Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1895 — THE FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE FARM AND HOME.

MATTERS OF INTER EST TO FARM- / ER AND HOUSEWIFE. - Cheap Wheat la Valuable as Hay Feed —How to Take Care of Calves—lrrigating Side-Hill Land—Good Food for Poultry—Eat Cream. Wheat Worth 86 Cents as Hog Feed. H. F. E. Ludden, North Dakota, writes: On the first day of January, 1894, I had thirty-six hogs weighing on an average 154 pounds; fifteen of them were bred sows. During the year, says the Agriculturalist, I fed them 492 bushels of wheat. For four months they ran on a pasture consisting ofrye and barley, and during which time they had a small feed of soaked wheat. All the grain fed was carefully weighed. . In. September I. sold 2,500 pounds at four and a half cents, 5*006 {jounds inNovember at three and a half cents, and the retaainder in January, 1895, at three cents.l received for the thirtysix hogs and their increase $600.43. From January. 1894, to January, 1895, these hogs cost me $249.45. I received for the wheat $350.98; deducting the cost of grinding, the wheat yielded Hie 68 cents per bushel. If the price for hogs had been maintained, the November sales would have been four and a half cents and the closing sale four cents.' In that case the wheat would have had a value of eighty-six cents per bushel. The question does it pay to raise hogs on wheat seems to be an--swered by this experiment, extending over twelve months.

Care of the Calves. I should like to tell discouraged farmers what I did with two of those 200pound cows, writes one to the Country Gentleman. They were sold out of a dairy herd because they were not supposed to be worth keeping over winter. The second spring after, six weeks before dropping calves, the purchaser'began feeding the cows better. When the calves were dropped, he fed "<fri»m milk I'lWtiV frnm Hw nnw four weeks; it did not hurt them. Tlien gjive sweet skimmed milk, oilcake and oatmeal, with good pasture and feed till they were two years old. They calved, being milked, one ten, the other eleven months a year for three years. Milk, tested at Institute, went 4% and and the director said their mother must be extra good. Farmers try to raise cows for $25; these are worth $75, aqd cannot be bought for that. _____ Sidehill Irrlgrating. My farm is nearly all on a sidehlll, with a slope of about one foot in fifteen. Our ditch runs diagonally through my place, leaving about seventy acres under water. My delivery headgate is Just halfway from either end of the seventy acres, says a writer in the Agriculturist, and I run my laterals on a contour line east and west from the main lateral, which runs straight down the hill. The laterals are about 150 feet apart, and run on a grade of about one foot to a thousand feet. Then, to distribute The water over the land, I put in dams about every’ 200 feet, and cut the lateral about every fifteen, feet. It requires much more steady work for the man to irrigate on a sidehill-, but there is no danger of a crop being killed by flooding, of by standing water. My experience with alfalfa on a sidehill Is that it is far better than on level ground in that it is earlier and matures quicker.

Effect of Good Food. Eggs from hens that are fed largely on slops and refuse are not as good for cooking purposes as those which are laid by hens having a liberal ration of corn or wheat, and of the two, corn makes the richest eggs, says the Genesee Farmer, as it adds to the fat contents and gives the contents of the shell a consistency that makes It especially valuable for baking and kindred uses. A meat ration also adds to the value of the eggs, and it is because ducks are such ravenous hunters of frogs and the many insects on land and water that their eggs are preferred to all others by bakers and confectioners. Guinea eggs are specially rich in this quality, and are better for baking and making icing than those of almost any other fowl. The production of good eggs is a comparatively new Idea, and It has not been discussed half as much as its merits deserve that it should be. Eat Cream in Winter. Churn in the fall and eat the cream in winter, writes Mrs. L. J. P. Langley, of New York, to the Agriculturist. “Cannot afford it? No one has a better right to a good living than the farmer and his family, nor has anyone better facilities. There are four persons in our family. Imst fall I bad the milk of one fresh cow and two strippers to take care of. I could pack enough butter in one week to last four. Use sweet, new jars or put down in rolls, and cover with brine. Set in a cool, dry place where no foul air will reach ft. Continue packing entll enough to last until spring is put down. The boy who gets cream is more likely to stick to the farm than the one given skimmed milk. The farmer’s wife is notiobllged to chum all day. Try the experiment, and I am sure you will find it a success.” The objection to this plan is that the winter dairying is the most profitable for those who make butter for market. Keeping of Winter Squashes. The keeping of winter squashes requires careful management. They should be thoroughly ripened before taken from the vines, and the shell should be hard and well glazed over. Gather them before they are nipped I# frost. If left on the vines until they are chilled enough to change color, they will not keep well. Gather them on a sunny day, to be sure that they are perfectly dry. Handle carefully. If intended for winter use, they must not

be bruised, or the stem broken, as tfio slightest injury will increase the liability to.decay. Discard all the softshelled or unripe ones. Much depends on keeping them from moisture. Dampness and an uneven temperature are fatal to good keeping. If kept in a warm, damp cellar, they will soon rot. The best plan is to place them on a shelf or on the floor in a frost-proof garret. If stored in heaps, the under ones will send out the moisture, and cause the whole lot to rot in a short time.—M. E. Keqch. . Keep Stock Off Newly Seeded Land. When the established pasture fields during fall present a burned appearance, it takes considerable will power to resist the temptation to turn stock on to the newly seeded fields in which flie young clover and timothy present an inviting appearance, but the pasturing off of this new growth close to the ground will cause the whole plant to perisk if drou th prevails. The pastnring off of this fine top growth should be avoided, as it is just this mat that is required to protect the roots during the severe cold winter, and when frozen solid this growth of leaves and stalks pressed close to the ground prevents the daily spring thawing and freezing, such as would be the case were this covering pastured off. This top growth is notdost, but as the spring growth progresses, it decays, and is added to the fertility of the land.

Whey and Buttermilk. Handling whey and buttermilk is a problem at butter and cheese factories. At the Lawrence factory for making fancy cheese, a pipe is laid from the factory to the top of a bill about fifty feet higher than the factory anil 3,600 feet away. On the summit are commodious and well-con-structed hogpens, with rooms for the attendants. The pens are comfortably arranged and easily kept clean, and in winter are warmed by steam heat. To this place all the whey and buttermilk is forced by a-steam pump, and a main from tlie village waterworks unlimited supplies of pure, fresh water for drinking, washing, ntc.» The hogs are bred on the place, and two crops ’Of 300 hogs each are raised and marketed annually.—Agriculturist. To Root Cuttings, There is a simple process of rooting cuttings which is by far the most convenient for amateurs, called the saucer system, says the Philadelphia Ledger. This consists in filling plates or saucers with sand, inserting the cuttings close together (an inch or so apart), giving wqter, so the sand gets Into a semillquld state, then placed In a sunny window of the dwelling-house or on the stage of the green-house, entirely exposed to the sun and never shaded. All that is further required Is that the sand must be kept in the condition of mud until the cuttings are rooted, which will be in from ten to twenty days, according to the temperature or state of cut--tings. Great care must be taken that they never go dry, or the whole operation fall. This is a safe method of rooting cuttings, and one that during hot weather is preferable to others. Crops for Green Manuring;. Several times I have tried plowing In buckwheat. It is another fraud. It sours the land so nothing will grow after it for years—and not even then until something is put on to correct the acidity of the buckwheat. Have plowed in rye and thought it paid to do so. Have four acres of cowpeas now in field and two acres of soja beans. In my opinion they are not worthy the Northern! farmers’ attention. I should rather try sowed com for a crop to plow under (or even bitter weed), which is sure to grow, and costs less for seed and to plant. The reversible Syracuse sulky plow will put anything under—be it rye, buckwheat, weeds or corn.

First-clnss Dairy Stock. The most salable farm animal to-day is a first-class dairy cow, says the Maine Farmer. We often wonder why more farmers back on the hilly, rough pasture farms do not make a business of raising heifers of good milking strains to supply milkmen in the milk producing counties. Let the milch cow pass the first two years of her life on cheap land, and not try to pay interest on costly land until she gives milk. Last year we told of a Massachusetts farmer who takes his heifers by rail to cheap pastures in Maine every spring, wintering them on grain-hay and oil and cottonseed meals. Wet the Fodder When Put in Bilo. Mr. W. F. Bealls, Martinsville, Va., says: “When the season has been dry, and the corn for silo is without moisture, we dampen It down by sprinkling it well with water as we pack it. With our arrangement of the cutting machine in the barn on the floor above the silo, we can feed from'the cutter direct to the silo. A man is in the silo to pack it as It comes, and to wet it well at about every twenty Inches packed - . We have done this for the past four years ,and never saw better silage or had cows do better.” Vnlne of Ground Rye. One of the great virtues of rye as a food for hogs Is that it is a grain possessing more of the elements of growth, rather than fattening properties, and the people now demand a bacon hog. The day of large, fat hogs is over, and there is a call for lighter and better developed pigs of about 200 pounds weight. Japan Clover. For land too dry for alfalfa, Japan clover has been found a good substitute, and in the South and Southwest it is grown to some extent for hay and fodder. It is good for pasturage and makes good hay if cut early, before the stem becomes woody.