Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1907 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

The trouble with most of us Is we allow' our neighbors to do our thinking for us. The farmer gets 10 cents per pound for turkeys, while Mr. Cityman pays 20 cents for them at the grocers’. The difference is the meat trust and the middleman. S~- : . - Nail a long, narrow box up against a post in the barn, one end nip. Drive In three or four nails near the top, and hang up the saws there. You can make a little door at the top of the box and fasten it with a hand-made hook. Then put the saws there every time. The peach borer works from June to September, or, rather, the moth is alwaysr busy attacking thr trees: Careful examination should be made for the borer as least evety twd w eeks, and If the trees show indication ctf being attacked cut the borers out. It may not be known that if cow peas are mowed while the pods are very small a new growth occurs, but such Is the case, and sheep will prefer the second growth to any other. The roots of cow r peas contain nitrogen, and will improve the soil, even when the tops are cut off and used.

Manure has the effect of making the soil looser and more easily tillable. It gives better color and enables the soil to drain better and retain mosture better. It also sets free other foods from the coil. Commercial fertilizers require than other things, such as straw or green manures, be added, to prevent the land from becoming “killed,” as the condition is often termed. The only way to get rid of poison ivy is thoroughly to dig it out and dispose of it root and branch by burning or drying in the sun, says the Rural New Yorker. Many persons are not affected by poison ivy, and have no hesitation in handling the plant. If susceptible to the poison it is necessary to wear heavy gloves in handling it.

The Despised Corncob. Whoever counted the uses to which corncobs are put 7 They make stoppers for bottles when the corks have been mislaid, or for the bunghole of the cider barrel; they are used to throw at hens when they scratch up the spring onions; to ferrule the children with; to grease the griddle; to stop a chink. A corncob smudge gives ham and bacon “ft 1 deli dims flavor; one put on a pole, saturated with kerosene and set a-blaz-lng will destroy the caterpillar’s nest. Kindled, then set a-smdklng, they make a good disinfectant, or rather, deodorizer. You can black boots with them or shell corn by rubbing the grains on them. A corncob mnkes a good scrubbing brush, nnd an ingenious woman once hung out a large wash with clothespins made of sleft corncobs.

C'rea mints. Economy of land means the fewest acres and the most cows. In proportion—H» the cows are fed will the Increase he assured. One of the great advantages in dairying is that it is a cash business. The dairy cow must be kept comfortable If she yields a profit after paying for her board. It is the comfortable eow which fills the pail with milk and the milk with butter fat. Of all products sold from the farm, hotter takes the least fertility and restores the greatest amount to the farm. Kindness is an important factor in the dairy, and one. cannot begin too early to accustom the calves to being handled.’ A rule Is to feed the growing heifer designed for a milker very much the same Us Is best for a milking eow. The nmn who lias the milking of a cow the first year of her milk production determines her value as a milker ever afterwards. It is Just as much scrub farming to waste or give away part of the fat from n high-bred milk cow as It is to waste fat by feeding a scrub. The best way to keep milk sweet Is i.to separate It Immediately after it comes front the cow and keep the teml>erature down* as near the freezing point as po&sible. If the churn Is stopped while the butter is yet in tlie granular stage there cannot be any such tiling as overchurulng, and with butter in that condition there need be no overworking. Value »l a Ton of Maonre. .V load of fresh manure, one ton. contains teu pound* of nitrogen, two pounds of phosphorus and ten pounds of potassium.* besides other elements of plant food uot so lni|iortant in point of provision. If figured at commercial, prices, the nitrogen at 15 centa a pound, the phosphorus at 12 cents and the potassium at 0 cents, a ton of such manure would be worth $2.34. But bare figures are not Interesting.

unless their relations to other thing* which do Interest us are shown. Corn fodder, for instance, has 16 pounds of nitrogen, two pounds of phosphorus and 17 pounds of potassium. It is worth, merely as manure,-when figured as above stated, $3.65. A ton of oat straw is on the same basis worth $3.25. Wheat stray is worth $2.75; clover hay, $8.40; alfalfa hay, $9.40; cowpea hay, $9; timothy hay, $5.35. Thus a ton of manure Would be less valuable than a ton of any of our ordinary field crops, If the latter were used as fertilizer only, and also supposing them to be Immediately available as plant food. The fact that they require a longer or shorter period for decay, while manure is quickly available, accounts for the more apparent value of the manure. It is Interesting to note that jOon of manure contains sufficient nitrogen for 10 bushels of corn; enough potassium for 52.6 bushels. For wheat there is tnough nitrogen for 8 bjoshels; phosphorus for 13.3 bushels, and potassium for 30.8 bushels. Manure has the effect of making the soil looser and more easily tillable. It gives better color and enables the soil tod rain better and retain moisture better. It also sets free other foods from the soil. Commercial fertilizers require that other things, such as straw or green manures, be added, to prevent the laud from becoming “killed,” as the condition is often termed.

FlghUng Weeds. A .field may be profitably cultivated without any crop at all in order to clean It thoroughly of weeds. It will be a loss of crop-and labor, but a gain Hj the end. Plow It in the latter part of the season, run the cultivator over it every time it becomes covered with young weeds and then follow with the harrow. In the spring, when the field is covered with weeds, plow It again before the seeds can make growth, and keep the cultivator and harrow moving over it the whole year. The next spring put it in corn, and still keep up the cultivation. When the corn Is off, plow it In the fall, and sow to oats the following year. Such treatment will effectually kill out the weeds and save labor afterward. All the seeds used for crops should be thoroughly examined and cleaned, even If, In some cases, certain kinds must be handpicked. The manure should be rdffW 1» order to destroy the weeds, but/this cannot be done under all circumstances. By handling the manure once and sprinkling every portion with a mixture of one pound of sulphuric acid to live gallons of water, the manure will be reduced to a finer condition and many weed seeds destroyed. If the manure is spread on the soil early in the season and worked in with a cultivator near the surface, the seeds remaining will be Induced to sprout, and the young plants destroyed with but little labor. .The rule for the destruction, therefore, is “sprout the seed In the ground and kill the young plants just as they appear out of the soil.” By so doing they can never make sufficient headway to multiply, and if prevented from reproducing themselves must necessarily disappear if the farmer does not introduce new seeds to cause him additional labor. Once prevent weeds from seeding and the manure will be free from the seeds.

Pluirlng by Steam. According to the Springfield (Ill.) News, “the high price of horses is resi»nsible for a new interest on the part of Illinois farmers in the use of steam as a motive power for farm machinery and a well-known dealer in agricultural implements said recently that lie hud sold a farmer over in the edgeof Christian county an extra ‘gang’ plow for use iu connection with his traction engine. “He was asked if it were not rather expensive to use steam power where the farms are cpt up into comparatively small fields, and said: “ ‘lt is possible to do it conveniently if the laud is plowed the right way. Remember that If a man uses horses he will have to buy five additional horses and another gang plow any way, and you know that under the present conditions the cost of the horses alone will run pretty well up to or beyond SI,OOO, and there is the plow besides. Then you know he will have to feed those horses through the Cropping season and run the risk of either keeping them* through the winter or selling -tbem'at n loss, with that other common chance of one or more of them lying down and dying nnd putting him over S2OO to the lmif for each horse. With the steam plow he can break up from thirty to forty acres a day and break It good and deep so that with good luck lie can get his entire body of corn land, amounting to 320 acres ready for planting in.a little over a week. Another saving will be in the labor. Farm hands demand from S2O a month upwards and board, and that means a considerable expense for the farmer. Just at this time of the year horses are getting pretty scarce, and even plugs are at a premium. It isn't necessary to have a Dakota farm of several sections In order ta 4 use s steam plow, though, of course, It is more satisfactory. A gang of ten plows can be maneuvered In a forty-acre field to good advantage by th« man wbo knows tiow.'"

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