Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1899 — FARM AND GARUDEN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARUDEN.

Derrick for Hay. This hay derrick for field stacking Is reported by a correspondent of the National Stockman as having worked Satisfactorily. The frame can be boltled together if the maker wishes to take It down and put under shelter for use in after years or spiked together if he wishes to let it stand in the field. A pulley is used at each end of the long larm across the top. The pulleys can be best attached to the arm by clevises of suitable size. A third pulley is attached to one of the lower corners of the frame as most convenient when the derrick is in position for stacking. The base of the frame illustrated is 10 feet square, 10 feet high and 5 feet square at the top. Three sides are crossbraced. The fotlrth side is not, as it

makes it more convenient to take the pole down. The pole is 25 feet long. It should be 7 inches in diameter at base and 5 inches at top. Across the runners at center use a piece of timber 2 inches by 12 inches, 10 feet long, with 2-inch hole —or larger—ln (tenter for tenon, cut at end of pole to rest in, the shoulder around the tenon resting on the timber. The long arm is 15 feet long, and the correspondent thinks it should be two feet longer. Short end is 5% feet long, long end 11% feet. About three feet from the base of the pole will be noticed a projecting rod. This is one inch iron about four feet long, fitting in an auger hole in the pole. This is used as a lever to turn the arm around over the stock when loaded. The high end of the long arm as shown in the illustration is about 28 feet from the ground. The frame mfist set close to the butt of stack or pick, the bulge of the stack coming out against the frame.

To Stop Growth of Horns. For stopping the growth of horns upon calves this mixture has been successfully used in experiments conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Animal Industry. Take fifty parts caustic soda, twenty-five parts of kerosene oil, and twenty-five parts of water. An emulsion is made of the oil and soda by heating and vigorously stirring, and this is then dissolved in water. The mixture should be placed in a bottle with a solid rubber cork. The calves should not be over three weeks old, from five to twenty days being the proper age. A horn will sometimes be killed that is even from four to six weeks old, but it can not be depended upon with certainty. In applying the solution the following directions should be observed: With a pair of scissors clip the hair around the embryo horn eo as to expose a spot about the size of a nickel. While an assistant holds the calf securely drop two or three drops of the mixture on the horn, and with the ends of the rubber cork rub It thoroughly in over the bare spot. Apply the fluid first to one horn, then the other, until each has received three or four applications. The rubbing fehould be continued until the caustic has softened and removed the hair and surface skin around the horn. Care should be taken that the fluid does not spread over too large a surface or run down the side of the face.— The Jersey Hustler. Mniature and Strawberries. Although strawberry plants will not thrive where the soil is permanently wet, they do require abundant moisture both during the growing and fruiting seasons. The non-observance of this requirement is the occasion of heavy losses. In the first place, the ground for strawberries is often- left until planting time before plowing, and breaks up in clods, occasioning much labor in preparation with harrow and roller. Although it may be possible to put such a soil into fairly good condition for planting, the water which has been lost cannot be restored, and weeks may elapse before sufficient rain falls to keep the plants alive. It has been shown that more than MOO barrels of water per acre may tempo from unplowed ground in one .

week In excess of the quality which will pass off from an equal area which has been plowed early and harrowed at frequent intervals. Moreover, the ground which has been plowed late will continue to dry out during the season at a rate in excess of the early plowed. This shows plainly that plowing and frequent harrowing are essential in Order to retain soil moisture, even though planting may be delayed.—Ohio Agricultural Station. Orchard Treatment. Good drainage, natural or artificial, is essential to success. Trees are impatient of wet feet Good tillage increases the available food supply of the soil and also conserves its moisture. Tillage should be begun just as soon as the ground is dry enough in the spring, and should be repeated as often as once in ten days throughout the growing season, which extends from spring until July or August Only cultivated crops should be allowed in orchards early in the season. Grain and hay should never be grown. Even hoed or cultivated crops may rob the trees of moisture and fertility if they are allowed to stand above the tree roots.

Watch a sod orchard. It will begin to fail before you know it Probably nine-tenths of the apple orchards are in sod, and many of them are meadows. Of course, they are failing. The remedy for these apple failures is to cut down many of the orchards. For the remainder, the treatment is cultivation, fertilization, spraying—the trinity of orthodox apple growing. Potash is the chief fertilizer to be applied to fruit trees, particularly after they come into bearing. Potash may be had In wood ashes and muriate of potash. It is most commonly used in the latter form. An annual aplication of potash should be made upon bearing orchards, 500 pounds to the £cre. Phosphoric acid is the second important fertilizer to be applied artificially to orchards. Of the plain superphosphates from 300 to 500 pounds may be applied to the acre. Nitrogen can be obtained cheapest by means of thorough tillage (to promote nitrification) and nitrogenous green manures. Bam manures are generally more economically used when applied to farm crops than when applied to orchards; yet they can be used with good results, particularly when rejuvenating the old orchards. Cultivation may be stopped late in the season, and a crop can then be sown upon the land. This crop may serve as a cover or protection to the soil, and as a green manure.—Prof. Bailey, Cornell University.

The Tomato Rot. The tomato rot is caused by a fungus which is blown by the wind from plant to plant or carried by insects. Tbe best preventive for this disease is to plant on fresh sod ground that has been fallplowed, and use well-rotted manure mixed with a little phosphate. As soon as tbe young fruit commences to form, spray the vines with the Bordeaux mixture after the dew is off. The vines should be sprayed once every ten days. The spraying not only kills the fungus, but it helps the growtli of the vines; larger, finer and more perfect fruit can be grown when the vines are thoroughly sprayed. It takes but one hour to spray thoroughly five hundred vines. Way to “Cool” Sitting Hens. If rightly handled, the hen may be induced in a few days to go to scratching and give up all idea of sitting, without being cruel to her, either. Get a grocery box, or something similar, and convert it Into the affair shown m cut. It has no botom, but one end has a sloping top to throw off rain, and also protect the heii from the sun. The

remainder of the top is. covered with slats. The two holes at the side give the hen, or hens, access to dishes of water and food, which, by the way, should be light and small in quantity, to reduce “bidy’s” condition. Oats are about the best substiute for “bread” when refractory hens thus have to be placed on “dungeon diet”—Ohio Farmer. How Binging; Affect* Grapes. Hinging grapes is practiced by many growers to secure early maturity and larger bunches. It consists simply of removing a ring of bark from the bearing arm between the main vine and the buds which are to produce fruit the first season. This does not interfere with the ascent of the sap, but it does prevent the return of the food that has been formed in the leaves. The parts of the branch above the ring can draw upon all the food formed in the leaves of that branch. As a result the overfed bunches grow faster and become larger than they otherwise would. Neighbor!’ Tree*. More than one court has decided that a person may chop off the branches of a neighbor’s tree which bang over his line, first giving notice to the neighbor of bis intentions, that the owner may chop them himself if he wishes to. The branches, however, belong to the owner of the tree, and must be thrown over the fence. Boots may also be chopped off, but nothing put into the ground to cause the death of die tree.—Practical Fanner. Accuracy Is the twin brother of honesty; Inaccuracy of dishonesty^—CL IBffS^. .v.. ,J. ‘

FIELD HAT DERRICK.

A SITTING HEN COOLER.