Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1907 — FARM GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM GARDEN

Have you salted the stock this week? The refuse pea vines make good hog I food and (better manure. Break the colts to the halter while reiy young and they will aet become haltgr pullers. Why Is It that so many farmers locate their feed lota in the lowest ground on the ram? '' ~— _ — Many families are broken up by the parents regarding the children as mere money-making capital. Have at least one hive of bees If trult Is a specialty. Bees are valuable assistants in fertilizing the blossoms. If yon keep tho cows In the barn at night see that they are well bedded and cleaned In the morning before milking, ' : r Watch open wounds on the stock hr hoik showery weather for maggots. A swab and some good dip properly diluted will make ’em crawl. Tankage is all right for hogs, provided It Is fed with} corn or other mraln. • It will not do to feed alone, because It contains too much protein. It’s a big mistake to plow when the ground shows up slick and oozy, as it leaves tho moldboard. Too wet, and that means clods and Impairs the texture of the soil. ■ 1 ,

The more men tamper with nature the no re they complicate matters often Instead of effecting a solution. It has been found out that In spraylng fruit trees, birds ns well as Insects are killed. Currant bushes should be hoed. Which not only cleans otit the weeds and grass, but renders the new growth more vigorous. A shovelful of wellrotted manure, worked Into the soli, will prove beneficial. The custom of loading farm wagons eo that the heaviest weight is upon the front wheels is all wrong, and adds iiia ten any to the draft, irin 1 trunul— t weight should be carried by the hind wheels. This has been proved by official and careful tests. In the mountain pastures of Scotland during heavy snowstorms flocks of •heep are frequently burled out of eight They are discovered by the sagacious collie dogs and the shepherd proceeds to dig a hole through which they can escape.

In selecting cantaloupes do not aim to secure a large size for family use. Tb* best flavored and sweetest varle*,taa are the small kinds, and they are also the earliest Watermelons, howfver, should be large, as the larger tike melon the less waste, while they art also fully equal In quality to the smaller kind.

The last year’s beet production in Kansas aggregated 70,000 tons. This Is an Increase of 715 per cent over the aotput of 1905, which wqs previously the greatest. This Is due to the erection at Garden City of one of the largest factories in the world, which contracted for and manufactured vlr- *" iuaJly the whole of the State crop.

Peach trees will not bear forcing with stimulating manures, even in sandy usoll, as such forcing will cause an overgrowth, and the fruit buds will drop off in the spring when the sap •tarts and the buds begin to swell. Do qpt plant on ground rich enough to grow onions, or the trees wilt make late growth and produce unripe wood that may be winter killed. Y An experiment by a professor In dairying at the New York experiment station with a herd of ordinary dairy oows, showed that they bad consumed Jn one year $28.50 each and produced $25 of milk. The fanner laid lost $8.50 on each cow In bis herd In addition to his labor. A capful weeding out according to tbe records kept made a difference tbe next year. Each *bw consumed S2B of feed and produced S3B of milk.

Murlnte of potash !» a product of the Sfnsnfurt mines In Germany, and Its sale Is controlled by a German ayndtr<e. Doth acid phosphate nod tankage are fine, dry meals, in perfect condition to bo used In a fertilizer drill, and mixing them uoes not alter their condition. Muriate of potash recommon salt In appearance, •xcept that It Is usually somewhat yellowish In color. In Its commercial condition It is about half actual potasb. u V ** Muskmelons produce their fruit at the axils of the first Infixes of the lateral runners and If the leading vines are allowed to run these laterals will not come out until the leaders hare grown several feet The leading yinee

should be pinched off At their tips as soon a 3 they have made three or four leaves. And when the bearing vines have made three or four leaves beyond the fruit pinch them off In the same way. In this simple way at least a week may be gained. Bees Faster Than Plceom. It is not generally known that bees are swifter In flight than pigeons—that ls, for short distances. Soane years ago a pigeon fancier at Hamme, Westphalia, laid a wager that a dozen bees liberated three miles from their hives would reach borne In less time than 8 dozen pigeons. The competitors were given wing at Efybern, a village nearly a league from Hamme, and the flnrf bee reached the hive a quarter of a minute in advance of the first pigeon. The bees were also slightly handicapped, haying been rolled In flour before starting Tor purpose of Identification. /Farm Wood Lot*. Throughout a very large portion of the United States nearly every farm has a certain part of its area under wood, either planted, as in regions otherwise treeless, or of natural growth. The value of this wooded portion, besides affording protection from the wind, is chiefly for fuel, fencing and railroad ties, with some building material and the wood needed for special tiles about the farm. Without the wood lot the farm very often would be an Unprofitable investment, because the farmer could not* afford to buy the wood which now costs him very little except the labor of cutting and moving lt, but In the majority of cases this part of the farm Is far less useful than It might easily be made. This is true because the farmer does not study Its productive capacity as he does that of his fields and pastures, and hence does not make It yield as fully as he might, with little or no additional labor, If he went about It In the right way.—Gifford Plnchot.

Composition of Wheat Bran. In a Massachusetts State report notes are given on the composition, digestibility and fertilizing ingredients of wheat bran, as compared with other concentrated feeding stuffs, and two feeding experiments with cows are reported in a Massachusetts State report by J. B. Lindsey. The roughage in the two rations compared consisted of hay and silage and the grain feed of cotton-seed meal and flour middlings. To this was added either bran or silage with corn meal or corn-aqd-coo meal, la one of tho experiments the results were slightly In favor of the bran ration, while In the other the so-called silage ration gave the best resultß. * The authpr concludes that for small herds the quantity of purchased grain may be reduced to three or four pounds in place of wheat bran. It Is suggested that the grain mixture may consist of one and one-half pounds of cottonseed meal, two pounds of flour middling and two and ope-half to three pounds corn meal or covn-and-cob meal.

Malt sprouts may be substituted for the wheat, oats or rye middlings. Where the feeding cannot be closely supervised and where It Is desired to feed more than five to seven pounds of grain dally, It is considered advisable that the grain mixtures should consist of one-third to one-half of wheat bran.

Feeding Ground Grain. The Wisconsin Experiment Station made an exhaustive test of feeding grain whole and ground. The following are the conclusions readied during the test:

When Corn Is There Is Saved Worth by Grinding 25 cents pr bushel 1.5 cents pr bushel 30 cents pr bushel 1.8 cents pr bushel 35 cents pr bushel 2.1 cents pr bushel 40 cents pr bushel 2.4 cents pr bushel 45 cents pr bushel 2.7 cents pr bushel 50 cents pr bushel 3.0 cents pr bushel 55 cents pr -bushel 3.8 cents pr bushel The above table based upon ten years’ experimenting shows that when corn Is worth 20 cents per bushel grinding effects a saving of 1.5 cents per bushel; that when It is worth 30 cents per bushel grludlng effects a saving of 1.8 cept per bushel and so on. In order to determine whether It will be profitable to grind or not to grind all our readers have to do Is to ascertain whether a bushel of corn can lie ground for the price mentioned In the second column showing the amount saved by grinding. If, for Instance, a bushel of corn can bo ground for 1.5 cent, and corn is worth 85 cents per bushel, a saving of .6 cent per bushel will be effected by grinding, while If corn la worth 40 cents per bushel a saving of 1.9 cent per bushel will be effected by

grinding. There are other conditions that may enter Into the question of grinding. Hogs will eat more ground corn than shelled corn and consequently can be finished for the market In shorter time when ground corn Is fed than when whole grain la used. There are times when It is very desirable to get hogs ready for the market as soon as possible on account of danger from disease, or because of desiring to get them out of thp way at a certain time. Due consideration should also be glveu to factors of that kind In determining the question of grinding.