Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1904 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Have Your Farm Vaccinated. Have you had your farm vaccinated? If not, you should proceed to have it done at once. Science has done a great deal for the farmer. It has killed the bugs and worms that prey on his crops; it has treated his animals when sick and saved their lives; it has experimented with seeds and raised the quality and quantity of their yield; it has done a great many things to help him achieve success. The latest service of special interest of which we have heard Is noted in the National Geographic Magazine, where it is shown that the process of inoculating sterile ground and making It bring forth the fruit in abundance is an easy task. Inoculation to prevent smallpox, diphtheria, rabies, etc., we know about, but it is quite as mysterious as the inoculation of old worn-out soils to make them fertile. The germs make for fertility of the soil. They are collected or generated by the department of agriculture, according to this veracious authority, and sent by mail in a small package about like a yeast cake. The cake is said to contain millions of dried germs. It is thrown into a barrel of pure water and turns it a milky white, Seeds of grain and grasses are washed with this water and when planted are said to produce wonderful results even on what is regarded as exhausted soil. The land is really treated to an inoculation and cured of its disease of barrenness. Have your farms vaccinated and get rich from the big crops you will raise.—Minneapolis Journal.

Potato Planter. C. P. Jones, of Gage County, Nebraska, sends lowa Homestead his plan of a potato planter: “Take an old corn planter with wide shoes at the rear part and if there is a division there knock it out with a cold chisel,” he says. “Take an old boiler or a piece of heavy tin, cut and bend to fit the back of runners large enough to give plenty of room for pieces of potatoes to go through. Take a piece of 2x4 three feet six Inches long and bolt the back of each runner at the ends. Tate another piece of 2x4 twelve inches longer for the front, leaving six inches project at each end on which the boxes ere to rest. Make the boxes as shown

in the illustration. Attach the remainder of the planter at the back with the L bolts shown. Fasten a strong board back of the boxes, but in front of the wheels for two boys to sit on and do the dropping. Plant and harrow just as they are coming up.” Farm Labor in Demand. It is estimated that in seven States out west 45,000 men will be needed this summer to harvest the wheat crop. Crops are increasing faster than labor to secure them can be had, and this, too, in the face of the fact that nearly 1,000,000 Immigrants a year are coming to America. Last year college students were attracted to rhe west by the offer of $2.50 a day and board and lodging, but so many fell by the wayside in the hot sun that scarcely enough remained to marry all the daughters of the .rich farmers. Harvesters can find employment from May to nearly October, moving up from Texas to Canada; wages are high and there is plenty to eat. With a foreign war now in progress and the regular demand for foodstuffs in the countries in Europe which always buy from Americans, on the increase, the outlook for a great business in exporting agricultural products is excellent —Baltimore Herald. Teaching a Calf to Drink. Pour fresh milk in the pall to the depth of aboutone-half inch. Gently place the calf’s nose into the milk and against the bottom of the pail. It will soon get a taste of the milk and will begin to sip and suck on the bottom of the pall. When the milk is gone, replace it with the same amount as before, ami continue till the calf has enough. If care is taken not to put enough milk in the pail so as to cover the nostrils of the calf, it will soon learn to drink. When it has learned to drink, a small quantity more can be added each time until the lesson is fully learned and then the amount required for a feeding may be placed in the pail without fear of the calf not drinking it Quality of Goat Meat. While it is generally agreed among those who speak from experience that the kids of all breeds of goats are a delicacy, yet among the great mass of the American people there is a prejudice against anything bearing tha kame of “goat” Within the eavlnxs-

meats of the larger American cities are found many kids, but as few of them grow to maturity the question arises as to what becomes of them. Butchers and meat dealers reply that they pass over their blocks as "lamb.” Yet no meat dealer, has heard complaints of the quality of such “lamb." Numbers of mature common goats are purchased by the packing firms of the larger cities. Bought as goats, they are sold—either in the carcass or canned—as mutton, and it is probable that many who decry goat meat have unknowingly eaten it many times, This does not imply that the meat is as palatable as good mutton, but it may be as good as poor mutton.

Good Flood Gate. A. subscriber to an agricultural paper sends a sketch illustrating a water gate and writes: “Some flood gates are built so as to catch and hold all trash, though swinging freely, and others will allow obstruction to be freely disengaged and pass away. One of the best I have found is composed of a 2x6 upon which sla.ts are nailed

of a proper length to reach the low water mark. This gate is hung to a log or beam extending across the stream, attached by chains or wire. In tills form we find a very good gate for a water gap.”

Use the Harrow on Corn. Many farmers read with surprise the statement that a harrow can be run across young corn Without damage to the crop. Try it and see. It is better to use the iron-toothed harrow with teeth slanting backward at an angle of 45 degrees. It is remarkable how much work a three-section harrow will do in a cornfield in one day during the early spring season. Harrow corn Just as it comes through the ground. Harrow crosswise again within a week. In some cases it is necessary. to weight the harrow. A seventyfive or ninety-tooth harrow will cover fifteen acres of corn with a slow team and twenty acres if the team is a quick stepper. If doubtful about the use of the harrow on your particular corn crop, take it out and run it for twentyfive feet and test the wonk done by pulling at every stalk passed over to find whether or not the roots still hold. Harrowing will lay the crop down for a day or two, but it soon straightens. Harrowing kills weeds and destroys young grass, lete the air into the ground and is the best possible method of cultivating young corn until the crop reaches eight or ten Inches in height Use the harrow on corn.

Twenty Thousand White Ducks.] The largest duck farm in the United States is at Riverton, Va. There are 20,000 white Pekin ducks in the place. In the laying department 1,500 mother ducks are kept in 10 pens set apart for them—lso to the pen. The hatching is done by Incubators, which during the hatching season bring forth 2,000 ducklihgs each week. At the age of 12 weeks they are slaughtered for the market It requires a carload of food every week to feed the ducka. Sitters to Rent. A poultryman of Montgomery County, Pa., has been doing a thriving business buying hens at low prices and renting them out as sitters, charging seventy-five cents for the season. At present he has nearly one hundred to rent out and claims he saves the feed, gets seventy-five cents a head for the hen’s time and has them again to sell in the fall. Farm Notes. Good farming is Impossible without good teams. The secret of success in stock raising is superiority in quality. Superior roadsters are gifted with both speed and bottom. Feed the pigs refuse fruit and vegetables from the garden. The best sheep is the most profitable one under all circumstances. Breed the horse first for strength and endurance and then style. Medium-sized sheep usually have the best and heaviest fleeces. It pays to have horses perform work that are naturally good walkers. A horse with an unruly disposition in very many cases is of little or no account Clover is one of jhe best of green manorial crops, a great restorer of worn-out lands. The pigs will do well in the apple orchards, especially if there arc, many sweet apples. Obe acre of clover and one acre of cojn are worth three acres of corn for making healthy porkers. A fast walk and prompt-telling road gait are, to a great extent matters of education. In shipping stock it is poor economy to crowd too many in a car, especially If tbay ars to go a considerable diataacA

GATE FOR A WATER GAP.