Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1888 — FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOME.

•Aar xAißiM# ex au rxxit. Fretn a book recently published in this city, entitled “Home Fishing and Home Waters,” And writtenby that excellent authority on fish culture, the Hon. Seth Green, we take the following paragraphs on the subject of carp culture: He says: To construct a pond, first stake, off your lapd- the desired dimensions; then take a plow and scraper, and with them make the necessary excavation., The pond should be five or six feet deep in the center, gradually sloping up to the edges. The object in having the pond deep in the center is to provide the fish with a place to settle into during the winter; without danger of the water freezing solid and thereby killing them, as would be the case in to'd climates if the water was al) shallow. The reason for having the bottom eloping is, that thereby the fish may have access to plenty of warm, shoal water, and a’so, that incase the old fish are not taken out after spawring, the young will have the protection of the shallow water along the edges, into which the larger fish cannot swin if they should feel inclined to make a meal on some of their younger relatives. The outlet should be about three feet wide, and so constructed that it can be well screened to prevent the fish from escaping, and co as to admit cf the water being drawn off when it is desired to remove the fish or to cleanse the pond. The screens may be made of wire netting, and painted with gas-tar mixed with one-third turpentine, or to the consistency of paint, and applied with an ordinary paint brush. . The wire netting should be tacked to strong wooden frames, made to fit the space to be screened. To screen a carp pond effectually, three screens of different sized meshes should be used. These should be taken out easily and cleaned. The coarser screen should be placed first, or nearest to the pond so as to catch the principal part of the drifting matter, and prevent the clogging of the lower and finer screens. About eighteen inches back of the cereens the outlet boa*ds should be placed, fitted to s'ide iu a groove. Tney should be about six inches wide each, and made to fit closely, as it is by these that the overflow is regulated. It is advisable to have the top boards narrower than the lower ones, so that the water may be raised or lowered to any level desired. If galvanized wire—which is the best, although more expensive—is used for screens, it need not be painted with gas-tar. For a pond containing large carp only, the outlet screen may be made of slats about three inches wide, with half inch openings the slats. Isa leaf strikes against slats of this width it will pass between them without obstructing the flow cf water, as it can not lap around them, as it would do if the slats were smaller. In all; cases the screens should extend nearly to the bottom ofjthe pond, so as to present as great a surface as possible. Carp can be raised in well water, but water from a brook is preferable. They will succeed in the northern States, if the ponds are deep enough not to freeze to the bottom in winter. Carp do not require feeding in winter, as they burrow into the mud or hibernate, until the ice disappears in the spring.

» THK SOTAL PLANT. —Ajagy, food for stock fit considerable favor in the Southwest iS tfaw wotal plant. It is found to ba especially good for feeding sheep. The plant belongs te the'aloe, and it is found growing in very large quantities over the plains of western Tex is. It also grows very extensively in northern Mexico. In appearance this plant resembles that known as bear grass, the leaves being from eighteen inches to two feet in length, and the edges have a hooked thorn. These leaves put out from or crown a bulb, like a pineapple or kohl rabi, which is on or above the ground, and is from a foot to two and one-half feet in diameter. This bulb is the part that the stock eat, and is very nutritious, containing a large percentage of saccharine matter. The Mexicans make an alcoholic liquor from it, known as mescal de sotal, and which is one of the moet fiery of the many fiery beverages of that country. To feed it to sheep, a man starts out ahead of the flock and with an ax splits open these .bulbs, and the sheep follow and gnaw out the center. In three or four months sheep will get hog fat on sotal, which is as good in winter, when there is no grass, as in summer and possibly better. Cattle are fed in tbe same manner. Of course there is a great waste, for when once cut open the plant is silled, in which respect it differs from the cactus plant, which propagates from a leaf dropped on the ground. But for thousands of square miles the sotal literally covers the ground, and will feed hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle, and will last into the incalculable future. Sotal and cactus only a few years ago were considered encumberers of the land, and now they are important factors in successful stock raising and feeding, in southwest Texas. THK YANKKX VABM HAND. An exchange gives the years ago, but now seldom seen. This was the Yankee farm-hand. The writer sayk “Whatan institution he used te beiuthe days when we were young A thoroughbred Yankee; not a drop of imported blood in his veins; strong and'

lithe aad active and tine leas---intelligent, fairly well educated, skilled in hie hush nees, and, as a rule, industrious beyond the belief of this ten-hour generation. From the time he drove his ax into the woodpile in the door-yard on the Ist of April until the close of the season, after baveeting, he expected to work, and he did work, not from sun to sun, but from dawn to darkness, and then did the milking and fed the pigs afterward. His day was fourte n, fifteen, even sixteen hours long, and it never occurred to him that it should be shorter. He was no speeialist. He could do anything. He was tmart with a scythe, handy with a hoe, cute with a cradle, and experienced with an ax. He knsw how much grain and grass seed was required to the acre, when gras was fit to cut, and when it was hayed enough to “goin." and hedid net need to be told when to drop tuin'p seed in the oom field, or how to put corn in the ( hock. He could build wall, make cider, shingle the barn, make a hay-rack, or doctor a rick hog. It was safe to leave him to work alone. And he got for bis service $lO. sl2, possibly sls for eight months and caved threefourths of it. Then when he had worked eight or ten seasons and accumulated a few hundred dollars, he probably married the “hired girl,” who had been at work for a dollar a week and saved half of that, bought a farm, got out of debt little by little, educated his cbi'dren and sent them to the city to preach or practice law or work iu the s‘ora or shop, while he stays on the old homestead and sees it grow up to bushes.”