The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-09-28

Is working piece of ground with his
own hands as part Of his education
II more boys were mixing some of
this work in the soil with what they
get from books they would develop
into more wholesome and useful men,
bers Of society.
A Wisconsin poultryman recon-
mends placing chickens afflicted with
gapes In Il barrel In which a quantity
of Stacked lime has been scattered,
his contention being that. in it's efforts
to fly out the chicken will stir up and
breathe in enough lime dust to kill
the cape worms. which may then be
sneezed out. Care should be used that
the chickens treated do not get too
much lime. and the remedy should not
be used with chicks less than half
grown.
Omaha has students organization
that is known as the Alfalfa Hay
club. 1t is their belief that beef
steak and alfalfa is balanced ration
and an excellent energy producer for
mental as well as physical exercise.
The alfalfa ration is given in the shape
of gems. pancakes. mush and cake. the
tender and nutritious portions Of the
plant being finely ground and bleach
ed. II this ration does as much for
these college boys as for hogs and
beeys In the feed plot. they may be
counted on to get there with both feet
in the 40 dash and In wrestling with
Greek and Latin roots.
A precious lot of the governments
money is still being wasted every year
through the printing and distribution
Of so many thirty to sixty page bulle-
tins. which from the standpoint Of
value for the average farmer might as
well be written in Hebrew and San
skirt, Not only does the farmer not
have time to wade through them, but
the average country editor does not. A
fair regard for the forest conservation
policy. concerning which so much is
just now being written. would seem
to suggest the propriety Of boiling
down a good many of these treaties
and thus sparing the trees from which
| the paper is made.
Once in a while there is an orchard
| which is too thrifty to bear fruit, the
lease being analogous to the farm ami
NAL which gets so fat that It will not
breed satisfactorily. This difficulty
+ with the orchard may be helped some
/ by removing mulch ii there is any,
blowing the orchard and growing some
crop which will remove surplus moist
ure and energy from the soil. Another
way of toning the trees down is to
fprune heavily or to remove narrow
strips Of bark running parallel with
the trunk. This last expedient should
only be tried as a last resort and then
only by Que who understands the job
and will not overdo it.
The number of mice which will be
A. on hand to threaten orchard trees
when the winter SHOWS are deep may
be materially reduced if piles of mulch
hay or other litter are removed by the
first Of September. Many of these
piles of litter will be found to contain
nests of from FIVE to eight little naked
squirming mice which are very easily
dispatched. The writer remembers
| removing some ten or more cocks OF
grass from the orchard about the time
mentioned and In almost every pile
| there were just such n bunch of little
mice, which would have been able tt
do world of gnawing by midwintel
had they been left undisturbed.
Very little has been done as YET
along the line of testing silage as 9
ration for lambs The Illinois expert
ment station has. however. been con
Quoting some feeding experiments
along this line and the results have
been very satisfactory. Six lots o.
lambs of the same age and weighing
an average of ninety-three pound.
were in the feeding test. One lot wa:
fed no Silage at all. their ration beins
l.42 pounds Of corn and 10 pounds o
hay per day. The other five lots were
fed varying amounts of ensilage will
lighter rations of hay and corn. A
the end of the period it was found thu
lot fed hay and corn only had made ;
gain of thirty-three pounds each. thu
average cost per pound of gain bein;
as cents. The lot fed the most silag
had a ration of 1.1S pounds shellet
corn. 1893 pounds silage and z
pounds hay. and during the perio'
!. made total gain in weight of 3S.
pounds. with an average cost pc
i pound of gain of 81 cents. 1t will b
observed that the lambs fed mos
gilage made greater gain than tn
others and at cost of nearly cen
less per pound. The feeding of tn
silage was not attended by any III
furious effects whatever. The serie
IT experiments would seem to furnfs
a definite and valuable information fo
, good many who have been consider
y Zig silage as a possible ration 70
lambs and sheep.