Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1908 — FARM AMD GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AMD GARDEN

With oats around half a dollar It certainly does take money to make the mare go. The breechy horse la the most aggravating thing on the farm, unless It la an old cat that kills chickens. The man who has hogs or cattle to feed In an open lot does not grow very enthusiastic over the prospects of good sleighing. A good way to move a hand corn aheller a short distance is to turn It upside-down and run It on the balancewheel, after the fashion of a wheelbarrow. Small grain throughout a considerable area otf the corn belt Is not a very profitable crop, but it is a very necessary crop In order to get a supply of straw. For good results in farm dairying and butter making in Tenter, keep the milk at an even temperature. Keep the cream sweet until the day before churning, and Btlr the cream well. Some . people • would have prices bf farm products Increased by lessening the output. This, however, seems a foolish idea In view of the position which the factor “supply” holds in the game of markets. As a producer of human food a good dairy cow is about equal to two beef steers, and the cow has to give only 10 quarts of milk per day to do the work. And, besides, the cow Is left, while the steer is not. Some farmers say that there is more money to be made in dairying than in sheep raising, and there are others whose opinions are the reverse. The fact of the case is, each Is profitable, depending altogether on the man who Is hunting the profit. The only sure way to know is to try both.

A speaker at the New York Farmers’ Institute saldt “Yarded fowls are the modern Improved egg machines. Fowls let run and given free range cannot produce as great'a number of eggs, for the reason that they divert a part of their capacity for forming the eggs. In my own case, I Increased my egg yield 18,720 eggs last year by yarding my fowls.” A stockman living just outside of Nebraska, according to report, drove his cattle over the boundary in order to take advantage of low railroad rates. Evidently the railroad “caught on” and disciplined him by compelling him to wait for cars twenty-five days. All this time shippers around him were able to secure cars. Suit Is now being brought for discrimination. When a man gets very wise in matters relating to any single profession he writes a book, but if you will call to mind the best farmer of your acquaintance—the man who is best qualified to say something on crop growing or live stock raising, you will find that he never wrote a line on* the subject, lu his life and possibly has’ never as much as pronounced his own name in public. It Is a distinct loss that such men are not more active as educators. To Feed ja Calf One Year. In an experiment to ascertain the cost of raising a calf Professor Shaw, of JlficHtean Station, took a dairy calf and kept an accurate account of the expense of feeding for one year from its birth. The amount of feeds used in that time were 381 pounds of whole milk, 2,568 pounds of skim milk, 2,260 pounds of silage, 219 pounds of beet pulp, 1,254 pounds of hay, 1,247 pounds of grain, 174 pounds of roots, 14 pounds of alfalfa meal and 50 pounds of green corn. Tbe grain ration consisted of three parts each of corn and oats and one part of bran and oil meal. At the of the year the calf weighed 800 pounds at a cost of $28.55 for feed. The calf was a Holstein. - Nan Tppo of Rwklwaf, A new type of roadway has been developed in some parts of California, known as the iwtrolltlilc, which Is nothing more or less thnn a well-built oiled road. Tbq leading feature of this pavement la tbe very complete compacting of tbe oiled material by means of a rolling tamper, a new piece of road machinery. It was designed to insure the tamping of tbe from tbe lower portions upward to the surface, instead of downward from the surface. Tha inventor received tbe idee from seeing a large flock of sheep walk over a newly plowed road. After tbe abeep bad passed over it tbe tot I was found to be packed eo hard that a pick indented It but a short distance. To obtain tills effect with a roller tbe circumference of the main roll Is covered with tampers, which set like so many ■ feet wetting over tbe earth and pecking It down. .. ■£ To Soleel a Cow. While there may be no Infallible nde bp which a man can be goveraefi

in selecting a high-class dairy cow, there are many points that will assist and If carefully considered, will prevent disappointment as a rule. Remember that a cow Is a machine and Is Intended to change the different products on which she is fed Into something of more value. There are-two distinct types of these machines. One .manufactures or converts feed Intq beef j the other Into milk. There is s very decided and pronounced difference in the type of the animal that makes beef, and the one whloh manufactures milk. In the dairy type we have an animal that Is angular, thin, somewhat loeseJolnted and with prominent bones. She IB wedge-shaped froin the front with a lean head, moderately long face slightly dished and a general contented expression of the features. The muzzle is large, mouth large, nostrils wide and open, a clear, full bright eye, a broad, full and high forehead, ears medium size, fine texture, covered with fine hair and orange yellow Inside. The neck is thin, moderately long with little or no dewlap and the “throat Is clean. Wide space between the Joys, the withers lean and sharp, the shoulders lean and oblique and the chest deep and wide, which indicates vigor and constitution. Begin at the Top. The mistake that most persons make when they decide to go into the poultry business, is that of starting with mongrel fowls and trying to drift Into the pure-bred line year after year. They will buy, perhaps, a sitting of pure-bred eggs of pure-bred fowls and at the end of the season they allow the entire lot to run together, and when the next year’s hatching season comes around they decide that they will still keep some of the mongrel hens, if for no other purpose than to furnish eggs for the table. It naturally follows that the two breeds get mixed, and at the end of the next season there are but few of the young fowls which do not show a cross. Another mistake that they make is that of trying to keep mors than one breed. Those who have had years of experience and have provided ample yards and houses for each breed may be able to do this > but those who are not so arranged should never attempt to keep more than one. It Is folly to expect to supply every kind of fowls which individuals may *Bk for, and no. one should attempt to do so. Select one pure breed—one best sulb eJ to the needs of near-by markets and the one you fancy most. Dispose of the mongrel fowls on the place and keep the breed pure. Each year select the best males and females and again dispose of those that do not come up to all the standard requirements. Year after year small defects will disappear and you will soon have a flock which will not only be handsome, but at the same time profitable. Don’t try to supply all customers. Make a specialty of one kind and let your customers know that they can get nothing better than you can offer them. —Wisconsin Farmer. ..

- - Corn lu llllnola. In an Interview recently, Doctor Cyril G. Hopkins of tbe University of Illinois, at Urbana, remarked: “Some years ago corn was a strangte* We fouud it here when we came—a native of the country, yet until fifteen years ago we took lffor granted. Then a close study of its individuality and peculiar characteristics demonstrated that It was possible to breed up corn Just as we improve animals, although we have not yet learned how to control the male parent. The Importance of thlff may be appreciated when we remember that the corn crop of this country is worth $1,600,000,000 every year—2,250,000 bushels. WBars trying to get one ear of corn to the stalk. That is what we are working for, because some stalks are barren; we don’t know why. Various people have various theories, but they have not been demonstrated. "Take a hundred ears of com, plant them exactly alike, three kernels to the hill, the kernels from each ear in a row by themselves, In exactly the B«me soli, cultivate them tbe same way, and the yield will vary 100 per cent. We cannot account for that variation. It ia Impossible thus to determine why some corn will grow and other com will not; but in planting, a farmer should always use tbe seed from the best ears, because that Is likely to yield more than poor ears. But every ear of seed corn should be tested by a germinating pan during tbe winter. This is a new. thing, but it Is being introduced rapidly ; all seed men and the better elass of farmer* are taking this precaution. None of the big com planters will use any but tasted seed. "We ere teaching these methods to our students by practical experiments conducted In twenty-five different counties of tbe Btate of Illinois, as well as on tbe campus of the university. The results have been most satisfactory, and they are appreciated by tbe farmer*. We have a corn breeders' association in this State composed of twenty-five seed growers, and they are all working earnestly with os In breeding up the con es Illinois to the very htgheet quality and the greatest yteUk** 1