Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1895 — THE FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM AND HOME.

MATTERS OF iNTEREST TO FARMER AND HOUSEWIFE. — • 7 Have a Blacksmith Shop on the Farm How Quack Crass Can Be KilledPlant Cherry Trees by the Koadslde —Notes, ~ ’ " ’ . . Farm Machine Repairing. , On all well-conducted farms where much machinery is used, farmers spend a great deal of time running to and from the blacksmith shop. There are so many different tools used that something gives out almost every day. Now, a great deal of this expense may be saved by having a small shop on the farm, says a writer in the Agriculturist A portable forge can be had for sls. This will answer every purpose, .although It la not advisable to get one too small. Secure a hand anvil weighing about 100 pounds, a good hammer, a ten-pound sledge, a steel punch, and a good blacksmith’s vise, and you are ready for almost any job but horseshoeing. Of course, a beginner cannot expect to do skilled work at first, but with a little practice firne and money can be saved. My outfit contains several tools in addition to those mentioned above, and cost me about S3O. The money is well Invested. A farmer should not be without an assortment of good carpenter tools. I say good ones, because I believe the farmer ought to have as good ones as the carpenter. Many a dollar can be saved by tbeir use. If the farmer does not care to do his own repairing, perhaps the boys (if there be any) will take hold, and to them it will soon become more of a pleasure than a task. How to Kill Quack Grass. If you must plow quack-grass land, plow for corn, tit thoroughly and plant in hills, with a handful of good phosphate in every hill, cultivate as soon as keep cultivating and lioeing until the corn is too large, says the Country Gentleman. In the fall, after removing the corn, plow shallow and harrow, if possible, with a floating spring tooth harrow. Next spring plow again as early as possible; about the first of June plow again, ants plow deeply—as deeply as you can; fit thoroughly and plant beans. You can begin cult!-, vating the beans in a week’s time after they are planted. Three times cultivating if you have a good tool, and work close to the crop, will be enough, I can .safely promise you a clean field and a good crop of beans, also a good preparation of the land for any following crop. If you do not wish to raise beans, you can put in potatoes, giving the land the gania traiiimani, with the advantage that potatoes will bear rougher treatment than will the beans, but you cannot begin cultivating the potatoes as soon after planting unless you make deep, plain marks, so that you can follow thje rows before they come up.

Cherry Trees by Roadside. . No kind of fruit tree thrives better under neglect than does the cherry. It needs no pruning except what the cherry picket’s naturally.give while harvesting the crop. Unlike other fruit'trees Its crop is not so easily gathered that it would be apt to be stolen by passers by. The picker earns fully half of all he can gather. It will greatly add to the attractiveness of country drives in neighborhoods where the cherry is planted, and the passer by will not feel as he plucks this fruit and cats that he is wronging its owner, who from what is left can make the roadside give him greater profit than he could make with any other crop. A Good Device for Farmers, Not long ago we were at the home of a very neat farmer and saw a device In his tool-house that struck us as being pretty good. On one of the walls there was placed a large blackboard, says Farm News, with chalk convenient, and on this blackboard were various records of the operations under way on the farm. At one side was written the naifae of every vehicle on the farm, beginning with the farm wagon, and going down to the wheelbarrow. Against these was .written the date when they were oiled. In another place was carefully noted the time wheu various sets of harness were. oiled, and other matters that might need referring to were noted on the board. The operations of the farm for the week were noted, and the owner told us that once a week he set down In a book all the notes that were of permanent Interest. By this means the work of that farm is kept track of. Pap Sprout* on Apple Tree*. Many old apple trees are nearly ruined by the growth of suckers from their trunks. These come from buds that are usually dormant, but which any injury to the bark causing a stoppage of sap will set to growing. If the sprouts are cut back before the leaves start new shoots will spring up from the base of the sprouts, even when It Is cut into the bark and no buds are visible. But If, after the new sprouts have brown three or four Inches, so as to be in full leaf, .they are pulled off very few will sprout a second time. Two or three clearings of the trunk through the summer will eradicate the buds so that scarcely any will appear the'following season. Wasted Fertility. ' The seepage from the manure pits at the lowa Station was collected In barrels and sprinkled on growing corn, increasing the yield twenty-three bushels per acre on the area where applied; the liquid also made the plants more vigorous than those not so treated; they endured the drouth much better, and altogether the experiment was regarded as very marked. And yet, says the New York Tribune, thousands of dol-

lars* worth of most valuable plant food Is running to waste pn farms, and then replaced, in part, with costly commercial fertilizer. Every ounce of both solid and liquid manure, ought to be scrupulously saved. To do this, we need clay or cement floors in stables, and large sheds under which manure may be stored. Where the manure is hauled out as made, or permitted to accumulate in boxstalls, the loss is reduced to a minimum; where it Ilea spread ever a large yard, exposed to rain and snow, wi.a the water from the barn roof ranning «pon it for six or eight months, little of value is left. “Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost,” applies here. Selling Batter vs. Selling Milk. In a New Yorkfarnx-Institute Mr. F. E. Dawley stated In a striking way the advantage of the butter-maker dairyman over one who sold milk. A ton of butter removes only 48 cents worth of fertilizing elements, whileji ton of milk removes 2.80 cents worth. It takes on an average 1 O bdunds of ttillk"f dTnak6~ a pound of butter, so that to sell milk ' enough to make a ton of butter removes S2B worth of manorial elements from the farm. Herein is one cf the advantages of using the butter separator. It saves the milk for home feeding without wasting it by souring. The separated sweet milk is worth more for growth than Is that which has all its butter fats in, as this will make growing animals fatter than they should be for the best growth. — — Handling Brush. When piling brush use a long-handled fork. In no other place are tlie advantages of a long handle over a short one more apparent. To lift and stretch in vain to make a forkful of brush swing clear of the earth is the severest labor known. Brush often contains grape and other running vines, as well as briers, which make it hard to handle. A short handle has convinced many persons that brush cannot be handled with a fork, but such Is not the case. Clear up and burn everything in the form of brush befbre snow falla. After . the snow ls gone in spring work will be ! pressing, and the clearing has to wait ‘ until after haying, to the detriment of j the mowings.—American Agriculturist. 1

Green Foliage for Fowl* One of the first things to be done in spring Is to plow a small patch near the hen yard to be sown thickly with some kind of spring grain. A mixture of oats and peas, or barley and peas, or of all three grains together, and covered by being cultivated under the surface, will furnish plenty of work for the fowls. They will roll in the freshplowed ground, will eat such of the grain as they may find, and when what escapes them comes up, it will make excellent green feed for them, w nen it gets too large to be eaten readily, plow the patch again and sow a second or third crop. The peas are the best grain to use for this purpose, but for the fact that the grain is so large that very few of Its seeds will escape tho. fowls to grow. Why Stained Barley I* Light. It is nearly impossible to make stained barley hold out to standard weight, 48 pounds per bushel. The grain Is very rarely much above that weight under the most favorable circumstances. The barley that is much stained is usually that which has been kept until dead ripe, and this never fills so well as barley that Is cut while the stalk is somewhat green. There is another reason, in the fact that the wetting which is necessary to staining swells the barley and starts it towards germination. This increases the bulk without Increasing the weight of solid matter. Whet) the grain dries out it fills up more spac« ip proportion to its bulk than It did before being wet There Is also a difficulty in malting stained barley evenly, and this is one reason why It is objected to by brewers. Paint Paved the Ponltry. A New Jersey woman painted the heads of her chickens with a vivid green pigment a few days ago, and the result is that she has back in per coop all the poultry that had been stolen from her, says The Massachusetts Ploughman. Her forty chickens had been taken In one night by a gang of young men, several of whom were arrested and locked up. One of the chicken thieves confessed that he had assisted in the theft of nearly five hundred chickens, which had been sold alive to persons on the outskirts of Newark. Detectives who were sent out to hunt up the stolen fowls could Identify only Mrs. ICraemer's green heads.

Remedy for Garget. Garget Is oue of the things that everyone has remedies for, and still It keeps right on ruining the best cows by droves every year. We doubt If there Is any better remedy than liberal applications of hot water and a large amount of band work In the operation, and when through apply a liberal application of lard, and at the same time withdrawing all grain foods and feeding non-stimulating milk rations. Fail Strawberry Planting. Strawberry plants can be set out In the fall of the year from the young runners, but they cannot be depended upon for producing a crop the next spring. The advantage of making the bed In August or September is that the work can be done better than when the burry of spring operations may retard the transplanting which should l>e done early. Milk Good for Laying liens. Remember that milk in any form Is good for laying bens. It contains all the elements of egg food, in almost the proper proportions. If the fowls have a free run, give them a light feed of grain In the morning and a full feed at night, and they will find the extras during the day.