Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1899 — FARMERS CORNER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMERS CORNER

Handy Chicken Roost. In many poultry houses the manner in which the roosts are placed In position is a source of annoyance when time comes v o clean out the house. In order to avoid the difficulty of getting around-under the roosts, b, they should be placed crosswise a frame made of about 2x4-inch material, six feet wide and nearly as long as the building in which they are to be placed. Hang the frame, a, at one side to the wall by heavy strap or T-hinges and support the other side by props, d, placed under it or a couple of pieces of stout wire rope, c, hung from the roof. The roosts can then be let down out of the way when the house is being cleaned, and they also can be scraped off and washed with lime, either with a brush or spray pump. If both house and roosts are whitewashed frequently the

filth will be lessened. A spray pump Is excellent to use for this whitewashing process.—American Agriculturist. Gathering Cow Peas. My method of gathering them is a long way ahead of the common way of hand picking. Take a heavy chain and fasten on a No. 20 Oliver chilled plow, or any other heavy plow, in same manner as you' would if wishing to turn under a tall growth. Buckle hip straps on harness so short as to hold plow out of ground. Take wheel and jointer off of plow; let row come between team and plow, just skim enough surface to cut pea stalks off. The stalks will be caught by the chain and dragged until enough gathers to raise chain, then they will drop out under chain and chain will then gather another bunch in like manner. Size of bunches will be regulated by weight of chain. If gathered in this way early in the morning while they are tough none will shatter. This fix is superior to any patented pea harvester I have yet seen. I gathered my last year’s crop in this manner with great success.—P. B. Meyer. For an Amateur Carpenter. The honesty of hand-made furniture is always attractive, particularly if it is made without glue in the good, oldfashioned style, with wooden bolts to hold the supports together. The accompanying design for a bench is artistic in its simplicity and might easily be copied by any amateur carpenter. The ends are cut in a pattern out of a thick board, as in Fig. 2, and are held together by a beveled bar, which, pass- • ing through the supports, is firmly held

In place by wooden pins, as shown in Fig. 1. A simple contrivance, but nothing could be stronger. Has Come to Stay. Rural free delivery is now in successful operation in every State and territory in the Union, nnd the $300,000 appropriated for the ci rrent year has been nearly all expended. Quoting Special Agent A. B. Smith, in charge of this branch of the Postal Department: “One remarkable fact in connection with the service is that not a single complaint In misdoing or faitare to perform duty has been lodged at the department against any of the carriers. The service has been discontinued in but two or three instances, and then against the earnest protest of patrons.” An offset to the expense of the delivery is the abolition of some very small postofflces, which are no longer needed where the carrier makes hie rounds. Rural delivery has come to stay. To Control the Potato Scab. “Another year's experience confirms my statement made a year ago that one can control potato scab by the use of a rye sod, if this is done in the right way. This is the fifth year of ad ex-

decent crop of potatoes could not be grown. Five successive crops of potatoes have been grown in this land, turning a rye sod under each spring, and the seed used a portion of the time has not been wholly free from scab and has been untreated with any solution to kill the germs, but the crop is above the average in smoothness. The seed last spring, coming from Northern Ohio, had more scab than seemed safe, but so far as examination of tbe hills now indicates, the crop will be all right If the rye can be turned during a hot spell in the spring, it makes the soil a little acid, and that is /atal to the scab germs. Two years of that treatment practically cleaned the field.”—Alva Agu, in Ohio Farmer. Fighting Hog Cholera. If the hog cholera should break out on our farm, then all the pigs that have been exposed to it should be confined in small lots so as not to spread the disease on the farm. The pig that has the cholera should be confined in a pen to 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 white with slacked lime, and if the pig dies, 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 W"ay from the pen to the place where the pig is burned. By using such vigorous measures we have succeeded in stamping the cholera out several times on our farm.—James Riley, in Farmers’ Advocate. Try Winter Oats. I would advise farmers who live where the spring is backward to try sowing some fall oats. We have been raising this variety of oats now for six years and are in every way satisfied With them. Sow them the same time as wheat, putting on two bushels to the acre. They ripen earlier and are much heavier than the spring variety. Of course one has to pay more for winter oats than the spring oats, yet when a good start is secured they are invaluable to the farmer and are without question the best oats to raise—J. W. Stevens. How to Make a Snare. Take a cord rope ten or fifteen feet long, make noose in one end, tie the, other end to spring pole, drive stubs in the ground in a circle, twelve inches in diameter; make long trigger, say fifteen inches, cut notch four inches from end and another notch near the same end. Make short trigger four or five inches long; slope both ends. Tie rope back three feet from noose end to middle of short trigger, draw down spring pole, let noose around circle of stubs, set as you would trap, by having notch in top of one stub for short trigger. Shorthorn Heifer. The 2-year-old Shorthorn heifer, Bapton Vanity, is a roan, bred and owned by Mr. J. Deane Willis, Bapton Manor,

Wiltshire, England. She is very larg« for her age, being wide and deep in front. She was first at the show of th« Bath and West Society at Cardiff. Animal Food for Toons Turkeys. As long as the supply of insect food lasts the young turkeys will make rapid growth, but as soon as you notice the grass disappearing and insects less abundant, begin feeding a small quantity of meat to the young turkeys at night, so as to promote and continue the growth. You should not aim to get them very fat. What you should desire is to secure as large frames and bone as possible, so as to have somewhere to crowd on the meat and later on. Hence do not allow them to cease growing, but push them until ready for market, putting them up for the purpose of being fattened about ten days before selling.—Exchange. German Rape. The new forage plant—German rape —which has been praised so highly for stock is now known to.be one of the best and cheapest garden crops that can be used for “greens,” being superior to kale in rapidity of growth and yield of leaves. It can also be used for successive crops, as the seed may be sown from early spring until quite late In summer. It belongs to the kale family, and when seeded thickly in rows it produces small, tender stalks and grows wherever kale can be produced. It is really a valuable acquisition to the list of garden plants, as well as being a profitable crop for field culture. Borers in Apple Trees. If the trees have already beeni infested the borers must be taken out with a sharp knife or killed in their holes by Inserting a sharp wire. After the trees have been freed from them, prevent their further attacks by scrubbing the trunks once or twice a year with strong soapsuds. If the trunks are covered with rough bark, remove this by scraping.’ It is very difficult to rid an orchard of borers after they are once established. » Shiftless Firming. Now that frost has come It will be noticed that the corn is. yet standing in some fields, not having been cut at the proper time. Such corn is a dead loss to the farmer, so far as the fodder is concerned, and reduces the profit of the crop. It Is such farmers who abandon th.tr farms because -farm log doeen’t

SWINGING BOOST.

A SIMPLY MADE BENCH.

HEIFER BAPTON VANITY.