Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1905 — Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN

A squab is about as large at birth as it ever gets. In this regard we have plenty of squab farmers, for they are as large at the beginning as they ever get. Some of them are infinitely smaller when they have farmed a few years,than when they began. Name the farm. Select some good name that will last longer than you will. When speaking of the farm call it by name. Have the name neatly printed on all stationery and pay no attention to the gibes of some men who may be fifty years behind the times. There is no doubt but what the farmer who raises clover is the first to gain the “king row.” This is very significant. This is the day when there should be no “doubting Thomases.” It should be evidence enough when one man in a neighborhood can succeed by the aid of clover. Argentina is credited with having the greatest number of sheep in any • country in the world and of deriving the least benefit from them. This is due to negligence in their care and the prevalence of scab. Argentina possesses 19,000,000 more sheep than Australia, but the last named country exports 127 per cent more wool in spite of drought. Some farmers put their machinery away in an old leaky shed and pronounce it cared for. The roof leaks and the sides being open Invite snows and rains and fowls roost on them and sometimes such men question the propriety of sbeltereding farm tools. It always makes an implement dealer smile when he sees machinery poorly cared for. A regular article of export to Central Asia is the Ohio grapevine cutting. The vineyards of Central Asia are all offshoots from American vines, and the fruit is prized above all others in Russia proper for its delicacy and flavor. Twenty to thirty tons of American grapes to the acre is a common yield in Central Asia, and as the American vine is free from parasites, it Is being introduced everywhere the world over. In speaking of methods of conducting farm operations many fail to note the character and condition of the soli and climate. One may succeed in the pursuance of a certain method and another fail, all on account of a difference in soil conditions. In some soils it will be well to plow the ground before sowing small grain in the spring of the year; on others it may be done by discing or cultivating. Some soils are benefited by fall plowing and other soils will not permit of any but spring plowing. The man w'ho plow’s under undeeayed straw, strawy manure and heavy coatings of cornstalks should understand that his soil condition is being benefited by it. If it is, that is the method to pursue and no mistake? Feeding Plantation Mules. The ration now fed to’ mules at one of the large Louisiana sugar factories consists of eight pounds of corn and cob meal, two pounds of' cottonseed meal, eleven pounds of molasses and fifteen pounds of pea vine hay, the cost being 14.5 cents per head. It is stated that this ration has diminished the cost of feeding the mules onehalf and at the same time improved their health.

Treating Frozen Plants. If plants get frozen, as may happen with the best of care, they should be thawed out slowly by sprinkling them with cold water. In this way even badly frozen plants may be saved. Tomatoes, t-he most easily damaged of garden plants, have been restored without serious injury after being frozen stiff, by turning the hose upon them and treating the tops to a thorough bath of cold water. House plants may often be saved in the same way. But the work should be carefully done to avoid injuring the foliage. Frozen leaves should not be handled if It can be avoided. If there are many of the plants they should be placed in a cold room and the temperature gradually raised, if it is possible to do so. On no account should the plants be subjected to extremes of temperature.— Farmers' Voice. The Secretlotmr Milk. The question is frequently asked: "Is the milk secure.l at one milking present ill the udder In the form of milk, nt the time the milking begins?” In answering such an Inquiry at a dairyman's meeting, Mr. (Jlcndinning, of Manilla. Ontario, says: "Tiie udder contains a great deal more blood than It does milk. You take a large udder of n cow. Of course, it looks very much as though there was a very large quantity of milk in that udder, but if a cow happened to be shot or killed Instantly, and you took and opened her, you would find very little ndlk. Perhaps some of yon have sat down to milk a cow. mid you would get n little milk at the commencement quite easily, ami then you have said the cow failed to let down her milk. When you had ■diked out that milk that cams easily,

you practically had taken all the milk that was in the udder, and then it was not until you continued your manipulation some time that she began to let her milk dow'n again, and that was the time she commenced to secrete the milk. There was not a great deal of milk in the udder at the beginning.” Muslin in Place of Glass. Considerable interest is being taken in the use of oiled muslin in place of glass in the poultry house. There is no doubt but w’hat this can be substituted to advantage where a house has too much glass, as many of them have. For example, all of us are familiar with the poultry house front built on a slant and consisting entirely of glass and the necessary framework to hold" it. In such cases we think every other section of muslin would be an advantage. The house would still be light enough and at night would be much w’armer with a small area of glass. In the small house, where one window of moderate size furnishes the light, it would not be advisable to substitute muslin for'glass. After all, the best use for the muslin is to place it on poles and hang over the opening in the scratching shed. It keeps out the wind and cold and, with the help of a single window of glass in the side, lets In enough light to make the fowls contented and happy as they scratch through the • chaff. If one Is in a cold climate and the poultry house is lighted only by a small window, it is. an excellent plan to cut in a second window and cover the frame with a double thickness of oiled muslin. In tliis manner additional light is obtained without exposing the house to more cold. — —— ——-

Don’t Keep Old Sheep. A sheep man writes: “We once had a ewe that we bought for seven years old produce a good lamb and shear as good a fleece as the younger ones, and as she was pure bred we should have kept her longer if she had not been stolen. But we think such cases are not common, any more than cows that are profitable at twenty years old, or horses at thirty. “We think a ewe that Is four or five years old has at least reached her prime, and while she may still raise a good lamb, she begins to decrease in amount of wool, and Is more liable to sickness because of a lack of vigor, and needs more careful feeding than a younger one. We would not advise anyone who Is not well experienced in the care of sheep to buy five-year-old sheep at any price, and we would not do it ourselves unless we bought them so cheap that the lambs next spring would be worth all the flock cost us. Nor would we keep one until that age unless she was valuable as a breeder and seemed to retain vigor enough to give a good fleece each year. You would be likely to do better in paying a higher price for younger sheep, even if your capital would not buy so many.”

Spring Spraying. If San Jose scale has not yet invaded your neighborhood, trust in a kind providence and make a move, good and hard, to keep it out. If it is already there, use the same measures, but in a more superlative degree, if such a thing there can he. The San Jose scale, or louse, for it is the latter, under the scale, that does the mischief, is a sort of little Jap in the world of insect pests. Many bigger ones there are, but few more successful. The scale is most easily recognized in midsummer, when it imparts a sort of purplish tinge to the bark of the tree, but it is then very firmly intrenched and difficult to fight. Take a microscope to your apple, pear, peach and plum trees now. Just as soon as you can, especially if they look a bit rough or scurfy or seemed in any way unthrifty last season. A tree when badly infested with the San Jose scale presents a somewhat grayish appearance, ns if it were coated with ashes, but the ordinary observers would hardly notice this or realize its significance. By carefully scraping the bark with a knife blade little scales of various sizes may be found, beneath which are the soft, Jellyllke orange colored insects. Spraying in late winter or early spring before the buds open is the accepted remedy. Various solutions are used, but the (tolled lime, salt and sulphur mixture is perhaps still the cheapest and safest for the tree. Owing to the trouble of preparing that wash, however, the Geneva (N. Y.) station devised a self-boiling mixture that has met with much favor. The formula is as follows: Lime, 80 pounds; sulphur, 15 pounds; caustic soda. <1 pounds; water, 50 gallons. The sulphur Is made into a thin paste with boiling water and poured over and well distributed through the lime. Additional water is used as needed to keep the lime-sulphur material In a rather stiff paste. As soon as the lime is slaked the full amount of caustic aodn Is added and stirred until boiling cease*. Enough water is then poured in to make fifty gallons of the wash.- -J. J. Barton.

MAKING MAPLESUGAR

INDUSTRY WHICH FLOURISHES IN THE EARLY SPRING. Much of the Genuine Product Is Made in the Green Mountain State—Teams Sometimes Employed in Gathering the Sap—Picturesque Sngar Camp. The little brown loaves of maple sugar which find their way into market are made up in largest quantity in the woods of Vermont. The making of the sugar is not confined to that region alone, for wherever maple trees are found in sufficient numbers to make the tapping of them profitable, the sap is drawn therefrom and boiled into sugar. Then, there is the “maple” sugar manufactured from corncobs and

THE SUGAR CABIN.

ordinary broom sugar, but that is another story. However, much of the genuine ma-, pie sugar used in this country is made in the Green Mountain State. The Industry is no longer as picturesque as It once was, because many of the least practical features have been eliminated, and there is not so much of sport connected therewith as formerly, but from a description given

GATHERING THE MAPLE SIRUP IN THE FOREST.

by a writer In the Cosmopolitan, one may safely say that if there is a reasonable amount of help to do the work, life in a maple sugar camp is something of a picnic. ° In Northern Vermont the season begins about March 1 and lasts from four to six weeks. The most favorable weather for the flow of sap is a succession of cold', frosty nights followed by warpi, sunny days. After several days of gbod running weather, during which the freely, the yield grows less and less*iintil a storm, either of swSav or rain, seems to give the trees renewed life. With the swelling of the first buds the flow ceases entirely. A good tree, under favorable circumstances, will yield from four to five gallons of sap in twentyfour hours, delivered drop by drop into the buckets bung against the rough bask. „Tjhe “sugar place” selected, the work begins early in March, the sugar house

A TWICE-TAPPED TREE.

having been located upon a little rise of land, so that the water from the melting snow will drain away. If the snow is not deep, a well-trained horse, or a yoke of oxen, has been brought into the Woods, with a stock of hay and grain to feed it, and Is comfortably quartered in a shed, built against the side of the sugar house. If its help ••an be employed, the work Is made much easier, for, hitched to a Rout sled, it draws the buckets about the forests to be scattered to the trees, and. later, draws back to the camp the sap as It Is gathered. Very often, however, the snow for the first week or two Is too deep for a horse or an ox to got about, and all the work must be done by men on snow shoes. Mounted upon his stout, conrae snow shoes, which are strongly strapped to hl* thick boots, the sugar maker poises upon one shoulder a stack of buckets as heavy ns he can carry and starts off with them, leaving one or two at the foot of every ma'ple tree. As soon as the sap begins to flow It must be gathered and brought to the sugar house to boil. In this work "sap buckets,” ns shown In the tllustmtion, are employed. Gathering the Hap. As a general thing, however, the •now has melted sufficiently by the

time the gathering begins to allow thei use of horses or oxen. The latter are still frequently employed and they add something to the pioturesqueneas of the work. Roads are broken out in every direction through the woods, and along these the horses or oxen draw a stout sled made with wooden shoes so as to go with almost equal ease over bare ground or snow. Upon this sled is fastened a big tub called the “drawtub.” Into tlds the sap is gathered, being poured from the Duckets at the tjees ar.ijL brought to the sled in pails. The draw-tub Is made largest at the bottom, so as to sit firmly upon the sled, and chained down. When the gathering team reaches th’e sugar house the contents of the draw-tub are pumped or dipped out and carefully strained into huge tubs called holders. Thence the sap is put into the boiling pans and after several hours boiling the contents become a syrup—a thick brown liquid half way between sap and molasses. The syrup Is then taken out, carefully strained and put away in clean wooden tubs to cool and settle. If the product is to be marketed as maple syrup, it is simply boiled until of the required thickness, and then put into the gallon tin cans in which it is to be shipped. If sugar is to be made, the boiling is continued for a length of time which varies according to the form into which it is to be finished. There are various ways of telling when the sugar is boiled enough. An experienced maker can tell by the thickness as it drips from the edge of a wooden paddle which he has dipped into it. When it has reached a certain consistency a snowball held firmly and dipped into it comes out capped with a thin brown coating, delicious to be eaten. This is called "waxing it,” and Is the favorite form for eating. When the cry goes up from some watcher who has been experimenting, “It’s ready to wax,” the visitors leave their various occupations of whittling,

story telling, et cetera, and crowd Into the sugar house, bringing with them buckets which they have filled with clean snow from some belated drift. The hot brown syrup soon cools upon the snow where it Is poured, and it Is then eaten with a small wooden paddle. He who has once eaten it under such conditions and surroundings will ever taste anything quite so delicious elsewhere. Going from the fire-lighted interior of the sugar house to the outside is like going into another world, a fresh, pure world, of which most of us know nothing. The air is crisp, and clear, and cold. All about stand huge trees of the original forest, no one knows how many years old, their gray-white trunks rising in the dim like pillars in some vast cathedral. Far above, the stars shine through the interlacing branches. Or perhaps the moon is clear out, flooding all the place with a clear light which dissipates the lurking illusions of the starlight, but replaces them with a bewildering tangle of light and shadow which is no less beautiful. Unless there is a murmuring brook near by, the silence is intense. until, far lutck on the mountain side, an owl sounds forth his deep, reverberating call.

Description of a Skate.

The barndoor skate beggars description. I never could tell whether be was looking at me wftli his eyes or bls breathe-holes, says a writer lu ■Country Life in America. He is a bottom fish and flat like a flounder. He has a triangular body, the apex of which forms the snout; opposite his snout are his tad and a few extra pieces of his overcoat, which kind nature has tagged on him in case he gets torn and has to be mended. His tall is embellished with a few spines—this 1 know for a fact. He lias a couple of eyes, a little way back of his snout, and right back of these are a couple of holes that extend completely through him. These holes connect with his lungs, or'whatever he uses to breathe with, and have an uncomfortable way of looking at yon at tlie same time as bis eyes. He has a mouth, too, but it is on the under side of him, mil convenient for business. It Is a ful ny thing, with spines on the lips, and when you pull tlie lower Jaw the upper Jaw moves with it—a sort of automatic trap, not unlike what you can see In any 10-cent restaurant. This Is n land lubber's description, but it Is enough.

It Wi[?] Indeed.

Willie—Pa. how many quarts does It take to make a peck? Pa —It all depends, my son. Less than one gpiart, for instance, will sometimes make a "peck of trouble."—Philadelphia Public Ledger. We have positive proof that a certain boy la the smartest boy of bls age In the world: bls mother told ua ao.

PERISH IN FIRE.

Score of Persona Burned to Deatk In New York Tenement, At least a score of persons were burned to death, several were so badly hurt that they may die and forty others received slighter injuries in a fire that destroyed a five-story New York tenement house early Tuesday. The fire had gained great headway before it J>ecame known to most of the tenants and many of them were cut off before they conld make an attempt to save themselves. Scores were carried from the blazing building. Firemen dim bed tjie jjfllls on their ladders, braved the flames tw reached the imperiled tenants. Crowded fire escapes in the rear of the tenement house were largely responsible for so many deaths and injuries among its population, which approached 200. The scenes about the building after the fire when the search for the dead was begun were heartrending. Nothing so pitiable had been seen in New York since the Slocum disaster. The fire started in the basement, occupied by Isaac Davis, his wife and three children. Davis had been out Monday night and returned to his home early Tuesday morning, went into bis store on the same floor just in time to see a kerosene lamp in the rear explode. He awoke his wife and both tried to put out the flaming lamp, but without success, and then gave all their attention to getting their children out of the building. A policeman who heard the cry of alarm rushed to the scene and every effort was made to rouse the sleeping persons in the house. Meantime the flames had spread with startling rapidity, and when the persons who had been asleep on the upper floors awoke they found themselves confronted by a wall of flames on nearly every side. On some of the fire escapes the rubbish was packed so closely that it became impossible to pass certain points, and men, women and children stood literally roasting to death as the flames roared through windows around them. Many women flung their children into the arms of men standing on the sidewalk. A frenzied crowd gathered in front of the police station, weeping, wailing and lamenting for the dead. As rapidly as possible they were permitted to examine the bodies in the court yard, where their laments grew louder. Unable to recognize their missing relatives in the charred, almost formless bodies they saw before them, many turned away, faint and sick at the awful sight.

ANOTHER WAR IN THE SPRING.

Macedonia to Fight Turkey with Arms Paid for by Mies Stone’s Ransom. Advices received in Washington make it certain that as soon as the snow melts in the Balkan mountains there is certain to be war and destruction. The restraining hand of Russia, which has prevented hostilities between Bulgaria and Turkey, is no longer forceful, and the attempt* which have been made by the Austrian and Russian ambassadors at Constantinople to induce the Sultan to behave properly have accomplished nothing. The revolutionary element in Macedonia ha* obtained funds in some manner, and is said to be well supplied with arms and ammunition, while the Bulgarian government has been preparing for war all winter, and is likely to provoke an invasion by the Turks, which has been prevented by Russian influence for the past three years. Being no longer in a position to intervene with arms, Russia will not have so much influence. To understand the situatiqp it is necessary to go back three years to the time when Miss Stone, the American missionary, was a prisoner of the socalled bandits—really a band of conspirators representing the Macedonian committee, which exists for the purpose of emancipating Macedonia from Turkish rule, has its headquarters at Sophia, Bulgaria, and spent her ransom for gun* and powder. This committee is very much like the junta that encouraged and directed the revolution in Cuba from 189(5 to 1898. It collects funds, buys arms and ammunition, and equips insurrectionary parties which invade Macedonia to take revenge upon the Turkish officials for their cruelties to the people. The Bulgarian government sympathizes with the committee; almost every man, woman and child in the kingdom belongs to it, and contributes money for revolutionary purposes as a sacred duty. Up to this time Turkey has not attacked Bulgaria because of fear of Russia, although the Sultan has had great provocation in the encouragement and assistance which the Bulgarians have given to the revolutionists across the border.

LABOR NOTES

The journeymen tailors have voted to have a regular convention date once in four years. Of the 13(5,5(51 freight cars ordered for American railroads last year 35,000 were of steel construction. A machine is being perfected in a Birmingham shop that is to turn out from 90,000 to 100.000 finished wire nails an hour. Tlie American inventor, apparently, never takes a vacation. The government issued 597 patents one day last week, and there are plenty more applications [Molding. The manufacture of motor cars and their accessories has become one of the most important French industries. From a total of 1,850 automobiles in 1898. valued at $15502.000, tlie output in 1904. according to the Chamber syndicate de ('Automobile de France, lias grown to 22,000 cars, of an estimated value of $34,000,000. A colony of railroad men from this country will go to Japan in tlie near future to assist in Americanizing the railroads there under Japanese government control. A general movement is on foot at New York to increase the wages of washerwomen to $1.50 a day and car fare. Now tlie women get $1.25 for a day'* work away from home. Twenty-seven thousand men are now employed at the Krupp works at Essen, Germany, the highest number ever employed there. In the heavy gun department men are working in double shift*.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

All the tremendous efforts of th* Russian police have so far failed to establish the Identity of yje assassin

SERGIUS’ ASSASSIN.

ifiember of the committee of combat, known ns the Terrorists, and that he had drawn by lot the privilege of serving Russia by “removing” the grand duke. In an affecting Interview with the grand duke’s widow a few days after the assassination he disavowed any personal feeling against his victim, sympathized with the widow la her affliction and persisted only In the statement that he had done the deed In the service of Russia. His name and antecedents are all unknown. Professor Jacques Loeb, who is said to have produced by artificial means the sexual fertilization of the eggs of

sea urchins, has long been known as a leader In the application of new chemistry to the science of life. At the close of the year 1902 he went to the University Qf“Callfornla from the University of Chicago, where for ten years he had performed wonder-

ful research work. Professor Loeb la an M. D. from the University of Strasburg, but studied In other foreign schools. As a physiologist he takes high rank. He was born In Germany April 7, 1859. It Is said of him that often In the classroom he will stop la the midst of a lecture and spend several minutes In deep thought Judge Charles Swayne, who was acquitted by the Senate of the twelve articles of Impeachment brought by the

JUDGE SWAYNE.

Court Judge Swayne was born In Delaware In 1842, and received an academical education. For a time be taught high school, and then entered the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, whence he was graduated in 1871, and in the same year he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar. Senator Thomas Kearns, of Utah, who in a farewell speech bitterly assailed the operations of the Mormons

In Utah, began life on a farm, later worked as a mine freighter and then a s miner. H e ‘‘struck It rich” in the Mayflower and Silver King mines and speedily amassed a fortune. He settled at Park City, Utah, In 1895, and became conspicuous in poll-

tics, serving as a member of the constitutional convention. He was elected to the United States Senate In 1901. Senator Kearns w born near Woodstoclc, Ont., In 1802 but when 10 years of age was taken by his parents to Nebraska, going thence to Utah.

Lord Hugh Cecil, whose brilliant reply to Mr. Chamberlain on the recent opening of the British Parliament

LORD CECIL.

with all his father's power of sarcasm and skill, and has won the unstinted praise of John Morley. Senator Beveridge of Indiana never nses tobacco in any form, and yet he received mors cigars as Christinas presents than any Senator in Washington. Henry O’Shant, a Pennsylvania Dutchman on both sides, represents Eilia county in the Kansas Legislature. His name, however, is distinctively Irish. Joseph H. Douglass, grandson of Frederick Douglass, la a violinist of rsoo*slssd ability.

of the Gran 16 uke Sergius, who was blown to pieces by a bomb at Moscow. The young man, who was arrested Immediately after the deed was committed, said: “I don’t care what becomes of me; I completed my Job.” He acknowledged that he was a

PROFESSOR LOEB.

House of Representatives, has been District Judge for the Northern District of Florida since May 17, 1899. Since 1885 he has been a resident of Florida, and In 1888 was defeated as Republican candidate for the State Supreme

SENATOR KEARNS.

raised him at once Into the leadership of the Conservative party. Is the youngest of the five sons of the late Lord Salisbury, gnd first cousin of the premier, Mr. Balfour. He has consistently com- ’ bated the policy of 't he protectionists. Is an able debater.