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About The Nebraska advertiser. (Nemaha City, Neb.) 18??-1909 | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1897)
( "l 1 M ( ' h .-f. N- X- 5Tl .A V AGRICULTURAL HINTS INSECT-EATING BIRDS. Soinu FucIn Which I'nrinorH Slinnlil Alivnyn Hoar In ."Ml nil. Probably few fanners have tiny idea of the assistance which they receive from friends who ask no reward, except now'nnd then a little fruit, or a few seeds of grain. A recent number of the National Stockman gives a mass of tes timony as to the noble work done by the birds In the destruction of grass hoppers and other Insects. The experi ments were made by Prof. Aughey, of the University of Nebrnsk. Tabulated results show conclusively Unit birds of i all kinds were doing their best to re duce the number of locusts. The bftds of the thrush family were examined first. The stomachs of six robins con tained the remains of 205 locusts; three wood thrushes had OS locusts; one her mit thrush contained 19 locusts; two olive backed thrushes had gathered in C3 locusts; two Wilson's thrushes ab sorbed 73 of the pests, while live cat birds had "called" 15U of the insects. Three blue birds yielded 077 of the "hoppers," and one little ruby crowned kinglet showed up 29 as the result of Mm& A CROW BLACKUIRD. its industry. But four tufted titmice contained no less than 2."0 specimens, and nine long-tailed chickadees had se cured by hard work 4S1 of these ene mies of agriculture. Four slender billed nuthatches had the remains of V3 locusts. But the little warblers also insisted in "taking a hand" in the gen eral massacre, for seven golden war blers turned in 77 locusts and 170 other insects. Five black-throated green warblers had secured 110 of the hop pers and 104 other insects. Four black poll warblers gathered 123 locusts and 47 other insects. Fight prairie warblers showed the remains of 11G locusts and a, still larger number of other insects. Seven barn swallows called in 139 lo custs; eight cave swallows exhibited S2G of the pests; five bank swallows contained 104, and ten purple martins Thad sacrificed 205 of these insects. Jinny of these birds were seen to feed the inmates of their nests with young -locusts. But the roll call does not stop here, even if our space should; and we would gladly give the complete record for the roll of honor includes the yellow-headed blackbird, the vireas, shrikes, the bobolinks, Baltimore ori oles, Brewer's blackbirds, purple fe'racklc and others which ate locusts almost without limit. Not only these birds did their full duty, but even the ravens, the crows, the magpies and the bluejays followed up the good work and consumed vast numbers of the pests. The flycatchers and pewees were not far behind, while 343 "hop pers" were taken from the stomachs ci seven night hawks. The humming birds are generally regarded as simply ornamental, but Prof. Aughey states that his cat caught a specimen of the ruby-throated humming bird, whose stomach contained the bodies of four locusts. Ten specimens of the yellow Lillcd cuckoos yielded 410 locusts and 352 other insects. But the woodpeck ers were evidently bent on business, and did not confine themselves to a single article of diet, for 29 woodpeck ers contained 853 locusts and 725 in sects of various sorts. Even the birds of prey seemed to have joined in the good work, for IS owls examined dis played the remains of almost 000 lo custs and other insects. Not to be out done by the owls, the two i.awks which were taken gave up 378 locusts. In the erune line followed the wild turkeys, grouse, prairie hens and quail. Emu lating the above good examples, a large variety ot shore birds did almost equal ly good work, considering that their natural food is largely found in the -water. In view of the above, can any -i r farmer have a shadow of doubt as to the inestimable value of the "birds as aids in protecting his crops? If a few birds furnished such results for a sin gle day's work, what would be the result were a calculation to be made of the work of all the birds for an en tire season? All sorts of birds we?e examined, from the pelican, with its mammoth form, to the gem-like hum ming bird, and all proved to be the friends of the farmer in protecting his crops from the ruthless invader. How foolish is he who allows these his allies to be hunted as if they were robbers and enemies, and especially where he allows them to be slaughtered for no .good purpose. Would space permit we could refer to hundreds of cases, in many of which the evidence is even stronger than any given above, and nil of such unquestioned truthfulness .us to leave no doubt as to the facts in tin; matter. A word to the wise is suf- ilcieut. H. H. WATERS. WORK FOR CONVICTS. They Should lie niuiiloyoil In thcCn t motion of HomiIm. The abnormal Hoods along the Missis sippi river have provoked much discus sion of ways and means for preventing their future recurrence or for restrain ing the swollen stivani within safe lim its. Some urge a stronger and higher system of levees; others the opening of new, or reopening of old, channels, through which the river may b partly or wholly diverted from its present course; and others yet other projects, all, of course, involving the doing o: much work and the spending of much money. J. he further suggestion is made, " nppncnme ior me execution 01 any of these schemes, that the manual labor required on the vast job shall be done by the able-bodied inmates of the prisons of the various interested states. This suggestion is an eminently practical one, and It leads to the further sugges tion that just such jobs afford the best possible field for the employment of convict labor. Country and btiburban roads, for ex ample, which in all parts of the union are in need of improvement. The spi'ing season is the best of all times for road-building. It is the very tune when fanners and villagers are most busy with other matters and can least well devote attention to the roads. And it is the time when the housed-up pris oners are most in need of wholesome oc cupation in the open air. There are three elements of the problem which unerringly point to its right solution. If to do work when it can best be done, with the least possible disturbance of other industries and at the lowest cost to the proprietor and to the greatest benefit 1o the workmen, and, indeed, tc oil concerned if that be business wis dom, the inmates of our state prisons should be set at road-making forthwith. Tn that way they will get the exercise they need, the public will get the much needed good roads, and there will be no competition between convict and free labor. How much the convicts need such work is demonstrated in the Kings county penitentiary, where the inmates are reported to be In danger of going mad, some of them actually doing so. through enforced idleness. How much improved roads are needed almost any suburban or rural village will testify. X. Y. Tribune. MUZZLE FOR HEIFERS. A Now Kind Which In Sulil to Accom plish Crciit ThlitKN. One of the puzzling things in dairying is the bad habit that calves and heifers acquire of self-sucking and sucking each other. To remedy this, this muz zle is said to be equally effective for foals, and having no spikes cannot hurt i..:w- 7.- A MUZZLE FOR HEIFER. the mother when calf or foal attempts to suck. When weaned the flap of leather in front can be removed by un buckling the straps, and the other part converted into a useful leather head stall. This muzzle does not hinder ani mals from eating grass, even if it lie ery short, as the flap, if properly fixed, goes out in front suiliciently to enable them to graze with freedom. After hav ing them on foi a day or two they be come quite adopts at feeding with them. The two leather straps underneath the headstall, one on each side, and extend ing to the flap in front, can be shortened or lengthened at will. The two iron clips which are riveted on the front flap of the muzzle are to prevent it roll ing up when the leather gets wet. Farm Journal. DEPENDS ON FEEDING. lion' to Turn u Promising Cnlf Into n Prolltuhle. Cow. When cahes are intended to be grown for cows it is a great mistake to feed them so heavily as to increase the tendency to fatten. Often this can be seen at birth in the thick, bull-like neck and heavy head. In such case it is best to fatten and sell to the butcher, no matter what stock may be its ances try. But frequently also the calf wliich seems to be all right for a good milker is fed so heavily and on such fattening food that its tendency for life to pro duce fat and beef rather than milk and butter is fully established. To grow a good cow the calf should not be stunted, s.iys American Cultivator. That will impair digestion, which is just as im portant for the cow as it is for a beef animal. Calves intended to be kept for cows should have much succulent food, w ith enough of the kind of nutrition re quired to make large growth. Then it will be well developed and come early inlo heat. It Is always advisable to breed as early as possible. Then when the tendency to milk production hut been fully established, good feeding with the best food will turn the product ot the feed into the milk pail, whore it will be most for the farmer's profit tc huvc it. mm - a av Jjn sj-iJmi FARM AND GARDEN. HANDY ARRANGEMENT. Wiikoii Ilox for Fanner Who Soli Their Own Produce. The accompanying illustration shows a box for a farm wagon excellently adapted to the requirements of those who practice selling their farm prod ucts irom house to house in village or cltv. There arc four large compart ments, easily accessible, one In front, whose cover forms the seat of the driv er; one on each side, and one in the rear. Different sorts of bulky articles can be carried in these, while In hot weather one compartment can be fitted to contain Ice, for the well being of the butter and dressed poultry that is be ing marketed. In fact, there are many products of the farm that are benefited by going to market iced in the hottest of summer weather, such as early vege- BOX FOR FARM WAGON. tables, strawberries, cream, etc. The drawers at the bottom of the box will be found convenient for eggs in two or throe tiers of pasteboard egg fillers, or in the patent wire fillers, while the railed space on top will hold any articles that may be carried in bags or boxes. Many farmers have a strong prejudice against "peddling" their produce, ns the" call the house-to-house sale of it. This is an unfortunate prejudice, for selling directly to the consumer is one of the most profitable methods of dis posing of farm crops. Nor need it be at all disagreeable, if rightly managed. Have nothing but the best upon your cart; have regular routes and regular customers, and they will watch for your coining and make your trading agreeable. Selling at first hand means a steady cash income, and prices much higher than would be received from dealers. Then, too, it often means the sale of produce when the dealers are overstocked, and not willing to pur chase at any price. A valuable point to bo borne in mind I)- those who thus sell their farm wares is not only to have choice articles for sale, but to carry them to the customers in attractive shape. Let the wagon look neat, being well painted and having the name of the farm painted in bright let ters upon the sides. Then let the driver be neatly dressed, pleasant and gentle manly in his address, and the work will prosper. These little matters are of far more importance in the successful sell ing of furm products than many would helioe. Attractive appearance from beginning to end sells goods. Don't try to build up such a trade by using an old ramshackle wagon, with the articles for sale dumped indiscriminately on the bottom; such a plan doesn't attract pur chasers. N. Y. Tribune. WILL FIGHT LOCUSTS. NcliriiHku KiitmnoloKlHt'H (hiccr .IIIh nlon to South America. Millions of bushels of corn are an nually exported from Buenos Ayres, but Argentine has .so suffered from a plague of locusts that the entire crop has been destroyed, and not a shipload has been shipped this season. The chamber of commerce has engaged Prof. Lawrence Brunei', entomologist for the agricultural experimental sta tion of the University of Nebraska, to investigate the locust migration. He is now at Buenos Ayres, and if he suc ceeds in exterminating locusts and grasshoppers will receive a handsome bonus. He believes that methods em ployed in Nebraska will be efficacious in South America. During the plague in Nebraska he developed some won derful results. Farmers who desired aid sent in some healthy insects pro vided with suiliclent food to last to their journey's end. In return they received "sick" bugs In packages, with directions for using. The professor began by securing some dead insects, killed by the fungus sporotrichum globuliferum. They were placed in cages with healthy grasshoppers, kept in a high temperature, and the healthy insects were soon inoculated. The dis ease is a dry rot, which causes the bodies of the locusts to decay. The spread is rapid, and result fatal. It somewhat resemble leprosy in the human family. The disease begins to show from the second to the fourth day after the infection has been placed in the field. The bugs leave their food plant and keep moving rapidly. The next day they are sluggish and seek protection from the sun. From the sixth to the eighth day the first dead bugs are found wrapped in a fungus re sembling cotton. The insects do not have sense enough to seek a field not in fected, but remain in the locality where they are inoculated. Chicago Inter Ocean. Why lie In Poor. The farmer's overalls ore worn, His buck with toll Ih bont; HIh faded coat Is old and torn, Ho can't lay up a coat. Ho markets half a load of Kraln, For mud his farm enthralls, And so the extra trips explain The fanner's overhauls, Good Rouda. A FINE INVESTMENT. .Money Spoil! for (Jootl ItoniN Drawn nil llltlUCUNC tlltOI'CMt. The strongest argument which can bo made for good roads is to show the re sults which have come with their con struction. Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, otters an illustration, which contains an eloquent plea for good roads. That county has built ma cadamized roads during the past few years. Before they were built, two bales of cotton were considered a good load on the old dirt road, for a team of mules to draw. That was during fairly good weath er. When the weather was bad, no one undertook to haul cotton. Since the construction of macadamized roads, the ordinary load has been regularly in creased from two bales of cotton to ten, ami the same single pair of mules con tinue to draw it. The weather, too, is left entirely out of consideration. The roads are just as good after a rain as at any other time. Whenever the load can be properly protected, fanners rather prefer to do their hauling in rainy weather, because they are then unable to work In their Ileitis. Col. .1 . C. Tipton, of North Carolina, is authority for these statements, as made before the National Bond conference. Good roads will always raise the value of real estate. Beady access to market is considered a most valuable feature of farm property. This is why a farm near to a market town brings a much higher price than one situated several miles away. Where a farm is connected with a good market by a first-class road, Its distance becomes of little Importance. This has been strikingly shown in New Jersey. Farmers in that state have en joyed the benefits of good roads to a greater degree, perhaps, than any others. Ileal estate has risen in value wher ever macadamized roads have been built. II. II. Brown, a fanner residing at Old AN IDEAL, HIGHWAY. (Forest Hill Road, Near Chicago.) Bidge, N. J., declares that since his town lias built a few miles of macadam roads, property has almost doubled in value. New Jersey farmers are enthu siastic for the further extension of the state aid system, under which the im proved roads of that state have been built. Good roads have paid for themselves in New Jersey. They have paid for themselves in North Carolina, In Massa chusetts and in Connecticut, the states in which the greatest progress has so far been made in their construction. France, Germany, Holland and Belgium have found macadam roads profitable. Is there any reason why they should prove unprofitable in any state in the union, with our vast agricultural inter ests? Our exports of grain are growing steadily from year to year. Machinery is used at every step. Large amounts are spent for this machinery each year, because of the saving it effects. If our agriculture is to continue to compete in the markets of the world, those who are engaged in it must practice economy at every stop. The loss due to bad roads is one of the greatest wastes of energy connected with farming as carried on in tills country. Why not, then, invest in good roads, which will save farmers more than any other investment they can make? Otto Dorner, in Cycling Gazette. I'roiier IIiumIIIiik of (tniiiN, Grapes, like other fruits, need to be carefully handled to bring the best prices. The vines need to be gone over frequently during the ripening season, gathering only those with full color, because grapes do not, like other fruits, color after being gathered. The bunch es should be cut oil with a pair of scis sors, and so handled as not to disturb the bloom. Ordinary varieties maybe at once packed from the vinos into the basket that is intended for sale. Choice varieties should be gathered into shal low trays or baskets, in which they hhould stand a day or two on shelves in the fruit house, and then repacked. By this treatment the steins will wilt, and the bunches will then keep without molding and pack more closely than when green. The Coloring of Hotter. One of the nice points in butter-making is to color the butter the proper shade, as the quantity of color used must almost continuously be changed, according to the season. Groat care must bo taken to use the properamount of salt. A butter-maker's eye or taste may deceive him, and he may not see butter other than his own make more than once or twice a year, perhaps not that often, so it is pretty hard for him to fix his eye on the proper shade for color and his taste for the proper amount of salt. Field and Farm. FUS.V WOMEN. They Are Not All .Slonilor Don't Itc fonir to Any l'nrtleulnr CiihIc. Of what use is n fussy woman In the emergencies of life? She loses hor head figuratively, in an accident; fidgets the patient's nerves to fiddle strings in a sick-room and becomes su jine and hysterical In a domestic cata clysm. Does the fussy, fidgety woman ever enjoy herself on n pleasure trip, or, as important, does she ever allow members of her party to enjoy them selves? Barely, I think. 1 took a bank holiday excursion trip to Margate this year In search of "copy," and the full significance of the fussy woman wns borne In upon mo by one of the occu pants of the third-class carriage that I elected to honor with my company. She was a largo woman with a largo party. Sho upset ono of my precon ceived notions that fat women never fuss, for she was very largo and she fussed very conspicuously. 1 had watched hor on tho platform before the train canio in Bight. She was makiugspasmodio dives after her purse, her tickets, her children, her lunch bas kets; sho was evidently possessed with the notion that sho was about to lose them. When sho had cackled all into tho carriage her fussing was not fin ished; sho fussed becauso she could not seo where tho 'am sandwiches 'ad Kot put to; she fussed because George had lost his penny; she fussed becauso she could not make up hor mind whether it would be (better to have the window up or down; sho fussed becauso some body "thought as 'ow it might bo r'in ing in Margit," and she omitted to bring the "macs." The climax of her fussing wns seen when the departure bell sounded and "Sandy," presumably her husband, had not conic back from having a "arf-and-arf" with his mate In the resterong." Sho was a specimen of the lower-class "fusser," but 1 have encountered quite as bad fidgets among women of a higher grade, and 1 am not sure that their fuss ing is not more trying than the fussing of the lower-class woman, who may perhaps be pardoned for not knowing any better. Daughter. DAINTY COTTON MATERIALS. ainWe I'rotty CoHtumen lor the Warm Seiinoii. Grass linen, in plaids, stripes, laco effects, embroidered and plain, again is prepared to lead all transparent fabrics. It is to bo found for twonty ilvo cents up to five dollars a yard and In several shades of tho "natural" color. The heavier linen crashes nro of an Improved smoother weave, and are gray and natural colored at 15 to CO cents for odd skirts and jacket suits. Striped and flowered dimities aro in light green, blue, pink, yellow and vio let shudes at 15 to 50 cents for dresses and shirt waists. Organdies are even prettier than they were last summer, in naturul-looklng blossoms over delicately-tinted grounds, and will retail ut from 25 to 00 cents. Their rival is. Swiss muslin with small or medium dots and all of the light tints for the ground, which may be plain or in lloral figures. Plain-colored lawns will sell chielly for lining those transparent ma terials. Piques will flouribh In splto of the crash fever, in medium cords of one or two colors, and are only intended for jacket suits. Plaids hi every material, silk, wool and cotton, nro among tho promised successes. Percale In stripes, dots and small figures sells at from ten to twenty-five cents for shirt waists and morning dresses. A touch of black in tho figure is very stylish hi cotton fabrics. In white goods dimity, Swiss muslin, nainsook, organdie and lawn have tho preference, and aro ranked among the cheapest as well as the most expensive goods. Foreign and domestic ginghams show plaid, striped, checked, etc., patterns, in which green is promi nent, as it is in all wash goods. Ging ham is not us popular as it was owing to tho craze for sheer goods, but it was too useful a fabric for women and chil dren to be without. This is in medium sized plaids, stripes of immense variety and checks of various kinds. Green, red, strong pink, yellow and a touch of black are prominent tints introduced in ginghams. Vivid colors predomi nate in all spring materials. Ladies' Home Journal. The Wearing of TucItM. To bo really fashionable one must wear tucks. They are seen on every thing, and the work on some of the new blouses and bodices Is enormous. Not only are quarter-inch tucks closely set in groups all over tho bodice and up the sleeves, but these are frequently supplemented by a tucked bolero and by groups of tucks on the skirt. Even, low cut evening bodices are arranged with tucked draperies of lisse. Some times the tucks are horizontal, but more frequently they are arranged to nui around the figure. Philadelphia Press. Fruit JiiinhlcH. One cupful butter, two cupfuls sugar, one cupful rich buttermilk, 4s cupfuls flour, three tenspoonfuls baking pow der, ono teaspoouful each cloves and cinnamon, one cupful stoned, chopped rnslns. Mix soft as possible, lay a largo spoonful for each jumble on buttered tins and sprinkle with sugar. Ladles' World. Cuiillllotvur Sill ltd. Boil a cauliflower till about two thirds done; let it get cold, then break it in branches, and lay them neatly in lish. It is then ready for the dressing. Good Housekeeping.