The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-01-30

Cleaning land with q hOed crop offers this
advantage that the extra labor of killing the
weeds is more than paid by the increased
value of the product. But to plant and
cultivate more we must have larger supplies
of manure. Let no man contemn stable and
barnyard manure because they may con-
tain weed seeds. Excepting quack there
are no weeds which need excite much alarm,
unless they are in some crop where you can
not get at them with cultivat0r and hoe.
The millions of weeds which spring up
among corn and tpotatoes and in gardens are
dangerous only when neglected. They may
prove to be an advantage. as they necessitate
more use of the cultivator and hoe than the
soil would otherwise get but none too much
for the good of the crop.
PAINT FOR FARM lMPLEMENTs.- suppose
that there are many farmers who never used
paint brush, and / can imagine how their
old rusty wagons, plows, ETC., look, the wood
work badly cracked, and going to ruin
rapidly, 1t is of as much importance to
keep farm implements well painted as it is
to paint a house, and every farmer should
have an ''outfit" of painting materials on
hand SO as to be prepared to do any JOB in
that line that may be necessary. All that is
necessary is two gallon oil can, couple of
brushes of different sizes and the necessary
paint, but that can be bought as wanted, yet
it is better to buy % pound keg of white
lead and can of oil (hslf boiled and half
raw as they will keep long time. For
plows harrows and the running gear of
wagons you need only red lead and oil but
for other colors you will require the white
lead. If you want a common black paint
use lamp black and oil, but for carriage
body get black coach paint at the wheel
wrights, also some varnish to finish with.
You would be surprised to see the nice work
that you or the boys can do after little
practice, and when you get III the way of
doing your own painting your keg of lead
won't remain on your hands long. Why,
there is money in paint-actualy bank bills
and gold and silver dollars! For instance,
you buy new farm wagon, and keep it well
painted, and under cover when not in use.
Now, your neighbor buys one at the same
time and dosen't paint at all for 10 or 10
years. and what is the result? Worn out,
decayed wood work, split and cracked, must
be thrown aside as used up" while yours
is as good almost as when new. You have
found 500 in your paint but your neigh
Dor, poor man. got perhaps to stint his
family in the necessaries of life TO pay for a
new wagon"
RAISING CALVES AND BEEF CATTLE.-Some
farmers have an idea that they can buy COWS
cheaper than they can raise them from
calves. They may be able to buy scrubs,
that are dear as gift as mich cows, cheaper
than they can raise them; but really good
COWS are scarce, and they can be raised
cheaper than they can be bought. If far
mer has five or ten fine calves he is stimu
lated to extra exertion to produce their
winter fodder, without lessening his usual
supply for older stock. He will grow, per-
haps, a few acres OF late fodder corn, to be
cut when small and tender, or some millet
and some root crops that he would not have
grown if he had no calves to feed; and these
crops may be grown merely by little extra
exertlon, costing almost nothing, and not
LII L. 81
the farm except for the seed sown. Raising
cattle for beef is also business that farmers
can do profitably. See what an Engishman
writes to the Country Gentleman as follows:
SIT seems odd to an Englishman that raising
of cattle and fattening for beef should not
be done in the United States in conjunction
with dairying more than it is. Any farmer
making butter can raise all the calves on
skim milk, and when fed regularly and kept
in proper places, they will grow and come to
be as good in every way as If allowed to suck
a cow. Thus by having a good pure bred
bull and merely using the common precau.
ton that his dam and grand dams should
have been good mixers, very valuable
herd of young cows can be brought into
existence, and also there will be fine lot of
steers which, with the draft from the dairy
cows, will give an unusual sale OF beef,
bringing In just as much as If the cattle had
all been raised by sucking their dams. As
the expectation of meat TO England will soon
be universal from the United States, and the
refrigerating system will soon permit of its
being shipped from southern and other ports,
grazing in the best grass districts will become
a vastly profitable business"
HOMES FOR FARMERS In an address deliv-
cred before an agricultural association a
speaker suggested the following ideas in
relation to healthy homes for farmers: He
said that of all vocations farming demanded
H.
healthy calling. He made his plea for
healthy houses for the sake of woman. A
mans life is in the field his days are spent
in the broader grandeur of the open world;
but il was otherwise with the woman. Much
depends upon the site for a house. Choose
for the site some gentle swell of ground, not
hill, which you must YEARLY climb. Let
the ground flow off with gentle declination
to the south or southeast; avoid swamps and
low land" The soil should be free from
stagnant water, with a dry sub SOIL and the
soil must be free from such water to depth
of at least six feet. The house should face
the south or southeast. The living rooms
should be on the eastern side OF the house,
because this receives the first sunlight in the
morning aud is In the shade in the afternoon.
In summer the mornings are often chilly
and the afternoons very hot. The usual ma
terials for building here were wood and
brick. He thought brick house afforded
better conditions Of health because its walls
are more permeable by air. By suita-.
BILE arrangements you can blow through
solid, dry brick, but a wet brick,
and the passage is arrested. Brick absor6s
moisture and expels air, and such brick,
when dry. contains about three-fourths of a
pint of air; if dry brick can hold so much
air. it can permit air to slowly breathe |
through it. Wall paper Is not conducive to
health, because il is impervious to air.
Wood is permeable by air in the direction of
the grain, and some kinds of wood very
readily permit the passage of air from end
to end, but the air does not readily pass
through laterally. He advised all to make
walls secure against rats and mice, and this |
might be accom- lished by bringing forward |