Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1893 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

Winter On the Farm. Some of the best farmers are opposed to leaving the ground bare during the winter, claiming that something should be kept growing all the time to prevent the waste of available plant food. They always advise spring plowing for all spring crops. We are willing to grant that there is probably some loss of plant food, even on the flattest of land, from heavy rains, but it is beyond all doubt in our minds that there are many cases in which it is best to plow land in the late fall or winter. Some clayey soils need the action of frost to render them fit for the planting, and when they do not incline to run together in heavy rains, nothing can equal frost as a pulverizer. It helps make an ideal seed bed. In the case of potatoes early planting is usually the safest. In our and other States of like latitude the heat of mid-summer is too great for this crop usually, and the farmer who gets his potatoes up the earliest rarely fails to get the best yield, as they do much of their growing before August. In a majority of cases early planting is equally good for corn. Our most successful corngrowers like to plant early. Oats also do best when sown very early. When the land is left unplowed until spring, if there be much rain, some of‘the planting is delayed. In fact, it is the rule that much land is planted later than is desired, and the result is a phortened yield. Again, in the case of any pf these crops mentioned, a better crop can be raised on a rotten sod than a fresh one, unless we except corn on a late plowed sod that has a heavy growth of green stuff, and the summer proves sufficiently moist. The rule is that a rotten sod furnishes the most plant food and is the most easily prepared for a crop and tilled. A stiff, timothy sod turned over in the spring cannot be put into good phape for potatoes. It will not rot rapidly enough during the summer to meet the demands of the growing crop and is disappointing. Of course a clover sod is always better for potatoes anyway, but we have gotten big yields off a timothy sod. Clover turned under in April will lie only partially rotted all summer in the bottom of a furrow. Experience teaches that the rotting of a sod during the warm spells of winter is beneficial to this crop. Some doubtless practice fall plowing. To others we would say: If your fields will not wash, and if a heavy sod is to be turned for potatoes or corn, try the experiment of turning half of it this fall or winter. You will thus hasten the planting and at the same time test this matter for yourself. We believe that you will like the practice, get better yields in most years, and thank us for undertaking it.

Handling a Colt. Discipline should begin in the stable when the colt is tied in his stall, says Dr. Sprague. Then he is under the best possible conditions for being familiarized with the harness and other trappings, while tied with a halter. There is no better way to get the confidence of the colt than to associate feed with any duty required of him. This is one important means of success employed by those who train horses for trick performances, as they make it a rule to carry lumps of sugar in their pocket as a ready reward when the horse under training obeys the word of command. Whoever is to drill the colt will find that he can better gain his confidence if he is the one to feed him as well as to put him in harness. If the best disciplinarian, or perhaps it will be best to say the best educator, can not consistently be the feeder, then it will be well that he make the acquaintance of the colt while in the stall, and make his acquaintance agreeable.

Teach the young horse entire submission to the restraint of the harness, for this very restraint is likely to be one source of fright when the colt imagines he sees impending bodily danger. Hence we see young horses kick themselves loose from anything to which they may be bitched; nor are they relieved from the fright -until they shed the harness. Danger from this source can be averted more conveniently and effectively on the farm than anywhere else, and the young horse that is made accustomed while yet in the hands of his owner to the usual sources of disturbance will go into market materially enhanced in value. Those city dealers who are enabled to get top prices are those who recommend only such horses to their customers that are evidently trust-worthy,-not only under ordinary circumstances, but also under the exciting conditions that arise in a populous and noisy city. Gi\e the colt to understand he must do what is required of him, no matter how long it takes to do this. If he is being driven and stops, say whoa, and let him stand. Get out go forward, feel of the harness as though adjusting it, and if he is checked up, loosen the check, get in again, turn him a little to the right or to the left and get him in motion again, not permitting him to realize exactly how it was dbnmlt is an important secret, the making the act of going agreeable.

Our Experiment Stations. There are several chief reasons why the work done at our experiment stations is not of great value to the farmers, says the Rural New Yorker. Unfortunately, the majority .of station workers are at the mercy of a lot of politicians so far as the permanency of their positions go. Any one on the “inside” knows that this is so. The experiments of Sir J. B. Lawes are often spoken of as object lessons of what our station workers should do. These experiments are the results of many years of careful work. They are valuable chiefly because they give the average of many trials. How many men at our American stations can start such work with any hope of being permitted to carry it out? Positions in most of our stations are too insecure. People demand immediate results, and are not satisfied to wait for the slow working out of some important problem. This fact has led some of our investigators into the bad habit of starting out to prove a certain thing by experiment, and thus give all their operations a slight bias toward the desired result. This is popular but not accurate, and it leads to much conflict of authorities. There ought to be some change in the manner of conducting our experiment stations, or the whole thing will fall into disrepute.

THE CASTLE OF CHAPULTEPEC-—THE WHITE HOUSE OF MEXICO.