Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1899 — FARMERS CORNER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMERS CORNER

An Ideal Brood Coop. Here is a plan of a good brood coop, one that is a protection to the little chicks from the weather, cats, rats, hawks and other vermin. It can be made of boxes, one with the top and bottom off for the yard, and the other with the bottom in and a roof over it It should set on inch pieces to keep out the water in case it should happen to be set in a low place. The yard should have wire netting across it to keep out the older fowls and keep the hen in, in case she is let out in the run. Move the coop a little each day so as to have fresh grass and ground, and cover the

top with an old piece of carpet if more shade is wanted—Ohio Farmer. A f praying Outfit. Some farmers Imagine a spraying outfit is expensive, when in fact all that need be bought is a force punqp with half-inch hose to reach up into the tree, and a Vermorel or other spray nozzle. Place the pump in a barrel of the mixture, load it into a wagon and begin to spray.. For reaching tall trees, rallse the hose by a piece of bamboo pole fastened on near the nozzle. More work can be done with two lines of hose with a man to handle each line. High trees can be better sprayed if a four-foot platform is placed in the wagon. A fine mist is better than a coarse spray. Try to reach the underside of the leaves. The tree must be wet all over, not soaked, but every part reached in a careful manner. Spray in fair weather. Fairly good work on a small scale can be done with the small garden pump with'long hose. This is the cheapest outfit, costing only about $5. Several good pumps especially for spraying are made and advertised. Either outfit with extra long hose Is good for spraying potatoes. Use parts green in the same mixture if beetles are present. For early blight, spray when vines are two-thirds grown and repeat In two weeks. For late blight, spray in middle of Tune, in middle of July and in middle of August.—Orange Judd Farmer. Cutting Strawberry Runner-. For several years the process of clipping the strawberry runners was considered the most tedious and tiresome

in the whole routine of strawberry culture. Having tried fully a half dozen different plans, none of which was at all satisfactory, a Rural New Yorker correspondent concluded that a large, keen edged, rolling disk would be the simplest and most effective solution of the problem. At a scrap Iron dealers’ he found a fine, large 13-inch disk and frame, or fork, all complete and bought it for 25 cents. That is the entire cost in money of the strawberry runner cutter shown In the illustration, the handles being worked out and put on in the home workshop. TeachinK Cotta to Eat Oats. Wherever it is necessary, as it often is, to work the mare while the colt is unweaned it is usual to shut up the colt in a box stall and without food or drink. This is unnecessary cruelty. If a little clover hay is placed where the colt can nibble at It, he will soon learn to eat hay, and if there is a box with a few oats in it he Wilf learn to eat those also. This is the more important because if the mare becomes heated while working, the milk may become injurious to the colt. The clover and oats cannot do him any harm. When a colt has learned to eat oats he can be weaned from the dam without any check to his growth. It is best in most cases that the liking for oats should be taught before the colt is weaned. Trees Near Dwellings. A high tree a short distance from a dwelling house often acts as an efficient protector from lightning. The tree Is full of sap and this makes a better conductor than the dry walls of a house. It is very rarely the case that live trees are rent by lightning strokes. The rending usually is some dead porgon of the tree that the electricity can-

not readily pass through. Hence the high tree may have saved the house from being struck by lightning without leaving any mark by which the feat could be suspected. Molasses Cake for Cattle Feed. At a late session of the French National Agricultural Society, Paris, a molasses cake was exhibited which, it is said, had been used for cattle feed with excellent effect. The cake is made by a Parisian, Mr. A. Vaury, the wellknown maker of bread for the army. Its manufacture consists in the boiling of molasses and working it briskly with mixture of corn flour and bran, when it is pressed into the ordinary form of a cake and packed in bags for sale. The proportions used are one-third molasses, one-third flour, one-third bran. The suburban dairymen claimed that in the use of this molasses cake there are extra yield of milk and an increase in proportion of butter fat. The proper quantity in feeding should be six to ten pounds daily, which is not intended as a basis of food, but as a condiment, and to assist digestion.— National Provisioner. Size of Apple Barrels. This question was troubling fruitgrowers thirty years ago. At the winter meeting of the Western New York Society in 1867, a resolution was passed—“ That the present law regulating the size of fruit barrels is jeasonable and just, and ought not to be repealed; that the legal barrel will hold as many pounds of wheat as the flour barrel does of flour; that fruit keeps better and is handled easier than in large-sized barrels and ought to be satisfactory to all concerned; that our senators and representatives in the Legislature be requested to oppose any repeal of the present law, which establishes 100 quarts as a legal barrel.”

Time to Cut Timothy. The pollen from timothy blossoms is very irritating to horses when it is cut in this stage. Hence the grass is left until the seed has formed, by which time the stalk becomes dry and of little feeding value. The very best timothy hay for horses is made when this grass begins to send up its seed stalk. But it has not the weight or substance that a later cutting will give. This is one reason why timothy hay needs so much grain to be fed with it to make it good feed for horses. Yarding Cows at Night. The practice of bringing cows up at night is not a good one. It is far better to leave them in the pasture and milk them there, even though it makes more labor. In hot weather the cows, if allowed their freedom, will graze during the evening and early morning while dew is in the grass, and will then lie down to digest what they have eaten. If yarding of cows Is done at any time in summer it should be in the middle of the day.

Good Sheep Pasture. Clovers are excellent for sheep pastures and a mixture of the white, medium red, alsike clovers with some timothy can scarcely be ijnproved upon. Provide pure fresh water in the pasture and have some soiling crop, as rape, peas or oats on hand so that anj shortage of pasture may be bridged over. The Lard Press. Farmers who slaughter-four or more hogs each year should have a lard press. A considerable number do use them, but very many do not. A good press will last a lifetime or longer, and during this period it will greatly increase the lard product. In many cases the difference amounts to the lard product of a single hog.

. Dairy Wiadom.* Never churn in a cold room. Do not fill the churn more than onethird full. If the cream is not stirred frequently and thoroughly, it will not ripen evenly, consequently the churning cannot be thorough. ' Be sure the temperature of the cream is right, which should be from 65 to 7C degrees, according to the condition oi the cream. Test the skimmilk and buttermilk, not once, but frequently, and by close study conditions can be controlled that there will be no loss. A dairyman can suffer severe loss in this way—enough or more perhaps than to pay for the services of a Competent assistant in the business. In some conditions it might ripen more rapidly near the sides of the can or vat, in others near the middle, so it must be stirred several times a day. If you find that you are losing butter fat in the skimmilk or buttermilk, or both, then there is a big fault in the way you are handling your milk, and don’t rest until you find where it is.

IDEAL BROOD COOP.

CUTTER FOR STRAWBERRY RUNNERS.