Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-08-24

gied rainprn9f It cost me $500. but
every night every piece of farm ma
chinery and every farm wagon went
under it, and the moving machine was
further covered with a tarpaulin For
more than a year my shed was the
only one Of the kind in Bentford and
that next winter l used to see machin-
cry standing behind barns. half buried
in snow and ice, going to pieces for
want Of care. 1 verify believe that the
New England farmer of today is the
most shiftless mortal north of the Ma
son and Dixon Hne-and he hasn't
hookworm for an excuse.
My next expenditure was for a &C.
ment root cellar, which scarcely needs
defense, as l had no silo on the barn.
and it would not pay to install one for
only two cows. But the third item
filed Mike with scorn. I had been
making him milk the cows out of doors
for some weeks, taking a tip from one
of the big estates, and keeping an eye
on him to see that he washed his hands
properly and put on one Of the white
milking coats I had purchased. His
utter contempt for that white rig was
comical, but when I told him that 1
was going to have cork and asphalt
brick floor laid Ia the COW shed he
was speechless. He had endured the
white apron, and the spectacle Of the
tuberculin test (the latter because the
law made him), but an expensive floor
in the barn was too much He gave
me one plying look, and walked away.
The floor was laid, however, and
when it was completed, and the drain
age adjusted, Hard Cider trimmed up
the supports of the barn cellar door
and the two cellar window frames be-
hind, and built in substantial screens.
Then | showed them to him, and told
him he was to keep them closed under
penalty Of his job, and he was further
to sprinkle chloride Of lime on the ma
nure once a week.
"Well, I never seen screens on q
barn before" said he, "and I guess
nobody else liver did. Shure, it's to be
spendin' your money azy We are. Are
yez goin' to put in a bathroom for the
horseY
Bert was almost as scOrnful Of the
screens as Mike, though he understood
the cork-asphalt floor, having, in fact,
unconsciously persuaded me to install
it by telling me how the COWS of a
dairyman in the next town had been
injured by slipping on a concrete floor.
" 10
crete, but gave the COWS footing
There had never been screens on
barn in Bentford before. however, nor
any chloride of lime used. This was
too much for Bert. But Mrs. Bert was
interested. After our screens had been
on ten days and the barn cellar had
been lined, Mrs. Pillig pointed out that
the number of flies caught on the fly
paper on the kitchen door had de-
creased at least 400 per cent. ''And I
think what's there now come down
from your place." she added to Mrs.
Bert. The next thing we knew, Bert
was talking of screening his stable.
Truth compels me to admit, however
that he never got beyond the talking
stage.
In the face of these expenditures
our garden expenses We're a mere song,
yet we had begun to plant and plan
for the following year as soon as the
pool was done. We knew we were
| green, and we did not scOrn the advice
| of books and still more Of our best
| practical friend-the head gardener of
one of the large estates, who knew the
exactions of our climate and the con-
ditions of our soil.
"Plant your perennial seeds In as
rich and cool a place as you can" he
told us, "and expect to lose at least
three-fourths Of your larkspur. When
your foXglove plants are large enough
to transplant, make long trenches in
the vegetable garden, with manure at
the bottom and four inches of soil on
top, and set in the plants. Do it early
in September if you can, so that they
can make roots before our early frosts
Then you'll have fine plants for bed
ding in spring. If you buy any plants
get 'em from a nursery farther north
if possible. They have to be very
hardy here"
We went through the seed catalogues
as one wanders amid manifold tempta-
lions, but we kept to our purpose Of
planting only the simpler, more old
fashioned blooms at present. In addi-
ton to the bulbs, which came later,
we resolved to SOW pansies, sweet VIII
liam, larkspur, Canterbury bells, fox
glove, peach bells, oriental peoples,
platycodon, veronica, mallow for back
Ing to the pool especially, hollyhocks,
phlox Goth the early variety, the di
varicata, blooming in May, and, Of
course, the standard decussata. The
May phlox we secured in plants). All
these seeds were carefully planted in
the new beds between the pool and the
| orchard where we could water them
plentifully, and Stella, with the in
stincts Of the true gardener, babied
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