Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1898 — AGRICULTUREAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AGRICULTUREAL

Putting Up Barbed Wire. The Illustration, from the American Agriculturist, shows a handy contrivance for “paying out” barbed wire when building a fence of this material. A stout stone drag has a round stake set in one corner well braced. The reel of wire is put on as suggested for attaching the upper wire and below the braces at various heights when putting up the other wires. This brings the wire right along beside the stakes and at just the height desired. When ready to staple, let the driver of the team take hold of one arm of the reel to keep it from turning, starting up the team a few feet to stretch the wire. His companion then staples firmly, when more wire is unreeled and the process Is repeated. A

slow-moving team should be used, or it will not be safe to attempt holding the reel. Cost of Growing Corn, The University of Illinois has been trying to find out what it costs the Illinois farmers to raise corn. It had replies from 300 farmers in all the corn-growing areas. Up to husking the items of expense given in the replies do not vary greatly, but subsequent expenses are absurdly reported to vary 11.3 cents in one county to 38.8 cents in another. The average cost of raising corn was found to be for the stattf $8.72 per acre, or 16.1 cents per Iffishel. Including Interest on the farmers’ equipment and the cost of the cribs, shelling and in hauling to market the conclusion is reached that in 1896, which was an average year, with an average yield of fifty-four bushels per acre, the cost from breaking the ground to delivery of the corn at the elevator was 19.5 cents. This covers the rent of the ground or interest on the value of the land, interest on depreciation on plant and wages for the farmer and others engaged in the work of raising the corn. At this rate, if he got 29.5 cents per bushel he cleared $5.40 per acre. He got this clear in addition to wages, interest, depreciation and other costs.

Comfortable Fruit Ladder. Upon the ordinary fruit ladder one must stand for a long time and endure the strain and the

cutting into the feet of a small round. A fairly broad, flat step gives firm and comfortable support to the feet. The ladder can be made light, too, as the one shown in the Illustration. Make one In winter according to this pattern, while you have plenty of time, and it will be ready for next season’s fruit picking. The top of such a ladder can narrow point if de-

sired. 'Jibe main piece must be of some light material free from knots and other Imperfections. Dress all the material together, then paint. If kept tinder shelter when not in use it will last many years. Thinning Apples. Most of the early apples are abundant bearers and are apt to be small. 'Those that are sweet are not good for much until ripe, but Early Harvest and the Twenty Ounce apple will bear picking when two-thirds grown and make excellent pies. If this is done in ail parts of the tree, plucking a few apples where they are fullest on the bough. It will make what apples remain much larger ami better, besides supplying early apples for household use, says an exchange. XecplnK Fowls (hit of Mischief. Something more than feed Is necessary to keep fowls from running to the garden or the newly planted corn Held, and scratching among the dirt. Hens do this, less to secure the grain than to rid themselves of vermin by thoroughly dusting themselves. If a place close by the henhouse Is kept plowed, and Is strewn twice a week with grain and lurrowed, fowls will rarely leave it for anything. Clean Milk. A correspondent of the Practical Farmer says: To have clean milk, it must always be kept so. Commence When milking. My sister, who has spent four years on the Isle of Jersey, saw the way they milked their Jersey cows In that country. It was through

muslin stretched over the pail. An attachment to slip over the pail can be made as follows: Take a piece of spring steel, bend to a size smaller than milk pail; ends not to be fastened; cut cloth a size larger than pail top. and when hemmed around steel it will be the right size to cover pail. Stretch over pail when milking; will keep out all hairs and dirt that drop from cow. Can be easily put on and taken off.

A Barn Cistern. A barn cistern will be a very great advantage where a large number of cattle are wintered. The cistern should be placed on high ground, so that the water can be piped directly to the cattle stalls. The cistern should be built under ground. It may be built out of the ground six feet or more; use the earth that comes out of the bottom to bank up the outside. The earth bankment should be five feet thick and well sodded. This will keep the water cool in summer and warm in winter. A cistern fourteen feet deep and seven feet in diameter will hold 130 barrels of water, and can be built for SSO. The fall of the year, before the ground becomes saturated with water, is a good time to dig'one. The inlet pipe should run down within one foot of the bottom. The inflow of water from every rain and the constant drawing of the water will keep tbje body of water stirred, and thus keep it pure. The rain water that falls upon a barn forty by twenty-six feet will keep the cistern full.—Baltimore American. .Budding. Buds from the largest and thriftiest shoots generally withstand the wintex better than those from the smaller, immature wood, which are liable to drop off, leaving the back attached. The triple buds on the older and more matured shoots of bearing trees often survive when the single buds above them kill out. Apricots and plums can be worked on peach stocks, but plum stocks are generally preferred for them. Budding should be done during August, and if the weather has been very dry, so as to cause the stocks to stop growing, it may even be too late; while if there has been abundant rainfall the work may be continued into September. The bark must separate readily from the stock in order to have the work successful.—Farm and Fireside. Fertilize the Orchard. It is certain that any crop will exhaust the soil in time, whether of grain, grass or fruit. On some farms may be seen orchards of apple trees over half a century old. Every year these trees have produced fruit, and in return have received nothing in the form of fertilizer. It is estimated that an ordinary apple crop removes from an an acre of soil about 50 pounds of nitrogen, 40 pounds of phosphoric acid and 75 pounds of potash. When clover Is grown in the orchard the land Is benefited by having its proportion of nitrogen Increased, but it will gain nothing in mineral matter. The land devoted to apples should receive fertilizer or manure every ydar, and when there is a heavy crop of apples in sight the fruit should be thinned out in the early stages of growth. Crop Experiments. The area of ground that can be used for conducting a number of experiments need not be large. An acre will give sixty-four plots each 25 by £5 feet square, and a comparison of different crops, under various methods of cultivation, will give more practical experience and information to those interested than can be gained by many years’ cultivation without regard to system or regularity. Summer Pruning. Attention should be paid to summer pruning fruit trees. A topping of the growing shoots just before they finish growth will generally cause them to set flower buds for the next season. Besides this It is the best time to prune in order to thicken the trees. Poultry Note*. Better fatten and eat the stunted chickens. Do not mix the bone meal with the food. Sell poultry alive during the next two months. Keep eggs in a cool place until they are marketed. Sell the young ducks as soon as they are ready for market. Mixed with milk buckwheat make* a good fattening ration. It Is easier to avoid disease in the flock than to cure it. As a rule the eggs of hens grow small er as the moulting season advances. When the fowls are too fat an exclusive diet of oats will soon reduce them. Poultry and eggs are Inseparable If a fair profit is derived from the investment. In the smaller breeds beauty of form and plumage are the first requirements. One of the disadvantages with guineas is that they are not a good market fowl. The second year of the hen is more profitable than at any oilier time during her life. A coroner estimates that something like 600 Infants are overlaid by their mothers yearly in London. Infants, he said, should sleep in cots, as it taket little to suffocate them.

FOR MAKING WIRE FENCE.

FRUIT LADDER.