Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1890 — FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN.

It pays to look after bees. Prohibit evU weeds and insects. Crude petroleum preserves wood. A little shade is good for currants. Use good seed, then cultivate well. Don’t let the weeds get a day ahead. Give good culture to get good crops. Keep dirt, etc.. out of the woolsacks. Are you regular in salting live stock? Cleanliness is profitable in buttermaking. ; See that the water flows freely in all your drain pipes. . y-. }■? • - No good thing grows well unless it has a good seed bed. Different kinds of beans planted together hybridize themselves. If you want to develcg>e the odor of the violet, grow it in the shade. What animal is there on the farm that returns more profit than the pig ? Frequent stirring of the soil is good for cabbage and most other plants. Keep the surface of the soil mellow and loose, and it will act as a mulch. Butter has recently been shipped back into the country from New York city.

The better the feed, the better the manure; the better the manure, the better the crop. It is easier to begin early and keep down the weeds than to begin late to exterminate them.

Do not let your work get ahead of you. Plan so as to have every piece of work done in season. Profit depends more on cost than on the market price. See that your products do not cost too much. Weed seeds are sown over the farm through raw manure and not through that which is well rotted. About 7.000,000 roses are sold annually in New York city, most of them raised on rose farms near the city. Push your work or your work will push you. The first is much the pleasanter. besides being more profitable. In spraying with London purple and= Paris green, use only two pounds of poison to 150 or 200 gallons of water. Fine products from the farm] and garden always find a ready sale. Only the inferior ones remain to glut the market.

Vermont’s maple Sugar crop for the season just passed, is estimated at nine million pounds, or three-quarters of a crop. Sheep-washing is not so popular as it once was. In days of yore it used to take a good deal of whisky to wash a flock of sheep. —lt is better to use Paris green in solutions on potatoes than to try to apply dry. There is then no danger of inhaling the poison. The pig is an important adjunct of the dairy, but it does not follow that he should be kept in close proximity to the dairy-house. ■■ ■ . No better or cheaper insect destroyer can be found for gardens than the toad. English gardeners often pay a shilling each for them.

Spray your plants freely. It keeps the leaves free from dust and the pores qpen, and it also prevents the ravages oT insect enemies. ; •• Prof. Wiley declares sorghum seed second in value only to wheat. Flour made from it is declared superior to buckwheat for pancakes. It pays to use good tools and to keep them in order. But do not be in a hurry to throw away a serviceable old tool simply because it is old. Wash your seed corn and oats in a solution of four ounces of blue vitriol ty> a gallon of water. It is claimed that this will kill all smut poresr

Get a water-barrel hung on wheels, or make one. if yon have not got it already, and see that all kitchen-slops are wheeled to the manure heap or receptacle. Never give up that you cant:o' farm It as well as your neighbor, but buckle on your armor, post yourself thoroughly on the later developments, and turn in and beat nim. The fariher of to-day requires more 1 tools than the farmer of a generation ago, because he employs less muscle. They are a big item of expense. Take good care of them. The kangaroo is being successfully propagated in England, and there is some likelihood of this curious animal taking its place among the most familiar lomestic animals of that country.

If your fruit tree is overburdened, do sot prop up the limbs and make a draft un the tree to ripen it all, but thin out the fruit by removing that which is inferior. Over-production injures the tree.

The experience of others may often be of great value to us. but our own experience ought to be still more instructive. Many things about the farm must be, learned in a practical way, since they can be learned in no olhrer.

A spirited horse may soon be made slow and spiritless by constant, twitching the lines, peevish urging and many other wearing processes that fretful drivers invent and practice. Sheep are also used as dairy animals in some countries. The celebrated Rochefort cheese is made from the milk of sheep, and' in many portions of Cat *da sheep are regularly milked, and profitably, r Those who are unaccustomed to the growing of cauliflowers will not fail to have a few plants every season if once they are given a trial. They are as easily grown as cabbage, 'and are tender and crisp. They grow rapidly, and thrive best with frequent hoeing. By keeping the surface of the soil loose the loss of moisture by capillary attraction and evaporation will Impartially avoided. A loose soil, if only an

inch In depth, serves aa a mulch, or oovering, over the surface of the ground, thus proteoting the roots and assisting to retain the moisture below.