Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1894 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

Indianapolis Sentinel. If the Sentinel should assert that in this year of shortage in the corn crop tens of thousands bushels of grain was being burned for fuel in Indiana this winter the statement would be challenged by many who may be doing this very thing Corn, like coal, contains carbon. What matters it whether the corn be burned in a stove to give heat or in the stomachs of our farm animals to furnish them the heat they must have to withstand the cold of winter? The carbon in the corn, when consumed by fattening animals, can not be converted into fat until the demands for heat are complied with. Heat must be given first, and then any excess can be devoted to the laying on of fat. This ,s no fanciful statement, but the actual fact. Experiments have proven that it requires much more food to maintain an animal when exposed to the cold than it does when well housed. We should have realized this without experiment. The oils in the grain had to go to make heat in the former case, and in the lptter less was needed. We hav e often heard men say: “This cold weather is fine for our stock; the animals eat so much more heartily than they do in warm weather.” Of course they do. They must burn up more corn to make heat. The feeder is losing just that much grain. In warm weather less food is needhd to keep Up the same ration of gain in flesh. On the Western prairies, where corn is cheap and lumber is dear, it may be best to furnish the extra corn to animals to furnish the needed heat when the thermometer is down near zero, but this is certainly not the best way for the average farmer of the Central States. Close shelter that prevents the escape of much animal heat costs less than the food required to supply, the loss from stock standing exposed to the wind and cold rains. Stock barns need not be costly. We have seen comfortable shelter afforded by pens inclosed with straw. Still, it is better to make a more permanent shelter. Rough lumber will do for siding, heavy paper being used for lining, or even the boards alone faith good roof and bedding is fairly good. This winter there is much talk of economical use of the feeding stuff we may have. It is well to supplement the hay with corn fodder, and to use some straw, but first of all let us provide such quarters for all stock that the food will not be wasted in making nothing but heat. This is the first and most important step. Fattening stock needs little exercise. The more shelter the better, provided ventilation is good. Then, too, when all farmers are needing greater supplies of manure, it pays to house stock in order to get ■■he manure in a body, so that it can be applied where it will give the best returns. The Sentinel’s advice is: Protect all stock from the winter's cold. —*—

C’over as a Sub-Soller. " I am a firm believer in the value of clover as a farm crop, writes a correspondent of the Practical Farmer A few years ago the principal forage crop grown on our farm was timothy. Clever was sown, but was not considered a reliable crop, on account of lifting so badly by the action of the frost. The land bein<r what is termed white oak. the lower parts having an occasional burr oak and walnut, this latter being the best soil naturally, but for clover as unreliable as the higher clay points. Timothy grew well and yielded good crops on this land, but wheat was uncertain, and the yield of“the corn crop was dependent to a great extent on the nature of the season* if a wet season the crop would be light. We thomrht to increase our crops by manuring, sub-soiling and making an extra effort to grow clover, being satisfied that the soil would not improve by growing timothy. Manure did not improve the condition of the soil, in fact it appeared to grow heavier and more solid. By an effort ai sub-soiling, we had a failure of a corn crop. Clover d'd not do better than in years gone by. The clover crop we must have, an to secure it we set about to tile drain the land. This has made clover a safe and reliable crop. Its mechanical effect on our land is wonderful; for years the land had been plowed not to exceed five inches deep, any effort to plow deeper was at the expense of horseflesh and the fast wearing of plows, and a still greater risk of a crop failure on account of subsoil thrown to the surface. The depth at which the plows had formerly run was clearly defined bv the appearance of the soil on examination. Two or three good crops of clover in rotation with other crops has changed the condition of the so’l to suqh an extent as to almost obliterate the clearly defined line between the soil that had beeh turned by the plow, and the sub-soil. We found it an easy matter, under this condition of the soil, to increase the depth of plowing, and that without danger to the succeeding crop on account of new soil thrown to the surface. Clover is accomplishing for us a work that it would have been almost impossible to accomplish in any other way. By its continued use we expect to secure a working soil of any depth we may desire. With the knowledge we now have, we should not think of deepening our soil in any other way than by its use: it will do better and safer work in clay land than any sub-soil plow. As an evidence of returning good times the Philadelphia Record calls attention to the fact that “even the mills of the pugilists have resumed.”