Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1893 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

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.