Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1888 — THE FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM AND HOME.

Aa interesting use was made of a steel rail by a Canadian fanner. He says: After harvesting my corn this fall (it had been cultivated on the ridge system) I decided that I would try to level the ridges and root out the corn stubble before plowing. The corn had grown so strong that the stalks had to be cut with a brush scythe, and the stubble was thick as stakes. A three-horse team on each end of the steel rail leveled the ridges nicely and uprooted and scattered the com stubble-so thoroughly that the soil (a stiff black clay loam) ploughed as easily as a summer fallow. I tried the rail as a leveler on a rough field plowed out of grass. I found it too "heavy a job - for four horses, and worked it with two three-horse teams, drawing the rail lengthwise with the furrows. I hardly expected it to work well, but I was surprised at the result. After going over the ground twice with the furrow, the rail left the field as level as, a billiard table, and had packed the sod so firmly that it is now (three weeks after) well rotted and will cross plow as easy as stubble. The usual cause for a horse sticking out liis tongue when being driven is the unpleasant feeling of the bit bearing on the tongue. When the bit is not in the mouth the tongue is carried naturally, but when the animal is bitted the pressure on the organ and the unpleasant sensation it must cause to these animals induces them to 101 l the tongue or protrude it to one side or the other inorder to escape the torment. By contriving some means to carry the bit well up against the roof of the mouth, so that it will not press on the tongue or in any way interfere with its free movement, will remove the cause of the habit. In the treatment of a home lamed by curb the first essential is reßt. Have the shoes removed, and do not work or exercise him until' aTI soreness have altogether disappeared. To remove the enlargement and cause the part to present a natural appearance is difficut in some of these cases. One of the best plans of treatment is firing, and this should be done in lines over the enlargement, and, if done carefully, will not cause any unsightly mark. But first and last, prolonged rest must be considered the one essential element of treatment. For wood exposed to the weather, petroleum is an excellent and very cheap preservative. Shingles painted with it will have their lifetime greatly lengthened by it; but this can hardly be advised for buildings where fires are kept, as its.use would add somewhat to the danger from fire. This objection, however, would not apply to barns and many other outbuildings. Besides these, there are many other things, such as unpainted posts and gates, where it can be used to great advantage, and the season is now coming on when they will most need protection from an excess of moisture. Many unpainted farm implements ean also be benefitted by it, but colors should not be put into it, for it does not dry and harden as well as paint. This being the time of year when the farmer gives attention to his fences, one who has studied the matter writes: When railtimber is near at hand the cheapest will be the old-fashioned Virginia wurm fencw, except meases where there is a market for the timber that makes it more valuable for other purposes. In that case the regulation board fence, with two posts to a sixteen-foot length, and which is too well known to require a description, will be the cheapest ancl best. A writer in the Southern Planter holds that nothing is so injurious as stagnant water to fruit trees. “I will give a case in point: Our fruit plantation is on high ground, the land sloping away from it on all sides. Drainage was thought to be unnecessary, so that the trees were planted on the undrained land. The result was disastrous in various parts of the plantation, for in places the trees never made tjhe least start at either root or branch, a good many died and those that lived became mossy and looked in a bad way. On examining the parts on which this occurred, it was found that the water could not pass away freely. Therefore it was drained with good results, as the trees commenced to grow and soon were in good health, and the branches bright and free from mossy growth, and are now doing well.” = STORING APPLES FOR LONG KEEPING. There is a difference in the keeping qualities of apples in different years, says the New York World, that nobody has been fully able to account for. Occasionally a year occurs, to all outward appearances not exceptionally different from others, when windfalls will keep as well as carefully picked apples in former ones. Such a difference can not be iaid to the handling of the fruit, but must be owing to atmospheric influences. Apples will endure without injury a much lower temperature than will tomatoes, and the cooler they jire kept without freezing the better. Dry, cool oellars are generally preferred by farmers as a store place for their barrelled apples,' but of late years some growere claim that this fruit keeps better in moist than in dry places, always providing said place is cool. When kept in cellars, good ventilalion is necessai-y in all cases. jWhen barrelled in an orchard and not shipped

away afonoe, the apples are better to be put dp in tiers under the trees and protected from the rain and sun by boards . than to be put up in buildings. Some persons leave the barrels all on the ground in the shade and uncovered, claiming that they, keep cooler on the ground than" when piled up. Apples raised on rich alluvial lands will prove poor keepers. For the best keeping the orchard should be on high or hilly lands and not too rich. v »■ NUGGETS FOR FARMERS. Good cider vinegar can be made only from good cider. Cider made from ripe apples is stronger than that made earlier, when the apples are yet green. Lawns are best made by following nature’s suggestions. It she has made a swale so‘be it. If she has rolled up a mound let it alone. We have only to freinpve roughness or inequalities. Mr. John Gould thinks the present method of granulation of butter is one of the best features yet introduced into butter making, and where practiced has produced a marked improvement in the product, 7r- r .. Cattle should not be allowed to graze on pastures in the fall when the grass is covered with frost, says F. E. Carswell. At that season of the year they will destroy in an hour as much feed as they will eat all day. Where persons have fancy fruit to ship it pays to have the name of it printeu neatly and laid in the case on the top of”lhe fruit. The buyers are pleased with this idea, and it helps them to sell it also. S. K. Wright, of Maine, gives the Lewiston Journal some facts as to his sheep raising. The income from thirty-four sheep was: Lambs sold $170.69, lambs unsold $100.75, wool $34, showing a profit of $8.98 per head. Dr. T. H. Hoskins says: “The farmer who persists in working day after day from four o’clock in the morning until seven or eight at night, and expects his boys and hired men to do the same, is not doing justice to himself, to-his hired laborers or to his Creator.” When large quantities of roots are to be stored, and there is no root cellar for this purpose, it is far better to construct pits than to fill the cellar of one’s dwelling house with a general assortment of roots and vegetables to vitiate the air of the entire house. The farmer who would make rural pursuits attractive to his sons and induce them to continue farmers, should surround them with pleasant associations and give them a share of the profits. He should not make them a mere drudge as a matter of convenience to himself.