Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1895 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARML AND HOME. —Famrerg Gain New Ideas and Invigorate Both Mind and Body by Taking an Annual Vacation —To Drive Horses Judiciously. A Vacation for Farmers. If anyone needs a rest, and a change of scene for a few days. It Is the industrious farmer. The early spring sowing and planting; then the cultivation and weeding of the land under the plow, and the midsummer harvesting, of the hay and grain crops, along with many other little matters, have kept him busy from early in the morning until late in the evening. The harvest to over; the hay is in the barrack or stack; the grain in the barn going through the sweating-out process, and the corn is laid by. A few days can be spared now. Give the farm over to the charge of your son or your foreman, and go to the seashore, or upon a fishing trip. Your wife should go, too. If the farmer has been busy in the fields, the wife has had her hands full in the house. Ho wljo.kuGws nothing of the. trials of the farmer’s wife in harvest time in gathering the vegetables, in preparing and cooking them three meals a day, along with much other work, has much to learn. Take a rest; if you live in the mountains, go to the seashore; if you live near the ocean, go to the mountains. A change of locality—seeing new people, new things and new methods of working—will quicken one’s thoughts and produce lasting impressions for good. One returns knowing that other people have as many trials and discouragements as we have, and that farm life is not so hard and disagreeable, after all. Fifty or seven-ty-five dollars spent on a ten-days’ trip will do more good to both than twice —that amount invested at 0 per cent. Make a trial of it—Baltimore American. Judicious Drivijig of Horses. Some drivers will take more out of a horse in going five miles over a country road than many others will in going twenty miles. If a hard drive of twenty or thirty miles is before a horse, says the Breeder and Sportsman, start out moderately. Do not whip or worry or fret him. Leave all his strength, nerve and energy to be expended in going forward. After going along quietly and not too rapidly for a few miles, and the horse becomes warmed up, his muscles distended, and he is relieved of the hay ,eaten the night before, then push along briskly, and do the heaviest work of the day. Don’t hurry up the long hills. Stop frequently, cramp the buggy so as to take the load off the horse, and give him time to catch his breath. You will make better time In the end by pursuing this course, your horse will fiuish his day’s wprk iaJhetter condition, and you will avoid wind-galls. Make time on roads which are level or slightly down hill. Then the weight does not drag heavily, and he is not jarred |when going fast, as he would be if going fast down a 6teep hill.

Incendiary Lanterns. “That was a costly lantern,” sighed neighbor D., as he looked dolefully at the smoking ruins of his new barn. The kerosene lantern had been set on the floor “just for a minute,” but long enough to get knocked over. The blazing oil made quick work with the Inflammable material on every hand. In ten minutes the roof was falling in; it was impossible to save even the animals. A few precautions would certainly lessen the frequency of such disasters, says an exchange. Having a . place for the light, secure from long handles, irresponsible heels and switching tails, would be our safeguard, provided the rule was always adhered to of putting it in its place when not in hand. Great care must be used in making a place for the light, so that it will be s ife from d •tigers above as well as below. The heat arising from a continuous flame is considerable, and if too near the woodwork might gradually heat it to the burning point, or a dusty cobweb might serve as a fuse to carry the blaze. A candle fixed in a lam tern makes a much safer light than kerosene, but is not bright enough for all purposes. One farmer who had suffered from fire planned so as to have all of his barnwork possible done before dark. When a light was necessary it was never carried into the barn, but put from the outside through a window into a box made for It, with a „ glass front Subduing the Weeds. Any species of weeds can be subdued and controlled within the limits of an ordinary farm, and, unless the value of the land is low from other causes, may be profitably undertaken. If the weed is an annual, says the Philadelphia Ledger, reproducing itself from seeds only, it may be subjected by preventing seed production. For permanent pastures, law r ns and roadsides, this Is quite sufficient if persistently followed. In cultivated fields the land thus seeded should first be burned over to destroy as many as possible of the rf#eds on the surface. It may then bo plowed shallow, so as not to bring the remaining seeds too deeply in the soil The succeeding cultivation, not deeper than the plowing, wW induce the germination of the seedlings ns they appear. The land may then be plowed deeper and the cultivation repeated until the weed seeds are pretty thoroughly cleared oat'to as great a depth as the plow ever reaches. Below that depth, eight to ten Inches, very few weed seeds can germinate and push a shoot to the surface. A thousand seedlings may be destroyed by the cultivator with less effort than a

single mature plant can be destroyed, and every seedling killed means one less weed seed in the soiL Storing Potatoes. One of the most essential points about potato culture is to know bow to preserve the crop when you have raised it This is the more Important with regard to the seed potatoes, which have to be kept from sprouting for a long period. If buried, potatoes must be covered lightly at first, s 6 as to permit of ventilation, and the covering added from, time to time, but only enough jo protect tbe tubers from the frost. This, in my experience, ife the most unsatisfactory way of storing potatoes. The next worse way is a cellar under a building. Tbe trouble with a cellar is to give it air enough and keep it cool enough. The most satisfactory and cheapest wayrtbat I know of is to store in a dugout, making the roof of earth over poles nnii lmish In rPrv wet weather BUCh a roof will leak, unless covered with boards, corn stalks, straw or other covering. The besf loeation is a slope or bank facing south. By leaving an alley through the center of a 3 u g-° ut > with plenty of large ventilation shafts through the roof, a brisk circulation will be kept the end door Is opened—particularly where the door opens on the level, as it will do If the building is dug in the side of a bank. . The dug-out should be built with a bin on each side of a central alley. The bottoms of the bins should be raised six inches from the ground and the sides of the bins should be clear of contact with the walls, whether stpne or dirt. Both bottoms and sides are best made of fence boards, with inch spaces between. Such a building, carefully managed as to ventilation, opened up on frosty nights and kept closed during the warm days of fall and early winter, will take early Ohio potatoes through to spring without a sprout. Early rose, beauty of Ilebron and other such varieties may require turning, over ouee. —Kansas Farmer. For Granary • Last fall in cutting up my corn I placed two open bottles, containing bisulphate of carbon, four feet apart on tbe floor of the bin. The mouths of these bottles were covered with a layer of cheesecloth, and each bottle covered -with an -ora broken .box. The com, according to the New York Tribune, was thrown on these boxes, and the bin filled to fts utmost capacity. The result was highly successful; what weevils were -admitted from the field were destroyed, and none further appeared. Thus, at a cost of fifty cents, with very little trouble, I protected about five hundred bushels of ; torn agalhsF the weetilsT Moreover, I have noticed neither mouse nor rat in the bln, nor traces of them, which was not the case before, for in “previous years they, too, did great damage to the com. I have advised for years such use of bisulphide of, carbon. I am gratified to hear of Its extensive use all over the country. Many millers use it most satisfactorily. It kills, is easily used, is not expensive, and, if cautiously used, so as to cause no danger from lire or explosion, is most excellent.

Make the Calf Drink Slowly. We often see articles in agricultural papers, giving directions how to break tkg calf to drink; how often, bow much, and what to feed, all of which are most Important, but what I consider one essential phase of calf-feeding I never see touched upon, says Rural Life. Rapidly or slowly shall the young bovine drink his milk? Calves generally, when fed milk from the pail, drink as rapidly as they can. The greedy and very hungry ones gulp It down till they choke, and it seems the delight of others to thrust their noses to the bottom of the dish, and drink as long as they have breath, then “come up and blow.” The sudden filling of the calf’s stomach with milk is well known to be deleterious, and to obviate this too rapidly filling up I had a tinuer, several years ago, make me a vessel, bolding about a gallon, the diameter of a six-quart pail, with au oval bottom, with a hole punched iu the center about large enough to thrust a lead pencil through. With this “drink-slow dish” set on the milk in the pail, the .calf drinks slowly from the fountain that comes through the hole in the bottom.

One Way to Spray. When* paris greening potato vines it oiururred to me how many ways It is doue. A neighbor used to plaster the paris green dry at the same time I used it wet, says A. P. Sampson in the Now England Farmer. I put the same barrel I use on apple trees on the stoue drag, close to the tub I use to cool milk, and have a man pump into the tub. I fill the barrels, then draw to the potato field and leave one barrel at each end of the field, so as not to walk so far back and forth. Now I put a pound of paris green in each barrel and apply it to the vines with a pail and whisk broom. I used to do two rows at once, now I do one, as the pall reaches the other barrel better and saves a walk. Two barrels will do an acre. Some use a spoonful of green to a pail of water, aud, of course, with a barrel of water there needs be a stick to stir the water every time a pailful is taken out. A gun to put on raw paris green costs $7.50; the tools I use cost 50 cents. Root Crops Not Fat Producers. Root crops cannot be considered directly as fat or flesh producing, but they make an agreeable change of dlei, and are valuable to use in connection with more concentrated foods, such as corn, bran, oil meal, etc. Consisting mostly of water, they have a loosening tendency that must be counteracted with heavier food. --mUEvergreen Corn. Stowell’s evergreen corn is all right for main crop and for succession.