Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1907 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

The farmer’s road to success Is paved with good resolutions. A well-flltetT woodshed andTr convenient water supply go a long ways toward promoting domestic tranquility. Lie down and stretch out a few mlnTites every day. Shut your eyes and let the world go. It will do you more good than anything else. The most recent Idea in branding stock is to burn -the telephone number In the skin. The owners of stray cows may then be easily located. At the sale of G. W. Fink, of Maryville, Jklo., thirty-five head of AberdeenAngus cattle brought $4,200, ah average of $123 for each Individual. Sip the cold water you drink these days. A lot of cold water gulped down . will be apt to bring on colic. You haven’t the time nor strength to waste in that way. This Is the time of the year when It takes the tuck out of the boys to work much before breakfast. Don’t expect to do a half day’s work on an empty . stomach. You wouldn’t think of treating the horse that way. j ~ If the corn cultivator undergoes as much improvement In the next few 'years as it has in the past, it will ! almost be a white shirt Job to plow corn. The dustless feature should be next given attention by makers. “Farming and politics” Is a combination to which 170 graduates in a large eastern college have announced a? their ; future life work. Running for office | and farming are commonly associated, , but not popularly after such a preparation. The reason why wool merchants always request the tying of fleece with cotton or hemp cords Instead of binder twine is because the twine fibres get mixed in with the fleece and In dyeing refuse to take the color. This makes extra work In pieking out the objectionable fiber. I ' For all one can tell nowadays his ! cultivators and curry-combs may be made of old wagon tires and bootjacks picked up anywhere between Maine and California. The old iron gathering industry has become an extensive one and in large cities may be found acres of scrap piles awaiting remelting. The value of the farm telephone was strikingly shown recently in the ease of Mrs. George Stech, of Centerville, lowa. A tramp broke Into her home when she was alone with her baby, but before he smashed in her front door she ran to the telephone to give the alarm. The tramp attacked ber before she could do so, but the receiver being off the hook, her screams were heard by many of ber neighbors along the line and assistance soon came.

Drenchius Cattle. If a cow’s bead is raised as high as possible and her mouth kept open by the drenching bottle or hewn, some of j the liquid Is very apt to pass dqjvn the j windpipe into the lungs, sometimes j causing instant death by smothering ; and at other, times causing death to . follow In a few days from congestion I oFlnflamination of the lungs. Give all J cattle, their medicine hypodermically or lu feed. If they refuse the feed, give , the medicine dry on the tonguo. The ■ proper method of giving a cow medl- | cine is to stand on the right hand side, placing the left arm around the | nose, at the same time opening the mouth and with a spoon, place the medicine, which should be of a powdered form, well back upon the tongue. Treating; Orapevtfho*. Sluoe the remarkable experiment* of M. Charles Truehot, Instituted first In 1901, the employment of potassium permanganate for the cryptogasnous maladies of the vine, has attracted luorfe and more attention among advanced cultivators. At the outset the experiments attempted In HauteGeronne, either with simple or compound solutions, were not attended with the wisbed-for success. On their renewal In 1905 and 1900, he obtained on mildewed otbellos such favorable results that his views on the virtues of this remedy have become a fixed rellgloq. The chemical product la. known to have antiseptic and antimlcroblc properties that are particularly energetic. The solution M. Truehot now uses Is composed of 125 grains of potassium permanganate, 3 kilograms of lime- and 100 liters of water. The mixture Is prepared in earthen or metallic receivers. It Is applied with a sprayer, and rather slowly. The vines are not Inundated. When a coating Is required the quantity Is doubled. Thv treatment

Is also advantageous in preventing too hasty a growth. In proportion as the reaction occurs, the solution changes color, passing from violet to brown. After complete evaporation, brown traces are found on the leaves and fruit These are quite characteristic, and are a long time. Testa, according to the method of M. Truchot, have not yet been widely extended, and have been made chiefly for odium and mildew. Its efficacy may, therefore, not be considered as entirely demonstrated, for all the maladies of the vine, but there are grounds Tor-tbesuppoßltioß,— Ilotfhonses. Bulletin No. 109 of the Illinois Experhnent Station discusses the location, construction and operation of hog* houses. It gives numerous- drawing and pictures to illustrate, the same, and the bulletin is summarized as followau 1. A lioghouse should be located so that lt is well drained, well lighted and gives access to pasture, good shade, pure running water and clean mud wallows. 2. The two principal kinds of hoghouses are the individual houses and the large bouses with individual pens. Eachhas-points-vifadyantage. 3. For sanitation the building should be constructed so that it is dry, ventilated, free from dust and drafts, and so that the direct rays of the sun fall upon the floor of the pens at the time theNvinter crop of pigs Is farrowed. These rays should also be excluded in summer. 4. The building should be made serviceable by being built so that It can be used every day in the year, and be arranged so that the largest amount of work may be performed with the smallest amount of labor. 5. For large houses, gates and partitions of wire are best, because they do not obstruct the light and heat rays from the sun, do not hide the pigs from view- of the attendant, nor from each other, and do not furnish lodgment for disease germs. G. The large house is operated so that two litters per year are farrowed and grown for market, and so that the pigs are put on the market at the most favorable season. This is a practical bulletin on a subject that should interest every farmer who raises hogs, as it contains many useful hints and suggestions about lioghouse construction.

Hama* Hold* Water. Decayed And decaying vegetable matter in the soil greatly Increases the power of the soli to hold water. This is a fact of such large consequence that our agricultural scientists are paying more and more attention to it One of the professors at Cornell University undertook to prove tiki great •value of humus as a holder of water, lie took two samples of soil from places about twenty feet apart. Everything about the location suggested that the two samples should show the same water content. But in one of the locations three successive crops of crimson clover had been turned under. The sample of soil from the place where* no clover had been turned under analyzed B.7s^per“ cent moisture; 1.91 per cent humus and .12 nitrogen. The sample from the soil where the crimson clover had been turned under analyzed 15 per cent moisture; 2.94 per cent humus, and .21 nitrogen. This was a gala of 6.25 in moisture content ; 1.03 humus content and .09 nitrogen content. There are very few people that stop to consider what this means on an acre of land. Taking the soil to a depth of six Inches it meagis that this 6.25 per cent Increased moisture would equal 93,750 pounds or 46% tons of water. This amount of additional water would mean a great deal In a dry season. The turning under of an occasional crop of some green stuff means much, If It does nothing else than hold up the water content of the soil. It would take a great deal of sprinkling from a hose to put on 46 tons of water. Many of the soils that are now unproductive would, says Farmers’ Review, be productive If they had enough water to carry them over the dry spell of summer. But by bad fanning methods the humus has been exhausted and tills has reduced the capacity of the soil for carrying crops through the dry season. The crops start well In the spring and seem to be doing nicely till the summer dry spell begins, when they at once droop ns If some Insect were assailing them. The trouble really Is that the moisture supply was so light that it was soon exhausted and the soil could not supply more. This loss of water holding rapacity has really been at the bottom of numerous crop failures In different localities. The humus supply of the soil can be kept up by growing deep rooting crops and by fertilizing them so heavily that they will develop great masses of roots. The plowing under of crops grown for the purpose, of course adds much humus to the soli, but most farmers do not like to lose the use of the land for even a season. This may be avoided by growing some leguminous crop la the cornfield late In the season and turning under the soil late In the fall or early in the spring. Rotations of crops help to keep up the humus supply, If there Is « grass sod to turn under occasionally.