Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1893 — Page 6

FARMS AND FARMERS.

BROWN"' LEO HORNS. Numbered with other popular varieties of poultry is the Brown Leghorn. This sprightly bird is to be found everywhere—in the farm poultry yard, in the back yard of the city resident, and holdinga conspicuous place among the favorites of the fancier. Such a wide distribution betokens solid merit, for while the fancier cares particularly for form and feather, the farmer, the farmer’s wife and the city housewife want eggs and flesh. The Leghorn will

give as many of the former as one could reasonably ask a hen to give, although individual specimens will not furnish as great an amount of flesh as individuals of some other breed. As for beauty, it is difficult to find birds of more pleasing color or graceful form. It is iiot generally known that Brown Leghorns can be bred to quite a large size, writes Webb Donnell, a Massachusetts poultryman, in the Country Gentleman, from which this cut is reproduced. Mr. Donnell, who favors decreasing the size of the comb as usually seen ou leghorn fowls, says: To get the greatest possible value from the breed, the chickens should be hatched as early as possible. It is a great mistake to suppose they can well be hatched out late in the season simply because they mature quicklj'. Batched fate, the pullets will rarely lay before the following spring, when eggs will shortly be at their lowest point. They should be hatched so as to be got to laying by the Ist of September. The six dozen of eggs which each one ought to lay between that time and late winter, meeting the highest prices of the year, will go a long way toward making the Leghorn one of the most profitable breeds. But if one expects to secure good results with these fowls, he must make up his mind to give them plenty of room and plenty of opportunity toindulge their passion for activity, for without such conditions they will prove exceedingly un remunerative. Looking at the breed from a fancy point of view, it should be the aim of the breeder to secure males with rich cherry red hackles, holding this color to the back, with a metallic black stripe through each feather; with rich black breast and bodies, and with wing bows of solid red, not

intermixed with black feathers. It is difficult to secure good striping in the saddle feathers, though... this should’be sought. It is desirable that the females should be of a rich deep color both on back and breast, rather than that faded, washed out appearauce so often seen. Such rich looking birds, with hackles that have a soldid black stripe, free from penciling, will prove a source of much satisfaction to their owners. —, Profitable Late Crops. There are quite a number of crops that may be grown late and some of them are more profitable than those that are early. An acre of late cabbage will pay better than two or three acres of wheat, and the late potatoes are one of the most profitable crops that can be grown. Buckwheat, millet, turnips, rve and fodder corn are late crops and will serve admirably as substitutes for some of the early crops that have been injured by drought. The most import ant crop at this time is turnips. No crop can be grown more easily if the land is well prepared, and though the labor required at first is costly compared with some crops, the plant will soon get a start and mature in a short time, giving a large yield and producing au excellent winter food. The plowing of the land for late crops is often deferred until about the time for putting in seed, which is a mistake. The proper course to pursue is to plow the ground several weeks ahead, so as to give the weeds a chance to grow up, when the cultivator should be used while the weeds are small and as fast as they appear. By bo doing the soil is kept loose and the ground put in excellent condition for a turnip crop, as the greatest difficulty with turnip growiug is the destruction of weeds while the turnip plants are very small. It is cheaper and easier to kill the weeds with a cultivator before seeding to turnips than to do so later in the season by working in the rows with a hoe. Each plowing also permits of broadcasting the manure and working it well into the soil, thus rendering it more serviceablein supplying plant food when the crop is ready for it. Some farmers will not grow a crop that requires much labor, preferring to cultivate a whole field with the least labor, and selecting 6ome crop for that purpose. They lose sight of the fact that it is the labor which gives gives a crop its value, and that when selling their crops they sell the labor also. Market gardeners cannot afford to grow crops that can be produced with but little labor, as they cannot secure good priqes for such. It is the labor the farmer should aim to sell, and he should not

hesitate in growing those crops that afford him an opportunity to bestow his labor thereon as long as the’ prices In market are an inducement for so doing. The potato crop demands more labor than some others, but the yield is larger and the profit greater. Cabbages require frequent cultivation, but an acre of cabbages, if choice and large, is a valuable crop. Much labor can be saved by using the most improved implements for she work to be done, but the l3te crops should not be overlooked, because all the work required can--not be done with the house hoe or the cultivator.

WMhlng Sheep. A very strange argument has been started in favor of the-- washing -of sheep. It is said that the washing causes the yolk to" rise, and that in the course of the week that elapses between washing and shearing there is as much yolk accumulated as replaces the “weight of dirt lost by washing.’’ Of course, scientifically, this cannot be correct. Those who have made the subject of wool the study of their lives know that the great objection to washing the sheep is that it destroys the fibre by dissolving the yolk or suint.

—ls once this suint is removed from the surface of the fibre the scales are left without protection and subject to attrition from friction with neighboring fibres, which breaks their fine, d 1 .ate, free margins, destroys their lustre and injures the flexibility of the fibre. So long as the fibres arc enswathed in the suint all dirt or foreign matter is prevented from coming in contact with them, for even if dirt is present it only cakes in the suint and not in the fibre, and when it is washed thesuint dissolves and leaves the dirt* free to fall off without any injury to the fibre itself. When sheep are washed with the wool upon their backs the suint is dissolved off the surface of the fibres and the fibres themselves are left dry and hard, and even when they do not felt they never regain their suppleness and natural Condition again. ~~—~ The damage done by washing wool on the sheep’s back is the destruction of the yolk, and the idea that in a week after a washing as much yolk would accumulate as had been developed during the preceding year and ruthlessly washed away is a somewhat remarkable one.

NOTES. For currant worms spray with white hellebore and water. The hog is a good animal to keep in connection with the dairy. The clover crop is very valuable both as a seed and as a soil renovator. Excess of milk can not be more profitably disposed of than in feeding it to growing pigs. Pinching back the new growth on the berry vines increases the bearing surface and keeps the bushes low. Ewes that have proved themselves good mothers, and especially if they produce twins, should be kept in the flock uutil they are at least five years old. The Newton (Iowa) Journal says the pig crop promises to be a very short one. While somebreedei’s are having ‘duck” with the new litters, the majority of them are having the reverse. In some instances the sows and all the pigs are dying —in many eases, not more than one or tw> of a litter or of a half dozen are being saved. There seems to be no good reason for this state of affairs, the cold, w r et spring being the most quoted one. There will be more 8cent pork in the fall or we miss our guess.

A well-to-do farmer said to us the other day, that one of the most profitable things that he had got out of reading aud study of dairy matters, was the value of skim milk. He said that he used to consider it of but little account but that was because he was ignorant of the best way to handle it and feed it. He now considers it worth at present prices for pork at least thirty cents a hundred. Every farmer who is a patron of one of the cheese factories if he has a mind to can make double the money he does by taking his skiin milk home and feeding it properly.

Peter Dillman, a 27 year-old Prussian died in the Brooklyn hospital the other day, after a week of intense suffering from glanders. He had been employed on Barren island, where the city dumps dead animals, and among them was a glanderei horse which Dillman skinned. He contracted the disease through a small, insignificant sore on one hand, aud had suffered for some time before seeking hospital aid. From the first, of course, there was no hope of recovery All glandered horses should be killed and buried deep as soon as the disease is discovered. : Lewis Clack, of Beloit, Wis., recommends dry corn fodder for small farmers who have not the means to build a silo. He thinks that much failure in the use of dry fodder has been occasioned by not cutting early enough, by too small shocks, and by not having them well balanced or well tied at the top. In <the winter he cuts the fodder, mixing the grain with it and stirring in enough watei to stick the grain to the cut-corn fodder. If it stands and soaks a little before feeding, all the better. He says it is always sweet with no loss and no injury to butter oi cheese. He lets the fodder stand out''till late into the cold weather.

THE WORLD’S FAIR.

Indiana's Building A Booster Trysting Place—lts Merits - i and Demerit*. i Mary H. Knmt !n Chicago Inter-Ocean. The Illinois and Indiana State buildings have fallen under the ban of the Review of Reviews.. By that high authority both have been pronounced inartistic, and consequently unsuited to the purpose for which they were designed. The press of Indiana is disposed to take sides with this captious critic, and many and poignant are the complaints that have gone up from Rising Sun to Winamac concerning the niggardliness of the Legislature, and this, its latest monument. The State commission and the executive com-

THE LATE MRS. HARRISON’S CHINA.

mittee have also come in for their share of blame; but merited or unmerited, their work is done, and the building stands completed, and must be accepted for what it is worth. The building has one merit, at least. It is not of oppressive dimensions: it is modest both in its assumption, and its actual effect and it is rather pleasing in form. The numerous windows are specimens of the best Indiana plate glass, famous now the world over. The floors are paved with Indiana encaustic tile, find the custodian will tell you, with an a’.r of pride, that the immense chimney piece with its ornamentation if not quite perfect fleur delis, is of the famous Bedford stone. He will probably add that these quarries send stone everywhere, for the foundations of all important structures. The piazza of the Indiana building is a scene of continual reunions. If you want to see a man from Vincennes, or a cousin from Muncie, or your uncle who lives in Crawfordsville, and is a near neighbor of Lew Wallace, you will. probably find him here. He will either be resting—the average Hoosier love to rest — or he will be listening to or telling” a good story. The people'are a race of story-tellers,usually humorous, and there is scarcely any crisis in life in which he or she will not pause to give you an apt illustration, beginning, “That reminds me.” For myself, I should consider a trip to the World’s Fair incomplete if I did not visit the piazza ana re-neno-w old acquaintances and refresh myself with reminiscences that are always of interest. I have never yet failed to find the friend or hear the story. You will see on the veranda every type of the Indianian —the wideawake little school teacher collecting statistics like a lightning calculator and comparing voluminous literal notes with sister school ma’ams. There are fledgling students from the dozen or more universities of the State —making the most of their all-too-brief vacation—doctor, lawver. judge, merchant, and farmer with “ma and the girls.” Frequently we hear an astonished ejaculation: “Why, are you here? When did you cOme?” On my last visit a tall boy of seventeen came up to me and asked, with a faith in my omniseence that 1 regretted must be disappointed: “Have you seen Aupt Ann?” I had never seen him before and was in equal ignorance as to Aunt Ann’s identity. A dour, bewildered

ON THE PIAZZA, INDIANA BUILDING.

old woman shortly afterward Inquired if I had seen Mrs. Webster; “she had promised to meet her by

the big fire-place. It was Mrs. Webster from Tippecanoe oounty.” Among the visitors on this same occasion was a dark-eyed, dark-com-plexioned man, with hair and beard tinged with gray. He looked out across the level grounds and his eye scanned the noble buildings rising against the blue sky—a mass of dazzling towers and turrets. He gazed a few moments in silence; then he exclaimed: “I take off my hat in reverence to the genius that could conceive and execute so great a work as this. It has no parallel in the history of civilization.” The speaker was General Wallace. Indiana’s- building is criticised because of its bareness. But frqm the first it was never intended that it should be a place for the - display of an exhibit. It was designed only as a clubhouse, plain and comfortable, to be used by the people and their friends. There are no rich carpets or upholsterv to be spoiled by mud and dust, the furniture —much of it rattan—is light and cool, pretty and appropriate. The decoration of the walls might be better, but there is nothing aggressively inharmonious in the coloring or the designs. On the first floor, in one corner of the main corridor, there is a register, and here at any time one may see a lengthy line—men waiting to inscribe their names upon its wide pages, and women imitating their patriotic example. It is safe to assert that, by the time the Fair closes, there will not be a village or a hamlet within the borders of the State that has not sent its quota of visitors. There arc several small reception rooms, all plainly, neatly and tastefully furnished. In that opposite the reading room is a handsoroa cabinet, containing a large collection of china painted by Mrs. Harrison, and kindly loaned by the ex-President. The designs are flowers chiefly, conventionalized or the natural forms, and the coloring is exquisitely done. It wiR be remembered that china painting was an art in which Mrs. Harrison excelled, and in which she delighted to employ herself. It was originally suggested that the only pictures admitted to the building should be those of the representative artists of the State—of Foresythe, of Steele, Gruelle and others. The commissioners, as a whole, are not competent art critics, and there were a good many of them who would not accede to this proposition. Had it been carried out and all family portraits and amateur work rigidly ruled out, regardless of the feeling of the owner or the artist, a notable and beautiful collection might have been shown. Steele, however, is represented by one or two excellent specimens of his work, pre-eminent of which is a fine group of beeches. The picture has been well hung, and merits the place that has been given it. Foresythe also contributes one good landscape, and there are several others that deserve honorable mention. There are photographs of ex-Pres-ident Harrison and Secretary Gresham and other eminent men.

LUNCHING IN “INDIANA”.

There is an interesting collection of portraits in the State House in Indianapolis, of the Governors of Indiana, which, it was hoped, could be borrowed. The Legislature, with its customary desire to bring the State into discredit, refused to lend the collection, and it was not tp be had without the sanction of the members. The Indiana solon needs to learn the difference between economy and parsimony—but it is a pity his education in this direction could not have begun before the last session. The State would have made a better showing in the Exposition. On the topmost floor there is a big base room furnished with chairs, tables, and water-coolers. The floor is covered with Hneoleum. This is the lunch room. The Hoosier is told that he can not eat his luncheon on the piazza or in the reading-room, but the colored porter' will direct him to this apartment and here he can spread out the contents of a box or basket with no fear of violating any rules. And such luncheons as one sees! There are pyramids of fried chicken —country chicken compared to which the Chicago product is a pale specter —“light bread,” and. yellow butter, pie, cake, jelly, pickles, cold ham and tongue, and all in such abundance, and divided, right and left, with such generous hospitality that no wonder the name of Indiana is synonqmous with good living. They are very gay parties —the men and women, the boys and girls who discuss these imDromptu feasts, and the conversation and the eating progresses in enual ratio. Everbody has seen everything, and the discussions as to the comparative merits of the respective exhibits are well worth hearing. ( Upon the whole, there is no pleasanter place to while away an hour or •o than in the Indiana building.

THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

Some Interesting; Information Concerning the Colossal Enterprise. Cyrus Adams in X. Y. Sun. On the Pacific coast of Siberia in 1891 the Czarewitch turned the first sod of the great Trans-Siberian Railroad. The work was pushed from both ends of the line last year. From Vladivostock (Empress of the Orient), whose sanguine inhabitants delight to think that their little town will yet become another Constantinople, the line has already been carried up the Ussuri branch of the Amur River, nearlyffQQmiles. At-the-wqst end of- the— line track laying is advancing slowly toward: Omsk, and 1897 has been proclaimed as the year when the longest railroad in the world, 4,650 miles iff length, shall be completed, though it is more likely that it will only be under good headway then, nnd that at least a decade will elapse before the last nail is driven. It is estimated by the Russian officials in

THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD.

charge that the entire road will cost 350,000,000 roubles, about one-tenth of which they say will be expended every year until the great work is finished, ten years from now. As a business venture the western part of the line may undoubtedly be made profitable; but no one knows whether the whole line can ever be made to pay its operating expenses and a fair return on the enormous capital invested. The extreme western section of the line now building starts from the little town of Tchelvabinsh. on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains. The town is already connected, or is soon to be joined by rail, with the two Russian lines that push through the heart of the iron mining region of the south and central Urals. Fi-om this town the road is extending southeast toward Omsk, 495 miles away, the capital of western Siberia. Good things are often far to seek, and so the Siberian road toward the land of promise must, at the outset, push across the barren and almost useless waste, skirting for nearly half the way to Omsk the northern edge of the salt steppe of Akmolinsk (White Tomb), the home of the Siberian cattle plague, and wide areas utterly destitute of timber and sweet surface water. North of this barren region and along the railroad line between Omsk and Mariinsk ’fend in the wide areas around Tjumen, Kurgan, Jalutorvsk, Tobolsk, Barnaul and BtlSk is a portion of western Siberia that will, in time, become a garden. In area it is as large as France, and it is capable of supplying as large a population. The policy of the government todqy is to encourage and facilitate the removaT'of the superfluous population from those parts of Russia that are most likely to suffer from failure of crops and consequent famine. The fertile areas of western Siberia ne6d this surplus labor, and the Czar’s government urgently seeks by means of the hundreds of thousands of toilers who can now hardly keep soul and body together in Russia to

bring these millions of acres under cultivation. Emigration from the mother land to these great wheat fields cannot now be carried on upon a large scale because of the cost and difficulty in reaching them; and yet from 1885 to 1891 188,000 people left Russia'to make new homes in this part of Siberia, and that in spite pf the fact that they have as yet very limited facilities for sending their produce, to exterior markets. What the country needs is large colonization, and this cau come only when the western section of the great Siberian road is completed. It is proposed simultaneously with the building of the road through this great fertile area to colonize a strip of land from thirty to seventy-five miles wide on both sides of the' line; and this project brings into view a striking difference between the' Trans-Asian railroad and our own i transcontinental lines. The Siberian railroad will have no great trade centers on the borders of the Pacific, at least for years to come, and, without colonists to fill up the fertile regions of western Siberia, the railroad cannot be justified on practical, economic grounds. The development of western Siberia is about the only element of undoubted practicability in the whole scheme. In the government, of Tomsk, a ... 'V. . .. Ik-

branch line south of themain line to Barnaul and Bisk “in ihe mining regions of the Altai mountains, will afford the road another important aspect. There are practical men who bqjieve that gold mining will be developed here that will compare favorably with that of California, Australia and the Transvaal. However that may be, there is a great deal of the precious metal in the Altai mountains, and the railroad will give an enormous impetus to this valuable part of Russia’s domain, which never can be properly developed until steam communication joins it with the European system of railroads. We see. therefore, that that part of the fatlroatr which ends toward the east akor near K rasitojarslLhaa . roost practical ends in view in the development of colonization, agriculture and mining. The total trade of Vladivostock amounts to only 7,000,000 roubles a year, showing that Russia’s seaport on the Pacific as yet. cut® only ah insignificant figure in the trade of European Russia with its Asiatic territories. East of Ivrasnojarsk there seems no prospect for many years of developing trade that will add largely to the receipts of the road. In the first place, the most, serious problems of building the line are found cast of Krasnoyarsk. The only important bridges to bp built through western Siberia are those crossing the Irtysch, Ob. and Yenissei rivers. There are some areas of good soil between Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, the capital of eastern Siberia, but, western Siberia is so much nearer markets and affords to colonization schemes such superior inducements that there is no prospect of anything but a very sparse settlement of the eastern plains for many years to come. There is on the southeast shores of"-Lake Baikal and in the valley of the Selenga river, which is the warmest district in all Siberia, and has been called “the Siberian Italy,” a region of surpassing fertility, From Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean the road will present great engineering difficult^ 1 -', and is destined always to be almost void of population. There is no cheerful financial outlook for this part of the route, embracing about half of its total length. Besides the Pacific sea trade, which Russia hopes to stimulate by means of the Siberian railroad, it also proposes to build a branch line from Kiachta to the Siberian road, in the hope that this will again revive the caravan trade from north China.

It is questionable, however, whether Russia will be able, to afford advantages in the way of cheap freight rates that will enable her to compete successfully with the present well established trade routes to Asia. It is, besides, very doubtful if she can make much headway in competition with European and American powers, that have left her far behind in the struggle for the trade of south Asia. Russian writers also seem to overlook the fact that their Pacific port of Vladivostock is closed by ice several months in the year. In fact, as a highway for the world’s trade the present prospects for the Siberian railroad do not seem flattering, and, figure as they may, publicists of Russia have not succeeded in convincing the economists of other nations that the trans-Asian railroad can be made to pay. I shall not discuss hero the military and political aspects of the enterprise; but it is really upon these features of the scheme aione, upon the necessity of consolidating her empire and facilitating the defence of her Pacific coast possessions, that Russia can at present justify the expenditure of' the enormous, agiount. of treasure’ which she proposes to put in her trans-Asian railroad. The western half of the road,' therefore, is an economic necessity whose development is required by the needs of a large and very valuable part of Russia’s territorial possessions. The eastern half of the road is probably destined to make the whole unprofitable as a commercial enterprise, and can be justified only upon grounds of political and military expediency.

Nutmeg Culture in Grenada.

Fortnightly Review. Nutmeg is becoming a source of much profit to many islands in the West Indies, and especially in Grenada. For many years the nutmeg tree has been grown; it is only recently that its cultivation has received serious attention. To start a nutmeg plantation the ground must be cleared at a cost of £(> per acre. Saman trees should then be planted 45 feet apart. Meanwhile the nutmeg seeds should be carefully reared in the nursery. In about two years the seedlings should be planted out. Unless the locality is very favorable, ten years must elapse before the trees begin to be productive. A large number will be of the male sex, and, as the proportion of male to female trees should not exceed one in thirty, the planter will have to cut down freely as soon as the spx is declared. It is reckoned that nutmegs should yield an annual profit to the planter of about 10s per tree.

Inherent Property Rights.

Walter L. Gilbert, of Plymouth, Mass., wants to find out whether a man can sell his own property. He is a raiser of trout in a pond that he ! owns, and the State law forbids him Ito sell them in the close season. He has made a test case by going to his pond and fishing out ohc of his own trout and selling it to a friend. He was arrested, and will test the constitutionality of the law.