Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1902 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Inexpensive Fodder Rack. A correspondent of the American Agriculturist describes a very cheap and entirely satisfactory fodder rack. The basis for this rack is two 2xß inch boards, each ten feet long. These are rounded at the ends like sled runners. Five 2x4 inch boards, each 5 feet 4 inches long, are bolted to these boards, as shown in the illustration, every four feet. There are several 2x4 Inch boards, each four or five feet long, spiked to the bridge boards in an upright position. complete the frame. A tight floor is placed on the crosspiece, and boards are nailed to the sides and ends up to a height of eighteen inches. A space of sixteen Inches is then left without covering. The sides and ends can be boarded up the rejuainder of the distance. These upper boards can be placed together or space can be left between them as seems best. Hay, straw or fodder thrown into this rack cannot be trampled and lost because of the tight bottom and sides up to 4 height of eighteen inches. There is no loss of food. Grain feed can be put Jnto this

rixik if desirable. The rack can be transferred from one part of the field to the other simply by hitching a team of horses to it Feeding Sheep Profitably. After several years of experience in the use of corn fodder for sheep it has bee-1 found profitable when made a small part of the ration and fed after shredding. Fed without cutting or shredding it is simply wasted. In some sections sheep men have used shredded corn stover entirely as roughage, but this plan has not always worked well. By using good hay, clover or timothy, every alternate day, with the shredded corn stover the results have been satisfactory,, especially when the sheep had roots once a day and were on a varied ration of grain, oats, bran and cornmeal. It is not intended that the corn stover, even if shredded, shall supply more than the roughage, for the grain and root feed must be liberal to carry the sheep through the winter in good shape. The cost in money or labor in shredding the corn stover for any stock is considered offset by the added value in manure. Housing Farm Implements. The good farmer is supposed *to clean and house all farm implements as soon as he has finished using them each day, but many do not do this. They should devote at least one day to the work of collecting them, rubbing the rust off, oiling the iron work, and putting in good order for another year’s work. When well housed ft will pay to go over the wood work with a coat of paint. When the tools are wanted for use again and they are found all ready and in good condition, this will prove one of the best day’s work done this year, as it will save several days’ time and bother with them in the busy season, save strength of men and teams, and prevent many of the accidents that unlucky men are so apt to have, in breaking down just when most in a hurry. Protect the Young Orchard. It will pay to do some work to protect the young orchard from the attacks of rabbits and field mice. Take a supply of long, coarse straw, or better, burlap, to the orchard and place a bandage around the tree, reaching up from the earth for a foot or more. Before doing this, rake off all the leaves or other trash around the tree for a distance of two ot three feet from it. If the ground is covered with snow It will pay to go through the orchard and trump the snow down firmly about the base of each tree. Mice work under the snow when it is soft, but will not burrow through hard, packed snow. If nny of the trees have been gnawed by rabbits or mice, they should be bandaged with thin cloth, over which is tied another bandage of the burlap. Basiness Not Overdone. The poultry business is not overdone. It Is like any other business In that it must be properly conducted. There la always a ready market for poultry and eggs every day In the year, and there Is a demand above the market prices for high grade stock and eggs. We are speaking now from the standpoint of the market poultryman. Conditions nre the same, however, with- the fancier. If you will show us a poultryman who is unable to dispose of his stock at profitable prices, we will show you one who does not take advantage of bls .>Pl>ortunlties and conduct his business upon a business basis.—Reliable try Journal. A Wrinkle in Apple Packirfg. “There is a knack in doing everything” is an old saying, and the truthfulness of it was brought to mind yesterday, saya the Oregonian, by a gang of men engaged in wrapping and packing apples. Each man had a full box of apples, a pile Of thin paper cut into

wrappers, and an empty box. Xn apple w|s taken from the full box, a wrapper put around it. aud it was put in the other box. It Ist not an easy thing to pick up a wrapper of thin paper from a pile without missing one occasionally, and in doing this the men adopted different schemes. -A new hand wet his thumb on his tongue for every wrapper. One who bad been longer in the business and found that it was unwholesome to be wetting his thumb on his tongue, had a slice of lemon beside his pile of wrappers and moistened his thumb in the lemon before picking up a wrapper. The scheme worked well, but he did not know whether the acid of the lemon would make his thumb sore or not A third man had a thin rubber thump stall on his thumb and could pick up wrappers all day long and never make a miss. He was an old hand at the business.— New England Farmer.

Eggs by the Pound. There has been much talk about selling eggs by the pound. In and around some of our larger cities there are many sohj In that way, but they are pot sold In the shell, .Cracked eggs and the larger ones among the dirty eggs, if fresh, are broken out, and the white and yolk well beaten together. Some packers use a churn to thoroughly mix them, which is Important, as if they are put up just as they come from the shell the yolk becomes dry and mfialy. They are then frozen solid and kept tn cold storage until wanted. They are packed in tins of from ten to forty pounds each, and of course the demand for them comes principally from the bakers, for cakes and similar uses. It is said that a pound of the frozen egg is equal to ten eggs of the average size. They will not keep sweet long after they are thawed out, so that it is Important that the user knows how many pounds he needs at one time, and opens no more than that Packers who are careful to avoid putting in any tainted or spotted eggs get about 12 to 13 cents a pound. While other grades not as carefully selected have to be sold at 10 cents. We are wondering whether this plan could be used successfully in putting up smaller cans for family use. If it can we expect some one will try It.—Massachusetts Ploughman.

Using Mineral Fertilizers. When liberal applications of potash and phosphoric acid are to be used, it is better to put them on as early in the spring as possible, and work it well into the soil, even two or three weeks before the seed is put in. Upon a heavy clay soil it would probably be even better to put it on in the fall. By the early application it becomes partially dissolved in the soil and better distributed through it, and there is no danger of its injuring the germination of the seed as it might do if it was put on when the seed was put in, and they came in contact. When tankage is used for nitrogen this may be put on at the same time as the other fertilizers, as in the cold ground it will take some time for it to decay enough to make its nitrogen available. There would be very little if any loss of nitrogen. But in using nitrate of soda wait until the seed is put in, or even until the plants are up, and then scatter it around them, not getting it on them when they are wet lest it should burn. For a crop that needs the whole season to grow it is often better to make two light applications of nitrate of soda, the last when the plans are about half grown, than one heavy one. —American Cultivator. Value of Corn Stalks. The corn shredder is learning the farmers to save all the corn fodder they have. One farmer refused to buy a corn reaper because it did not cut close enough to the ground. The Maine Farmer says that in well-grown corn the lower six Inches of the stalk represents a ton of fodder to the acre, Which may be one-tenth of the crop. Chemists have told us that the stalk below the ear is much more valuable in food elements per ton than that above the ear, and when reduced by shredding it will be all eaten. .. . _ Fattening Cattle. Fattening stock may be fed quite often, but should at no time be fed more than they will eat up clean. ’ln nearly all cases the more rapidly animals are finished and fattened the greater the profit. Better results will be secured if all the young stock are fed separate from the old animals. The Rheep-Raiaing Industry. New Mexico is a great sheep country. There is but one other State or Territory which excels it in sheep raising l . That is Utah, where there are 8,000,600 or 9,000,000 sheep. New Mexico lias about 6,000,000. The Industry was nev* er so prosperous as at present.

Flavor of Mutton. The peculiar flavor of mutton is due largely to the food of sheep, the locality in which It has been raised, its treatment and the manner the carcass has been dressed. Farm Notes. Do not allow tile milk to freeze. Never mix fresh milk with that which has been cooled. Peas make one of the very beet feeds for sheep in the winter. The broom corn crop Is estimated at 4,500 tons less than last year. Keep the lambs growing. They will never recover from a setback. Ono breed of fowls well kc]>t Is more satisfactory than several that are poorly housed and fed. Poultry houses and yard should always be situated omhlgb, dry land; a sandy hillside is the best of all. It la reported that there has been an increase in the output of canned corn in Maine of 20 per cent over -that of last year.

CHEAP FODDER RACK.