s 
 Sol 
 
 ©veim Secreit; 
 
 IN HUSBANDRY. 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 General Prl-qciples of EconoTTjical 
 
 Life, wltl-| Instructlo-qs for 
 
 h^dustrial Pursuits. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH G. JAMISON, 
 
 KiRKSVILLE, Mo. 
 
Class 
 
 Book. 
 
 Copyright ]^^. 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
I 
 

 e^emi Secrett; 
 
 IN HUSBANDRY. 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 General Prir^ciples of Econorrjlcal 
 
 Life, with( InstrLictioqs for 
 |V / ' •nci'-istrial Pursuits 
 
 'u; 
 
 JOSEPH G. JAMISON, 
 
 KiRKSVILLE, Mo. 
 
Entered According to Act of Congress iif 
 
 the year 1895, by 
 
 JOSEPH G. JAMISON. 
 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congresf^ 
 
 at Washington. 
 
 
GONTRNTS. 
 
 How to Destro}^ Insects About the Orchard 
 
 and Garden, o 
 
 How to Put Out Fruit Trees That Will Last a 
 
 Generation, ..... 7 
 
 How to Produce a Milk and Butter Herd of 
 
 Cattle, 11 
 
 How to Prevent Abortion in Animals, . . lo 
 How to Remove a Retained Afterbirth from 
 
 Animals, 1'^ 
 
 How a Few Men Breed Better Annuals Than 
 
 Others, 17 
 
 How to Grow Calves That Do Not Scoure But 
 
 Feed Well, 20 
 
 How to Fight the Cattle Fly, . . .22 
 
 How to Destroy the Ground Mole or Gopher, 24 
 How to Keep Eggs from One Year to Another, 2(t 
 How to Keep Butter from One Year to Another, 28 
 How to Advance the Maturing of Melons Ten 
 
 Days ...... oO 
 
 How to Advance the Maturing of Strawberries 
 
 Seven Days, o2 
 
 How to Keep the Peach Orchard Bearing, . 84 
 How to Profit By the Variation of Animals, . 86 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ^Tj^FlIS little volume has been prepared with 
 ^ the desift'Ti (3f furDishina: a deserving; class 
 of our people with information that is calcu- 
 lated to brino; to them better returns for their 
 labor. The different subjects have been com- 
 mented upon to some extent, but the matter 
 in each division has been reduced to as small 
 space as circumstances would admit of. The 
 contents of this volume is of an expensive 
 character; it has been hard to ^et and has 
 cost a great deal of both time and money, 
 l)ut the author has for several years been of 
 the belief that it is better to buy the experi- 
 of others than to use up the most useful part 
 of our own lives trying experiments. As small 
 as thiis work is, the reader will find it to con- 
 tain more real value than has heretofore been 
 published in large and expensive volumes. 
 The author feels confident that all who may 
 read this book will be well satisfied with their 
 venture and be proud of a courage that has 
 induced them to try to gather information 
 on these subjects. 
 
How to Destroy Insects About the 
 Orchard and Garden. 
 
 EVERY ONE who has lived fifty years 
 kDOWS that insects did not interfere with 
 fruit in the newly settled parts of this coun- 
 try. But at this time apples, as hardy a 
 thing as they are, are apparantly eaten up 
 by the w^orms. I will ask, why is this? When 
 the reader's mind is called to the fact they 
 will see the trouble at once. Fifty years 
 back there was a very large scope of country 
 that had no settlements, and many parts 
 were thinly settled, and all sorts of fruit were 
 grown with very little care. The birds were 
 as thick as the cattle-fly in latter days; as the 
 country settled up and the timber was de- 
 stroyed the birds had to fall back, or, I will 
 say, they had to go with the Indians, and 
 have been treated much like the buffalo of 
 our plains. This government has imported 
 birds to some extent, but there is no use in 
 trying to maintain a variety of birds in this 
 country for many years to come. The people 
 are too destructive and. the towns are too 
 
6 
 
 thick to accomplish anything in that way. 
 Every family can maintain a flock of birds of 
 their own large enough to use up all the in- 
 sects about the place, and they will never 
 trouble anything but insects and work only 
 for the family that prepares nests for them. 
 That bird is the little house wren. It is said 
 that one pair of them will catch and carry tr) 
 their young in one day's time eight or ten 
 hundred insects. The wren is a very prolific 
 bird; they raise from two to three broods of 
 young each year, and no one would think of 
 injuring a wren; the cat is the only enemy 
 they have and the wren will beat the cat ev- 
 ery time if you will put their next-boxes up 
 right. Make boxes about four by six inches, 
 with a hole in them about an inch in size, 
 nail them up on the sides and ends of your 
 out-buildings, or where the wrens can find 
 them, and ^^ our part of the work is done. 
 
How to Put Out Fruit Trees That Will 
 Last More Than One Generation. 
 
 -^^HE growing of fruit has become a critical 
 ^ business, and the Amerinan people are 
 very much discouraged as to the probable 
 outcome. The deterioration of our orchards 
 has been increasing tor several years. Farm- 
 ers who were a few years ago reiving upon 
 their orchards for ready money, now have in 
 some instances, to buy fruit or have their 
 families deprived of its use. The thinking- 
 people are now looking the grounds over to 
 see if they can discover the reason for this 
 change. Our investigations have caused us 
 to believe xhat all of this loss of trees and 
 their fruit has been brought about mostly by 
 our own hands. While we may be told that 
 the decaying vegetation is of a difierent char- 
 acter now to w^hat it was in an earlv day, it 
 is equally proper for us to say if the timber 
 had been left standing, the results in that 
 particular would be about the same. The 
 reader must admit that the destruction of 
 the timber and of our birds would naturally 
 
bring about a change of some sort. We think 
 deception has also fi^>-urpd to some extent in 
 this matte; : and to be more pointed, we will 
 say that the dealers in trees have done their 
 part in bringing about this destruction of 
 fruit trees. The nursery business never would 
 have been worth anything if the fruit busi- 
 ness had been conducted in a natural way, 
 and the reader will bear in mind that when 
 nature is interferred with it always makes 
 trouble. Dealers in fruit trees found it to 
 their interest to make, to a certain extent, 
 false statements in regard to the production 
 of fruit. To begin with, the farmer could 
 grow trees from the seed as well as any dealer 
 in trees could, which is the key to the whole 
 matter. And there could be no reliable deal- 
 ers in trees if produced in that way: they 
 could not know what sort of fruit their trees 
 might produce, and it has been to their ad- 
 vantage to tell the people that fruit from the 
 seed was not so good as grafted trees would 
 produce; in fact, they could pointjout trees of 
 a worthless character and at the sane time 
 exhibit specimens of unusually good fruit 
 trom grafts. This fine appearing fruit being 
 Haunted before the eyes of purchasers, they 
 
naturally wbuld forget how good fruit origi- 
 nates, and while the dealer must admit that 
 all fruits came from the seed, they always 
 made it a point to inform purchasers that 
 such a production as their fruit could hardly 
 be produced in a lifetime from seed. To pro- 
 duce trees that will last one's lifetime, they 
 must be produced from the seed, and it is all 
 a mistake that good fruit cannot be produced 
 in that way. We very readily admit that a 
 great deal of poor fruit may come from the 
 seed, but it is easy to arrange for such a 
 thing. Every one should know that goo^ 
 apples do not grow on thorn trees. We must 
 plant seed from the sort of fruit that we want 
 to grow, and we have about as many chances 
 to get better fruit as to get worse— that is 
 Nature's rule in all thmgs. The proper way 
 to grow trees is to plant seed from good spec- 
 imens, in good soil, in rows about four feet 
 apart, and after they start to grow well, thin 
 them to from ten to fifteen inches apart, and 
 cultivate well, then the secf^nd or third year 
 go through and thin out again, taking out 
 all the dwarfs and rough-looking trees, sav- 
 ing all that are smooth and vigorous in ap- 
 pearance. One with a good eye can pick a 
 
10 
 
 good tree from the appearance of its leaves 
 and the maDner in which its branches appear; 
 in fact, one cao pick a young tree that will 
 produce the same fruit that the parent tree 
 did; if any of them show some remarkable 
 points they should always be retained and 
 the bad-looking- ones destroyed. In this way 
 you will get into your orchard very little 
 poor fruit The small trees should be set 
 where the orchard is to stand, and cultivate 
 them well as long as the branches of the trees 
 will admit of it, and if it is necessary to set 
 the trees on ground that cannot be cultivat- 
 ed, we should dig about the trees and mulch 
 well with straw or coarse weeds, but in either 
 case to keep away the worms we should have 
 a flock of our house wrens, and a stock of 
 liquid manure which we prepare by locating 
 a barrel or hogshead and tilling it one-third 
 full of unleached horse manure and filling up 
 with water. Let it stand six or eight days, 
 kpeping it stirred up well; then apply about 
 one gallon of the strong liquid to the trunks 
 and roots of each tree twice a week after sun- 
 set through the spring and up to the middle 
 of the summer, putting in fresh manure as 
 the liquid becomes diluted. This will keep 
 
the worms out and invigorate the trees. We 
 want to grow the trees without their receiv- 
 ing any blemishes to cause decay. If we suc- 
 ceed in this we have trees, if grown from the 
 seed, that will last more than one generation. 
 
 How to Produce a Milk and Butter Herd 
 of Cattle. 
 
 EVFRY ONE who has handled milch cows 
 knows that there is a wonderful differ- 
 ence in their production of milk and butter, 
 and it is rather well understood that for 
 milking purposes it is better to save heifers 
 from good milking cows. We will admit this 
 to be the better course, but at the same time 
 we will find but a small per cent, of heifers 
 picked up in this way that will meet our ex- 
 pectations. To produce a milking herd of 
 cattle, we must start right. We must have a 
 cow that IS a good milk and butter producer, 
 and is capable of conveying her qualities to 
 her offspring. There are but few cows of this 
 sort, but thpy can be found in almost any 
 neighborhood, and their owners know or 
 care but little for these qualities, while at the 
 
^12 
 
 same time they are possessed of a cow of 
 the most valuable type; for once possessed 
 of a cow of this sort, we are fixed for life. We 
 do not have to fool away the most useful 
 part of our lives changing cows. How this 
 peculiar habit originates is hard to tell, but 
 we have learned enough from the human race 
 to know that it first originates through the 
 female, and if it is well fixed it will never run 
 out, no matter what they are bred to. There 
 are difi'erent degrees of power in conveying 
 this habit, and if your cow is a little weak 
 but sure in this matter, we must mate her 
 with a male out of a cow of this sort— that 
 would be the proper course with any cow. 
 The female that impresses a habit like this is 
 about as likely to makp the impression in a 
 bull as a heifer calf. The origin of this pecul- 
 iar habit is something like a strawberry on 
 the child's head— it is as apt to be on a male 
 as a female, and the child is always ready to 
 eat strawberries, and the mother can tell you 
 why it is so, though the cow cannot tell you 
 about her calf. Some have it that this milk- 
 ing habit started through the male, as they 
 sometimes transfer it regularly, but it is for- 
 gotten what he may have had for a dam. 
 
13- 
 
 How to Prevent Abortion in Animals 
 
 ^BORTION often assumes an epidemic 
 -^^"^ character affecting- whole herds, and at 
 times will include a large extent of country. 
 We are told that to prevent abortion or to 
 stop its progress, we must ascertain the cause 
 or causes producing it, but this has been a 
 difficult point for the profession to determine. 
 While professional writers mention many 
 causes which are supposed to produce com- 
 mon or sporadic abortion, we are inclined 
 to think the main cause has been overlooked. 
 Abortion that assumes an epidemic charac- 
 ter can almost always be traced to herds 
 which have been well housed and fed concen- 
 trated food. We seldom find abortion pre- 
 vailing: to any g^reat extent where cattle sleep 
 and eat in the open air. While stables seem 
 to be almost indispensable to dairymen they 
 should prepare themselves to prevent abor- 
 tions in their herds b.\ having perfect venti- 
 lation, and the next thing should be to pre- 
 pare a variety of food, for there is no question 
 but that confinement in a foul atmosphere 
 
14 — 
 
 iiind being highly fed on a single concentrated 
 food will in itself produce abortion. We think 
 stock of any sort to do well and keep healthy 
 should have a change of food, and if stockmen 
 will feed one-half pint of hemp seed to their 
 cows every fourth or fifth day through the 
 winter or during pregnancy, there will be no 
 abortions in that herd. This remedy has 
 been used to some extent for many years, but 
 not always to an advantage on account of 
 the manner in which it has been adminis- 
 tered. Parties who have recommended hemp 
 seed in abortions have always left the im- 
 pression that there was time enough to doc- 
 tor after the cows get sick. We think the 
 proper course would be to feed the seed before 
 they get sick so that they may remain 
 healthy. 
 
■15- 
 
 How to Remove the Afterbirth. 
 
 /fJ^OWS in prodocing' calves, are at times 
 ^^=^ unable to expel the placenta, or after 
 birth. When the afterbirth is retained any 
 length of time the cow becomes feveri&h and 
 v-ery feeble. In such cases families have been 
 deprived of the cow's milk for months. This 
 can all be avoided by removing the afterbirth 
 which should be done within twenty-four 
 hours after parturition. Veterinarians ad- 
 vise the introduction of the hand to loosen 
 the confined parts. This, however, requires 
 some experience to be successful in the opera- 
 tion. Retention of the afterbirth seems to be 
 brou2:ht about by contraction of the neck of 
 the womb soon after partuition. The placen- 
 ta containing a row of large lumps, it is im- 
 possible for the cow to expel the substance 
 after the parts contract behind them, if we 
 cause the neck of the womb to dilate, the cow 
 has but little trouble in discharging the sub- 
 stance. We have been successful in bringing 
 this about with the use of flax seed. As soon 
 as we find that the afterbirth is being re- 
 
16 
 
 tained, we mix between one and two ounces 
 of whole flax seed with the cow's oats or 
 bran twice a day until she gets relief. Whole 
 flax seed, when adujinistered in reasonable 
 quantities, will always dilate the neck of the 
 womb sufficiently to pass the placenta, which 
 is done through a natural efi^ort of the cow. 
 After this takes place there is nothing to be 
 done more than to nurse the cow for a few 
 days until she regains her strength. Oil-cakes 
 made from flax seed do not have the desired 
 effect; it seems that extracting the oil from 
 flax seed destroys this peculiar effect. 
 
-IT 
 
 Why a Few Parties Breed Better Ani 
 mals Than Others. 
 
 THE breeding of good animals is always the 
 result of knowledge or a mere accident. 
 The production of live stock has now too 
 much expense attached to it tu rely upon ac-. 
 cidental breeding. There have always been a 
 few men in this country who knew what was 
 required to produce a good animal, but they 
 have, when speaking ot their peculiar way of 
 breeding, misled their hearers. If we expect 
 to producegood animals, we must mate good 
 things together, and to do this we must be 
 prepared to know good things when we see 
 them. To grow a tirst-class animal it has 
 got to be able to digest all the food that its 
 stomach will hold, and that sort of an ani- 
 mal has its peculiar make-up, and its muscu- 
 lar formation indicates the amount of power 
 it may have in that particular. We will se- 
 lect cattle as a subject in this article. It has 
 been said that it is useless to try to breed 
 away the faults of an old cow; if that be true, 
 it would be equally hard to breed away her 
 
18 
 
 g;ood points, and her good or bad feeding 
 qualities are brought about by the strength 
 of her muscles. We can see the size and elas- 
 ticity of the muscles at the points where they 
 come together, and the most noted points 
 ot meeting are the navel and rectum. It can 
 be seen better in the calf— a calf with a 
 large and firm navel and a rectum wnth such 
 large and strong muscles that ridges are 
 formed about its terminus. We would expect 
 a calf of that sort to feed and grow well- 
 makes of this sort indicate endurance. This 
 sort of a cow will stand shipping to market 
 with half the loss or shrinkage that the aver- 
 age cow will. These marks in a breeding bull 
 indicate a sure and a regular breeder; his 
 calves will feed well and seldom scour or 
 founder. It seems to be natural for cattle to 
 throw off excrement in case of excitement or 
 placed in a strange position, and those that 
 have flabby muscles have no power to con- 
 trol themselves in this respect which always 
 terminates in a loss of flesh. We get the idea 
 in using horses. We bring out a horse for a 
 few hours' drive; he appears to be healthy 
 and in a tine fix; as soon as he is put in mo- 
 tion we get the result of his muscular power; 
 
19 
 
 if his rectum, or anus is large and flabby he 
 will throw oft* a large amount of excrement 
 and in a. few hours he will begin to fag- and 
 will very soon appear like a tiorse that had 
 been badly treated. On the other hand if 
 our horse has his muscles well concentrated 
 and strong at the points before mentioned, 
 his appearance after being used will be en- 
 tirely different from the first horse described. 
 
-20- 
 
 How to Grow Calves That do not Scour. 
 
 MOST every cattle man has more or less 
 trouble with his calves' digestive or- 
 gaDS. It is very anuoyin^- for onr calves to 
 be always runiiiug off at the bowels. There 
 are ^wo reasons for this trouble— one is a 
 scrofulous nature that has been inherited, 
 but the most prevailing cause originates in 
 the dam's milk. It is not known by every 
 one that the most effective way to administer 
 medicine to a suckling of any sort is to put 
 it in the dam's feed. We knew a very intelli- 
 gent man a few years ago to kill a whole lit- 
 ter of pigs by giving the mother medicine. It 
 never hurt the mother for the reason that 
 she was much older than the pigs. If a calf 
 has no scrofula it is not so hard to keep it 
 healthy and thriving, and it is much better 
 to guard the mother than the calf. We want 
 to feed the cow food that is easily digested. 
 If she be fed grain, it should be in small quan- 
 tities, and mill-feed seems to have a worse 
 effect on the calf than corn; it seems as if Na- 
 ture had formed the cow's stomach for the 
 
21 
 
 consumption of grass. In herds of pedigreed 
 stock we often find cattle that have had their 
 stomachs so impaired when small that they 
 could barely take food enough to keep them 
 alive. Think of stuffing the tender stomach 
 of a new born calf with ccrn or any other 
 concentrated food. Bear in mind that what 
 we feed the cow the calf gets if it takes her 
 milk. Give the calf time for its stomach to 
 prepare for these things and then they will 
 not set up inflammation in the lining mem- 
 brane« of the stomach and intestines. If it is 
 necessary to feed the cow to produce milk 
 and butter, and the calf is inclined to scour 
 bad, you may add to the mother's feed one 
 tablespoonful of powdered chalk twice a day, 
 which will hold it in check. 
 
22- 
 
 How to Fight the Cattle-Fly. 
 
 ^^HE little cattle-fly has become so bold 
 ^ vwthin the last few years that the people 
 feel worried with them. Inquiries have been 
 sent out asking for relief if it could be had. 
 State experiment stations have taken the 
 matter into consideration and so tar have 
 only found temporary relief from any sub- 
 stance they have tried. Parties have been 
 advertising remedies as a sure and perma- 
 nent thing to keep off the fly. We find their 
 remedy to be tar and oil made firm with a 
 harder substance, and it is very unhandy to 
 apply, and but few persons ever apply it 
 more than once. Tar in any form will fright- 
 en the fly away for a while, but as soon as 
 thev learn that it will not stick them fast 
 they return to their work. Grease of any 
 sort is disliked by theee pests; they know that 
 they cannot wade through it if it is very 
 deep. After all the information we can get 
 and the experience we have, we think the best 
 and most convenient course for owners of 
 stock, would be to prepare a mixture of tar 
 
23 
 
 and oil. loa can use any cheap oil that 
 flows well, such as cotton seed or fish oil, and 
 to make it more convenient we would use one 
 ounce of the oil of tar to two ounces of fish 
 oil. Prepare a woolen cloth filled with the 
 mixture and rub down the horse or cow- 
 about three times a week. The mixture will 
 dampen the hair and make the animal look 
 wleek if rubbed properly. Horses should be 
 rubbed with the mixture every time they are 
 taken out: if this i.« done our horse does not 
 only look well, but will remain more quiet for 
 the reason that he is not being troubled with 
 the flies. 
 
■24- 
 
 How to Destroy Moles or Gophers. 
 
 ^nT^HE ^Tound mole costs the people a great 
 ^ deal of trouble as well as some loss of 
 crops. There has been a general inquiry as 
 to what could be done to destroy them. Two 
 or three moles will work over a good-sized 
 garden. The people have tried poisoning 
 them without much success. Bisulphide of 
 carbon is a simple agent for the destruction 
 of moles. It is used by saturating a bunch 
 of cotton or rags with it and introducing it 
 into their runs by opening a place that has 
 recently been worked up; place the saturated 
 T ackage well into the run and then close up 
 the opening good so that the gas may not 
 escape. Bisulphide of carbon is often hard 
 to get and is an inflamable substance, which 
 makes against its use. We can destroy the 
 mole or gopher with sulphur, a remedy kept 
 about almost every house. In using sulphur 
 for this work you take some small tin cake- 
 pans of the toy sort, open a place in a freshly 
 worked run, removing the dirt carefully, and 
 cut out a place in the bottom of the run that 
 
25 
 
 will fit your vessel; fill the vessel with fire- 
 conls, put on the sulphur, cover up the opeu- 
 iuft with a board and cover the board with 
 the loose dirt to confine the smoke from the 
 sulphur; and a better and a surer way is to 
 have a small hand-bellows, such as have been 
 kept for fire starters, insert the point of this 
 bellows through the dirt near the fire, and 
 blow the gases down the run and it will keep 
 the fire burning as well. Do this as often as 
 you find freshly made runs and your moles 
 will disappear. 
 
26- 
 
 How to Keep Eggs Fresh From One Year 
 to Another. 
 
 THE loss fji' the sum raer laid e^gsis a draw- 
 back to the poultry business. While the 
 cold storac>:e sysiem is of some value, eggs 
 have often deteriorated before they reach the 
 storage-room. To put eggs away fresh in 
 hot weather, we should be prepared to pack 
 them each day, for they should have no time 
 to shrink before they are put away. To make 
 the packing satisfactory you should prepare 
 a suitable vessel— an empty nail keg will do 
 for eight or ten dozen. Place your vessel in 
 a cuol and dry place; put in the bottom of 
 the vessel about two inches of wheat bran or 
 raixf^d mill-stuff, get a woolen rag and a little 
 hog's lard, grease the rag and rub the grease 
 all over the eggs and place them on end in 
 the bran, something near an inch apart and 
 from the sides of the vessel; when a layer of 
 them are in, fTll up with bran, making a 
 thickness above the eggs of about two inches, 
 then put down in the same way until the ves- 
 sel is full, leaving the top for a covering two 
 
iuches thick. Let them stand until they are 
 wanted for use or market. When we want an 
 egg for use we take it out without an.v need 
 for disarransiug- the remaining ones. When 
 we want to remove the eggs from the bran 
 we have a cloth and rub them over as thev 
 are lifted out. With this process eggs will 
 keep for months ifthejare put in fresh and 
 sound; the slightest crack in the shell will 
 spoil them, and a rough or thin shelled eg^ 
 should never be put away. 
 
-28- 
 
 How to Keep Butter Fresh 
 
 ^^ElE making' and keeping of butter in good 
 ^ condition any length ot time is of some 
 importance to nearly every family. For but- 
 ter to become firm and sweet the milk should 
 be Well worked out of it before anv attempt 
 is made to pack it awav. To keep butter in 
 a small way we get a stone jar and its size 
 may be regulated by the amount of butter 
 that we wan*) to put in it. Place the jar in a 
 box, keg or barrel, as it may be, large enough 
 to pack a layer of salt two inches thick all 
 around the jar; put two inches of salt in the 
 box to set the jar on, then pack all around 
 tijiht with salt up to the top of the jar, hav- 
 ing first placed them in a dry and cool place 
 where they should remain permanently. If 
 the butter is firm enough to form rolls, we 
 can put them away one roll at a time if we 
 choose to do so. We first put a thin layer of 
 salt in the bottom of the jar; then prepare a 
 cloth of suitable size, saturate it well with 
 sweet lard and roll up the butter in the cloth, 
 coverino' the butter all over with the cloth, 
 
29 
 
 put it in the jar so that it will not touch the 
 sides, and pack them in the same way, side 
 by side, ftlliug in between them with salt and 
 level up each time with salt* for a new layer of 
 butter, and when the jar is within about four 
 inches of the top, fill out with salt and cover 
 over the top with a board, or a greased cloth 
 wouM be better. When you want to use but- 
 ter lift out one roll at a time and turn back 
 the cloth far enough to cut off what 3 on 
 want and then roll up again. Your butter 
 will be good for all time if good when put 
 down. If your butter be too soft to roll, you 
 then grease the inside of the jar with lard and 
 pack in the butter tight, putting a greased 
 cloth between each batch, and when you are 
 near the top, put over the greased cloth and 
 on top of that put lard about one inch thick. 
 This will keep good but is not so convenient 
 for use. Butter can be hardened hard enough 
 to roll by hanging a while in a deep well or 
 set in cold water for a short time. 
 
-30- 
 
 How to Advance Melons Ten Days. 
 
 11 N many parts of several of the states the 
 ^ difference of ten days time in producing 
 melons would be a profitable item in that 
 business. In a clay soil vines of every sort 
 start to grow very slowly in the early spring, 
 and about the time they get to growing well 
 the hot and dry season is at hand and it 
 dwarfs their fruit. It has been a common 
 practice to force the growth of vines with 
 stale manure. While this creates some warmth 
 and starts the vines to grow vigorously they 
 cannot stand the dry part of the season as 
 well as if they never had any manure. The 
 most effective way to start vines to grow 
 early in the spring; and to keep l:hem growing 
 well is to use the liquid manure made fi*om 
 unleached horse manure— prepared as direct- 
 ed in our second chapter. When we want to 
 plant melon seed we dig a small hole where 
 we want to make the hill, and fill the hole 
 with this strong liquid; we draw in soil and 
 have it get thoroughly wet with the liquid, 
 as soon as the liquid has disappeared we 
 
31 
 
 pIa.Dt the seed in the wet dirt and cover the 
 wet space with dry dirt. Cultivate well while 
 starting to vine and use the plow as ranch as 
 possible. Insects will be inclined to pass 
 your vines until hot weather, when we spray 
 the vines with the liquid once or twice a week 
 —always after sundown. The liquid will keep 
 away the striped bug- which is so destructive 
 in hot weather. After a tew melons have set 
 on the vines we pinch off the ends of the vines, 
 but pinch none that have no melons set on. 
 Vines of any sort do better when they havp 
 something to hold to; if it was not to their 
 advantage to hold to something they would 
 nor have holders on their vines; if there is 
 something for their holders to catch to the 
 fruit will be larger and mature better. 
 
•32- 
 
 How to Advance Strawberries Seven 
 Days. 
 
 (^TRA WBERRIES are one of the most prof- 
 ^^^itable small crops that a farmer can ^row. 
 8ome have argued that they require too much 
 attention, which is quite a mistake. While it 
 is true that strawberries are some trouble to 
 plant out. but after that the work is not so 
 hard, nor do we find them so troublesome. 
 They should be planted reasonably close so 
 that they will run tog:ether the first year. 
 The second year, after the crop has been 
 gathered, we would plow under a strip about 
 five or six feet wide and leave trom five to 
 six feet and plow another strip until the 
 Datch has been gone over, and then harrow 
 the plowed part well with a tine-toothed har- 
 row. The patch should be rather long to be 
 convenient to work. The next year plow up 
 the old strips and work it in the same way. 
 The worked strips will fill up with vines each 
 fall so that there is no more setting of plants^ 
 and the grass will not take the bed and the 
 berries are larger. In growing strawberries 
 
33 
 
 the season can be extended much longer by 
 planting early, medium and late varieties, 
 and it is useless to plant anything that is not 
 reasonably hardy and good producers; in 
 this way, with very slight protection through 
 the winter, a strawberry bed will stand for 
 years. To bring on the berries early and to 
 enlarge the fruit, use freely the liquid manure 
 prepared as directed in the second chapter. 
 Always apply the liquid after sunset. The 
 liquid should be sprinkled or sprayed on the 
 plants. Nothing will pay better than the use 
 of this liquid on strawberries. It does not 
 seed the bed and it invigorates the plants 
 and brightens the fruit, and as a rule it will 
 tide the vines over a very dry spell; it fills out 
 all the fruit instead of drying it up on the 
 stems. 
 
-34 
 
 How to Keep the Peach Trees Bearing 
 
 W 
 
 HEN we think the matter over it seemt? 
 so strange that so large a per cent, ot 
 people would give up the culture of so valua- 
 ble a fruit as peaches. One would think, un- 
 der such circumstances, more people would 
 make them a specialty . It seems that the 
 winter-killing and the worms have discour- 
 aged the lovers of this fruit over a large scope 
 of our country. Where peach trees have been 
 winter-killed, they nearly always sprout up 
 from the stump anew; if one will cut the old 
 tree away and thin out the sprouts to about 
 three good ones and have them as far apart 
 as you can, and when the sap is right bud or 
 graft the sprouts with such fruit as you like, 
 and you can put in different sorts of fruit so 
 that apparently the same tree is ripening 
 fruit all the season. To keep the sprouts 
 healthy and their fruit sound, you should use 
 the liquid manure prepared as directed in our 
 second chapter. Pour about one gallon of 
 liquid around the roots of the trees every one 
 or two weeks, and while in bloom spray the 
 
35 
 
 trees with the strong liquid. As sood as the 
 weeds get large enough, cut them and put 
 them about the trunks of the trees when the 
 ground is not being cultivated. It is a good 
 thing to let a new sprout grow every two or 
 three years; in this way you are sure not to 
 have them all winter-kill; however, the worms 
 do the trees more harm than the winters, nnd 
 this liquid and our little birds described in 
 another part of this book, will finish the 
 worms and leave your trees to furnish a val- 
 uable lot of fruit. 
 
-36- 
 
 How to Profit by a Variation in Animal 
 Reproduction. 
 
 ^TT^ HE matter (jf variations in reproducing 
 ^ animals have been written upon by many 
 writers, and some of them have undertaken 
 to sive some probable cause for such a differ- 
 ence in animals rerroducing themselves, but 
 such things can only be an imagination; and 
 it seems as far as history knows that there 
 never was any species of animal that has not 
 had some radical variations. The American 
 deer has often been referred to as one of the 
 animals that breed true to color, and at the 
 shme time white deer have been seen at dif- 
 ferent times. Some writers speak of it as 
 somethiniJ:that cannot be accounted for, but 
 we think it can easily be accounted for when 
 we admit that these things have to be so. If 
 the deer at times must change its color, what 
 could we expect but a change to white rather 
 than any other color, for when we look the 
 animal over we find about one- third of the 
 hair that makes up its coat white. It seems 
 that nature has provided a law that governs 
 
37 
 
 the reproduction of both vegetable and ani- 
 mal life. If animals did not vary in repro- 
 ducing themselves thej would all be alike; 
 you could not tell one from another, which 
 would make the world monotonous. These 
 variations have been found to run about 
 equal for better and worse, larger and small- 
 er, and it runs all the way through in that 
 way. It seems that this is nature's way of 
 holding animal life about the same without 
 having it look alike. One would think if this 
 is all true that breeders of live stock could 
 profit but very little by these variations. The 
 point in this matter is that while breeding 
 we adopt some of these peculiarities to our 
 own idea or to the demands of the country, 
 which breeders sometimes call forming a new 
 breed. If we want to increase the size of our 
 horses, the better way is to select our breed- 
 ing stock from mares that we have known 
 and know their offspring. If a mare should 
 have a colt from the same horse that is much 
 larger than the other ones, and not bad oth- 
 er ways, that is the animal we want to breed 
 from to increase size, for it will always pro- 
 duce larger stock than its family has been, 
 
38 
 
 aud if you can mate it with another that got 
 its size in the same way, we get the thing 
 fixed so that it will last fur all time, In this 
 way we can (ix any of these peculiarities that 
 we wish to adopt so that they will stay and 
 be reproduced for many years. This idea 
 nearly always calls for inbreeding to some 
 extent, and at times the first one or two 
 crosses are so pleasing that the breeder gets 
 excited and continues it until he spoils the 
 whole thiog. Inbreeding will fix a type in 
 animals, but type fixed in that way is not 
 worth near so much as one created by mate- 
 ing two sports in a similar variation from 
 two original types. 
 
i .\6 ^