Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1892 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

• ■ - - . • House for Poultry. ’>he plans given are from a poultry house that I built in 1890, writes Daniel Brown to the Ohio Farmer. It is a lean to shed ;. that is, it was built against another building. It is 21 feet long by 8 feet - Wide. The foundations were made by digging a trench and filling it with broken stone well sledged down. Then two courses of hollow brick or building tile were laid in cement mortar. The sills were 2 by 8 inch planks, studding 2by 5; rafters the same; sided up with 1 inch drop siding ; lined on the inside with surfaced and matched Norway flooring ; roof sheeted with same ; over which was laid tarred paper, with a steel roof over that. The walls were filled with fine coal cinders and the floor was filled with cinders to within 2 inches of the upEer edge of the lower course of brick, luring filling it was kept well

rammed down. On top of this I spread about li inches of cement mortar, taking care to keep it level and smooth. The perches are 14 inches above the floor; they are hinged to the wall, and so arranged that the framework does not come in contact with the wall. Tile other end of the perch frame is supported on legs resting on the floor: they are also hinged to the frame so that when frames are raised the legs will turn downward and be out of the way. This makes it very convenient to clean both perches and thfe floor. The nest boxes are arranged as seen in the cut. The teed trough is at the bottom of the long tier and the waterrough at the bottom of the short tier. The dotted

line shows gate opening from feeding room to perch room. The lower row of nests is on a level with the perches, the upper row 1 foot above. Outside the lines on the nest frames are boards 6 inches wide to give the hens easy access to the nests. The next boxes are closed at one end. When a hen is given a brood the box is turned ,so that the open end is in the feeding room. Over the nest frame a wire screen is hung to the rafters, making two apartments. The nest frames are movable. The cost of the building is as follows: One day digging and filling trenchs 2.25 Sixty hollow brick. $7.00 per hundred 4.20 Two barrels, Akron cement.. . 2.60 Mason and attendant one day 2.75 Three hundred and twelve feet frame stuff at $1.2.i per hundred 3.90 Eight hundred and ninety-four feet siding lining and sheeting at s2.co per hundred .. 17.9 S Four windows complete r.ai Carpenter work 6 25 Two hundred and seventy feet root at so.oo per 103 feet. 14.50 T0ta1........ $59.43 A Homemade Fruit Drier for Use on the Farm. With the price put up on glass jars until only th? rich can buy them there is danger of a scarcity of good fruit for apple sauce, pies and turnover next year, to say nothing of preserved peaches and pears. The e fruits may be dried and kept and will pay for the labor and material. A homemade evaporator that will dry qualities of fruits is shown in the cut. A box 2x2x31 feet long is made without bottom or top. Two partition 3 inches apart are put in the middle. These are merely vleats

nailed to the sides 4 Jnch s apart on which to slide frames holding the fruit. The frames are made Ix 2 feet of lath and covered with poultry net, then with cheesecloth. They are slid in lengthwise and with the inner side highest. Stand the box on bricks over a stove. If the fire is very hot more than one brick may be needed .under each corner. Care must be taken not to burn the lower frames of fruit. —A. J. Simpson, in Farm and Home. Hint* for I‘nrmnrg. When laying drain tile those who have tried the wor-k claim that it con be clonfiJbettev when the deeper portion of the drain is made last, and that tile laying should begin at the outlet. * , Old strawberry beds are especially subject to blight and all the other fruit diseases. It nays to renew the liede often. But to lessen the danger frem blight burn the beds In the fail. Field mice will never overrun a

field where owls exist in large numbers. The principal food of owls js mice, and they diligently hunt for them in the most favorable localities for procuring them. Make an experiment in drainage by tile, draining thoroughly the wettest and heaviest acre on the farm. Then grow a crop of clover, follow it with wheat,-and see if the increased yield does not pay back a large in teres ton the cost of the drainage. —==. - Changing the cows from one pasture to another not only promotes the appetite and permits of a greater variety of food, but also allows the grass "on the pastures to better stand dry seasons. It is a ~mistake to allow cattle to graze a pasture too ■ closely. • - - /.—,-i. .. Danger of Smut hi Wheat. Millers are expressing a good deal of anxiety concerning the wheat crop of 1893, Much of the wheat that has recently come in is smutty, and it is feared that unless proper precautions are taken that the crop of next year will be most seriously damaged. Smut in wheat is caused by a parasite, and when this parasite has appeared one year it is likely to be far more prevalent during the following year. Millers are sending out warnings against the impending danger. It is recommended that, before seeding, wheat lands be liberally treated with bluestone. In case this is done it is believed that there will be little smut next year. But if this precaution is neglected millers say the loss will be very heavy. ..Xi...

A Sliding Farm Gate. There are still large sections of country in which even cheap gates are rarely to be seen. The rail fences have to be laid down every time a field is entered. The hinge gate requires some skill to make, and the posts used must be heavy and well and firmly set. The illustration of a very cheap gate, engraved after a sketch iu the American agriculturist, I shows a gate that any farmer who

can use a coarse saw and drive a nail ’ can readily make. It is designed for i a place where small stock are re-1 strained. For a full gate cut the cross pieces of the same length as the front, and add two more boards. , There are two posts for each end of the gate, and they may be just the ordifary post, with no extra bracing, as the gate slides on the cleat nailed to the back posts. It will be ob-! served that the back posts stand so that the cleat can be nailed to the front edge of one and the back edge of the other, giving room for the gate to be swung around toward the side of the post furthest back. When the gate is closed the front end rests on the"cleat nailed to the front posts. | A barbed wire may be stretched across the top.

» Floor for'Hog Feeding,. . . The floor, says Farm, Stock and Home, is built adjacent to the corn crib for convenience in feeding, and is just the height of the bottom of a wagon bed. When it is necessary to load hogs for market the wagon is

backed to the platform, the end board taken out, a gate in the fence opened and without noise and trouble the ' pigs are enticed into the wagon. in feeding, only so much corn is thrown on the floor at one time as | the hogs will eat up clean. The floor is c’.eaued off every day. The hogs are not fattened on corn alone, but are turned out night and morning to take thercorn ration on the feeding floor. Peas, while last and steamed ground feeds make up the between times rations to fattening hogs. A. J. Goode asks through the Farm, Stock and Home the following question : “ What tiftie or age is the best to breed ewe lambs ? ” To this Mr, C. L. Gabrilson, of lowa makes answer as follows : “It *is conceded by sheep men that it is not wise to allow ewe lambs to yean until the second year. This is more particularly true of* the more highly improved breeds, and these de not come into heat so early as the lambs of common sheep ; neither are the motherly instincts as well developed, so that there is more apt to be trouble about their owning the lambs. We believe that Mr. Goode will in the end be better satisfied to make haste slowly in increasing his flock by breeding the lambs.” An excellent quality of bay rum may be easily prepared us follows: Dissolve ten cents’ worth of magnesia in two quarts of rain water, odd two quarts of alcohol aud one ounce of the oil of bay, Make a funnel of filtering paper and pour the mixture slowly .through it, bottle and cork tight!;, In using dilute it with rain water to any strenth required.

STOVE

HOG FEEDING FLOOR,