Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1895 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARM AND HOME. Drainage Will Drive Away Craw flab —-Howto T<flt the Comparative Food Value of Potatoes—The Cause of Bmall Eggs—Average Yields of Corn Crawfish Land. The only way to cure crawfish land Is to drain It With the water taken away, the crawfish will leave or die. The only way to do this is with underdrains. It is hard to keep tile drains, as ordinarily laid, in order in crawfish land, as the varmints will everlastingly choke them or throw them out of line. I have had fair success with tiles in crawfish land by laying the tile on a plank. But the best way Is to drain as well as possible with drains made from pine poles, and then as the land gets dryer aifd the crawfish scarcer, run in the tiles between.. Itt digging the ditches for tiles In such land, you will find that the water springs strongly out of the crawfish holes along the bottom of the-ditch, while between will be tight clay.- Now if you lay a tile on such a bottom It Is evident that it will not be good long, but the drain made with three poles will carry off, and lower the level of, the water In the soil, so as to bring about conditions destructive to the crawfish, which will not stay with dry soil above them. I once circumvented them hv wrapping the tiles with bagging at every joint and extralarge tile. But the fact is that there Is little crawfish land that Is worth the expense of the underdrains. I would underlay a little piece in a field to make all uniform, but a large tract of crawfish land I would move away from, rather than try to redeem it.—Practical Farmer.

A Test for Potatoes. Prof. Goff, of the Wisconsin experiment station, mentions a simple way to test the comparative food value of it is an old custom to put a potato in water and stir in salt until the potato floats. But if several potatoes are put in together some will come to the top sooner than others. Starch, the valuable portion of the potato is heavier than water, and the tubers that contain most starch are best for the table, being mealy when cooked. By putting a bushel of potatoes into a barrel nearly full of water and stirring in salt, the tubers poorest in starch will first come to the top, and may be p'icked off. By stirring In more salt, more po-, tatoes will rise. Those that remain at the bottom longest are worth the most. The difference in the table quality of the lightest and heaviest tubers is surprising. The former will be soggy and salvy, the later flaky and farinaceous. Prof. Goff thinks the market value of potatoes should be based on their specific gravity. There is no reason why potatoes containing but 12 per cent, of starch should sell for as much per bushel as those containing 20 per cent The latter are worth nearly double the former for food. "The salt test is a cheap and easy one, and a dozen tubers may be tested in any vessel. When the potatoes are sold on their merits as food rather than on the amount of bulk they fill, farmers will have some encouragement to produce tubers that contain starch, rather than those that contain water, because their food value, and palatability will be increased.

The Cause of Small Eggs. The steady improvement in the grade of poultry kept by farmers has resulted in tlif increased size of the eggs. This difference is so marked that the eggs produced in the North always command In the markets a higher price than those from the South, where the improved breeds have been more slowly introfiuced. In that section the undersize of poultry and eggs is doubtless due chiefly to the lack of new blood. The debilitating effect of the heat is some-, times given as the explanation, but the true one is rather the lack of care and proper breeding, the indirect result of the climate, which, by permitting the birds to forage all the year round, relieves the owner of much trouble, but at the same time checks his interest in their best development.

—Average Yields of Corn. The average yield of corn in some of the Western States where this is a main crop is only 25 bushels per acre. This is less than the English average for wheat, though as every farmer knows, It is far easier to get a large yield of Indian corn than of any other grain. A crop only 25 bushels per acre suggests many vacant spaces, or, what is nearly as bad, stalks that are destitute of ears. The large Dent corn grown at the West has yielded a pint of grain for a single ear when grown at its best If only one stalk is grown with such an ear in the hill It would amount to more than 55 bushels of grain with the Jiills three by four feet apart A hill of corn ought to average much more than a pint of grain. We know many fields of Flint corn with comparatively small ears, where two or more would grow on a stalk and give fully a pint of shelled grain. The largest crop of corn we ever grew was of an eight-rowed Flint corn that had small stalks and was very early. It was planted in hills 3x3 feet, and three grains in a hill. Every stalk had one or more ears, and the yield of corn in the ear was more than .100 bushels per acre on a field of six acres. —American Cultivator. Making tbie Soil Deeper. It is commonly said that plowing deep Is the direct means of making the soil deep. It is true that deep plowing opens a lower stratum to the action of air. but this only hastens the decomposition of vegetable matter in the soil, and if this is not replaced the soil becomes so defiefent in humus that deep plowing is useless. There is no better

way to deepen soil than to sow clove* and every third or fourth year use the subsoil plow as deeply as it can be run. This will enable the clover roots to penetrate the soil to a greater depth. Whenever a clover god Is, plowed a considerable part of Its lower roots are Jfift In the, soil ns- they grew.. These, roots rapidly decay, and they enable roots of grain and other crops to go down deeply in search of moisture. This is one reason why hoed crops on a clover ley withstand droughts better than If planted on timothy sod, whoso roots are all near the surface. To make the clover grow as large as possible Is all Important. The larger the growth the deeper the clover roots run and the more the subsoil is benefited. Farm and Dairy instruction. During the three months of January, February and March of the past four years the courses in agriculture «ud dairying have been given at the State College, and in spite of the inadequate equipment have been highly successful. The > number of students In these courses has increased from four in 1892 to fifty-one in 1895, and a still more rapid growth is foreshadowed for the future. As an evidence of tho widespread Interest in its work and of the great scope which It is destined, if properly encouraged, to eventually enjoy, it may be mentioned that in the class of 1895 there were represented twenty-one counties of Pennsylvania, besides fonr other States. Three courses are now offered—one in creamery management, one in private dairying and one In general agriculture. A Chautau-. qua course of home reading in agriculture Is also maintained, and now Includes nearly 340 members. The experiment station is engaged, too, in valuable investigations into agricultural problems. The State should foster this work as befits its resources, and tho farmers and dairymen of the State should avail themselves of the benefits of the college courses.—Philadelphia Record.

Phospate for Barter. The barley crop matures very quickly, and Its roots do not run through the soil so far as to do those of oats and wheat, which take a longer period to grow. For this reason the concentrated j commercial fertilizers are especially valuable for barley. A dressing of 150 pounds per acre drilled In with tha seed will add two to five pounds per bushel to the weight of the grain. On land long cropped it is often very bard to grow barley weighing 48 pounds per bushel without some mineral fertilizer. Only very little nitrogenous manure is needed for barley. It has naturally a broad leaf, and if foliage Is set to growing rapidly the straw will become too heavy and fall down, preventing heading and filling of the grain. The mineral manure makes the straw brighter and stronger. This secured, the broad leaves of the grain will take from the air the carbonic acid to form the starch which mainly constitutes the grain. Turnips for Ducks. On the large establishments whero hundreds of ducks are raised, the principal food for ducks is cooked turnips, with a small proportion of ground grain. Ducks and turnips are adjuncts to each other on the duck farms, for without turnips the ducks could not be made to lay so well. If the hens are confined in order to proteet the garden, they must have a daily supply of chopped grass. Too much grain will cause them to become overfat, and fewer eggs will be obtained. The best egg-produc-ing food is lean meat.

Fertilizers for Onions. “Years of experience in raising onions and other crops either with stable manure or fertilizer have thoroughly convinced me that a liberal amount of plant food must be applied in order to obtain satisfactory results, half-fed crops being unprofitable," writes W. Donaldson, of Topsfleld, Mass. Ho grew onions for eleven years successively on one-quarter acre, using phosphate, and raised at the rate of GSO to 1,012 bushels per acre, an average of 807 bushels per acre for the eleven years. For the past three years this land has given heavy yields. Notes. There is a field open for the introduction of a breed of rapid-walking horses. The horse that walks fast is useful in all departments of the farm, and is also excellent for service on the road. Sow peas and oats together, and when high enough the crop may be used for soiling. A high combination of the two provides a succulent mess for the cows, which will be highly relished by them. The Pennsylvania station finds that currants do well on their heavy clay soil and are little troubled with mildew. A single application of white hellebore afforded protection from the currant worm. Whitewashing can be done easily and rapidly with the sprayer. Use a thin whitewash and force it from the nozzle on to the walls. When dry repeat the application. It is excellent for purifying the stables and poultry houses. The great secret in fancy butter-mak-ing, says a dairy writer, is a studied purpose to keep all foreign substances and flavors out of the milk, cream, and butter, and have only original material from start to finish, and fancy butter results. Subsoil some of the corn or potato land and record results of the experiment. Plow say 0 djr 8 Inches deejp, and follow with'subsoil plow, or smaller plow, and go G or 8 Inches deepeT without throwing out subsoil. The experiment is worth trying. It is difficult to distribute a pound of turnip seed evenly over an acre of ground, and small roots will resalt if more is used. If the pound is mixed thoroughly with a peck of sand, a quantity is obtained which can be handled and distributed with a considerable degree of exactness