Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1894 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

Good Timas In lowa. - . Farm and Ranch. An intelligent lowa man says that in- his State it would hardly be ‘known that there was any trouble ■ did not the newspapers tell them of it. In the eastern counties of Wisconsin, where cheese-making is an important industry, the shadows of adversity are thin. There are about twenty counties in Minnesota that have from five to twenty-three creameries in prosperous operation. They are mostly in the southwestern and central parts of the State, and it.will not be« questioned that they are just now the least of ail disturbed about financial matters. In any State the farmers who are doing the best are those who have got a little stock about them—-those who raise barley, rye, potatoes, and perhaps corn or flax, who have a generous dairy and poultry department, something to sell every month in the year, are the ones who are prospering. Keep Front Out of CeUnrs. Ordinary farm cellars in which are kept canned fruits, cabbage, celery, potatoes, turnips, apples, etc., can usually be made warm enough to keep out frost says the Orange Judd Farmer. To do this it is necessary, sometime before holidays, to carefully and effectually close up all windows and doors, of course allowing proper ventilation which is one of the essentials of a well kept stor-age-room. For this purpose use saw dust, straw, or any other available packing material about the windows. If the cellar is reached from the inside as well as from without the outside door can be treated the same way. If this work is properly done, the stores may be expected to be safe during any reasonable weather. But it often happens that at some time during the winter season an unusually cold spell of weather makes it necessary to use some additional means for keeping out the frost. If the chimney extends down into the cellar put up an of& stove and during the worst weather keep up a littie-fire.~ remembering„no| to raise the temperature too high for -that will injure the contents of the cellar. Simply keep the air a little above freezing point. A very little fire will effect this. If a stove is not practicable the same results can be obtained, probably with less trouble, ’ by using a kerosene heater. These are large lamps with broad wicks which can be obtained for a dollar and sometimes less. They are used . on camping excursions for cooking | and are sometimes called kerosene ' stoves. One of these placed in a cellar and the wick adjusted to keep I up the required temperature willl need attention only once or twice a day and will be found most effective in keeping out frost during very severe and long continued cold weather. Notes. Pea meal is an important article in Canada for milk cows, and it is also excellent for growing stock. Experiments in growing peas for cattle food in this section have been few, but it is claimed that where dairy farming is a specialty peas may be made one of the crops with profit. E. J. Jempson, of Oquawka. 111., writes: “Will some of the Inter Ocean’s correspondents answer the following questions for me? When shall alfalfa be planted in northern Illinois? How much seed is required per acre, and something about the culture and time for cutting?” One acre, says the Indiana Farmer, will supply fifty hens at less cost for extra feed than for a cow, and the profit, if the flock is well managed, will be greater than from the cow. Fowls need land for forage, and hens on a range will lay more eggs and fatten more quickly for market than in confinement. A potato grower in Wisconsin, after trying corrosive sublimate for preventing scab on potatoes, says it was a success. He had a tank made in which he put 225 gallons of water and two pounds of corrosive sublimate. This would cover thirty bushels of potatoes. In the process of soaking 560 bushels he found it necessary to add, a little ata time, 1(0 gallons more of water, in which be dissolved one pound of sublimate. The potatoes remained in the water from one and a half to two hours. Regarding alfalfa Professor W. J. Beal, of the Michigan Agricultural College, writes as follows in the Michigan Farmer: “I have been experimenting at the Agricultural College and watching the behavior of alfalfa, or lucerne, in various portions of the §tate for nearly twenty years. I have seen no place in Michigan where it could be called profitable, except, perhaps, to mix with clovers and grasses for permanent mowing. It is a poor fighter, starting rather late in soring and stopping early in autumn, and at

such times June grass gets the start and usually keeps all it gets, and in a few years the alfalfa becomes; very scattering. Unless r J .ay land is quite inclined to be loamy and rich alfalfa is not promising even to mix with other seeds for a forage*crop. Young alfalfa usually remains very slender for a year or two after it is sown. In a paper read before a farmers’ institute Mr. L. Ervin, of Ohio, said: “The best grain food for the sow is corn and oats, equal parts, ground fine with middlings and bran mixed in according to circumstances, made into a and fed as soon as made. A little milk added is a great help, and at every feed of this give her a little dry ear corn. In this way the pigs will soon learn to eat, and I would rather start little pigs on dry corn than any feed I know of. They grow smooth and do not gorge themselves on it. Near weaning time ground oats and corn and middlings made into a thick slop in connection with dry corn if fed wisely will keep them growing their level best. But don’t let them get too fat, and if to go to market, as the new corn crop gets ripe start them on this to fatten, gradually easing up the stop, and the last two weeks they should have an exclusive corn diet.—Breeder’s Gazette. As we are transferring about one hundred colonies per month at this time (November), I will state for the benefit of others who might wish to transfer during fall and winter, that if your colonies are already large enough, and you wish to winter as cheaply as possible, it is best to cage the queens, as the transfer will stimulate the bees. The queens, if left to run loose, will begin to lay just like in spring, and consequently all their honey will be used before you are aware of it, and the bees will be in a starving condition. But if the queens are caged at the time the transfer is made, but little honey is wasted, and then when the first cool spell comes, say in a week or ten days, yoh may release the queens, and their fever will likely be over. Should you keep queens caged more than nine or ten days better look through and tear down all queencells, or you will likely have a virgin queen that of course will kill the old queen when turned loose. You will see that it is worse than useless to rear bees when there will be no need or use for them, much less the loss of honey consumed. But we transfer bees any day in the year, but guard against loss as above. —Mrs. Jennie Atchley, in American Bee Journal. The Rural New Yorker prints the answers of nine correspondents to questions asked about the profit and method of feeding cut bones. They all agree that it is a profitable food for winter feeding, but in warm weather is troublecome on account of the difficulty in keeping it on hand for any time. Five to ten pounds per day for 100 hens are used; fresh, raw bones are prepared; they cost, uncut, 40 to 70 cents per 100 pounds, and are sold after cutting at $1.40 to $2.50 per 100 pounds by those who make a business of cutting them. They are fed in connection with shorts, middlings, oats, corn, clover, and other green stuff, and are considered excellent for laying hens or growing chickens.