TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



233 



Good Cellars. Cellars wherein vegetables or 

 fruits are stored for family use should be well ven- 

 tilated. Everyone knows they are not, as a general 

 rule. Physicians allege not only the possibility of 

 contracting diphtheria and other diseases from fruit 

 and vegetables kept in damp or ill-ventilated cellars, 

 but the great and constant danger of contracting such 

 diseases from the sources named. Diphtheria is 

 reported to have been traced to germs taken into the 

 system from handling and eating moldy. apples. The 

 greatest care should be taken to prevent dampness 

 in and about the cellar. It is a fruitful cause of 

 disease in many households without a doubt, but 

 every good housekeeper will see to it that the cellar 

 is properly ventilated from time to time, and disin- 

 fectants sprinkled about as occasion demands. In 

 storing fruits or vegetables in the cellar it is best to 

 put them into barrels or covered boxes, elevated a 

 little from the floor to insure a free circulation of air. 

 A fault with most farmhouse cellars is want of light 

 and proper facilities for ventilation. The cellar win- 

 dows should be large and adjustable, so that they may 

 be quickly and fully opened for ventilating purposes, 

 and, if necessary, curtains should be hung to darken 

 the interior. In cold climates, double windows are 

 often necessary ; but they should be so adjusted as 

 to swing readily, thus saving much time and trouble 

 in opening and closing when desired. The contents 

 of the cellar should be inspected frequently, and 

 when showing signs of decay the fruit or other prod- 

 uct stored should be assorted and the damaged 

 parts removed at once. i 



A Mushroom Bed. We have called attention 

 heretofore to the ease with which this valuable table 

 delicacy can be produced if a little care and atten- 

 tion are devoted to their culture. The following is 

 one method of making a mushroom bed: 



" In a pine box about twenty inches in depth, and 

 three feet square, place a four-inch stratum of a 

 mixture of three parts of dry cow manure and one 

 part of garden soil. Having procured some mush- 

 room spawn, break it up and sow it in a second 

 stratum of manure and earth two inches in depth. 

 Slightly compress the whole and cover with an eight- 

 inch layer of earth, which should be kept damp by 

 watering through a fine nose nozzle. 



" In six or eight weeks the first crop of mushrooms 

 will appear at the surface, and will continue to do 

 so for at least two years, provided the bed is kept 

 damp. 



" A small quantity of aqua ammonia added to the 

 water with which the bed is moistened will hasten the 

 appearance of the fungi. 



" The box should be placed by preference in a 

 place where the light is not too bright, say in a cellar 

 in which the temperature is moderate and equable, 

 or in a dark part of a stable." 



Small Farms in France. As an illustration of 

 the prodigious aggregate wealth which an industrious 

 and economical people may accumulate, there is 

 perhaps no example in modern times more instruct- 

 ive than that of the people of France. There the 

 small farm is the rule and the large farm the ex- 

 ception. By an old law requiring landowners to 

 divide their holdings equally among their heirs the 

 farms have been continually subdivided for the past 

 hundred years, until thousands of holdings are now 

 almost absurdly small. But these small tracts are so 

 well cultivated, and the small economies of the little 

 farms so admirably observed, that nowhere else in 

 the world is there so much money laid away in safe 

 places among any similar class of people. 



As an example of thrift, the French people stand 

 out the most prominent in the world to-day; and 

 whenever any form of apparently safe investment 

 offers - especially if the purpose be to forward some 

 enterprise for the profit, honor or glory of France 

 the small investors flock into the money marts from 

 all parts of the country. Not long since the city of 

 Paris asked for a loan of some forty million francs 

 to effect some municipal undertaking, and notwith- 

 standing the stringency of the times, the loan was 

 subscribed eighty-five times over within a few days. 



Montana Products. Farmers in the " Flathead 

 country," in Montana, report this season oats six feet 

 high, wheat nearly as tall and producing heavily, 

 timothy six feet tall and with heads six inches long, 

 making over three tons per acre; currants so fine 

 that a single bunch filled a quart jar, and gooseber- 

 ries as large as crabapples! Long-headed people, 

 these flat-heads! Seems to be nothing the matter 

 with Montana! 



I/ose No Time. Those of our Western readers 

 who contemplate irrigating even but a small tract 

 next season, by pumping, will be great gainers by be- 

 ginning operations at once. Get your well, pump, 

 mill and reservoir ready as soon as possible, and irri- 

 gate your ground in the fall and winter. It will pay 

 you in several ways. You will test your plant and 

 know its weak places, if any, and repair them. You 

 will learn what the plant can do in the way of sup- 

 plying water, and your ground, a good portion of it, 

 at least, will be moist and ready for business at the 

 earliest moment in the spring. By wetting up what 

 ground you can in the fall and winter, you will both 

 have earlier crops and be able to irrigate more 

 ground through the spring and summer than if you 

 began on dry ground at planting time. It will pay 

 in many ways to get ready at once. 



Feeding Wheat. In view of the steadiness with 

 which wheat continues low in price, and of the strong 

 probability that it will continue low in value for some 

 years, all information as to the feeding value of the 

 grain is timely and important. A bulletin recently 

 issued from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C., compiled by D. G. Salmon, chief 

 of the Bureau of Animal Industry, advises that all 

 imperfect or low grade wheat be fed, and says that 

 when wheat and corn are the same price per bushel 

 it is preferable to feed the wheat and sell the corn, 

 because wheat weighs seven per cent, heavier per 

 bushel, and is, weight for weight, equally good for 

 fattening animals and better for litter for young, grow- 

 ing stock, and, further, because there is much less 

 value in fertilizing elements removed from the land 

 in corn than in wheat and feeding the wheat keeps 

 more valuable manure on the land. Wheat should 

 always be fed in small quantities and, when possible, 

 mixed with some other grain, and care taken to 

 prevent any animal getting more than was intended 

 for it. 



