Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1900 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

New Milking Device. Doctors, scientists and agricultural experts are all very much concerned at the present time about the contamination of milk and the serious consequences that are apt to result froln it. In the up-to-date dairy every effort is made to keep the milk from being contain! unit’d by stable dirt or foreign matter; which may adhere to the cow’s teats or hanks, or which may be floating around in in the stable. Among the precautions suggested are mechanical milkers, but these have not come into extensive use, although in one form or another there are isolated examples of their use in dairies in different parts of the world. The illustration here presented is a suggestion along this line and represents the idea of John O. Dulgan. of Melbourne, Victoria. It comprises teat cups, with linger loops for the thumb and finger arranged longitudinally on opposite sides, which prevent the milker’s hands from coining in contact with the teats and thus transferring dirt or disease germs from one animal to another. The milk is conducted to the milk pail through rubber tubes, and, as the pail is inclosed, there is no contamination there, so that, provided the milk is from a good, healthy cow, the dairy-

man is assured of milk as pure and free from contamination as it is possible to get it. . Small Garden Plots. The small garden Is the one that gives its owner pleasure/ Probably the majority of those who cultivate small gardens make no profit, but actually suffer a loss, when the crops are compared with the cost of seeds, fertilizers and labor, but there Is considerable pleasure derived, the value of which can not be estimated. No matter how small the plot owned or rented may be, the one who can bestow a portion of time to the cultivation of garden crops this spring should do so. There are some things grown in a garden that can not easily be procured in market, wheu the freshness and quality are considered. No one cnn buy tomatoes in market equal to those taken from the vines and placed on the table. If a plot is very fertile, and Is no larger than half an acre, the amount of produce that can be given thereon will supply an ordinary family from early spring until late in the fall. Beginning with onions and green peas, with beets, carrots, parsnips and early cabbage, followed with string beans, Limn beaus, tomatoes, sweet corn, turnips and late cabbages, two crops can be grown on the same location during the season. Potatoes need not be planted in a garden, as the crop demands protection from the beetle. This spring, if desired, a small strawberry patch may be started, which will come Into bearing the following spring. Farm Help Problem*. The greatest problem to solve by the farmer during his busy season is to secure capable help. Those who know nothiug of the duties to be performed on a farm advise all unemployed persons to seek work in the country. The fact is that Buch persons are as useless on farms as they are in factories, yet the farmer cannot afford to teach his help during the busiest period of the year. What is meant by competent farm hands arc those who can go on a farm and fully understand what is to be done without the necessity of the farmer being with them constantly to point out here and there what he wishes them to do. It is cheaper for a farmer to do the work himself than to be encumbered by an Incompetent assistant. For Destroying Weavlln. Bisulphide of carbon is used for destroying weevil in tfheat bins. Force a tube to the bottom of the bin, pour in about a pint of the liquid, and cover the bln. The gas is heavy and finds Its ;way to every portion of the bin. It is

a dangerous substance to use unless care Is exercised, as a lighted pipe or cigar will cause It to explode, even when there is no flame. It Is destructive of all insect life, but does not injure the grain. Keep the Windnfill Running:. “It pays to have the windmill so it can be thrown in and out of gear automatically, if it is located any distance from the house,” says a writer in the Homestead. “There are many devices for.doing this, and some of them are inexpensive. I once saw one that had an old-fashioned creamery can attached to the wire that put the mill out of gear. This had a very small hole in it so the water would run out of it very slowly. When this can was empty the mill would go in gear and pump the tank full. The overflow pipe from the tank would fill the can and the weight of the water would pull the mill out of gear. After an hour or so the water would leak out so the mill would again go In gear, and thus the business was kept up all the time. Should but little water be used the mill would only run long enough so the overflow would fill the can and the mill would be thrown out of gear.”

A Honey Kxtractor. The houey extractor Is one of the principal sources of profit in connec-’ tlon with bee-keeping, says a corre-

spondent in the Farm, Field and Fireside. This machine extracts the liquid from the combs and leaves the comb as clear of injury as before taken from the hive. In the accompanying illustration the inside gearing is raised up and exposed to view and

shows two comb baskets, each to accommodate a frame of comb to be extracted, and by turning the crank the reel is turned with such velocity as to empty the entire comb of its contents by centrifugal force. The empty combs are then placed back in the hives of bees to again be filled. Monopoly in Poultry. The poultry trade, it Is said, views with alarm the giant strides made by the big packing firms toward control of what has been for many years a profitable line of business. These concerns have for a year or more been making large additions to the capacity of their poultry packing plants, and, further than this, they are represented to be now reaching out for mastery over the chicken-producing territories of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and the Northwest. The margin of profits in the poultry-packing business has been good for those who operate on a comparatively small, scale, and it is no wonder that the big packing firms should undertake to monopolize a field for which they have exceptional facilities In matters of transportation, storing and market-reaching. Turnips and Corn Not Mates. Turnips and corn are in no sense mates as field crops. The heat which makes the corn is fatal to the turnip and the cool, damp weather which makes the turnip is fatal to the corn. Ninety-degree weather for corn; CO degrees for turnips. This is why England raises turnips and America corn. Gossip of Interest to Farmers. In St. Louis CO per cent, of the children arc raised on the milk of cows. The American crop of peas and beans is said to be 800,000 bushels short this yeai*. Prices for pure breeding stock are to-day higher than at any time since the early ’Bos. *> The Standard Starch factory at Bradley, near Kankakee, 111., when completed will consume 0,000 bushels of corn dally. The directors of the Kansas penitentiary have decided to sell the product of the State binding twine plant directly to farmers. There w T ere GOB less horses sold In the €liicago market last year than in 1898, but prices were much higher than in the preceding year. Farmers seem determined to speculate in broom corn next season, if signs bo truthful. It is said that lowa, Texas, Nebraska. Kansas and Minnesota will all plant more broom corn than usual. A North Dakota farmer, advocating the sowing of wheat and flax on the same laud, said that last year he netted $23.73 per acre from forty-seven acres, lie threshed it together and had it screened at Duluth. Two ships, one British and one Japanese, load wheat this month at San Francisco for Japan.. With one exception, we believe, these are the first full cargoes of wheat to go from the Pacific coast to Japan. Statistics which have been collected in Wisconsin show the average cost of raising wheat to be 54 cents a bushel and the cost of corn 27 cents. In both cases there are included Interest on the value of the land, with the cost of implements and horses added In. What will probably be. the largest pear orchard in the country, or In the world, has been projected' In Texas. A nursery company has contracted to have planted and cultivated for foilr years 2,500 acres of pears, the orchard to. be delivered to the company In 1903. One of the St. Taul creameries Is shipping considerable quantities of butter to Japan. The butter is put up in one, two and three pound tin cans and shipped In refrigerator cars to the coast and thence in the refrigerators of steamers to Japan, where it arrives in good condition and brings a fancy price.

KEEPS OUT THE DIRT.

EXTRACTOR.