Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1889 — THE FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM AND HOME.

Iforrehas an old orchard, the trunks and larger branches covered with loose bark, on whichmosses and lichens find afoot hold, and which afford a hiding place for numerous injurious insects in various states of development, the first thing to be done is to scrape off all the loose scales of bark. Use a moderately dull hoe—a shap one might injure the bark; one with a short handle will allow the lower brane hes to be reached. Use home-made soft soap, dilute it with hot water, stir it well until it is thin enough apply with a small whitewash brush or a large paint brush. Put plenty of it on the trunks and the larger branches. One should endeavor to apply the soap very early in spring, so that it may not dry up at once, but be gradually washed off by the rains that usually occur at this season. When the trees have had a thorough washing, the bark will present a beautifully smooth \appearance that will amply repay one for the 'troqble. For removing the growth oft the.

outside of flower pots, this soap is excellent; it has also teen recommended as a vehicle to apply petroleum for aphides or plant lice add other insects. One pint of soft-soap is mixed with half a pint of petroleum. Mix thoroughly, add to seven or eight gallons of water, and apply with a syringe. This has been found destructive to the chinch bug. It must be kept in mind that in gardening it is the long, steady pull that tqjls the story of the year’s,, work. It is not the good crop of this or the poor crop of the other, that determines the question of profit or loss; but in the steady run of one hundred and fifty days of sales, a few dollars more or less each day settles the question, and these few dollars more can only be had by a steady succession of all salable crops, from the earliest to the latest, while they may easily be made less by thinking that you are through with cabbage after your “extra early” are off. or by thinking that no one wants peas after the Fourth of July, or celery before Thanksgiving. It may be that some of the products, during part of the season, will net repay the expense of cultivating, gathering and selling. Yet if they are individually unprofitable, it pays to have them on hand, so that your customers may learn to rely upon you for a full assortment all the time. Customers are easily had, and easily held, when they can depend upon being regularly supplied with a good quality and good assortment of vegetables. But when the route is not gone over regularly, or the supply is not kept up so that each may obtain just what he may happen to want each day, they are easily persuaded to buy elsewhere. Of the various ways in Which the sales of market garden produce may be made, none is so well calculated to bring in the Ultimate profit as a well established route gone over daily with the wagon. It is important that the route may be as compact as possible, as time saved is money saved in two ways—it allows your driver and horse to return the sooner to other work, and it enables you to visit more customers before your competitors. Other things being equal, until your trade is well established, the one who comes first makes the sales. A very valuable article on the subject of hiring help is to be found in the American Agriculturist for March, by Edmund P. Kendrick, of the Massachusetts bar. He says among other things: A verbal agreement between the employer and the employe is, however, in most cases just as good i: i law as a written one, providing it dan be proved. The principal exception sin the case of a contract which is not 1 o be performed within a year from the t me it is made. The Jaws of most States! say that a contract which is not to be performed within a year cannot be enforced unless the contract, or a memorandum of it, is in writing signed by the party to be ch*u-ged. If a farmer hires a man to work for him for one year, the time to commence the day the contract is made, or possibly the next day, the agreement need not necessarily be in writing. But if the time is to commence say a week or a month hence, it is not binding on either party if it is only a verbal bargain. If such a contract is verbal only, the farmer can discharge his help at any. time, and the help can quit at any time without being liable for damages, and generallf'Without loss of pay up to the time of leaving. It should be remembered that a minor is not bound by any contract of this nature, whether verbal or in writing; and while the employer, if of age, will be obliged to carry out the provisions of his agreement, the employe, if a minor, may break it at any time, leave his master’s employment, and collect what he can prove his services were worth up to the time of leaving. This is so although he lookea as it he were of age, or eveq if he falsely represented himself to be such. 4 Oats require a long season for growth, and cool weather, says the American Agriculturist for March; therefore sow them early, but do not sow on frozen ground with the expectation that they will sink down in the mud and sow themselves. This slipshod method will do for the poor ignorant and wretched (no men more so) “fellahs” who scatter their seed wheat on the rich mud left by the floods of the river Nile, but not for an American farmer sowing oats in the spring. For the crop the land must be thoroughly well plowed

and harrowed—it should be plowed in the fall, in fact—and the seed must be well covered. And this is to be done as early as possible. Three years ago we sowed oats in a warm spell in February but did not cover the seed deep enough; a hard frost in March killed nine-tenths of the plants. Since then we have sown as early, but cover the seed four or five inches, and then if a hard frost comes only the tops are killed and a new spire will soon emerge from the living root. Two and a half bushels of seed per acre is the right quantity to sow. • Apropos of evergreen hedges, when planted early in May, the young plants are rooted and started before the hot, dry weather of July and August strikes them. Early autumn plantings, farther south, have been attended with success. Trees or plants that have been once or twice transplanted in the nursery row should be selected for hedge planting; twelve to fifteen inches is a good height to select, and the plants should be as Stocky andjull of branches as can be had at that sizea,nd age. Set them a trifle deeper than they originally grew in the soil, and water well when planted. Water occasionally during the not dry weather of the first summer. It is a good practice to plant two rows a foot or so apart, and have the trees bf the tWo rows alternate or “break joints.” This gives a thicker ground work without crowding the roots. If seedings are used instead of the transplanted stock they must be shaded the first summer or considerable loss will be experienced. Better pay a little more and get the transplanted stock in all cases. But little cutting can be done the first year or two, as the hedge must first become well established, root and top. Straggling shoots far out from the body,of the plant may be nipped off, and any extreme upward growth checked. The growth of a hedge is slow. It takes years of waiting to get a good one; a thoroughly gooa hedge can not be had in less than eight or ten years. The form of a hedge is a matter of Individual taste. There is, however, a natural form in which the hedge best thrives; that is, broad at the base, narrowing to the top. This form gives the lower limbs a chance to obtain light, air and moisture, which they do not have in the square-trimmed hedge. The beauty of a hedge depends upon its solidity and even distribution es limb and foliage. If the lower limbs are forced to reachfar out for light and air, the lateral twig growth will be light, and the lower part of the hedge will be open, and if kept cut back in square form, these lower limbs will frequently die out from

overcrowding and lack of light and air. Facts About Oklahoma. New York Press. Oklahoma is a country lying in the heart -of the Indian Territory, but its title is not clear. It is claimed by the boomers that this disputed tract of land reverted to the United States by purchase, and this is admitted. It needs a further act of Congress to open the gate's. The action has been withheld because the land is closed to the boomers, but open to men of wealth who are cattle kings. The cattle kings are in possession of the land, and they are for the most part active politicians. Had, therefore, these cattle kings been driven from the land the political cause which they professed to have at iheart would have suffered. If the cattlemen had a right to go there, then, too, the boomers had the same or a similar right to enter Oklahoma. The cattlemen have entered Oklahoma, and it looks as if they had gone there to stay, for they have erected around the land miles upon miles of barbed wire fencing. The cattlemen are all powerful at Washington, while the boomers are considered by the authorities to be a species of rag-tag and bobtail, whose aspirations and claims, whose prayers and demands are to be studiously ignored. Oklahoma is a magnificent agricultural country, and there is an abundance of copper "there cropping out of the ground. The inhabitants are tough, ’being horse thieves, half breeds, Indians, Mexicans and negroes. There are a few women, and they are as tough as the men. It is no place just at present for men accustomed to live in law abiding places. Of the government takes this territory and makesit safe for law abiding citizens it will be a great place te go and take up land. , DePew Joking on Serious Subjects. From his speech at the St. Patrick’s dub (firmer. Last St. Patrick’s day we adopted a rule on the llew York Central road of putting two green flags at the front of a train —an unconscious tribute to St Patrick; but Ireland in the yard stopped work at our expense [laughter] and gazed at the trains as they shot out of the depot, and- the foreman said to a companion, “Moike, what coes itmane?” “Well,” said he, “I’ll tell you what it manes. The boss has taken the flag which Mayor Hewitt would not permit to stand on the City [Hall, and he has put it on the end of every train, and he’s going to run for President, sure.” [Laughter]. But alas for the aspirations of the yardl The granger didn’t like him as well as the yard. [Renewed laughter]. I speak with this freedom, gentlemen, because my commission as minister to England has not yet reached me, but is on the way. [Uproarious laughter.] /'