Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1901 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

The illustration, from the Breeders’ Gazette, shows a very satisfactory shipping crate. Part of the front side Is cut away to show the inside arrangement. A good size for a pig three months old is 40 inches in length, 23 inches in depth and 11 inches in width. For a pig eight weeks old a length of 32 inches, a depth of 18 inches and a width of nine inches will be about right. Crates for shipping by express must be made as light as is safe from breakage. It is not fair to make a purichaser of a pig two months old pay express rates on thirty or forty pounds of crate when they can be made sufficiently strong and weigh but half as much. For ends and bottoms take five-eigkths-lnch seasoned spruce or other tough, light wood, one-half-inch stuff for sides and cover, with space between slats. In front is a trough (T) for feed and water. Just above is a sloping board (P) running to the top, through which the feed in transit is given. The upper coihpartment is provided with a slide (S) on top, and inside is the bag (B) containing the meal and grain fare ample for the jonrney. In cold weather the sides may be boarded up almost tight. To pigs weighing seventy-five

pounds a standard of one-half-inch stuff is nailed in the center of the sides. Shavings from a shingle mill make the best bedding. Trees Instead of Seeds. The Department of Agriculture next year will vary the garden seed distribution with several packages of trees. Authority for this new departure was secured at a recent session of Congress and an appropriation was made in the budget for the coming year. The people of this country have been cutting down the natural forests with so much recklessness that It has become necessary to start artificial ones. The division of forestry of the Agricultural Department has made a survey of the country and has ascertained the particular trees which thrive best and are most useful in each locality. According to the program for the distribution of trees, next year a given number of seedlings will be alotted to each member of the House of Representatives, who will be asked to furnish a list of constituents to whom he would like to have them sent. The Agricultural Department will do the rest. The seedlings will be grown In the propagating houses and forwarded to their destination, with specific instructions as to how they should be planted and eared for. In this way Secretary Wilson expects to start several million new trees growing throughout this country every year.

The Grange a School. No member of a grange should accept an office therein unless he intends to attend the meetings regularly and to fill the position to the best of his ability. Promptness is an essential to success in grange work, as well as everything else, and the meetings should be opened at the by-law hour. All business matters which members intend to introduce should be thought out in advance and reduced to writing In order to dispatch business quickly and efficiently. *A grange will not prosper that calls to order an hour behind time, and then dawdles along waiting for something to turn up. Very few farmers know what any particular crop costs them, or even keep an account of receipts and expenditures. There is probably no other branch of business conducted in such a slipshod manner. The grange should be—and to a large extent is—a school In which to learn better methods of conducting the business of the farm and home.—Farmers’ Voice.

Slop Barrel a Nuisance. We question If there be a greater abomination about the hog yard than the average slop barrel, says the Farmer’s Review. Who invented this nuisance? Who can give a common-sense reison for Its survival? It smells to heaven! It renders the digestive organs of the hogs as sour and unwholesome as itself! We are at a loss to explain its presence, nor can we see what benefit Is derived from Its use. Is it any wonder that he Is filthy when food supplied to him is filthy, sour, fermenting, decomposing, diarrhea-inducing? Such food Is unnatural for the hog. He was Intended to root In the earth and graze upon natural grasses of the field. To him fell the nutritious nuts and fruits of the tree; for him were the sweet herbs and succulent roots, but no dirty, Binelly, sour slop! Modern Meattnaking. The great heavy bullocks and thick sided porkers that were once such favorites are now not desirable. They have given place to the young, quickly grown animals. In order to avoid an excess of fat an animal must be continuously grown If it Is reduced to a mere shadow during the winter months and then the following season aPaaml

its freedom on the rich range grass of the West, it will lay on too much fat and not enough meat. Tallow is not what is wanted; it is meat that the present generation desires. The Eastern feeders are fully aware of that fact, for they never allow an animal to stop growing from birth nntii it reaches the slaughter house. They will cultivate the taste of the meat eaters to such a degree that it will force those who cannot procure sufficient feed to keep their animals in good flesh during the winter to sell them at weaning time.—American Agriculturist.

A Rabbinic Post. It is a great comfort for hogs and may be made most nseful to rid them of lice and a scaly-akin if put up as follows: Drive a stout stick three inches in diameter in a suitable place, leaving twenty inches above ground; staple a rope four Inches from earth’s surface to the stake and coil it closely till it reaches three inches from the top of the stake; staple it tightly. Pour coal oil or crude petroleum on it until it is well saturated with it, and the hogs or shoats will fight for the first and last rub on it. Pour more oil on occasionally as needed. This will kill all lice and nits and remove scales that are so unsightly upon the hogs. It has been tried and works well.—Twentieth Century Farmer.

Notes A boat the Horse. Allow a horse a reasonable time to rest after feeding. It is within the reach of every farmer to breed good horses. Mares bred in the fall will endure good service without injury. A dumb, stupid cot can never be educated to be a valuable horse. A good colt is a product not affected by weather, hot, wet or dry. Size, form, bond and constitution must be regarded first in breeding. Let the heels be cleaned every night Dirt or filth if allowed to cake causes sore heels. While horses need good, wholesome food, it should not be all of the fat producing kinds. Original Idea Abont Asparagus. A consensus of opinion in regard to cutting asparagus, as noted In Meehan’s Monthly, seems to be that from the first starting of the plant in spring the weaker shoots should not be cut but left to produce the leafage so necessary for the production of strong roots. One gardener makes the novel suggestion that the very best success in getting first-class asparagus is to select the plants all of one sex. His plan has been to set 1-year-old plants in a bed rather closely together aud mark the berry-beering or female plants for the permanent bed. These, he says, have always borne strong shoots far superior to the beds of the usually mixed sexes. Cheese Manufacture. Mr. ffimon, the expert who scored the cheese at the convention of the Ohio dairymen, Is a large Wisconsin dealer and was struck by the irregularities in the Ohio product. The size is not uniform, and a J. 4 or 1414-inch cheese is recommended. The buyers want to handle big lots of near the same size. Flats 32 to 34 pounds and Cheddars 45 to 50 pounds suit best. Bandages were also criticised as too loose, allowing mold to work in. He voiced the sentiment of the association when he declared that it does not pay to make skim cheese, as it always hurts the trade in the end.

Spraying Peach Trees. Bordeaux mixture containing three pounds of bluestone to a barrel of water applied the last of May Is likely to injure peach foliage somewhat, but to our experience the Injury Is not enough to do any serious harm. Tbe same is also true of bordeaux containing two pounds of bluestone applied the last of June. spot was almost entirely prevented and the texture and size of the fruit were decidedly improved by two and three applications. The spraying should be continued well up to the time of ripening of tbe fruit.—Maryland Station Bulletin. Money in Fences. • An article in the Cosmopolitan calls attention to the advantage of a “no fence law” and presents the startling figures that Indiana alone has fences whose computed value is $200,000,000, and which If placed in a stogie line would fourteen times encircle the globe. These figures suggest the enormous amount of capital Invested In fences throughout the United States. Boxing Cheeses. Cheese should be put in good-fitting boxes, the sides of the lx»x being cat down about half an inch lower than the cheese. The weight should be plainly stamped on the box near the seam, and all marks that are to be put on tbe box should be put on every box alike. Exerc te for Hog*. To produce the best pork the hoga should have exercise. A lazy, sleepy hog may fatten faster, but the flesh will not be so good.

Farm Shipping Crate.

SHIPPING CRATE.