Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1906 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Crowding induces disease and lowoal the vitality of fowls. In selecting a location for n poultry yard, choose a light, sandy soil. The falling off of a rooster’s comb shows him to be in bad health. }\iien - straw Is used for bedding/ it should be changed ut least once a week. , - Too much cannot be said about cleanliness In starting late lambs on a grain ration. Tbe hog Is a thrifty animal when fed on the dairy wastes, with a little grain added. Do not condemn a breed simply because a few fowls do not come, up to your expectations. • Harsh treatment restricts the flow of milk; treat cows with kindness they repay for it in dollars and cents. Giving a generous gfefitl of corn every evening is one of the best ways of inducing turkeys, ducks and geese to come home at night. All buckets, cans and other utensils with which the milk is brought in contact should lie made of tin. Rusty vessels should never be used. " The wise farmer does not sell a good milk cow. The more intelligent lie Is and the more observing the more poor cows he will have to sell, and it is not likely to be an easy matter to purchase profitable cow r s. Sheep can get along with a small quantity of water, but they require some. If they get plenty of dew on their grass they do not need to drink, but otherwise they do. It is important because it aids in digestion. Keep accounts with your flock of sheep and do not let any of them get very old on your hands. An old sheep Is a feeble animal and very hard, if not impossible, to fatten. Make mutton of theiii before there are any signs of failing.

Mffjjy fruit trees have made too much growth the last season, and there are many useless branches that will be In the way of the best results next. year. No one who has even :t small number of trees can afford to neglect them. It takes p. little trouble to prune trees, but It pays. It should not be done radically, JJ/ one Iras not had much experience, but a little common sense is about all that is needed to do tbe work right. The Kloffer pear Is hardy and productive, belonging to the Oriental group. Its range of growth in this country is very wide, extending from the gulf region to the lake region. The Bartlett belongs to. the European group and is much less hardy, but is of more delicate flavor. The Oriental pears should be gathered before ripe, placed, in a dark, cool place for two weeks or more to mellow up. Something of the same treatment Is usually followed with the European kinds. As showing how formidable a pest the gypsy moth is to contend with in Massachusetts, It is stated that 2,070 nests wete found on a single tree, each of which had between 500 and GOO eggs. This one tree was carrying through the winter a prospective increase of 1,035,000 caterpillars in a single year. Strong colonies, if undisturbed, will kill most deciduous trees In two years, and Evergreen trees in one year. They not only destroy the first foliage, but continue their ravages as tbe trees put forth new foliage, until the last of July. An interesting departure has been made by the Great Northern Railroad Company of England In conveying milk, nnd the Idea lias been taken up in Ireland to the extent of urging the railroad companies to use similar apparatus. Tbe milk ears are fitted with a special adjustable ventilating apparatus, and tbe oscillation which lias on a number of occasions nearly churned nlllk Into butter dtirlug a journey has almost disappeared. Even at a rapid speed on sharp curves there is scarcely’ any oscillation. The vans are forty-five feet, long and run on two four-wheeled bogles., absorbing of oscillation In milk cars seems to be worthy of study on the part of American railways.

Winter Feeding the Con, Many farmers (reat their cqws during the winter ns they do their horses who are not workjhg—that Is, they give them Just euopgh food to keep life In them until tWy can be put out to pasture again. They arghe that they can dispose of milk to much better advantage in the summer, and that If they have too much milk in winter they will have to make more butter than they wish to. That’s a laxy man’s way of doing business. If It Is not desired that the cows give targe quantities of milk during tbe winter the ration may be changed oseven reduced somewhat, but It canaot be tacking la the essential* which

the cow requires to keep up bet warmth of body and vitality without lasting injury to the animal. Let the ratkqx contain a fair amount of protein/and be in suffideat’ 'variety to keep' tbg/eOW' ill good condition, no matter how little milk satisfies you. An (HiJOct Lcaaoii In Fat Cattle. The grand champion steer of the International live stock exposition of winner over ail breeds and all ages ahd classes, Clear Lake Jute 11., an Aberdeeu-Angus two-year-phi, was sold at .public auction on Friday, Dec. 2, at S3O per hundredwe*iglit. The price obtained* for this steer was $lO per hundredweight higher than that obtained for the grand champion steer of the international live stock exposition in 1903. Jute’s weight was 1,870 pounds, and the price $39 per hundredweight, figured up $073.20 for the Minnesota Agricultural College of St Anthony Park, Minn.., tbe owner. This steer was certainly a model of its kind, and great credit is due to all concerned in the handling of it, especially -to those connected with the Minnesota Agricultural College, which certainly presented an object lesson in tbe handling of fat cattle. —St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.

The I'ae of Sinrilnst. In some sections sawdust can be bought at very low prices, and hence can be profitably .used if rightly used. It is not a good plan to use it to the exclusion of other materials, particularly in sectioixs where it is thrown on land already loose, as sandy soils are likely to be. Those who have experimented with it think it can best be hsed in connection with hay or straw, or even leaves, spreading it quite thickly over the floor and covering it with the coarser material. In thra way it quickly will absorb any of tbe liquid excrement that falls on it, will make a softer bed, and can be used over arid over again. Of course less straw or hay is used than when the sawdust is not a part of the bedding materfal. An excellent plan is to use it fob horses, then clean out the best of it, dry it in the sun, and use it as the bottom bedding for tbe pigs, froni whence it will go into the manure pile. In this way not enough of it is used to ituake trouble for the manure or the soil later.

Fiii-htlng- Hail SlorinS. In this country the production of rainfall by artificial means hits been abandoned, although during the past season, in California, a revival in the belief has arisen from a eoineidenc# of heavy rains following the efforts of a so-called “rainmaker.” The matter was given rather greater prominence than it deserved from the fact that the rains followed a drought and were very badly needed. In Europe the dissipation of hailstorms is being attempted by cannonading and other similar means of disturbing atmospheric air currents and electrical conditions, and the work baa been pursued continuously for several years. Syndicates of land owners have been formed, on the co-operative plan, to protect particular districts, and the results of the operations, as recorded in Comptes Rendus, of the French academy of science, seem to indicate that perhaps the cannonading is effective. While it is not proved that storms are averted, the cannonading appears to restore electrical equilibrium of the atmosphere and so tends to mitigate storm conditions, particularly hailstorms, which, In some districts, are of frequent occurrence, and which are very destructive of crops.

Grain and the Animal. Naturally there will always be differences of opinion ns to whether grain or other stock food brings the most to the owner sold at market prices or fed to the stock. Conditions have much to do with the solving of this problem. If feed is high and stock lotv iu price it doubtless pays to sell off the surplus food, but it decidedly does not pay to sell any needed by the nnd here is where the mistake made. For example, with grains and hay selling at high prices, the farmer figures that he can afford to stint Ids stock, even If they get quite thin. In order to have more food to sell. Of course, he knows that he can get less for the thin animal than for the one in good condition, but he nrgues that the difference he receives for the grain more than offsets this, but does It? Suppose a cow that Is thin aud giving the minimum quantity of milk would sell for $25, isu’tl]t fair to assume that the same animal would bring double that ainoiinV'lf In,good, condition aud n full milker? '-And would it require $25 worth of food to keep her id good condition above what. The minimum portion of food costs? This Is of tbe value of the additional milk and the ifffreased value of the richer manure. The subject la worth careful consideration, and thorough experiment on the part at those whe doubt the soundness of the argument.