Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1894 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

Pure Bred Animals. Prof. L. Q. Roberts. The strictly pure-blooded animals of the best.quality are high priced". No breed can fit perfectly into every condition on but few farms. An infusion of the mixed blooded cattle of any locality is likely to give stamina and vigor to the pure bred, and such stock can be preserved more cheaply and more easily. Therefore, it is safe to advise the farmer to breed a variety of animals to suit his particular locality and wants. He should start with the best of the animals on the dam side Avhich he already has, because of necessity have in time adapted themselves to the food they have received, the land upon which they have grazed and the uses to which they have been put, and it is not good policy to introduce animals of different characteristics and qualities without very good and sufficient reasons. Success lies always in improving that which is already at hand, and I know of .no better way than to unite the successes of the plain farmer with his plain-bre<| cattle to those of the more skilled breeder of good-bred animals. To the man who knows how to use them, the pure breeds are of inestimable value. To the man who is steadily improving his animals, success comes quickly, and he finds that he is not only possessed of grades, but of valuable families of cattle, sheep, swine, etc. To this of domestic animals the pure-bred animal is a necessity, if he would accomplish his purpose quickly and cheaply. But the pure bred to the man who has plenty of money and little experience is a snare to the man who has little money and little experience the grades and varieties of animals are better than pure bloods. Since all breeds and varieties have been formed by steady and slow advancement. so all valuable qualities in any breed, variety, family or mongrel animals, must be secured by the same slow, painstaking process. The plebeian animal can easily be raised in a few generations to the dignity of a variety, and some of the best specimens will form as good foundation stock for new breeds as those which formed the beginning of the breeds which we already have. The United States needs a far greater number of breeds; the farmer needs tin infinite number of varieties; in fact, every farmer Should have a variety of cattle all his own, suited to his pastures, his feed bin, his skill, his climate and the purposes to which he desires to put them. The cattle should not be better than their owner —in time they will not be.

Lean Pigs. In spite of the general admission that the day of fat pigs have gone by, farmers are slow to learn the lesson, and the following circular, issued in England, is equally instructive reading in this country. “In consequence of so "many feeders continuing to make their pigs too fat, and the great difficulty we find in disposing of over-fat bacon, combined with the constantly increasing competition from foreign curers who are able to supply leaner meat such as the public require, we are obliged to take some very definite step to obtain leaner pigs. “We would impress on farmers the desirability of breeding or buying only such stock as are of good frame and growth, and refusing to feed, for bacon purposes, all short, thick pigs, which must prove as unsatisfactory to them as to us. They will undoubtedly best serve their interests by studying the public taste, thus creating an increased demand and consequently higher standard of prices for their pigs.” Money In Saddle Horses. Farmers should give attention just now to the breeding of saddlehorses, says the ‘‘Breeders’ Gazette,” for there has seldom been a time when the demand for good saddlery has Deen stronger than it is now in large cities. A handsome, well-trained saddle horse will bring from $250 to tst)o. There are two distinct kinds of saddle horses, each having its admirers. One is the type most fancied in England, and by American admirers of English fashions, the gaits being simply the walk, trot and canter. The other kind is the Kentucky saddler, which in addition to the above gaits, has the running walk fox-trot, rack«and pace. There is a good demand for both kinds, but both should have a certa ; n amount of training before they are ready for the market. It is not difficult, however, to do this, and where

there is someone about the farm who has a taste for riding, the raising of a few saddle horses and preparing them for market can be profitably accomplished. Separating the Cream. There is perhaps no division of farm economy in which greater progress has been made within the past 20 years than that of the separation of cream from the milk. The old mode of setting the milk away until the separation was completed more are less imperfectly, by variations in specific gravity, is by far too slow for the modern dairyman. Now the cream must not only be taken from the milk with great rapidity, but it must also be accomplished by the use of machinery, which has been so complete that the milk may be drawn from the cows, the cream taken out by rapidly running machinery and the milk and cream, in separate vessels, put away to cool in as little time as was formerly required for the operations of straining and putting the milk away. The application of centrifugal force for this separation was first discovered and applied to the separation of fatty matters from water and to the separation of liquids from the malt in European breweries. Slowly and by steady lines of improvement machinery has been adapted by the new want, and now the freshly drawn milk is poured into the vat, a faucet opened and it is run through the cent trlfugal at the rate of 1,500 pounds per hour and the cream delivered at one spout and the skim milk is another. So nicely has this machinery been adjusted to the needs of the dairyman that by the movement of a single set-screw t one. half or any portion of the cream may be taken out and the remainder be left in the skim-milk, or any desired proportion of the milk may be taken out with the cream. For several years past more or less complicated machinery, including a steam engine, was necessary to transfer the motion to the rapidly revolving centrifugal separator, but by the latest invention, now in practical use near Harrisburg, machineryis entirely removed, and the machine is now driven by a jet of steam direct from the boiler, and without the intervention of machinery of any kind, and, complete as this appears to be, it is still further improved by the use of a current of compressed and cold air instead of the steam.

The Production of Manure. Bulletin No. 56 of the Cornell University Station is devoted to th? discussion of the cheaper methods of producing valuable manure by feeding various domestic animals with different feeding stuffs. In the experiments the animals were kept upon tight floors and were littered enough with cut straw to keep them dry and absorb all moisture- The value of the resulting manure was estimated on the basis of prices paid for commercial fertilizers in the market, namely, nitrogen, 15 cents per pound; phosphoric acid, 6 cents, and potash 41 cents. The experiments showed that over 70 per cent, of the manurial value of the food consumed was recovered in the manure. It must be remembered, however, that the value is found chiefly in the liquid portion which is generally wasted. The values of manure recovered from 1,000 pounds live weight of animals, fed per year were, for sheep, $28.09; for calves, $24.45; for pigs. $60.88; cows, $29.27; horses, $38.94, The superior value of the pig manure is explained by the fact that these animals were largely fed on meat scraps. The tables contain valuable suggestions to the farmer and empha size the importance of practicing greater economy in the' care and management of barn manure.

Poultry Notes. Size in poultry is usually influenced by the hen. A change of diet is essential to good condition. Cleanliness keeps away disease and avoids loss. The Minorcas are said to be the coming breed. The medium-sized breeds are the most active and robust. If you want eggs you must make your poultry exercise, Dry-picked turkeys bring better prices than scalded ones. Raw onions chopped fine are said to be excellent for colds.. All kinds of poultry are very fond of milk, whether sweet or sour. Fowl that feather and mature early are usually good egg producers. Fowl d vi lea up into small flocks do better than when crowded together.

FIRST METHODIST CHURCH IN INDIANA. - Built in 1803- Still eluding three miles north of Charlestown.