Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1907 — FARM AND GARDERN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDERN

Push the larubs from the first If you •would have big, fat sheep. If there were more square deals In the world there would be more square meals. Three conditions are needed for the production of sweet cream. Cleanliness, low temperature and richness In the cream. The meadows and pastures as well as the growing wheat are often benefited by rolling well in the spring after the frost is through the ground. Shelter and comfortable "quarters should be provided for stock, if for nothing else than simply a question of -economy In the consumption of food. Lime Is a most active agent in ren--derlng the soil mellow and setting the plant food free to be assimilated by vegetation, while it Is itself a direct plant food. Any soil is too valuable to lose by -erosion. If the field be low and level, tinder drain it rather than cut It up with surface ditches, which lessen the cultivated area and carry away the •cream of the soil. , Every farm should have Its grove or wood lot. l'he timtrbr alone is a paying -crop, besides the lot may be utilized for poultry and other small animals while the trees are young and for any animals when the trees are more mature. Far too many men conduct themselves on the “Is It against the law” plan rather than the law of right. men ask themselves “Is It .right?” then we will have made a great Improvement. Most men know what Is right. Sometimes there is a petulancy engendered among children in the home. A gooff way to cure this Is to let some members get away from home for a season. Little undesirable habits are •often broken up in this way and bettor ones formed in their places. Good shelter with little feed is better for domestic than no shelter and much feed. Inclement weather may toughen animals, but it stunts, starves and kills many more than It toughens. A good barn Is a good Investment of farm money. There is such a thing as a fruitgrower failing to see worm holes In his own fruit when be is packing. There Is also a possibility that be will not have a good eye for grading the fruit. The man who can't do that had better hire a man to do his grading and packing. There oomes a time in the life of •almost every boy and girl when they they know a good deal more than dad, and It’s a puzzle to the average parent to know just how much rope to give them. The spell only lasts a year or two, but where one has about a dozen children it helps to bring gray hairs. A new wrinkle put out by some of ■the big seed houses this year has been what is called a “seeding string.” This Is nothing more or less than a tissue paper string filled with seeds of different garden plants. In place of planting seeds by guess out of the hand one can Just lay a string of lettuce or radish In the furrow and cover In less time than it takes to tell. The rows can be kept straight in this manner and cultivation made easier, it Is sniff A farmer who has grown a 403pound squash is worth listening to when he tells how he did it, for he •says it is no trick at all to grow a 800-pounder. In explaining how he does it, he says: “For each hill I Intend to plant I take two good wheelbarrow loads of hen manure, and mix with four barrows of good soil taken from some other part of the lot A tittle later, early In May, I add fyur barrows of well-rotted manure and mix thoroughly. Then about the 18th of May I make the hills, digging out a splice seven feet In diameter and 14 Inches deep, filling In with my compost mixing, and with It some of the best earth which was thrown out; and when finished the hill will bo-about ten feet In diameter and six incho*\ higher In the center than the surrounding level; the seed is planted at once. Hills should be about 20 feet apart; work the ground well until the plants oommence to run. When vines are about* three feet long I mulch the ground all over, for 20 feet In diameter around each hill, with horse manure threo Inches deep, and stake the vines down with sticks to keep the wind from rolling them about, so that they may root at every Joint .It Is of great advantage to keep the vine.from fruiting os long aa possible, by pruning all fruit bloom off until about the last week In July; this will give time enough to mature s 800-pound squash by tbs first

of October. There must be a big vine to produce a big squash.” —,—NeiUings’ Appetite. The Insatiable appetite of young birds, mid, indirectly, the benefits which a community receives from the presence of Insect-eating birds, is admirably brought out In a study made by the students of the University of Indiana, at the biological station at Winona Lake. —~— l —‘ 1 " Relays of students, according to the Nature Study Review, placed themselves In a position to observe continuously from daylight to dark the movements In the nests of an orchard oriole, a pewee, a phoebe and a wren, all of which belong to the Insect-consum-ing class of birds. The. little wren’s nest, in which there were five birds about 3 days old, was a scene of great activity, and in the nine hours and twenty-six minutes the little bird family -was under observation the nestlings were, fed 113 times, most of the food being foraged by the male bird, but distributed by the mother bird. The food consisted of cutworms, grasshoppers, cabbage worms and sundry smaller Insects which were not identified. The nest of the phoebe, which contained two vdung birds 4 days old, gave evidence of the first activity at 4:20 a. m., and between that time and 7 p. m., when it began to rain, the young birds had received 260 Installments of dinner. The voracity of the orioles and pewees were equally remarkable. _-_i_ Alfalfa as a, Good Feed. In the year 1903 I read a great deal about alfalfa, and so bought 100 pounds of seed and as soon as my oat crop was sown prepared my land for alfalfa. I chose a very rich piece of laud which I plowed about eight Inches deep, pulverized it very fine and then sowed the seed broadcast. I sowed a nurse crop in connection with the alfalfa—2s pounds of alfalfa and one bushel of oats, covered with a drag. About the first of June I cut and cured and put In the barn the alfalfa and oats, I fed this to my horses and they did well.. Twice after this I cut the alfalfa and let it lie on the land for mulch. The second year I cut the alfalfa three times, making about six tons to the acre in all for the second year. The third year I cut It four times, making ten tons to the acre for the season of 1906. My hogs eat the dry a’lfalfa with relish, In fact, every animal on the place seems to be crazy to eat alfalfa hay. I feed a few cattle every year and give them shelled corn, eai corn and shock corn with all the alfalfa hay they will eat. They have a good barn to stay in nights and stormy weather, and I never in all my feeding saw cattle gain in three’ months as these did from the time I put them in the feed yard until they were shipped to market. I think alfalfa Is one of the most paying crops a farmer can raise, and I have been so well pleased with my experience that I am mulching the alfalfa with manure and think It will help It to winter. I think there Is danger of freezing, although the land faces to the south and Is well drained—G. E. Calkins. Ottawa, 111.

Forest Planting In Nebraska. A study was made by the United States Department of Agriculture of the forest plantations In Eastern Nebraska to ascertain the species of trees best suited for planting throughout the region. The plantations already in existence were studied with reference to their silvicultural requirements, the amount and value of wood products grown, and the effect of different methods of planting. Tho planting of forests has decreased in Eastern Nebraska In recent years, and some of the earlier planted forests are being cut off. Tables are given, showing the height and diameter growth of tho principal species of trees planted In Eastern Nebraska over a period of fifty years, the amount of heart wood in trees of various diameters, nnd the yield of cottonwood on bottom land and on upland, osago orange, white willow, sliver maple, hot elder, Russian mulberry, white elm, Lombardy poplar, black locust apd various other species of broad-leaf tree! and of pines. The data obtained show that hardy catnips, osage orange, black walnut, cottonwood, white willow, green ash and honey locust can be grown with profit in Eastern Nebraska. “Hardy catalpa. osags orange and green ash should be planted chiefly for fence posts, white willow for fuel, black walnut for lumber and cottonwood for fuel and lumber. All attain their best development In rich, well-drained valleys. Cottonwood, whits willow and black walnut are essentially bottom-land trees. Osage orange should be planted on upland only In fertile soils In southeastern counties. The range of hardy catalpa In upland planting la considerably wider, but It must have good •oil. Green aah and honey locust are especially adapted for dry upland J planting In the mors western and southwestern counties. . . . In the sand hills some of the con If era such as Western yellow plus and Jack pine, undoubtedly may be planted with pAAt, since land valuta are certain to remain low.*