Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1891 — FARM NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FARM NOTES.

We might well take a lesson from France in the matter and methods of agricultural education. In that country there are 28,000 primary and elementary schools and in each of them gardening is practically taught A small garden is attached to each and under the care of a capable master the pupils are instructed in the first principles of horticulture. Plowing by steam is one of the methods by which the cost of producing wheat and possibly other agricultural staples will be eventually reduced wherever large, level areas of land will penhlt the employment of such methods. In the Walla Walla valley it is now somewhat practiced and th 6 cost of plowing is reduced from $2 to 40 cents an acre. If you want tbe young heifer to develop into a good milker feed well and milk carefully from thehbeginning. Bp not expect as> much nor as rich milk from a young animal as from one that ii fully matured, and if the result should be a little below your expectations at first let that be all the more reason for trying what can be accomplished by intelligent management. The heat guide as to the value of a cow as a milker is to weigh her milk regularly. That tells the story witb'oiit aity guess work and is far better than feolng blindly upon her pedigree jirripoiiiier “marks,” ted every owner ought to know just what every oow is doing, M that J* the only way in which

he can tell if she is profitable, and so eliminate the main element of chance from the dairying operation. Where horses and cows are kept in the same stable they should have stalls well apart from each other, withspace for free circulation of air between. From even the cleanest bo#se stable there is usually a strong odor of ammonia, which will affect the milk if the cows are compelled continually to breathe it. Spare no pains to promote the purity of tho surroundings if you wish to make good butter of good keeping quality. Farmers generally have settled down upon the belief that tho best profit in hog raising is found by feeding to only one yea# of age, or a little less, getting a weight in that time of from 220 to 250 pounds. All the weight made above this is procured at a constantly increasing cost a pound so much greater at times as to result in actual loss. Well finished young hogs of medium weight are becoming more and more popular in the markets, and are commanding the best prices. These facts have been demonstrated by ample experiment and experience. Cattlemen are now turning their attention in the same direction, and asking wheth--1 er a two year old or two and a half year old Bteer, weighing 1,200 to 1,250 pounds, cannot be turned off at a better net profit than if kept until three years old and brought up to a weight of 1,600 pounds. Some good lots of young steers, well fed, have been re? oently sold at the former of these ages and weights, and have brought good prices. We all admit that the older an animal gets the more it costa to put on flesh; and if, as in the ca«e with hogs, beef cattle can be put Into shape earlier so as to command the highest market price per pound, cattlemen will readily adopt the policy of feeding off earlier. As free range diminishes the business of cattle growing will become more expensive and will demand a larger investment of capital a head, so that stock growers will readily welcome any innovation which will enable them to turn their money more rapidly than they can now do.

•‘Clover is king.” for neither corn nor cotton can equal it in importance to the general farmer. There is no single item which we could less well afford to have withdrawn from our agricultural system, and the farmer ,in whose rotation it has no place, and who does not depend upon it to some considerable extent in his feeding, is making a very serious mistake. Its value as food for almost all kinds of stock is shown by chemical analysis, as it has been before that abundantly proved by chemical analysis. Good clover hay—and that means hay that has been harvested at the right time, before it has become too ripe, and is well cured—contains more nearly a perfect food ration in proper bulk than anything else that is grown. Grain alone is too concentraed, especially corn; besides, which the latter contains too large a proportion of heating and fat-forming elements. Oats, owing to the large proportion of hull, would be less injurious than any other grain if made an exclusive ration, but good clover hay Is the one thing that contains both bulk and nutriment in the right proportions to make it an available item for the principal feeding for horses, cattle and sheep. With clover it requires less grain to thoroughly fatten an animal than with any other food. Even with pigs it should be added to the corn ration to give the needed bulk, and it will not only distend the stomach but will supply the deficiencies of corn in making growth of bone and muscle. More clover and less corn, more clover and less wheat, more clover and less cotton, are reforms that many an American farmer, north, south, east and west, might well decide upon for the coming year to the decided advantage both of his stock and his land.