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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Pruning Fruit Trees. Prune trees so as 

 to make them symmetrical, and so they will shade 

 their own bodies. Cut back the branches so they will 

 bear the weight of fruit, and the fruit-bearing twigs 

 so the load will not be too heavy. 



Quince Culture. The culture of quinces is 

 profitable where the soil is suitable for their growth. 

 Usually a strong, loamy soil is suitable, but in some 

 sections they do not seem to do well through climatic 

 influences. There are two ways of propagating 

 quinces: One is by bending down small branches and 

 covering all but two or three buds. This is done in 

 the spring, and by fall roots will have started from 

 the branch, and it may be struck from the parent tree 

 and set where it is to grow. Another way is to strike 

 cuttings in the fall and set them out as would be done 

 with currant cuttings. 



Planting Lily Bulbs. Autumn is the time to 

 plant lily bulbs. Then you are almost certain of 

 flowers the next summer. They always show finely 

 among shrubbery, which also gives the partial shade 

 they like, and the roots of the shrubs remove 

 an excess of moisture. Plant six inches deep in rich 

 mellow soil. Use fine, well-decayed manure as a 

 winter mulch. 



Transplanting Roses. Roses may be trans- 

 planted in December, though it is rather better to do 

 the work in the spring. But fall setting is often more 

 convenient. The bed must be well drained, deeply 

 dug and made very rich with well-rotted cow manure. 

 Crude, green and fermenting manures are very bad 

 for roses. Lift with as many roots as possible, 

 shorten the larger ones and keep on as many fibers as 

 you can. Set a little deeper than they were before, 

 and firm the soil well. 



Success with an Incubator. There is no secret 

 about how to succeed with an incubator. It is simply 

 a matter of keeping the temperature as near 103 de- 

 grees as possible, and not allowing it to get above 105 

 nor below about 92, though it may run to two degrees 

 above or five degrees below these limits for a short 

 time without injury to the embryo chicks. The diffi- 

 culty with most people who try to operate an incubator 

 is that they get excited and worry the machine too 

 much. If we had a hen sitting and should take her 

 off the nest from ten to twenty times a day and look at 

 the eggs through a tester and all that sort of thing, we 

 should not look for a very good hatch; and it is the 

 same with an incubator. 



Winter Apples Will Pay. The shrewdest ob- 

 servers among our farmers some time ago made up 

 their minds that the raising of winter apples offered 

 more inducements than any other undertaking, and 

 many trees have been set out in the valley in the past 

 two years, says the Ellensburg Register. This belief, 

 judging by the activity now being displayed in this 

 direction, is an abiding one, for more trees are being 

 planted this fall than at any time in the history of the 

 valley. 



Vacuum Canning. A new vacuum process of 

 canning fruits in glass has lately been introduced from 

 Europe among the packers of the Pacific coast. All 

 the deleterious gases generated in cooking the fruit, 

 and even the air, are extracted under this new proc- 

 ess, so the fermentation is reduced to a minimum. 



No solder is used, and each jar is opened by making 

 a puncture with a penknife, after which the cover can 

 be lifted off entire. The fruit is solid packed. In 

 this way there is a saving of freight charges. Formerly 

 the use of resin, acid, solder and hot iron scorched 

 the syrup, and since the aperture in the top of the tin 

 cans was so small that the fruit was often crushed and 

 cut when being placed in the cans, the syrup was for 

 this reason cloudy. 



Protection from Rabbits. A simple way of 

 protecting trees from rabbits and all similar pests is to 

 take a wire screen, such as is used to keep out mos- 

 quitoes, cut into strips about nine inches wide, coil 

 the long way around a broom handle; then, when 

 trees are set. spring these coils around the tree; settle 

 well into the earth, and make the lap on the south 

 side. They will fit tightly and remain until the tree 

 is three inches in diameter. No need to tie the net- 

 ting; it will keep its position if it has been properly 

 coiled. 



When to Apply Fertilizers. The proper time 

 to apply fertilizers for clover is with the wheat in the 

 fall. A liberal supply of potash with the wheat 

 manure, will not only realize the highest efficiency of 

 the other fertilizing elements present, but also ma- 

 terially assist in obtaining a good stand of clover. 

 That potash and lime are the two most important 

 fertilizers for clover is now pretty generally under- 

 stood. 



Chicken Cholera. No confidence is placed in 

 remedies for chicken cholera; prevention is the only 

 thing that can be done. When cholera breaks out 

 among the fowls the first thing to be done is to sepa- 

 rate the sick from the well ones. At once give a 

 change of food, which should be of a nourishing 

 character. 



More Worlt for Horses. Three times as many 

 horses as were used in the street cars are now used in 

 the increased wagon traffic in every city, as the natural 

 growth of commercial interests. More wagons, better 

 wagons and larger wagons all require better teams 

 now than ever before. 



A Laundry Cow. J. H. Hearn, of Austin, Tex., 

 is the owner of a fine Hereford cow whose milk of 

 late has been developing some peculiarities. He says 

 to pour a little of the milk into warm water produces 

 almost perfect starch, and when the milk vessels are 

 washed the cleaning water becomes thick and starchy. 

 He is anxious to learn the cause. 



Demand for Dairy Cattle. There has been 

 more demand in Texas this year for improved dairy 

 cattle than for several years past. Breeders of this 

 class of cattle say they are entirely sold out of their 

 surplus stock, and they could have sold many more. 



Winter Butter. Winter butter must be good 

 enough to compete with oleomargarine. If it is not, it 

 will pay better to fatten your cows and send them to 

 the butcher. 



Hold Your Cotton. Commissioner Rose of 

 Texas notifies the farmers of a large decrease in the 

 acreage of cotton this year and advises them to hold on 

 to their crops. 



