Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-04-09

W. 9S
sSNSSSSS
The animals comfort means the
owners profit.
No one who has to labor wor living
should slight small industries.
The older and heavier an animal is
the larger must be the ration of sup
port.
Good crops. stock. fertility and in
dustry are the essential factors in good
farming.
An unpalatable food will not be eaten
beyond the point of maintaining mere
existence.
The palatableness of food is very
nearly a measure of the amount that
will be consumed while consumption
measures production.
There is an urgent need of more light
in a majority of dairy stables. Many
dairymen also need more light on the
subject of dairying in order to sue
coed.
Go through the orchard and small
fruit plantations and clean up all the
brush and burn it. You destroy dis
eases, insect pests and weed seeds
without number.
Overlooking, overcrowding and lack
Of ventilation cause much loss among
amateur poultry keepers. A large per
cent of the chicks die and those that
survive are runty and understood.
Up-to-date creameries are testing
every can Of cream on the day it is
delivered and giving the patron the re-
suits the next time cream is deliver
ed; this is certainly long step toward
building up the home creamery.
While you are pruning select good,
smooth shoots, cut about one foot long
with two or three buds-a bud at the
top and bottom. Plant them at once
in a slanting position with the top bud
just out of the ground. lamp the soil
firmly and mulch with coarse manure
Any farmer engaged in raising live
stock cannot afford to feed his grain
to anything but the best. By carefully
culling out the tail enders and steadily
striving to improve by a judicious Sc
lection of breeding stock, a herd can
be built up that will give satisfaction
and profit
1t is an interesting fact that, while
the exports of bacon from the United
States to the United Kingdom have
fallen off from 45O,OOO,OOO pounds in
1890 to 197,OO0,000 pounds in 1904,
with hams the exports were 65,000,000
pounds in 1890 to 100000 pounds
in 1904.
OF the agricultural products import
ed into the United States during the
past year plant products constituted
pfOO,OOO,OOO vi lHlS tlhOuAt lbC NlilCl
items were: Sugar and molasses, S94,-
100000; coffee, $7S,O00,000; vegetable
fibers, So, 100000; fruits and tobacco,
each S26,OOO,OOO; vegetable oils, $15,-
100000
A plucky city lad recently advertis
ed in farm journal that he wanted to
go to the farm. He was soon placed
and now other boys are following his
plan. No doubt thousands of home
less city boys could be placed in the
most favorable kind of country envir-
onment could they but get in CORE
spondence with the right parties.
A fringe of weeds or brush along
the roadside may be said to serve
double purpose. In the winter it will
hold snow enough to blockade the road
and later on water from the melting
snow will make the roads nearly inn
passable on account of mud. Will soiue
one please suggest remedy for the
habitNally tired man who allows weeds
or brush to adorn his roadside?
On every farm where grain is raised
and where intensive methods have be-
come imperative the seed drill should
be used for all the small grains. Not
only is less seed required where the
drill is used, but by sowing the seed
at an even depth and in moist soil
better and more uniform stand Of
grain is secured Experiments con-
Quoted by the Illinois experiment sta
ton showed that an increase in yield
of from five to seven bushels per acre
was secured on plots of ground where
the drill was used.
A nurseryman writes that he cOnsid-
ers the common mole one of his best
friends and never thinks of killing one
of the little fellows. He has learned
by experience that their chief article
of food is the white grub, or larvia Of
the June bug, which not only works
havoc in strawberry beds. but also in
flower and vegetable gardens. While
he admits that the mole now and then
makes the lawn look somewhat I'M
slightly in his search for grubs and
worms, it is his view that he does
vastly more good than harm in ma
lures economy.
Big and Little Fruits.
The borers should be dug out of
their winter nests.
Don't let the scabby apples lie under
the trees, but feed or burn them.
The young orchard must be protect
ed against mice and rabbits. Do not
neglect this.
The fruit and vegetable cellar
should be ventilated and kept as near
the freezing point as possible.
The fan system of pruning consists