Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1904 — FARMERS CORNER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMERS CORNER

Handling an Unruly Hog. .Any one who has tried it will testify that it is not an easy task to handle a ftutfborn hog, and most hogs are stubhorn. If one has occasion to do this work the device shown in the cut is simple and effective. Take a strong rope about the diameter of a clothesline and about ten or twelve feet long. From this cut off three feet and tie a loop in each end, then tie the remaining piece in the center of the looped piece and bring the loop over the snout of the hog after slipping the loops In tho first piece over his hind feet. Have a ring in the long looped piece, and through this slip another rope, also looped, so as to come over his neck, as shown in the cut. This rope may be heavier than the first one, and if the

animal is unruly and strong, the end wbicty is shown over the back of the hog extending to the hand of the one who is driving it, may be slipped over his rump and into the lower loop and tied, leaving a long loop in the driver’s hands for better control. The Illustrations show clearly how the contrivance is constructed. To Grow Fine Celery. A Michigan gardener wrltaai Take any land that will stand drought, put at least one load of well-rotted manure on every square rod of ground, plow and fit the ground well, set plants In rows 16 inches apart and six to eight Inches apart in tae row (set with an old brick trowel), keep the surface well worked till the plants cover the ground, after which no weeds will bother. By raising celery by this method the plants become dense, and consequently darken the lower parts of the plants, causing the celery to grow white from the center. None but White Plume will grow successfully this way. White Plume can be grown in single row and be blanched by placing bundles of corn stalks on both rows. Bundles should be at least eight inches in diameter. I grew White Plume celery 33 inches high last year on high ground, and it was as white as snow. I find the Giant Pascal is best for late winter use, but it has to be earthed to blanch. These two varieties are the best to my notion. One-Man Corn Sled. Make two runners, one 5 feet and one 7 or 8 feet long; use 2x6 stuff; place 2 feet apart and nail boards on top as shown in cut. Fasten a scythe blade on for knife. It is better than the steel plate knives. Knife should run high on edge and at an angle of about 45 degrees from the runners.

The object of thejong runner Is to keep the sled from bucking x to ono side, which is caused by the cutting being all done on one side. We stand up to cut in large corn, and put on a box and sit down in small. It is a waste of labor to knock the corn down on sled and pick it up again. Keep it up in your arms. The single sled is now preferred to the double ones here. I am a boy 14 years old. My father has .taken the Practical Farmer since before I was born.—Archie Orange, Galesburg, Kan. On Bowing Clover. Sowing clover is an absorbing question with farmers who desire to keep up the fertility of their land. When seed is high there is always a disposition, with some, to defer sowing clover until another year, and plow up the fields again. Seed may be cheaper next year, you know. This management may have kept these same fields under the plow for years, making It more uncertain to secure a catch, and requiring more acres, every year, to 3 cure the requisite amount of grain. is unwise and foolish to fail to sow cloves because seed is dear, Diversified Farming in the Extreme. The managers of the Maryville (Mo.) Street Fair offered a |lO prize to the Nodaway County agriculturist who ■should exhibit the largest number of farm products grown on bis farm this season. W. R. Bosley, of Ravenwood, drove up with a wagon load of stuff and took the prise. His wagon contained a stalk of corn •thirteen and one-half feet high; white, red. yellow and speckled corn In ear; iwheat, rye, buckwheat, rape, ttmothy•eed, oats, thirteen kinds of green

benns and peas, three kinds of popcorn, two kinds of cucumbers, one red pig, a turkfey, two chickens, two Guinea fowls, hedge balls, strawberry vines, one cabbage weighing fifteen pounds, celery, summer and winter lettuce, peanuts, two kinds of bedts, horseradish, asparagus, bluestem grass, slough grass, clover hay, prairie hay, carrots, green mustard, six kinds of pickles, seven kinds of jelly, jam, cherries, three kinds of parsnips, three gourds, two kinds of sunflower seed, sweet corn, can of honey, castor bean, one sunflower, the flower of which measured forty-six inches in circumference; sugar cane, two kinds of millet In stalk, an oyster plant, four kinds of radishes, turnips, four kinds of Irish potatoes, two kinds of sweet potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, two kinds of squash, green lettuce and onions.— Baltimore American. How to Market the Butter. Those who possess the knack of making butter that has that fragrant flavor that distinguishes the produce of many farm dairies, often make the mistake of keeping the butter on hand too long after it is made before marketing it. It will be found that however palatable it may be, and however good the flavor it possesses when first made, it will have escaped after too long keeping. Even when transported long distances it loses its distinctiveness while in transit. In fact, it seems that butter which possesses to a large degree this much-aesired flavor deteriorates much quicker than an inferior kind. As a consequence of this, the farmer’s wife who makes tb superior article which has a local reputation for excellence should endeavor to dispose of the product to local trade, or at least sell it so near home that it will be but a day or two between the churn and the customer. This can be easily managed in almost any locality where there is a market for it by securing a list- of private customers and furnish it to them direct as they need it. This class of patrons are much more profitable year in and year out thag the city hotels or Mie commission houses or those customers who buy in the general market. To Prevent Black Rot. As a preventive of black rot in vineyards next season the North Carolina experiment station recommends that all dead leaves and rotten grapes be raked up and removed and rotten' grapes clinging to the vines and trellises picked off. Loose shredded bark that can ba readily pulled from the vines prunings, dead grass and weeds should be burned; in fact, anything capable of harboring the dustlike spore should be destroyed or taken away. While the vines are still in a dormant Condition, spray with the copper sulphate solution, thoroughly wetting the vines and posts, and paying particular attention to bunches of tendrils or rough surfaces on the posts that would be likely to retain the spores. It is much easier to keep black rot out of a vineyard once cleaned than to keep it down in a vineyard not cleaned. • Aeparague for the Family. One hundred plants will furnish the average family with a supply of this most delicious early vegetable. They should not cost over sl, and hence instead of being looked upon as a luxury it should be common in every family garden. Rich sandy soil is best, but it will thrive in any soil if given a reasonable show. Palmetto, Conover’s, Collossal and Baris Mammoth are recommended as very satisfactory varieties. The plants should be set as early in the spring as possible, in rows 30 inches apart and 18 in the row. Plant in holes or trench, six inches deep, filling it up gradually, and do not cut the stalks, except sparingly, until the third season. It readily responds to good care and fertilization and should be liberally top-dressed with manure each fall. Digestibility of Foods. The value of cattle foods depends largely upon their digestibility. There is more protein in straw than in corn fodder, but the latter is more digestible. Some coarse foods are valuable, however, in assisting to digest the concentrated foods by giving bulk to the mess and separating the materials, especially when the coarse foods are reduced to a fine condition. Even If but a portion of the straw foods Is digested, they are prepared for the manure heap by the animals and are thus Increased in value compared with wasteful use. Sheep for Mutton. Mutton as a human food la gaining rapidly in reputation. So much improvement has been made in the methods of breeding, fattening, slaughtering and ripening mutton that a great army of people who were once prejudiced against it no longer find anything the matter with it Good authorities predict that the time is rapid, ly approaching when as many sheep and lambs will be slaughtered in this country as there are hogs and cattls slaughtered now. History shows us that in old countries mutton Is the poor man’s meat The reason for this 1s that it can be raised at less'bost Some Kansas Wheat Yields. • The banner yield of wheat In Kansas is said to be that of Joseph 0. Ort, in Gove county, who thrashed 228 bushels of-62-pound wheat from three acres of an old corral, and 4,503 bushels (elevator weight) from a 100-acre field. The seed was Turkey red, one bushel to the acre. The three-acre piece had been heavily fertilized for vegetables, and after these were gone hongaln fertilized and plowed It four inches deep. During 1908 Boston received 00,505,970 pounds of butter.

FOR HANDLING A HOG.

A ONE-MAN CORN SLED.