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Show FARM AND GARDEN. OP INTEREST; TO MATTERS AGRICULTURISTS. fopii Hints Alton! Cultlva-tlo- n of tha boll aud Ylidtl Thsrrof llurtli-nltarr- iu , I itlrultnr. and Flori- culture. N selecting a locution for truck farming, or commercial fruit growing. the character of the noil should lw carefully cotutid-erer- i; fer, next to suitable transpor-tatlo- n facilities, it Is a question of the greatest Import-auce- . The kind of soil to lie selected will naturally depend on ihe crop to lie groan. For the home garden almost any of the soils of the state can 1m made to answer a very An essential requiregood purpose. ment for both fruits and vegetables Is L good drainage, either uatural or necessary This Is especially where earlluess Is a question of for wet sodden soils are always cold ami backward in the spring. Soils with a certain amount of sand are easier to cultivate, and will be more suitable for most vegetables than heavy clay aolls. They can be planted earlier In the aprlng and will mature cropa earlier. Most fruits, on the other bund, will, in this latitude, thrive better and be freer from disease on rather stiff clay land than on very aandy soils. Perhaps the must notable exception to this statement is the case of the Oriental pears (Le Conte, Kelfferi etc.), which seem especially adapted to the moist sandy soils of the coast region. The ideal truck soil is a moist but not wet, black sandy loam, containing abundant vegetable matter; and preferably resting on a not too impervious red clay subsoil. It should be nearly level, or with a gentle southern exposure. Of course the greater tho natural fertility the better, but after all this is not a vital question, for there are no soils so rich that they will stand continuous irucklng without frequent aud heavy applications of fertilizing material. The mechanical condition, and moisture holding capacity of the soil la really of greater Importance to the truck farm er, than its chemical composition; and these must le maintained by continually adding to Its supply of vegetable matter, either by applications of sta bla manure, or by plowing under green crops. Only comparatively level lands On should be planted to truck crops. steep broken hillsides loo much fertility is lost by washing and there is too All much extra labor in cultivation. stumps, rocks or other obstructions should he carefully removed in order to admit the nse of modern cultivating machinery. Very broken hillsides are sometimes utilized by planting them to fruit trees and especially to grape vines. Fine fruit can be grown In such locations, and In some cases It may be the best way of using such lands. It is, however, usually unwise to plant commercial orchards on land so rolling as to prevent rowing the trees and cul tlvating both ways, on account of the added labor In cultivating and harvesting where the rows have to circle the hillsides. Only high lying lands should be selected for orchards, especially of the atone fruits, not only on account of the better drainage, but because of the greater freedom from spring frost, and a less liability to loss from rot. Iltgh land fruit la finer colored and more attractive than that grown on low lands. A hill with the land sloping away in all directions Is an Ideal location for an orchard, especially If there is a .good red clay subsoil. The character of the top soil Is not so im It may be a little sandy. In ItortanL which rase the fruit will be a few days earlier; but a stilt red clay throughout, with only a small amount of vegetable matter, will give fruit of the highest flavor, best color aud bout shipping quality. As stated before these remarks do not apply to tho Oriental peara and only partially to apples. Parts of the mountain country of North Alabama are admirably adapted to apples, but In the central and southern parts of the state they are a liitle out of their latitude, and the trees are likely to bo short lived In dry and exposed locations. They will lw longer lived und more fruitful in lower and molster lands, though In such locations the fruit is always duller in eolnr and more liable to rot. F. 8. Earle, Ala. Exp. Station. wmjl artl-Hclu- the matter within thn next year cr two. The idea is a good one, to be sure; we ought and cau produce our own sugar, and in time will do so. But It will l best to move cautiously In that direction. So far us I am able tv learn, much the larger part of our territory Is totally unfitted to the profitable production of the sugar beet. Frobably In no place east of the Mississippi river south of the latitude of Chicago, can our farmers ever expect to make the cultivation of the sugar There beet a profitable experiment. are, it la true, restricted localities in this section (west of Pennsylvania and east of the Mississippi), fairly well adapted to the business, but I shall expect never to see a sureessful plant getting its supply of beets lit home, anywhere in this territory. Therefore, 1 would advise our excellent Secretary of Agriculture to go slow in pushing this scheme here, and caution our farmers not to waste much time and labor over the project. A few g scheme was years ago a Inuncbed In imrtlieru Delaware, and a large factory was built near Wilmiug-toby leading capitalists of that city. It was very promising, but it waa a dead failure. A gentleman thoroughly conversant with the enterprise In all its details. Informs me that they had a splendid factory, fully equipped for making raw sugar, but they could not get the beets. The climate and null of New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania, he saya, are not adapted The to the growth of sugar beets. beets will grow and grow big but the sugar goes out of them too quickly, or never cones into them in sufficient quantity to pay. The farmers did not take kindly to the experiment, and we had to grow our own beets." flat-topp- ed The Sugar Hurt Uurnllnn. Just now I see a great deal said about the sugar lurt, and as usual I have my weather eye open to see what there Is in this talk about making our own sugar, and thus saving a round hundred million dollars a year, now spent by our people abroad for the aweela of the table, writes Jaeob Biggie In Farm Journal. The new secretary of agriculture has taken up the beet sugar question with much seal, having already Bent nut many thousands of packages of beet seed for trial with full directions how to grow the roots. The are booming the scheme and urglug the Importance of no longer depending upon foreign sugar, and we are likely to have quite a craze over uows-luipe- rs sugar-maki- ng sugar-makin- u, Tires s llrhrllt tw limits. Elaborate tests of the draft of wide and narrow tired wugons have Just been completed by the Missouri Agricultural college experiment station, Columbia, extending over a period of a year and a half. These testa have been made on macailiim, gravel and dirt roads In all conditions, and also on the meadows and plowed fields of the experimental farm. Contrary to public expectation In nearly all cases draft waa materially lighter when tires six Inches wide were used, than with The load tires of standard width. hauled waa lii all cases the same, and the draft was most carefully determined by means of a dynamometer. The beneficial effect of the wide tlreon dirt roads is strikingly shown lu some recent teats at the station, the Columbia Herald says. A clay road, lwdly cut Into ruts by the narrow ilres, was selected for the test, as presenting conditions least favorable to the broad tire. A number of teats of the draft of the narrow tlra were made In these open ruts, and immediately followed by the broad tires The first running in the same ruts. run of the broad tire over the narrow tire ruts was arcompunled by an Increased draft; the second by a draft materially less than the original narrow tire, third by a still greater decline and in the fourth trip the rut was In practically obliterated and filled. another trial, when a clay road was so badly cut into ruts as to be almost Impassable for light vehicles and pleasure carriages, after running the tires over this road twelve times the ruts were completely filled, and a bicycle path waa made. Will- - liana or lllital. or When eattle sheep are first turnef In the spring on to young clover whether red or white, in the earlj morning they are very likely to be at tacked with ho ven or bloat, and if relief Is not Immediately given the attack la likely to be fatal, saya Wallace's Farmer. There la comparatively little danger with rattle that are kept continuously on pasture. The danger with steers Is when they are first turned on. This should never lie when the cattle are huugry. When rattle are turned ou clover for the first time they should first receive a full feed, should be allowed to pasture but a short time In the day, and then gradually accustomed to this new and appetising diel. We have never lost a single animal from hoveu and attribute the freedom from loss to the fact that wc have invariably used these precautions In turning cattle on grass. In fact, when the farmer has blue grass pasture ha need have no trouble whatever. Blue grass appears before the clover, and the cattle are accusiomcd to a grass diet before clover attains a growth that la dangerous. The main trouble of bloat or hoveu comes where dairying Is practiced and the cows are milked in the morning and turned on clover very hungry when it Is wet with dew or rain. The mot efficient remedy when cattle are affected with bloat is to puncture the iiaunch with a and then Insert a goose quill open at both ends. The opening should be made on the left side midway between the rib and the hook boue and can be done with the small blade of an ordinary penknife. The quill is inserted to allow the escape of the gas. This, of course, is a rough and ready method. The trocar and canula are the ordinary Instruments to use, the trocar making the opening and the canula answering the purpose of the quilL Where an animal Is badly bloated and suffering severely, the farms! should not hesitate to use the common penknife. It Is certain death If rellel not given and this is a quick and easy means of relief. pen-kul- ALL ABOUT T1IE BEES. l'hty Should Hating Fig. The owner la often to blame for bows eating their pigs, lie pens the sow up in a close pen or bare lot; throws in a small bunch of straw; gives the sow some corn, and perhaps water, morning and evening, and that is all the care she gets the whole winter through. In the spring she farrows six or eight little scrawny pigs that are not strong enough to stand. She is uneasy, gets up, surveys the struggling mass for a moment, then begins her feast, and awallowa every last pig. Why does she do this? Because corn is lower in price and leas trouble to feed than mill febd. Or, in other words, she has no other feed but corn for four months. Her digestion is poor. She is feverish and irritable and craves something besides corn. Her pigs give her the first change of dieL She eats them to appease that terrible craving appetite. It la not all bows that eat their young from improper feeding, but with s of them it la the cause. Tha sows should have plenty of exercise. Let them have the run of a pasture; as this goes toward keeping the system in healthy condition. Feed plenty of laxative food, such as oats, either ground or whole, or mill feed. But feed in slops. Your pigs would be strong and healthy at birth. Your sows would be ready to go to work, quiet and gentle, with a good flow of milk of bone and muscle forming qualCare In Fertilising Orrhurd. ities, which is the most essential part too to soil or the It is hard get rich, of growing. Keep salt, charcoal too full of vegetable matter for the and pig ashes by the sow at all times. Ex. of best production vegetables. With fruits the case is different. To secure Cora Sold ia Cattle. the beat results on thin land orchards niuBt be fertilized, but It must lie done Last summer an Otoe county farmer with care and Judgment. Excessive held an invoice of bis situation and applications of stable mauure, or oth- found that all he had with which to er nitrogenous fertilizer, should always provide winter supplies, clothing be avoided, especially after trees reach food, etc., for his family, and to large bearing age. Such applications Induce show for his summer's work was 4,000 a rank, sappy growth that makes pear bushels of corn, says Nebraska Farmer. trees much more liable to bllgbt, ant Ten to twelve cents bushel would will surely cause destructive rotting of not do for him. nor per him out lie let the stone fruits. With apples there is went up to the South Omaha stock leas danger, and they may safely be and presented his case so plainyards fertilized quite heavily. Excessive he was permitted to drive to that ly wood growth Is. however, never desirhis home 101 head of steers. These he orchard a In of able bearing any kind, eared for until the last of January The trees shonld be carefully watched, when his 4,000 bushels of corn was bo such treatment as wll and given and steers fat The gone. looking give a crop of well developed fruit; sleek were and a to Chicago shipped and, at the same time, a moderate After payfor them. good price paid growth of well matured wood. The first cost at Omaha, interest, and leaves should always lie of a dark rich ing all other expenses, this man found that green, for pinched yellow foliage inhe hnd realized on his 4,(HH) bushels of dicates starvation. corn 52 cents net , per bushel, A Great Work Bogun. It la safe to having on hand a carload of fat say that a great work Is at the present hogs and a lot of the richest kind of time being done in the selection and fertilizers to distribute over his farm. breeding of dairy animals. We are not able at this time to see the full beneResting from Laying. There will be fits that will accrue from this work periods when tlie liens will lay but few for a few years do not brlug it luto eggs, especially If they hare done good relief. But a century from now the re- service since the year opened. Such sults will appear In their full glory. m occurrence does not Indicate that Similar work a generation or two ago they will be no longer profitable, but gave the standard English breeds of that they are recuperating. Some bens cattle. Whut will be the result when begin to sit and while on the nests and this selection is carried on with ten- W'lien brooding the chicks they come fold the effort and accuracy? Besides, again into good laying condition, as we may expect that as the years go by may be noticed if such hens are more and more men will take up this ns they lay steadily after aban line of work. dunlng the chicks. Rest from labor la essential, as no animal can produce A novelty In the belt line is made o loniethlng continually. The hens th d plaid ribbon of a heavy lake "resting spells" are usually the weave, and Is fastened with a plaid entest lu the flock. Ex. amel buckle, which matches perfectly. self-recordi- ng nine-tenth- alx-Inc- fiist-cla- ss 1- -8 bright-colore- lie-sid- es "Our people here are not rich nor great, but when a single family has trouble it touches every heart. One's grief la the grief of all. Because these Found children died It was thought best not No a to have any Christmas festival at the cLurtli. As one woman said, It was V not meet to make merry while so many in our town were in sorrow. EVERY "COLONY" HAS ITS ILL TEMPERED CRANK. fe Novra in sympathy. I got up from my bad and looked out, and erled, too. ,j !! KIIM Hoasjr Making for Market ! Ur-K- -r VruOtablo lluiluma ! MaS Maury. MKN anybody tells "1 have been quite ill with a cold, you that he hits and last Sunday we sent for a doctor. growu rich from He lives seven miles from here, and the product of an has to drive through the woods three apiary you can set miles. As he was coming down he tin story down as saw a mover's emigrant's wagon a visionary fancy, camped in the woods at one side. As to use no plainer he got near a woman motioned him to term, or as one of Mop. and he said he uever saw such a those f u rtuiiate sud face as she had. She had a baby combination of clr-- c in her arms, and she wanted the docu ni s t am es that tor to come aud see her husband and-littlfill I lit coffers of to sometime conspire girl, seven years old, both veryi those whom the god seem to favor. hick In that wagon, lying on the botThat money 1 to be mad in bee keep- tom with only two old blankets under ing goes without saying, but those wlio them. till sort of busidepend solely The matt had typhoid fever and the ness for their livelihood r.re. all things considered, likely to have a meager ilttle gtH pneumonia. The doctor said r, he never saw such a pitiful sight, and one, if they do not come to grief and the aiieuker. an old bee- he cried as he tried to tell It to me. keeper, deliberately pinched off a coil The poor woman was nearly starved pie of superfluous queen cll from to death, aud It was cold no shelter She had Just fifty the frame he ah examining and slip- but the timber. cents left, which she offered to the docped it gentlv down among the gold landed Italians that linxzed and flut- tor for medicine. He would not take tered around Ills hand. It, of course. A great many mere people would "After he told me I called Emma keep lines If they were not afraid of them, anil they are afraid of them cuff tho minister, who boards with us. simply because they do not take the Ore went one way. and one another, um alto-gethe- trouble to get acquainted with them. If I kept a flock of pigeons and went near them lint once In a few weeks and then made a gnat deal of fuss If they fame near me. the proluibllitiez are that they would beat their lives out It ngainst the bars of the cage. round rather Jroll to nmn.v persons to talk atiout getting intimately acquaint ed with honey liee. but I can say from experience that this is entirely possible ami (bat most ; eople can handle bees with perfect safety anil comfort If they only set aliout it in the right way. Quiet. deliiHTate handling is one of the recemdties, and contact and familiarity with the pretty creatures breeds admiration and respect. I. never get a sting unless I hurt one of the bees or happen to come serous one of the cranks that almost every hive contains. It is a curious fact that even In the gentlest colonies there may be two or three exceedingly bees. They will follow one all about the place, almost Into the house; sometimes quite through the door. I make It a rule to kill such bees whenever I find them. They are annoying and not worth keeping. The hives should be opened, if possible, ou a bright sunny day, when there la little or no wind. A breeze blowing aerosa the hive irritates the bees, and on dull days the majority of them are likely to be hanging around home. When the weather Is clear and sunshiny, they are out foraging for nectar, and th Wve will contain not much more than half the usual number of workers. Whenever a hive Is opened there are two things to think of. One is to see that the queen is there and nil right; the other to examine for queen cells. If there are cupped Culls one mutt either destroy them or remove the fraine to a queenless colony or start a new ono. It Is possible to almost entirely control swarming, and It Is much easier to pinch out the queeu cells than to chase an abounding colony up hill and down dale, aud then be obliged to climb trees and saw limbs, with the tha i res against the hunter of getting the swarm intact. Handled on proper lines eight or ten colonies of bees ought to pay the grocer's bills for a sms1. family. Almost all grocers will taka a few pounds of honey, and it courts up rapidly. Of course it is not meafit by this bit of counsel that everybody should go to raising honey, as hat would be as Improvident as for every man to turn blacksmith or carpenter. As an exclusive business, beekeeping Is not to lie recommended, but as a supplementary occupation to other pursuits. It is one of the most admirable and least laborious of the money methods whereby one may turn an honest penny. TOUCHING INCIDENTS A correspondent sent from a little town In Nebraska two striking incidents, with a "touch of nature" lu them both. They accent the sweetness of humanity and the common kindred cf sorrow. says the writer, At Christmas-tide.- " "two of my neighbors each lost a child one a little boy two years and a half old, a sweet little fellow, an only child. They had his funeral before light in the morning, as they were to lake him avfoy on the train going west, so they came down the street past the hotel, bringing the little white coffin; and the whole village turned out to follow to the train men in working clotV.s and women with shawls over the.1? heads, many of them keeping and gathered supplies. Everybody responded. The minister got an express wagon aud had it loaded with bed-rihea, wearing clothes and things to eat sack of potatoes, sack of apples, fresh meat, coffee, tea, sugar, canned fruit. anO lots of other things a heaping 'cargo.' ot 'When tlie doctor went back, he stopiied and bitched his team to the sick family's wagon and moved them on to Randolph, where he lives. In the sain spirit as that of the good Samaritan, lie hired two furnished rooms for a month. He got some men to help him. and they lifted the sick man from the old wagon to a comfortable bed, and laid the little girl in a cot by herself. TTie people up there would not be outdone by our people In giving, and the doctor aatd he thought they had enough to last them all winter, and that he believed the man would get well. He declared he never saw people so grateful as that man and his wife were. The next day, or that night In the night it turned cold and stormed, lint the doctor had, as I have said, the family all sheltered, and as comfortable as any one could be. A monument on the Public Garden in Boston perpetuates tlie memory of one of the good Samaritans of science; the histories' and deeds of the good Samaritans of humble life are rarely written; but an observer like tho writer of the above Interesting letter can find them In every town and Tillage of the land. A Forestry Policy. In the selection of these lands for forest reserves. President Cleveland was guided by tha recommendations of a committee appointed for the purpose by the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the secretary of tho Interior. This committee has recently made a detailed report, which the President has transmitted to congress, looking to the adoption of a definite The committee recforestry policy. ommends the establishment of a permanent bureau of public forests, and the appointment of a board to determine wbat lands shall lie set apart as forest reservations. It suggests that all public lands which are more valuable for timber than for agriculture or mining should be withdrawn from sale and settlement; and It recommends that regular troops be detailed to protect the public forests until a permanent bureau Is established. Tha Note of Doubt. The hollowness of the skeptic's praise of death on the ground, for instance. on which such praise is expressed In the famous poem "Thanat-opais- ." was admirably exposed once by a remark of the French wit. Eugene Lnblchc. Labiche and Emmanuel were conversing about the hereafter. when Arago said: After all, why fear death? Is It not forgetfulness, rest, tranquillity?" "Oh. no doubt. said Labiche, "but are you sure you'll be able to enjoy them? go I England's Younger Sons. English liord (to a younger son) It's time, Clarence, that you were thinking about a career." Dutiful Ron "I will be guided by you. fathei. Shall I take orders, study for the bar. enter the army or marry an American?" New York Weekly. |