Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1901 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Marketing Garden Products. Many fruit and vegetable growers in the South and North make a mistake In watching the market reports and shipping goods when the quoted prices are high and holding them back when they are low. As a result, when the goods reach the market they find that too many others have done the same thing, and when the goods are received conditions have changed, and the market is again glutted, and prices are down. This system may do well for the gardener who is so near to the market that he can have prices telephoned out to him at night and have his produce on hand before daylight, or get them at the opening of the morning market and deliver his produce at eight o’clock. But the man whose products must be two or three days on the road would often do better to ship his goods when prices' were low with the chance of a rise before his consignments come to hand. One truclt}farmer near Norfolk, Va., who is said to have retired with nearly a million dollars made in the business, used to have one good commission agent in each of the several cities, to whom he shipped goods, notifying them by wire of amount and date of shipments, and they were then prepared to receive orders for them or to sell them for cash on arrival, and if he divided his shipments by any system it was to keep each one well supplied with good produce, and accept the average price. The dealers, knowing they had all of his goods in the city, could obtain the hrghest price of the day for them.—Massachusetts Ploughman.

Soil Renovators. The opinion seems to be general among farmers that the only crops which can be used to improve the soil are the legumes which gather carbonnitrogen from the air and retain it, so that when plowed under the nitrogen is given to the soil. Another use these legumes have is that they supply humus to the soil, which often is much needed. There is another class, of which rape is a member, which when plowed under has the power to absorb the phosphoric acid which lies inert when other plants are grown, and when such crops are plowed under they return this phosphoric acid to the soil for the use of the next plant placed thereon, for once being made active It does not again become inert. Cow-horn turnips are of this class, and recent experiments have proved their wonderful value as soil renovators. The long roots force themselves deep into the subsoil, forcing that soil to give up its plant food. Any crop which will bring into play any of the plant foods that lie inert when other crops are grown will do a vast deal to add to the fertility of the soil. All farms will not grow crimson clover, but with cow peas, velvet bean and Canada field peas at hand one may readily obtain a legume that can be grown and thus get nitrogen cheaply, then if rape and other members of the turnip family will wake up the phosphoric acid in the soil and make it available, the question of soil fertility comes pretty near being solved.

Pasture Lands. When I came out West, more.than a quarter of a century ago, writes a correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, it did not take many years to find out that it was more profitable to pasture the grass around me than to burn it in the fall. This pasturing of the grass was done so successfully that none was left to burn or to pasture. Finally I was compelled to break up the land and farm it. I raised large crops of small grain, but soon saw that it was a money-losing game and tried to seed my land back to grass. I found it very difficult to get tame pastures to stick, and if by accident I got a good stand of timothy or clover the latter would not last last and the former after a good crop or two would get what I called sod bound and would not produce a load of hay to the acre. I know now why the timothy did no good after a year or two. It was because we pastured it to the roots, thinking it economical to let the stock eat the last spear of grass that showed up in the fall. Land having by that time advanced in price, I could not afford to own pastures of that kind, and so I overstocked it to make both ends meet. I made up my mind to own less nnd better stock, and this change in no time made a great improvement in my pastures. I soon saw that a growth of grass covered the pasturnes in dry weather when all the range in short pastures was burned.

General Debility In Chicks. One of the main causes of general debility among young is overcrowding them in the coops by either having the coops too small or giving the old hen more chicks than she can properly cover or by permitting her to take them to a nest of some kind to cover. The coops for chicks should be roomy aud clean, with perhaps some’ Utter ou the boards or ground, but the nest box filled with hay or straw baß no place in the coop. Another cause of debility is permitting the old hen a free range with her chicks when they are very young; there are always a few chicks In a clutch that, while perfectly well, are not very strong rnd are unable to keep up with the pace set by the old hen. For at least two week! the old

hen should be kept confined and not permitted to run with the chicks unless the space given them is very small. If any of the little chicks show decidedly that they are weaklings it will be best to kill them at once.

The Value of Rainfall. j It is Said that the rainfall brings down about four pounds of ammonia, or three and a third pounds of nitrogen per acre, which may be correct as a general statement, or an average amount, but where there are heaps of decomposing vegetable or animal matter from which ammonia is escaping in considerable amount the air contains more ammonia, and the rain or snow will absorb more of it. Unfortunately for careless farmers if does not drop back to the place from which it rises, but may be carried by the wind for miles before returning to earth, and the farmer who makes a compost heap and does not keep it so covered with earth or other absorbent as to prevent the escape of ammonia may be adding to the fertility of the garden of somebody in the next county whom he never saw, instead of putting It upon his own soil, that needs it more. Like old-fashioned stories this has a moral. When caring for manure or composts do not allow nitrogen to escape, and keep your surface soil light and dry, that it may absorb more from the atmosphere, as dry earth is a good absorbent.—Exchange.

Growinsr Field Corn. Many a farmer has been saying that there was no profit in growing corn in New England, when Western corn could be bought at the market price of several years past, but when they find that a dry season in the West has increased the price ten cents a bushel, and may add ten more before the season is over, they rather envy the man who has a field that will fill the old corn crib and give a good stack of corn stover to save the hay next winter. He, at least, can afford to contribute something to the Kansas sufferers who have found the corn crop a failure this year. But we hope the man who has corn to buy will not be too hasty in deciding to use less of it because of the advance in price. If it is a loss to buy corn instead of growing it, it may be a greater loss to reduce the amount fed to fattening stock, milch cows, swine or poultry. If satisfied that it paid to feed it at the old price, keep on as before and hope for a better price for the products.—New England Homestead.

Wide Orchard Rows. There has recently been considerable agitation over the question of whether fruit trees, mainly apples, should be planted in wide or narrow rows. There are many growers who have worked on the wide row plan, that is, the wide row running east and west of the orchard, and found it most desirable. There are several reasons why this method of planting is desirable, but the main one is that planted in this way the trees have more sunlight when they reach large size, and sunlight means an increased crop and a better one. As a rule apple trees are set much farther apart than other fruit trees because of their large size at maturity, yet there is no doubt that the wide-row plan is as desirable with apple as with other trees. On the wide-row plan pear trees, for example, are set sixteen by twentyeight feet, the wide rows running east and west. Welshing Milk. After milking each cow weigh the milk, keep a record of it, and in a month one will be surprised to see how great the difference in the weight of the milk from the several cows. In many cases it will be found that the supposed prize milker of the herd is one of the poorest cows in the lot. This test has proved to more than one dairyman that he had two or three cows out of a dozen that were eating up the profits of the dairy, nnd that if he were rid of these cows his dairy would pay a profit. Spring scales can be bought for about two dollars and will pay for themselves in a month.

Storing hweet Potatoes. Storing sweet potatoes in cottonseed hulls, cotton seed and sand in the usual way has given best results at the South Carolina station. Storing in straw has given the poorest results. It appears that cottonseed hulls are admirably adapted for use in storing sweet potatoes. The same is true for cotton seed, only to a less extent. Farm Note*. Bone is the thing to use on peach trees every time, says one grower. Dig out the peach tree borers and jai the curculio. The cause of foam rising on extracted honey is said to be unripe honey. Sugar beets should not be permitted to dry out after being dug, as there Is always a loss of sugar. Minnesota beekeepers in convention seemed to favor sweet and alsike clovers as good to sow for bee pasture. Where the mower has not worked well in cutting cowpea vines that are on the ground a bean harvester intended for navy beans has been found successful. Kansas wheat growers are to have seed of the hard, red, Russian or Turkey wheat direct from the Crimea. It is Imported through the State Millers' and Grain Dealers' Associations. Hessian fly, the bane of wheat growers in the older states, appears to bs going westward. Secretary Coburn, of Kansas, is credited with the advaice t« burn the wheat stubble as Boon as the wheat la removed from the field.