Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1891 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

FnrroßiAL notes. Chicago Inter Ocean. ■ ■ The most practical and valuable information that can- be brought to the intelligently practical farmer is that which relates to the care and management of farm animals. But few farmers have any solid data of facts to draw upon derived from their own experience. To know just exactly which costs the most to produce, a pound of mutton or a pound of beef or a pound of pork is something not more 1 han on efarmer in a thousand ran tell, for the nine hundred and ninety-nine never keep exact records. "■ All of them can guess at it, may be, quite closely, but it is guess work after all. To be sure they put their money up on their, guess work, and embark in mutton feeding, beef feeding, or pork feeding, and many say they ought to know all about it as long as they are in the business. It is true they ought and they would know if they did not have such an universal contempt for keeping close exact records. Here is where the English and Scotch farmer cxceHs his American cousin. He is trained in the art of keeping books and records. He is not considered a good safe farmer unless ho can show what a thing eosts. That is just as great an advantage to the earnest thinking farmer as it is to the manufacturer. The dollars the farmer is to earn runs the gauntlet of ill luck and accident to as great an extent as the manufacturer's dollars. He should not be loaded down with an extra per cent of carelessness and indifference to sound rules of business proceedure. GCOD BREEDING SENSE, One of the most profitable things a farmer can do is to set squarely at work to post himself on the established principles of breeding farm animals. At the present time, and in the full blaze of the intelligence of the nineteenth century, we boliove that not one farmer in a hundredhas -=®ade such a study. It is mortifying in the extreme that there is such a vast amount of ignorance on these important questions. Of all men on earth the farmer should be a wellposted breeder. Of all men on earth he ought to have a library well stored with whaVthe _wisest breeders have said or written. Yet ninety-nine one hundredths of our farmers are absolutely at sea on the questions, How to breed a dairy cow? or how to breed for mutton? or how to breed a valuable roadster? Not only these but there are plenty of other questions connected with breeding, such, for instance, as breeding to a certain ex ? tent. We hear farmers every day talking against interbreeding and declaring that no good ever came from it. Now had these men studied the question as they ought, had they read the history of all the leading families of our domestic animals, they would see that breeding potency has been always established by more or less of inbreeding. Thor eis a mass of knowledge that the breeder mustjenowif he becomes successful, in breeding which the average farm-’ er seems to think is of no value to him. Yet he is the man who must raise the farm animals. He is the v roan on whom all progress, honor and profit to the community and State in this particular must depend. As he averages in knowledge and skill so will the country or State average. If the average farmer breeds from grade sires and has no clear, well defined ideas of the tools he is using and their effects the result will be just as it has been. The low average of milk, production per cow is due mainly to the low average of breeding sense and judgment among the fanners in that line. The average cow is just what the average farmer has made her. Certainly no man but he is responsible for her. There will never come any reform, any improvement of tW' khowledge and fort uno of the farmer until he changes his nabits and becomes more of a student.' He must use his mind, add to his •knowledge, enlarge his judgment, in short become a more intellectual man. With too many study and thought is distasteful. But every time they are punished for it. The mysterious forces of life, the deen problems that lie in the great question of breeding never unlock their secrets to the man who will not think, if he would think wisely toward expression he must study the expeperiences of others. Every sunken reef has been discovered at the expense of costly wrecks. The record ■of the reefs, as well as of the clear -water, constitues the literature of breeding as well as navigation. SMUT ON WHEAT. To the Editor—l have read the circular of F. S. Goff, of the Wisconsin Experimental Station, in the Inter Ocean, Sept. 1, on smut oh wheat. The treatment given will undoubtedly prevent smut, but to a Willamette valley fanner the solution seems very strong. He says to take two pounds of blue vitriol to eight gallens of water, which in my experience would be more than one-half pound of vitriol to each bushel of seed. . , I will give to your readers the treatment successfully used here to prevent smut And in the first place I would say that no successful farmer in the Willamette Valley ever thinks of sowing wheat either in the fall or spring, without first treating t’s seen in a solution of blue vitriol, and most of the farmers (though not all) treat oats in. Jbe same way. The rule is where seed is free from smut to take one pound of vitriol for every ten bushels of wheat, dissolve' in enough water to wet that amount of grain, whieh will likely require five gallons. It can be dissolved easily tfltelng it in a wooden vessel (a M very good) and cov «tog it with boiling water and crush-

ing with a stick of wood, after which add sufficient water.' For applying the solution spread the grain on" the barn floor, or in a light wagon box, or in a trough made f >r that purpose. Take an old fruit can and punch the bottom full of boles similar to those in a watering pot, set the vessel'containing the solution on the grain, dip out with the' can and sprinkle the grain, keep it well sti red so the solution will come in contact with every grain. The grain can be left on the floor to dry or put in boxes; it will be ready for use in twenty-four hours or less. As the grain is only wet on the outside it will soon drv. If the seed hassinut in it, it might be well to make the solution stronger. using double the amount ot vitriol, It would be well to use an old shovel for stirring, as vitriol is not good for steel. J. A. M’Culloegh. LOSS OF VALUE OF MANURE. The experiments made by the Cornell College Experiment Station as published in Bulletin No. 27. are attract ingwidespread attention from thoughtful farmers everywhere. We have alludi'd to the same iu, a previous number and frave some...of thcTacts. The question, however, is of such momentous value to the pros perity of the farmer that it should be commented upon frequently. “Precept upon precept and line upon line” is needed sometimes. Here is a short extract that shows up the matter in vivid light. It should be remembered that Professor Roberts handled the manure just as the average farmer does, except that he took pains to know just what the loss was from such handling. The value of the manure at the beginning was determined by chemical analysis the same as the value of commercial fertilizers is determined. Here is the statement, covering two years: Value per' Loss Loss ton at per per beginning. ton. cent. lESO—Horse manure in loose pile... . .....*1.03 .42 1890—Horse manure in . loose pUfr,...2.80 ' 1.74 .62 1890—Cowmswure. in - loose pile .. 2.29 .69 .30 1889 Mixed manure 1—7..' : thorougiy compacted 2.38 ,22 .9 Professor Roberts then adds the following statement and to give it full emphasis prints it in heavy blackface letter, as if in mourning at' this wkle-spread folly: “It seems safe to say that under the ordinary conditions of piling and exposure the loss of fertilizing materials during the course of the summer is not likely to be much below 50 per cent of the original value of the manure.” What an indictment of our thrift, intelligence and good farming sense s .ah a statement is.

COST OF MUTTON AND PORK. Almost every farmer raises bog¥ for market. If we should suggest that one can raise a pound of mutton just as cheaply, and, if it is lamb mutton, sell it for considerable mores than they could the pork, we think a majority of farmers would be inclined to doubt, especially the cost of production. Professor Henry, in in the seventh annual report of tho Wisconsin Experiment Station,gives the results qf entended experiments on this matter from which we take the following extract; Table showing food required for 100 pounds gain, with lambs: Feed Consumed. >j ■ea ■6 a ’“d 2m -j fa Ucn )J U 579 |3 47 803 20 60 2 30 913 64 131 8 S 3 801 181 218 3 18 861 320 4 SO ~T S9T 1 196 176 406 Professor Henry says: When we remember that full milk the past season has in some instances netted the farmers but 30 cents per 100 pounds, at the creameries, it will be seen that 60 cents per 100 pounds for full milk and 2 acents for skim milk are relatively high prices for these articles. The solids contained in the food must have been exceedingly well digested and assimilated to have ? reduced the gains here recorded. oward the latter part of the trial the cost increases considerably, but for the period immediately" after weaning the gain is certainly very satisfactory, when we remember that the lambs were being weaned from milk and placed on dry feed.’’ “For the purpose of comparison, a few figures are here introduced, from successful pig feeding trials at this station, to show the feed required by. pigs, in comparison with the above.’’ Food required to produce 100 pounds gain with young pigs: . J 654 lbs. sweet skim milk. ( 198 lbs. corn meal. • »■ q j 587 lbs. sweet ekim milk. fS&l lbs.xorn meal afed shorts.. p. With shotes: s j 661 lbs. sweet skim milk. 92 lbs. corn meal. v . 638 lbs. sweet skim milk. IS) lbs. corn meat “It seems Professbr Henry continues, “to think of feeding skim milk to lambs, but why not? It took the world a long time to find that calves could successfully be weaned from their mothers, and fed from a pail, and still longer to learn that fine animals could be reared on skim milk. May we not find that lambs can be given milk with profit? Under some the lamb should be forced ahead at the most rapid rate possible, and milk seems adapted to this purpose. It certainly seems possible that sheep might be employed to utilize waste products on dairy farms instead of hogs. But the purpose of this experiment was primarily to see if lambs could make as good use of their food as pic's. Certainly these lambs did as well”as any pigs we 'have ever fed. If we can come to fully realize that sheep can utilize their food as well as apy animals on the farm, we may be more willing to wait upon them.’’/