Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1907 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Give the calves the sunniest, warin«est corner In the barn. Sturdy to do the greatest amount of work with the least outlay of labor. Be wary of starting a goat farm. It Is a bucking proposition with some men. Raising broilers for market Is profitable if one has the time and facilities for producing them. While liberal fertilization will increase the yield, thorough cultivation is also necessary to keep up and improve the quality. ft— — The pens should be cleaned each day to avoid a filthy condition and to keep "the hogs comfortable. Bright oat straw' should be used for the beds ; and the, -«traw needs to be kept fresh by being -changed every day. V good ideal for some of the young farmers just starting out Is this one recently heard: A small farm thoroughly cultivated and prosperous; a -clean kitchen and a “homey” parlor ‘with a neat wife in charge. If you want to teach a horse to walk fast, put him by the side of a horse that has a good galtl If the slow walker has any spunk, he will spring in to keep up, and gradually strike a faster pace. Some horses are like some men, they cannot be educated. One of the advantages of having the •cows come fresh In the fall is because that is time that you can take the best care of thfetn; in addition, that is the time you can keep the flow of milk better than at any other time of the .year, and that is the time of the year that milk brings the highest price. When hens have been laying for quite a while, the eggs at the close of the prolific period will not produce as chickens as those that were laid at the beginning of this period. It Is claimed the layer begins to diminish by this continued effort and the eggs are not sufficiently endowed with vitality •near the last of the litter. Dairying requires close attention and the constant presence of dairyman atbls post of duty. Any neglect of the cows or of the milk and butter must necessarily lead to losses —loss In the quality of the milk and butter and loss In the amount and quality of the flow of milk, which each cow may be expected to give if treated properly. All the stables should be on the •south and east side of the barn buildings, so the warm sun can penetrate to every corner. In parts of the country where the winters are not severe, open sheds facing the south are considered sufficient shelter for young stock. However, doors should be provided to close during storms and in especially severe weather. it takes quite a whack over the head to get our attention. It Is so with the man who scrimps his <cows on feed, thinking that by doing so tie is saving money. First he knows, down goes the quantity of milk, and •worse than that, the teat slips back. Then he finds that he has fooled himself, instead of fooling the cow. Nobody ever fooled a cow that way very long. Almost any number of fowls muy be "kept upon the farm if it is large enough to accommodate them. But they must Invariably be colonized in small groups of not over forty or fifty to one house or \lot Each colony is then kept separate from the other to be tended and cared for as if they were on separate farms. Any attempt to keep a large number in one flock Is certain to result in failure. •

Ilnalln* limy with Engine. Charles Field, a fanner living four miles west of Richards, hauls his fath--er's hay to town with a traction engine hitched to five wagons, which are loaded with over two tons of baled hay each. The elder Field Is a good road enthusiast, and It Is over one of the roads of which he has supervised the construction that these loads gre hauled. The road is known as the Drury lane, and Is considered the best dirt _- + road In Missouri. The Field farm comprises 724 acres, COO of which Is In meadow. Over 1,000 car loads of hay are shljftted from, bis farm each year, ■which goes to all parts of the world.— Kingston Mercury. Carrots (or Horm. ('orrots are often looked on ns a kind of delicate food so, sick horses. If a hone Is out of sorts and off bis feed, refusing almost everything and eating •with the greatest indifference, and carrots nre offered 1 they are eaten at once with much appreciation. They help to restart the appctlta and give condition to the bone. In f i«ne respects carrots

are invaluable and may be looked oa as safe correctives. * But their usefulness extends beyond the period of sickness and depression, mid horses In health may receive them frequently as a good food to maintain condition and activity. When first given their effect Is a little laxative, but that is desired In many erfses, and once given regularly they act as qualifying food. They are an excellent food for itchy horses and all in bad coat, as they are cooling to the blood, and give a glow to the hair. Horses of all ages may receive them, including even the youngest backward foals. Carrots should not be looked on as mere additions to other foods, but substitutes for them, as they are quite capable of acting as a real food. They should be pulped and mixed with grain or chaff. Half a btisfaei a day is a good allowance. —Fafw Progress.

Hydrangea Propagation. Hardy hydrangea can be propagated from cuttings. Make the cuttings about 4 Inches In length, remove all the leaves but the upper pair, and If the leaves are large, as they will most likely be, cut away a portion of each leaf from the tip downward; this will leave foliage enough to sustain proper circulation and not enough to cause wilting by excessive transpiration, runs a monthly "suggestion paragraph in House and Garden. Have the soil mellow and fully exposed to the sun. Set the cuttings in the ground and press the earth closely about the base and the stem. Water freely and cover with a paper for two or three days during the hottest hours of each day. Be sure to remove the paper at night and do not replace it before 9 o’clock in the morning. By the end of the third day this protection may be discontinued. If the dTrlt and aamp the tion Is not necessary.

Cottonseed Meal f»r Milch Cow*. The Mississippi Experiment Station has made some experiments with large feeding of cottonseed meal to milchcows which are Interesting, as they show that liberal rations of cotton seed can be fed with no bad results. The station herd was fed daily for a period of two-weeks on a ration composed of ten pounds of cowpea hav. twenty pounds of corn silage, Jour pounds of wheat bran, five pounds of cottonseed meal, and the the last two days of this period was made into butter. „ In the two weeks follor.vlng, six pounds of the corn and cob ineal was substituted for the cotton seed, and the butter made as before. The butter was sent to St. Louis, where it was scored as follows, on a scale of 100: Butter froqi the cottonseed meal, 95% pounds. Butter from the whole cotton seed, 96 points. Butter from the corn and cob meal, 96 points. The finding of the station was thfct as there was practically no difference in the score, the quality of the butter was not Injured by feedlug as much as five pounds of cottonseed meal or six pounds of cotton seed. The test also showed that this cottonseed butter knelled at 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit, while that from cows fed on cotton seed melted at 98.8 degrees Fahrenheit, thus showing the former to be a better shipping butter.

Improvement In Sheep. Aucient Shepherd In the Sheep Breeder says while our other live stock are being greatly Improved, sheep improvement is also keeping pace: We rear fleeces of 50 pounds weight; sometimes our lambs are to be seen in the market at the early age of thirty days, and hundreds of them at twice that age. And the markets teem with the fat sheep which were invisible only a few yeafs ago. Then there was a strong prejudice ngalnst mutton as a food, but this has been wholly worn out, and this best of all meats—the most digestible, the most nutritious, and the most convenient —is becoming the most iiopular. And not this only on account of its cheapness, but as well for its intrinsic value as a nutriment, and equally £or the Invaluable position the sheep has taken by force of its profitable character as farm live gfeock. - We are, however, very far behind the English fanners in regard to our flocks. We have fewer sheep, and wliht we have are far less valuable. We are not mutton eaters; while the English people üßs..more mutton than nny other kind of meat. In the attention to all Interests of our people •ur scientists have analyzed and investigated the qualities of mutton in every possible way, to the end that the. existing prejudice which Is wholly unwarranted—might be removed; and various publications In thia Interest bnve spread abroad the lufonnatlon these people have gathered under the unquestionable authority of scientific research. And all the results reached after many years of the strictest possible investigation combine to prove, over and over again, that the meat of the sheep is the most economical, the most nutritious, the most healthful, and the most agreeable es aQ the flesh meats In pry ant uaa.