Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1901 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

New Farming Implement. Benjamin F, Brown, of Wedington, Ark., has designed the- apparatus shown in the picture for use in destroying insects and noxious weeds and also for burning stumps of trees. It consists of a firebox, which burns either coal or wood, with a rotary fan to create intense heat by forcing the draught The furnace is mounted on a twowheeled carriage, which makes it easy to transport it from place to place, and arrangement is made for adjusting the size of the mouth through which the fiery draught is emitted and also for revolving the fan by band when the machine is standing still, as when burning a stump. When utilized for destroying weeds or burning stubble the hood Is adjusted close to the ground and the machine propelled at a rapid rate, when the gearing puts the fan in motion and drives a fierce heat through the opening in front, which cuts a

swath of ashes through the field. By providing for the substitution of a fer-tilizer-spreading apparatus or seeder in place of the firebox the machine’s utility can be greatly increased, and it will be found a valuable addition to the stock of farm machinery.

About the Horse. To the ordinary mind the hair of the horse would seem to be strongly “conducive to healthy skin.” Other writers say that “horse-clipping is a sanitary measure, as a long, heavy coat of shaggy hair cannot be conducive to healthy skin.” It is beyond doubt that horses regularly clipped are subject to a number of ills that do not affect undipped horses so generally or so seriously. Nature may be trusted in the matter of fitting to each animal its covering. The horse’s coat is his entire wardrobe. His hair protects him in both summer and winter. If the hair should be clipped from horses, why should uot the feathers be stripped or clipped from birds, the shells from turtles, and the hair and wool from,all animals? What did nature intend, then, when she developed the horse and put updn him his hair, tail and mane? Who ever saw or heard of a diseased or unhealthy skin In a herd of wild horses? Removal of the natural coat must necessarily affect the horse’s power to stand sudden chills when heated, or quick heating when he finds himself out in the hot sun, $r radiation of warmth, or evaporation of perspiration. Queer ideas are the order of the day in the horse world. For example, some horse writers insist that the working horse should go unshod. In soft and stoneless dirt a horse might go unshod and do considerable work, but in stony localities the hoofs of unshod horses would simply be broken and splintered up to the quick.—The Farmer’g Voice.

Stile for Wire Fences. A wire fence is an ugly affair to cross either by climbing over or crawling under ox between the strands. The accompanying illustration shows a handy

arrangement where one must cross a wire fence occasionally and does not wish to lose the tension on the wires by cutting a gateway. This double Bteplndder can be put together In a few moments and will prove a very convenient affair.—American Agriculturist Oleo and Process Batter. It is asesrted that the renovated or process butter can be readily and surely detected by plncing a small piece on a glass plate and pressing It to a thin film with a cover glass. It gives out a mottled appearance of blue and yellow under a microscope with a selenite plate, while with butter freshly made there was only a plain blue appearance. The yellow appearance was due to fat crystals formed by heating and cooling during the renovating process. Normal butter has no crystals. Oleomargarine shows the crystallized appearance even more plainly than the renovated butter, which is due to the lard and tallow in it, as those substances crystallize easily. Out of over 250 samples of alleged butter tested in this way 58 showed signs by crystallization of having been melted and cooled again, and most of these they were able to trace back to the renovating factorial

While other tests were used on some of the samples this seems to be the most reliable.—American Cultivator. How to Hang a Gate. I opened a gate to-day which was a back-breaker. It was sixteen feet long and six-board high,.with braces. The owner is abundantly able to have gates on hinges. Every gate on my farm, used to any extent, swings on hinges. The post to which the gate is hung should be large. At the bottom should be spiked two pieces of scantling two feet long. The hole should be four feet deep. The dirt should be tamped in thoroughly from the bottom to top. A gate hung to such a post will never sag. The post will not yield a particle. It Is a pleasure to go in and out at such a gate. A child can open and shut it with ease, nor will it break the matron’s back to open and shut it when she finds it necessary, as all farmers’ matrons will find it once in a while; at least, mine has and doubtless will more than once in the future. Hinges do not cost much and a little extra labor won’t kill.—Twentieth Century Farmer.

Among the Poultry. Air out that henhouse. A comfortable ben is generally a profitable ben. Remember thata thoroughbred male is half the flock. Before saying that poultry on the farm doesn’t pay, think twice. A fat hen will cover eggs some better than a poor one, probably because she will produce more feverish heat. At a recent convention held in the Interest of poultry it was decided that 55 per cent id about an average hatch of an incubator. The fowl that is “stunted” at any time while young never becomes the, fowl that it would have been under proper treatment. People, like trees, are known by their fruit In one form or another, and he who knowingly sells poor eggs will also he judged by his fruit.—Farmers’ Voice.

Cabbage for Cows. A report received at the Department of Agriculture discusses the feeding of cabbages “and cabbage leaves to milch cows. Cabbages are usually condemned as cow feed owing to their alleged effect on the flavor bf the milk. A test made showed that the milk of cows fed on cabbages directly after milking was untainted. In a report of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture it is stated that forty tons to fifty tons of cabbages per acre have been grown at the experimental farm and fed to cows with most satisfactory results. Up to twenty pounds was given to each cow night and morning, with the result that the increase of butter averaged one pound per cow. Where Creameries Prosper. Creameries cannot prosper unless in a community where good cows abound, and good dairymen are as necessary as good cows, says the Texas Farm and Ranch. None but good dairymen have good cows, and good cows have none but good dairymen. There is another necessity without which creameries cannot prosper, but it is rarely Included in “good dairymen”—this is good farm or dairy papers. Where creameries exist, it is good policy for each contributing dairyman, as well as the creamery management, to encourage by every legitimate means the circulation of such papers in the community. It requires intelligence to make the butter factories go. Wee I Out Cow Boarder**. There are two varieties of cows, says the American Agriculturist, the cow that gives more than she eats and the cow that eats more than she gives. Which variety would you prefer in making up a dairy herd? Which variety do you actually have? Now there is no difficulty about telling the cow of one class from the cow of the other. There used to be, but there isn’t now. The Babcock test does it. The apparatus consists of a small scale, a Babcock test, and a little gumption. By testing each cow separately a man can soon tell which ones are paying a profit and which are merely boarders.

Keep Up with the Procession. ' In the chicken business, as in every other, the knowledge of yesterday is not sufficient for to-day, says Poultry Success. With the new day come new ideas, new experiments, new lessons. We are constantly learning something, and the man who reaches a point where he is so sure he knows it all that he ceases making any attempt to learn becomes a back number in Just about twenty-four hours.

INSECT AND WEED DESTROYER.

WIRE FENCE STILE.