Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1891 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

EDITORIAL V { CsSl their attention fi f m f thln ‘ g in an agricultural journj which * be, you think is of j d valu « an d their %»es say it it, . practical” L n o r S f e r nCeO SO ' eh use being rould naturally think that the a eral ave of farmers are amoni ie moß t practical men m the worl Qn th / con . trary. we believe, me: ire d by good business standards, t * no calling furnishes more unpra cal men tha £ farming. _ Practical means c things in the best manner anc 3^ to the best profit. To .< pract f ca i” palls for the puttmg p £ actice of sound theories and t £ se of the inost mtelhgent met ds Is the practice of our Weste L {armers in wasting the fertility < |. he soil Qr in the breeding of our rm animals really and sqarely pra, ica j^ : an y state imthe North Can w belie * e tfaat the majority of them o-overned bySo »hnSnntl-n1 concerning cows, when the avera y[ |d , mi | :“" ds * ssa not set h) work in $» milk and feed a practff men be called practi , Can kept a herd of twenty •• 1 ™ l }° have for years and vet have" pains to know by a sin t J{H® h COW? were not paym Would a practical maj Laft t , rpr E low himself to remain, eXpensive ignorance for yed c J cer £ h soipe machine, and nd , » ergy sufficient to test L .. . hot running him in ck f?™* a dairy farmer who pip «.« business for profit; whf' . » S 0 thw arc not practical, going al V ear‘after year with half the cow S£2&MSf «* s talk so much about oth f “"SjJS practical should first e , well defined standard practical. of what 13

The fact is, what is tical with one man may not be w Z 7? " ■n A r cUlOtuGr. others, according to t °[ h % = i they make money by h Such metical for men who don t und t d th j business well enoug! . pxpcutp them. But the fault U e ? ec 4 l \“® methods but In the men* i,, may be highly proof e “2 TarmeV unable, either"” T' means of comprehensic 31 . _ llf • practice. A good defi % lnn p * .. . word practical is that w§* h condu *e S to proht. If a course of d/. „ unprofitable through ant* u J f then it is not practical* . .. may be once in a gref fe pt learn from it our ownl.dai» ’ • „ It is well to remembef';;?-j never “practical” to mr~f , ern agriculture by obsolete ideag The farms of to-day car less machinery. As aV, ° it . rather poorly cared sol u ? g . farmer who has a goodl about maemnery carries witliiTt _ stantly a strong advantal /?' more earless neighbor, fr , most frequent difficulties f 1!? 0 1 ? c ing of power machinery® +u WorK " eumulation{of dirt andjPT S “. e bearings and journals, t» j n JP® use of fat oils for lubric;' sea % . e frequent cleaning. Th °P a . ln " Engineer gives tie foil tions for cleaning, an< f-J* e ® remembering: l are worth . “For each 1,000 parts l ~, . water, take about ten, 7 wei £ / of parts by weight of cauf. or l„ eri 100 parts ordinary soci 1C ,? r solution boil and enter t ijet , l ' e be cleansed; either boil t, 3 pa O|JE2= lye or let them steep in *= >r P m thls time. All the dirt and t , for some completely dissolved the T’ reßll l remains only to rinse a % and it parts. The action of the d d P n th P that it enters into eoiAjiWP. ls S P®P the oil and forms T lt . h readily soluble in watef l , JP prevent the hardening off, t .*? cant on the machinery jf, .. Only necessary to /dd Or; I third kerosene. Anbceasif- , P .?* cant with kerosene alone, ? aI . recomended.” ! is to be Mr. B. C. Coblentz, of Ml Ark., writes requesting in‘,f n ,? n ’ as to the planting, cuitivatj rma j’ 10a vesting, and threshing of tT n ’ nar ' bean, also if there js any wc K H asto , r ed to this question and wheJ" “ evot * be obtained. If there are ar IC . < V? n readers of The Inter Ocean r, th ® had practical experience in I® 0 ia p vation of the castor bean J? e cultl ' particularly requested to J “ e y ar . e e-te the same to this depar smn pmA subscriber from Dept 316 w. states that the white grub e > off the roots of the grass in ?. , ln " and destroying it. Be ask ~s , awn is any remedy. None that “ there of that will not destroy we know of the lawn. We have * ® beauty acres of June grass in a d te P. seen completely eaten that the F tlme roll up like a carpet. 011 would '■ As a rule the grub will . a piece of grass in a mois 01 trout>le •where the lawn has been Beaßon °r watered at night. The ye £ept we , u pecker, crow, blackbird, WO P, feed on these grubs quite e aa jl 00 ! 11 And should be encouraged t ten9lvel y (the premises. If the gr f r^ u , en .J undisturbed it will freshen ss I s . 1 , 1 root again in the fall rains and take J DAIRY ITEMS. ! Different foods pi'oduce ! . . , Jfects on the character am ( ®" a n e *‘ butter. Ground peas, rye 8 aavo^.°^

seed meal, cotton seed meal, potatoes, and wild* hay are foods which abound in hard stearic fat, consequently they make the butter hard. Oats, wheat bran, and clover hay make a softer butter. In roots beets and carrots give a pleasant nptty flavor to butter if fed rightly. Cream, if taken from three or four milkings, should be kept at a low temperature, none more than fortyeight hours old, till twelve hours previous to the time of churning. Stir and put in so warm a place that at time of churning it will be ripened. A microscope should be as much of a cream implement as a themometer. If the attendants will scrape a little of filth from seams or corners of milk and whey receptacles, or frdm the filthy floor, and apply the microscrope test, the wriggling animal life brought to view will be a revelation and a potent incentive to cleanliness.—Galen Wilson. I hear dairy farmers exclaim almost everyday. “I am not making anything from my farm,” “I am running behind,” etc., says Mr. George E. Newell. Arrayed against the majority class who are not making what they should is a minority who are realizing a good thing from their dairy investment. It is a broad illustration of the superiority of method every rriismanagement, of brain work versus physical exertion practiced alone. Many dairy farmers are led to believe that when enhanced prices for dairy products accure better times for their vocation will dawn. This is all good logic as far as it goes, but it is not far reaching enough. The general prices of dairy goods can only be remotely controlled by the producer, so that he may have to sit under comparatively low prices for a number of years while he waits for the millenium prices. The way the minority coin money out of dairying is making quantity as well as quality count. Two men might cultivate two fields of potatoes and the crop of both fields might brings cents a bushel, The man who had a weedy field and got a light crop would not receive pay for labor expended, while the other fellow with a tnriftv crop would clear big money. Dr. Felix L. Oswald asserts in the New York Voice that half the bowled complaints of North American children in cities are due to the influence of adulterated milk. Sometime we hope our city cousins will join with the farmer inja war of extermination against the adulterator of food or drink, He is consumer, and of all other men should raise his voice loudest against the maker of oleomargerine, a fraud butter. A Canada correspondent of the Country Gentleman found benefit from spreading manure for corn on snow “rather than left in either small or large heaps. ”

WEEDS. Mr. O. W. Byrne, of Fulton county, 111., writes us a pleasant, cheering letter, and among other things he has the following to say concerning “You speak of weeds. We must let discretion direct ou? course here. For instance, I may have a neighbor having three or four hundred acres, with uncut hedges and lofty, noxious weeds seeding down my farm. I can get his ill will by asking him too often to cut them. If I rightly understand the damage of. weeds, I can profitably spend a half day in mowing his weeds. Many mow their weeds when the seed has matured. The railroad companies generally mow their weeds but once in the season, and late at that. The spread of this costly pest, however, is largely due to the apathy and indifference of the farmer who is content with vile weeds in his door yard, and cares less for his fence corners. It is much like the indifference to the liquor traffic and its creation of general idleness. We have what we countenance and tolerate. Good public sentiment can raise even the battlements of heaven, let alone the petty affairs of men. We can have all the health and improvement we live for, and make earth what we desire it to be.” [We venture to suggest that mowing weeds after they have seeded does not prevent the exhaustion of fertility, which should be the constant care of the wise and provident farmer. — Editor.] ECONOMIC WEIGHT OP A HOG. A great majority of farmers in fattening hogs adhere to the notion so often expressed, “When you get a hog a-going keep him at it as long as possible.” This means practically that the hog should be fed to a large weight. Experiments made for the purpose of determining the economic weight of a hog show aonclusively that he never should be fed beyond eight or nine months of age, and that the largest profit is found, as a rule, in a weight not to exceed 200 pounds. What is known as the food of support plays a very important part in the profit or loss of large whights. Suppose, as many farmers say, that a resolution is made to turn the hog when he reaches 300 pounds. He must take from his food an increasing amount each day to support the weight already gained, or else he drops back. The German experiments indicate that 2 per cent of the live weight, in food, must be taken each day to support that live weight. If the hog weighs 300 pounds this amounts to six pounds of food daily. The only profit is in the food that is applied to make new weight. A recent pig-feeding experiment at the Main Station illustrates this principle excellently. The pigs were taken at ages ranging from five weeks to eight weeks. During the first hundred days of the experiment, not far from two poundn

of digestible food woduced one pound of growth, while during the last fifty days the ratio was four pounds Of digestible food to one of growth. * Every pound of pork made during the last fifty days cost double in expense of food to that made in the first one hundred, days. The lesson taught by this principle is practically stated that the most money can be made from young hogs turned at a mediam weight. INOCULATION FOR HOG CHOLERA. Anything that is said that in any practical way promises a show of relief or exemption from hog cholera cannot fail to be of interest to the farmer readers of the Inter-Ocean. Dr. Billings, of Nebraska, justly stands as the greatest living authority on this disease. He has asked Secretary Rusk to allow his agent, Dr. Parsons, of Madison, Wis., to test the efficacy, of inoculation as a preventative of hog cholera. It is seriously hoped that Secretary Rusk will at once accede to Dr. Billing’s proposal. It is highly important that the truth be made known at once. On the subject of inoculation Dr. Billings has the following to say in a lately issued circular: ‘‘ln beginning such a tremendous undertaking as the prevention of such a malignant disease as stvino plague it is natural that occasionally some failures should occur, yet when I look over the results of many thousand inoculations, the majority of which were done by the farmers themselves, I can myself say that I am astonished at its wonderful success, actual loss has not been one inoculated hog in a thousand so treated, and it is also safe to assume that the majority have been most severely tested. Preventive inoculation against swine plague can then be said to be a thoroughly reliable, safe, and non-injurious procedure. 0n that assertion my reputation as an investigator must stand or fall, not only in Nebraska, but the world. Did Inotknowit to be unequivocally true must be evident to every farmer that I would not have dared to accept the test which the recall ol the live stock breeders of the State, at the hands of the regents of the university, has imposed on me. 1 am cheerfully willing to accept the test and stand by the verdict. But to make the test so conclusive that it shall resuit to the benefit, not only to every farmer in Nebraska, but every citizen, it must be a large test. It must not be of 1,000 of 10,000 pigs. One million hogs must be inoculated in Nebraska during the ensuing year, and if properly done, test them as you will, the loss will not be more than 1 per cent, of that. As only hogs on already infected farms will be inoculated, the natural test is- to

leave the inoculated hogs on such ground, treat and feed as usual, and leave a few uninoculated. The old way of testing, by forcing a lot of inoculated hogs suddenly to live among a whole herd of sick ones and then live on the dead ones is not" a fait test of inoculation; it is not fair to the owner either, though in every case I know of where I have known the work has been done properly, scarcely a hog has every died by cholera. What is wanted, however, i 3 the practical every day test, such inoculation, or any other method of treatment must stand on the farmer

year in and year out. As is known I have been in the business of inoculation with a gentleman in Chicago who retains all rights to use it accord’ ing to the methods I have taught him in every other State except Nebraska, at such charges as he may choose, but he has kindly yielded ail rights to any control over my work jn Nebraska, so that inoculation is free in Nebraska, with the exception that all farmers desiring to take advantage of it will be expected to pay the charges' of expressage of the virus to them and the return of the implements back to the laboratory. Every intelligent farmer can do the work himself, and full instructions will be furnished to those applying.

BLOOD WILL TELL. A lady, Mrs. James A. Lock, of Ma.vhew, Mass., writing to the Southern Live Stock Journal, says she has a Jersey cow 7 years old that, with her own calves, and the calves of her direct progeny, there would be a herd of twenty-seven in number, had none of them been taken from the home fold. Mrs. Lock naturally wants to know if any one has a mid-dle-aged cow that can make a greater showing of motherhood and grandmotherhood, She has one Jersey that gives 44 pounds of milk per day, and another, with ..second calf, that gives 32 pounds. She has also foiq: registered Jerseys that, in twelve months, produced 1,280 pounds ol butter, which was sold on year-round contract at 30 cents per pound. Besides this, sickness in her family caused some neglect of the dairy, so she! is confident that many a pound of butter was lost. And still we have grown-up meu weighing 200 pounds, more or less, stripping 125-pound cows, and sneering tnat there is no saving grace in rich butter-blood, and plod on, smoking their short pipes. They say a cow is a cow, ana all milk is alike in quality. But they are all at the polls, “early and often,” to make themselves rich through legislation, while their cows have a hard time of it keeping themselves “warmed and filled/’ while making themselves “hardy. ”t—Hoard’s Dairyman. David H. Burrell, of Little Falls, stated, in 1886, that by tbe aid of the silo he was keeping over 140 cows on the same land where he formerly kept only forty. Mr. Burrell found out that fact in 1886. Yet we havq a lot of dairy farmers who have not* found out the advantage of the silq yet. Some men’s education costs tremendously in time and money.— Hoard's Dairyman.