Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1910-03-02
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IL W.
shaping the trees to suit individual
taste. If the work is begun in time all
orchard pruning can be done with
large, sharp pocketknife With good
knife of this kind and little prac-
lice one can easily remove the branch
es an inch in diameter, doing the WORK
quickly, easily and making smoother
cut than can be made with any other
tool.
Possibilities of Farm Butter.
There is no reason why the butter
made at home on the farm should not
be superior to that made by the pres
ent day sterilized creamery Simply
study the art of butter making, learn
that it requires regular and definite
manipulation for obtaining definite re.
suits in the butter, and the production
of the extra quality butter will be-
come pleasure and very remuner-
alive chore.
II the churning be done on the farm
and this art of butter making be sue
cessfully worked out, 1t is not hard
to work up good trade in any town
and, in very short time, one can
obtain lot of regular customers who
are willing to pay good premium
on this butter delivered to them. II
your present creamery or cream sta
tion system is unsatisfactory to you,
Just try the method mentioned above
for few months,
Condition of Poultry House.
Many farm poultry raisers think 1t
unnecessary to clean the house SO
frequently in winter as in summer,
but 1t is even more necessary. The
fowls are kept in the house more, and
as 1t is not supposed to freeze much
inside. the air is really more likely to
become bad in winter than in sum-
mer. Think of the warm, damp days
that frequently come in winter. The
accumulation and the humidity make
unsanttary quarters and bad additional
conditions doubly bad. Think OF the
farmer that does not clean out the
poultry house once during the winter.
And there are many that do not
Almost all poultry diseases are
traced to unsanitary quarters and bad
feed. The idea that anything is good
enough for chicken is out of date
now. And newly discovered animal or
fowl that could produce anything as
valuable as eggs are at present would
be given place next to the parlor;
but since 1t is only hen, she must
shift for herself as she has always
done. Turn over a new leaf, and take
care of the thing that brings in the
money. Give the hen chance
Particles In Ordinary Soil.
Common soil contains as many as
400 100000 separate particles to the
ounce, and between all these are in
fnitely thin layers of what the mod
ern soil doctor calls "f1lm water. 1t /,
is on this film water, not on the soil
itself. that plants feed. for it dissolves
from the earth particles Of food
which the plants require to keep them
well. The plants feed, too, on air
not only the air above the surface of
the earth, but that which permeates
the minute cracks between the earth
particles. Ninety per cent of any crop
taken off field comes not from the
soil of that field but from the air
above and in 1T
Water, however, is the most impor.
tant medicine which the soil doctor
knows The amount of water needed
to grow one ton of common hay has
been calculated to be sufficient to cover
one-acre field more than foot deep.
Fortunately for the farmer. even the
driest soil, when compressed, is dis
covered to contain more than half its
own weight of film water. Too much
water in the soil is as bad as too
little, for If the soil is waterlogged
the crop will get drowned" as surely
as man can be drowned in any body
of water.
| "A Test OF Beets.
A comparative test was recently
made by the government officials at
Washington on the beets which were
/ 6AOVA AA oShL ou6dl pun UOoCb
and those which have been raised in
the United States. The results have
been tlatteringly in favor of the prod.
iuct of Utah and Washington. The
beets from homegrown seed have bet
ter quality and higher vitality, and
seem better adapted to American con-
ditions. Owing to the difficulty of pro-
duction. however, beet-seed growing
in Washington and Utah has not
spread very rapidly. Nearly 100000
pounds Of sugar-beet seed are used in
the United States every year. At
present the bulk Of this supply comes
from Germany. and costs the Ameri-
can grower about 10 cents a pound
The German method of producing
sugar-beet seed is rather complicated
Wien the beets are dug in the fall
number of the best specimens, aver
Laying in size from 20 to "a ounces,
lare selected for mothers" A sam
| pie taken from each of these mothers
is analyzed for sugar content. In THE
ltspring these mother beets are set out
and cultivated carefully. From them
the seed of commerce is produced. BY
these painstaking methods the sugar.
producing ability of the beets is kept
up to its present high standard, and
even increased from year to year.
How to KIN a Hog.
Every other farmer has different
way of killing his hogs. Some hook