Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

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.