Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1906 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Hoqa will turn grain: into money luicker than any other farm animal. Beauty in form and appearance is no iafe indication of a sow’s good breeding qualities. Experience has taught that the most profitable kinds of poultry to raise for market are the quick-growing, earlymaturing breeds. —?— Spinach is a much-neglected crop in the kitchen gardens of the rural districts. It Is found on sale in the city markets, however, at nearly all the season of the year. T ... In burning stalks no available fertility goes up in smoke. The loss in smoke is carbon. There is very little nitrogen in stalks. There is more humus, and if a soil lacks humus the stalks will be a help to 1L Some of the “safe schemes’’ advertised are safe. One man invested in one of these “safe schemes” and his money is apparently safe, for it is there yet and no indication that he will ever get it out again. It is a well-known fact that the safest schemes do not have to be advertised as “safe schemes.” Farm laud in a. certain locality was selling at about SIOO per acre and a trolley line pased along through that locality and land now' sells at from $125 to $l5O per acre. This is the way It helps the laud owner. The land is —more valuable, and It is the demand for it that causes, it to enhance in valu e. - ' It Is a good plan to sometimes get away from the crowd. Last summer many ...were induced to store eggs because the crowd was,doing it For the past few years many lamb feeders have been making money feeding lambs; this year there has been a loss in some cases because feeders stuck too closely to the crowd. Each tree should be carefully examined early in the spring, say in March, for the presence of borers which have been at work during the past six months. They can be found by scraping the dirt away from the tree and noticing closely for the sawdust trail. If that Is found the borer must be cut out and killed.

It is almost always a good plan to - keep the harrow close up to the plowupT;he' avenues' of escaping moisture, thereby hastening decomposition of all litter and mulch which will add still more moisture to the soil. There are many problems going on all the time in the soil. We want to get some of them in our heads. “In 1888 Japan only use! a little over one thousand pounds of American flour. Last year she took 50,000,000 pounds. It seems that breech clouts and chop sticks have made way for pants, plug hats and baking powder biscuits, and more than any other nation to-day Japan is adopting the American type of civilization,” remarks a writer In an exchange. Oat smut is caused by a microscopic plant life that lives on the oat plant. It is propagated by tine spores that are like dust. These tiud lodgment in the hulls of the oats and are sown with the seed. They grow in the plant and hothlug is seen of them until it is manifested In the ripening grain. “An enemy hath not sown” this, but one is responsible for it in the selection of his seed. Seed oats can bo treated so ns to be free from smut sjjores. The question is, will it be done? Papers not posted on the status of the Angora Industry are linble to print some strange news thereon. The following from the American Cultivator is u case in point: “The popularity of the Angora goat scents to have been a short-lived affair. Some of the larger concerns have gone out of business, declaring that the young stock could not be sold. Othei* have offered goats at per head. Probably the truth 1s that the boom in sheep has shle-t racked the goat business for the time being.” Profit In Kcaplns Hog*. The hog Is the poor man’s friend, and yet some men think they are too poor to keep a pig. I know men with families and a small farm who say that It does not pay to keep a hog, so they have to buy all of their meat. Is this not short-sightedness? I am quite positive that in my case, nt least, it has paid to keep hogs and I have always had to purchase more or less grain. I would not now think of farming without keeping some hogs, no matter how small my farm might be. I consider them among the most profitable stock a farmer can keep and adapted to nuy klnd of farm. On many farms the hog does not receive the attention It de---s*TT«r — 1 : -- -

.ClMalag K mam (or Market. The beet way' to have the egga clean la to see that the nest material In each tax la kept dear at all times If bat a

few eggs are soiled these should be kept at home for use and they may be safely washed if they are to be used within a few hours afterward. If It Is necessary to cleanse the shell of the eggs which go to market a good plan Is to take them In hand as soon as they are brought In and with a canton flannel cloth go over them. If the soil still sticks breathe lightly on the egg and wipe It again, always with the dry cloth. Eggs which are wet spoil very quickly and the moisture removes the bloom from the shell. Batter front Goat's Milk. Replying to an inquiry In Hoard’* Dairyman as to the value of goat’s milk for butter, Professor Farrington says. “I know no reason why goat’s milk, If the goat is healthy and receives sound, wholesome food, is not as valuable for Butter as cow's milk, and If the milk Is well taken care of, and has uo bad odors, you probably will never know the difference If some goat’s milk Is added to the cow’s milk which comes to your factory. You can yourself judge as to the advisability of accepting the goat’s milk by Inspecting it before you receive it. I certainly do not know why it should injure the butter, neither do I know of, any law that forbids the making of butter from goat’s milk. If the goat’s milk is richer and Increases tire test, the patron bringing such milk should get the credit for the increase, and I do not see why this should be an objection.”

To Destroy Barit I,lce. _ A cheap mixture which has been tested with excellent results is to dissolve five pounds of potash in five gallons of boiling water, adding five pounds of lard at the same time. In another vessel slake one peck of stone lime - In five gallons of boiling water and add a pint of crude carbolic acid. While hot mix the two solutions. The mixture may be kept in a barrel, to be used as required. When about to be applied to trees take one gallon of the mixture, add two gallons of boiling water and swab the trees with It, or apply with an old broom, while the mixture Is warm or as hot as it can be applied. It may be used as frequently as necessary, both on the trunk of trees and on the roots, after removing the top soli. It loosens the old bark, destroys bark lice and makes the trunks smooth. The odor of the carbolic acid Is enduring, and Is especially distasteful to insects.

Dehorning- Young Calves. The dehorning operation may be easily and painlessly performed when the calves are from two to five days old. The only instrument necessary ls f a stick of caustic potash. Itoll a strip of paper around one end of this to protect the fingers, moisteD the other end slightly and rub the tip of the horn for a half minute, or until the potash has made a slight impression in the center of the horn. Repeat this

treatment two or four times at intervals of about five minutes, and if during 6ne of these intervals, after one or more applications, a little blood appears In the center of the horn, it will be necessary to give only another very light rubbing with the potash. Particular pains should be taken to rub the caustic in the center of the horn and not around the sides of it, and .the stick must not be too moist, else the caustic will spread on the skin around the horn and destroy the flesh. For the same reason the calf must not be allowed to get wet for a few days after the operation, and the wound protected so the mother will not lick It. The operation should uot be attempted except on calves umler eight days old. — S. J. Marsh, In Massachusetts Ploughman.

Beetle* nnd Bug*. Rose beetles appear some time in June and in sandy localities are liable to cause very serious injury. It Is difficult to destroy these Insects either with poison or a whale oil soap solution, and, as a rule It would pay to shield more highly prized plants by covering them with mosquito netting. The striped cucumber beetle and the. nauseous squash hug begin operations about this time. Young plants can he protected for a while from both with light screens. Trap the squash hug under shingles laid near the plants, and kill the bugs each morning. The striped cucumber beetle is held In check by spraying with a poisoned Bordeaux ‘mixture or even dusting heavily with, land plaster ,or ashes.

The aaparagw beetles and theli grubs are frequently abundant at this time and jwmg plants at least should Ik* thoroughly protected with a poisoned B p™y- a The Joung of two of our common scale Insects, the scurfy scale and oyster scale, npj>ear the latter part of May or early In June, nnd there Is no better way of keeping them In check than by thorough spraying at this time with an insecticide like the -whale oil soap solution, one pound to five or six gallons of water, or the standard kerosene emulsion diluted with about nine porta of water.