Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1905 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Sheep return more fertility to the jsoil than any other farm animal. Try to count the sheep and lambs every day. Keep an eye out for dogs. Burn all dQad stalks and other matter not used for mulching, in order to kill weed seeds and disease germs. The number of sheep has decreased **soo per cent In ten years in some sections of the Central and Southern States. If you are afraid that your blackberries are hot hardy, lay the plants down and cover the tips lightly with soil. Go among the calves every day and handle them, using gentle, pet words; and just notice how they will watch for you, and grow! Turu that old hog yard upside down. Get • the filthy-disease-impregnated-germ-infested dirt under, and fresh irlirt on top. A hog delights in clean dirt. f Cut off asparagus tops and bum those with berries on them, as the seeds may sprout where they are not wanted. Mulch with two or three inches of rough manure. Small and lately planted trees must be staked and tied with a broad band. Cut out all dead limbs of fruit trees, “suckers” and limbs that rub together. You will have no time next sprih^^ A thermometer should be used to enable every dairyman to know the difference between the temperature of the atmosphere and available water, 'also temperature of his dairy, milk and cream. It Hs a very- common practice for Some (to. wish for certain results without making much effort to help produce the-desired result. Many a man has failed because his wishbone has been where his backbone ought to have been. Hog breeders who have strong reasons to keep up growth and vigor in their young stock should not fail to keep young boars penned well away by themselves. If allowed to be near the sows they are sure to fret and worry enough to prevent the greatest thrift and growth. If the cows suddenly drop off in the quantity of milk given, do you look into the matter and see what is the reason? Short water supply may .do it. So may the flies. Or dry, hot weather. Some of these things we may control. It is our own fault if we do not. Let’s not blame the cows. Experiments show that ground cultivated to the depth of an inch and a half evaporated 2,000 pounds less water per acre dally than ground having no cultivation. On heavy clay soli the difference In some cases was as much as 4,000 pounds per day on an aci;e. Cultivation, therefore, means saving the moisture In the soil. Do you milk the cows in the same bucket, and pay no attention as to which gives much milk or little, and as to which one’s milk makes the most cream and the best butter? That is neither progressive nor methodical. A cow is a cow when it comes to feeding, but there is a great difference when it comes to milking nnd making butter. You are entitled to the best and you ought to have it. In the greenhouse at the Maine experiment station it has been found that one good man with occnslohal help could do all the work in houses covering four thousand square feet of ground surface, which would equal a house two hundred feet long by twenty feet wide. Solid beds were preferred for plants requiring not bottom heat like cauliflower, lettuce, while for plants requiring much hent, like melons, beans and tomatoes, benches were preferred. Steam heat is recommended for large houses and hot water for small ones. Some contend that steam can be used for small houses nlso If a suitable regulating apparatus is used on the boilers. Pedlureed Plants. Nurserymen are at odds over the value of so-called pedigreed plants, some of the most outspoken claiming that it is only a scheme to sell the plants for higher prices. On the other hand, growers of pedigreed plants state that common sense is at the bottom of their claim and should receive recognition. The main Idea in the selection of pedigreed plants is that only the first or at most the second plant which forms on the runner from the parent plant, in the case of strawberries, is used. Naturally these plants may form further down the runner, particularly if the runner Is kept cut back so that all of the strength goes Into the one plant. Here is just where the* trouble is likely to be, for unscrupulous growers will claim their plants are the first from the runner, when they may not be at all. In our own setting we find that the first plant from the runner, the one next

the parent plant, is by far the best, and we never set any others. As a result our first crop, the second season after planting, is generally all we can ask. The pedigree plant question Is worth looking into and testing on rine’a own grounds. ■/ Pasturing Meadows. The question of pasturing meadows was sent to one of our contributors, who has raised the finest hay in his State for years. He replies, “don’t,” but afterward modifies this by saying that while his first advice is not to pasture the meadows at all, he realizes that in some locations and under some conditions It may be done, The new -meadow, and especially the old one on rffther light soil, ought never to be pastured, nor should any meadow be pastured when it is so green and wet that the hoofs of the animals sink deeply. Where the meadow is on rather gravelly soil, and Is good and strong, the second growth in the fall may be pastured for a time, provided it is not done too long nor the cows permitted to eat the grass too short. If this is done, especially in the colder sections, there is apt to be considerable grass winter-killed. Our contributor makes a practice of cutting the second growth in the late fall-and leaving it as a mulch, then In the late winter, before the thaws begin, he top-dresses, on the snow, the meadow, and reaps a correspondingly large crop the following season. This plan may not suit you, but at any rate be careful about pasturing too long in the fall. Building Winter Roosts. All poultrymen do not realize the Importance of care in constructing roosts in the winter poultry house. It is worth spending considerable time to do this work properly in the beginning, for less fighting of vermin will be necessary in consequence and there will be little danger of injured birds. In the first place, construct all the roosts so that they are movable- This is easily done by arranging the end pieces, the portions which sustain the roosts, with deep cuts shaped like the letter V, into which the roosts may be set. They are easily removed if constructed in this manner. Then the roosts must be placed low, from fifteen to eighteen inches being about right, the lesser distance for the heavier breeds. If it Is necessary to place the roosts higher then a board with cleats across should be provided so that the fowls may walk up to the first roost, but do not place them high if it can be avoided, for the birds are likely to reach the ground by flying, in the morning, no matter how much care they may take in walking up the board at night. Once a week remove the roosts and pour kerosene oil In the notches in which the ends rested and thus destroy hatching place of vermin. Danger in Bermuda Grass. Bermuda grass often carries a deadly germ at the end of rainy seasons like that just past. Cattle are especially subject to this germ, and their symptoms are most confusing to the local veterinarians. Milk cows are the cattle first to suffer. The cow first appears stiff in the legs and drags her hind-quarters. This is often followed with Inability to get up for mnny hours when the cow lies down. Appetite may remain good for several days, but in severe cases paroxysms set in (“fits” and “madness”), and the cow dies in evident torture. Careful examination of the back and loins, in severe cases, will show signs of blood on the surface usually black and dry, ns though horse-flies had bitten the cow. This symptom somewhat resembles blackleg. There Is no known specific for this trouble, which has been but little studied by scientists. The best system of treatment we have seen consists of removing the cow from the rank, coarse Bermuda pastures to short, sweet grass. Give pound doses of Epsom salts to purge nnd free the digestive tract from poisonous l contents. Repeat on the third day. Keep cows in cool barns or sheds and feed grain very lightly. This seems to be a new disease nnd did not come to the writer's attention until some blx yenrs ago. We have never known any other stock besides cnttle to suffer from this cause.—Farm and Ranch.