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Tho Nebraska Independent
OCTOBER 25, 190
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Agricultural
Iowa's Great Corn Crop
, That Iowa should produce this im
mense crop of corn is not due so
much to increased acreage as to more
careful preparation for planting the
crop, according to authorities at the
agricultural college. Professor P. G.
Holden, of Ames College, is responsi
ble in a great measure for the in
crease, for while the acreage has. been
increased less than 8 per cent the
crop has been increased almost 20
per cent. Professor Holden was the
originator of the "seed corn gospel
train," and he has insisted on the far
mers and grain growers testing their
seed corn and securing, better stands,
until the farmers of Iowa have tried
the experiment and declare this year
that more than seventy millions of
bushels of the increase in Iowa's corn
crop is due to the scientific method of
tes'ing and planting seed corn. Prof.
Holden promised that the yield would
be increased 15 per cent this year if
the farmers of Iowa would spend a
few winter evenings testing seed corn,
lie has not only "made good," but the
crop of 400 million bushels shows
that the corn crop of the seven great
corn s'ates could be increased half
a billion buehels if the farmers test
their corn. When Prof. Holden began
preaching the "gcspel of better corn,"
or the science of agronomy, the far
mers laughed at the idea, but he was
not long m proving that in the aver
age field of Iowa corn the percentage
of a perfect stand was between 39 and
S2 6 per cent and that the average
loss because of poor seed was 28.7 per
cent This be estimated on the basis
that about three and one-third stalks
to the hill should be estimated as a
perfect stand. He argued that for
years the average yield of corn in Iowa
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Close to Nature
The method of treatment and
life at GREEN GABLES, the Dr.
BenJ. F. Bailey Sanatorium, Lin
coln, Nebraska, are those of good
old Mother Nature. In their
work the management do not
attempt to controvert nature,
but enter into partnership with
her. They do not ride hobbies
or feel satisfied to dismiss their
guests as "well" when only able
to live the l a of an ascetic or
extremist. They prepare them
to be strong of body cheery of
heart and active In all things.
Write for particulars.
Department
was thirty-five bushels to the acre. A
yield of thirty-five bushels with a 70
per cent stand would become fifty
bushels with a 100 per cent Btand.
Gradually Prof. Holden's method has
been adopted. The stands have been
better and he has noted in fields where
he found a 55.3 per cent stand last
year a stand of fully 88.9 this year,
while the average field he has exam
ined has had a stand equal to above
91.2 per cent of a perfect stand where
tested seed was planted. While Iowa
farmers re joice in the big crop which
they have produced, the authorities
at the agricultural college at Ames,
Iowa, are pointing to the fact that
fcientific corn production has been
vindicated.
Points of a Good Horse
Here are some good suggestions
from a Canadian bulletin, giving the
points of a good reliable horse:
"If a horse is short-ribbed he is
light in his middle and is nearly al
ways a poor feeder.
"A light-centered horse seldom
weighs well, and weight in a draft
horse, if it comes from bone, sinew
and muscle, gees a long way to de
termine his commercial value.
"A stallion whose feet are contract
ed and brittle and whose hocks are
puffy and fieshy-looking should be
avoided, as such hocks are generally
associated with a coarseness through
out his whole conformation and a gen
eral lack of quality.
"When a horse is well coupled to
gether on top and has a short back,
he must have the length below from
the point of the shoulder to the back
of the thigh. When so built he will
stand the strain of drawing heavy
oads much better than if he has a
ong, loose back.
"The front feet and hocks are the
parts of either a draft or a driving
horse that come directly in contact
with the hard work, and unless they
are sound and good a horse's useful
ness will be very much impaired and
his commercial value very much les
sened.
"Before using a stallion get the
groom to lead mm away rrom you.
Stand square behind him and see that
he picks up his feet and places them
on the ground properly, traveling in
both trot and walk clear and clean,
not striking the ground first with the
toe. and then bringing down the
heel.
"The feet should be large and waxy
in appearance. The sole of the hoof
should be concave, the frog spongy
plump and elastic, because it acts as
a buffer to take the concussion from
acting too severely on the foot, pas
tern, and fetlock. See that both sire
and dam have Bound feet, free from
flatness, brittleness and are not con
tracted. There should be no "gum-
miness" about the hocks of the draft
horse, as it indicates coarseness
They should be large, flat and firm,
and should be wide, especiall from
side view.
Don't Forget the Charcoal
Everybody will soon be busy with
fall work, but it will not do to forget
to provide charcoal for the hogs. O
course wood charcoal is the best, and
corncob cinders come next. Some
farmers dump coal ashes Into the hog
pen occasionally and let it go at that.
Charcoal should all be burned inside
the pig pen; none will be wasted in
that way. Manage to get a few pieces
of good hard wood and throw on top
of cob pile. Then when all is burned
down, sprinkle it with a lot of coarse
salt. This will do the goods good, and
may stave aff cholera.
Scratchings
If your poultry is not paying you
the profit they should ask yourself
a few pertinent questions. Mayhap
the hens are not at fault. Be honest
about it.
A poultry show is a great place for
poultrymen to gather and exchange
ideas. Are you planning to attend
one this winter? Better do it.'
It's a good plan to buy your new
male birds now as they are cheaper
than they will be next spring. If you
can secure a tried cock at a nominal
cost just as well or perhaps a little
better get possession of him than buy
an untried one.
. If the young turkeys have plenty of
range and good food they will do well
if left to themselves. If they must bo
fed it is time to think of preparing
them for the Thanksgiving market.
Keep the roosters away from the
hens from now until the breeding sea
son opens.
Frosted combs and frozen feet are
not compatible with profitable egg pro
duction. What provision have you
made toward housing your poultry
this winter? Better be thinking ser
iously about that question and get
busy if you are not already prepared
for cold weather.
Dryness is an essential requirement
of a good poultry house. Many fawl
diseases arise from lack of proper
ventilation. Build your poultry
houses with an eye toward the health
of your fowls as well as convenience
for yoirse'X
nil ths dz.zt box3 while 1 dust Is
plentiful. It will keep.
Sixteen hundred birds is not a bad
noultrv show in itself, is it? There
were more than that number on ex
hibition at the Kansas State fair.
If you can develop a local market
there is extra money in selling your
noultrv dressed rather than alive. In
vestigate and see what you can do In
that line.
It costs from 75 cents to $1.00 per
year to reed a nen. to determine
which are the profitable ones all that
will be required is to determine how
many eggs each hen lays during the
year. At 15 cents a dozen as the
average price for eggs the year round
hen must lay from five to seven
dozen eggs per year m order to pay
her board. They must do better than
that though else they will not be
profitable. One must get more than
cost of maintenance in order to make
a profit. Study the egg production
of your hens as you should the milk
production of your cows and get rid
of the unprofitable ones.
The winter quarters for your laying
hens should be dry, moderately warm
well lighted and ventilated. A dirt
floor is preferable to board. Supply
them with a variety of foods. Make
their winter life as near like their
summer life as possible. Make them
work for their feed by throwing the
grain food such as corn, wheat, oats
etc., among the litter in the scratch
ing pen. A lazy hen will get fat if
well fed and a fat hen will lay no eggs,
Keep the quarters clean, and if your
fowls are of egg-laying strains they
will lay well.
The Dairy
When rape, cabbage, turnips and
other vegetables which often taint the
milk are fed to cows, they should be
fed immediately after milking and not
too large quantities.
Dark, poorly ventilated and filthy
stables are the greatest agents in the
proading of this disease, and sunlight
and cleanliness are the strongest pre
ventives. Keep the stables well
cleaned, let the sun shine in when
ever possible, avoid introducing into
your herd affected animals, and you
will not need to fear tubercular affec
tions. Many dairymen seem to think that
a cow should produce a profitable flow
of milk regardless of the quality or
quantity of feed she receives. Put
some of these men at hard labor and
allow them to rustle up what they
could find to eat, and nothing more.
and we figure that the howl they
would raise would be out of all pro
portion to the damage done.
Nature has provided every healthy
cow with an apparatus which pro
duces absolutely clean, pure milk. It
expected of the dairyman that he
will see that the hands of the milkers,
the milking utensils, the cow's udder
nd the churns are kept equally clean,
'he employment of more sanitary pre
cautions in and about the dairy is the
factor which will most quickly raise
the quality and price of dairy prod
ucts. Buyers of these products recog
nize differences in quality, and are
very willing to pay an increased price
for something gooa.
An exchange says: "A one-legged
milking stool in the hands of a man
who has a little less sense than the
cow, can do a good deal toward cut
ting down the milk supply." Why
slander a good cow by such a compar-
son? .
The extent to which butter is some
times contaminated by foul odors to
which it is exposed is sometimes a
matter of surprise to dairymen, as well
as the consumers of ihe butter. s It is
well to realize that milk or cream
should always be kept in a clean
place, where the air is pure and
sweet. If this is not done a condi
tion similar to the one described in
the following exchange is "very likely
to be brought about:
Bings Uncle Cy has changed his
brand of smoking tobacco.
Mrs. Bings Indeed? You haven't
seen Uncle Cy in three months.
This is Aunt Mandy's butter?
Yes.
Keep the cream on the pantry shelf
don't them?
Yes.
Mange in Hogs is not difficult to
cure and seldom causes death. It. is
caused by a parasite under the sur
face of the skin, which produces irri
tation and later a scab. This is con
tagious. The best treatment Is to
wash the pigs in soft water and soap,
then rub In dry sulphur. Repeat In
a week. A third treatment is seldom
necessary.
New England is not the only part of
the world where the "abandoned
farms" are a problem. In Portugal
10 million acres, or 44 per cent of the
total area of the country, has gone
out of cultivation and a systematic
effort has been Btarted to reclaim this
land and make it productive. An ex
periment is being tried with 100,000
acres, dividing it up into allotments
of 15 acres each and letting it at a
nominal rental to settlers. Quite a
heterogeneous mixture of settlers has
already taken possession. Carpen
ters, masons, doctors, chemists, bar
bers, seamstresses, tailors, and even
beggars, figure in the list. While such
people do not know much about faxnv