Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1884 — AGRICULTURAL. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL.

Regular feeding, evdn of ft somewhat scant ration, is better than an irregular supply of food. Animals which are starved at one time and overfed at another cannot be expected to thrive, although they may consume more food than, fed regularly, would serve to keep them in good condition. A farmer, who has tested five different varities of peas, according to the catalogue from which he made his selections last spring, now finds that there is not the slightest difference in any of them. In earliness, manner of growth, height of plant, length of pods, Humber of peas. in a pod—in fact, in every particular the alleged different varieties proved to be one and the same. The farmer thus victimized pertinently asks: “Have seedmen the right to give new and catching names to old varieties and to bewilder and mislead the public by offering the same article under five different names.” A correspondent of the lowa Homesiead criticises those who seek to restore the Morgan horse to favor. He says the farmer of this age has little use for a horse of 900 to 1,000 pounds, and that for light work in cities and on the road better general-purpose horses of 1,100 to 1,300 pounds, with , good speed, action, and spirit can be easily found. For heavy work on farm, road or street the Clydesdale, the Shire, or the Percheron, or their crosses, are far more suitable and more profitable. For such animals there is always a ready market at good prices, which is not the case with the horses of light weight. An Insect Exterminator. —Ms Cramoisy, a member of the Society of Horticulture, in France, declares that he has discovered a composition which is fatal to the much dreaded phylloxera. The diopovery was accidental, having first been successfully used for the destruction of vermin infesting apple trees. The constituents of the composition are as follows: Acid pyroligneux, or wood vinegar, gram.. l,ooo Salicylic add, gram. 2 Bed oxide of mercuiy, gram. 1 And fuschine, centigram 25 This compound was fatal to the male phylloxera, did no injury to the bark of the vine, and could also be used, diluted, to water roots and destroy the insects prying on them. Charles Goodnight, one of the cattle kings of Texas, thinks that “lumpjaw,” or “big jaw” in cattle is caused by decayed teeth. A few years ago he saw in his herd a young steer having a swollen jaw. The animal was promptly roped, his teeth examined, and one which showed decay was knocked out. In a day or two the animal recovered. Since that time his men have orders to watch for signs of “big jaw," and on its appearance to resume their dental operation. He has had no “big jaw” in his herd since adopting this plan, of which those scientific gentlemen who pry into the secrets of Nature and big jaw with microscopes and great curiosity should make note,. While those who write for the especial benefit of the horny-handed sons of toil are advising their readers to plant black walnut and other American trees they patriotically perhaps keep silence regarding the great merits of some foreign sorts, as, for instance, the Eucalyptus, which grows in the large tracts near the head-waters of the Walts River, in Australia, where ihese trees average 250 feet in bight, mostly straight as an arrow and with very few branches. Many fallen trees measure 350 feet in length. One measured 435 feet from its roots to the place where the trunk had been broken by its fall, and there its diameter was three feet. Five feet from the ground the trunk was eighteen feet in diameter. A few hundred of such trees in the door-yard of a prairie farmer would make a quite noticeable feature. A farmer who had a few thousand of these good-sized trees might start a small saw-mill of his own. By all means plant E. oblique or E. amygdalina and see them grow to a bight of 250 to 500 feet.- Chicago Tribune. —— —,-

A very suggestive article appeared in the Scientific American, relating to storing wind-power for small motors. It advises the use of windwills to compress air in suitable reservoirs, from which the power thus stored is to be drawn for use in propelling buggies, wagons, or boats, and for many other purposes where steam or horse-power is now used. Twd hundred atmospheres compression will give 3,000 pounds pressure. This is perfectly practicable and safe. At a pressure of 1,500 pounds one and one-half cubic feet will give one-horse power one hour, and one-horse power may be estimated as equal to that of six men. The writer i says: “Adrive of five hours is a long one, and, in fact, five hours’ use in the twenty-four is more than the average. The power which is employed though we use a horse for it, is commonly not more than half a ‘horse power.’ A reservoir containing eight cubic feet will run a light vehicle year in and year out. Such a box is a very small matter to suspend below the wagon, and need not weigh more than a 190 pounds, counting thus for resistance as one additional passenger. No complicated machinery is thus required; the sir-cheat is connected directly with a crank on the hind axle for the driving wheels, and the forward wheels are used in directing the coarse.” This is only one of the many uses fpr which compressed air may be used on the farm amd in every-day w ofk. Packixc- and Shipping Poultry.— Most Western poultry dealers ship their poultry to Eastern markets in barrels on account of this being the most convenient way for handling. Eastern marketmen, however, prefer choice fowls, whether chickens or turkeys, in boxes, as they admit of keeping the fowls in better shape. Nice new and clean packages more than repay the excess of their cost over that of dirty second-hand boxes or barrels, by their attractive appearance and the more ready sale, under any and all conditions of the market, at good prices. In a crowded market and among many offerings, first impressions often do much to secure a customer, when otherwise the poultry might go begging. On this subject the American Cultivator, after ■taring substantially what has been

r ■ \ 1 ' ■ .V- n. given above, says: “One of the greats eat mistakes committed by the average shipper of poultry is the use of packing material, as straw, hay, or paper. No such material is needed if the fowls are properly bled, cleaned, and cooled off Paper gathers dampness and injures the biids so packed. As an illustration; we h&ve seen turkeys packed in a freezer and as a matter of experiment covered with paper. In twefity-four hours the birds so packed had commenced to mold. If turkeys be killed at night daring seasonable fall and winter weather, they will be sufficiently cooled for packing by the following morning.