Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1906 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

If farm bands are too scarce, why . If you have neve& had a plat of, lima beans try to arrange to g’ow some. They are certainly the king beans. In mixed farming thoi;e Is much stuff that would otherwise be wasted that, if sheep were kept, wou’d be converted into a merchantable product. There Is only one graft that always pays and that Is grafting fruit trees. Many men have tried other kinds and In the end have found that it did not pay. ■__ ; The oleo crowd have evidently come to the conclusion that the dairy interests are keenly alive to the situation and.j>ropose to keep bogus butter just where it belongs. It has been observed several times that the man who drives a sk ! nny, poor horse usually carries a tig whip. If such men would be as free with feed as they are with their whins they probably would have better horses. It is not enough to test the seed Corn as a whole. It should be thoroughly tested according to the most approved methods. The planter should also be tested. Doing these things properly actually tests the farmer himself, and If he stands, the test the. cop usually does.

It Is a most dangerous practice for a boy or any other person to stand immediately behind a horse that is hauling up the hay fork loaded with a big load of hay. Should anytbing give way; as a breaking of a singletree, before the load has reached the carrier, there is liable to be an accident. The owner of one-hundred-clollar land is to be complimented when he changes his management from a grain producer to a stock grower. It is all right to grow grain when it can be produced at a profit. ' But one cannot afford to haul a way by the load' the fertility of one-humlred-dollar land. A fruit grower says: ‘The borer Is the worst enemy to the apple tree, It does Its work in the early summer. I have found that free washing with soap suds furnishes complete protection, provided the moths have not already laid their eggs in the tree. The trunks of the trees should be washed about the middle of the months of April, Ma.v and June each year.” Goats are said to be great leaders and even protectors of sheep. Some time ago a shepherd of New Mexico, while away from the home camp’. lf*st his dog and broke his leg on the same day. Five days later the shtc-p, led by the gouts, appeared at the home ranch after crossing two mountain ranges by a path of their own find’ng with but seven sheep missing out of the flock of 1,000.

If you have a board floor in your poultry house (as you should have) It is a good Idea to cover it with sand. It is then much easier to clean it off. Frequently layers of dry leaves are preferred by some, which should be often applied aud they answer the same purpose. In any event, keep the poultry house well cleaned all the time. Any farmer who would leave several bushels of oats on the ground at harvest time would be considered a foolish man, and yet he does practically the same thing when he sows inferiorseed that Is infested with foul seed, straws and spoiled grain. He cuts his yield several bushels which is equivalent to leaving that much on the ground at harvest time. One Is a foolish practice and so is the other. In recent years more fanners are cleaning seed oats and treating them for smut. Gophers may be destroyed by poison better than bj' traps. The latter is a slow way to get them. In clover meadow or elsewhere Ibison seems to appeal to me as the better way. Bisulphide of carbon is effectual, but is more expensive than poison. A well-known remedy consists in dissolving one ounce of strychnia sulphate in one pint of boillug water, add one pint of thick sugar syrup and stir. Preserve in a close vessel. Tills quantity Is sufficient to poison a half bushel of shelled corn.

How to Prone to Make Good Fruit. As a rule heavy wood growth is not conducive to fruitfulness, while slow wood growth encourages fruit production. Light summer pruning Is employed to check the wood growth and induce the formation of fruit buds. In order that summer pruning may be effective, It should be done from Juue 15 to July 15 in our climate. The young shoots will have grown to the length of 8 to 12 Inches and should be pinched back 2to 4 inches. Now pinching back, the operation should be to prow. The buds below the pinched portion will, aa a rule,, begin to swell and develop Into fruit buds. Should the secondary leaf buds start after pinching back, the operation should be re peated. No heavy pruning of apples, pears, cherries and plum trees should

be done during the summer. The result -generally—prevo^seriou®;-«Lnee»- bythe removal of the leaves the tree Is unable to elaborate food to supply the root system. Proper Care of the Horse. Few persons who own horses ever seem to think there should be any material change In their food;, even the dairyman who fully realizes the im- f portanee of variety, for his cows, will keep the horses going Indefinitely on hay and oats. Try the variety and see how well it works; not to such an extent, perhaps, as with the cows, but In aimodcrate way. Let the hordes have an occasional feed of root crops—carrots, mangels, small potatoes and the like; then,, another day, let them have a bran mash; a third time a little mixture of corn, oats and bran. Just enough of the corn and bran so they will feel they have something new. Then, in the way of roughage, though you may feed the best timothy as a rule, vary it by some cornstalks Instead of so much hay, or some clover hay, for a change.

Weeds for Swine. One good way to get rid of weeds -on the farm is to cut or pull them up and feed them to the hogs. Kept in confinement, these animals will seldom fall tc relish them, It being a part of their nature to live on green stuff and roots. Any kind of weeds, not poisonous, may be given them, and also garden sauce, such aa waste cabbages, lettuce plants that have gone to seed, radishes too old for sale, culls of beets, carrots, turnips -and the like, including unsalable apples and potatoes. Even tomato culls will, as a rule,< bg eagerly devoured. And what a lot of good it will seem to do the porkers! They certainly will be benefited thereby, and, If any part of one’s farm is infested with- weeds difficulty to eradicate, Jhe proper way to do it Is to fence the spot off and turn pigs into the lot. Kept there long enough, they will clean out the undesirable vegetation, and at the same time thoroughly pulverize and greatly enrich the ground.—Fred O. Gibley, in Agricultural Epltomist.

How to Kaise Goxlings. After the goslings leave the nest let them remain with the mother goose two or three days, but feed them. When thej- appear to be strong enough to take care of themselves, separate them from the mother goose, letting them run in a pen where there Js grass. They should be prevented from wandering away. At night they should be put in a box and covered up. so they jriU keep warm, but they must have some alr or they will smothei. They should never be allowed to get wet with dew or rain; therefore they should be turned out late In the morning, and after they are strong enough thej' may be allowed to run at large. Give them plenty of water and feed them morning and night with cornbread cooked as you would for your own eating, but it will be better If made very greasy with some cayenne pepper to produce heat. If properly attended to as above stated they will be easily raised, and will get very fat. The grease in the bread will kill the poison In the vegetation they eat, and onions and lettuce are also fine feed for them. I had thirty-six. and they began to die. one or two a day, until I 10: t ten and I began to care for them as I have here stated and none of them have died since then. I send this for publication for the benefit of those who raise geese.—B. L. White.

Vegetable Growing. A soil that is warm, and which does not readily bake, excellent for producing garden vegetables; In fact, all vegetables prefer a light, sandy loam, and melons, sweet potatoes and root exops can be grown on soils that are extremely sandy; but such crops, while not partial to an excess of moisture, do pot thrive in long-continued droughts, unless assisted by a light mulch. A scattering of straw around the trunks of tomatoes will materially assist in promoting growth, while the more cabbage Is worked the better. It is not advisable to put in the seeds cucumbers and peppers till warm vfeather is well In, and lima beans and string beans will not germinate if the ground is too cold. Small fruits may be grown In the garden without requiring too much space. Raspberries, currants and grajies can be placed along the fence, and the edges of walks can be ornamented with sage, marjoram, thyme and savory. A small plot may be used for a strawberry bed, and even a few fruit trees may be allowed.*'lf advantage be taken of following the early crops with crops that come in late, two crops may be grown on the same location during the season. For Instance, jHiiatoes may follow peas and turnips need not be sown for a late crop until kala and radish are removed. By carefully selecting seeds of early varieties, and using judgment in the arrangement of the crops, the garden can be made to provide a variety of vegetables from spring until quite latedn the year.—St. Louis Globe-Dem-ocrat