Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1905 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

If hffli'ie sheep business for mutton, select the breeds which grov rapidly and mature early. The laying of soft-shelled eggs sometimes result from overfeeding and sometimes from lack of shell material, One of the great secrets in poultry raising is to get good laying strains and keep them in good health and condition. Much of the disease to which fowls are afflicted may be traced for it 3 origin to neglect in. not providing good ventilation. Ing Intended for unmanured soil. If the seed potatoes are scabby, they should be treated with a mixture of one pint of formalin to thirty gallons of water. Sacks of the seed potatoes are suspended in this solution for an hour and a half, allowed to drain and spread on the barn floor to dry. That bone-has great value ns a raf tiou for poultry, both for egg production and for growth in chicks, is not a matter of dispute. The fact is generally recognized that in no other way can eggs be produced more readily, or growth made in young stock more quickly than tjy the liberal use of cut bone in the ration.

There Is one thing for the poultry beginner to remember. Start with a good standard bred fowl. Don’t invest e cent in dunghills. They are worthless. The thoroughbreds will cost a few cents more to start with. There the difference in expense ceases. They occupy no more room, require no more care, will eat no more than the mongrels, and when you sell them for breeding or exhibiting or their eggs for hatching you’ll find the balance greatly in their favor. Some horses will eat at all times and consume any quantity of food without appearing to improve in condition, although they may not be doing much work. Horses differ, and what is best for one may not give as good results with others. Good grooming is an important matter, but there Is not, as a rule, sufficient variety in the food of horses. While oats will continue to be a standard food for horses yet a small allowance of» linseed meal and corn fodder will also be relished and give excellent results. Hay and fodder will prove superior to liayaldne.

Those who have flower seeds to sow would And the sowing of them under glass satisfactory, should they have the convenience for it. Many of these seeds are very fine, nnd when sown outdoors, heavy rains and many other things often interfere with their germination. When under glass It Is nearly always one's own fault if a crop of seedlings is nor sed. Small boxes, of a depth of three inches, wi,th holes In the bottom to let drain Superfluous water, are the best to use. The soil should be fine, made so by sifting, if necessary, so that when the seedlings need transplanting each plant can be lifted out without great disturbance of the others. «,

Items in Grafting, Grafting is in order In March. Cleft grafting is in common use and well known. Splice grafting is so simple as to need little explanation. The two parts nre merely cut diagonally, laid together, tied with string and waxed. It Is adapted only to small shoots of tender wood that will not stand splitting. Saddle grafting Is nlso simple and useful for small growing plants. The stock Is cut to a wedge shaped end by two cuts, and the scion Is split and set upon the wedge and is then tied and waxed. This method Is oftenest used with a terminal bud. Clover Hay to Fatten. The Missouri Agricultural College has shown that a limited amount of corn fed with clover hay can be made a very profitable ration for feeding cattle. The Missouri Agricultural College has during several winters produced two pounds of gain per day on cattle by feeding six pounds of corn each nyd an average of about seventeen pounds of clover hay. An exactly similar lot of cattle fed six pounds of corn and fifteen pounds of clover hay, made a gain of only one pound per day per head. When large amounts of clover hay are not available, we have found that mixing equal parts of clover hay and corn stover lias resulted in a gnln of one and three-quarter pounds of gain a day per head. Two pounds per day is a reasonably good gain when cattle are fed a heavy grain ration of eighteen to twenty pounds dally. The cost of the clover hay and six pounds of corn is measurably leas than the heavy grain ration, and the gains resulting are nearly identical. The grain ration has (this advantage—that it will find In the animals somewhat more quickly and put them in condition to fulfill the market requirements.—F. B. Mumford, Missouri Agricultural College. , Scours in Horses. In nine cases out of ten the cause •f scours In horses is due to improper

feeding, and while the trouble is a bad one to deal with at any time, It is especially bad at a season when considerable hard work is expected of the horse. Sonje horses are given to scouring easily, and when such is the case, care must be used not to furnish much feed that is laxative in character, and also to feed more largely of concentrated foods than of roughage. A horse that scours and is doing a hard day’s work should have whole oats mixed with a small quantity of bran as the main grain food, and the morning food should be whole hay, all that he will eat in half an hour, then what water he wants within reason, and then the grain making the ration the quantity experience has shown is proper for the particular animal. The same feed should be given at noon and at night, but the quantity of water may be increased at night. In working a horse liable to attacks of scours, begin the»d&y with him in an easy manner, and for the first two or threo hours do not push him. Handled in this manner he will probably go through the rest of the day in good shape, and do a fair day’s work. Such horses should be well groomed after a day of work to keep up the circulation of the skin, and the bedding should be clean and plentiful.

Killing and Plucking Fowls. It is well to make the bird fast for 12 hours or more before it is killed, in older that Its crop and other organs may be quite empty. The best way to kill a bird Is to sever the main artery In the roof of the mouth. When this is done the bird quickly bleeds to death. As soon as cut it should bo hung head down, to allow the blood to run out of the body. Immediately after the bird is dead, and before tho animal heat has left the body, the feathers should be plucked out, pains being taken to remove all the pinfeathers and not to tear the skin. The feathers come out more easily if the carcass is put In boiling water for a few minutes; but this method, although very common, injures the wholesome look of the skin and, it is believed, makes the flesh decompose more quickly. Dry picking is therefore far preferable and should be insisted on. If a bird is to be kept before using, it should be put in a cool place to drive out all the animal heat, which, if left in. might hasten decomposition. Some poultry men put the plucked birds into cold water, which serves the double purpose of cooling them and of making them look plumper. There may be no objection to It If the water is clear and they are left in only a few minutes, but if they are allowed to soak until they swell beyond their natural size, it is certainly fraudulent nnd probably injurious. A still more objectionable way of plumping birds is by blowing them out. This is bad enough when a bellows is used, but when, ns Is often the case, the dresser blows direct from his mouth, it is disgusting and dangerous.—Farm and Home.

Enemies of Fruit Trees. For a long time horticulturists and fruit growers of the advanced type have been urging the desirability of tilling orchards more thoroughly than is usually the custom, says, a Cornell paper. Their advice was based upon common experience and Observation, but exact data have been wanting. Cornell Experiment Station, during the last season, conducted an orchard survey or a critical study of the western counties of the State of New York'. This survey examined every orchard in three townships, comprising some three thousand acres of fruit Jand, and in addition examined every orchard of importance in the entire county—one of tho largest in the State. The results of this survey (which are now being worked out) are exceedingly Instructive and valuable. “Among the chief enemies of the orchard the greatest was found to bo the apple tree. In other words, the trees were Injuring each other in the struggle for food and sustenance. They were planted too closely. An examination of the yields of orchards planted at different distances disclosed the fact that the more trees to the acre the smaller the yield In every case, and that the yield Increased gradually and proportionately with the distance at which the trees were set "The next enemy of Importance was sod. The loss to tlje tract examined In 1902 by the influence of sod in orchards amounted to over 200,000 bushels. Pastured orchards were better than meadow orchards, but markedly poorer than tilled orchards: The cultivated orchard gave an average of 30 bushels more than sod orchard, and tills record covered a period of three years; it was not taken at haphazard and should be considered fairly indicative.

“The next enemy of importance wai found to be poor drainage. Young tree* very often do not show the oftecta of aurplus moisture in the soil, but invariably old trees developed various types of diseases, unquestionably directly chargeable to the unfavorable soil condition. Where stiff, Impenetrable subsoil obtains, drainage pa/a."