Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1894 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

For the Bee-Keeper. | In making purchases of bees many ire apt to select the light and bright zolored Italians. With these we have never had as good success as with the darker strains. The best comb honey producers that we have found have been the hybrids or halfbloods. The only drawback attending these is their vindictiveness. They are tnore vicious and will not bear the handling that the full bloods will bear. We have had pure Italians that were exceedingly pentie, unless pinched or injured in some way. These will always defend their hives successfully from the moths. No one will be troubled with these pests, who will handle the Italians, This is a decided advantage and will justify every one to invest in the Italians. They are equal, if not superior to the blacks, as honey gatherers. They stick better to the combs and are in every way easier handled. The finding of a black queen is in many instances quite an undertaking. This is generally an easy task with the pure Italians. Let no apiarist be found napping, and the honey flow strike him unprepared. Now is the time ; ' awake from all lethargy and indolence, and engage in active preparation for handling swarms with dispatch. Set everything in readiness that can be done at present. Have hives made and painted, honey racks on hand and shipping cases ready to receive the full sections. If you have not a hiving box already, get one made at once. You can make it yourself. Get four boards of light’lumber, the lighter and thinner the better, eighteen inches long and six inches wide. Make them into a box, put one end in, and let the other lie open. Bore auger holes in all the sides and end piece, say one inch size. The more holes the better. Put this box on the end of a light pole, some twelve or fifteen feet long and you have a good hiving box. — Wm.Ballantine in American Farmer, Spring Management of Pigs.

tn the spring after grass and clover starts is one of the bery best reasons for securing a good growth at a low cost. This holds good with all classes of stock, and pigs are no exception. One of the principal advantages that pigs farrowed in the spring have over those that come at almost any other season is that with plenty of grass and clover the sows are able to supply the pigs with more and better milk, while as soon as the pigs learn to eat they will make a cheaper and better growth than at any other season. It is usually best to keep the sows in reasonably close quarters until the pigs have made a sufficient growth to run about well, which will usually be by the time they are, ton days old. Then they can be turned out and given the range of a good pasture. The feeding of the‘sow must be liberal and the material must be of an excellent nature in order to enable her to supply her pigs with plenty of milk. With both the suckling sows and growing pigs, clover is a better feed than grain, and while a very fair growth can be secured with grain or clover alone, in nearly all cases a sufficiently better gain can be secured by feeding grain in addition to make it profitable. But the grain must be of a character well adapted to the securing a good development of bone and muscle rather than fat. No one material is a complete ration, that is, it will not supply all of the materials needed to maintain a good growth at the lowest cost, and for this reason a combination of materials will in nearly all cases give the best results. But a different ration is needed for growing animals from wha.t should be given when fattening for market. So that bran and oil meal, ground oats or ship stuff will make a better feed, both for the - sow that is suckling a litter of pigs and growing pigs. Whenever the pigs begin to show a disposition to eat, a place should be provided where they can eat to themselves, and they should be fed regularly, increasing the rations as their growth and condition demand. But in the spring is not only a trood time to secure a good growth for young pigs, but it is also one of the best seasons to fatten, and especially when the pigs have been kept in a good, thriving condition during the winter. If thrifty with good pasturage, a month or six weeks of a fattening ration will be all that is needed to make ready for market, and this can be done at less ebst than if grain alone is depended upon.

Change of Food. Spring is the best season of the year for eggs and chicks, provided the hens are fed properly. Many people continue at this season the food given during the winter and then wonder why the birds do not lay. They might as well continue their fires and heavy clothing and feel surprised that they are disinclined to work. The cure is to be fouid in a change of diet. During the winter carbonaceous foods, as fat producers, were needed to sustain the heat of the body, but with the coming of warm weather this kind of flood should be greatly curtailed and nitrogenous

foods supplied in its place. A combination of the itfro is essential, as the carbonaceous food supplies the yolk of the egg and the nitrogenous the albumen. ' .............. Two of the most valuable of the nitrogenous foods are meat and bone. Fat meat must be avoided, as only the 1 einFwill aceuniplish the purpose intended, and this must be used carefully, as a hen will grow fat much quicker on meat than on corn. If skillfully fed the results are most satisfactory. An Unwelcome Insect Stranger. The United States Department of Agriculture will soon issue,an emergenoybulletintreating of the San Jose scale of California, sometimes called the pernicious scale (Aspidiotus Perniciosus Comstock). This insect, which is the most serious insect enemy which the fruit growers in California have to contend against, first made its appearance in the Eastern States last year, when it was found in the vicinity of Charlottesburg, Va., and the State Boardof Agriculture of Virginia with the help of the United States Department of Agriculture, has jus* completed a series of fumigating experiments which it is hoped have practically destroyed it in that locality. It has just been discovered in two other Eastern localities, at De Funiak Springs, Fla, / and at Riverside. Charles county, Md. In the latter locality it has severely injured an orchard of 300 peach and apple trees. How the insect was introduced into these three localities is not yet known, but it was probably brought upon nursery stock imported from California, and sold by Eastern nurserymen. The seriousness of this condition of affairs can hardly be exaggerated, and active measures will at once be taken to destroy the insect in all localities where it is found. It become? at once a matter of the

utmost importance to ascertain whether the insect is not present at other points hitherto unsuspected. The United States Department of Agriculture urges upon all fruitgrowers the importance of making immediate examinations of their orchards to ascertain whether or not this insect has made its appearance. The insect itself is a small, flat, round scale, a little lighter in color than, the bark of the tree, and will be found most abundantly upon the younger limbs and twigs. It is at this season of the year about oneand there is in the middle of each scale a small, elevated, shiny, blackish, rounded point./ Sometimes the center of the scale appears yellowish. The wood underneath the scale is apt to be discolored and somewhat purplish. When the insect is abundant the bark is completely hidden by a close layer of these scales, which are then hardly distinguishable to the naked eye, and give the appearance of a slight discoloration or a slight roughening of the bark. No other scale upon apple, pear, peach, cherry or plum, possesses-these characteristics, and the insect ought, therefore, to be readily distinguished when present. ■ ' - Fruit growers finding this scale in their orchards should at once notify the department and sene, specimens. The emergency bulletin, which will give a full account of the insect, together with the best means to be used against it, will be sent to all applicants as soon as published.