Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1895 — TOPICS FOR FARMERS [ARTICLE]

TOPICS FOR FARMERS

A DEPARTMENT PREPARED FOR OUR RURAL FRIENDS. Clover Hay, Pea and Cornmeal, and Bran Produce the Best Flavored Butter Transplanting Weeds About Soap-Mnlt lug, Bie Flavor of Butter. * The flavor and aroma of butter are caused partly by the direct influence of the feed and partly by ripening of the cream. To some extent, says Hoard’s Dairyman, flavor may be secured by the feed. It would be difficult to produce fine-flavored butter from the cream of cows fed on straw alone. For fine flavor in butter, clover hay (properly cured), pea meal and cornmeal, with bran and a few mangels, would, In my judgment, be best. Feed and proper ripening of the cream, together with tho exclusion of all bad flavors, ABd-^eareful-handling oT cream and

butter, are needed to secure the proper flavor. The “sweet cream flavors” and the turnipy flavor, etc., are mainly produced by the feed. Butter fat from’ fresh cream has a flavor of the ripened cream butter. Proper ripening of cream will overcome the flavor produced by Indigestion. My opinion Is that the milk becomes tainted with the odor of the foods more by the Inhalation than by direct absorption from the food. “Starters” are quite valuable in fine butter making, and especially so where poor or bad flavors exist in the cream, as they overcome these to a greater or less extent, and assist in Improving the flavor of the butter, though they may not remedy It altogether.

Transplanted Weeds. Weeds should not be hoed during wet weather. The moisture on their leaves wlllprevenf them from drying up, while the roots against the moist and loosened earth will get a hold and send out new fibers. A weed once or twice WansplantedJs-almost as difficult to kill as a perennial. The only way to kill such a weed is to cover it while wet with moist soil. Then the sap In the weed will cause it to rot, and this will effectively cheek new growth of the root

~ Leachfn« Asfiea for Soap, ” There are still many country places where the housewife annually sets her leach tub to- make the yearly quota of soap for household use. Generally it will pay better to use the unleached ashes as a fertilizer on the land and buy for soap making the concentrated potash that Is now sold in every country store. There is a great variation in wood ashes, and the boughten potash is much more certain to make good soap’ than is the snpply of potash in the ashes from the winter fires. The old-time soap grease was also a very ill-smell-ing and unsatisfactory product to handle. ’ It was refuse scraps of fat and lard from afr sources,, kept with no regard for cleanliness, it being supposed that the ley would correct the smells and make Into soap maggots with which the rotten mess usually abounded. All kinds of fats are now so much cheaper than they used to be that even those kept scrupulously clean are not very costly. With boughten potash and clean fats for it to work up the muebdreaded and disagreeable business of soap making will be so changed that those who remember the old times will be surprised at the difference. The gain to fruit crops from using the unleached ashes In the orchard will many times repay the cost of the boughten materials for soap, or, better still, will enable the farmer to buy his soap by the box already made, as many farmers now do. • r ”

Small Cucumbers. Small cucumbers, or “tiny Tims,” are worth six times more per pound than are large ones, and the more you pick the more there will come. Many growers are only just now putting in the seeds, says the Philadelphia Ledger, and expect a larger and more profitable crop than is sown earlier. The worst of the bug pests, they say, are out of the way for the time being, and before a new lot comes the plants started now will be far advanced as to withstand their attacks. Pickles should be cut daily and at once be cared for. The smaller they are the better. If cucumber plants aro to be reset, do It before tho runners start, and In this way: Set a piece of stovepipe over the plant and press It Into the soil to the depth of three or four Inches. Run the spade under and remove all to the new bed. When set withdraw the stovepipe.

Digestibility Measures Nutrition. We can make no advice in scientific cattle feeding until we start on the basis of the equivalence of like food elements from whatever source obtained. As the Maine station puts it in one of their “Science has given practice no safer or more useful conclusion than this: Cattle foods have nutritive value In proportion to the digestible dry matter they contain.” In other Words, a pound of digestible fat from ono food Is of just as much value as a pound of digestible fat from each and every other food, and the same of the digestible starch, cellulose and albuminoids. Moreover, the rule can be made wider, and Include digestible dry matter as. a whole, without reference to the proportion of Its parts, 1. e., the digestible dry matter of timothy bay, for instance, Is just as valuable, pound for pound, as the digestible dry matter of cornmeal, roots or any other food material. Spraying Vegetables. That paris green and kerosene emulsion still remain the leading insectides, and that the Bordeaux, mixture Js the I best remedy for plant disease, Is the experience of the New York station at I Geneva. The knapsack sprayer Is gen-

- ' erally useful, though extensive growers need a machine of greater capacity. The suction-pipe should always enter the tank at the top, and tbe pump should be of brass or reed lined. Hand pumps should allow the weight of the body to be used on thehandle while at work. Vermorel nozzles give a better spray than the disk machines. For spraying potatoes and tomatoes a nozzle is needed which can be lowered between the rows and directed sw as to foree the spray up through the vines. The agitator is needed to keep the poison in solution. The best forms work np and down in an upright tank, like the dash In an old churn. Where the pump piston has a packing, this should be often renewed. For killing cabbage worms and insects, no liquid has been found equal to dry parls green applied with a hand sifter. Powder guns are useful for applying dry powdered poisons, pyrethrum, tobacco dust and sulphur. Bamboo extensions should be used in spraying large trees. Preserving the Stones of Fruits. During the season for peaches, plums and apricots, those who wish to can increase and improve their orchards by a careful selection of the best stones of these fruits. These stones may be sown Immediately in 12-lnch rows in good garden soil, or they may be preserved until fall or next spring by placing them in moist sand or earth in some shed or cellar. The best way is to mix stones and sand together and then place In low flat boxes, and put these boxes In the cellar in earth up to a level with the top of the box. They will keep excellently and without Toss. The usual plan of wrapping the stones up in paper and keeping them dry until fall Is a bad one, as the fruit kernel dries out and few will sprout when planted.— Baltimore American

Cutworms. While tobacco farmers are greatly annoyed by the cutworm, there are many other field and garden crops that are liable to be destroyed by the pest A small number of plants In a garden may easily be protected by a simple device that could not be applied on “a large scale without involving a good deal ofTabor. Take bands of any kind of tough paper, and place them around the plants when transplanting, so that the lower part of the band will be an Inch or two below the surface soil, and the upper part an inch or so above. This will keep the worms away and never interfere with the plant Mixed Crops for Fodder. Dr. Goessman, of the Massachusetts station, advises growing mixed crops, say summer vetch and oats, as they produce larger yields than when grown singly. Sow together forty to forty-five pounds summer vetch to four bushels of oats, and seed early In June. The fodder is highly nutritious, and may be cut green and fed for two or three weeks, or cured for hay. Sow at various times; it will grow through the season. ___ :

Notes. Those who ridicule the “razor-back” hog of the South are guilty of keeping cows that compare as unfavorably with the pure breeds as the razor-back hog does with the Berkshire or Chester White. The striped cucumber beetle attacks cucumbers, melons, squashes and pumpkins, and 19 not easily destroyed, Spray the vines with a solution made by dissolving a gill or saltpeter In a gallon of water, and then apply fine tobacco dust around the base of the vines. It Is said that charcoal will absorb 90 per cent, of Its bulk In ammoniacal gas, hence if used freely over compost heaps It not only prevents unpleasant odors, but renders the compost more valuable by retaining the ammonia which would otherwise pass off. The quantity of corn fodder Is almost unlimited, but it Is criminal to waste any of It, as has been the woeful fashion. Cut up, shedded and baled, It keeps green and sweet, and is a rich, nutritious food; it, in this shape, promises to be an Important item of food In the future. Whale oil soap Is something that should be kept in a convenient place for use on house plants. The wellknown mealy bug is destroyed by a solution of whale oil soap, if It Is sprinkled on the plants, and It is also an excellent preventive of lice on animals. Being cheap as well as harmless to plants and animals, it should be used as often as desirable. It looks as though the future offered excellent Inducements for meat products, not only In the form of beef, but also as pork, mutton and poultry. It Is an excellent opening for profit; and, as stock-raising provides a home market for much that Is grown on the farm, there is something gained In that respect, while some manrtre and increased fertility of the soil will result from the keeping of stock. The poorest farm can be made fertile without manure or fertilizer, If time Is no objection, for nature slowly restores all soils, as has been demonstrated by the fallow system of resting the land. This can be done more speedily, however, by growing something to turn under. Of course, the true remedy is manure and fertilizers, but if they are Insufficient, keep the land covered with something, if ouly of scant herbage. Nearly all of the .most successful farmers are those who make a specialty of milk production, and they are the only ones who get rid of mortgages and finally bring their farms up to the highest condition of fertility. The best dairymen are those who discard the scrub and use cows of tho highest producing capacity. When the herds are Improved so as to Increase the milk supply, the cost is reduced, because fewer cows, less labor and smaller expense for shelter will Increase the profits.