Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1887 — HOME, FARM, AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM, AND GARDEN.

Talks with the Fanrmer, Orchardist, Stock-Breeder, Poulterer, and Housekeeper. Hints on Home Decorations, Kitchen Economy, and the Preserratlon of Health. THE FARMER The Horse After Driving. Some farmers, after driving their teams in the slush and mud in winter, think if they dash a few pails of water over the horses’ limbs upon returning, before putting the team in the stable, they have left the poor brutes in the best possible condition until morning. The fact is, it would be far better to turn the animals in the stable and leave them, mud and until it was fully dry. There would be far less danger of scratches, mud-fevers, and grease than by the plan of washing. If the legs are washed they should be then rubbed until quite dry—no easy task. If left only partially dry, the most serious consequences are likely to ensue. When a team is left with the hair imperfectly dried a chill is almost sure to come. It is not unlikely the animals; especially if exhausted, will be found next morning stiff and with the limbs swollen, since the exhaustion of the system prevents healthy reaction at the extremities. The best plan is to wash the limbs with warm water and then loosely bandage them with straps of flannel These may be ten feet in length by three inches wide and rolled tightly. Commence at the fetlocks and bandage looselv, lapping one edge over the ether, and making a half-turn fold of the bandage when joints are passed to prevent the slipping of the bandage. In the morning the limbs will generally be found all right for cleaning. If this plan is not adopted it is altogether better to let the team stand muddy as to the limbs until morning, when the dry mud may be easily cleaned away, and with very little danger of injury to the team if the stable is warm, not subject to draughts, and a liberal amount of bedding is given.— Chicago Tribune. Preserving Posts. A medium has been sought for many years, by which posts to be set in the ground might be preserved from decay at a light cost. The difficulty has,been and will continue to be that the post decays quickly at the point just where it enters the ground. The reason why wood, aud, indeed, any perishable substance decays much more quickly at this point than at any other, is that it is here submitted to alternate saturation by water and drying. In a merely moist state, the oxygen of the air, “the great builder up and the great destroyer, ” then acts most actively. The process of decay is really combustion, more or "less active, and is brought about by the action of oxygen in connection with moisture, producing heat, imperceptible to our outward senso though it may be. This is fairly well exemplified and in a comparatively swift manner in putting up a hot-bed, and is well known to every practical gardener. The litter and the manure in a moist state acquire heat whon laid up to a sufficient depth so they will not dry out, aud tho heat—combustion—is fast or slow just in proportion to the admission of air through the mass. If rather loose it heats quickly and soon burns out, or fire-fangs, as it is called. If more compact it burns slowly, and the residue is a black mold corresponding to charcoal in a finely divided state. Wood or any other substance containing carbon—iron and lime, for instance —is quickly acted on by oxygen m the presence of some heat an d some moisture. The .Iron is changed to an oxide and the lime to a hydrate. Wood or any other vegetable substance under the action of air and moisture is changed .to humus, a black impalpable constituentof soil l *. It does little or no good to char posts. It simply prevents the outside from decaying, but does not in any manner prevent decay inside the charred portion. Tar of any paint does not prevent decay, the post be ng in the ground, for the moisture is constantly saturating the substanco from below. But if we saturate the whole substance of the wood with some non-drying oil, the post will be preserved until the oil is carried away by natural means, requiring many years. The best oil to use is crude petroleum, because it is cheap and easily applied. The proper means is a tank deep enough to hold the posts in an upright position until saturated one foot higher than they are to be set in the ground. If not, successive coats may be applied with a brush, at intervals of three days, until the wood will take up no more. Three good coats will generally suffice, and such posts will last fully three times as long as they will when set m their natural state. But they must be thoroughly dry before painting. THE STOCK-BREEDER Preventing Swine Plague. Dr. Detmers, of the Ohio University, a gentleman well known for his investigations with the microscope, and especially in swino fever, in a late address upon this subject, held, and correctly, that once hogs are attacked but little can be done to save them. Only at the beginning, or before extensive morbid changes are produced, is it feasible to treat them. If the infection has taken place through the digestive canal it may bs worth while to try an emetic of powdered white hellebore. From twp to fifteen grains, according to the age and size of the hog, would be about the dose. It may be given on a bolted potato, or on the surface of a little milk. If neither the one nor the other is voluntarily taken, the hog is far gone and may be given up as a had case. If one dose should not cause tho animal to vomit, in say twenty minutes, another one may be given in about half an hour. This treatment may be followed by a few doses of calomel, also to be given with a boiled potato. Of other medicines tried, he says: “I have had the best success with carbolic acid, and have obtaiued good results—that is, a prevention of a pla n outbreak of the disease—by giving once a day from eight to ten drops of a 95 per cent solution of carbolic acid ior every 109 pounds of live weight in tho water for drinking. lod ne is a watery solution -ten grains of iodine and twelve grains of iodide of potassium to one ounce of water—and that given in small doses, has also proved to be very effective, but the damage done to the pig by this iodine treatment becomes very soon apparent HypophoSphate ot BOda has also been tried, and has given favorable results, it may be - given in doses suffi iently large to loosen the bowels, and be dissolved in the water for drinking. “The most obvious physiological effect of carbolic acid upon a hog is a reduction of the temperature. \Vhetber it is this or some other property that retards or interferes with the propagation of the swine-plague germs I am uot prepared to decide, and to discuss theories would lead too far and be of little use. It may therefore suffice to state that the results of such a treatment have, on the whole, been favorable. If, however, ttie organism is already pervaded by the disease germs, or if important morbid existing, nothing whatever can be expected of the carbolic acid treatment, because the propagation has already taken place, and the acid, most assuredly, cannot repair the existing morbid changes. Neither can any other medicina For disinfecting purposes we have, however,. cheaper substances than carbolic acid; for instance, chloride of lime, and a one per mille solution of Corrosive sublimate. ” Dr. Salmon, Chief of the Animal Bureau of the United States, says that for disinfecting corrosive sublimate, one to 75,000 parts, will kill the bacteria of swine-plague, and if a hog should drink two gallons of this solution it will do no harm. The solution not used for drinking should be freely sprinkled over the lot. yard, or pens in which the swine are kept Sulphuric acid, one to 3,000 parts, is also recommended. ' :; ■; , lAve-Stock Notes. % The annual wool clip of Washington Territory is over 8,000,000 pounds. Six- thousand Percheron horses have been imported into this country, first and last Of these more than 1,000 were brought over last year. A teact of land ,on tho shore of Cayuga Lake, near Canoga, N. Y., has been leased to Rochester parties for tho raising of frogs for the New York market Young stocjt, once allowed to run, never tally recover from the effsots thereof. Of in-

ferior feed and lice the first generally brings the second. Poor feeding is scandalous; vermin added is brutal Houses kept in stables will be all tho better for a ran ip the barnyard an hour every day, whore they 1 will not only exercise, but roll in the straw and clean themselves. Stab Jo-kept horses need some extra grooming, but their improved condition under this management will repay it. Do npT allow stock, especially work horses and miicb cows, to drink ice-cold water. To take the eh ill from water costs so little that it is hatdty teA>e considered *n the expense accouut Some of the more adv&nc d stockkcaoers now will uot allow any of their stock to drink ice-cold water. The Farmer's Advocate, Ontario, says: “The rapid increase of wheat imports into Great Britain from Australasia and India must ultimately, if not m the near future, shut Canada, excepting Manitoba and onr Northwest, from the British wheat markets. Indeed, it is questionable if wti can export any more whoat at a profit, except in case of a disastrous war in Europe or a failure of the wheat crop in a majority of these countries. ’ THE ©RCHARDIST. Grapes for' the Table. Except in California, only a small quantity of our grape product is devoted to wine-mak-ing. The demand for eating constantly increases, and a large proportion of evon large vineyards is sold in tho buncte Vineyardists have injured the saloof their fruit byexceisive eagoruess to bo first in the market with it • The poorly colored, sour and unripe specimens thus sent out spoil the demand for it, and probably moro profit would be mado if none were sold until fully ripe. Thinning Peaches. Tho great majority of poor peaches are inferior chiefly because the trees overboar. The poach pit is always a large proportion of the fruit, and it is the part that is most exhaustive to tho tree. Nature never neglects tho seed. It is the means of reproduction, made more important as the vitality of the free, becomes impaired. A poach tree attacked by the borer or in a dry, sterile soil, will always sot more fruit than one well cared for and manured, but it will bo worthless for eating. Cultivating Raspberries. When I came to Ohio, in 1848, there was growing on the farm I now occupy a row of raspberries which had, from their appearance, been there for many years. We kept them cultivated and pruned for thirty-three years, and they never failed to produeo a good crop and vigorous caues, and, whon finally removed, in 1881, on account of changes in the grounds, they were as vigorous as ever. I mention this because I know that the idea is common that this fruit will run out in a few years and become unproductive, and it will, if neglected; but if pruned, cultivated, and fertilized, as they should be, you may trellis them with the most lasting material you can get, with the fullest confidence that they will remain productive as long as it will last Most of those who plant raspberries make a mistake and get the rows too close. Eight feet looks tremendously wide when setting small plants, but it is not a bit too wide after the plants are full grown. Tho first year or two you can grow potatoes, beans," tomatoes, or any low-growing crop, between the rows, but when the plants attain their full growth it is best to let them have the full benefit of the laud. If trellised, the rows may be reduced W six feet, but I doubt if it is profitable on the farm where land is plenty. If you do not trellis, the canes should be pinched back when two feet high; they will then throw out side branches, which, tho next spring, are sheared back to six inches, and these balance the plant. If I were planting by the acre for market, I should not think of trellising, hut in the garden, for a family supply, I would. All the trellis needs is a single row of posts three feet high, with a strong galvanized wire stretched near the top, to which the canes are to be tied, or the posts may be of uniform thickness, not less than three inches at the top, and a wire stretched at each side, and the canes trained between the wires. ’ Short wires should run across from one of the mam wires* to the other once in two or three feet, to keep the plant-i from falling lengthwise of the row whon loaded with fruit. With this trellis no tying of canes will bo needed, but you must train the canos between the wires. Care must be taken —especially with the red varieties, which propagate by suckers—not to allow too many canes to grow. They are aB easily destroyed as weeds when young, and to grow strong healthy canes, but three or four should be left to each yard of row, while with some varieties fifty or more will start, and if all are left to grow, they will be weak and spindled. The time to remove the surplus canes is not the next spring, but as soon as they are two or three inches nigh. Most of the cultivation can bo done with a horse, but the weeds and surplus canes must be cut out of the rows with hoes, and this can be done best soon after a rain, while tho land is soft, as the rows will be dry enough to work mellow before the other land can be worked. After the plants are established and the trellis made, no more work will be noeded to keep them in good condition than for a row of potatoes. j | » —;; THE DAIRYMAN. Forcing the Peed of Dairy Cows. The Gazette has often referred to the patient care with which all agricultural questions aro studied and examined by many English farmers, and we cannot but regard the universal effort displayed on all sides to discover better and more economical methods of tillage and management as one of the most hopeful indicatipns that a cure for agricultural depression is not far off. It has been a long time since we have read with more interest the results of an agricultural experiment than we have taken in the account of Lord Verri mi's experiments in feeding dairy cows, submitted at tho recent conference of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association. The points which it was desired to determine were: (1.) What is the smallest quantity of food upon which stallfed dairy cattlo can bo successfully and economically kept? (2.) To extent does a further supply of food repay its co 4 in the enhanced value of tho milk? (3.) What relation should the constituents of the food have to each other to produce milk, butter, or cheese? Thirty cowh, the best milkers in the herd, were selected early in January, and during the remainder of the month were given the same feed and treatment, and at the close of the month were yielding an average of 27 pounds of milk daily on a ration weighing, with its soft food, 82 pounds gross, containing 88 pounds of dry matter, and costing 10d. per week. February 1 the cows were divided' info; three lots, and the rations changed to 66 pounds gross, or 2957 pounds dry matter, costing Ss. ll}£d., which was continued for six weeks, at the end of which time the record showed the following average, to which the analysis of fats and solids is added: Milk, Solids, Fats . _—• lbs. per cent, per ct. Lot A 2ti.O 12.38 3.39 Lot B 27.9 12.25 3.29 Lot C.....Y 27.7 12.51 3.50 While lot A yielded a little less milk than the others, there is nothing to indicate any other reason for it than that more of the poorest milkers were in that lot, and the total average of the three lots appears to be not far from what it was at the commencement of the experiment, when they were receiving a much heavier and more costly ration At the end of six weeks tho ration was again changed, the value of that given to lot A remaining as before at Ba. II per week per cow, that given to lot A reduced to the value of 6a B>£(L, and that received by lot C increased to Ila 3d, All the cows showed a less average daring this six weeks’ test than in the preceding six weeks, lot 1 A falling to 24.6 pounds, lot Bto 26.2, and lot C to 26.8. It anil be seen that they fail off in about the same proportion, from which it appears that the quantity of food given to lot A was sufficient so far as the yield of miik was concerned. And the conclusion of the committee, after weighing the animals aud the milk, and analyzing its composition, is that all the extra food given to lots B and G. over and above that given to lot A bad been wasted, or, at most, thatit made the manure a little more valuable “We may safely say,” add the committee, “that for oows yielding on an average 171.9 pounds of milk per week, and weighing on an average 10 cwt each,' that of a diet having an albuminoid ratio of one to five, 22 IS pounds of dry 'matter has proved itself in every respect sufficient* In conclusion the

committee observe that ‘the immanw importance of the fact cannot be too strongly impressed upon dairy farmers that an excess of food over and above what the animal can assimilate is wasted, and it seams equally evident that the power of the animal to assimilate food is q»t profitably increased by the excessive diet” — Breeders' Gazette. THE HOUSEKEEPER Warm Feet. Invalids and old poople, or any one who is , troubled with cold feet at night, should bo provided with some sort of a foot-wrap by which their feet may be kept warm. I have used, says a hdy in Farm and Fireside, a small blanket, warmed and wrapped around the feet at night, and sometimes tuts answers the purpose, but it is apt to get off in the night, and the feet will ttmn get cold An old lady of my acquaintance has just received a present of a pair of foot-muffs, knit by her tittle granddaughter, which she savs are a groat comfort to her. Any little girl could knit them, and they would also be nice for mamma, who so frequently is obliged to step out of bed in the night to give Johnnie a drink or see if the baby is covered well. They are knit out of Gorman yarn, plain garter-stitch, on wooden needles. Forty stitches'are cast on one needle, and then Inst knit back and forth across the needles until the strip is about ten inches long. Bind it off and fold it together into a bag, whole at the bottom and with a seam at each side. These seams should be sewed loosely with the yarn. With a crotohetmake loops around the top by putting a double crochet in every third stitch and a chain betweon. Crochet scallops around the top, and in the loops run a rubber band or a ribbon to tio in front Household Hints. There is nothing better than javille water for taking stains out of linen, and every family Blionld have a large bottle of it on hand. Put ofie pound of sal soda and five cents’ worth of chloride of lime in an earthen vessel and pour on two quarts of soft boiling water. Stir until the soda is dissolved. Strain and let the fluid settle. Wet the stain of fruit, coffee, tea, or mildew w»th the liquid mixea with half its quantitv of boiling water, and let it lie in the light for fifteen minutes. Itinse thoroughly several times iu cold water. It often happens eggs are frozen and burst before being gathered. If kept frozen till used they can be taken into a warm room and scalding water poured over them, then left to cool, when the egg will be found uninjured • for use. They will then beat as nicely as if they had never b?en chilled. They should be used at once after being thawed. Iron the entire shirt first, then pass a cloth wrung from cold water over the bosom, lay under it a bosom-board, draw the linen perfectly straight, and take care to leave no wrinkles ; if you iron them in you have to moisten the spot, and it rarely looks well after. Be careful to raise any plaits there may be with your iron, so that it does not remain plastered to the under surface: and, above all things, iron until it is dry. The ironing each article until it is dry is very important, as it gives that smooth, crisp feeling to linen which shows the difference between good and bad ironing. If any article is put to air while damp it wnl dry rough. To cure chapped hands take common starch and rub it into a fine, smooth powder, put in a clean tin box, and every time the hands are removed from dish-water, or hot suds, rinse them carefully in clean water, and while they are damp rub a pinch of Btarch over them, covering the whole surface. Always put a little soda in milk that is to be boiled, as an acid is formed by boiling. To whiten silver: Cream of tartar, one ounce; common salt, two. ounces; water, fifty ounces; total, fifty-three ounces. For conven ence iu cleaning lamp-chimneys nothing is nieer than a small sponge attached to a stick. To Prevent Lamp Accidents. Both in constructing a lamp and in the care of it the following rules are worib knowing, for choosing, in the first place, and for keeping it in good order: 1. That portion of the wick which is in the oil reservoir should be inclosed in a tube of thin sheet moral, open at the bottom, or in a cylinder of li.io w.re gauze, sneh as is used in miner’s safety lamps (twenty-eight lfloahea to an inch). 2. ’1 lie oil reservoir should bo of metal rather than of china or glasa -The oil reservoir should have no feeding place nor opening other than the openin'; into which the upper part of lamp is screwed. 4. Every lamp should have a proper extinguishing apparatus. 5. Every lamp should have a broad and heavy base. (5. Wicks should be soft, and not tightly plaited. Wicks should be dipped in vinegar and dried at the lire before Being put into lamps. Wicks should be only just long enough to reach the bottom of the oil reservoir. Wicks should be so wide that they quite fill the wick-liolder without having to be squeezed into it Wicks should be soaked with oil before being lit The reservoir should be quite filled with oil every time before using the lamp. 7. The lamp should be kept thoroughly clean, all oil should bo carefully wiped off, and all charred wick and dirt rubbed off with a twisted lamp-lighter or other stiff piece of paper before lighting. &.. When the lamp is lit the wiek should be first turned down and then slowly raised 9. Lamps which have no extinguishing apparatus should be turned out as so lows: The wick should be turned down until there is only a small flickering flame, and a sharp puff of breath should be Bent across the top or the chimney, but not down it THE COOK, Choice Recipes. CORN BEEP AND PORE. Slice cold corned beef very thin and cut in two-inch squares; cover each with a thin bit of salt pork, dredge with flour, skewer in a firm roll, and fry; add a pint of soup stock and simmor, seasoning with lemon and cayenne. BAKED APPLE-BUTTER. Cook apples thoroughly, strain through a eolauder, sweeten to taste, place in an earthen crock or jar, and put in the oven and bake several hours, stirring occasionally; add spices when done. VANILLA JUMBLE& One cup of butter and two of sugar creamed together, one cup of milk, an even teaspoonful of soda and two of’cream of tartar, four eggs; beat all well togother; two teaspoonfuls of vanilla and six cups of flour; mu well, roll' out, not too thin, sprinkle * sugar on, and roll a little. Cut any shape you please; bake in a moderate oven. SUET PUDDING. One pound of suet chopped fine, one and one-half pounds of flour, and four eggs, beaten separately. Mix togother with a little milk, aud a little sugar, salt and spice to taste; boil in a buttered mold or pudding cloth for four hours. The cold pudding is good next day, cut in slices and boiled. It may be eaten with any saucoTrial's omelette. Boil and sift a dozen very sour apples; while still hot add a quarterof a pouud of sugar and the same amount of butter; when co.d stir in four well-beaten eggs; pour this into a buttered pudding-dish, and cover th'ckly with bread, or cracker crumbs, and bake ” Eaten hot or cold, with sweet cream or a simple sauce of but er and sugar ore&med together.