Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1905 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

The cleaner the stalls are kept the - less bedding required. Chickens fed a variety of food grow fast and this means a marketable condition in a short time. The Washington dewberry, or Oregon evergreen blackberry, as it is called, had a little booin the past fall. A system of feeding should always be adopted that will prevent nil possibility of checking growth when the pigs are weaned. Fowls which feather and mature early are good egg producers; are good setters and mothers and usually attractive in appearance. It is claimed that seeds left in their seed covers till wanted for planting germinate much more certainly than those from which the hulls have been removecl. & Money invested in a railroad ticket to attend a poultry show is a paying investment. The exhibitors are always on hand to explain and answer questions, and much can be learned from them. An lowa mathematician has figured that corn yielding thirty bushels per acre will cost thirty cents per bushel: a yield of thirty-five bushels, twenty-two cents; forty bushels, eighteen cents; fifty bushels, fifteen cents; sixty bushels, thirteen, cents. A farm would be unworthy of that name without a well selected flock of chickens, but do not keep poultry purely from sentiment. It is a paying business, but an expensive hobby. Know which of the birds it will ,pay to keep and which it will pay to rid yourself of. The rank and tile of the farmers are not engaged in farming for pleasure <>’■• pastime. This belongs to the wealthy and the urbanite who may be ex--1 loiting some pet hobby. 'The general larmer pursues agriculture for a livelihood and devotes his res Hirers to getting the most from the work performed on his holdings. For many years wo have been told that snow is a poor man’s manure. We know that' there is nitrogen in) snow and that the soil is more or loss benefited by it. but when one has to dig through snow to a gate four times a week, taking away six sept at a time, he becomes skeptical about the eheniiial analysis of this particular kind of fertilizer. In some parts of Michigan the farmers’ club spirit is so well established among farmers that when the meeting day comes around a whole neighborhood will get together and spend the entire day at some neighbor's home. They have a program, take their lunch, eat, visit, walk out over the farm of the host, look at his stock and see his buildings, and one has no idea of the influence it has on such farmers. There is a vast difference in balky horses. Some of them are incurable and others will do fairly well under the most favorable circumstances. There are such things as balky drivers and these are as plentiful as balky horses. A man ought to reason, something the horse cannot do. Horses are frequently whipped when they are frightened or at a time when they should not be whipped antbAhey are made balky. Some will balk when hitched to a wagon that will work all right to a plow. There are different remedies for the cure of disease and ailments to which poultry are subject. 11 Is a matter of. importance that nob only the remedy, but also the proper manner of applying be clearly stated. Fowls are caused much suffering and annoyance from the attacks of insects, several varieties of which make a specialty in particular, of preying upon and annoying our domesticated varieties of fowls. One form of Insect attacks the log, getting a lodgment in the scaly covering, and soon producing an unsightly appearance known as “scaly legs." Kerosene is the usual remedy, nnd is the proper one when rifthtly applied. as it does the work effectually, but improperly applied it sometimes causes serious trouble. The proper time to apply the kerosene is in the daytime, and the proper way Is to either dip the shank in or paint the remedy on with a small brush; in cither ease care should be fc taken not to allow the oil to reach the body. Feeding the Hogs New Corn. The idea that cholera will be brought on by the feeding of new corn to hogs is not correct, although it is safe to say that the effect of the new corn on the system of the hog lays the animal open to attacks of any disease, and if cholera Is within reach the animal Is likely to contract it. The best !>lan of handling the corn problem for mgs is to carry over sufficient so that ;the season's corn need not be fed until (fully matured, but If this cannot be [done the next best thing is to buy old jeorn rather than run any risk of feeding the new crop. Even when the fiew crop seems well ripened, it must »e fed with care. Use it sparingly for •while, putting other grains with It

and only increasing the quantity of the corn as one sees it is doing no harm. Care in feeding new corn, as suggested, may mean the lives of tha hogs. History of Sheep. Of all domesticated animals tha sheep has, from time immemorial, been most closely associated with mankind. An erudite author, says Outing, sixty years ago, having laboriously collated an assortment of allusions to sheep made by sacred and profane writers, concluded 1 ' that the history of these animals is so interwoven with the history of man that they never existed in a wild state at all. Biblical history from the time of Abel is full of allusions to the flocks Which formed the chief possessions of the Jewish people and their neighbors. The spoils of war and the tribute of vassal kings largely consisted of sheep. Thus we read that Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep master, and rendered unto the King of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100.000 rams with the wool. Moses after his victory over the Midianites obtained as loot no less than 075,000 sheep, and long before the Christian era sheep were cultivated in western Europe. Spain and Italy possessed them from an unknown period, although long after Rome was founded the inhabitants had not learned how to shear the fleece; and until the time of Pliny, the practice of plucking it from the skin was not wholly abandoned. Disking Pastured Alfalfa. In reply to an inquiry, Professor Ten Eyck says: I think it would be advisable to disk the field of alfalfa which yom . describe, immediately after cutting and taking off—tire if the alfalfa has been pastured closely it may not be necessary to cut it, although the cutting will usually cause it to start more readily and evenly. After pasturing all summer, doubtless the soil of this field is firm and compact and needs loosening. If the ground is reasonably moist or if you can disk soon after a rain, the surface can be loosened and a soil mulch produced which will aerate the soil, conserve the soih moisture aml favor a -renewed growth of The alfalfa. Our methods of disking alfalfa at this station is to set the disks rather straight and weight the harrow with rock, causing it to cut two or three inches deep. We prefer to cross-disk and follow with the smoothing harrow, in order to break tin* clods, level the surface and leave a good soil mulch. The harrow also assists in pulling out and destroying the crab-grass and other weeds to some extent. At this 'Station we have practiced disking after each cutting during the season with no bad results, but as a rule I prefer to disk alfalfa early in the spring or immediately after the third or fourth cutting in the latter part of the summer or early in the fall. Filling the Ice House. It costs about $25. often less, to fill a 100-ton ice house. In the summer with ice at 25 cents per 100 pounds it would cost SIOO for 20 tons, and.every farmer with a medium sized dairy will use this much. Ice can be stored in a wood shed, tool shed or any good building. Ice will not keep as .ivell in these buildings as in an ice house, but they can be used. I remember, we put up ice once in a building with a tin roof, and everybody said it wouldn't keep. But it kept nicely. It is best to build an iee house in the side of a hill, putting a drain in the bottom, to carry off the water that accumulates. The .ice should be put up while it is very cold, as when it is thawing the lee is wet and bad to handle. Tire ice should.be sawed out in squares just large enough-so that one man can handle a block easily. Ice hooks should be used to pull the blocks of ice out of the water. The ice should be laid in a solid mass in the ice house, pounding pieces of ice in the cracks and Joints so as to make the mass solid. Snow is better if it can be had. After a layer has been put down, cover with snow an inch or so deep, then begin laying the next layer. If there is no snow this may be omitted. After the house is filled, throw two or three buckets of water on the ice to wet it so that it will freeze in a solid mass. It is then ready to cover with sawdust. Place about a foot of sawdust on the floor of the building before putting In the ice. Leave a space of 1 foot between the Ice and walls for sawdust, also cover the ice 1 foot deep. Care must be taken not to put too much sawdust on, for it can be overdone, as well as not using enough. When too much Is used the sawdust heats, causing the ice to melt rapidly. The sawdust should be tamped down quite often, As the Ice melts, keep it tamped down so that no air cavities are formed. When using the ice, begin on a layer and use from It till it Is gone, then begin on the next layer, etc. Haul the sawdust in the fall and have everything ready for harvesting the ice.—Peter H. Smalley in Farm and Home.