Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1888 — FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN.

Allow- nd cobwebs in your stables. , Lima beans like a rich, warm soil. Milk for pigs and calves should be fed warm. 1 Grass’ without manure is an injury to the orchard. Lady-bugs are said to be great destroyers of animal lice. The iris is bne of the prettiest of all herljaceous plants. _— It takes only one Reason to grow horseradish tb perfection. Plant pumpkins with corn and beans with the potatoes. A little grass seed sown on thin places in the lawn will much improve the aj>pearance of a place. Successful bee-keepers will feed with a view to getting strong colonies in readiness for the honey harvest. , Gut the w inter killed wood out of small fruits and straighten and tie up the canes of blackberries and raspberries. Liberal manuring for small fruits makes the difference between a profitable and an unprofitable crop, says one authority. Beans being not so hardy as some other garden vegetables," their planting is a little delayed. For profit, however, many gardeners make small early plantings. A heifer that does not after good feeding respond in a liberal product of milk and butter is presumably not worth keeping as a cow, and should be fattened as soon as possible. " The first time that a heifer gives milk is very important in determining its after value for the dairy. It will pay to stimulate milk production in heifers,and try to keep it up as long as possible. It would be better generally, perhaps, if cows were left farrow’ for a longer time. With good feeding a farrow cowmay be made to give milk two or three years longer without dropping a calf within that time.

Southern cow peas, so valued in the Southern States as a renovator of the soil, while they will not ripen their seed in the Northern States, will make a heavy crop of vines of great value for turning under as a green manure. Excellent results are claimed for the dry method of feeding ■ chickens, j. e., beginning with boiled egg and bread crumbs, changing this diet in a few days to oatmeal, fine cracked corn and fine cracked wheat', afterwards substituting whole grain. Unusually large eggs denote that the hens are in an overfat condition. It is. not the large hen that lays large eggs, for some of the breeds that lay large eggs are of small or medium size, such as the Black Spanish or Minorca. Evep the little Leghorn lays an egg larger in proportion than would be expected by onp not familiar with them. The Black Spanish lay thb largest eggs as a breed, and they are of a beautiful white color. All of the non-sitting breeds lay white eggs.

NEGLECTED INDUSTRIES. Des Moines Register. „ Sheep art? dear because for years owners have been disposing of them by all means in their power, and sheep are becoming comparatively scarce. Mutton sheep, well fed, are now the most profitable farm product. It always pays the farmer to keep some for home use. In along the line of a railro'ad can put early lambs aboard of a refrigerator car as butter tubs are now shipped. One dairyman can not load a car, nor can one farmer send a carload of lambs to market. Gov. Sherman’s idea in putting a farmer on the Bailroad Commission was to bring the farmers and carriers into sympathy with regard, not only the present actualities, but for future possibilities. The farmer in lowa depends altogether on' the great staples. There are many paying things, like early lambs, that lowa can produce cheaper than any other State outside of the great corn and grass belt. It would be well worth the time of our farmer’s institutes to arrange for say 50 or 100 farmers along a line of railroad to prepare this valuable article and secure the co-operation of the railroad company to take it to market, whether to Chicago or farther East, as soon as ready. There is a class of industry which we have neglected in lowa. This is an instance. Vegetables often sell high. lowa could supply the world with potatoes, cabbages and other staple vegetables. But one farmer can not go at it. Fifty could. It looks silly for Americans to send to Nova Scotia or Europe for vegetables. No country can produce those things as cheaply as can. Arrangements are necessary so that when the product is ready the carrying is ready. As our Methodist friends say, “We do not live up to our privileges.” There are many thousands of farmers who would jump at the chance of contributing in these directions if arrangements were made. The money we pay to foreigners for vegetables would be a grateful addition to lowa farmers’ incomes, who find little profit in many farm staples.