Road & Farm Improvement.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3616, 6 January 1906, Page 4

Road & Farm Improvement.

fa ; V'^V' ! ■ '“ r ■ -L ##'• J. \ :»a g®d mop Olio ' large ditches 01 'rujimiig through their farm.' begetting a good, ser.V- ./ Iceable flood-gate, one that will stay '. in times of year, and tun from adjoining fidds. The oldfash.(aHtid floed-gate, hung by the top i,;;;-1 d .fug,'a.--, always being pushed ;i„ „t),pe*n l),v hogs and waives, unless staked n.the first heavy freshet d - (iW-iJP hurst it from its fasteningti vud carry it (town stream. 1 The gate show a in cut can be roadi * upon am r-inn. and ■ when in place , wlil fake'eare of itself. Two posts are set near the outer banks of the chan-

EFFECTIVE FLOOD GATE. nel; an oak log ten to fourteen inched in diameter is fashioned like a windlass and attached to the posts, as shown in illustration, with clamp hands made from heavy’irdn and fastened with lag screws to posts. The roller is then bored full of two-ipch, auger holes, the desired distance apart, to receive the pickets, which are split from tough oak. A weight

. shown at A completes the job. This weight is intended to Keep the gate always { i_an upright position, and -stTou'ld he placed upstream, i. e., above the flood-gate. . When heij,vy freshets are in evidence, the force of the water raises the weight and allows easy passage of water, driftwood,etc., and as the water subsides 1 fne weight settles back, leering the gate in proper position, where hogs cannot root it ouf nor other slock 1 trespass into adjoining fields. The' weight must be mads to correspond with height and weigh! of gale. If the weight be too heavy, so that the force of current does*not o;.n it. saw a piece off of weight. Only actual test will determine this. Din the illustration is the surface line of the water.—George W. Brown, Ip Ohio farmer.

PHILIPPINE ROADS.

A million Dollara to Bo Spent In ttas luprorement of Road* at and Near Manila, The Philippine commission has appropriated $1,000,000 for the improvement of the roads in the island of Luzon. If. this sum be wisely and economically expended in constructing highways connecting important towns, so as to enable the inhabitants to have easy'communication with-each other, during the rainy season, it will hfivt'a-Beneficial effect upon the people of the territory through which the roads pass probably greater than could have been secured by any other expenditure. The Spaniards did not seem to regard a road as necessary or even desirable unless it would serve a military purpose. The railway from Manila to Dagupan gave them ample means of transporting troops, ammunition and store* between those places, and beyond Dagupan they built a fine, broad macadiaanized boulevard as far asVigan. There is a similar highway across the island near its southern Generally speaking, however, Luzon"’has no roads, except those two, that can be traveled by a vehicle in the rainy season, and few of them are navigable on ' horseback. Na turally the Filipinos do not stray far from their home villages,, ' wad news as well a-s merchandise dbes not circulate freely. It is no uncommon thing to find a variety of dialect* spoken 'by the natives in traversing 30 or 40 miles, and this diversity of language has been perpetuated by the difficulties in the way of travel. Already a start has been road* by the United States officers in Manila, where the streets have been greatly improved, and this feature of American progress has been one of the most popular of any introduced by our people. There seem* to.lw! a noticeable connection beUveen-'t'ffe' means of communication of a country and its progress tocivilization. Bodily motion appears to stimulate movement mentally and spiritually. If, therefore, the sl,000,000 1 just appropria ted for good roadts in Luzon is devoted to the making of satisfactory highways and is not partly diverted jnto the pockets of shiftless contractors who give no therefor, it is probable that, ; whatever be the ultimate f%te of the.island, niture generations of Filipinos will applaud the first legislative ; • act of the American commission as one | of the wisest steps it could have taken, i —Chicago Record.

milpplnc Forest Prtwtmi,

Upon the recommendation of the war department the agricultural department is preparing an order setting apart as forest reserves the Island of Romblon, which is the island of V..’ i.), nl- -*thc- isdwndt.of Pauitani, ir ■ which i» one of the extreme group of f.- — ihc Job) islands of the Philippine , . group. O'.h-'.m '■ >■.' the army who have -.beta investigating the iciauda hare - found tiiiit these arc the richest land* tn the world for rubber trees, and it ii |~ the inter'ion oi the TVnthirug'tou anif -.horitiea to have the tr&tia preferred

» '.:. , O' n OC-V73.

jUionlil BcNgiven fl» SlucU Food ‘V** an 'i’licy WinOlilat. There is a widespread popular preju- . dice agattist cow beef, and we suspect tha£ the doctors are very largely responsible for it. Yet we Lave so often ■Oaten tender and sweef>cow beef that our experience long ago taught us that its quality was much more dependent jCn the way it had been fattened than fit was on the age of the cow. But it is nevertheless true, says American Cultivator, that it is more difficult to fatten an old cow, or an old animal of any hind, than it is to fatten young animals, ■.a the. teeth begin to fail, the food is not so well masticated as.it used to be, and as a consequence digestion is.retarded. The presence of undigested food in the stomach creates lever, and in this diseased condition not only does 1 lie animal fatten less rapidljq but what flesh it puts on is less tender and sweet than it should be. The common prac- , lice of fattening cows with corn, and milking them so long ns they can be milked, helps to make poor beef. The water aiid fat that go Into the milk are both much needed in the beef to make it as good as it should be. A cow properly fattened should be given as much succulent food as she will eat, and at first be fed with bran or meal rather, sparingly. If she is very thin in flesh her beef may be made,all the better, provided this condition does not show the impairment of her digestive organs. "When a cow is fattened that when you begin feeding her is little more than skin and bones, with enough flesh to hold them together, it stands to reason that most of the flesh and fat ''..you can put on her by three or four months good feeding will be new flesh and fat, and just as good as if put on a two-year-old heifer. The bodily system is being constantly changed by the small veins which run through the flesh, and which nrealways carrying off waste matter, and replacing it with new. The old saying used to be that the living body is wholly renewed every .seven years. But scientists are now agreed that most parts of it are renewed much quicker than this, as anyone may see by the rapid healing of a cut or bruise when air and the germs it contains are excluded from it. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY. It's the Beat Business In Which A Farmer Cnh EnijaßC, Dairying as a distinct industry is one which contributes as'mucb of real benefit to a community as any that can be named. It is a business in which the individual, independent farmer can engage, or a number can join in a cooperative enterprise. The poor man with hut few acxes, the renter and the widow with a family of small children to support, can with one or more cows make advantageous disposition on the farm of the ordinary crops of the small farm or g'arclcn patch, receiving in return from the cows a perfect food for the family, and from the surplus, produce f ood articles of commercial value. Thus, while it is a business in which capital can be invested on a comparatively large scale, using cosily machinery and employing highly skilled labor and great, executive ability, it can plso be, and to a very great extent is, one of small individual investment, but aggregating an enormous sum. And, differing from almost any other line of labor, the small dairy man or woman can, with intelligence and inexpensive, rude appliances, pi’odnce an article which will equal in quality that produced from the herds of 100 or more cows, or in cooperative creameries.—Western Plowman.

DEVICE FOR MILKING.

If Applied to the rails It Will Secure Good Results. Slovenly milking is often to be accounted for by the small size of the pail’s top. A good deal of the milk will persist iri running down the outside. To make easier milking, have a top

made as shown in the cut. The flaring sides will catch the stream of milk and conduct it into the pail. It will be well to tie a piece of muslin pver the bottom of this top piece, thus straining the milk ns it goes into the pail. Let this flaring piece just fit into the top of the pail.—American Agriculturist. Keep Cows nt Their Beet. When a cow falls off in the flow of her milk she may, by judicious management, be brought bade to her average, quantity, but the tim'6-lost can never • be recovered, and there will always, in such cases, be an additional cost for food that will not give a return for the - outlay. The time to make the cow pay is when she is at her best, and it should be the aim to keep her there as long as it is possible to do so.—Dakota Field and Farm.

A Creditable Showing

A Chautauqua county (N. Y.) man has 13 cows wliich he claims produced 88,745 pounds of milk between April‘l2 'and December 12, 1897. Tfeat is equal to 5,365 pounds of milk per cow duringthe eight months. This is probablyi al-init five times thevydigbt of the cows. 1 Vt the low price pf 60 cents a hundred pounds for the the product.of-each*-' core was worth SJfS.ljlprsh owing a very fair profit on the cost of keeping the