Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1878 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

- Rub a little soft soap on the crokkiug gate or barn-door hinges, and stop the unnecessary notoe and wear. —How do you know a good- farmer P It is by a well-ordered farm; well chosen stock; comfortable buildipgs; a neat and thrifty garden; a well-round-ed roadway; gates well hung; fences in good repair; shade trees und ornamental shrubbery well arranged; buildings painted without and whitewashed within; tools and implements painted and protected; and all the family cheerful.— lowa State Register. .—English race horses are fed on the best upland hay, Of which about six to eight pounds are given to each on the average daily, and from fifteen to twenty pounds of the best oats, in some cases beans being Substituted for the latter. The quantity of hay varies according to the constitution. The limit to the oats is the appetite, the trainer taking care to not quite satisfy the horse, which would produce satiety and disgust.— Exchange. —A young man starting out in farming cannot do a better thing than to plant an apple orchard if his land is within “ the apple belt.” Don’t rely on the gnarled and decaying old trees; the life of an orchard, under favorable conditions, is only about that of a man. Nothing will lift a mortgage, or run up the profit side of the account, like a prime orchard in its first years of bearing. Go for the standard varieties, or such as experience has proved do well in your locality and soil. Theories are good In their place; but a day spent in driving through your town aiid findally learned and done, is better. Get your trees from some reliable nursery —the nearer at hand the better—and use your own best care and other people’s experience in planting them.— N. Y. Times. —Many persons have remarked that, after having, as they supposed, protected roses and other tender plants with straw for the winter, they have come out from under the cover in many cases worse than those entirely exposed; and it is common to hear people with this experience say that protection is an injury. But in many epes the injury is not from the protection, but from the salt it contains. Fresh Btrawy matter from stable-yards is one thing and fresh straw from the barn another; and while straw is a benefit, rank fresh manure is an evil. For small things dry leaves with a little earth thrown over is excellent. Where the crowns of the plants are hard and woody, the earth itself drawn over a few inches is good; for larger things straw or even corn-fodder protects admirably, but should not be too bulky or twined round too tightly, or it may smother. But always beware of fresh strawy litter from the barnyard. Thousands of young plants, especially young evergreens, have been destroyed by it Germantown Telegraph.