Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1895 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARM AND HOME. Good Water la Important In Growing Stock—Talk Gently to Horses— Don’t Neglect the Vegetable Garden —Formula for Bordeaux Mixture. Plenty of Good Water. In the growing and feeding of stock for market, the supplying of all the fresh, pure water that the animals can drink is an important item. Not only Is it necessary for the stock to have all the water they want, says N. J. S.. in the Nebraska Farmer, but they should have it when they want it, and in addition, it must be pure and fresh. To compel animals of any kind to drink impure water is to greatly Increase the risks of disease, and the maintaining of good health is always an important Item in the feeding of stock economically. When it can be arranged, water from good running streams, and especially if these are fed,, by good living springs, all the better. Still, there is always risk of disease being carried from one farm to another. The better plan, whenever It, can be done, is to have a good well, with tanks arranged in the different pastures, where the stock can help themselves. With a little care the water can be kept pure and fresh, and with good tanks there can always be a full supply. No other way of watering will entirely answer. To only supply water at stated times is to compel the animals atrtimes to positively suffer for it, and this cannot but be a detriment. So far as is possible, there should be a supply kept where they can help themselves, and then* if it is pure and fresh, it will be a help in keeping the stock thrifty.

Talk Gently to Horses. Accustom your horse to a low, calm tone of voice, and use it if anything breaks, or they become frightened, and they will always be manageable. The horse that listens for loud commands Is carried away by panic. On buying a new horse get him into your habits as soon as it is possible to do so. Look to the Vegetable Garden. Do not neglect your vegetable garden. No other portion of the farm is a better-paying investment. Keep some of your luxuries for the home table. A crop of slioats will clean up the edible odds and ends of the farm to better advantage than anything else." Give them a chance. Bordeaux Mixture. The Cornell formula for Bordeaux mixture is: Copper sulphate, 6 pounds; quicklime, 4 pounds; water 40 to 50 gallons. Place the copper sulphate in a bag of coarse cloth and in. at least four gallons of water, using an earthen or wooden vessel. Shake the lime In like quantity of water, then add to the dissolved copper sulphate. Add the balance of the water. It is ready for immediate use, but will keep indefinitely. For peach foliage add an extra pound of lime. For carnation and cabbages it will adhere better If about a pound of hard soap be dissolved and added to the mixture.. The Bordeaux mixture is for use against rot, mold, mildew and all other forms of fungous disease.

Spoiling Butter After It Is Made. Dairy writers frequently caution against placing butter where it will absorb the odors or flavors from decaying vegetables. The worst thing about this is the need Qf it. Butter will absorb odors, not only from stale vegetables, but from sound ones, and they impart to the butter a flavor that destroys or overpowers the true butter flavor. A case is in mind just now. The writer was supplying butter to the former owner of this farm, and one day planned what was Intended for a pleasant surprise, so, before the cover was nailed down, some nice apples with a delicious aroma were placed in the package, separated from the butter by a cloth circle and a layer of salt. The surprise was on the other side. Word came back that the butter was flue in looks, grain and everything but flavor, that was not agreeable. Now, some butter has an unpleasant flavor that never was near a rosy apple, and there was a possibility that the cause should be sought elsewhere, but in due time came a later report saying that the butter was excellent after the surface layer had been removed. This suggests another point: Customers should have a suitable place to keep butter after they get it. If the surface is all the time exposed to the odors of vegetables and kitchen flavors unclassified, the best of butter wll soon get off flavor, and the maker will be under suspicion of furnishing butter that will uot keep.

Feeding Pigs Regularly. A pig’s digestion Is much more easily ruined than Is often thought. The ravenous appetite of a hungry pig leads to the notion that It can be trusted to eat without regard to time. But nothing Is surer than that a pig with food always before It will grow poor. Its digestive apparatus never has time to rest, and soon falls to work. There should be regular times for feeding, and these should be far enough apart to allow the pig to become hungry. A little less grain than will bo eaten should be given If the pig Is fattened. The balance can. be made up with clover pasture-ln summer and beet roots In winter. Breeding or store animals need very little grain, but can be fed all tliey will eat of roots and grass, though not even with these giving food to be trodden under foot and wasted. Sacking Meat. The smoked hams, shoulders, Jowls and sides should now be taken down aud placed in oiled paper sacks, and then hung up In a dark, cool room. If

the cellar is dry and cool, that will answer; but if it is damp and not properly ventilated, it will cause the meat to mold. A darkened room hr the house will suit admirably. Another good way is to pack the meat in whole oafs or in coarse bran. Some pack in ashes, %ut the ashes, unless very dry, are sure to give the meat a very unpleasant taste. Ashes are also usually very dirty. Whatever plan is adopted, it should be done at once, as the fly will soon blow the exposed meat, and do a great amount of damage in a short time. Examine each piece of meat as it is taken down, to see if there are any skippers. At the hock is the place to look. The paper sacks can be bad for 2 cents each from any large furnishing store, and if taken eare of, will last several years:

Belays in Transplanting:. It often happens when plants have been received that it is during a wet spell when it is impossible to get them transplanted. It would be better of course if the transplanting had been done before the rain, but if the plants or trees are heeled in and exposed to -the rain a new set of roots will form in three or four days, and the transplanting can then be done with scarcely any check. The only difficulty will' probably be too great haste to get at the work after the storm ceases. The soil should not be worked while it is sticky. Wait until the soil will crumble when it is stirred. This will keep the soil moist and will also admit air to the roots, which is quite as necessary as is moisture t<( growth. If heavy rains come after transplanting, the surface soil should-be stirred to-break the crust that will form on it.

Phosphates Exhaust the Soil, The only way in which I can see that superphosphate ctp “exhaust” the soil is by making the plants more thrifty, and more numerous, especially making winter wheat better, and hence the plants send out more roots and farther into the soil, thereby absorbing more of its natural fertility. And that is just what we want, provided we make the proper returns. Profit in Sheep. Look more to the mutton side than that of the fleece, as there is four times the profit iu mutton, sa3 - s the National Stockman. A sheep may be fed for one-seventh of the food that an ox requires, and will make a growth of nearly three-quarters of a pound a day for the 2SO days of its life. And for the next GOO will put on a half-pound per day. Don’t give up your sheep whatever you.do. Nettle Hairs of Parsnips. The nettle hairs of parsnips are irritating to animals, producing an annoying! and painful skin eruption. If parsnip tops are fed to stock, care should be taken that they are still fresh and unwilted. I _The Bean Weevil. Prof. Lintner says the bean weevil may be destroyed by placing the beans in a barrel or close room and setting a saucer of bi-sulphide of carbou on them, then shutting out all air. The gas from the bi-sulphide, being heavy, will descend and permeate the whole mass, killing all insect life. Sweet-Scented Mock Oranges. If about to obtain a mock orange for your garden, do not forget that all varieties are not sweet-scented; at least, not greatly so. The name of the oldfashioned, sweet-scented oue Is Philadelphus coronarius.

Notes. Fotato beetles will leave potatoes to attack egg plants. They seem to have greater partiality for egg plants than for anything else, though they will also feast on tomato plants if potatoes are uot up and growing. There may be overproduction in every grade of farm stock excepting draft horses, and these buyers are eagerly hunting; there is a top price for those weighing 1,800 or more; for the cities must have them, and have them now. If the tomatoes, early corn, beans and melons have been touched by frost, though not killed, take no chances, but replant without delay. Some of the plants may grow, but they will be backward. The later plants will overtake them. The best varieties of plums are very profitable, and fruit-growers are of the unanimous opinion that the curculiQ is a thing now not much to be dreaded; where plums are planted in large quantities its ravages are hardly felt It is the Isolated tree which suffers. Winter wheat is one of the hardiest of crops, and unless attacked by insects seldom fails to produce fairly well. For that reason wheat will receive attention on many farms and can be relied upon as being sure to return something in the shape of straw and grain.

Use a crowbar In setting up the Lima bean poles, and stick them down deep enough to protect them against the winds. Much carelessness Is sometimes noticed in the placing of the poles, and when a few of them fall down they cause the entire garden to appeur unsightly. Never get the idea that any old hack will do for a brood mare; she should be an animal of intelligence and a good specimen physically. Then If the same rule Is observed In selecting the sire, and the ancestors of both tire well looked to, you may pxpect a colt which will pay for the raising, but not otherwise. Currant and gooseberry bushes are often Injured by the borer. Ths egg is laid about June 1. When hatched, the young borer works Its way Into the cane and remains until the following spring, eating out the pith and causing death of cane. As soon as the leaves start the affected parts are easily discovered and Bhould be cut otat and burned at once.