Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1907 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Profit depends as much oil the qost of production as on thq selling price. j •Where the pungent smell of ammonia Is noticed escaping from the manure it may be taken as an indication of loss. In nearly all cases the offspring of immature, undeveloped animals is inferior to that of mature and fullgrown parents. Cold air will not injure sheep, buffi wet coat and a cold wind may prove as-dangerous as it would with any oarer animal. Sheep restore to the soil a larger proportion of the elements than they take from it in grazing than do any other stock. Don’t be discouraged if mistakes |are made; those who do things make many of them, but repeating the same mistake -spellsi-disaster— Don’t hitch the coht to a load hntil he has been thoroughly accustomed to drawing a light wagon or sleigh, then hitch to a light load at first. * In selecting tomatoes for seed, save the large, smooth fruit on the vines that produce the earliest; try to save tluT fruit with ~ttie~riTdar • least seed. -A sure way to make an enemy of what might have been a friend is to recount to him the number of times you have accommodated him in the past, some time when you' happen to be a little “out.” “Plumping” poultry is done by dipping the fowls ten seconds in water nearly or quite boiling hot, and then Immediately in cold water. Hang in a cool place until the animal heat is entirely out of the body. Never choose a dairy cow because she is fat, sleek\ and a beauty. “Beauty is as beauts does.” The fat and sleek dairy cefxv doesn’t do the handsome thing. The scraggy, bony cow does. Therefore, she is the daily beauty. * * . Cultivate black walnut, as the supply Is fast becoming exhausted, while the demand for that kind of wood for furniture and other purposes ,Js v„ery great. Trees of good size grow in ten to twelve years, anil the«lumber commands a very high price. It is queer how the seasons cah affect the size of some fields in all neighborhoods. In the spring a piece of ground may be thirty acres in measuring the work done per day, but In the fall the same piece may be only twenty or twenty-five acres In measuring the y|eld per acre. *

To preserve the wheels of vehicles and also to prevent shrinkage of any of the parts, put some boiling linseed oil into a pan or other vessel and raise the wheel so that the rim will pass through the oil. Revolve the wheel and let the felloes be well soaked for about minutes, and the wheel will then be more durable. For old orchards the “trimming up" method Is perhaps the best. Cut off the bottom limbs to a point 3 or 4 feet from the ground, then cut off the ends of most extending branches. Do not prune too closely. Pruning may be done any time this winter, or early spring, but the wounds should be covered atonce with paint. An old free bleeds freely, and will suffer If there are a large number of wounds on lt^ Night In the Time. It bns long been known that budding trees, when transplanted In the evening, were more likely to thrive than those that were moved In the day time. A French expert has gone a step further and proved that distinctly beneficial 'results can be gained by transplanting In the dead of night. He has transplanted large tracts without losing any of the trees by the adoption of this method. Trees, he ■ays, should not be moved while their buds are too tender, and the work should be done between 10 p. m. and 2 a. m. * The roots should be covered with earth which has for several days been exposed to the air and light This should be settled by copious watering and not by pressure of the feet. For the first two weeks after moving the boughs and leaves of the trees should be thoroughly sprinkled. n A " Electrified Potatoes. The use of electricity In cultivating farm and garden products Is not new, says the Ohio Magazine, but It has made considerable progress In recent years. One method of experiment baa been to stretch a wire netting across a field high enough not to touch the growing plants and circulate through It an •leetrfeal current In other ex perl mmAtk the soil baa been electrified by •wires under and around the roots. By tbs former method It la a«l4 that atraw-

berries attained An increased product of from 50 to 188 per Cent, com from 35 to 40 per cent, potatoes 20 per cent, beets 26 per cent and Other products in proportion. It is claimed that an average increase of 45 per cent could ba obtained with substantially all crops on fertile land by the electric ment. , Pasturing Pigs. In an experiment conducted at tha North Platte Experiment Station! in Western Nebraska recently, two lots of weaned brood sows were fed, the one three pounds of corn a day per 100 pounds of hog, together with alfalfa pasture; the other four pounds of corn , in a dry lot without alfalfa ! pb other sbear it required nearly 43 per-cent mpre corn to yield 100 pounds of gain in the dry lot than in the pasture. To pasture a pig through the season at North Platte costs about 50 cents, valuing alfalfa consumed in the field at $2.50 a ton. Twenty-nine shoats, averaging 185 pounds, made for six- weeks an average ddlly gain of 1.50 pounds each on three pounds of com a day per 100 pounds of pigs. With corn at 35 cents this .made a cost, not including tlio alfalfa ■ consumed,, of $2.36 per 10Q pounds of gain. Another lot, averaging 130 pounds, was fed af> ration of corn. They gained 1.6 p<~ ■ I* a day each, a cost for gains of 07 per 100, not including alfalfa, com being 35 cents. fni- Pigs. " Many farmers are their pigs to make the greatest possi!s}j^> ain in weight for “killing time.” TheV ,f ' fice of experiment stations* of the partment of Agriculture summariaP 3 some Wisconsin station pig-feeding experiments covering a period of tmP years, with the following Where there Is plenty of time for maturing pigs, and it is not necessary to secure the maximum daily gain, it is doubtful if it pays to grind com for pigs. The test shows that where quick maturity is an Important Item, better results are secured from cornmeal. Pigs fed cornmeal eat more grain and make somewhat larger dally gains. Commeal can doubtless be fed to good advantage in finishing off a bunch of hogs which were first fed shelled com. Changing over bo commeal near the close of the feeding period also furnishes a change in the character of'the ration which will be satisfactory to the animals. When,fitting hogs for show, sale or in highpressure feeding for market, the feeder will consider it advisable to grind the com, even though it is expensive to do so. ,

Wetting Dry Land, and Drying Wet. The United States has spent about $20,000,000' In reclaiming by Irrigation arid lands of the West. There are further tremendous projects under way on which something like $1,000,000 a month Is being expended. Not a little stirred, perhaps, by the American example, Australia Is now boring wells and -ifcylng pipes to bring life to its great “dead heart” —to make fertile the Innumerable, acres of the Interior so that population need n longer be limited to the fringe of coast lands. But Irrigation is not to be the end of government enterprise In America. There Is water to be taken off as well ns water to be turned on. In the eastern parts of the republic are 77,000,000 'acres of swamp land which may be reclaimed by drainage. The States wherein these lands lie are demanding nt Washington federal aid ns generous as that given to the States with the dry places. In this other case the United States may draw an example from abroad Instead of Betting one. Holland lias planned to spend $76,000,000 In rescuing 1,400 sqfiare miles ’of territory now held by the Zuyder Zee. The little kingdom will destroy a wide stretch of historic waters, but it will feel repaid In crops and rents.

Deci-eaulng Length of Stock. The results secured nt the Illinois Experiment Station in breeding corn so that ears will come at a certain position on the stalk will Interest corn growers everywhere. Growers of corn on the rich, bottom lands have complained for years that too much growth went to stalk, at the expense of the ear as well sb of soil fertility. The Illinois Station shows that every farmer fans it within bis own hands to detemflne the location of ears and reduce the height of the stalk. The wny to go at it is merely selection—going through the fields now and selecting, as foundation stock, seed ear* growing at easy husking distance from the ground, and then repeating the process each year until the habit becomes fixed. We walked through a 200-acra field of fine com with the owner a few days ago. The com had had a marvelous growth, but, as the owner remarked: “You would have to roll it down before you could husk It” Tha ears were out of all proportion to tha growth of stalk, and what a waste of soil fertility in producing these mammoth stalks! Select the low-down, heavy stalk, well-rooted aud with • good ear set within easy reaching distance, A stalk of that kind will re ■lst wlnfl. It ripens earlier and It wl|