Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1891 — FIRMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FIRMS AND FARMERS.

FARM KOTSS. In Rural New Yorker experience the failure with setting hens was directly in proportion to their distance above terra tirma. “Every one that had a chance to nest on the ground did well.'* Concerning the cattle trade a wellknown commission salesman talks to the Chicago Journal as follows: “There is a wide difference between dry lot cattle and cattle that have been fed corn and grass, and still a wider difference between cattle fed corn on grass and cattle that have had no corn on grass. Light halffat grass cattle are not wanted at any price. Plenty of this kind that has been here a week and no bids, and why farmers should ship this grade of cattle with plenty of grass and a good prospect for a corn crop is something we can not understand. Western range cattle are looked for in the next ten days, and if they come good,nothing but good fat corn fed cattle will be wanted, so take notice in time.” T ■ * ' “Bon’t kill the toads, the ugly taads that hop around your door. Each meal the little toad doth eat a hundred bugs or more. He sits around with aspect meek until the bug is neared, then shoots he forth his little tongue like lightning doublegeared. And then he soberly doth wink and shuts his uglj mug, and patiently doth wait.until comes by another bug.” The Ohio experiment station has made some interesting experiments, showing the effect of removing tassels from corn. They were made to test the theory that if the tassels were removed from corn before they have produced pollen, pollen bearing being an exhaustive process, the strength thus saved to the plant would be returned to the ovaries and a larger amount of grain be produced. From each alternate row of a plot of corn the tassels were removed as soon as they aypeared. Briefly, the result of the experiment was that the number of good ears and the weight of mercantile corn were both a little more than 50 percent, greater on the rows from which the tassels were removed than on the others. Here Is a good chance for the boys to make a like experiment to convince themselves if there is any lasting practical truth in tne Ohio experiment it is worth knowing. Boys, suppose you

take hold of this; and coax your father to allow you to try it on a dozen rows of corn. It is the boys that are to make the future farmers, and we want they should have a chance to use their brains as well as their hands. There is nothing better than a brainy experiment to make a boy love farm work. The census reveals the fact that the total area devoted to tobacco in Connecticut, 6,331; the total product 874,914; the value of the crop to the producer according to a basis of actual sales $1,132,111. These figures give a value per acre for the State of nearly $179. The shotage of the supply of beef cattle at the Chicago stock yards for the first six months of the present year amounts to over 200,000 head. It would be only a trifling exp ise for farmers to have fresh meat all summer if a number of them would fit up a cheap cold storage house into which to place it. This storage would not cost them over one-tenth or qne twentieth of a cent per pound, dependent on the number of farmers who combine. They could also at the same time store butter, eggs, dressed poultry, pigeons, cooked vegetables and fruits. As it would

require a moderate quantity of ice to make the cold storage, each family could be supplied with that also, taking care to harvest* enough of it in winter to give what Would be necessarv for the additional purpose. —A. B. Allen.

SWINE NOTES.

The larger part of the swine feeding should be done in the summer or early fall; that is if the feeder wants the greatest grain for food consumed. This should be a great point aimed at -the greatest gain for food consumed. A feeder is always safe in making this one of his objects, whereas when Jie feeds for a certain time and price his calculations may not be realized. It is so often true that when a sow comes to her best days she must be fatted off on account of her unruly disposition, bad habits she has fallen into, such as opening gates, breaking fences and other bad traits. How does she come by these bad traits? They come partly on account of tho carelessness of the owner in having poor gates and doors insecurely fastened and bad fences; but the most prolific source of these habits is insufficient feeding. Hunger drives the sow to try for better and more abundaut food.

LICE—HOW TO DESTROY THEM.

We suppose every breeder and every farmer is troubled more or lass with these pesky little suckers. We fire certain that many of the best breeders have “to tussle with them more or less every year. One writer unjustly remarks that a pig was never shipped out of Ohio that was not lousy. The point is not do they exist but how to exterminate them. One year ago we found our herd infected. Got them through a purchase and got them spread over the herd pretty well, too. We purchased crude oil of the Standard Oil Company. Hurdled the hogs in one pen and the pigs in another and sprinkled them' With this crude oil, and the effect was quite magical. Crude oil wiil not blister or take the hmr off like kerosene. Crowd the pigs together and their pushing and

rubbing together will cause the oil to be thoroughly applied. 'Die working of it into the afcn in ibis manner excels an individual application and has the advantage of ' doing the lice up in a wholesale fashion. Try crude oil and report. —F. R. Payne in the Rural Life. * SILO BUILDING. .r A number of the farmer readers of the Inter Ocean have written us expressing their desire for information on the building of a silo. The following from the pen of Mr. S. P. Brown, of Canada, is so complete and practical that we gladly give it place m this connection: In the first place it is necessary that the building wherein he shall store the green corn shall be perfectly air-tight, for this is the all-important feature in preserving anything. It is also best to be frost proof, as frost damages it considerably.' If the building is to be by itself outside the bam, it is best to trench in a wall of stone or brick, raising it about a foot above the level of the ground. This answers the double purpose of making it air-tight at the bottom, and preventing rats from burrowing through for the grain, that is in the silage, thereby admitting air to the injury of the fodder. Upon this wall, bed a 2xlo inch plank In mortar all around*then spike the second on top, breaking joints and miss-matching ends, so as to bind the corners. When the frame is to be put up, lay the studs in order at the proper distance apart, spike a plank on the bottom and like those on the wall, and another on top for the plate, and raise a side at a time, spiking strongly to the planks bedded on the wall. When all the sides are up spike a second plank on top, breaking joints and binding corners as for tne sills. The inside may first be boarded up with ordinary lumber, not the Best, so long as it is not shaky, then apply tar paper. Some dress these boards with hot coal tar before putting on the paper, which will then stick, and when the next covering of boards is put on, it makes the building more perfectly air tight. This last sheeting should be of good lumber, but not necessarily matched: then, when dressed with coal tar or crude petroleum it will last a long time. If the silo be round the inside sheeting may be of onehalf inch stuff, ordinary fencing, ripped and dressed on one side; this will spring round more easily. Put on three thicknesses, with paper between each, being careful in each case to break joints as much as possible. It is well also to fit a piece into the corners of the square one, 2x6 champered. This keeps the silage out from the corners, so it will settle better and be less liable to admit air. The outside may be boarded up any way to suit the taste of the builder so long as it is reasonably tight. The floor should be raised with earth, well packed in, till it is on a level with the wall; so that the silage will not come in contact with it, as masonry causes it to decay much more rapidly than woodwork. The roof may be made to strengthen the walls against the side pressure by tying the rafters from the heel of one to about the center of the other on the opposite side. The door may be made ice house fashion, between two studs, with loose boards to fit in, but allowing about two feet of the sheeting to run clear through in two or three places between bottom and top, so as to tie the building. A shoot may be made outside to guide the feet down if desired, but in every case feeding should be done from off the whole top, so as to leave no surface exposed any length of time.

A WORD FOR THE COMMON HEN. □lt is with a feeling of actual timidity that I venture to say a word of approval for the good old-fashioned fowl, disrespectfully known as the “dunghill hen.” So highly popular have become the fancy breeds of poultry that to express approval of the common hen seems now almost ridiculous. She is, however, the same old hen that pleased and gave perfect satisfaction to our mothers twenty years ago, but since the advent of the many fancy breeds the good qualities of the faithful fowl have been forgotten. True, she is a small species of fowl, and in market will weigh less than the fancy breeds, but she has her own good qualities which are not to be forgotten. It is not to the poultry specialist that I recommend the common - ' hen. I do not rqake a specialty of poultry, and do not feel capable of advising ; thoso who do. It may be tnat the pure breeds are more profitable for him who deals in poultry alone, and who can devote his entire time to caring for them. There happens, however, to be another kind of poultry raiser—one who can give but a small fraction of time to the poultry yard. Take the busy wife of the Western farmer. The farmer himself deals extensively in cattle or grain, perhaps both. He cares nothing for the hens, if only he gets enough eggs to eat ahd can have a fried or roast chicken now and then. In this case it is the busy wife who “sees to the chickens.” She has no time to prepare boiled breakfasts or steamed food for the hens. Much of her time is absorbed boiling and steaming food for farm hands. Neither has she time to spend doctoring and administering doses of hen medicine to some great sized breed of poultry which ifi so remarkable in no way as in its capacity to contract disease and to die of rapidly. Yet this woman wants to raise poultry. She wants to have plenty of eggs for home use, and she wants

to have plenty of chickens to fry and roast; also she would like to have some eggs to exchange for groceries, and, if possible, to sell a sow chicken in the winter, when they command the best prices. It is to this kind oi poultry-raisers that I venture to recommend the old-fashioned hen, In the first place they are excellent layers, and have not that drawback which some of our fancy breeds have, that of being poor setters. Another very desirable quality is their meat which is sweet and tender. It is true that they are blamed, because of heir activity, with “running off their meat.” Perhaps they do run some off but lam bound to say that what they leave on is of a most desirable quality. It is true that the blooded fowl will weigh more than the other, but I can not but think that many will agree with me in preferring a small portion of sweefi and tender meat to a great quantity of coarse and, sometimes, tasteless food, such as is furnished by the great light Bramahs, Plymouth Rocks and others.

When I first got the Plymouth Rocks I was greatly pleased with them. They were so much larger than the other kind; also they were tamer. I soon found however, that they had their own drawbacks as the old kind. They seemed possessed oriittle or no instinct for carrying for themselves. On cold winter nights they would take to the fences to roost instead of going to the comfortable hen-house prepared for them. Several nights I carried them through the snow from the fences to the henhouse, but they still seemed possessed of a great liking for the breezy roosting jHaces. I had but little time to spend upon them and the result was that many froze to death that winter. In the summer part of them died of disease. The remainder took to eating their eggs. After this I tried another kind.

The light Brahma proved to be rather satisfactory in some ways. They laid well and eertainly weighed a great deal. In the fall however, when I began dressing them for table use I was less pleased. After tasting of the first one I cooked my husband observed that I did not “cook as good as his mother used to.” It had been some time since I had heard that remark and I wrathfully laid the blame where I am sure, it belonged—on the coarse meat of those great Brahma fowls. After the Leghorns and Wyandottes were tried. The former were good hens to lay, but I had to borrow hens of my neighbors to set, as my hens showed no disposition to do so. The Wyandottes proved to be tender little things, anything killed them. Whether it was because they were a fancy breed and possessed ol pure blood or not I cannot say. Any way they were always dying. I resorted once more to the common hen and found them for the most part satisfactory. If neglected they will shift wonderfully for themselves. This is a very desirable quality. In a very busy season on the farm it is sometimes impossible to give much care to the poultry. The old-fash-ioned hen, however, can get along admirable without it. She will pick up corn among the hogs and will search and scratch for smaller grain anywhere on the farm. At the same time they will produce eggs satisfactorily or will set readily. In the different neighborhoods in which I have been I have always found some to agree with me in regardtothe common hen, and lean not but think that a few, at least, who read this will share my opinion, too Rooney Donovan. ►

HORSE TALK.

A prominent veterinary dentist speaks as follows about horses' teeth: “I have observed in stock farms in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, where I have been professionally called, that a common mistake among horse breeders is not .to attend to the second growth of teeth in their colts, and not to examine whether the first ones were shed before the second came. The result of this neglect, ill-growing teeth, indigestion, foul breaths, leanness; and although the horses may have a good appetite, his food does not seem to nourish him because improperly masticated. All this combined makes a horse what is commonly called a puller. A wolf tooth in a colt hurts him when he is bitted, and,gives him a bad mouth to drive. Many a horse has been called vicious or unmanageable which only had bad teeth. Budd Doble says the promise of a trotter depends on getting him in condition and fit to trot a race without becoming injured or broken down. The muscles must b.c hardened, the appetite keen, the lungs in good working order, and the.feet and legs protected from injury by every siSely appliance known.

Progressive agriculture has sustained a serious loss in the death of Colonel F.-D. Curtis, of New York, distinguished as a dairyman and writer and conductor of the travel* ing dairy schools of his own State. He died on May 29 in the midst of his work, he having been seized with disease on the 26th, while conducting a dairy school at Cuba, N. Y. It is the small farm well tilled that is the profitable one. If thie farmers were to begin at once to out up their farms into small tracts of from ten to fifty acres each and sell the same for whatever reasonable price they could get for them, and thoroughly cultivatethe remaining acres, they would reap the harvest in lower taxes, in fewer fences, in better crops, quicker returns and less work and in less general wear and tear of the body and conscience and anxity,of mind. —Orange County (N. Y.) Farmer.