Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — Page 7

FARM AND GARDEN

A close pen is a bad place for pigs, •when they might be out getting most of their living for themselves. A farmer needs a nice house that (will keep out the cold and he needs an lee house that will keep out the heat Next to a shredder an old thrashing machine will put fodder in a go.od condition to feed. In fact some farmers claim that It is even better. An agricultural axiom was written as early as the year 1758, as follows: “The finer the earth Is made by tillage, the more It is enriched by rain, dew and air.” The man who “had better stock and farm products at home,” than those exhibited at the fair was there. He usually shows up, but he seldom exhibits any of the results of his labor. It pays to fertilize crops. If twenty loads of manure on an acre only increases the crop five bushels of corn, there is a gain by it, for that fertility will be evident on that acre for many years. A dark soil absorbs the rays of the sun faster than the light soil and thus makes it warmer. This difference in temperature affects the germination and growth of plants. In the spring when the corn is coming up the rows are usually seen first In the dark soil. While It may be desirable for the poultry keeper to know the points in the standard for pure-bred fo,wls, and to be able to detect a bad feather or a fault at a glance, for practical purposes he had better know the symptoms of disease and be able to detect a sick bird when he visits the yards.

Carrots, parsnips and salsify will keep safely in the ground where grown unless the winter be very severe. It is always well, however, to pull and store some of these roots in sand In the cellar so that they may be available for the table should the ground become too hard frozen to permit of digging or pulling them. The advantage of moderately lowheaded, open-center trees are best appreciated when one is engaged in spraying, thinning and picking the fruit This is a problem and good orchardlsts are studying a deal to-day, and it is very generally admitted* that it requires the greatest good judgment to prune just enough to produce the desired effect. A barbed-wire fence was heard to make the remark: “I’ve been in the cattle and horse business for many years, and I have observed that I always got more horses and cattle when I was down and out of repair. I may have to retire, however, as my neighbor, the woven wire. Is expanding bls domain.” It is getting to be a question whether a farmer who raises good horses can afford to have a barbedwire fence. Professor W. J. Green says: "Apples will thrive on a great variety of soils, will color better on high land, but will hang to the trees better and ripen later on lowground, but there Is more in the management than In the soli. With spray.bg and cultivation they can be successfully grown where they formerly would not succeed.' Thorough drainage Is Important, tiling preferred. Mulching has produced good results, but when commenced must be continued. It may be employed where (Cultivation is not practicable.” Did you ever try to drive a ninetypound shoat through a slxteen-foot gate? Of course you have, and you have had him stop before reaching the gate, turn about, meditate, hesitate, cogitate and finally the combined efforts of hired man and a dog can’t put him through that gate. Then you jiave had the same pig approach the same gate when he was not wanted and you have slipped up along the fence In an attempt to. head him off and—and—well, of course lie got through first. It Is presumed that the average hog Is possessed of the spirit of divination. He can foretell what is going to happen a good deal better than his owner. Euieat Way to Start Celery. One of the most difficult things to raise in the garden is celery, because of its being hard to start the plants. A very successful way. however, is to prepare the ground where you' want the plants, sow good fresh seed quite thick in the row, but don’t cover with dirt. Next cover with burlap, laying something on the edges to prevent l the wind from blowing It away, and sprinkle with water evcwy-May on top of the burlap. In from one to two weeks the seed will sprout and as it begins to grow raise the burlap gradually and finally remove. Plants grown in this way will be very hardy and may be thinned out and transplanted, leav-

Ing the plants about five inches apart in the row. The bleaching may be done as one chooses, with dirt or straw mulching or boards. , To Manage Mites and Hawks. In a lecture before the students of the Agricultural Department of the University of Missouri, T. E. Orr, secretary of the American Poultry Association, told of methods of combating mites and chicken hawks, that might easily be used by every Missouri housewife. Mites, he says, may be gotten rid of by spraying the chicken house with a mixture of one part crude carbolic acid and eight parts carbon oIL This mixture he recommends in preference to mite exterminators, sold by traveling agents. Hawks may be kept out of the poultry yard by attaching bright pieces of tin, six by ten inches, to the trees and poles surrounding the quarters, by strings two feet long so that the wind will make the bright metal dance in the sunlight ■»- Choice of Orchard Locations. In a bulletin on the renewal of the peach industry in New Jersey, a bulletin Issued by the experiment station of that State has the following to say regarding the selection of a field: It is best to choose a field at some distance from an old orchard, so as to avoid as far as possible the passage of insects and diseases. But if the ojd orchard is not Infested with yellows, root-lice or borers, a young orchard may be planted near it So far as the scale is concerned, the trees must be sprayed every year.; therefore it can be controlled near an old orchard, but it is easier to manage if not near an Infected o,ne. It is, of course, to be preferred that the field choseh be one that has not grown peaches for several years. It is sometimes said that the soils in parts of the State will no longer grow peaches, but the soils that were once gojod peach soils are still so if they are properly treated.

PurlfyiiiK Filthy Milk. The' unsightly and unsanitary condition of many of our dairies and milk herds is a reproach to owners. In most instances the owners cannot see the dirt and filth, the bad drinking water and the smeared cows. He is too much accustomed to them. He is “letting well enough alone” at his place. Cows drinking from ponds with green scum over the surface cannot give pure milk. The cow should be clean outwardly, also, before the milker sits down to his work. Has the milker clean hfinds? Then he is one among ten thousand. Has he clean clothes? Then Indeed is he a rare bird among milkers of Jtine. Thousands of cow owners believe in the bottom of their hearts that clothing and hands cannot be kept clean for milking. These people think that milk is of necessity, in the nature of the case, a tolerably filthy article, which may be purified more or less by straining or possibly by the separator. How vain this hope is has been shown many times by miscroscoplc examination of milk once dirty. “Once dirty, always filthy,” is the rule for milk, as ordinarily handled. But one is almost sure to waste time talking to people about what the microscope will reveal when they are unable to see common black dirt and worse in the bottom of every pall when it is emptied. The only safe and sanitary plan known to the dairy world is to keep the milk pure from inside to outside, from start to finish.— Farm and Ranch.

Increasing Eggr Production. In these days no one can afford to keep deadheads on the farm. All farm animals must pay for their keep and make a good profit in addition. It «r. an astonishing fact, therefore, that c,nly a small proportion of poultrymen actually know whether a particular hen Is laying or hot Some inen can judge more or less accurately by the color of the cqmb, by the cheery son® and other well known signs. A much more accurate method consists In the use of trap nests by means of which each hen Is marked by a ring, or otherwise, every time she lays an egg. It requires a little time and patience, of course, to operate trap nests so as to separate the layers from the non-layers, but it pays well in the end. When the test has been applied tq n flock of hens, some are found to be laying 150 to 190 eggs a year, while others of equally vigorous appearance and happy disposition lay not an egg. But the non-layers eat, and are, therefore, expensive luxuries to keep about the farm. The chief value of any reliable system for picking qnt the best layers Is found in the fact that they may be used as breeding stock to Improve the egg production of the whole flock to come. In a careful series of tests in Maine, Utah and elsewhere it has been definitely shown that the hen transmits her laying qualities to her offspring. With this fact well established the poultryman should use no rooster for breedlhg purposes unless he conies from a 200egg hen, and should Incubate no eggs exSept those which come from a hen with a record of 290 eggs a year. It is thus possible tq build up a flock of bens each of which will lay 200 to 250 eggs a .This is fully double the yield of the average flock. Not only may the number of eggs be Increased by breed, Ing, but a great uniformity In the size, shape and color of the eggs Is secured.

—lndianapolis Sun.

MONARCH OF THE SEA.

C. t 7 - Battleship Vermont Is Able to Whip Any Ship Afloat. The standardization trial of the battleship Vermont took place off Rockland over a measured mile. This was to test the screw revolutions at varying speeds, that Is, to find out how many revolutions of the screws per minute were required to cover a mile in a given time. Incased In Ice from stem to stern, the new battleship came into Boston harbor from her trial trip and dropped anchor off the navy yard. She looked like a huge specter as she came up through the narrows, for with the exception of the funnels there was no part of the vessel that wasn’t coated with ice and the bow and forward part of the battleship were burdened with tons of the frozen water that had been thrown up as the huge war vessel plowed through head seas at a 17.4-knot clip. But the trial board is satisfied that the Vermont is the queen of the American navy, for they say that she behaved beautifully through it all. She was required to make eighteen knots, but without forcing her she made 18.33

BATTLESHIP VERMONT, PRIDE OF THE NAVY

easily over the four-mlle course. The boat will soon be ready for active service in the North Atlantic fleet. Naval' Constructor Baxter who has had charge of the completion of the Vermont, said: “Here goes out a ship which demolishes nil records of the world in naval construction. Not even Great Britain, the leading country in shipbuilding, has ever sent one of its battleships to sea wltnout pre'lminary deep water trial. But 1 know enough about the condition of the vessel to say that she Is ready to whip any other battleship in the world, of course, giving her a little practice with her guns.”

Lons-Lived Mathers.

At Jenkintown, Pa., Oct 27, four members of one family whose ages aggregate 350 years gathered nt a reunion, when Isaac Mather, the oldest of two brothers and.two sisters, celebrated his 100th birthday. There were also present two sons and one daughter of the .centenarian whose aggregate ages totalled 206 years. It Is not believed that anywhere else in the United States will be found a family that can present a like showing. The four persons whose ages totalled 350 years were: Isaac Mather, 100 years old; Mrs. Rebecca Michener, his sister, 87 years old; Mips Ann Mather, his sister, 79 years old, and Charles Mather, a brother, 84 years old. The children whose ages totalled 206 years are: Miss Martha Mather, daughter, 75 years old; Israel Mather, son; 73 years old; Isaac Mather, son, 58 years old. Isaac Mather, the centenarian, lives on the old homestead, built on the original tract of latid granted to his ancestors by William Penn, at Chelten Hills. In this region he Is best known as the “Grand Old Man of Chelten Hills." He is a Quaker and attends services regularly on Sunday. He attributes his long life to simple habits. Never in more than half a century has he retired later than 8 o’clock at night, and lie is up with the sun In the morning. His brother, Charles, at 84, is still in active business.

Heroic Treatment.

In these days, when child study is a bobby, ridden long and bard, it Is interesting to read of the nerve-train-ing which fell4o the lot of the Quaker authoress, Amelia Opie, in 1769 and after. The modern mother would

THE RABBIT SEASOW.

shrink with horror from some of the methods used on the sensitive child, but In this case It resulted in splendid stuff. Mrs. Ople is quoted in a book on “Quaker Worthies.” I was a creature of fears, tears and screams. My first terror was of black beetles, then of frogs, skeletons, black men and madmen. My mother made me take a beetle In my hand and hold it. As her word was law, I obeyed, but with awful shrinking. I gradually became accustomed to it, and was frequently told to take one up and put it out of harm’s way. T soon overcame that terror. I was made to hold frogs In my hands, and was taught to nurse a skeleton as I would a doll. I acquired the love of the African race by hearing of its wrongs, and I became an eager advocate' of emancipation. Mother compelled me to listen to her kindly converse with two poor old lunatics, and I grew to pity them instead of fearing them.

Why Opals Are “Unlucky.”

The world is full of superstition, and one of the worst is that the opal is “unlucky.” This superstition arose when the “black death” swept Europe.

At that time the opal was very unpopular, and some noticed that when a victim of the disease was dying tht opal on the finger brightened and when be was dead it became dull. Of course, this took the popular fancy and at once opals became “unlucky,” and have remained so ever since. Very likely they do not change at ail on the fingers of a dying person, and the whole matter is like that question which once caused so much discussion In the scientific world, I. e., why Is it that when you put a fish In a bowl of water the weight of the bowl Is not Increased? Many learned answers were given, but finally one duffer weighed a bowl of water with and without the fish In It, and thus settled the matter.—Kansas City Journal.

Charles Francis Adams was escorting an English gentleman about Boston. They were reviewing the different objects of attraction, and finally came to Bunker Hill. They stood looking at the splendid monument, when Mr. Adams remarked: “This is the place, sir, where Warren fell.” “Ah!” replied the Englishman, evidently not very familiar with American history. “Was he seriously hurt by his fall?” Mr. Adams looked at his friend. “Hurt!” said he. “He was killed, sir.” “Ah, Indeed!” the Englishman replied, still eyeing the monument and commencing to compute its height In his own mind. “Well, I should think he might have been—falling so far.”— Harper’s Weekly.

One afternoon the proprietor of an animal store said to his young clerk: “Tom, I’m going upstairs to work on the books. If anyone comes in for a live animal let me know. You can attend to selling the stuffed animals youraelf.” ——* About half an hour later in came a gentleman with bls son and asked Tom if he could show him a live monkey. To the customer’s amazement the clerk ran to the foot of the stairs and yelled: “Come down, come down, sir; you’re wanted!”—-Judge’s Library. It Is a part of the love disease for a girt to worry more if her young man gets a splinter in his thumb than If father gets a telegraph pole In his arm.

Old Story Retold.

Change for Him.

Indiana State News

GIVES SOX PECK OF CASH. Indjanian Makes Good Wedding Promise of Twenty Years Ago. “The girl who marries that boy will receive a bigger pile of money than she ever saw outside of a bank,” said Zimri Sheets of Owen township-twenty years ago, referring to his son, Walter, L. Sheets, at that time an infant. The other day Mr. Sheets, who is an ex-county commission-' er, made good his word by giving to that son and his bride a peek of United States coin. During the last twenty years he has been laying aside money, secreting it in jars that he had hidden beneath an old apple tree on his farm ten miles north of Frankfort. The money was kept in the secret hiding place until a storm blew down the tree a few months ago. The hoarded wealth has not yet been counted, but it wasi composed of coins of all denominations ranging from pennies to silver dollars, and weighed more than seventy-five pounds.

CUTS THROAT WHILE ASLEEP. Indiana Man Anxious for a Shave Inflicts Fatal Wound. The theory that T. Kirby Heinsohn, a wealthy Muncie man, inflicted a fatal wound while trying to shave himself, in his sleep at Sylvester, Ga., was advanced by members of a committee of Elks who accompanied the body to his home J. H. Westberry, cashier of a bank at Sylvester in which Heinsohn was interested, says Heinsohn was taken ill last Friday. He worried because he was unshaven and decided to shave himself Sunday morning. It is surmised that he arose and went to the bathroom half asleep and returned to bed with the razor and that the determination to shave being on his mind he drew the razor across his throat, cutting the jugular vein. Too weak to speak, he wrote on a paper that he did not know what he was doing. DISCOVERS OIL NEAR CHICAGO. Standard Said to'lfave Made Strike in Porter County. That the Standard Oil Company has located oil in Porter county, though it is denied officially, is believed by farmers there to be true, and there is great excitement in the county. The remarkable price paid by representatives of the Standard to Mrs. Dombey of Hobart, who owns a farm near Chrisman, proves that the company either has or knows it can drill into oil beds. Mrs. Dombey received $60,000 for a sixty-acre tract not fit for farm land. The Standard began wells at McCool nad Wheeler last year, but abandoned them and began to drill near Chrisman. It is reported the Standard has secured options on other tracts of farm land in the vicinity.

HAMMOND BOY FEUD VICTIM. Frank Lavra Shot by Member of Band off Polish Boys. Frank Laws, 9 years old, grandson of John Laws, one of the wealthiest citizens of Hammond, was seriously wounded when struck by a bullet fired by one of a crowd of Polish boys. For almost a year border warfare has raged between boys of Hammond and West Hammond —• the latter Poles. Last October John Mikalezak was shot in the groin and while he was in a hospital active hostilities were abandoned. The latest clash occurred on the commons, where the Hammond boys were skating. No arrest was made. FIRE BURNS $150,000 BLOCK. City of Goshen Visited by Disastrous Conflagration. The most disastrous conflagration that has ever visited Goshen occurred the other evening when the new Jefferson block, built last year, covering a Quarter of a square, was totally destroyed by fire. The loss will approximate $150,000, with about 45 per cent insurance. The heaviest losses were: Sanders, Kay & Neidig, on building, $95,000: Stiver & Smith furniture. house, $40,000; Elks’ lodge and club rooms, $6,000; Stauffer & Ecklebarger, $2,000; Dr. Ihrig, offices, $2,000. The fire, it is thought, had its origin in excelsior stored in the basement. VALUES HUSBAND AT $25,000. Wife, Aged 10, - Sues Parents oi Helpmeet, Alleging Alienation. Mrs. Dan Osborne, 19-year-old wife of Jesse Osborne of La Porte, has sued Amos and Alice Osborne, her husband's parents, and Melvin and Everett Osborne, her brothers-in-law, for alfenation of her husband's affection. She asks $25,000 damages, and claims her husband's family caused him to desert her after disposing of their household goods to his father. The Osbornes are wealthy.

Minor State Items. The car shops of the Central Indiana railway at AvondaldJ a suburb of Muncie, were destroyed by fire, causing a loss roughly estimated at $25,000. The J. P. Polk Company’s vegetable canning factory at Greenwood, the largest of Its kind in the world, was destroyed by fire. The loss is $220,000. Angered because his housekeeper slapped his daughter, John Morello of Diamond, shot and killed the woman and then fatally wounded himself. While on the way to the station a mob almost succeeded in taking Morello from the officers. It wm stated that ho would die. Alexander Calhoun, a freight conductor on the Lake Shore, was killed at a crossing at Butler. Mr. Calhoun’s home was'in Toledo, Ohio. George Logan, 35 years old, was caught in the belting at the plant of the Greer-,Wilkin»on Lumber Company at Franklin, amT killed instantly. Owing to a failure to convict theater managers for running shows on Sunday the ministers of Michigan Olty have taken steps toward forming a permanent organization to “lend moral force to the police and to assist in a better enforcement •f ths law.” A

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

CHICAGO. The favorable conditions which have characterized commerce so strikingly throughout the year have suffered no decline, and it is a fitting culmination to the unprecedented activities that the volume of Christmas dealings has surpassed the high record made a year ago. Notwithstanding the enormous buying of holiday goods, the general demand Is well sustained in seasonable lines, especially high-grade apparel, footwear and household needs. The buying power of the people never before has been so strongly demonstrated and liberal purchases have carried sales of the luxuries to a remarkable extent, jewelry, art and music stores sharing largely in the general prosperity. Stocks in the leading retail sections throughout the city have under-, gone satisfactory depletion on a fairly profitable margin, although the selling expense forms, an enhanced item. A feature of the dealings has been the greatly increased number of visitors from many outside points who bought liberally, and it Is clear that this market has become a more attractive center than hi therto for discriminating buyers. Bank exchanges a year ago were considerably swollen by the closing of three local concerns, and, allowing for this, there is sustained gain in the current total. Conditions in the leading Industries reflect no material change. The customary falling off appears in the aggregate of new demands, but the pressure is undiminished upon production, and few plants can be shut down for more time than is necessary to make imperative repairs. Raw materials are yet rapidly absorbed and prices maintain their high position for pig iron, finished steel, lumber, hides and leather. The markets lor breadstuffs, provisions and live stock show seasonable activity, and, with few exceptions, values range higher. Failures reported in Chicago district numbered 28, against 25 last week and 18 a year ago.—Dun’s Review of Trade. NEW YORK. Holiday buying, easily the pre-emi-nent trade feature, increases as the season draws to a close and early predictions of a record turnover are being fully realized. Stocks have been so well disposed of that jobbers have booked a large volume of re-orders. Otherwise, however, general retail trade in seasonable goods has been subjected to vagaries of weather, being excellent where low temperatures have prevailed, but backward elsewhere of the South and in the Northwest, where the weather has been too mild or too rainy for the fullest developments. In the larger distributive lines, wholesale and jobbing business is comparatively quiet In consonance with the season, drummen being in for the holidays, while inventorying is under way. The failures in the United States for the week ending Dec. 20, number 227, against 220 last week, 235 in the like week of 1905, 249 In 1904, 243 in 1903 and 166 in 1902. In Canada failures for the week number 26, as against 31 a week ago and 38 In this week a year ago.—Bradstreet’s Commercial report.

THE MARKETS

Chicago—Cattle, common to prime, $4.00 to $0.90; hogs, prime heavy, $4.00 to $6.50; sheep, fair to choice, $3.00 to $5.50; wheat, No. 2,73 cto 74c; corn, No. 2,43 cto 44c; oats, standard, 32c to 33c; rye, No. 2,65 cto 67c; hay, timothy, $13.00 to $18.00; prairie, $9.00 to $16.50; butter, choice creamery, 27c to 31c; eggs, fresh, 24c to 28c; potatoes, 32c to 40c. Indianapolis—Cattle, shipping, $3.00 to $7.00; hogs, choice heavy, $4.00 to $6.40; sheep, common to prime, $2.50 to $4.50; wheat, No. 2,73 cto 75c; corn. No. 2 white, 43c to 44c; oats, No. 2 white, 35c to 37c. St. Louis —Cattle, $4.50 to $6.75; hogs, $4.00 to $6.50; sheep, $3.50 to $6.00; wheat, No. 2,75 cto 76c; corn. No. 2,39 cto 40c; oats, No. 2,34 cto 35c; rye, No. 2,61 cto 63c. Cincinnati —Cattle, $4.00 to $5.60; hogs, $4.00 to $6.35; sheep, $3.00 to $4.50; wheat, No. 2,75 cto 76c; corn. No. 2 mixed, 42c to 44c; oats, No. 2 mixed, 36c to 38c; rye, No. 2,70 cto 72c. Detroit —Cattle, $4.00 to $5.00; hogs, $4.00 to $6.30; sheep, $2.50 to $5.00; wheat, No. 2,76 cto 77c; corn. No. 3 yellow, 45c to 46c; oats, No. 3 white, 35c to 37c; rye. No. 2,69 cto 70c. Milwaukee —Wheat, No. 2 northern, 77c to 79c; corn, No. 3,40 cto 41c; oats, standard, 34c to 35c; rye, No. 1, 66c to 67c; barley, standard, 54c to 55c; pork, mess, $16.15. Buffalo —Cattle, choice shipping steers, . 34.00 to $6.25; hogs, fair to choice, $4.00 to $6.60; sheep, common to good mixed, $4.00 to $5.75; lambs, fair to choice, $5.00 to SB.OO. New York—Cattle, $4.00 to $6.15; hogs, $4.00 to $64)0; sheep, $3.00 to $5.00; wheat. No. 2 red, 78c to 79c; cor?, No. 2,51 cto 52c; oats, natural white, 40c to 41c; butter, creamery, 30c to 33c; eggs, western, 27c to 30c. ; Toledo —Wheat, No. 2 mixed, 74c to* 76c; corn. No. 2 mixed, 42e to 43c I oats. No. 2 mixed, 34c to 36c; rye, No. 2,60 cto 68c; clover seed, prime, |B4&