Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1905 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Opportunities are like fish; all the £'i rge o;us got away. ; ulio best cure for a 'farm mortgage Is plenty elbow grease and a little of self-denial. Lay plans to-day, look over them morrow for defects and be ready to put them into practice at the earliest possible moment. Some men in buying breeding animals look upon bigness, fatness and a huge prioeness as essentials. Live .stock improvement means more. Most of the available farm lands that are for sale by the government are placed on the bargain counter and will be sold at bargain counter prices. To be able to do anything js like eating a doughnut. To be able to halfdo it is like eating the hole in the doughnut: one can watch the hole grow. The man who has a clay or gravelly soil need -give but little care to liis plow in winter to keep it bright, but the man with an alluvial soil will need to keep a close tab on the brightness of the mold-board. The early laying pullet should be marked and kept for the breeding pen next season, provided she is otherwise a good bird. In nearly all cases the pullet that begins to lay early in life is the one that will lay the largest number of eggs in a year. The horse that lias served his master faithfully for many years is entitled to consideration in his old age. it Is a practice too common to sell the old horse to some peddler or other person that will have no interest in him beyond'the work that can lie obtained from him. We've had the lioresless carriage, cowless milk, Imtterlc ss butter and the seedless apple and now a Kansas man threatens us with a featherless chicken to complicate the task of tlm boarder who insists on knowing if it was picked before it was ripe. No, we don't want the featherless chicken, for that would necessitate clothing in a cold climate. To the man who takes great pains with his seed corn all seed corn schooling seems silly, but the man who is careless about it is very much in not'd of the best way to increase the stand. Many farmers have farmed for years and yet the yield of corn they get is about one-half wlmt it ought to lie. This is largely on account of poor stands. The Canadian government is employing special measures to induce former Canadians who have settled in the United States to return to Canada and occupy land in the northwestern provinces, which are now very attractive to many farmers inclined to migrate. .An agent has been instructed to open offices in Boston and to reach llio farmers of New' England, those of former Canadian experience preferred.

A Pennsylvania fanner says he cured a balky horse of that pernicious habit by the use of electricity. lie purchased a small storage battery, connected the wires to the bit and the crupper, and placed it in his vehicle. When it was anticipated that the horse was about to balk, lie pressed the button, the horse would feel a shock and would snort and try to get out of the way of the unusual feeling, which, of course, would cease when ‘he got started. lie was thoroughly broken of the habit, so the writer says. Referring to the disease' ‘dlttle peaches.” Secretary Wilson in his annual report says: “The efforts made by the department in the matter of demonstrating the feasibility of eradicating the little-peach disease from the orchards of Michigan and other States have been continued on a large scale. A section 3 miles square in Michigan was selected for this work and the orchards were thoroughly gone over three times during the months of July, August and September, and all of the affected trees were destroyed. Th object of this experiment is to demonstrate what is believed to be a sact —viz., that the disease can be entirely eradicated by the extirpation process.” One of the most profitable lines of stock breeding is raising mules, yet there seems to be a decline in this industry; this, too, in the fnce of the fact that mules have steadily risen in value in the past few years. The first stimulus In recent years to mule breeding was the Boer War, which was followed rapidly by the war in the Philippines. When construction work on the Panama Cannl begins in earnest there will be a big demand for nudes, which are the only which can stand the intense heat of that section and keep working. Mules pay the breeder better than horses because they can be put on the market a year or so quicker, are not as expensive to raise nor to maintain. At twe years old the mule can be put Into the field and kept there until

old ago overtakes it. The mule is healthier than the horse and is not as likely to have blemishes which destroy or injure the value of the colt. A mule will stand greater hardships, lias more vitality, and when properly instructed is steadier and more reliable.—Farm and Home. Feeding Horses and Mules. Probably more horses and mules dia from diseases of the digestive organs than from any other cause. These diseases are almost entirely the result of errors in feeding and work. For instance, if a harder day’s w<sk than usual is expected of a horse he is given a larger feed, while he should be fed less, or perhaps the change is made from farm work to the road, when it should have been decreased. A large feed should never be given just before nor immediately after severe exercise or hard work, and especially should large quantities of hay and water be avoided just before fast work. —Dr. Talf Butler, North Carolina State Veterinarian. The corn crop in the seven surplus States Is 1,438,000,000 bushels, or 1G7.(XX),000 bushels more than in 1903 and compared with 1,703,000,000 bushels in 1902. The principal changes in the official figures from the estimates made in November are an increase of 23,000,000 bushels in lowa, a decrease of 8.000,000 bushels in Kansas. The detailed figures compare as follows: 1904. 1903. Ohio 100.000,000 88,000,000 Indiana 143,000,000 143,000,000 Illinois 344,000,000 204,000,000 Missouri .... 152,000,000 203,000,000 Kansas 135,000,000 172,000,000 lowa ■. . 303,000,000 229,000,000 Nebraska .. . 201,000,000 172,000,000 Total bu.. . .1,438,000,000 1,271,000,000 Setting Apple Trees. The distance apart at which apple trees should be set is treated in n recent bulletin of the Pennsylvania Citato Experiment Station. The argument is for planting at wider distances apart than has usually been the custom. It starts out with the promise that the best soils are none too good for the apple orchard and that such will develop much larger trees than will the poorer hillsides so commonly chosen for orchard sites in the past. For the stronger-growing kinds, like the Rhode Island Greening, Bellflower and Baldwin, a distance of 40 feet is none too much, while those with less spreading heads, like the Northern Spy and Ben Davis, should have 30 feet space each way. This assumes that the orchards are regularly to be cultivated, a practice that now prevails in all good orcharding. About Buying Nut Trees. It behooves every person who buys nut-bearing trees to make certain that he receives budded or grafted trees. The Interest that has been created in favor of planting pecan and other nut-bearing trees has led unscrupulous men to travel over the country and take orders for grafted or budded nut trees of approved and wellknown varieties, and fill these orders with worthless seedling stock. Before the buyer discovers that he is the victim of a swindler, the agent Is out of reach. To avoid being imposed upon every person who contemplates planting nut trees should buy only of those agents who represent reliable nurserymen or firms, and carry credeneials, and even then it is well to make inquiry of the firm represented, and verify the agent’s statement. It Is only by such precaution that the unscrupulous can be prevented from foisting on the purchaser of nut-bear-ing trees worthless seedlings that have no value as nut producers, and even if they had, may require half a lifetime before they reach a full-bearing age.— The Nut Grower.

Western Sheep Fence. Take the road scraper and make a ridge of earth from 8 to 10 feet broad, and raise to the height of about 12 inches in the center. In the center of the ridge plant posts two rods apart. String along these posts, from the ground upward, some kind of woven wire about 2 feet high, or a little more than that. In the center between the posts drive down a short stake, which when driven will be of the same height as the top of the wire; staple the wire to these stakes. Above the woven wire string n couple of strands of barb wire, the top one being near the top of the posts. Such a fence should lie put up ut a cost not much exceeding 20 cents per rod for material; but this, of course, would not include the labor of building the fence. If posts were put in high enough and the fence were Intended to turn cattle, another barb wire would answer the purpose. Such a fence would not only readily confine sheep where this might be desired, but on level Btretches of land the ridges thus formed would exercise a salutary Influence on drainage. The depressions thus formed should not be filled In plowing the field, and the ridge on which the fence Is built should be seeded down to some kinds of grass, so -that It could be cut each year with tlie mower aud Unis kept free from jaeda.