Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1902 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Shading the Stables. Where It is the custom to keep the horses and cows In the stables at night, and also for a portion of the day somfe provision should be made for shade as well as for keeping out flies. The plan shown in the Illustration has the merit tf'bf being simple as well as effectual. Cover the opening with flru * wire, netting, placing it so that it will not Inter--{ere with the management of the glass window from the inside. Then make a frame with light strips of lumber of the form shown, and cover It with canvas, or with a strip of unbleached muslin, bracing it at either corner as shown. This device is readily made and will add greatly to the comfort of the animals in the stable. The

same arrangement could be applied to the window spaces of-the poultry house and in such a position it would not be necessary to use the fine wire screen for the wire netting of ordinary mesh would keep out intruders. Illinois Apple Orchards. Hmerata Babcock gives Green’s iPUit Giwer information- in regard to in Illinois as follows: An apple orchard syndicate in Clay and Richland Counties has sold the apples cf its orchards, which aggregate three hundred and twenty acres, for $11,500. This fruit Is from young orchards Just coming into bearing. There are one hundred and twenty acres planked with 3,300 Jonathan apple trees. Jonathan is highly prized for its hardiness, productiveness and the fine quality of its fruit. The best apple orchards of Illinois are on the southern border, embracing seventy-five thousand acres of apple orchards, mostly planted during the past ten or twelve years. This Is the first general crop from these orchards. One thousand acres of apple orchards may be seen near Flora, 111., nnd the trees there are heavily laden with fine fruit this season. Ben Davis is the variety most largely grown. The problem now is to get enough laborers to harvest the fruit from such a vast acreage of apple orchards, and to secure apple barrels for such big orchards. Three hundred and thirty car loads of empty apple barrels have recently been shipped iato this locality, nnd nine large evaporators have been built near Flora, with a capacity for each of one hundred and fifty bushels of fruit per day. A cold storage house, with a capacity of 46,000 barrels of apples, has been bulk at Flora this year. * Fcr Brnshins Fruit. The fruit brusher is a comparative newcomer except In California. The necessity of clean, polished oranges and the expense of brushing by band brought it into being there. Now, brushing, which has already been a habit with some packers, Is becoming

jiore necessary on account of the widespread of white fly and other insects causing smut It is not only expensive, but dlfflculL to get at short notice the number of men necessary to hand brush a car of oranges. With a brusher, it is claimed, one man can do the work of several.—Florida Agriculturist. Value of Small Fruits. Not all farmers seem to know the value of small fruits to a family when (frown In their own gardens. You commence with strawberries; they continue about a month. You pick perhaps from six to twelve quarts a day. You have them on the table. If you please, st breakfast, dinner and tea, and you want little else except bread and butter. In one way or another the family consumes about eight quarts a day, and while they last no medicines for bodily ailments are required, as a quart of strawberries dally will generally dispel all ordinary diseases not permanently In the system. After strawberries come raspberries, and they last about three weeks. Then we have blackberries, the cultivated varieties. Next currants ripen, and they remain until early grapes mature. So, taking Pe season through any family with

half an acre of land In a garden can grow small fruits that make country life delightful and at the same time save hundreds of dollars in table supplies.—Home and Farm.. Concentrated Foods. The real value of a farm is Its capacity to produce. It is really a storehouse of raw materials which are manufactured Into salable products, and may contain a mine of wealth requiring but the labor to bring It to the surface. Every pound of plant food returned to the soil is an investment for the future. In addition to the gain from the f»ceding stuffs purchased there are cmps rich In nitrogen which draw upon the atmosphere, through the agency of minute organisnls, for supplies of nitrogen, even the roots, after the crops are harvested, enriching the soil. The nitro-gen-gathering plants arc limited in number, but all plants have the power of derivlqg carbonic acid from the atmosphere, and from this comes the fat and smirch. The corn plant contains large quantities of fat and starch, but is deficient in mineral matter, while bran, linseed meal, cottonseed meal and middlings abound largely *ln the mineral elements. It will, therefore, pay the farmer to feed his corn and fodder in connection with the concentrated foods mentioned, as he is sure to gain largely in the manure. Estimating nitrogen at 16 cents per pound, and 130 pounds in a ton of 2,000 pounds, the value of the nitrogen is $19.50, and as the food also contains about $3.50 worth of potash and phosphoric acid, its real value as a fertilizer is $23. In addition, it also contains about 100 pounds of fat and 500 pounds of starch per ton. This the farmer saves by using it as food, although a portion of the nitrogen and mineral matter is appropriated by the animals and sold at a higher price in the forms of milk and meat. —Philadelphia Record. In Place of a Silo. Not every farmer has a silo or a com shredding machine. They cost too much for the man who has but two or three cows. But he can pick the ears from his com stover and have the grain ground, and the cob, too, if he so wishes, then have the stover well cured In the field, and when he takes it to the bam have it cut into pieces not more than a half inch long and shorter if possible. I Then moisten it with warm water if such is convenient to the cow stables and cover it up to steam for twenty-four hours at least before feeding. Put on each cow’s ration as much and such groin as her condition calls for, and If she does not do as well as she would on ensilage she will do better than on dry com stover. If obliged to wet it with cold water, It will be, better for standing forty-eight hours, to germinate a little heat by fermentation.—American Cultivator. A Handy Fodder Stack. How best to stack born fodder to keep and be handiest in getting at when feeding is often a question given much thought by the farmer. This method possesses many advantages that will recommend it above others: Set two posts twelve or sixteen feet apart where you wish the stack to be. Across from one to the other, four and a half or five feet from the ground, spike a 2 by 4. Stand the fodder against this with the butts on the ground and the smaller ends coming together at the top. There should be a space o/ two or three feet at the bottom. This will give the rat, dog and eat an opportunity to keep the stack clear of ‘mice. This stack will turn the rain and snow of winter, will keep dry and bright and when used will not be opened to the weather, as no stalks are left exposed by removing the top.—Farm Journal. lowa Horae tales. At the big sale of range horses at Sioux City good prices wefle obtained. The top figure was $60.50, which was paid for a load of good, heavy, blocky geldings and mares of all colors. The draft horses ranged from SSO to S6O, general purpose horses from $35 to $45.50, yearlings and 2-year-olds from $12.50 to $26, and sucking colts from $6 to sll. —National Stockman. Farm Notes. Sklmmllk for hogs and the big profit in it is all the talk now. Ohio Is a clover growing State. It is also becoming an alfalfa growing State. / The market for coarse flax fiber ,is almost unlimited, according to a Western grower. A recent circular of the United States Department of Agriculture defines the laws regulating Interstate shipment of birds and game. The attendant who enters the stabfe to milk a how with a pipe in his mouth Is not the proper man to perform that duty. Milking should be regarded as the cleanest and most important work on a dairy farm,' as milk not only absorbs odors, but is also quickly affected by any foreign substance. Hundreds of horses are ruined every year because they are not given water when they require it. There may be regular times for watering, but rules cannot safely be made to govern the duty. On warm days, when the horse* perspire freely, they give off from thejr bodies large quantities of moisture, and should be watered often even if allowed but a small quantity at a time. The young animal pays more than the adult because it grows and increases rapidly; the younger ttie animal the lower the cost of production. A pig farrowed in early spring and marketed late In the fall will give a much larger profit than will one kept through the winter. There Is also a great demand, with better prices, for a small carcass, a weight not exceeding 150 pounds being preferred to an animal that Is heavier.

A STABLE PROTECTION.

A FRUIT BRUSHER.