Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1900 — AGRICULTURAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AGRICULTURAL

Fruit Storage House* The Vermont Station gives a description, with illustration, of a frame storage house in which low temperature and ventilation are provided by throwing open doors and windows during cool spells in the fall and keeping them closed at other times. The house is 30 by 50 feet and has two stories and basement The basement and first floor are used for storing fruit and hold 1,000 barrels each. The second floor is for empty barrels, etc. The building has double walls and double windows. An oil stove gives heat enough to keep the fruit from freezing in wJMer. The lumber used in the construction of this house was as follows: Three thousand five hundred feet wall boarding, 8,000 feet roof boarding, 8,500 feet celling (Inside), 7,200 feet floor boards (douffte floors), 4,000 feet clap-boards, 25 bundles lath, and 22% squares slate. Outside Finish—Two hundred feet (linear measure - ) 5-lnch crown mold, 190 feet (linear measure) 3-inch bed mold.

800 feet (linear measure) % by 10 mold for freize and facia, 200 feet (linear measure) % by 7 base and water tables, 200 feet (linear measure) % by 12 planers. Corner boards, four pieces, % by 5, 15 feet; four pieces % by 6, 15 feet. Sills, eight pieces, 2 by 8, 15 feet; 16 pieces, 2 by 8, 13 feet. Floor joists, 56 pieces, 2 by 9, 15% feet; 26 pieces, ft by 9, 30 feet. Collar ties to rafters, 26 pieces, 1% by 9, 19 feet Wall studs, 100 pieces, 3 by 4, 14 feet; 20 pieces, 3 by 4, 12 feet. Rafters, 56 pieces, 2 by 8, 21 feet. Braces, 26 pieces, 2 by 6, 6 feet; 26 pieces, 1 by 0, 8 feet. Ribbons, 16 pieces, 1 by 4, 13 feet. Ridge poles, four piecs, 2 by 12, 18 feet. This bill is estimated at $443.69, and the house bor of building was performed by the owner at spare times. , Such storage buildings as the one Just described, which depends on the husbanding and utilization of low temperature during cold waves In early spring and fall, would not, of course, fulfill their purpose during the hot summer months. They are obviously best adapted to a cold climate, such as is found in the Northern States Here they can, in the opinion of the New Hampshire Station, be made more useful in our present transitional period of storage construction than any other. Their defect is that they do not inaln-

tain a sufficiently low and even temperature, and they would be of little use in a warm climate. It is, however, but a step from such a fruit house to ice storage. Aside from the details of construction, the only difference Is that the upper story is used for storing Ice, thus cooling the air in the top of the building, which sinks and In turn cools the room below. Market Value of Ensilage. Trof. Phelps makes quite an elaborate computation as regards a fair market value of ensilage, from which he decides that it is worth about one-third to one-fourth the price per ton of a good stock hay free from clover. He figures it In this way: There is about 480 pounds of water free or dry matter In a ton of ensilage and 1,740 pounds In a ton of hay, but when the digestibility is calculated there is 330 pounds of food elements digestible In the ton of silage, and about 1,000 pounds In the ton of hay, being near enough to call it one-third of the food value. But we do not always compute the value to the dairyman by the nutritive value if the Professor does. The more succulent and easily digested silage when given as a part of the food ration will produce more milk than one-third of its weight in hay. That Is those who have fried It aay that thirty pounds of eo-

silage a day with ten pounds of hay will give better results than twenty pounds of hay. As those who have grown it for years say the cost when in the silo is from $2.50 per ton with best machinery up to $3.50 when much hand labor is used, we think it is profitable for the farmer to put up his ensilage. Keep the Bojra on the Farm. A great deal of plausible advice has been given" under this heading, which may or may not be practicable when applied to real life. But one secret of keeping the boys in the country home, and thus solving the abandoned farm problem, is in arousing their interest and giving them some personal share in that farm, something which they can feel Is their own, and which will be theirs also when the time comes for its sale. For this purpose nothing is better than poultry raising. Many a boy has become a successful poultry keeper by having a pair of bantam fowl given him when a child, and being made responsible for their care and keeping. Do not discourage the crude attempts of the boy, nor laugh at his enthushasm, but tactfully point out the best way to accomplish the end he desires; show him how to care for his little flock, and foster his Interest in every way. Teach him about the nature and habits of the hen, and cultivate in him the faculty of careful observation. As the boy grows up, his Interest wif. deepen, and when the time comes that boys are tempted away from the farm by the attractions of city life, he will be unwilling to leave the business which he has built up and which he finds profitable. Give him occasionally a pair of fancy fowl; encourage him to exhibit at the fair and to take a pride In the condition of the feathered community under his care. A sabscription to a good poultry journal or live farm paper, if he Is ak all Inclined to reading, will help to simulate his interest. If the boy, the werage country boy, has a pleasant, mon-ey-making employment, he will not often desire t.o leave the farm; and that employment may often be found In poultry raising. It is a business which is never likely to be overcrowded. Encourage the boys; they are the lifeblood of New England.—Maine Farmer. Clean Milk. To secure cleanliness in milking the American Agriculturist suggests a wooden hoop a little smaller than the

top of the milk pail. Put a square of cheesecloth over the top of the pail and hold in in place by the hoop, as shown. This is an aid to cleanly milking and can be

made In ten minutes. The cloth should be washed after each milking, when it will be ready for use again. This simple device will do just as well as the tin tops that come ready to be adjusted to the tops of the milk pails, and the homemade affair will cost nothing. B irnyard Sheds. We once knew a man who decided that he would make a tight board fence on the north and east sides of his barnyard to protect the cattle from the wind, as it would cost but little more than any other suug fence. When this was done he found that wlittle expense would roof over the space between the fence at one side and end and the building. Then he had a shed, not quite water tight, for he did not shingle It, but battened the cracks, where the cattle could stand while he was cleaning out the stables and spreading the bedding in a stormy day, and longer when the snn shone into It, and they were much more comfortable. It was pleasing to see how the cattle would gather in that shed after they had drank, While waiting for the door to open that they might go into the barn. The expense was small and was more than repaid by the comfort of the-cattle, and probably by saving of food, though the farmers of those days did not carry their experiments on as scientifically and get results as exactly as the experiment stations do now. When they thought a uew' method paid they did not figure the profit down to fractions of a cent.—American Cultivator.

Too Much Salt. * Too much salt is used by many butter makers. The whole tendency among consumers is toward fresher butter. In England and on the continent butter made In those countries is served particularly fresh and white. In the best restaurants and hotels in the larger cities of this country the tytffter. contains very little salt. A great number of American who go abroad or who patronize city hotels and restaurants in this country are acquiring the taste for fresh butter.—American Agriculturist Adulterated Flour. It is said that one reason why Em gllsb buyers prefer to purchase wheat and have it ground there, instead of buying American flour, is that they have found evidences in the flour of adulteration with corn flour, and even corn cobs, clay and other substances. If this charge is true, there Is no one to blame but the millers if they do not grind all the wheat we grow, or all they need to keep their mills busy. It Is said that the Millers’ National Ass® elation will take action In the mattrl

APPLE STORAGE HOUSE.

CROSS SECTION OF APPLE HOUSE.

PAIL COVER.