Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1896 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS

THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARMED HOME' •* I Potash Should Be a Heavy Ingredient in Fertilizers for} Strawberries— How a Farmer Can Establish Credit —A Cure for Hog Cholera. «■.. .itt. * • Fertilizers for Strawberries. A strawberry efop removes certain materials from the soil which must be replaced If we wish to keep it in good condition. According to chetnical analysis, given in the Massachusetts Ploughman,’ the fruit and strawberry plant both contain a large percentage of potash, and it is evident, and experience has proved, such to be a fact, that potash should be a heavy ingredient in all fertilizing compounds for the strawberry crop. A. good formula that has given excellent results is: , 300 to 500 pounds muriate of potash. 600 to 800 pounds dissolved bone. 200 to 500 pounds nitrate of soda. Half of this is applied broadcast before the crop is planted, half the remander in the fall and the balance early in the ,, The strawbery growers of Oswego County, New York. where berries are grown on a large scale for market, use from 800 to 1,200 pounds of commercial fertilizer of good quality, containing about 10 per cent, nitrogen and 8 per cent, phbsphoric acid. The time to apply such fertilizers is in the fall, as top dressing. Some care should be taken that the caustic properties of the fertilizer do not injure the plant., 1 It is good practices, also, to sprinkle a few handfuls of kainit.iu rows at planting, as this product destroys grubs and acts as a preventive of blight.

The Best Example. Did you ever stop to think that the farmer who grumbles most is usually the least successful? (Why is it that out of 100 farmers who have the same start in life, some are successful financially and every other way, some are successful in only one or two ways, and some don’t jfet along at all? They all have lived under the same circumstances; the same laws, politics, tariffs, : onetary standards, etc. The answer is found in the individual. The levelheaded, industious man is sure to get his fartn paid for, to acquire a bit of competence, to raise and enducate a happy family—that’s 'the example to follow, instead of emulating the glibtongued individual who rides around in a top buggy-ta harangue the people on their hard lot while his family are forsaken, his crops neglected and the interest on ids mortgage the only tiling that keeps constantly at work on his farm. Cure of Hog Cholera. Arsenic. one-half ponndj cape aloes, one-half pound; blue vitriol, one-fourth pound; black antimony, one ounce. Grind and mix the remedy well before using, advises the lowa Homestead. The following are the directions for using: Sick hogs in all cases to be separated from the well ones, and placed in dry pens, with only five large hogs or eight small ones in each pen. f eed nothing but dry food, but no water, only th§ slop containing the remedy, until cured. When the hogs refuse to eat. turij them on their Mcks, and then, with a long-handled spoon, put the dry medicine down their throats. Dose for large hog: One teaspoonful three times a day for three days: then miss one day, and repeat amount until cured. Shouts or pigs, one-half the amount. As a preventive, one teaspoonful once a week will keep your hogs in a healthy condition to take on fat. The Bewt -l seftf Brair — Bran is much more highly thought,of as feed than it used to be. But it has] its limitations, and should not be relied upon entirely when fed alone. It is an excellent feed to give to animals that have a surfeit of corn, and should always form a part of the ration of fattening sheep. It is not so good for hogs, as its course texture makes it unpalatable. But fine wheat middlings have all of the excellencies of bran, and will be eaten in greater quantities by fattening hogs. The bran and wheat middlings furnish a greater proportion of albuminoids than corn has, and therefore supplement its deficiencies. Wheat bran is an excellent alterative for horses fed on timothy hay in winter. It will keep their digestion good and will be all the better if a tablespoonful of old process oil meal is added to each mess. Wheat middlings are noteo laxative as bran, and are better therefore for horses that have to work hard, though both the bran and middlings contain much of the nutriment that builds up bone and muscle and increases strength. Barn Cisterns. One of the advantages of the basement barn is that it makes easy the construction of a cistern to take the water from its roof and place it convenient for stock stabled in it. It is never best to trust to wells for watering stock. A well near a stable or barn soon becomes foul by filtration of water through soil saturated with manure. A barn large enough to hold hay and other provender for a large stock will furnish water from tl)e rain that falls on its roof for all the stock that can be fed from it. There should always be a filter in the faucet to the cistern. Some precautions must also be taken to prevent the cistern from becoming dirty. Whenever threshing is done the barn roof and the eave troughs are apt to be filled with dust. The eave troughs should be cleaned at such times, and the water from the first raid after threshing allowed to run to the ground before being diverted to the cistern. With such precautions the barn cistern will keep pure water for a long time without need of being cleaned. If the basement is a deep one, the water in the cistern will never freeze over in winter, but will help to keep frost out of the basement. It is a great Convenience in very cold weather to water cows in the basement without exposing them to tfap cold air outside. Milkina Time, Cows, to make the most of their opportunities, need to be milked in quiet, says the Practical Farmer, and a larger part of the hot months some sort of a soiling crop nfcst be fed to obtain the best results, which means prolonging the milk flow, and nowhere can thia be ao well done and each cow re-

eefve her due proportion, as In the sttu ble. It-has been m njjatter of obsertotr tlon with us, that a cow soon comes to have a home in the stable, and to be tied thdrd' twice a .lay, and have some provender, grain or forage on her arrival, gives, her a matter to look forward to arid even long for, and in the afternoon the cows have a home longing and start for the “btirs." and getting up the cows with boy, horse and dog is an obsolete custom on such a farm. In this summer care of the cows’, their comfort should be looked after ini the' lot, seeing that there is plenty of good water and shade of some kind.

Subaoildkg for Corn. „ ' It Is generally agreed among farmers that shallow plowing is best for corn. This is all right so far as keeping the vegetable matter near the Surface, where it will make the most warmth for corn. But it, is l none the less, advisable in a dry time to Lave 1 the soil deeply pulverized, not for the corn roots to reach down for moisture, but that it may arise by capillary at--1 traction to the upper strata, where the roots are most abundant. Subsoiling will do this better than anything else. The best time to do subsoiling is in the fall. There is then time for the lower strata to fill with water during winter and spring. We can never know In advance when drouth will injure corn. Many fields would have yielded this year much larger crops of corn if the land had been the year before. Successful of Cows. How a comparatively poor herd of cows can be quickly brought up to a profitable production of milk and buttei is told by W. H. CL an lowa farmer, in Wallace’s Dairyman. He purchased a thoroughbred Jersey bull and two heifer calves and began breeding from them. The result is that he has raised every heifer that was more than halfblood Jersey, and the poorest one when 3 three years old made three-fourths of a pound of butter per day, and in after tests, from one pound to one-ahd threefourths pounds per day, when in full flow of milk. Some of the. best cows have made over two pouring *of butter per day, with ordinary care and feed. This is better than growing a generalpurpose cow, with the result of sending more than half of the heifers to the butcher after testing them as.cows and finding them unprofitable for dairy purposes. Variety of Food Necessary. In most of the discussions about what kinds of food are best, the fact is overlooked that no oiie food gives all the nutrltlVe elements in their proper combination for best results. A variety of food is needed, not merely to tempt appetite, but to keep animals in the best health. This ,1s especially important for animals that are being fattened and thus encourtfged to eat all they can. It is scarcely less so for animals that are growing, and which need in some kind of their feed the elements that make bone and muscle rather than fat.' Corn, which is the staple grain feed with most farmers, is least adapted of all for a single, ration. I Kerosene for the Clock. Those who have occasion to use the cheap, portable nickel-pjated clocks are often pothered by their failing to run well—or not running at all—after a year or so of service. Immost cases there is nothing the matter with the clock except an accumulation of dirt, and this can be easily remedied by a free application of kerosene— not dropped in, but poured into the interior and briskly shaken. In one case a clock which had been taken apart and put together again and did not run, and was thrown aside for several years, at once resumed service after being treated to a' kerosene bath. ~ Milk and Butter. The following advice is given by the Massachusetts Ploughman: Milk regularly. Keep the cows quiet and comfortable. Bitter butter is a result of over-ripe cream. .. It is the good cows that make money for their owner. The poor ones are kept for fun, evidently. The cow that holds out well ten or eleven months in the year is the kind to keep. Like a factory, a cow pays best when run to full capacity. That means high feeding. To make the best cow out of the growing heifer, it is important during growth that her feeding and care should be such as will secure the best development How to Train Honeysuckle. If a honeysuckle be entirely cut down it will make enormous growth in consequence, says the Philadelphia Ledger, but the flowering wood will be absent, and there will not bo near the quantity of flowers that there would have been. Odds and Endo. A filling for layer cake may be made from figs. Chop a cupful of figs fine and add to them a half cupful of sugar and the same of water, and cook until it thickens like jelly. When coljl plact between the layers of the cake. Lace curtains should never be ironed. Wash and starch them, using In the rinsing water a tablespoon of powdered borax. Spread a sheet on tht floor and fasten it; pin the curtains to it every two or three Inches and let them remain until dry. When the danton flannel or felt uni.ercloth for the table Is too long it can be put out of the way by fastening it up to the table by means of small loqps, one at each comer of the cloth, whfclt are caught onto hooks placed at proper distances on the underside of the table. There is no better way of cooking meat which is tough than by braising. The meat should be shut in a closely covered pot with a few pieces of salt pork laid under it. A mixture of vegetables cut into dice should be added; also a little soup stock and. a bouquet of herbs. Then it should all be cooked slowly in the confined steam. Everyone has been annoyed at some' time with bristles of the ordinary tooth-brush flailing out in the month while one is cleansing the teeth. This may be remedied if carets taken when purchasing a new brush. It should be at once set, brush end down, in a cup of water, and left there for an hour—not more time than that, but as much. After this there will be very little , bbther frdm this cause. I