Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1890 — FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND GARDEN.

Favorable e a the fall has thus far been for farmers, they must now prepare for the oncoming of sleet, snow and frigid weather. All farm buildings should be put in order for winter. The dwelling should not only be made warm and comfortable, hut such conveniences provided as will lessen the housework devolves. Farmers who use the most approved machinery in their field operations should supply their wives end daughters the best labor-saving contrivances to facilitate and render les3 irksome the work of the household. This is a duty which far too many overlook or procrastinate. After the dwelling is put in proper condition, see that the barns, sheds, piggeries and poultry bouses are made comfortable for their occupants. This is a matter too often neglected until late in the season, and much suffering is caused in consequence. Domestic animals require protection from the cold winds and storms to which they are frequently subjected at this season. There is true economy, besides humanity, in furnishing farm stock warm quarters, for it saves forage. And do not undertake to winter more stock than yon can both feed and protect properly. All poor, scrub animals, especially, should be sold or slaughtered, for it will prove a losing business to feed and care for them four or five months. Better dispose of them than to take the risk of having hides and carcasses for sale in the spring. BROODERS AND INCUBATORS. These are ticklish things for careless, slow people to handle. One who has evidently “been there” advises

his readers in this wise: Don’t fofol with brooders and incubators unless you have had some experience and are willing to give the rnost earnest attention to the business. It is so easy to start a kerosene lamp, and then go away and forget all about it, only to come back and to find that a hatching of eggs, or a brooder full of young chicks, has been baked or smothered. The other side of the question is stated by a writer who advocates the use of incubators in Winter. He says that the incubator is intended to hatch early chicks, so as to get the high prices. The hens do not begin to incubate until too late, and one can npt make them sit, but the incubator is always ready. The hen is bqtjter after April, and the incubator is better from November to April. One is for Winter work and the ether for Summer work. IF any person knows how to make a large lot of heps hatch out chicks in January ’ffhd February, then such a person needs no incubator, but until that discovery is made the only way to get early chicks in market is to use the incubaton

NOTES. !, Real cold. Ready? Feed stock regularly. How about that ice house? Yes, clean up that barn yard. Farm fashion—frigid fingers. Make the wood house plethorie. Never suffer your stock to suffer. Protect your stock from blizzards. Several staples short—better prices. Now “the frost is on the pumpkin.” Abuse wears out more tools .than use. Have you water in the yard for stock?

A fighting ram is a good defence against dogs. Duluth is a heavy shipper of wheat to New York. The harder the cow works thq less Heavy frosts are liable’to occur now, so take no risks. Throw some manure around the small fruit trees, The farther from salt water, the more salt is needed. Only well drained land bears a good crop in a wet season. A cow can not make sound milk out of unsound material. The results of good feed are often credited to the breed. One strong colony of bees is worth more than two weak ones. Thin shells are caused by a lack of gavel among laying hens. Vermont sheep are winning medals and diplomas in foreign lands. Keep a full supply of choice fruit for the family, and sell and feed the rest. Wisconsin’s crop of wild small fruits amounts to over ♦1,000,000 annually; The best plan for feeding turnips is to Cut or slice up and sprinkle with bran. Keep the weaklings by themselves so the bullies can not abuse and rob them. The sheep that is always thriving produces an even fibred and strong wool. No other sheep produces a larger proportion of red meat than the Southdown.

Give the hen plenty of dost to wall low in and she will keep herself clear of lice. Keep your pigs growing and thrifty and you will have little trouble in fattening them. ' If hogs follow cattle and eat the droppings, why should not cholera fol-, low the hogs? —Be sure that you keep over no more stock than you can properly feed, shelter and care for. A barn and stable should fulfill four couditiona—cleanliness, health, comfort, and convenience. The best authorities say California will this year pack fully 1,300,000 'boxes of raisins. This is about twenty

Maes the utdOu output of ten years *?o. y* Beans imported fr*m Canada or Europe must now pay forty cents per bushel of sixty podnds. * The Canadian government has removed the export duty on spruce and pinenndfotber stawed logs. Don’t let your bogs sleep on a fermenting manure pile unless you want them to be sick and rheumatic. __ Keep the cows healthy and thriving, feed them good flavored food and they will produce good flavored butter. The duty on binding twine has been placed at seven-tenths of a cent, which is fifty per cent, lower than the duty fixed in the Mills bill. A lady expert says that two or three days is long enough to keep a dressed turkey or any other meat before cooking it. If kept longer, it loses flavor. It is understood that nearly One hundred tons of peach pits will.be sent East from California this year, t 6 be used by nurserymen for seed, on account of the failure of peaches in the Eastern States. A half century ago there were $4,000,000,000 invested in agriculture, and now there are $11,000,000,000. Thero were then 1,000,000 farms; now there are between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. / Put milk in a bottle, filling it, bring it to a boiling heat and then plug the bottle with cotton that has just been plunged in boilipg water, and the milk will keep sweet and sound for an indefinite time. If you want to know all about the sugar beet industry, send to W. H. Wiley, chemist, Washington, D. C., and get a copy of Bulletin No. 27, on the culture of the, sugar best and man* ufacture of beet sugar.