Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1901 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Des tractive Cabbage Worm. The, common white butterfly seen in cabbage fields is an imported' insect and very destructive, says it he Orange Judd Farmer. The tidult female insect is shown in the illustration. The eggs are laid upoh Cabbage and allied plants, producing the well-known green cabbage worm. After feeding for a time the worm leaves the plant, changes to a chrysilis, from which the adult emerges shortly afterward. There are several broods each season. Attempts have been made to destroy these pests by the cultivation of a contagious disease, which has been found to attack the worms. This remedy, however, has not been successful and other means must be followed for its destruction. Hand picking the worms, although tedious, is an effective remedy on small areas. Insect powder, known also as pyrethrum, or buhach, may be mixed with six or 'eight times its bulk of flour and dusted on the plants. It should be applied

about once a week. It is not injurious to human beings. In some places hot water has been used to good advantage. It can be applied at a temperature of about 130 degrees without injuring the plant, and is sure death to the worms where it reaches them. Paris green is perhaps the simplest and best remedy. For Winter Egea. It is not an easy matter for one not ha ving had some years of experience in poultry raising to feed the laying hens during the winter profitably. Corn cuts too large a figure in the winter food of poultry. It is a valuable food beyond all question, but it is fed too liberally when eggs are wanted. An almost perfect food for laying hens is clover hay, but of course they can not eat enough of this to give them the food quantity needed. The best way to feed clover hay is to have it chopped fine and then scattered on the floor in small quantities for the hens to eat of it as they will. This is better than mixing it with the grain or the soft foods. Of grains if one has a supply of corn, wheat and oats with which to alternate, these with the clover hay, bone meal and animal food once a week will keep the hens in good laying condition. Quantities and times and methods of using the several grains are best worked out by the feeder according to the needs of his flock and his location. In cold sections more corn will be necessary than in warmer locations. Keeping App es in Winter. If large quantities of fruit are to be kept there is no way equal to the modern cold storage process, but this Is expensive. Oftentimes, however, one has a few barrels of fine fruit designed for home use or to keep for a select trade, and these may be kept in good shape by either of the following methods. Only the finest and most perfect specimens are used in either case: Take good barrels, and in the bottom of each place oats an inch deep. Then wrap each apple in newspaper and pack a layer on the oats, not permitting the apples to touch. Then put in another layer of oats, and on this a layer of apples, as before. Continue this until the barrel is full. The other method is simply to omit the oats and pack the apples in the same way, after wrapping each specimen in oiled or waxed paper. Ih either case the barrels must be kept in an even temperature, where it is cool but above the freezing point. Hint on Cornhusking. Use a horse to pull over your corn shocks. Take a rope about eighteen feet long, attach one end to the singletree, carry the other end around the shock and fasten to singletree also. See that the rope is around the shock about twenty Inches from the ground. A slight pull of the horse will bring over the shock. With a boy to lead the horse and a handy hitch to the rope you can average a shock a minute and have it in much better shape for husking than when torn down by hand. You can in this way pull over a day’s husking while the dew is on, and the fodder will be damper for husking than If left rtanding till wanted. It will be another advantage to you if you are careful to pull over your shocks so that you can face the wind while husking, letting the wind blow’ the fodder to you ■nd not away.—Ohio Farmer. Praft Horses Popular. The draft horse now’ enjoys the highest prosperity and greatest popularity •f any breed of horses among the lAmerican farmers. The prejudice

against the draft horse being too big has given place to the universal desire to raise them as large as possible and farmers generally want to raise draft horses for the market, and they have learned that the big draft mares and young geldings make the best farm teams, and as fast as they mature the markets take them at good prices.— Live Stock Journal. Money In Potatoes. { In some localities, notably in sections of the East, considerable money has been made from potatoes this season, one man marketing 2,000 barrels from a little over twenty-two acres at an average of $2 a barrel. Such cases are, of course, due to the high prices incident to a short crop. The yield, too, is out of the common and secured by the following treatment of the soil: As a foundation for the big crop of potatoes a field in sod is selected, heavily manured, plowed under and planted to corn, which is faithfully cultivated until waist high. The following spring the ground is plowed deeply, which brings up the rotted sod, which is fined by the use of a cutting harrow and drag harrows until it is in shape for the seed potatoes. Potato planters are used, the seed being dropped fourteen inches apart in the row with the rows three feet apart. After planting the plot is harrowed, and then cultivation begins and is kept up thoroughly until the plants meet across the row, the cultivation being done as close to the row as possible at each operation. Thorough soil preparation and constant and thorough summer cultivation are the secrets of success in potato growing.—lndianapolis News.

Winter Poultry Yards. When poultry are confined during the winter they should have a yard in which to run on pleasant days, if no scratching shed can be provided. A good plan is to protect the yard on the windy side by piling cornstalks high against the fence. Then have .a heap of coarse, strawy manure in the yard, sufficiently large to keep the soil from freezing hard. Cover as large a space as possible with this- heap, or, better still, have several such heaps, and protect them with boards, so that- th< fowls cannot get at them and scratch Uncover one of these heaps at a time, and pile the material In another spot, then spade up the soil where it lay. H the pile was high enough the soil cab be easily loosened, and, except in very cold sections, will not freeze hard again in several days. A little grain thrown on this spaded space will keep the fowls busy and happy. An hour each day when the sun is shining brightly in a spot like this will keep the fowls in good shape, and they will turn out eggs regularly. A Ration for Sheep. Where there is a fair supply of mixed clover and timothy hay on hand, it is comparatively easy to carry a flock of sheep through the winter at light expense, provided they are in good shape when they are put into winter quarters. With all the clover and timothy they desire a grain ration of a pound a day, made up of two parts of wheat, one part bran and one part oats, with a handful of oil meal, will keep them in splendid shape, even the breeding ewes. Enough roots should be obtained to give them an occasional feeding of them. If the supply of hay is short, corn stover may be substituted for roughage, but if this is done it may be necessary, with some.sheep, to increase the grain ration slightly. The ration as given will be found very satisfactory by feeders whose crop of corn is limited, but who have a fair supply of hay and corn stover, and can buy the grains mentioned at a fairly low price. —Exchange. Buff Breeds of Fowls. The buff fowls of various breeds seem to be one of the poultry fashions of the present. Buff Plymouth Rocks

are a comparatively new variety, but one which has come rapidly to the front on its own merits. Beauty and utility combine to make these a fine general purpose fowl for

farmers. Weights and points are the same as for Barred Plymouth Rocks, but the plumage should be an even shade of golden buff. Golden Wyandottes are newcomers and very popular. The buffs are probably the most numerous’and best liked of the Cochin family. Buff Leghorns, a comparatively new but very popular variety, have taken a foremost position solely on their merits.—Exchange. The Economical Pier. Pigs are able to make much more effective use of the foods with which they are supplied than any other class of farnl animals. Experiments have shown that, while the pig is capable of laying on flesh at the rate of one pound for every five pounds to seven pounds of dry food which it consumes, cattle require to eat from ten pounds to twelve pounds and soiffetimes from fourteen pounds to fifteen pounds of dry food for every one pound of increase in weight that they show. Hardening Horse,. Subjecting colts and horses to hardships and exposure for the purpose of hardening them and giving them a resistant constitution, says Farm and Ranch, is wisdom of the same kind as that exhibited by the idiot who would leave a fine piece of machinery exposed to the elements so that it may be enabled to run under adverse conditions. - Ripening Ctieeae. Cheese when ripening should nevor be exposed to currents of air, as the process la liable to be checked.

CABBAGE PEST IN VARIOUS STAGES.

BUFF FOWL.