Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1895 — THE FARM IND HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM IND HOME.

MATTERS OF INTEREST TO FARMz ER AND HOUSEWIFE. Cattle Without Horns Are Much More Quiet— Hoeing Is Now Done with the Cultivator Balanced Ration Will Prevent Dyspepsia in Hogs. The Dehorning Question. In the cattle they are to handle people seem to have a leaning of late years to the idea of no horns. It is a conceded fact that cattle are much more quiet ' without horns than with them, says the Nebraska Farmer. It IS a fact, too, that this disposition to be quiet among themselves goes a long way toward securing the comfort and good condition that leads to profit in the handling of cattle. This preference for cattle with the horns off is evidenced In the growing popularity of the hornless breeds of beef cattle, and also in the disposition to remove the horns from steers that are to be fed in bunches for the market We may be allowed to venture the opinion, too, that tUis new departure would have taken a still faster hold upon feeders in the last few year’s if low prices had not cast a gloom upon the feeding Industry. With better prices and a better feeling pervading cattle circles, we predict that the dehorning practice will receive a new impetus The question does not resalve itself into one of breeds, but into one of methods only. If it be true that cattle do better with their horns off, it has been demonstrated to be a thoroughly practical business transaction to remove them, and at small cost, so that we may expect to see the practice more than ever popularized in the next few years to come. Hoeing to Kill Weeds. We hoe merely to kill the weeds. The land has been, or should have been, properly and thoroughly prepared before the seed was planted. Now nothing of that is to be done, no digging, no pulverizing, no making of hills, only killing the weeds, says the Maine Farmer. Much of the hoeing is now done with team and cultivator, though thereTT still some .work to be done with the hoe. Simply stirring the«®tfrface eoil and cutting up any stray weed that may have become rooted Is all that Is called for. Do this early and often, and the weeds will be mastered. Never wait for a field to get weedy. It Is just as effective to stir the soil before the weeds have had time to 1 get rooted, and it is much easier doing it. It has been a pet theory to run the cultivator through the field often and keep it up as long as practicable. Experiments at the stations, however, have shown that frequent cultivation, unless needed for the destruction of weeds, is no advantage to the growing ; crop in an ordinary season. Work the field, then, as often as needed to kill the weeds, and no more. Clean culture should be the alm. The weeds must be destroyed;

Dyspeptic Hogs. ■The acidity of the sromaetr,- wtrtclrls the result of feeding hogs exclusively on corn, may be temporarily corrected by feeding charcoal. But in this case, as in most others, prevention is better than cure. The hogs fed with a properly balanced ration, including some fine wheat middlings and a few roots each day, says Colman’s Rural World, will not be troubled by acid stomach. Acidity is a sign that fermentation has progressed to its second stage, the first being alcoholic. It is not possible to cause food to ferment in even the slightest degree without some waste of its nutrition. When fermentation progresses so far as to make acidity of the stomach the loss is much more consld erable. This is in addition to the loss by Impaired digestion. Repairs for Harvesting Machinery. All kinds of mowing and reaping machinery are much cheaper than they ware a few years ago. But in some cases the manufacturers put inferior material into their work, so that more repairs are needed, and these always come very high. The separate pieces cost enough more than they should to make up the deficiency in price of the complete machine, which competition obliges them to submit to. When they have sold a machine the buyer can get his repairs from no one else, and they can make charges without limit. Worse than this, the buyer often finds that ho must send for repairs hundreds of miles and wait perhaps two or three days while they are coming. If the machine is out of date it is sometimes difficult to got repairs at any' rate. This is a matter that farmers should think of in buying harvesting machinery. Find out, if possible, whether repairs will be sold reasonably, and deal only with houses of such established reputation that there need be no fear that they will go out of business.

Sprouted Potatoes. It is well known that seed potatoes which are stored for late planting often become soft, while much of their nutritive matter is exhausted in developing sprouts which must be broken off ft planting. The first sprout is always the strongest and thriftiest, but it often happens that these sprouts have to be removed several times before the potatoes are planted, and each time some of the vitality of the tubers is lost A comparative test was made by Prof. Tatt at the Michigan Experiment Station last year, when two equal lots of potatoes were taken, one being left, in the cellar, theother spread in a dry,' well-lighted, moderately warm room. On April 20 both lots were planted side by side, and the {Hants from the unsprouted seed came up first, looked the best throughout the season, and produced a greater amount of potatoes and a greater proportion of large ones with fewer 111-shaped tubers. Of course, it hardly needed an experiment to demonstrate the superiority of unsprouted

reed, but since no one can afford t® grow anything but the very best crops It would seem to be worth while to take every precaution to prevent sprouting, or to secure second crop seed from the South, which is rarely affected In this way.—Garden and Forest Evaporated Apples. In Wayne County, New York, which is not a very large county, says the American Cultivator, something like a million bushels of apples were evaporated last year, yielding a product worth $500,000. As most of this was from fruit that could not very well have been marketed In any other form, and some of it probably was just good enough and large enough to have tempted the growers to try to work it Into the barrels if they could not Have utilized It as they did, and thereby lessened the market value of the better apples among which it would have been put, we say blessings on the man who invented the evaporator, and hope to see them in more common use in New England soon. They save fruit that would go to waste, or to worse than waste, the cider barrel, and Improve the quality of the apples sent to market IT those who use them will stop the artificial bleaching of their evaporated ripples, the product will soon be more popular. While farmers color their butter and bleach their apples they should not make much outcry about tha shoddy goods sent out by manufacturers. Cotton-Seed Meal. English farmers have learned to use cotton-seed meal, and it Is very largely taking the place that Unwed meal used to have. It was the English demand for linseed meal for feeding that raised Its price for many years, so that American feeders could not afford it The English-farmer-feeds meal with roots.. This enables him to use richer meal than the American feeder can feed with profit. The English farmer does not have corn except by importing It and It Is, therefore, for him not so cheap feed as it Is for us. Nor does the English farmer have such large supplies of bran, as mucn of “the grain now fmported Into England comes in the form -of flour. dßranis even better than roots to Rive with concent rat (id foods, like cotton-seed and linseed meal. Milking on the Ground. There is a belief among dairymen that to milk on the ground dries up the cow. One reason for this is that milk Is not often spilled upon the ground while milking unless there Is something the matter with it making It unfit for use. In such case all the milk Is not likely to be drawn from the teat, and that of itself will dry up the cow. The soothing noise of the milk going into the pail keeps the cow quiet and disposes her to give down all the milk she has. There is a stopping of this soothing noise when milk Is drawn out upon the ground. The cow Is very susceptible to the strains of music, vocal or instrumental, and the milker who can sing while milking will be able to get all the milk quickest as wall a& to get the largest quantity. Green Peas Profitable. Market gardeners find that the pea crop returns as large a profit as any that can be grown so easily. They sell It while green, and for the very earliest get very high prices. The pea Is hardy, and the farmer who has light, warm soil has as good a chance as the market gardener. To give the plant a good sendoff early some concentrated commercial manure should be put in with the seed. This will make the green pea crop several days earlier, and on earllness the price mainly depends. The crop bears shipment well, and farmers too far from the city to market the peas themselves can easily make arrangements to ship tjiem to some one who will deal fairly with him. Adulterated Parle Green. In purchasing paris green for poisoning potato bugs or other insects, care should be taken to secure that which Is pure. The entire unreliability of much of the paris green In market leads to using it in large doses so as to produce the right effect, and this Is frequently Injurious to the tender leaves. With paris green of full standard purity the amount required to kill insects Is so small that no Injury will result from Its use. When the paris green is used to destroy fungous growths heavier doses are required, and lime must be used with it to prevent injury. But for both uses the paris green should be pure, so that those using it may understand what results to expect.

Merits of the Java Fowl, I The Java fowl resembles in form that of the Plymouth Rock. It is, however, not so heavily built, says the Independent, nor is its comb like the latter’s. There are three colors among the Javas —black, mottled, solid black and solid white. Javas are good layers, very good broilers, and by many considered superior to either the Plymouth Rock or Brahma fowl; but experience will more correctly prove this. We find In nearly all fowls some few points that we do not fancy. The better qualities overbalancing the inferior should be the point to aim at in selecting a stock for fancy and practical purposes. Time to Cut Wheat. Wheat Is ready to cut as soon as any part of the stalk begins to turn yellow. If the head is well filled it will then be bent over and the berry will fill from the stalk better if the grain is ~ left standing until dead ripe. Ths bran of wheat cut while the stalk is somewhat green Is thinner and its proportion of gluten and starch is larger. Dathpnees Kills Chickens. Cold, dry weather, provided there an no cracks to cause draughts of air, will not cause sickness in fowls, but damp quarters will cause roup, even la moderate weather.