the sections of tile the better. The old length was twelve and one-half inches. The fifteen-inch

tile is far better. If it could be suocessfylly made and buried twenty inches long it wonld be better still, as then it could bte laid with a tolerable oertainty of being permanent It will not pay to employ an engineer to grade the drain. A man of practical Reuse ought to be able to do it better himself. Water is a good leveler, and witu the simplest implements the drain can be laid on a gentle incline according to the fall of the ground. It should not have any place where it will have stagnant water, as in such case the sediment will settle, and in times of drought may bake and become immovable by water, and thus gradually fill up. Have at least a little fall for every foot of the drain. It is well for the farmer to do this himself, and thus probably make him begin to think and study, and thus awaken an intellect that would afterward bless the world. — lowa State Register.