Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1900 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Prevents Rapid Katins* The feed trough which we illustrate below has been patented by George E. Combs, of Chadwick, N. Y., and is intended to prevent the animals from eating their feed too rapidly, and also to prevent the waste of feed when the animal is. inclined to push it out of the trough. The new trough is of semicircular shape, with a hopper mounted on a raised base in the center of the rear portion of the trough. At the bottom of the hopper is a disk which can be raised or lowered by the adjustment of a thumbscrew, thus varying the size of The discharge opening. The feed falls through the opening around tha disk into the trough below, and a little watching on the part of the hostler will soon show the position to give the disk to regulate the discharge to the proper quantity. Projecting

from either side of the hopper is a short arm, which is conne'cted with a stirring device inside of the hopper, this arrangement being useful in starting the flow of feed if it should become clogged in the hopper. If the feed stops the animal will move its nose about tie trough to pick up the stray grain, thus coming in contact evith one of the areas and dislodging the feed and starting the flow 7 again. Fattening Beef Cattle. Reports from the West indicate that a great many of what are called “feeders,” young stock ready to be put up and fattened, are being sold in the Chicago market, and that the farmers of Indiana, Illinois and Iow r a will feed more of them this year than ever. One reason for this is probably in the comparatively good price at which beef cattle are now selling, and another is tbe large corn crops which the farmers have grown, and w’hich they find it more profitable to sell “on the hoof” as it is called, or in the shape of.cattle a.uid hogs, than to sell by the bushel. They have learned that their soil, fertile as it was once thought to be, needs to have something in the w 7 ay of -fertility returned to it, or continual cropping will exhaust it. The corn shredder, whieh utilizes the stalks of their great fields of corn as rough fodder for stock, helps them keep more. Most of these young cattle come from the ranges in Texas and in the Northwestern States, where little corn is grown, and it seems easier to bring the cattle to the corn than to take the corn to the cattle, especially as the feeding points are nearer to a good market than are the ranches. Something of the same sort is beixg done near Kansas City and Omaha, which draw range cattle from Montana, the Dakotas and even from Wfnnipqj. Where drought has been too severe these range cattle are what is called “grass fat” when they come in, and need only a few months on corn w bring them up to prime beef, fit to ship to England or any other point whoye they will pay good prices for good meat j —American Cultivator. Drilling Grate. The Minnesota Experiment Statical tried for several years drilled wheat by the side of wheat sown broadcast These were field tests on considerable areas, and they found as an average that the drilled wheat yielded 50 per cent, more than that which w 7 as broadcasted. The results were most marked in seasons, when the soil was dry, as the seeds were well covered at a uniform depth by the dnll, and thus gcw minated more freely and' evenly. seasons when the sowing was followed by moist, cool weather, there was difference, as under such conditions ta.e seed germinated well whether covenyj deep or shallow. T. B. Terry tells m the Practical Farmer of one-horup drills costing at retail $lO to sl4, which are intended for sowing wheat or othar grain between the rows of standing corn. With _ the wings that go with them they can be run very close to the corp rows so as to leave the drills aboot seven inches apart, with scarcely a perceptible break where the corn stood. One man wrote him that he thus drilled in fifty-five acres in ten days. h Bloat in Cattle. Bloat in cattle, from whatever cauM, is very dangerous,; and unless help *s soon obtained, the animal will die. The most effectual way of relief is to inc the trocar and canula, an instrument that is designed for this purpose, ts this is not at hand, a knife may be uso£, the small blade of a penknife being the right size. We used the small blade of * jackknife, with rubber over the blade, to make the right length. Push the right

side of the cow against the wall. Place the knife on the left side, about midway between the short rib and hip bone. Give the knife a sharp blow with the hand; withdraw the knife, Insert a goose or turkey quill, and leave it there until the gas escapes. The quill should be watched so that it may not become clogged with blood. The next day after the operation we gave the cow one and one-half pounds of Glauber’s salts, and as she was not chewing her cud by the next day a strip of salt pork was given her. This brought her out In good shape. The knife operation is not dangerous, but the gas is. Rape Plants as Weed Killers. Aside from its value as a forage rape is an excellent crop to grow on fields that are foul with weeds. The late date at which the seed may be sown allows the weeds to get well started before the ' final preparation of the soil begins, they are further kept In check by the cultivation required for the crop during its early growth, and later the rape plants shade the ground so completely as to keep the weeds down. An excellent treatment for a foul field Is to plow thoroughly in late summer or early autumn and seed to rye or some other forage crop to be pastured off during the fall, winter or early spring. When the crop has been pastured sufficiently and before the weeds, have produced seed, plow again, plant rape in drills and give thorough cultivation. There are few weeds that will survive such treatment, and the land will have given profitable returns in forage in the meantime. The rape is usually ready for use in about eight or ten weeks from the date of seeding.—T. A. Williams.

Lime and Acid Phosphate. Much having been said 'lately about the tests made at the Rhode Island Experiment Station In the use of lime upon certain soils and for various crops, we desire to call attention to the possible danger of using lime with an acid phosphate. The object in treating bone and phosphatic rock with sulphuric acid is to render the phosphoric acid soluble in water so that it may become more readily available for plant food. It does this by removing from it a part of the lime, changing it to a sulphate of lime. If now more carbonate of lime is added it will be taken up by the dissolved phosphate, and It reverts again to the insoluble form. be used with bone meal, because that already has its phosphoric acid combined with as much lime as It can take up, and it really becomes available, as it is acted upon by the acid in the soil. But where one uses enough of bone meal there is little need to use lime in any other form. Good Strawberries. The Nick Ohmer strawberry is a fine grower and carries its fruit on strong stems well up from the ground. It is

heavy and large in leaf. The fruit Is of a beautiful shape and color, coming in as early as the majority and continuing as late in the season as any on the list. In its variety trials of strawberri e s for 1900 American Gardening found fully a quart per plant to

be easy figuring in the cases of Nick Ohmer and Sharpless, which stand preeminently in mind as the leaders of the test. Frost caused some injury, but Gladstone, Gem and Star suffered most seriously in this respect. Wilson and Sharpless were tremendous croppers and gave good fruit early to late. Co-operation in Fairs. We should like to see the stock of every fair association in the country scattered out in small blocks among the representative farmers, breeders and business men of the community. Then they would all have some direct personal interest In making the fair a success, and they would do it, too. Wherever the managers of a fair have the good will and help of a community which is proud of its fair we find a clean, Instructive and successful exhibition. Fair managers as a rule are anxious to give the public clean fairs, but they cannot do It without such public support as will keep them “out of the hole” financially.—National Stockman. Unalaked Lime for Rats. A correspondent of the Country Gentleman says that to keep rodents out of oats “take unslaked lime, just sprinkle it over the floor or platform on which one will put his grain, then a layer of sheaves and another liberal spread of lime. Continue in like manner, lining each layer of grain to the last, not smothering the last layer, and that is all there is to W. I keep rats and mice out of my corn crib in the same way, and ft is Invariably a success. I also keep large quantities of unthreshed oats In barn free from rats and mice the same way. One barrel of unslaked lime is enough for 2,000 or 3,000 bushels of corn or eight tons of sheaf oats. Sowing Timothy. ' In the opinion of a National Stockxnan correspondent there is no better way of getting a good stand of timothy than to put the ground in good order and sow the seed about the last week in September or first of October, one bushel to six acres. "I have sown in corn,” he says, “the last time I worked the corn and got the best kind of • starid of timothy and clover."

VARIABLE DISCHARGE FOR FEED TROUGHS.

NICK OHMER BERRY.