Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1894 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

LABOR SAVING .ON FARMS. If the farmer has contributed . but little himself to the 'number of implements. others have given more attention to those required for use on the farm than in any other branch of industry. There are more patents on farm implements than on other machinery, and every year witnesses wonderful improvements. It is by use of the latest implements, which have cheapened labor on the farm, to which lower prices of farm produce may be ascribed, but the profits from farming have been increased proportionately, considering the value of the labor bestowed on crops, compared with methods in use half a century ago. It is now possible for the farmer to ride and illow the teams to do all the work of 50wing or drilling the seed, ploughing or cultivating the soil and harvesting the crop. A boy can cut ind bind a whole field of wheat in a lay, where formerly a small army of men were required to perform the work and have it done at the proper time.

It is slow work introducing new implements on farms, and the former methods have been displaced only by force of competition. There are hundreds of farmers who have not vet accepted the improvements in implements, just as they as they are with improved breeds of cattle, and they place themselves at a great disadvantage with their more progressive neighbors. The slow farmer cannot compete with one who is quick to adopt the most improved appliances for culture, and he therefore must necessarily, sooner or later, be displaced altogether. The most costly item of expense on the farm is labor, and the markets are regulated largely by the cost of all articles. If an implement can cheapen the cost one-half it arms the competitor of the farmer with a weapon with which the competitor can undersell him or increase his profits to a larger extent. As a rule all labor-saving implements repay their cost in a very short time by reducing other expenses. Whether the farmer is willing or aot to accept better implements he will be affected by their use. He cannot escape them in any possible manner, Labor is essential, and when its cost is greater than the prices obtained the farm will not pay. Prices are fixed by the cost on ill farms combined, and the farmer who is not enterprising will have to perform double labor in order to keep pace with those who avail themselves of opportunities for saving labor and cost. There is but me remedy, and that is the use of the best implements and the best stock. If prices are reduced they will then be offset by greater production at less cost, and the farmer will still have large margins for profit proportionately, while the hand drudgery of the farm will be greatly lightened.

.«=>•’ FILTERING MILK. At the famous dairy in Berlin the milk is strained through wire seives covered with cloth, over which fine gravel is sprinkled. After the milk is strained the gravel is put in a hot oven, that any germ that may possibly have been strained from the milk may be destroyed. The gravel is thus used for filtering the milk any number of times. For the butter made at this dairy both sweet and sour cream is used, that made from sweet cream commanding the higher price. After the compartments containing a particular kind of milk are filled the wagon is locked and the milkman who delivers it has access to the supply only through the faucets on the side of the wagon.

ARGENTINA’S WHEAT OUTPUT. It will be well for us to look facts squarely in the face, and recognize that Argentine is the most dangerous rival tjiis country has in the production of wheat for the export trade. In the cheapness of her land and her labor she possesses enormous advantages which are not discounted as in tfyecases of India and Australia, by remoteness from the markets. Much stress has been laid upon the fact that her wheat crop is an uncertain one, owing to the poor methods of cultivation, Changeable seasons and ignorance of the means of protecting the crop from insects and diseases; to all of which must be added their lack of Improved machinery. While all this may be true of the Fiast, it is idle to expect it in the uture. We must realize that the same energy and enterprise which have brought Argentina by leaps and bounds to her present place in the front rank will be exerted to keep her there. Improved methods of cultivation will be studied and adopted as well as the means to contend against all of her foes, and while the lack of machinery is being rapidly overcome. Last year Argentina imported 12,000,000 worth of American machinery; this year she is going still further. She is calculating to.retain the money and render herself independent of the United States by manufacturing that machinery at home; to this end it is reported that her representatives are bargaining for an entire harvesting plant in California. The only means we have of meeting such competition is by reducing the cost of raising wheat Many think this has been already brought down to the lowest point But they are mistaken, as the future will un-

questionably demonstrate. — There are- many leaks on the farm which must be searched out and stopped, but the great jremedy is in intensive farming. We must do our work more carefully, Intelligently and scientifically, so as to improve both yield and quality at a diminished cost, and not after the fashion of many who raise this grain because it is one of the least laborious crops to grow. The last is the true explanation of the miserable yields obtained by many farmers. They forget it is the labor itself that pays, and not the crop, as the price of any article is largely governed by its cost for labor. —New York World. HOG RAISING. There is no doubt that the very general practice of breeding from a young sow, and after raising one or two litters fattening and killing her off, has impaired the hog constitution. A sow is not at her best until the second year. Before that she has been too busy growing to produce as many thrifty pigs as she is capable of. Again, there is a general belief that the digestion of the pig-is very good, and that any kind of food or quarters will suffice them. There nbver was a more mistaken notion. The digestion of the Dig has been seriously impaired by generations of exclusive corn feeding, a (Jiet which produces heat and fat, but does not develop bone and muscle. Hogs will eat nearly anything, but they must be given a properly apportioned diet if the best returns' are expected, and for this warm, clean, dry and well ventilated quarters in winter are also essential. -

There is no need of expensive styes but hogs require, equally as well as horses and cattle, to be sheltered from dampness and cold, and the temperature of their quarters should range between forty and forty-fivs degrees, never running down to freezing. The food of hogs should be given them in a cleanly manner, together with an abundance of fresh water. Salt is also as necessary to them as to other stock, though few people think so. In winter hogs will eat bright, green hay with a relish. They should be given a little cabbage or boiled potatoes or some other vegetable with their grain. Whatever the feed may be, only so much as can be at once eaten up clean should be given. The most perfect development does not result from the amount of food consumed, but from the amount digested and assimilated. To promote this development it is essential that regularity and quietude should prevail. Irregularity in feeding produces restlessness and fretting, which disturb digestion and cause waste of food; the animal receives a setback from which it sometimes never recovers. Exciteinejjtt has a similar effect on the hog, whose life should alternate between eating and sleeping. There is more profit in hog raising than in horse breeding, but in order to get it the hogs must receive the same amount of care and attention that would unquestionably be given the horse.

WHEAT AND OATS. Bulletin No. 34, of the Illinois Station, contains the'results of experiments with wheat in 1893-4. The varieties giving the largest yields in 1894 were New Michigan Amber, Yellow Gypsy, Crate, Rock Velvet, Royal Australian, Currel’s Prolific, Diehl Mediterranean and Missouri Blue Stem. The variety tests at the station did not sustain the claims made for wonderful productiveness of kinds recently introduced. Some of these appear to be identical with well known varieties. The results of seven years* experience at the station with oats show that it is not advisable to plow the land in the spring if the crop follows corn, the use of the disk harrow gives better results; that the seed should be sown near the last of March or first of April; that if sown broadcast it is better to sow from two and a half to three and a half bushels per acre, covering the seed not more than one or two inches deep; that there is no one variety greatly superior to others, so it is nqt wise to> put full credence in the claims often made for new varieties; that some varieties are,however, distinctly better than some others; that neither color nor pit mpness of kernels have the smallest percentage of husk and, probably, the greatest feeding value; that early maturing varieties are to be preferred to those ripening later, that it is desirable to harvest the crop before it is fully ripened, ‘ and that binding and shocking the sheaves at once is an advantage rather than a disadvantage if the grain is in a fit condition for cutting.

FARM NOTES. Go into winter quarters with as many young bees as possible. Most garden vegetables are gross feeders, for whom the soil can hardly be made too rich. The moment an animal ceases to gain loss begins, as it is making no return for the food consumed. ' Dairy salt is as sensitive as milk or cream to odors, and should be equally guarded from them. A good reputation for any product is a great help to its sale, and no temptation should permit the farmer to risk it by substituting an inferior . article. I It is said that if cabbages are put ' close together, with the roots deep , in the ground, and a furrow of earth turned over them, they will keep better than when the heads are j turned down.