Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1899 — AGRICULTURAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AGRICULTURAL

More Room in the “Tie Up.’’ The “tie ups” in old-fashioned barns are almost always too short in depth to give proper chance for cleanliness ■or for comfort in caring for the cows. Figure 1 shows a cross section of the

old-fashioned tie up. There is a narrow walk in the rear, always slippery and dirty from the absence of a gutter for the manure. Figure 2 shows a ■change of plan that is easily accomplished. The cattle are moved ahead so that the tying post comes at the edge of the feed floor and the platform is raised, giving a chance for a manure gutter behind the platform and for a raised walk that is always dry and clean. The cribs occupy space in the

feed floor, but are made so they can be removed in haying time, if desired, so that the hay teams can be driven Into the feed flood. The plans speak for themselves, and show an easy way to improve the conditions in many old barns. Setting Out Strawberries. By many October is regarded as the best month to set out strawberries, especially in the middle and southern portions of the cotton belt. It is a hardy plant and will make considerable growth between this and Christmas. Select plants from this year’s runners; never set out an old plant; an old plant is easily recognized by having more or less dark roots, while those of young plants are yellow. The land should have been thoroughly prepared and highly manured, with well rotted cow manure or with ground bone and kainit, or with ashes in place of kainit if ashes can be had. Lay off drills 3 feet apart and set plants 15 to 18 Inches apart in drills. Trim off most of the leaves and shorten the roots some, if very long. Puddle roots to mixture of clay and water; spread out in furrow, cover with a little dirt and press firmly on them, then fill furrows so that crowns of plants, will be a level with general surface or a shade below it; never set so deep that the crown or bud shall be covered with dirt—Southern Cultivator. Swedish Ducks. The Blue Swedish ducks originated In the extreme northern part of Europe, and it is claimed are a cross of the common German farm duck and the Rouen, having received additional blood from the wild blue teal. They

are very hardy, can stand any climate and produce eggs on almost nothing. They equal at least, if not surpass the famed prolific Indian Runners as layers. This is the case with us anyway. Their young are hardy from the start and seem to thrive even under bad conditions. They will live under mistreatment when Pekins will get cramps or rheumatism. As to size they fully equal any Pekin or Aylesbury that ever lived, and- the meat, having teal and Rouen blood, Is surpassingly tender and well flavored; no stringy, oily meat like fattened Pekin ducklings.—Orange Judd Farmer. Leanrtnz tn Milk. When a stranger begins to mdlk a cow it usually results in some decrease of milk production, though he may be a good milker. The better the cow the more likely she te to be of a nervous srass st . aUCCIJcU a JU 11 41$,

milk yield and early drying off of the cow.' But it te necessary that the boys Should learn to milk if they are to remain on the farm, and therefore they should be set to learn upon such cows as will naturally dry off soon. Do not give them heifers with their first calf, as the heifer should be kept in milk as long as possible, to get her to the habit of giving milk ten or eleven months in a year. Do not give them hard milkers or kickers, or the uneasy ones which never stand still. That is too much like giving them dull hoes and scythes or other tools to work with, that no man would consider fit to use for a day’s work. It is calculated to disgust them with the business, and drive them to seelf other occupations as soon as they are at liberty to leave home. When it is not practicable to give them such a cow, allow them to partly milk her, and then let some experienced milker finish the job, who will be sure to obtain the last drop. Food for Young P>rs. While there can be no better food than skim milk with shorts or middlings mixed in it for young pigs which do not get enough milk from the sow, if the milk is scarce water may be used Instead, and if it is given about blood warm they will grow all the faster in cold weather. At first the slop should be quite thin, that they may suck it down as if it were clear milk, but as they grow older it may be made thicker. Do not add cornmeal to it unless you want them to stop growing and begin to fatten. This extra feed not only helps the growth of the pigs, but makes it much better for the sow. Never allow the slop to get sour or even stale, and feed no more than they will eat up clean. The trough should be placed for the pigs where the sow cannot get to it. Even though there lb room enough at her trough for them to eat at, It Is better that they have a separate trough. It should be low enough so that they can easily reach the food, and there should be a platform of two or three planks for them to ptand on. Clean the trough each time before putting the feed In.

Pre««rvinjr Wnson Wheels. Farm, Field and Fireside tells of a method of preventing wagon wheels from shrinking todry weather, which a North Carolina man says avoids the necessity of having tires reset, and in thlsway soon saves itself in blacksmith bills besides preserving the wagon. The trough, shown to the illustration, is made of sheet iron. In it he puts a supply of pine tar, which is heated over a fire to a boiling heat. The wheel is then jacked up, the trough placed under it and the wheel lowered so that

the tar will cover the felloes. The wheel is then slowly turned to the tar, which fills every nick and crevice to the wood and between the wood and tire, thus making it impervious to moisture or air. With a brush the hub is also treated with a coat of tar, and if the wagon is old the spokes also in Lieu of paint. Minimize Cholera Lease*. If the hog cholera should break out on your farm, then all the pigs that have been exposed to it should be confined in small lots so as not to spread the disease. The pig that has the cholera should be confined to a pen by itself, and it should be sprayed three or four times each day with chloro-naph-tholeum, twenty parts water to one of the chloro, and the floor of the pen should be kept white with slaked lime, and if the pig should die, if it can be done, haul some logs and wood and burn it in the pen where it died, but if not, be sure that every cholera germ is killed on the way from the pen to the place where the pig is burned. Form Note*. Calves like fresh water. Any arrangement that will keep clean, fresh water before them all the time is the best way to supply it If the strawberry bed has been overrun by grass and weeds the best thing to do to to burn the bed over late in the fall, and next spring the strawberry plants will get a good start The weeds and grass will render any strawberry bed useless and unprofitable if something is not done to give the strawberry plants an opportunity to get ahead to the spring. Mulching will also be serviceable on the bed. Sawdust can be prepared to a manner to be used as an excellent preventive against lice to poultry houses and to keep flies from stables. Dissolve as much powdered naphthaline to a gallon of kerosene as it will take, permitting it to stand for a few days to order to allow time tor the napthaline to become well incorporated with the kerosene. Sprinkle the sawdust with the autotion. using it plentifully on the ikt*l nnair-gi ho viarkrLckrl ■

Proaperity and Education. From all over the country tiiere are reports that the enrollmenta at public and private schools, from the primary grades to the universities, are larger this year than ever before. Some increase might have been expected as a result of the steady growth of populatiotn, but the marked gain noted this season is much more largely due to toe general prosperity of the country. Thus the good times that have resulted from wise national policies, from large crops and from good markets not only bring employment to all who seek it, not only afford good investments for all who have money to invest, not only increase the earning power of both labor and capital and contribute to toe comforts and necessities of daily life, but they open the way for more liberal education. Children who had bean forced to earn something for the family are released from their employment and sent to school. Young men. and young women who have had but limited opportunities for higher education now find themselves able to attend the colleges and universities. The benefits of prosperity are incalculable, but among them one of toe greatest is along educational lines.—Kansas City Journal., Trust Aided by Democrat,. In 1896 we imported over eighty-nine million dollars* worth of sugar and over ninety-nine million dollars* worth of sugar 1n 1897, while in 1898 our imports of sugar fell off to a little over sixty million dollars’ worth. The Wilson Tariff was in force to 1896 and most of the year 1897 and the increase of sugar importations in 1897 was due to the efforts of the sugar trusts to rush to large quantities of sugar before the Dingley Tariff took effect, and they were aided in tote effort by Senator Vest of Missouri and other Democratic senators who held up the Dingley bill until the sugar arrived, and yet the Democrats pretend to denounce trusts. —Benton (HL) Republican. What He Needs. Here is a bright and shining example of the Protection afforded consumers by competition. Without toe Doechera and Arbuckle® there would be no cheap sugar. With them the fangs of the Sugar Trust are drawn, and Instead of a monopoly it Is only a large corporation to competition with smaller ones, which have toe power to regulate What Mr. Havemeyer seems to need Is not so much modification of toe Tar-

iff as a law prohibiting any one but the Havemeyer combination manufacturing or selling sugar. From his exhibitions of monumental gall and selfishness, it is a wonder he has not urged such action by Congress.—Tacoma (Wash.) Ledger. Ha, Lost Its f harm. Colonel Bryan, like the funny man on the American stage, makes “local hits.” When he is in toe East, the heart of America’s commercial life, he lets silver alone and talks on something more to the Eastern taste. When in the South among his silver-plated followers he talks free silver. In the West he used to whang away on this one ‘tellver string,” but the prosperity of the West under a Protective Tariff and a gold standard has caused the silver time to lose its charm for the Westerners.—Tiffin (Ohio) Tribune. Never Again.

Wage-earner—No, I thank you; not any for me. I tried your game to 1892, and know exactly bow It worfca Protection is good enough for me. And Riill Tiiey Cry. Labor Commissioner McCormack of Indiana makes the statement that there is work for every one in Indiana who is willing to work. In referring to toe condition of things in toe labor field, Mr. McCormack says that the improvement has been wonderful to toe last few yean, and the prospects are that it will be permanent. And still the Democrats are crying for free silver and hard times.—Logansport (Ind.) Journal. A Question.* If the Tariff te the “mother of trusts” it will be necessary to inquire into the legitimacy of toe British and'German trusts.—Detroit JournaL

Truth as to Trusts. Mr. Oxnard’s statement that trusts are toe result of competition which has taken business beyond a paying point is certainly the truth as applied to most cases. Combinations are the law of present day tendencies, and it te only natural that when competition so reduced profits that there was nothing left for the producer, combination should step to to prevent such a slaughter. This does not justify such combinations but merely explains them. It also indicates the foolishness of connecting these results with the Tariff. The greater trusts now in the United States were formed under the GormanWilson Tariff system. The greatest trusts in all history have been formed to other countries at other times and under nothing to the shape of a Protective Tariff system.—Peoria (Ill.) JournaL Are There Any Fo Blind t Ten thousand dollars paid to working men and women by four Xenia factories last Saturday. “The butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker;” the dry goods dealer and the grocer; the clothier, the shoe dealer and the printer; and every line of trade, and the landlord, each got part of this money. Within a few hours it had passed from hand to hand and bad bought the necessaries of life to make home comfortable and happy. This is what internal industries do for a nation. This is what the Republican party has long and bravely fought for—Protection to American industries. Is there a man or woman to our community so blind as to not see that these should be fostered?—Xenia (Ohio) Gazette. Utility of Tmeta. It is a fine thing for Democrats that we have trusts, for without them there would be nothing for Democrats to denounce. Yes, trusts are good things to have around when platform making time comes to this country. The Democratic party would be more consistent if her leaders to Congress would help Republicans to annihilate them with good laws on the subject—Williamsport (Ind.) Republican. Howllnx Haa Become Unpopnlar, Mr. Bryan is against trusts, but he hasn’t said yet what he would do to throttle them were he elected President And it may be necessary for him to outline a policy before the people place their undivided confidence to his ability. Mere howling isn’t popular any more. The voters are too busy with the new McKinley prosperity to listen to declamation.—Winchester (HL) Standard. Makes Them Stutter. General prosperity seems to be the hardest thing for the Bryanites to get over. It is a serious impediment to Kpcach. -fUaytoß CtaMtig, ■

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 2.

SWEDISH DUCKS.

TARRING A WAGON WHEEL.