Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1905 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

More rows go dry from mismanagement than from any other cause. Clean out the silo and h—o it>ready for filling the winter’s supply of silage. Peach atones should not be planted this spring unless they have beqp mixed with sand and left outdoors last winter to,-freeze. The scrub farmer seems to have an affinity for scrub stock. It takes a thoroughbred man to appreciate a thoroughbred horse or cow. It is generally supposed that a sow’s milk gets richer as she grows oJRer, but an experiment conducted by the. Michigan station shows that no perceptible change takes place. In buying food for your poultry It will not cost any more to get a variety than all of one kind, and It will be to your Interest, if you want eggs, to furnish the hens with a variety. A woman has better success with chickens than a man, because she possesses the mother instinct. A woman will go out in a rain storm to rescue a tiny little chick any time while a man would not wet his feet for a dozen. If you want a good dairy herd, better build it up yourself. If you do not a cow Is. get some hones! neighbor b'ho does to pick out two first class animals for you. Use the best bull you can. get, even if you have to go ten miles sot hhn. The rule of selection and common sense thereafter will produce a good herd every time. No one will make a mistake in raising a liberal crop of carrots, no matter what his farm stock may be. They are fed to grent advantage to cows nnd horses, to sheep, swine and poultry. For the larger animals and especially for the horse, Here is no better digestive. It is safe to say that ' orses fed a small ration of carrots twice or three times weekly will rarely suffer from indigestion, provided, of course, their ration of grain and roughage is half way decent. There Is no reason why corn and cob meal should not Jje fed to cattjb, sheep and hogs. It can be fed to those classes of stock without regrliyllng, though better results will, as a rule, follow reminding, as the particles are finer and more quickly acted upon by the digestive juices. In a finely ground condition the sharp particles of the cob are not so likciy to Injure the digestive organs. One of the great advantages of grinding the grnln and cob together Is that it lightens the grain, which is rich and heavy and not nlways thoroughly digested and assimilated. Gbrn and cob ideal will, cf course, give better results, as a rule, when fed in combination with other grains.

Duck* Without Water. .While It Is difficult to. raise ducklings -without a stream of water in which to swim, when these birds come from a lofiig line of pond-raised ducks, It can be done with fair success if a little trouble Is taken. Try tills plan: Let their food be almost entirely a mash of corn, oats, bran and meat scraps with some finely chopped vegetables or grass well mixed through the mass. Feed this mixture in shallow troughs or on clean, flat boards and have a number of vessels at clean water close at hahd where the ducklings may drink between mouthfuls of the mash. In other parts ©(-their enclosure have vessels of clean and fresh water at All times,’ but not large enough for them to get-into. The idea Is that if they have plenty of water to drink they will not want to swim in It very badly. The plan often works, hence it Is Worth trying. * 1 “ ,M How Trichinae Spread* Trichinae. Trichinae, like the bubonic plague. Is spread almost entirely through tho medium of rats, says Major L. I. Seaman. The hog on the farm is** great hunter of rats and eats his victims. He eats the rats Infected with trichinosis and so contracts the disease. Other rats, whenever they get the opportunity, eat the carcasses'of hogs which have died of trichinosis, and so a vicious circle Is established and continued from hog to rnt and rat to hog. Then*again the rats eat parts of other dead rats, and It is nlso tme In some cases that hogs may eat parts of other hogs that have been Infected with trichinae. So there are really three circles In which this disease moves—one Is the large one, made up of hogs and rata, and tho others are smaller, one of them being made up of hogs and the other of rats exclusively. The two smaller ones, however, are tangent to the larger circle and therefore simply widen its radius. Feeding for Kggi. We do not believe that we can feed so as to make all kinds of hens toy. There srs some hens that will not lay many eggs no matter how they are fed. But we can so feed that the fowls will not hsvs their feed as an actual obstacle to lay lag.

- It is our observation that the maturity and vigor of the hen are the chief things that have to do with a large bgg production. We must so feed -that the fowls will be kept In a thriving condition and that their digestive organs will not be compelled to do a great deal of unnecessary work. We find that variety counts for a great deal. All of the following feeds are good It fed each In stnall quantities, suggests the Midland farmer: Cora, wheat, buckwheat, oats, barley, linseed meal, cotton seed meal, corn meal, gluten meal, meat and bone, alfalfa, beets, cabbage, rape. We might add others, but these are the principal ones. If a mixture is fed we are likely to get the protein and fat formers about right in proportion. One of the best waya to help the birds to produce eggs is to allow them to hunt for bugs and pick green stuff as much as possible. The Manure Pile. A manure pile just outside the stable may not be much of an objection in case of the beef steer or the horse, but it Is an objection when found Just outside the cow stable. In the Summer time there Is always a disagreeable odor rising from It, and if the oows have a partial ration of ground grain, the files that collect about the manure pile are more numerous than in the ordinary manure pile. The manure should be kept away from the stable during hot weather If at no other time. Every few days during the warm weather, the manure should be hauled away and put where It will do the most good, preferably In the garden. When the weather Is drying It Is desirable to get It under ground as soon as possible. I know a man who has a covered box In one end of his barnyard, and Into this he throws the manure every day during the summertime. The box is built of heavy plank and has a cover to keep out the flies and keep in the sikell, most of it. This Is perhaps the easiest way of keeping the manure pile from becoming a nuisance during summer. The only objection to the box is the trouble of getting out the manure when it is to be hauled awa^.—Hobart Wilkins, Andrew County, Mo., in Farmers’ Review.

Making Strawberry Bed*. If the strawberry bed is to be preserved for cropping another year good care must be taken of it during the growing season after harvest of the fruit. In some sections and under certain conditions it is a good plan to burn the bed over after it has fruited. By placing heavy layers of straw on the bed and setting fire to it the old plants are destroyed, the Insects are burned up and the weeds killed. There it danger, however, in this plan of injuring the young and tender plants. In most cases a better plan would be to mow the plants to the ground and ;et them thoroughly dry then cover over them just enough straw to carry the flame, set fire to it and thus burn, out what is undesirable. 'if care is taken not to have too fierce a fire t(iere will be little danger to the crowns of the plants. After this the cultivator should be put In use and the soil well cultivated both ways between the rows, so as to cover .the plants slightly with the soil. With the hoe all undesirable plants must then be destroyed, together with the weeds, of course. After this the plants should receive the regulation clean cultivation until fall, when, if the work has b£en well done,, one will have a nice lot of young plants well started, and which will go through the winter In good shape.—Exchange.

Paetnre for Orchard*. It Is by no means the field that has been cropped for years that Is the best location on the farm for the orchard. That the fields In question have raised good crops by yearly fertilizing by no means indicates that they have sufficient virtue to fufnish the fertility needed by trees. Usually they will, provided ths soil is properly fertilized yearly, but unfortunately tl\o general Idea Is to give the Held one lot of fertilizer at the time the tree is set and let it go at that;-this method accounts for much of tho trouble that results from setting orchards on fields that have been under cultivation for many years. Now as to the pasture. If It has been used by the stock until they are unnblo to get anything more front it, naturally It will need considerable preparation to lit It for trees; If, on the other hand, It has been reseeded occasionally and is furnishing fair pasture It Is In good shape for the trees because the droppings left by the stock year after year have permeated the soil, and under proper cultivation and preparation, this well fertilized soil will furnish nutriment to the orchard for a number of years. Tests of this pasture soli, both with fruit trees and small fruit plants prove that one should never think of letting an old pasture lie Idle Just because it no longer fulfills Its original purpose. Try the plan on s small area with smslf fruits sod It will bo seen that the argument brought out here is logical.—lndianapolis News.