Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1898 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

A Fruit Picking Box. A contributor to the New York Tnoune offers the following suggestions: The ordinary basket is not a convenient receptacle into which to pick fruit from a ladder. Too little of the opening is presented between the rounds, owing to the round form of the basket's top. The round form also keeps the basket from being stable, as it is constantly swinging about on the one book sup-

porting it. A fruit-gathering box is shown in the cut which obviates both these defects. Its handle is made from a flat hoop soaked in water and bent into the proper shape. This handle can be supported by two hooks, keeping the box very firm. With a box the full opening from one side to fehe other is afforded for putting in fruit. If the box is carefully lined with a double thickness of burlap there will be less likelihood of bruising the fruit, in the tun.:llea* degree. - li'urreliiiK Apple* and Pear*. In barn-ling apples it Is cpilte safe to pile the apples as much as two inches aliove where the head will lit in the chine. If pressed down evenly there Is elasticity enough In the apple skin to allow such compression without brulsiug It. if the apples arc not thus pressed down Ilicy will shrink so ns to he loose in the barrel, and will thus bruise In handling the barrels worse tIiHU they would if pressed down. Pears cannot Is- thus pressed down. They are best packed with a paper around each, which will keep It from to>f-hlng its neighbor. Fall Plowing to Kill Inaecta. One of the benefits of fall plowing thut more than compensates Its disadvantage is wasting the surface soil by blowing and wnshing. Is that It destroys millions of destructive Insects. In orshnrds especially, many of the larvae that are injurious are hidden under leaves nr stones, where they will be partly protected from wet, and will there endnre any amount of dry freezing without Injury. Hut turning the •oil over 1o the depth of five or six inches dlsturlm these Insect arrange tjnents. Moisture means that the. larva must begin to prepare for emerging

fiorn its cocoon, or if already an insect it may be tempted to move to escape it. Arq- such movement before there is settled warm weather is death to it Cutting; Corn. Corn fodder, if secured when it Is in its best condition, is almost as good as hay for cattle and sheep; and for milch cows there is no other feed that I have ever tested equal to it. Just as soon as the corn is well in tlijb dough it is ripe enough to cut. Some farmers let their corn stand till the stalks get dead ripe before cutting. Corn thus cared for may he a little heavier after it is husked (at least it is so claimed by some), but the waste in fodder more than consumes the extra grain in we'ght of corn. The average day laborer will, if cutting by the shock, cut seventy shocks containing sixty-four hills in each shock, per day. An expert worker will, in medium corn, cut from 100 to 125 shocks in the same length of time, and of equal size. Twisted rye straw or marsh hay is good to use, although the best thing that is being used is a No. 9 wire, cut about 3% feet long, with a hook bent on each end, so that they can he quickly fastened or unfastened. These wire bands can he saved and used year after year. Hoofs Like Horus. Here’s the picture of a freak cow owned by a Massachusetts farmer. The abnormal hoofs are apparently of regular horn substance, and further than to seriously impede the animal's locomotion do not otherwise seem to interfere with the performance of her ordinary functions. Those hoofs, or horns, as they might be called, when trimmed

off soon grow again to the size and shape shown in the illustration. Fall Seeding; of Corn Ground. A crop of corn may be succeeded the following year with grass for pasturing or hay if the land is fitted right. A light plowing, or rather cultivating so as to pull down the corn butts, and then following them with the roller to press them into the surface will he all that is needed. Then run over the leveled surface with the smoothing harrow, which will roughen it and sow the seed. If a permanent pasture is desired sow some June grass seeds with the timothy, and in the spring sow some clover seed. All will grow, and the first year each will help the othpr, as the more grass or clover growth can he got on the laud the earlier it will dry out when spring comes. Most attempts to seed without grain fail because not enough seed is sown. Threshing; Buckwheat.* Owing to the great amouut of sap its thick stalk contains, buckwheat cannot well be piled up in sacks or put in mows. We have known it to be threshed by machine, but it took so much power to thresh the buckwheat by threshing machine that the experiment was not profitable. It is extremely easy with a little beating of the head to dislodge every grain of buckwheat. But when stalks and all are put in it has to be done very slowly, else the green buckwheat stalks would clog the cylinders and stop the machine. It takes much more coal to thresh buckwheat with a steam thresher than it does to thresh grain whose straw is dry.— American Cultivator.

Stabling an(l Blanketing Horses. Horses that are exposed to rains should be blanketed while out of doors, and the blanket, or rather a dry one, should cover the horse after he is under shelter. Under the blanket the heat gathers from tlie internal heat of the body, and as there is thus a double protection between the skin and the outer air the skin does not chill. Carefulness In blanketing a horse lias at all seasons more to do with his condition Ilian feeding grain. If a cold is developed In the early winter it is extremely likely to last until spring, and may then develop Into much worse disease than an ordinary cold. Poultry Notes. Filthy quarters produce sickness, and sick liens will not produce eggs. Cull out the poor layers and give the prolific hens more room to work. After the second year the hen’s value as a winter egg-producer lessens. Green rye Is the best form for feeding; ns a grain it is a poor poultry food. Make the liens work. Exercise helps digestion. Feed all they will eat up clean. Keep the fowls Indoors while there is snow on the ground or the air cold and raws When the weather Is cold scald the morniug mash and feed while In a warm state.Hens and pullets may lay as well without the attention of a mule birij as with It. Cora should not be fed exclusively. It should be only a nigbt feed In very cold weather. Ten cents a pound is about the average price for hens In market for the whole year. Boiled buckwheat fed once or twice a week to the hens makes a good alters nate food for egg production. Ten eents should feed a chick, and It should then weigh ten |>ounds, If highly fed, 10 cents covering the greatest abundance of food.

FRUIT PICKING BOX.

COW WITH ABNORMAL HOOFS.