Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1904 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

To have your cows milk long, milk them clean. On account of them lying so close together the shelter for hogs need not he as tight as for other stock. A low knee is desirable in a horse, enabling the animal to make a long stride more quickly than when the knee is set high up. Care and feed are essential factors in making good stock. It will not “Just grow,” like Topsy, but must be looked after at every stage of the game. Arrange to put a few windows in that dark barn. But few stables are well enough lighted. Proper sanitation demands it. Sunlight is a great germicide. See that your stable has plenty of it. Hens will eat eggs whenever broken ones are placed within their reach. It is natural for them to eat anything that is good to eat and in proper shape for them to eat. To stop them from eating eggs, therefore, is to keep broken eggs out of their reach. No one has actual knowledge of the .value of fall plowing in a garden until he has tried it. When fall plowed the soil Can be prepared early in the spring and much depends on early vegetables. Make the garden rich and then plow it lu the fall, and note the beneficial next year. If you try this plan once, you’ll stay with it. •frauds are still going the rounds. One of the last seen is an old one which prpmises to increase the quantity of butter by adding something to the milk. Those who take time to think will readily see that butter cannot be added to milk. The amount of butter fat taken from milk depends upon the amount It contains. It is impossible to obtain something from nothing. A wind puff on a horse is a distended condition of a sack which contains synovia or Joint oil. It is caused by a sprain. A wind gall is liable to cause serious lameness at any time. The trouble is curable, however, when not due to a faulty conformation, and when taken in its incipiency. Treatment consists in rest, firing and blistering, and shoeing with a high heel shoe. The scientific man can analyze the food the cow eats, but the cow has to rely on the taste or palatabillty. The dairyman will feed a combination of feeds such as he has, or will exchange some of them for that which he does not have, and he bases his reason on results rather than analysis. It scarcely ever pays to economize In feed. The animal that has been fed liberally is the first to get to market and Mill bring the best price. When failure results, the best thing to do is to see what was the cause and remove it. Be reasonable about such things. In most of our farm operations we do not know what our products are costing us. A very small percentage of farmers know what products cost them. They grow their feed, feed it without stint, and M-hen a sale is made they feel that they have made some money in the transaction. A very good friend of mine says he keeps a system of books that is nil right. He counts his money ot the beginning of the year and again at the close, and if he has more at the close than he had at the beginning he has made the difference. This Is all right as far as it goes, but it is not satisfactory.—lona Homestead. Most people know that plowing Is done to loosen the Boil, to reduce sods and to admit air, to cover trash and numerous other things. Sometimes ploMing makes soils too loose for a time and M-e need the harrow or field roller to compact It, nlthough sometimes a heavy rainfall will bring about the desired result. We know that original material near the surface is necessary, and land that Is not rich in this material Is not benefited much by deep ploM-ing. Again, It Is safe to say that nothing robs land of moisture any more than the stirring plow. The live or six Inches of surface soli is turned up nnd broken In the air and moisture that may be needed veqr much Is sometimes carried off rapidly by evaporation. The student of the present time needs to study his soli and its requirements to knoM’ when and how to plow'. The dairy, farbera of Denmark have Invaded the English markets to such un extent that they have n-ell-nigh crowded out the English farmers. More foreign than domestic butter is consumed in England, nnd most of it comes from Denmark. About nlneteuths of Denmark’s butter export goes to English markets, and the amount Is over two hundred million pounds, for which nbout $50,<j00,000 was returned to the thrifty Danish dairymen. It is said that some of this butter was really made by Danish companies operating In Siberia and practicing the well-known scientific and co-operative methods whkh hsvo caused the industry to forge to tl»

front in Denmark. The egg trade has followed close on the heels of the dairy business, the producers having organized into exporting societies, and now shipping over nine-tenths of the country’s egg products to England. Experiments have shown that deep plowing on some soils is the reverse of beneficial. It cannot be too plainly or strongly Impressed upon the mind that all plant food is only available when in a liquid form. It does not matter bow much plant food there Is in soil, If It is not reduced to liquid form it cannot be assimilated by plants, hence the necessity for keeping some moisture in the soil, which is often caused to disappear by too deep plowing. All stiff soils will be benefited by deep plowing, while light sandy soils would not receive any benefit and might receive temporary injury if plowed ten inches deep. Feeding for Growth. That our farm animals are overfed with corn no one questions and one of the most difficult things to accomplish at the present time is to induce farmers to see wherein it is profitable to cut down on the corn diet. Corn is grown with comparative ease while other feed stuffs must, perhaps,? be bought, so that it is natural to feed the corn. It would not be sound advice to advocate the selling of the corn and buying other grains with the proceeds for the feeding of swine because the margin of profit in selling swine is so small, but on the average farm it is quite possible to utilize other feed stuffs and odds ’ and ends through the early period of the pig’s life so that It will grow bone and muscle and thus be in shape to fatten at the smallest possible expense. It is surely profitable to buy a reasonable amount of bran to use with the skim milk in feeding young pigs, while the same plan might be ruinous after the pig was six months old.

Cleanliness In Feeding Ponltry. Do not throw the soft food for the fowls on the ground, but give it in troughs, or in any suitable vessel into Mhlch the fowls cannot place their feet; but hard food, Buch . as the grains, may be scattered with advantage. Give the food preferably in the yard or the fields, and change the feeding place frequently. When there is not a pure stream of water, supply the fowls dally with fresh water, which should be placed In the shade in a vessel into which they cannot get their feet. Bear in mind that the germs of disease are easily carried from an infected farm on the soles of the boots and feet of the attendant Some diseases are invariably produced in dirty surroundings, and they can best be avoided by cleanliness and disinfection. These preventive measures will guard against many diseases to which poultry are liable, chiefly roup, gapes, tuberculosis and diseases of the comb and skin, nnd will also improve the general condition of the fowls, as well as materially increase their market value.

Some Creamery Swindle. When the creamery swindles that are now being worked in various parts of Missouri have been exposed, the exposure will probably make communities really adapted to dairying overcautious about engaging in the business. Prof. R. M. Washburn, of the Missouri Agricultural College, who has wide experience in the creamer}' business, gives the following information that will help communities to determine when it is wise to build u creamery: “Whenever the milk from at least 100 cows cannot be guaranteed to be absolutely forthcoming at once,” says Prof. Washburn, “the creamery had better not be built. The cost of making butter will be about 6 cents per pound, and no farmer company can stand such expense. If - 000 or 600 cow's eun be secured in the flve-mile radius, the cost of making a pound of butter can be reduced to 11% or 4 cents, which is a probable basis of business, and the creamery will benefit the community. A good little creamery that can handle this amount of business can be built and equipped for $2,000 or $2,500, if the community will let the ‘creamery promoter’ alone and buy an outfit of some reputable manufacturer. If a cheese factory is preferred, for the same number of cows it ought not to cost more than SI,OOO or $1,200.” A community which does its own thinking and organizing can establish a creamery very mtich better and at very much less cost by dealing direct with those who manufacture creamery supplies. There nre several firms in this branch of the business, and they are not hard to find. They will furnish estimates and plans of creameries suitable for any. conditions, and send men tu erect the plant to the satisfaction of the buyer, and give all necessary guarantees for the quality and durability of the goods which are sold. The creamery operator gets his money, and then it is no concern of his whether the plant succeeds or falls; bat the manufacturer is responsible, and stands by bis goods.—Bt Paul Dispatch.