Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1903 — FARMERS CORNER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMERS CORNER

Agriculture In Country School*. Enough spasmodic theorization on teaching practical agriculture and esthetic nature study in country districts has been expended to pay off the national debt, says the Rural World. Let us pass into the next stage of the argument and get dawn to ways and means. If our children are to receive elementary Instruction In chemistry, soil physics, vegetable biology, botany and all the rest of the list, it follows that some one must teach them. How many are really capable of teaching anything beyond the “a, b, abs,” with their hands tied behind them? It is not enough that a teacher may call up the class in geography and perfunctorily conduct a recitation with her eyes glued to the book. A teacher .should inspire pnplls with the love of study. He should make the recitation interesting. All this applies not only to the teachings of agriculture but to all branches taught In the country school, and serves to emphasize the need of adopting the central or township school system. It is very difficult for any teacher to develop the proper interest and enthusiasm in the work of any branch of study with only an attendance of two or three pupils. On the other hand, It is a great waste to employ good teachers for only two or three students when

they can better instruct several times that number. Under the present system there is a large number of schools where the number of pupils is no larger than the above. When the centralized plan is adopted it will be possible with the same outlay to supply a much better class of instruction in all branches and with 94 per cent of the schools eliminated we believe it would be possible to obtain an instructor for each of the remainder that would be competent to give instruction in the elementary principles of agriculture. We believe our agricultural colleges have the capacity to turn out* such instructors as fast as they would be wanted for such positions; and, as in all other tilings, whenever a demand is created the supply will be forthcoming. The instruction may be crude at the start, as are most new enterprises; but everything must have a beginning and strength is gained by growth and experience. Some of the European countries have been going ahead of us in putting these things into practice. * For example, in the rural districts of Sweden a garden Is attached to every school, and the children receive practical instruction in the cultivation of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and in the management of hot beds, greenhouses and so forth. Handy Gates. The following sketch shows a farmer’s handy gate made of lx3-iuch slats throughout that need no braces and does not sag. The posts at the center and on hinge end rest on slats fastened

to the posts, ns sllowu In the diagram. The front has two slats extending five Inches farther out than the gate; these drop In a slot or notch cut in a lx3-!nch piece nailed on the front post at right angle. This gate can be constructed and hung In an hour. —E. F. Isley. in Epitomist. How to Grind Kaffir Corn. I thought it might be of interest to many of your readers to know how to grind Kaffir corn, as most sweep mills will not grind it fine, and the millers waut too much for grinding it. If the burr is quite worn, so much the better. Have the Kaffir corn dry, put a basketful into a good, solid barrel, chop with a long-handled, sharp spade; add some more heads and chop, and so on. Fill your mill and continue to chopand grind. You can have it fine as floqr if you like, and It makes fine swill to feed thick or thin. The Kaffir corn stem keeps the seed from feeding too fast and It grinds nicely, but not so fast as corn, probably about five bushels per hour. This depends on how fine you grind It.—O. J. Huggins. in Kansas Farmer. Pasture for Hors. The value of a good pasture for hogs cannot he overestimated. It furnishes henlili giving, succulent forage, to secure which the hog takes early morning constitutionals and is made healthy thereby. He eats much of the grass and less of corn, and thereby is expense saved his owner, and he lays on fat faster than if on a full grain ration. Disease does not bother the pasture fed hog. A healthy hog, well fed. means profit in Its owner’s pocket. A good pasture insures this.—Farm Journal. St or ins Ice. When tilling an Ice house, place a layer of sawdust fully a foot deep upon jthe bottom, then put In the Ice, pack-’ dng it closely to wltlm a foot of the ~lide walls, cutting the blocks carefully «iul evenly to make the mass solid and 'compact. A twelve-inch space should lie allowed, and the sides should be jUlled with sawdust Do not fill nearer than three or four feet of the roof, and put about six Inches of the sawdust on top of the ice. If sawdust cannot be had. chopped straw, wheat chaff, or

marsh bar can be used, but sawdust is the best material.—New England Farmer. ' Beilina Produce by. Mull. It Is not hard for a farmer to work up an interest by advertising a desirable Article in the right way and through the right means. But half the battle is in properly answering the inquiries received. By lack of promptness, clearness, definiteness and test some letter writers will drive away possible customers about as fast as good advertising brings them in. Use a typewriter, which can be bought second hand for a few dollars; answer letters the same day received; by next mail if possible. The first satisfactory reply that reaches the buyer is likely to get his order, and in making the reply satisfactory everything counts. Inclose a sample or picture of what is being sold, If expedient, and try to fix his choice on a definite article or specimen at an attractive stated price, judging what he wants from his letter. It is this tact in adapting the reply to the prospective customer which counts as much as anything In securing orders. His confidence is to be secured, his questions and scruples clearly and tactfully met, and his imagination aroused over some Special and definite offer.—American Cultivator. Ap Automatic Milker. Here is a machine for milking cows. It is a can-shaped reservoir of special construction, made airtight so that a vacuum may be produced by the airpump on the cover. Rubber tubes con*

neet with the cow’s teats, and the pressure, it is claimed, causes the milk to flow readily. We know nothing of the merits of the machine. The Illustration is given to indicate the continued efforts that are being made along the line of dairy inventions. —Farm and Ranch. How Fruit Men Co-operate. Co-operation in fruit selling has reached an advanced stage in the Michigan apple belt. For instance, In the case of the Fruit Growers’ Association of Ludlngton, the stock amounts to five hundred shares, and ea*ch subscriber must take_at least one share for five acres of orchard. The company owns a large packing house, with a side track on one side and a wagon drive on the other. There Is a wide veranda on both sides, enclosed with slats. Six roller grades, which separate the fruit into three sizes, are used. Baskets are stored in the second story, and drop down through chutes to the packing tables, which are covered with canvas. When the fruit Is delivered, each man receives credit for the proper number of bushels of the given varieties. The fruit is then graded and packed, and each person receives his share of the proceeds when the fruit is sold. The secretary of the company looks after the buying and selling, and has charge of the packing bouse. In this way a uniform product Is secured which largo buyers can depend upon, and the middleman and his exactions are excluded. —Massachusetts Ploughman.

Revelations of the Seed Tester. In a test of five hundred varieties of lettuce by the United States Department of Agriculture, it was found that 132 of them were Black-Seeded TennisBall under other names. A sample of crimson clover seed, costing $5.75 per bushel, contained so little live seed that $704 worth would contain only a bushel of good seed. Some Kentucky Bluegrass was so poor that a pound of live seed would have cost $2.18, and a sample of timothy tested at the rate of $47 per bushel for the live seed. Some of the seeds sprouted well enough, but the plants were of the wrong kind. Thus a sample of alleged clover seed contained 338,000 weed seeds In a pound, or at the rate of twenty million per bushel. Such results “explain the cause of some mysterious crop failures and equally strange invasions of new weeds.

To Produce Good Wool. Wool is affected by breed, climate and food. Sheep will thrive In some sections much better than in others, and wool from some flocks will bring higher prices than other wools. To produce good wool a sheep must be well fed, but not too much so. If the food is not sufficiently nutritious the wool will lack In strength, be dry, barsh, flabby and rough to the touch. Wool from sheep that are kept on, pastures which provide an abundant herbage is long In fiber, soft, white and strong. It Is claimed that all nutritious foods produce fine wool, but it Is not necessary to make a selection of foods If the sheep have a variety. Food for Fattening Fowls. Always fatten a fowl as qnlckly as possible. Ten days Is long enough to get a fowl fat, and It should be confined either In a coop or a number In a small yard. Give plenty of fresh water, and feed four times a day, beginning early and giving the last meal late. A mixture of com meal, three parts, ground oats, one part, shorta, one part, crude tallow, one part, scalded, is the best for the first three meals, with all the com and wheat that can be eaten up clean at night Weigh the articles given, and do not feed by measure.

HANDY FARMER’S GATE.

HOW THE MACHINE WORKS.