Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1895 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARM AND HOME. Crops Properly Planted May Be Cultivated Diagonally—Have a Place for the Fowls to Roll—Good Dairy Cows Are Always Salable. ■ ■■■i i ■ ■ Cultivating Diagonally. If the planting has been properly done there is often much advantage in cultivating diagonally between hills. This will cut corners which are left untouched when the cultivator has been run only as the rows are planted. It is well when this is d6ne to have the outer teeth of the cultivator made smaller, so that the cultivator next the plants should not run so deeply. It will require a careful horse and a man to run the cultivator who has a steady eye to fio this work without occasional Injury to a hill; but it can be done. Such thorough cultivation will leave little or nothing to be done by hand labor. A Place for Fowls to Roll. The trouble that manyjfarmers have In keeping fowls out Of the garden is because they do not provide a substitute. It is natural for hens to seek a "dusting place xvhere they can clear off any vermin that may be on them, or without regard to this to take a dust bath, which Is their way of keeping skin and feathers in healthy condition. A small place near the hen house should be plowed and sown with grain. It need be only a few feet squire, and may bo dug with a spade in a few minutes. Then scatter and lightly cover enough grain to keep the fowls busy. It is astonishing how much of ihe time this rolling place will be occupied and the garden will wholly escape. When the hen goes to the garden she makes directly for the beds where the choicest seeds have been sown, for here the ground has &en most thoroughly pulverized. Give the hens as good a place outside the garden, and there will be no trouble In growing garden truck, no matter how nnmy fowls are kept But the strawberry patch must be enclosed. The fowls go there for a different purpose, and when they get a taste of the fruit It is hard to keep them out, however high the enclosure. A Paying Business for Farmers. The most salable farm animal to-day Is a first-class dairy cow. We often wonder how more farmers back on the hilly, rough pasture farms do not make a business of raising heifers of good milking strains to supply milk-, men in the milk-producing counties. Let the milch cow pass the first two years of her life on cheap land, and not try to pay interest on costly land until she Is able to give milk. Last year we told of a Massachusetts farmer, says the Rural New Yorker, who takes his heifers by rail to cheap pastures in Maine every spring, wintering them on grain, hay and oil and cottonseed meals. These heifers are sold to milkmen with their first calf. We believe that a man could. In a few years, establish a reputation for good milkingstock, and bo assured of a steady income. Some men can make this pay better than ordinary dairying.

Devon Cattle. In choosing his breed of cattle the general farmer wants—if not a “general purpose” animal—at least a combination animal; that it is to say, one yielding a satisfactory flow of milk and its products in butter and cheese, and at the end of her usefulness in this direction, a carcass for which the butcher will pay a good price, says the New York Times. In these respects the Devon cattle are entitled to first consideration. Even with ordinary care and feed, a milking Devon will hold her flesh well, and she Is a good milker, giving a satisfactory amount of milk that, in richness of cream, is only a shade below the Jersey product, and where rough pastures and the ability to subsist largely upon rough forage is a consideration, the Devon tamest first rank. She is admitted by the best authorities to require less food than any other thoroughbred known, aud to be almost as capable of taking care of herself when pasture js short, as the celebrated Highland cattle of Scotland. She is what is known in the West as a good “rustler.” The Color of Fruit. Northern fruit growers know that the color of fruit is largely dependent on the amount of available potash which the soil contains. Tills with sunlight aids in the development of both color and fine flavor. A California orange grower has found that iron heightened the color of his product and made it more salable. His oranges were originally very pale, but by using five pounds of iron filings around his trees the color has been changed to a dark yellow, with increased qualify of fruit So much iron filings probably made the soil more open and porous. If the iron served as plant food a small quantity would have been sufficient.

Potato Buga on Tomato Vincis. Many people who are uot botanists do not Imagine that the potato and the tomato are at all related. But the potato beetle Is a thorough botanist, at least so far as members of the solanum family are concerned. The egg plant Is included in his depredations, and gardeners who grow either tomatoes or egg plants near where the potato is grown must look out for the ravages of the beetle. The eafly potato vines die down early In July, and the horde of beetles from these are oblged to seek other plants on which to feed. A Dairy Test. To prove which Is the more profitable market, the creamery or a milk association in Philadelphia, two dairymen reported to Dr. A. T. Nerilo, month by month—one sending his milk to Philadelphia, the other to a creamery which

paid by test Tbe one sent 82,214 quarts of milk to Philadelphia, for wbieh he received 3.1 c. per qnart, or $1,027.23, the milk averaging 4.8 per cent, of fat for the rear. The other sent 33,234 quarts of 5 per cent milk to the creamery, receiving $1,070.84. Had the first sent fats 4.3 milk to the creamery he would have lost $101.04, and had the second sent hfs 5 per cent milk to the city he would have lost $49.G3. “That is,” says Dr. Neale, “In tbe city trade no distinction in price is made between a product with 5 per cent and one with' 4.3 per cent, of butter, yet in 33,214 quarts of milk this difference on a creamery basis represents $150.07.” ' Greenhouse Pests. W. D. Philbriek says: “The aphis, the pest of greenhouses and hotbeds, thrives best in a warm temperature, especially If fed upon lettuce and cucumber plants. Smoking with fine tobacco dust frequently and carefully is the best remedy. The various mildews and rots of lettuce and cucumber plants are but little understood. The preventive comes first, says the Philadelphia Ledger. This is to clear the vacant greenhouse with a strong sulphur smoke, then fill with clean plants and keep them growing vigorously. The first crop in a green house is generally the best it ever produces. The most effectual remedy for ants is slaked lime, dusted over the hills and strewn about where they are. To prewent worms and rabbits from harming trees, mix together turpentine and hog’s lard, and apply on the trees. This kills the worms in the tree, and prevents the rabbits from gnawing. The lard kills the rabbit and the turpentine kills the worm.

Crimson Clover and Potash. Analysis of crimson clover shows that it has a large proportion of potash. Some of the failures to grow It, especially on sandy soil, are probably due to a deficiency of potash. The common red clover frequently falls from the same cause. A dressing of wood ashes, or where this cannot be had, of muriate of potash, will .secure a seeding where without It there have been repented failures of clover to catch. Heavy soils have usually a considerable amount of potash, but even on these a potash dressing often gives beneficial results, for It presents the mineral plant food In available form. Cutting Green Oats for Feed. The earliest crop that can be cut for soiling from spring seeding is one of oats or barley. It i 3 good economy to cut oats green just as the head Is forming and feed it to cows. The stalk is then juicy and it contains the nutriment that a little later will be deposited In the grain if It were allowed to stand. The amount of green feed that will make a good ration for a milch cow would produce less than two quarts of oats if allowed to ripen as gruin. Vitality of Premature Peaches. . Prof. J. H. Watkins, of the Georgia station, In his experiments with stones of prematurely ripened peaches, found /them to be lacking In vitality. But the seedlings from such that he succeeded In growing produced fruit mueh earlier than did the parent tree, and, in most cases, of improved quality. Too Much Live Stock, Too much live stock Is quite as bad .for the farmer as too much land. Do not crowd the stock, and do not keep more than can be fed well, pastured well and housed well. If you have more than this, sell off the surplus speedily. Notes. There are ten “fruit schools” in France, where pupils are Instructed practically how to cultivate and vhusband fruits. Permanent sod, without fertilizing. Is an injury to the orchard. This lias been proved in the experience of nearly every successful orchardist Over ICO acres are given up to pickle growing in the vicinity of the town of Camden, Maine. The crop is a profitable one, usually yielding an income of SIOO to $l5O an acre. String beans can Ik> l.ad throughout the whole summer by planting about once a month for successive supplies. The seed germinates quickly, and the plants grow rapidly. The function of the queen bee. says a writer, is simply to lay eggs and thus keep the colony populous. This she does with considerable energy. A good queen, when at her best, will lay 2,000 or 3,000 eggs in a day. A patented method to raise asparagus under a newly invented cap, to bleach It aud draw It up. can be tried on a smaller scale by putting empty flowerpots over the shoots. Asparagus shows an immense latitude In the degrees of tenderness and toughness; it all depends upon how it Is grown. The original snow apple tree, now 70 years old, Is a production of Oaklnud County, Michigan. It Mill bears fruit. The tree was planted by Apollle Dewey on bis farm between Blrmingumn and routine, and brought forth a new apple, which for lack of any other name, was styled the “snow apple ” The Germans have lately been experimenting upon the effect of copper on potato vines. They found that a 2 per cent solution of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) In lime water, sprlnkled on the plants, Increased the amount of chlorophyll In the leaves, and increased tbe number and size of the potatoes. All who have ever picked fruit from a step-ladder hdVe experienced a sense of Insecurity when leaning towards one side for a hold. The whole thing may topple over. There Is a new Invention, where tbe beam which holds the rounds jn place runs In the middle, and, to balance the rounds straight across, a twisted. strong wire is run up both sides, making the' ladder light and more secure by this middle hold.