Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1887 — HUSBANDRY AND HOUSEWIFERY. [ARTICLE]

HUSBANDRY AND HOUSEWIFERY.

Matters of Interest Relating to Farm and Household Management. Information for the Plowman, Stockman, Poulterer, Nurseryman, and Housewife. t Tho Growth of Corn Moot*. * There is good reason in the different habits of growth of corn and potatoes for plowing corn ground much more shallow than that intended for potatoes. Roots of com naturally run only a few inches below the snrface, seeking warmth nnd only anch moisture as is brought by frequent light rains. This indicates that manure for corn should be put on or near the surface, and that cultivation, especially late in the season, should be shallow. Com roots extend horizontally ns far as the height of their stalk, nnd usually run over into adjoining rows before cultivation ceases. I.oad Fence*. Wherevor roadway fences are required by law they should be good ones. In fact, whether the law does or does not require that owners of stock should fence against animals on the highway, good fences should be kept up against stray cattle. Losses that will never be repaid will more than offset interest and repairs especially on a much-traveled road. In byways where there is little travel, fences along the roadside may often be entirely dispensed with, or a line of fruit trees be set just at the edge of the road, nud wires, either barbed or plain, fastened to the trees as a protection against passing stock. I.net of Hay In Stacks. In a bulletin recently issued by the Missouri Agricultural College, Prof. Sanborn says: Against my conviction that stacking hay is not an economical method of preserving it, I am forced to stack it in the Open air, according to the prevailing practice. Hay continues, in the dry as w:ell as in the green state, matter that is soluble in water. For this reason all exposed hay on the exterior of stacks is subject to having washed from it such soluble matter. In round stacks the amount of bay thus exposed is much larger than is usually supposed. A body one foot in diameter contains only one-fourth the matter that a body two feet in diameter does. Thus six inches from the circumference toward the eenter will contain four times as much matter as the central pnrt of a round body two feet in diameter will contain. A stack of hay twelve feet in diameter and six feet to the point of its drawing in and five feet more to the top of its cone, will contain on its outside foot, at 450 feet to the ton, 287.57 pounds of hay, while the interior will contain 580.49 pounds. Thus 33 per cent, of the hay of the ordinary round stacks of the State is found on the outside foot of those stacks. A heavy proportion of this food is obviously subject to loss by leaching rains, by molding and actual rotting in badlyconstructed stacks. It was said by one who handled hay during last year that onejialf of the hay of his county, was so damaged as to be virtually worthless. August 9, 1884, I put up a well-made stack of second-crop clover. It was in good style to shed rain and capped with other material. It was built over rails laid down as a foundation, and alt done up in about the usual style, save that it w r as perhaps a little below the ordinary size. Notwithstanding this fact, it was not injured internally by water; as vve often see ia poorlyfmade stacks. It weighed August 9, on stacking, 6,514 pounds. It was tested for water content by the water bath, and found to contain 32.5 per cent, of water. March 3 it was again all weighed with much care to prevent loss of hay in handling-. Its weight was 4,548 At this time it contained 16.14 per cent, of water. The change in water eon tent is quite noticeable, and places us, as was anticipated, under the necessity of ascertaining the dry matter of the hay, both in the fall and in the spring: 6,515 pounds less 32.5 percent, water is 4,397 pounds (fall weight of dry matter); 4,548 pounds less 16.14 percent, water is 3,814 pounds (spring weight of dry matter). Loss of organic matter until March 23, 583 pounds. Per cent, loss for seven and one-half months, 13.2.