Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1906 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

One turkey mother can take care iof two. dozen ]*>ults.__. Cows kept in stalls will consume from - ttiroe to four tons of bay a year. Let the cow frisk in the open air once in a while : continuous-stable life is not good for her. Hay green in color and sweet tir'tirste Is the only, quality that is fitted for a cow iu milk to oat. Pon-t wastoMnetr-eg-;-. for washing J “l^€3‘oiniierliatiya 1 coating, opens the pores in the shell, and paves the way to - early decay. Scatter a generous quantity of salt, and wood ashes, for the horse on the ground and see how clean he will clean it up. It is good for pin worms. Some men are. judged by. their buildings, others by the kind of stock they keep, A very good impression .of the kind of a man is seen by looking into his back yard. The seed corn topic w ill not down and it ought not to until every farmer can obtain a satisfactory stand. Some tests of seed reported this spring show a low vitality. Make every squar% inch of the farm rich but the lawn,‘and make that beautiful.—A lawn that does not .present beauty to the eye is out of place. A field that !s beaufiful aad not rich Is an abomination to its owner. In the adjustment <;f a cultivator the shanks should be ca-y to handle by tlie operator and at the same time do good work. I have seen men working like a nigger at an election cultivating corn when there is no need at ail for such efforts. In the long, hot days there is a tendency for farmers and their wives to work too hard. One ought to be wise enough to know that old age will come -later on and If one wishes an easy obi age he should use discretion when in his prime. Not every rlth field wilt produce good crops; not every trotting bred horse will trot; not every drafter will escape the barbed wire; not every banker is honest; riot every bright thing that glitters is gold; not every church member Is a Christian.. There is all the difference in the world in the way. men cultivate corn. Lots of men lose more than their wages In the corn they tear out. All boys on farms should he taught how to cultivate corn. It is an essential "factor" in their agricultural education. A new milker will not get as much milk as the one to which the cow has been accustomed. A cow has some rights that are to be respected. Whether she has or not she usually assumes the right to withhold her milk when she has a new milker. The small breeder wife is overstocked with horses should never refuse a fair offer for such animals as he has decided to sell. .Cost of keeping aud risk of injury from accident are items that should not be overlooked by the man who desires to make the breeding of horses profitable; Yes, clover seed Is exi>eusive. The question is can one afford not to buy It? As a ruTe not enough study Is given the advantages of haying clover. Eight dollars appears to be a big price, but it Is not so much when we consider tlie area a bushel will sow. Then the advantages reaped by It are to be regarded To keep your flock as free as possible from sheep parasites, give the animals a change of pasture, say once every tea days. Alfalfa, red clover, oats or any high-growing forage is good for sheep, inasmuch as the animals are not so liable to become infested with parasites as when eating grasses which grow lower. The man who cannot be induced to select and test his seed corn properly should plant thick and then thin it to the required amount. If he does not ■want to do the work himsel.’ he can hire boys to do It. A man Ls running a risk when lie sets his planter to “three grains to the hill" of seed that has not , been managed properly. Better have four or five and thin to three T Tr p-- so ( a^B || ( . A gain of four x>ounds per head in weight and of ten cents per pound In price Is quite worth while when you remember that it can be done on about the same amount of feed. It is wise to caponlze every cockerel not wanted for breeding. There Is very little pain caused by the operation If done skillfully and at the right time—less pain than Is often endured by cockerels In tlielr fights with one another Batter Should Be Kept Cold, Recent experiments on the temperature desirable for storing butter Indicated that about 20 to 25 degrees U f "# - - —.-A - . - _ -

right, maintaining the butter at several dear**'* below freezing point. Storage this year from the fishy flavor, which Is more in evidence than usual, and the cause Is under Investigation by the department of agriculture. Low* temperature does touch to prevent this troll 7 Die*. Heavy Hampshire Lambs. Harry 1.. Andrews writes as follows to the American Sheep Breeder; My flock of Hampslfires are well along in lambing, and I- think I have a finer bunch of lambs this spring than ever -before, although perhaps not so great a per cent of twills as usual, but what they lack in numbers they more than, make up in size. I weighed two lambs on March 1, a rani lamb, 29 days old, that weighed 40% pounds, and tp ewe iamb, 31 days old, that weighed 37 pounds, which L thlnk not very bad considering they have not been pushed at all. ~ How to Cat Seed Potatoes. Round potatoes, with few eyes, such as Carman, are best cut by hand, as machine cutting leaves some pieces without eyes. In cutting the seed, leave sufficient body with each piece to furnish abundant vital food to support thb sprout until it has time to take root in the soil. The size of the pieces Is more important than the number of eyes. All perfect germinating sorts, such as Green Mountain and W. W. Mammoth, may be safely cut to one eye. All imperfect or blind-eyed sorts as Livingston, Seneca to the piece. Tamworth Swine. Tlie Tamworth, a much despised and ridiculed breed of swine, is making reasonably good headway In the United States, Why shouldn’t it? The one crime that it has committed is growing a long shout. But snout aud head, taken together, weigh less than the average head of other breeds. If Tarnworths could produce the long side and short stub head at the same time they would certainly do so to please tlie American people, but Tam worths cannot violate tiny law of conformation. The law of correlation says that a short head cannot go with a very long body. Why do not more people grow Tamworth pork? If they would once try it, like the Gauls on first tasting the wines of Italy, they would want more, says Orange Judd Farmer. Bis; Profits in Fancy Apples. Stories are coining east of the large profits made by fruit growers in eastvra Washington state. In the WeuatJiee valley the prosperous condition of orcharding has increased land values to as high as $250 per acre for the raw land with water rights. Orchards in full bearing range all tlie way from S7OO to SI,OOO per acre. The boom is the result of a very favorable season, when good apples have been selling at $2 a box at shipping stations. One or two unfavorable seasons might change the' situation. The region is described as more like a great orchard village than an ordinary farming section, the fa rips being small and the houses close and other improvements common. The orchard work is carried on in a very thorough manner, with the laud kept thoroughly cultivated and cleaned. The trees have a long growing season and apples fruit at five years from setting. Tlie apples produced here are of very fine appearance and have a peculiar, waxy skin, which finds favor with the buyers. The actual flavor is not equal to the best apples produced in the east, but the Washington apples are carefully graded and packed and sell close to the top of the market prices. Plowing Hilly I.nnd. Ililly land ought never to be cultivated, but kept in grass. Sometimes a farmer has nothing hut hills, and if lie raises n crop of grain it must be on this kind of land. In plowing hilly ground one should never plow up and down the hiU unless he wants his soli carried away with the flood and great ditches washed in the field. Always plow around the hill, beginning at the base nnd winding up the land at the top. In this way the soil is thrown so that It acts as a barrier to the water aud will not wash away. The other day I saw a hill that had been plowed la an ideal manner. It had been in grass and the farmer had commenced at the "base and plowed round aud round It, throwing the thick Inverted sad down the hill and leaving a space at the corners of his land that drained the hill nicely. A recent heavy rate had not damaged it In the least, for all the water had drained off from the corners of the land. The corn should be planted In the manner the hill wa* broken. Never plant corn up and down a hill, for a dashing rain will wash It out. Then If the corn is planted the way tbe land was broken there will be no harm done the land In cultivating it If you have to cultivate the corn planted up and down the hill, It simply makes matters worse for the soil 1* loosened up to be carried away.—Agricultural EpitomtsL