Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1895 — THE FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM AND HOME.

M ATTERB OF INTEREST TOFARMER AND HOUSEWIFE. The Way One Seiisibic Farmer flnys Machinery—Don’t Winter Too Many Fowls— Host to Relieve Choked Cat-tle-Shelter for the Stock. How Be Bought His Machinery. To obtalnlmpfoVeijl machinery when short of money. I went to a retail dealer and arranged to plant a crop expressly never order more machinery than I feel sure I can pay for in tlie fall, says a writer in the Agriculturist In this way I have bought all kinds of farm machinery, and supplied the house with improved hoTise-kcejiitig Utensils in keeping with the farm. Wintering Too .Many Few's. The earlier iu the fall the fowls not wanted for winter are separate* from the flock and gotten rid of the better it will be for tlie farmers' profit. Most people postpone tiiis until about holiday time. Then there is nearly always a glut of poultry, and though the fowls have meanwhile made some gain in weight, it is often less than the decliue in price. The saving of one or two months’ keeping is not all the gain by thus early disposing of the surplus. Those that remain have more room and better crire. It is a good time early iu the fall to secure improved breeds. Choßed Cattle. I ha\«e seen several receipts In your valuable paper for relieving choked eattle, says a correspondent of the Country Gentleman, but I thiuk-the following better than any: Loop a piece of wirb; place one hand below the obstruct ion on the outside, run the wire down the throat below the obstacle and draw it out. Shelt< r for Farm Animals, Every stockman should give his animals the best shelter he can. Humanity and good financial policy will warrant nothing less. But, unfortunately,-some farmers cannot provUle which are expensive. This is not a good reason, however, why they should not provide as good shelters as they can. One is not justified iu exposing his animals to the severity of the season because be cannot provide painted buildings. poles, the cracks chinked, and roofed with straw, cost very little In some localities. Sheds of straw are generally inexpensive. Even fodder Tearr-fOs' v ffrebetterthan nothing.

The Shorthorn Carrot, The larsfe varieties of carrot are coarser and less sweet than the smaller sorts. They also grow deeper in the ground, and are hard to harvest. This can be done best by going through with a plow, cutting a straight line on the land side next to the row. It will then be comparatively easy to pull out the roots next to the open furrow. But a better way still is to plant the shorthorn carrot seed. This variety grows partly out of ground, and for quality it is not excelled. It does not grow so large as the deep-rooting kinds, but can have its rows nearer and stand tliicker in the „row without being crowded. The shorthorn carrot is much the best for table use, and it is so much easier to harvest It ffrat some farmers grow it exclusively for their stock. It is-the best root for horses, and a ration part oats and part carrot is better than one with a larger allowance of' grain, but without the roots. Malcinsr Cider Yincsrar. There is always a good demand for vinegar, and none is "better"'than that made from cider out of rich, sweet apples. , The earlier it is made, the more rapid will be the fermentation and the quicker will come the change from alcohol to acidity. This souring Is much hastened by frequent exposure to the air, turning the cider once a day from one vessel to another. This exposes it to tEe air, and if it is done for a few weeks the vinegar will be as sour as by letting it lie in the barrel for as many months. The early apples are often deficient in sweetness. An addition of sugar to the cider greatly increases the alcohol and also the acid In it when that stage is reached. Parsnips Need Frost, f The parsnip is not only a hardy vegetable, but it is improved by light frosts. Before any freezing weather occurs the parsnip has a harsh, acrid taste. parsnip makes in most gardens a more rapid growth than it did before, especially if the frost is followed, as it is apt to be, by rains. As Is well known, the parsnip may be left in the ground through the winter without being in J tired. It requires to be dug as soon as the frost is out of the ground, as it starts to’ grow very quickly. This jmon spoils the flavor of the parsnip, and if the new green growth is large, it may even make the parsnip poisonous. Feeding Rye. Rye i& much' more easily grown than wheat, and is less exhaustive of fertility. It makes an excellent hog feed, and some farmers have even advocated growing it to be fed down by hogs, Claiming that in this way they can get more profit from their land with less labor. But in most localities this would be a very wasteful method of disposing of the rye crop. The straw Is often more valuable than the grain. By threshing the grain and then grinding Itwwith corn an duced better for hogs tbalfi either grain alone. L Preserving Egg* in gait. ultry dealer says in the Massa--chusetts Ploughman: “Since I learned that au unfertile egg keeps better than a fertile one. I have had no trouble In getting a good price for eggs that are laid during summer. As soon as the

"" breeding season IS over, kill of femora every male tdrd on the place. Gather your eggs fresh every day. Hare some cheap, dean barrels .or boxes ready; also a barrel of dry salt. When you coinein with .the eggs, go directly to the cellar with them, where your boxes and salt are. Cover the bottom about an inch deep with salt. Now take ihe egg 3 one at a time. them, big end down, Into the #&lt, and so on until fall. In November your eggs ble you will find will be to wash the salt from them carefully. Your barrel of **alt will do for another season,orbet tfir. .perhaps, feed It out to the stock. There is but one extra precaution—bo sure that all the eggs are fresh and na cracked shells.” Cultivating Fw-ungntly. Undoubtedly weeds at one time had the soil so as to destroy them. But nowadays the Jiestfarmerajdo not wait for weeds to appear before they set the cultivator going. The time to kill a weed anil have it do tlie greatest good to the soil is just after its seed has germjnated, BuL-cultivation docs much more than destroy weeds. It mixes she soil, pulverizes the hard lumps and enables the soil to hold a greater amount of air in contact with Its moist surfaces. This causes fermentation In thetsoil and develops carbonic acid gas which makes mineral fertilizers soluble.

Millet ns Horse Feed. Horses are very fond of millet, and especially so of the seeds. They will fatten on millet hay, but if there is a great proportion of seed in It the millet should be given sparingly. There is a belief among farmers that millet see* injures the kidneys, but we have fed it -to horses without injury. All very nitrogenous feeds weaken the kidneys, and should be fed sparingly. It is best in growing millet for horses to sow pretty thickly. There will be fewer seeds on millet so grown. The stalks will be smaller and more readily eaten than will be those of millet sown thinly to grow a seed crop. Poor Quality of Prairie Hay. The scarcity of hay this year will probably imluce large TifipoFßrtiom from the West. The facility with which hay may now be baled and sent lo.ng distances very cheaply has reduced the quality of haled hay very much. Much of the Western hay is of poor quality, and If feed has to be bought, it would be well to buy grain, which is sure to be cheap, and let the hay alone—With plenty of grain whlclr can be ground and mixed with cut hay or ■ straw there is cheaper nutrition than can be found in hay, especially if it has to be purchased. Salt for Poultry. It is a common error that salt Is fatal to poultry, says the American Farmer. This arose from the ill effects of allowing poultry to get at salt when they had not had it as a part of their rations, and once they got access to It they ate enough to kill them. All soft food given to poultry should be salted about as much as the same amount would be for human use, and Jf tihls Is done they will never eat salt to excess if they are allowed to run where thej can get at It. Salt is one of the necessary elements of the blood, and If It is not! furnished in some shape the health of tho fowls will be Impaired and their productiveness lowered.

Pork Mnd\of Nuts, The nut crop this year Is said to be very large in most sections of the country. It can be made 6f use for nuts that will not pay for picking, by turn-ing-bogs-Into the woods and letting them harvest the crop. Tills was often done when the country wasrnew. The pork made from nuts is vWy sweet, but it is apt to be soft, as the nuts are oily. Feeding the pigs a few weeks toward the last with grain hardens the pork, and if the grain is not exclusively corn it does not make it less sweet and toothsome. Tobacco and Fertility. The tobacco crop requires very rich land, and it is .very exhaustive of fertility. Many farmers who go to growing tobacco thinking that It is all profit, find that it takes most of the manure made on a large farm, with some mineral fertilizer besides, to produce a good crop. Whether this manure used for fruit growing would not produce greater profit is a question that tobacco growers the last year or two have Ekjc Producing Hens. Egg producing costs less than raising fowls for market, either In time or trouble. They are a finished product, requiring no feeding, fussing or loss. They sell for cash, and there is no danger of an over production. A Continuous Milker. A red-polled cow at Wbittllngham, Eng., has yielded milk continuously since she ceased calving, five years ago, her record being 13,734 gallons of milk of the first quality. No other case ilk* this is known. - No Germ There.' At a dairy in Berlin,. famous for the purity of its milk, the milk is strained through a wire sieve with a cloth, on which rests a deep layer of fine sand Before the sieve is again used the sand is put in a hot oven to destroy any po» sible germs. Mlllfeed and Cottonseed Meal. A close study of the feed market li needed at present prices for milk and beef. Corn meal, cottonseed and gluten are cheap also; but, even so, it is no) always easy to make the sale checks balance the feed bill. The Yellow Transparent Ajpple. The yellow, transparent apple, a new Russian sort, has bornefruit here, and it sustains Its character of fruiting while young and of early ripening.