Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1904 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Cheap Poultry House. The illustration will show that even piano boxes may be utilized for a poultry house where only a limited number of fowls or chicks are to be accommodated; or with a number of houses thus built, it may be possible to furnish comfortable quarters for the usual number of birds kept on an average farm. U. R. Fishel of Indiana tells Poultry News of his twenty colony house constructed of piano boxes. He says: “We take two upright piano boxes and four pieces of timber 2x4 and 10 feet long; we take the piano boxes apart—keeping the fronts, backs, ends and bottoms all together. We place three of the 2x4s on the ground and lay on these 2x4s, nailing them solid, making the bottom of the house (some will have to be sawed off of the 2x4s). The four ends of the two boxes will make the entire back of the house, while the fronts will make each end of the house and the remaining him ber will be used in the front of the house. The three remaining pieces of 2x4 are used as rafters to nail roofing to. New ship lap lumber will have to be bought for the roof, after which the same is covered with Neponset Red Rope roofing paper. Two pairs of 5-lnch strap hinges, one hasp and a piece of 1-inch netting to cover opening 6f door above window and one pane of Bxlo light sash completes your building, making a .poultry house Bxlo

feet, all complete, for the low price of |7. If you can do the carpenter work yourself the house will not cost you over $6.”. This house will accommodate fifty growing chicks, or fifteen to twenty capons, and the claim is made that no bird kept in it and properlytaken care of, ever had its comb frozen in the coldest weather. One great advantage of such a small house is that it can be placed on runners or on a mud sleigh and moved wherever it nnv be wanted on the farm. It is list iul as. a general purpose fowl house, for hens with chicks, etc. Value of Dual Purpose Cow. If a man has no use for the calf, or has use for the calf and none for the milk he has no use for the dual purpose cow. In the former case he needs the Jersey or Ayeshire, in the latter Polled Angus or Hereford. Here we need the calves to condense feed and thus help get it to market by condensing the freight on it. A dual purpose cow is one that with a paying quantity of milk and a calf that will about top the market when fed out. It is not possible to get the best dairying qualities and best beef qualities in the same hide, but it is possible to get more jnoney out of a dual purpose cow than can be done with a special purpose cow. i. e., milk or beef. There is no breed of dual purpose cattle, but there is a type of dual purpose cows common to all breeds. The Hereford* and Polled Angus breeds have a few dual purpose cows, but the Short Horns have a larger number than any other breed. Whenever beefbred cows have been milked for some time they are on dual purpose qualities. The Short Horns, originally a soef breed, have been used as milkers lor years, and tins Is why there are note dual purpose •uws in this breed ‘.han other breeds. If starting a herd >f duah purpose dairy cows, I would ytiy yearling heifers and use a bull from dual purpose stock. When these heifers have their first calves they would feed strong, and would then get rid of those that fattened and keep those that increased in flow of milk, but must not forget that to produce milk, a cow should be fe<| a balanced ration.

Turkeys in Cold Storage 12 Years. Poultry and eggs as old as eight to ten years are being sold for consumption by the packers of Chicago. The statement is made by Alderman Wendling, who for years was a butcher in the stock yards. “I have known,” be says, "of turkeys being kept In cold storage for twelve years and chickens for eight or ton yars. Chickens and turkeys hatched the year of the World's Fair are yet in cold storage at the yards. Eggs of the vintage of IS'J'i nnd 189" are also there.” How Many Seed to a Pound? Number of farm seeds in a pound varies greatly with even Hie leading farm crops. Reif top <14)3,0(10, reed canary grass GOO.OOO, smooth stalked meadow grass 2.44)0.000, rough-stalked meadow grass, 3,000.000, sheep's fescue, 08»/.bu0, xarioiuoieafed fescus 400,000, creeping fescue 000, a witless brome grass 137,000, perennial rye grass 330,800, Italian rye grass 285,000, orchard grass 579.500, meadow feecue 818,200, meadow oat glass 15#.000, yellow oat grass 2.045.000, velvet grass 1,304,000, timothy, 1, 1T0,500.

meadow foxtail 907,000, vernal gras® 924,000, crested dog’s tail 1,127,000, alsike clover 707,000, sainfoin red clover 279,000, white c10ver.740,000, common kidney vetch 154,000, alfalfa! or bicorn 209,500, trefoil 328,000, bird’a foot trefoil 375,000, official goat s ru® G 2.000. Helps for Butchering Time. There Is more or less work in th® kUUxig- oX-snulll animals during th® winter on many farms, uni! always th® annual butchering; although it Is getting to be quite the fashion in the more thickly settled portions of the country to sell the hogs in the fall and byy. the ineat back from tho town butcher at double price during tho winter. Where there is more or less butchering to be done one should liava

for ready use a large boiler of some kind so that a quantity of water may be heated at one time; tools such as knives, saws and other things used should be kept in proper shape and everything be in readiness so that the hard and disagreeable work may be over with as soon as possible. The illustration shows a rack for hanging the carcass of an animal, which should be on dvery farm where butchering is done. It needs but little description. A post eight or ten inches through and five or six feet high is set firmly in the ground, and cross-pieces, two inches or more thick and eight feet long spiked to the pole, in the positions shown, so that they will project three feet on either side. They are notched near the ends as shown and braced underneath. These racks will save one much strength, for when the bogs are hung on them they are easily cut.

Homemade Tread Power. A light tread power for churning, turning grindstone, etc., is made by mounting a disk wheel nearly horizonbilly, the axle being inclined so one portion.will be higher than the other. The dog, sheep or calf used for motive power is tied at one side, headed toward the higher part. As the animal walks, the wheel turns because of the nniiaal's weight, and communicatee motien to the pulley or small friction wheel beneath. There are no belts, no cogs. The weight of the animal bears the part of the large inclined wheel upon the smaller wheel beneath and causes It to revolve. A discarded wagon wheel might be used as tire framework of the large wheel, nailing boards on the upper surface for the animal to walk on, or

a frame is easily made, and if somewhat larger than a wagon wheel—say 6 feet or 7 feet in diameter—the circle will be larger and the animal will find the walking more direct. The under wheel may be 6 or 8 inches in diameter. The power is increased by giving the large wheel more pitch, and diminished by setting it more nearly level. —E. C. Bennett, In St. Louis Republic. Don’t Be a Kicker.

Some men would rather kick against some treatment they are having or find fault with the administration than to talk almut their business and hnw to make it more of a success. Most people talk over their business at any and all opportunities, but I have seen farmers in a crowd that would talk about everything else. Finding fault with the weather, the railroads. oS wreaking vengeance on the road supervisor or some such thing does not as. slst one particle in making a better fanner out of a man. The successful n an advertises his business and has Interest enough in it to talk al>out it to bls neighbors and others with whom be chines in contact.—Cor. lowa Homestead. Horse Notes to Remember. Teams that have been partially idle for some time should come into work again gradually, and their shoulders should bo washed and bathed in salt and water. Never buy a horse with a narrow or sallow chest, or whose forelegs are very close together. He has not sufficient room for a set of strong lungs, and will not be long winded. In the treatment of distemper an English veterinary advises the beneficial effect of biniodide of mercury as an antiseptic. Its good effects are due more to its absorption than tq its blistering action, as it is the most powerful of all antiseptics (microbe killers). It was used successfully in scores of < ases as a blister applied to the swelling under the Jaws. Distemper is an infective disease which usually confers subsequent immunity on the patient.

A CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE.

FOR THE FARM BUTCHER.

TREAD POWER AND CHURN.