Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1899 — AGRICULTURAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AGRICULTURAL

Small Smoke-House. The great difference between the rorlce of home-grown pork and store (bacon makes it a paying job for a farmer to smoke his own meat, at least (for home consumption. A smokehouse is a fine thing on any farm, but like many fine things, is something of a luxury. There are many farmers who cannot afford a well arranged smokehouse. For the benefit of these we give below the sketch and description of a smoke-box which will supply the farmer’s table with bacon at no expense and little trouble. It is made of a box about 5x3 feet and 4 feet high. It is without bottom. The door for putting in and tending the meat is put in the side of the box next the top. This is about a foot wide, with hinges on the lower side. Staples are driven in the ends of the -door (A, Fig. 4) with hooks (B) to slip into the staples and hold the door in place when closed. For hanging the meat, bore holes through the top of the box, far enough apart so that the pieces will not touch when hung. To hang the meat, take stout cord or pliable wire, fasten one end into the meat and run the other through the auger holes after forming a loop of it. Run a stick through the loop and your ham is secure. A fire put in the box would make it too warm for the contents. To guard against this, the fire that furnishes the smoke is some distance from the box, being conducted to it through a covered trench or several joints of old stovepipe. For the fireplace, dig a hole a foot or so in depth, a short distance from the box—6 feet is -far enough—and connect it With the box by a trench

about half as deep as the hole. If a couple or three joints of old stovepipe are at hand, place them In the trench with the upper end coming out under the box near the center.. An old elbow joint makes this an easy thing to do. The other end of the pipe Is to enter the hole. Then cover the pipe over with the loose dirt thrown out Also bank up the smoke-box and calk all cracks possible. There will be enough amoke escape at best to Insure the required draught. When ready for the fire, start one in an old kettle or pan. Cobs make the best material, being easy to handle and keep well. When a good smoke is going, set it in the hole prepared for it and cover over with boards, or better, a large piece of sheet-iron, tin or femething of the kind. Bank this up so as to keep the smoke from escaping, and you are in a fair way to soon have some first-class bacon. The box will smoke from two to three hundred pounds at a time. It is Inexpensive, to construct, and what is most essential, a success.—Ohio Farmer. Clay for Pear*. It is universally agreed that a heavy clay soil is best for the pear. There are various reasons for thia, the principal one being that clay soli Is always rich In mineral fertilizers, while a sandy or gravelly soil Is deficient In this kind of plant food. But the clay soil, though rich In phosphates and potash, may not have them in available form, and may need a dressing In spring of these minerals in available form. Trees on clay may need dressings of available potash and phosphate In the years when the tree Is bearing. On sandy soil the pear tree always needs these manures. The pear roots deeply, so that It Is never affected by droughts, and in clay soils it doubtless draws mineral fertilizers from the subsoil below where the roots of grain and other crops usually grow. It is a great mistake to allow the tap root of a pear -tree to be cut off before it is transplanted. »_ Thinning-Barly Apple*, Wherever the codling moth Is abundant that will attend to the thinning of the early apples, which begin to ripen even while the moth Is at work In its first brood. Very few early apples escape the worm, and many fall before they are fit for any use. But one or two entire failures of the apple crop have so reduced the codling moth that we think it will pay to go through trees of early apples and take out one-quar-ter to one-third, according to how plentifully the fruit has set So soon as the fruit begins to turn a further thinning may be made with profit. Tree Root* in Underdrain*. It la never safe to leaVe a large tree growing near where an underdrain has been laid, unless the tile are jointed, that is, made like the city sewer pipe.

joint As tile are usually laid It is impossible to prevent there being a crack wide enough to admit the fibrous roots of a tree, which go everywhere in search of moisture. In the tile the tree root expands until the tile is entirely filled, and the drain is ruined. Almost any large tree will do this, but the worst of all trees are the willow, elm and locust All of these love water, and none of them should be allowed to grow near underdrains or wells. In some parts of the country willows and locusts are planted in dooryards. But if near a well, even if the well be roofed over, their roots will find their way to the water, and spoil it for use. How to Irrigate Crops. One of the best short cuts in watering all crops planted in rows is the use of small tubes or boxes made of lath. They are made by sawing common plastering lath in three pieces, sixteen Inches long, then rip one piece in the center and nail together with two or three penny nails, so the tubes will be square, the width of a lath, about inches on the outside, and a little less than three-quarters of an inch on the inside. This will also allow a stream of water sufficiently large for ordinary soils. These tubes should be placed one at the upper end of each Irrigation furrow, connecting It with the feed ditch. Have the feed ditch as near level as possible. If the feed ditch has too much fall the wash will fill up the ends of the tubes. It can be remedied by placing checks or sluice boxes at proper intervals with gates sufficiently high to back the water up far enough to make the water stand nearly still. Occasional cleaning of the tubes with a small switch is all that is necessary. With this arrangement all that is required to irrigate a field is to turn the water into the feed ditch and let it run until the ground is thoroughly soaked, which is a saving of a great deal of time and attention.—F. S. Calkins, in St Louis Globe-Democrat. Keep Young Hom Growing. There is an impression among farmers that hogs in summer at pasture can get enough with the swill from the house and what they can get in the fields. This was all right so long as skim-milk, one of the best foods for growth, was part of the swill, and uneaten refuse from the table was also thrown in. But in many places the •kimmed milk is now sold in some form, while a better use for table refuse is found in giving it to the poultry. So the pig is starved in summer, which is the time he ought to grow the fastest, and Is the poorest preparation tor the heavy corn feeding that will begin in September and continue until the pig Is turned over to the butcher. A half-starved animal loses the power of digesting hearty food, for the stomach, like every other organ of the body, needs to have something to do to keep in good health and strength. Artificial Fertilization. A scientific Investigation demonstrated that the failure of some of the California fig orchards to bear fruits was due to the failure of the pollen to reach the female flower. Artificial fertilization was attempted and pollen was introduced into the flowers by a blowpipe at the proper period of growth. The trees so treated produced excellent fruit Agents of the California fig-growers who were sent to Smyrna to study the methods used in that country, where the best and largest supply of figs come from, found that the trees were fertilized by a curious bee, which carried the pollen from flower to flower. The Smyrna figgrowers would not sell any of these bees. The California agents obtained some secretly, however, but they died before reaching Los Angeles. Jersey Cow Nameleu.

Sunflowers as Bean Poles. The selecting and cutting of poles for the vines of the bean to grow on is no easy task, even where timber is plentiful, and in a prairie country it Is a problem. I have found a substitute for the pole in the old-fashioned sunflower, one stalk for each hill. They are ornamental, the seed is good for the poultry, and the stalks make fine kindling wood. Some may claim that the sunflower will take the strength of the ground from the beans, but my experience does not agree with this. The finest beans I ever raised were grown with sunflowers for poles.—J. L. Irwin. Pointe In Planting the Lawn. There may properly be a border of low-growing shrubbery next to the house, and it is well to plant a vine of some sort by the piazza. Nothing lg better fpr this purpose than the common woodbine or Virginia Akebia and actlnldia, two new Japai> ese climbers, are also good. In general, a better effect la produced by planting in masses and borders than by dotting the plants here and there over tbs lawn. ;

Borne Truths at Louisville. The speeches of Bryan, Altgeld, Williams and O. P. Belmont at Louisville afford little material for comment. The speakers themselves felt thlsj and unwittingly they admitted some damaging truths. Mr. Bryan, for example, made this lapse: “The gold standard is so simple that every one of us can understand it and its effects.” This is perfectly true. It is the free silver proposition that is understood least by those who shout for it most loudly. But the number of shouters is rapidly diminishing. Mr. Williams tried to explain away the melancholy fact as follows: “It is true that the bimetallic question has been largely argued on. Little that is new can be said. Some of dur friends have tired of the discussion not because their belief is weaker, but because they deem the merits established, and that the opposition does not intend to be fair. Perhaps for this reason it may be that the issue will not be as prominent in the coming Presidential campaign as in the last” But convinced men do not tire of truth. If the silverites are weary and listless, it is because they have lost and know it. Few can be induced to treat silver as a live issue, and the orators will have to cast about for new rallying cries. Mr. Williams uttered an important truth, however, when he said: “We are now approaching the first campaign in which any party has ventured its fate upon the support of gold monometallism. We shall enter upon the next campaign with no evasion or duplicity. Every man who votes the Democratic ticket in 1900 will vote for the free coinage of silver.” And the people will vote for the gold standard without ifs and buts. They have learned something since 1896. The facts have argued better than scholars can. The facts have destroyed silver and established the gold standard. The voters will accept a condition, not a theory.—Chicago Post.

Create* New Want*. A few of the followers of Cobden have begun to perceive that a system which has the effect of diversifying the Industries of a nation may prove more beneficial to the world generally than the one their apostle advocated of converting one country into the workshop of the world, and relegating all other •countries to the position of producers of food stuffs and raw materials for manufactures. Recently a writer in a leading English review declared flatly that Russia’s resort to protectlou had actually benefited Great Britain, and he buttressed his argument with statistics which clearly showed that the diversification of industry was creating new wants which would never have been felt by the Russians if they had persisted in remaining a strictly agricultural people. By and by this important result of the protective policy will be perceived by all kinds of economists, and then It will be admitted that the best system is that which encourages peoples to try their hands at all kinds of industry, and not remain content to accept the position of Inferiority to which the nations with established manufactures would cheerfully assign all would-be rivals.—San Francisco Chronicle. May Make It a Local Issne. Democrats will have considerable trouble in finding Issues for the next Presidential campaign. The Dingley tariff law seems to be all right It hardly seems probable, with all the theories of the free silverltes disproved by actual facts since 1896, that the people will reverse their judgment on the money question. The Philippine situation promises to be wholly satlsfac-

tory in a short time and Democracy will not have a monopoly on anti-trust declarations. Perhaps Democracy will do as it did some years ago on the tariff question and remit discussion of all these things to the people in their Congressional ' districts. Mansfield (Ohio) News. No Better Mai. All of the Republicans in Ohio, including the President of the United States, will rejoice over the nomination of George K. Nash. A better man than is Mr. Nash could not have been found, and the Leader says this with great sincerity and with happy willingness. No man in all the world can truthfully say anything to the detriment of the Republican candidate for Governor. George K. Nash as a citizen, as a lawyer, and as an office-holder, has lived an open and righteous life and has done his duty in all things and at all times. He is an honest man, a good man in every way, and all who know him will so declare. His heart is kind and pure and his confidence in mankind comes from his own integrity and splendid personal character.— Cleveland Leader. Has Proved Its Value. The advocates of free trade should take a hint from an incident in the House of Commons the other day. Mr Douglass Coghill, a conservative, salt that the present United States Dingley tariff was working serious Injury to British manufacturers, and asked if the government would not enter into negotiations with the United States for a tariff that would be more favorable to Great Britain. The milk in this cocoanut is that the Dingley tariff protects American industries against British competition so that better wages can be paid American workmen and even then our exports abroad have increased largely during the past two years. The Dingley tariff has proved its value in more ways than one.— Cohoes (N. Y.) Republican.

Facts a* to Tin Plate Price*. It is worth noting that the price of tin plate, with the increase of 11 per cent, in wages, is still sl.lO per box less than it was when we relied on foreign supply for all our tin plate under free Importation. What has really been accomplished is this: The tin plate industry has been transferred to thia country; whatever profits there are now go to American investors, the wages expended in that industry are distributed to American laborers, and these have been Increased since the trust was organized 11 per cent; the producers are undoubtedly making a good profit and still the product Is sold to American consumers at sl.lO a box, or 22 per cent., less than before the tariff was adopted and the trust organized.—Gunton’s Magazine. If Credit I* Given. In regard to trusts the Ohio Republicans in their State convention pledged the party to “such further legislation as experience may determine to be necessary to prevent the formation and operation of such iniquitous and dangerous combinations.’’ Democrats are at liberty to copy, giving credit—St Louis Globe-Democrat Extremely Dead. Even the cotton manufacturers of "New England are restoring wages to the old scale. It will be a long time before the free-traders dare to make their tariff ideas an issue. Silver is dead enough, but it is a frisky corpse compared with free trade.—Des Moines (Iowa) State Register. For a Bia Majority. Ohio Republicans seem to be in good shape for another majority in six figures.

Property of Mr. A. J. Arthur. Winner of first prize at the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural shows, 1894-’95-’96-’97-’9B.

BOX SMOKE-HOUSE.

It’s hard riding a big sprocket agin’ the wind, Bill.-—St. Paul Pioneer Press.