Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1899 — FARMERS CORNER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMERS CORNER

Attractive Well House. Few realize the amount of heat that goes down into a well of water through the platform that surrounds the pump. It can be partially realized hy going up into a close attic under the roof some hot day. As a matter of fact, closed air spaces beneath boarding that Is exposed to the bright sun become fearfully heated, and in the •case of wells this heat is soon transmitted to the water. A double platform with an air space between will help greatly, but best of all is a summer house, or regular closed well house, built over the platform, and this In turn ■covered with vines. Not only will such a little house serve an excellent pur-

pose in keeping the well cool, but it will be an ornament to the place as well, and, as a “summer house,” may be a most agreeable place to spend an hour on a hot day. Woodbine is one of the best vines to use in covering such a house, as it provides abundant shade very quickly and is hardy even in the coldest climates. A few little things like this done about the farm each year will soon greatly Improve the looks of the farm surroundings, and will decidedly Increase the comforts of farm life. A suggestion for such a house is given herewith. Woodchopping in Spring. It is too hard work to do much chopping after warm weather comes, while in zero weather the exercise of swinging the ax and bringing down the tree is rather a delight than otherwise. But after the sap starts in the trees it is easier to chop or split them than in midwinter. A very knotty and tough tree may therefore be left standing until nature has filled it full of sap, though the wood will dry out slowly. If beech wood is cut while full of sap it must be kept under shelter, for if exposed to rains water will soak in as fast as the sap dries out. Spring is the worst time of year to cut wood and have it kept wet, and the abundance of sap it contains is probably the reason. Most timber will keep best If cut in July or August while the tree Is in leaf. The leaves continue to evaporate moisture after the tree is down, and this soon makes the wood dry. Cutting Potatoes Made Easy. The preparation of no farm seed causes more trouble than that of the potato crop. It is a slow, tedious task and must' be done by hand. This Is usually done by placing the potato upon a board and cutting it in the size desired. Now this task may be greatly alleviated by the use of a device that is not new. It is simplicity itself, consisting only of a plank, a, ten or twelve Inches in width and two feet in length, and a kni,fe, b, driven in one end equal-

ly distant from either side. This is placed upon a box, or stool, and the operator sits astride it. At his right is placed a basket, c. containing the whole potatoes, and in front, just under the knife, is another basket, d, to receive them when cut. The potatoes are cut by being pressed against the knife, one at a time. At first the person cutting them need exercise a little care to prevent his fingers being cut, but with a little practice there will be no danger, and he can cut an amount of potatoes in an hour that would be impossible for him to cut in twice that time in the old way.—A. B. B„ in American Agriculturist FesrrafttaK Young Orchards. It sometimes happens that the farmer finds even before his orchard gets to bearing that a large part of the trees are of varieties that will not give him much profit Regrafting to better sorts is a very laborious and expensive process if the trees have grown to nearly bearing size, because so many grafts must be set to make an even head. A few sprouts may be left below the grafts to draw the sap, but they must be cut away as soon as the grafts get to growing. A better way is to take a few years to do the grafting, putting in two or three grafts each spring, until the entire head is changed. So much cutting away of the top wood will

cause many sprouts to start These must be destroyed as fast as they appear, rubbing them off while the green shoot can be removed with the thumb and finger. Get Garden Planta Ont Early. Procure a lot of old fruit cans from the dump pile near town, throw them on the fire and when the solder is melted, straighten them ouV With a knife cut them in two lengthwise about the middle, fasten a piece of hardwood 2% inches square to the work bench, and then with a light wooden mallet bend these pleceis of tin into squares around this wood. They then form square boxes without top or bottom. Prepare the hotbeds, as usual, then cover the top with boxes placed side by side and fill with good garden mold. Plant seed so that there will be one growing plant in each box. When they are large enough to be set into the field, the plants can be taken up with a trowel, box and all, and a lot of them set on a board, the whole carried to the field, when the boxes can be slipped off and the plant with the soil about the roots undisturbed set in the open ground. Growth will continue without being checked by transplanting. Store the boxes in a barrel until next year. For melons or cucumbers put about three seeds in each box, and after they ace started, thin to two seeds and set two boxes in each hill when taken to the field. The advantage of this plan is that a large number of plants can be started in a light hotbed or cold frame, where they can be protected from frost and can be transferred to the open field without checking growth. Orange Judd Farmer. Potato s-'cab. For treating seed potatoes with corrosive sublimate solution to prevent scab, make a basket as follows: Take three strong iron hoops, 17 inches in diameter, with holes punched every 3 inches. Inside of these fasten common laths, 28 inches long, with small bolts. Place the bottom hoop 1 inch from end of laths; make the bottom from a 1-inch board sawed circular, 16 inches in diameter, and fasten to the end of the laths with nails. Bore several holes in this bottom. Make a bail from a strong piece of wire and fasten to top hoop. Suspend by a rope passing through pulley overhead. When filled with potatoes it can be easily raised and lowered into a 50-gallon kerosene barrel containing the solution. Raise from the barrel and allow to drain for a short time, when they can be emptied into the potato boxes. By this method none of the solution is wasted, and it is a short cut compared with the old way of tying a sack over the barrel and draining the solution from the potatoes. Building 8 tone Piers. Country places are much improved by entrance posts of cobble stones, but to be attractive these must be laid up

with great exactness. Excavate to the frost line, and setup In the square excavation a box--11 k e structure of boards, one side coming only to the surface. Fill In to the top of the ground with loose

rock and soft cement—soft enough to run into all the .crevices between the stones. From the ground up the stones should be laid up carefully in cement, the sides of the box permitting the stones to be pushed out to make an exactly even surface. When the top Is reached the three boards can be sawed off at the surface of the ground, leaving the bottom of the pier encased, which will keep the frost from getting any lifting power on the stones. It will lift the boards rather than the stones. When the boards are removed from the portion above ground, carefully dig out the loose cement from between the faces of the stones.—New England Homestead. Tile Woodpecker Man’s Ally. One of the birds which winters in our northern climates is the woodpecker, which finds its favorite food as easily in cold weather as in warm. It is not often seen except by those who go into the forests and evergreen swamps, where it takes refuge during the severest weather. Its sharp peck, peck on the trunk of a partly decayed tree is generally rewarded by a taste of the grub that did the mischief, and which the woodpecker greedily devours. The woodpecker is a daring pillager on the cherry trees when this fruit is ripe. But after his good work in destroying injurious grubs during winter nobody should refuse him a few cherries. Alfalfa for Hoga. Hogs will get in fine condition on alfalfa without other feed, and it. is said by some that they can be made fat enough for market on that alone, but the quality of meat is poor, the fat too soft and the taste unpleasant. Besides, the shrinkage during shipment is said to be considerable. To obtain a good quality of meat, if for no other reason, they should be put on a full feed of grain before being marketed. Repelling Borers. One gallow of coal tar, two pounds beeswax and two pounds tallow melted and mixed with flour of sulphur and air slacked lime to make it the consistency of paste. This mixture is to be spread on strips of burlap and wrapped around trunk of tree about two or three inches under surface of ground and about same distance above ground. For Fighting Cabbage Worms. F. S. White, of lowa, suggests a pool or shallow vessel of sweetened water poisoned with strychnine. During dry weather the moths which lay the eggs that hatch into worms, wHI sip the water and great numbers of them will die. Where only a few cabbages are grown the worms can be picked rtX—vnuige juua rarmer.

HOUSE OVER THE WELL.

FOR CUTTING POTATOES.