River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1925-04-09
AGRICULTURAL NOTES
BY II. G. seyforth.
written for last week.

gives d lew WORTHWHILE pointers on
care of baby chicks Warmth and
| plenty of sleep are more essential
to baby chicks than feed during the
first SO hours. Take the chicks out
| of the incubator and put them into
small boxes and place the boxes in
a comfortable warm place for the
first "a hours after the chicks are
Matched. Here they viii go to sleep
until they become hungry. Little
chicks should be fed according to
their actions. When they begin to
chirp and pick at the bottom of the
box that is an indication that they
! are becoming hungry. This happens
after the first 36 or AZ hours. Their
! first feed should be little whole or
skim milk which is sweet, then fol-
lowed by some chick lime rock
sprinkled on a white card board. The
/ chicks will see the card board and
/ will be attracted by the noise the
board makes as they shuttle over the
surface, and they will soon learn to
pick up the small pieces of grit. The
| purpose of feeding grit before feed is
that the chicks will not fill up on
| shavings or other trash that may be
! scattered about. Whole milk fed to
chicks gives the best results for the
/ first two weeks. Water need not be
! given until they are at least two
weeks old. A good chick ration con-
sists of the following: so pounds Of
ground yellow corn, 20 pound. of
standard middlings, pounds of pearl
lime rock grit, 5 pounds of chick
sized poultry bone and one pound Of
common salt. This ration is fed in
/ dry form and is at first sprlnkled on
board little at the time. The
first 10 days they should be fed this
dry mash five times a day After
that four times. This article will be
continued next week.
A few inquiries have come in from
farmers having small orchards stat
ing that their trees were gnawed by
rabbits or mice the past winter
some of these can be saved by bridge
grating which can be done as fol-
lows: First cut away all dead It's
sues and rough fringes of bark.
Then wash thoroughly with water or
some commercial disinfectant. Cut
the lower and upper limits of bark
evenly. Select the cions to form the
bridge of wood from last years
growth. Cut them little longer
than the place to be bridged. Cen
ter part of cion should be used for
the graft. Bevel the cion on the
same side on each end. Slit the bark
on the trunk of the tree just enough
so the cion with beveled edge can be
slipped under the bark When the
cions are inserted they should set
/ quite snug to the trunk of the tree
] The cions should be placed from one
/ to one and one -ha.f inches apart.
They should be held in place by a
small nail. After all cions ire in
place the union should be covered
with grating wax which is made
from the following formula; Resin
i parts by weight, bees wax, 2
parts by weight, tallow, ] part by
weight. Melt together str thor
oughly and pour into cold water and
] pull as for molasses candy. Rub out
/ all resin humps in the operation. If
the wax is too soft increase the resin,
if too hard reduce it. This same wax
can be used for all CRAFTS. Grating
should be done as soon as possible
before the sap starts working up the
trunk of the tree.
Smut in grain spreads with seed,
grows inside of the plant, makes
black heads, reduces the yield, lowers
the quality. All this can be prevent
ed by treatment with formaldehyde.
One pint of formaldehyde mixed
with 80 gallons of water placed in
barrel or tank and the seed dipped
in this solution for five minutes for
oats, wheat or rye, and drained and
dried. For barley it is best to let
same soak for two hours. The grain
can be left in the bin and the solu-
ton sprinkled on it and covered with
a canvas. Bulletins on this subject
may be obtained at this office, and
more detailed information can be OBJ
tanned from them.
Many farmers are carefully hoard
ing worthless seed corn. Recent
tests of hundreds Of samples of seed
corn upon which farmers are banking
will not grow. Every farmer can
find out easily and at home whether
his seed corn will grow. All he needs
is two pie tins and some flannel
cloth or blotting paper Seed corn,
L ! Al