Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1906 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Remember that the good cow cannot stand abuse. She must have good care. —— It costs no more to produce clean milk or cream than it does to produce the other kind. "Keep the cows out of the corn fields on cold or stormy days. It is expon Sire feed they get. It is a mistake to breed a sow too young; she should be at least 8 months old, and 12 is better. You should have a hotbed and a cold frame. so that you can have fresh vegetables in April and May. Give the seeds and plants plenty of room to grow, so that seeding will be easy and tangling of vines impossible. Roup starts simply as a cold. Germs. seize upon the inflamed parts as a good home and then we get a malignant, infectious type. Fowls are valuable only when they are handled with a view to getting the best there is in them, Once proved, a fowl is a valuable nsset. Nothing looks much better or prettier in summer than a well-kept hedge fence. On the other hand nothing can become a greater nuisance than one that has been poorly kept. Sheep increase so rapidly. r ftud mature at such an early age, and tlieir flesh Is so wholesome for rood, that on the majority of farms, a flock can laadily be made profitable. There is a shortage of horses; as»d tallies. The only reified Jr sos this situation is for breeders to hold good ones for high prices and breed the mares more diligently. The former move ia. the safest method. i There will be no investment for .good, blood on a farm where the ownor does lfftTlWlleve in it. One has to believg before he is convinced that it la a good thing. The fact that there ere many scrub farmers trying to keep good -et4fck ofi scrub care is increasing the ranks of skeptics. Good -stock and good care go together. The weight of the grain from an •ere of corn is about the same ns the weight of l,he cured fodder. Forty bushels of corn should weigh about a long ton. and the weight of the fodder will be nearly the same. There may be variations sometimes, but one tan estimate very close to the weight •f the cured fodder by arriving at a knowledge of the number of bushels •f corn from each acre. The average American farmer would tnarvcl at some of the things eaten by foreigners. Laplanders mix earth with their bread and Russian peasants use v roek flour." Some iniorer classes of Hungary actually eat earth. Seaweed Is sometimes used as a food from necessity. Chinese are said to eat “birdnest soup." w hatever that is. In Spain the snail is a luxury. Americans are gating many things In the absence of pure food laws, that they have no desire to eat. A large pecan tree in Berrien County, Ga„ has a «pread of branches of 123 feet. Its trunk at two feet above Ihe ground has a circumference of 17 Iwt, and at a height of five feet it taeasures i>% feet around. It Is said la hear twelve to fifteen barrels of Mats annually, and as they are of the ■•lmproved or common variety, they •ever sell for less than 15 cents a pound, and the crop brings from S7O to *9O. The tree is supposed to l*» between sixty and seventy years old.

Measure accurately the length and breadth of your kittlioti garden. It does not pay In dollars and oeuts, If you count,your time worth as much •9 the market gardener's. And this should be enough, for there Is great satisfaction in seeing the best results from your own work. The home garden never pays except as you get from mature what It can, give in the best of table delicacies. It is on too small a scale. A man ought, to lie ashamed •f himself if he ennnot sell his time for better pay than that. Some farmers In New York State bare found that it pays them to skin their hogs rather than scalding them when butchering. This change has been brought about by the demand for bog skins which has spruug up hr resent years. It Is said that they bring from fifty cents to one dollar each. When this plan is pursued it does not acquire the extensive preparation for butchering that is required in scaldIng. It is said that they get one-half sent per pound more for hogs dressed In this manner than when dressed In the old way. The practice is said to be spreading To Break a Stable Kicker. Vs break s stable klblter. a writer In says: The best means la to give him a mmA bag to exerclpe upon. Fill a jpaln sack half full of sand and awing K. sp to the celling w ith a rope SO the

sack will hang just where the heels of the burse will have good play upon It., Tie the horse In tin* stall with a good strong rope and let him kick. At aud return, giving the luirse as good as he sent. For the next few minutes there will lie aiively mix up between the horse and sack, but the sack will hold its own, returning all it receives with interest. The liot'se, in hocking against the real thing, will soon ceiijSr" to a realization of The fact, and Will he thoroughly cowed. Leave the sack behind him for a week or so and then remove it. If he even shows a-ten-dency to get Into, his old habit of kicking, give him another punching bag to exercise with. AVnrktnK the fjroo<i Mam. ■Judicious working of brood mares does good, instead <>f harm, but some of -the leading horse breeders never put theig brood mares in harness. They provide exercise in other ways in order to keep the stock in vigorous health. As a rule, these breeders have extensive grass pastures, into which the mares are turned for several hours each day throughout the winter season. Horse breeders who neither work their 'mares nor turn them out daily invariably get a small proportion of Increase. Some foals are lost lmmntnrely. and others are born -so weak that .they die soon afterwards. Most horse breeders, especially those of long experience, prefer that mares in Teal should have regular exercise In the form of light work, but jerking and straining should l>e avoided tinder all circumstances. - - TrratlnK Holatton Crops. It is granted by every intelligent farmer that rotation of crops is necessary in order to preserve properly soil fertility. There may be a difference of ppifiion as to the crops which should follow each other, but tills Is largely due to w hat individuals find works best In their own particular cases. It is an accepted fact that any soil that will produce good grain crops will produce good grass crops, so that corn and grasses are two of the natural" rotative crops, although they are not always correctly treated. IV hat is meant Is this: Timothy is frequently sown iu clover, the idea Infing that ►the clover will fertilize the soil and largely die out the first winter, leaving the soil free for tlie timothy. This Is good argument, of course, and the plan works nicely when the timothy is cut the following season, but too often It -is-perm itted to make a second crop, and this uses up the—nitrogen taken -intotbe soil by the clover, so that none of it is left for the benefit of the grain crop which is to follow in the rotation. To a certain extent the mistake Is niade with the grain crop in the same way. tlie first crop being so large the owner is tempted to try a second sowing of the same crop on the soil, nr.d thus breaks the chain in his system of rotation and falls on the second grain .crop or on the next crop iu the rotation which follows the grain crop. The future fertility of the soil depends. In a larger degree than we think, on the rotation of crops, but this rotation, whatever it may be, must l>e carefully and religiously carried on year after year to produce results.

Feeding the Cow. If wo admit that the cow is entitled to more than enough food to keep her alive we must ascertain what proportion of the food given is for that purpose and then. If we desire a milk return, which we do. feet! so as to got such a return. Of course, the property balanced ration must be given to’obtain the desired result*. It Is estimated that fully GO per cent of the food consumed rhy the cow Is needed to keep her in norujal condition; that, is, to live without giving any milk nor adding materially to her weight, it Is plain, therefore, that rations of considerable quantity must be given or else the food must lie concentrated, tbs major portion Of It, If the cow Is to lie all that is desired as a Hairy a*dinaL < ~ Wliat the ration shall tie will depend largely u|*m what one has to feed, assuming that all of it is not bought; if this should lie the case, it Is comparatively ea,sy to obtain the balanced ration. Where corn must form a major portion of the ration. In many cases It Is the only concentrated jiortion, then the. roughs go must supply the prbtehi. Here Is where alfalfa comes in so nicely. A first-class ration, would lie ten pounds of alfalft,, corn stover ten itounds, corn .ten pounds and either bran or cotton seed meal two pounds. This Is probably "bnr of the least expensive rat ions for winter feeding known. If timothy or coni stover must be Used In place of alfalfa the quantity can lie Increased one-balf and tb/ bran or cotton seed meal should also be increased slightly. With the foods suggested as n basis for a cow of average weight. It should be easy for one to work out by a few experlmenJLa a ration salted to his partlcnJar herl—lndia uapolla N'awtt