Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1904 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Coop for Growing Chick*. Where chicks are raised in considerable numbers, it is necessary to provide protection for them while they are on the range, and a house such as is illustrated and described here may be produced at small cost Make a number of them and scatter them over the range. Obtain a number of small dry goods boxes, making the roof of hny material one has on the farm or buying the cheap hemlock lumber and covering the cracks with laths or tarred paper. In the gable end cut a large hole for ventilation and arrange the opening in the front so that some means will be had for closing it so that the storm may be shut off. If one has but a few cqops a sliding window may be used to close the front; if many coops are made the opening may be closed by a sliding door made of thin material. During the summer, if this solid wood door was used it would be advisable to make the ventilation opening larger and cover it with some coarse mesh wire netting. Unless one has had ex-

perience, it is hard to realize the great value of these coops and especially during the early fall before the chicks go to winter quarters, a period whpn hard storms are likely to occur. —Indianapolis News.

Cultivating Drilled Corn. It is generally conceded that more corn can be grown on an acre in drills than in hills, but in weedy land the great trouble is to keep drilled corn clean and free from weeds. The great mistake in cultivating drilled corn usually is made at the first working, when shovels of medium size are used and small furrows left close to the rows. We find it no harder to keep drilled corn free from weeds than it is to keep hill corn clean, by using the smoothing harrow across the rows just as soon as the corn is up. In four or five days a second harrowing may be given and then the cultivators be set to work.

Avoid leaving any furrow close to the rows, and also be sure not to throw a ridge of earth up to the plants. Keep the land just as level as possible the first two or three workings and then as the plants begin to shade the ground they will do much to smother out weeds. The later cultivation of any corn is best given by a one-horse five shovel cultivator Instead of the two-horse riding implement, as with the former one can go very shallow and keep at any desired distance from the growing corn. We believe there are too many high-priced riding cultivators and not enough small one-horse implements used. The latter, diligently used. Insure clean crops.

Loss from Bitter Rot. The losses from bitter rot of apples are seldom appreciated, but the men that have investigated them declare them to be simply enormous for the entire country. Professor Blair of the University ,of Illinois said last fall that the losses from bitter rot In four counties of Illinois had totaled for the past season $1,500,000. This was in the four counties of Marion, yClqy, Richard and Wayne. Bitter rot is a fungous disease and c’an be controlled to some extent by spraying. It is time that apple growers awoke fully to the enormous tax they are every year paying to the fungous diseases that ravage orchards. Could farmers eliminate even this one scourge of bitter rot we would add millions of dollars to the value of the apple crop. Water for the Swine. Pure water does more than quench tiff thirst of the hog. It enters largely into the composition of flesh; it assists In digestion by acting as a solvent for food elements; it Is a vehicle for carrying off the poisonous wastes of the system, which, if not thus removed, are often reabsorbed by the system, either creating diseases or conditions favorable to disease ravages. When the drinking water happens to be unwholesome in itself, the possible double mischief is easily understood.

Treatment for Scratches. The best treatment for scratches is to put one ounce each of sulphate of sine, sugar-of-lead and powdered alum into a. quart bottle, fill with pure soft water and shake well. Saturate the sore places well once a day for a week, then apply sweet oil to the scab once a day to soften the scab and make it peel off; then wash with warm water and castlle soap. If the horse is used while l>eing cured, always clean and dry the legs, rubbing

wlth the sawdust or a clean sack. The long, natural growth of hair on the lower part of the legs and fetlocks should never be cut oft, and If the horses’ legs are rubbed clean and dry when brought in from work, they will not be liable to get the scratches.

Point* of a Good Dairy Cow. I will endeavor to give a few of what many years of experience has taught me to believe are essential points In selecting a profitable dairy cow, and will commence at the nose. Take a cow that can put her nose In a tincup—you can take a tincup to milk her in; but a cow that it takes a bucket to get her nose in, you will have to take a bucket to milk her in. In other words, I want a cow or a calf of either sex, in order to make a profitable dairy animal, to have a great broad mouth (so it can mow a wide swath), with thin lips indicating a thin hide and fineness throughout, enabling it to sift out most of the nutrition in food consumed and return it to you in its milk; with broad, open nostrils, giving it good breathing capacity; and short from nose to eyes—long in this space indicates long in the legs; too much wind blows under it and soon dries up the milk, even if they give a good flow in the start; broad between the eyes, indicating a broad deep cow throughout, with good heart, lungs, liver and digestive organs; large, full eyes, indicating plenty of nerve force to carry out the requirements of the body; long from eyes to horns, indicating good sense; narrow between horns, indicating but little combativeness and a mild disposition; a jvell developed body, not “pot-gutted,” with large teats and plenty of loose skin for udder development—but not a large, meaty, fleshy udder that will be nearly as large after being milked as it was before; a long tail with a good switch to enable the cow to keep the flies from sucking her blood that goes to produce milk. There are other indications, but these are enough to give a beginner a start —Harding Bailey, in Jersey Bulletin.

The Cost of Making Pork. The sole purpose of finishing a bunch of pigs at an early age Is to make them more profitable by saving feed. It takes a certain amount merely to keep them, and the shorter the time they are kept the less this will cost. So far it is a simple problem, but there are other factors which enter in. The pushing process may be the most costly in the end because it requires the feeding of a large quantity of high-priced grain or millstuffs, whereas by utilizing the pastures and the woods they may make a cheaper growth and ultimately go to market at less cost. It may be said that the pasture has value in proportion to the grain. Sometimes It has and sometimes it has not—all depends on what something else could get out of it in the way of gain and consequent cash. The point is that early maturity in the sense of marketing hogs at an early age is the best thing only when it is the cheapest. A man can afford to wait a couple of months to put his pigs on the market if by utilizing pastures or forage and saving high-priced grain he can do it cheaper. The cost of marketing a pound of pork and not the time It takes to do it is the vital problem.

Thinning Peaches Pays. Not every grower appreciates the importance of thinning peaches, but there can be no question of the necessity of the practice. If best results are to be secured. The Michigan Experiment Station reports the following concerning this matter: “A thinning test was started In 1903, to last over a period of three years. Of one lot, one tree was thinned to 8 Inches; one was thinned to 4 or 5 Inches, and one tree was left unthlnned. Of the other varieties, one tree was thinned to 8 Inches and one tree left unthinned. It was noted at the end of the first season’s test that all trees severely thinned were much thriftier, and their foliage much healthier, and did not fall from the trees as early In the season as on unthlnned trees; that peaches from the thinned trees sold for nearly double as much as those from unthinned trees. The varieties chosen for the test happened to ripen at a time when there was a good demandt otherwise peaches from unthinned trees would have been unsalable. From a commercial standpoint the benefit from heavy thinning was very apparent.”

Little Profit in Cooking Feed. The utility in cooking feed for animals. and cepedally for pigs,, was given most attention in the days previous to investigations by experiment stations. Cooking feed is no longer regarded as an economical practice for fattening animals. However, for breeding stock and sick animals, and for animals which It is desired to put into the very highest condition, cooking may be practiced with good reftlts, if expense is disregarded. Pigs so fed show marked tbriftinoss and health.

Cold Rain Bad for Cows. The Arizona Experiment Station recorded the results of a cold rain on the milk flow of the station herd. The cows were exposed three days to a cold rain. During this time they decreased 37 per cent in milk yield, and continued until It reached 50 per cent and it was a month before they gar* as much milk as before the storm.