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The Exeter Advocate, 1924-10-30, Page 6,inial.,-.,.._. Address communications to Agronomist, 14 Adeiaide et: West, Toronts WINTER CARE OF THE BROOD MARE. Steadily increased interest in horse breading has been apparent during the past year. With lowered prices. for farm products generally, many farmers have come to appreciate the fact that the rearing of a few foals yearly entails a minimum of labor and a fair market for feed produced on the farm. There is just this note of warning to be sounded,—there never was a worse time to raise scrubs and skates than the present. There is a demand for quality drafters. Such a demand will not only continue but increase, provided that the right kind of horse is available. The discouraging con- dition of the horse market has been caused not so much by lack of market as by over -production of something the market does not want at any price, —the misfit horse, lacking•type, qual-i ity and weight. 1 Choosing the Brood Mare.—The stallion gats most of the blame for a poor colt; the mare gets little, and the mare's owner blames himself not at all. Admitting that the stallions are not, in all cases, what they ought to be, and that, to many farmers, choice is limited, the assertion still holds good that, with many of the mares bred, the expectation of a good colt, even with the service of the best draft stallion in the world,—resolved itself into a friendly little game of dice with Nature's dice box the laws of heredity. In such cases, Nature uses loaded dice,—nearly always! As to the other member concerned in the production of scalawag horses,—the owner,—it must be admitted that many undersized, poorly -developed 3 - year -olds are the result of hot sum- mers, ummers, flies, bare pastures, trudging after hard -worked mothers, and of winters where, in so far as the foal is concerned, a little grain, choice hay and a few roots are conspicuous rath-' er by their absence. The horse is a necessity on the arm Even if a man has no pride in a horse for a horse's sake, it pays to have part of the working comple- ment made up of mares, and good brood mares at that, with size, quality, few hereditary objections and no her- editary unsoundnesses. Early versus Late Foaling.—Most foals come in May and June. Where the mare is not worked after foaling, the foal gets a good start before the heat and flies of Iater summer. The tendency to trouble at foaling time is much greater, however, with the early foal! the percentage of joint -ill cases or those with weak joints or general weakness will be found greater than where mares foal•. later, say July or even August. The reason for this is, undoubtedly, the feet that the late foaling mare spends the spring and early summer at hard work (reason- ably hard work rarely killed an un- born foal), and spends some of her'. time on grass. Her system iscleans-' ed, hardened and rebuilt, and her. functionst generally keyed up,—the' benefit of all of which is reflected in a hardy, rugged. foal that dies only' through acts of violence. A consideration of fall foal rearing: has already been taken up in this publication. There are many benefits'. and few objections. Suffice, in this, instance, to say that, for reasons all ready given, fall foals are almost in -1 variably strong foals, free from taint• or disease. The In -Foal Mare in Winter. -1 While lacking, definite information on the subject, from all that we know,' disease, abnormality and weakness -1 with reference to foals—are conditions practically unknown in bands of wild; horses. Here, of course, nothing but an outdoor life is possible; there is nos grain bin; feed is often scarce; in the; winter grass may be covered with' 'snow and reached only by pawing; after it; Nature permits of little'. standing around in a sunny yard; and, not in spite of, but because of these circumstances, there are few if i any weak foale! Feeds.—A brood mare should get but little grain during the frozen per -E iod. A fair amount of good hay, tim-1 othy, mixed hay, clover or peas, oats and vetches. One feed a day of well cured mixed or clover hay or of green! cut oat hay is excellent. There is no! better feed than roots,—the only truly; natural succulent feed possible in the:. winter months. Turnips, carrots or mangels should form at least one feed daily. They are cooling, laxative, contain earth and earthy salts, are good for the teeth and gums and, lastly,—are relished. Exercise.—The right kind of exer- cise, of course, is regular work,—en- forced exercise. The foal, in utero, develops normally where the blood of the dam is clean. It is accumulation or insufficient scavenging from the mare's.. system, of poisonous by-pro- ducts that generally causes weak foals or predisposes to foal ailments. Plenty of oxygen, natural and succulent feeds and work promote healthy function- ing. A mare in healthy, natural shape means that the foal she is carrying is likely in similar condition. WIRING THE FARM HOUSE Some Fundamentals to Be Considered When Getting Ready for Electricity. BY E. A. STEWART. • The first problem to attempt to solve light should be controlled from, two in the application of electricity tot pointe. Farm kitchens are . usually agriculture is the proper wiring of the large and are used a great deal as homes and farmsteads. In planning passageways. In such cases the light should be controlled by three-way switches located near the outside door and near the dining -room door. In many farm homes, there is an: entry room at the rear of the house. This room may serve for a laundry, a wash room, or for various other purposes. This is usually a passageway and the light should by all means be controlled by two switches. It is desirable to place the switch at the kitchen door inside of the kitchen so that a per - 8071 can carry an article into the kitchen without setting it down at. the door or without going out into the laundry to turn out the light. Bedrooms should be provided with some convenience outlets. The cost is too great to provide wall recep- tacles for all bedrooms and it is not necessary. Some openings should be, provided for a ; floor lamp in one or more bedrooms and sufficient outlets should be provided for use with a vacuum cleaner. One or more bed- rooms should be provided with wall outlets for portable lamps for dress- ing tables or for a curling iron. The use of wall lights beside a dresser: is very questionable practice for farm homes. The same money spent for ceiling lights and: wall outlets will give better service: _ Many women ob- ject seriously to the use of bracket lights for a dressing table as this fixes the position of the furniture in the room once and for always the same. A convenience .,outlet 'should be placed in the bedroom for use with an auxiliary heater, curling iron, water heater, etc. . The liberal use of con- venience outlets will save much time, save fixtures, and is a paying Invest- ment, besides making a home a con- venient place to work. The location of the entrance switch and meter is a very important item. This is coupled up with the location of the transformer. When a home is to be wired for heating devices and the farmstead is to be wired for mo- tors, the mislocatioli of an entrance switch may mean the wasting of a hundred dollar[!. This part of the wiring deinaiuts more discussion than can be given here and will be treated the wiring of the homes a few funda- !mental principles were laid down ae necessary for proper wiring. They eine as follows: 1. No electrical appliance should be attached to lighting fixtures. 2. Any room used as a passageway must have the light controlled from the points of entrance and exit. 3. All lights should be controlled with wall switches where • practicable and no light should be turned on by a snap switch at the socket. 4. All power circuits should be in- stalled according to Standard Code.' The habit of attaching floor lamps, electric irons, toasters, etc., to a fix- ture outlet is very detrimental to the life of the fixtures. Fixtures are made to hold lamp bulbs and are not made for convenience outlets. Many fixtures sere ruined, many pieces of _fixture glassware are broken, and many lamp bulbs ruined from removing lamp bulbs from fixtures ' and attaching a eord to the fixture outlet. This causes unnecessary expense, inconvenience and dissatisfaction. This trouble can be eliminated by properly placed con- venience outlets. Some wall . recap- tables should be placed near the floor where fairly permanent connection such as a floor lamp is to be . made. Kitchen outlets and outlets for vac - num cleaners, etc., can be placed at about three feet above the floor. Floor outlets should not be used very fre- quently, but they have their place. They msy be used for floor lamps, dining-reem appliances, etc, where a portable cord to the wall is not de- sirable or where an outside wall is a difficult place to locate an outlet.. The location switches in farm homes is an entirely different problem than it is for urban homes.: Most farmers enter the home through , the back entrance when they come home in the evening. Living -rooms and dining -rooms are entered more fre- quently from the rear ` part of the house rather, than , from the front. Switches for the dining -room should usually be placed near the kitchen door. If a clining-room is a passage- way for the length of it, then the The blood of each is one and the same. Averave Cost of Fara When an overfat, overfed, under- exercised, sluggish -bodied mare has a good, strong foal, that foal beds had a special guardian angel, and care right in spite of his mother and his future owner. Special Feeds, Preventives, Tonics, Etc.—Trouble at foaling time or later con, be prevented•, much more easily than cured. The treatment generally indicet. d in the foregoing :follows na- tural _ices and generally • will be found sufficient. Nevertheless, there are a few simple supplementary dines of feeding that may well be consider- ed. Use medicines and tonics when they are indicated, not as a general hit-and-miss euro -all. See that the mare gets salt regularly. A table- spoonful of chick -size or pulverized charcoal in the feed two or three times_.a week is excellent. A box in the yard containing a readily access- ible mixture of salt, bone -:Heal and charcoal is particularly good for colts and growing stock generally, but may also supply just what some brood mares may require in the way of min- eral salts, In the latter eonnection, not all mares require the same, and it is well to provide for obscure possi- bilities. Joint ill, its cause, method of infec- tion, prevention and care are, one and all, still more or less obscure. Lately it has been recommended that potas- sium iodide be fed to in -foal mares during at least the winter months of pregnancy in quantities of, say, one teaspoonful of this salt in the drink- ing water twice monthly,—on the first and fifteenth, for example. A simple treatment, truly, and one which, in the limited experience of the Experi- mental Farm System, hap been accom- panied by freedom from trouble with joint ill in foals from snares so treat- ed. Only further experiment, of course, will reveal the facts, as to whether such treatment caused, or was incidental to, the desired result. In cases where joint ill is prevalent, vac- cines of reputable origin and manu- facture should be used. While by no means a sure preventive, experimental evidence shows a material lessening of this ill where they are used. Vac- cine treatment, however, should be ac- companied at all times by correct methods of feeding and management, as briefly indicated. We are too prone to abuse nature and then rely implicit- ly upon a well -advertised corrective. Where joint ill is prevalent, too, the adoption of later foaling practice seems to have a distinctly beneficial result. It is generally conceded that there is more risk attendant to parturition • ith the mare than ,vith any' class of stock, Much of this increased risk has been caused by years of 'de- viation from natural treatment. A strong foal at• birth—like Topsy— "just 'grows." (Keep a bottle of iodine on hand for navel disinfection at foal- ing time). But a weak foal is a source of endless, trouble and worry, of doubt- ful outcome, the result, in many cases, of undesirable conditions that were entirely under the control of the owner. DAIRY. e Most cattle are bothered more or less with lice at one time or another. A successful inethod of extermination used by one cattleman is to put the. cattle in a chute, sprinkle each on& thoroughly with an insect powder along the backbone from the poll to. the tail head and the lice disappear. He learned this method from au old cattle farmer and not from a bug professor. It works; and the farmer explaina the fad by saying that every louse ,circumnavigates the cow once in each forty=eight hours. When his journey brings him 'to the powder line, Mr. Louse• does not turn back, as a discreet bug would do, but. plows right through and the thorough dusting he gets fin- ishes him' Nothing costs More than the things we try to get for nothing. .. 1Vlach nary. The Supervisor of Illustrations' Sta tions of the Dominion Experimental Farms, last year conducted_ an enquire into the cost, of farm machinery. In ,his annual report for 1923 he gives the results as follows, 'allowing for average , investlnent,. replacement and repairs: iInPrince Edward Island, New Brunswick; Nova Scotia, Quebec,. Ontario and British Columbia, the aver age charge' to farmers` was $2.16 per acre and in'Alberta and Saskat- chewan $1.26 ;It was found that the size' cf the' cultivated area on a farm is the controlling factor in the econ- omical use of machinery, and that the cost per acre is greater on small farms than on those of medium size. Farms ranging in area from twenty to fifty acres showed a machinery cost of $3.37 per acre; those between fifty and one.. hundred and fifty acres in extent, $1.65 per acre; those from Home Education "The Child's First School Is th• Family".--•3�roceee", The Habit. of Concentration -By Edith Lochridge Reid. How long do your children keep at the things they are doing? Do they always finish what they ,start? .De they know how to concentrate? Business men tell us that the one, great trouble with the young folks they employ is their lack of the :habit of concentration; they cannot get re- sults because they have not learned to focus their attention. Teachers find the same difficulty all through the grades. Of course, they do their best to combat and correct the fault, but this is not easy because the trouble started in the home during one hundred and fifty to two hundred before him What happens? Why, acres $L25 per acre; and those from the child is flustrated with the heap. two hundred to five hundredacres and He grabs a fuzzy dog and turns it over $1.17 per acre. A certain amount about in his hands once or twice and of equipment appears equally as nee- thrown it down. 'He picks up a bell,' essary oil fifty acre farms as on farms gives it a few rings and away it goes. of one hundred and fifty acres. On Perhaps he stacks up two or three larger farms a second set of certain blocks and gives them a kick. Soon machines is found necessary; the his resources are .exhausted, and large area under cultivation, however, mother wonders Zvhy he can't content tends to keep down the machinery himself with his playthings. cost per acre. The report recom- a mends co-operative buying where Well, the fact is, he is in the post - practicable of certain expensive ma- tion of an adult who has been attend - chines, such as seed drills, grain bin lug too many entertainments in suc- ders, corn binders, corn cutters and cession; the program has proved too blowers. hectic for his nervous system. It is a case of too much happening at once rop Prices in 1922 and and, as a result, nothing is enjoyed ing and was not taught to enjoy an 1923. Give the baby one thing at a time Many mothers, who are conscien-. Statistical tables in the report of to play with and make that thing in- tious in other phases of discipline, fail the Director of the Dominion Experi- teresting. If he has a dog, let him deplorably when it comes to keeping mental Farras for the year ending have a little blanket to wrap it in or children interested in "one thing at a March 81, 1924, give comparisons for a ring to slip on and oil the dog's time." It takes a great deal of pa - the years 1922 and 1923 of yields and neck for a collar. There should be tience to achieve success,. but surely prices of farm crops in Canada, and some association between the toys. the reward comes in knowing that a comparison between the yields and If he is playing with blocks, let him your child goes out into life equipped prices in the Eastern Provinces, the build a garage or the schoolhouse with that most excellent qualification, Prairie Provinces, and British Col- j where brother goes to school or the power to concentrate. umbia. These tables show an increasey in price for the crops in 1928 compar-'— r But where do you suppose the leaves babyhood. Take the baby a year old, for ex-' ample. Mother puts him on the floor and empties a whole box of playthings Daddy's office or even the cupboard' where mother keeps the cookies. In any case, if the central theme of playtime is to: be "dog," insist that the child stick to the theme, or if "blocks," then keep his mind on that subJect. When Mary starts to color a picture in her drawing book, see that she fin- ishes it before beginning `a'ther. • Zf Bobbie decides to makea Noah's Ark menagerie with his modelling clay, en- courage hini to finish it before he makes furniture for sister's doll house. Yet, while doing this, we need not force monotony into playtime.' By merely keeping an eye open mothers may guide their children in such a way that without friction they will form habits of concentration even in their playing. "Finish what you begin" is a slogan every child should learn and follow, for it is the haphazard young folks who were the .scatter -brain chil- dren. Yet, they are not the ones at fault, but rather those who had their training in charge. Watch a group of. children outside, There is always the child who plays about five minutes and then spoils everything by saying, "Oh, let's not play this any more." Then, if the game is changed, in possibly another five minutes you will hear the same suggestion. This is the child who in babyhood had all his playthings amp. tied in a heap before him every morn - fully. ' one of them distinctively. ed with 1922, in the case of fall wheat,' from $1.01 to $1.02 per bushel. flax' seed from $1.72 to $1.77, corn for, husking from 88 cents to 92 cents, potatoes from 90 cents to $1.02 per hundredweight, and turnips, mangels, etc., from 54 to 69 cents also per hundredweight. Buckwheat was sta- tionary at 84 cents per bushel. The total yield of the crops increas- ed in the majority of instances in 1923 over 1922, the exceptions being: Rye, which decreased from 32,373,400 bushels to 23,231,800 bushels, peas from 3,170,100 bushels to 2,898,200 bushels; beans from 1,3133,800 bushels to 1,041,700 bushels, corn fox husking from 13,798,000 bushels to 13,608,000 bushels, potatoes from 55,745,300 hundredweight to 55,497,000 hundred- weight, turnips, mangels, etc., from 43,9 78,600 hundredweight 'to 38,116,- 500 8,116;500 hundredweight, and sfodder corn from 5,879,000 tons to 6,320,800 tons. Lantern. Slide Lectures. •• Colored lantern slides representing the improvement of village and farm dwellings through the planting of trees, shrubs and flowers, are sent out from the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, to those qualified to make use of them forlecture pur- poses. Last year, according to the Report of the Director, sets of slides with special lecture notes were sent to seventy applicants for use in pub- lic meetings. Reports from forty- three meetings showed an average at- tendance of about 140 persons. Every precaution should be taken not to stunt the young stock. They should be kept growing winter and sunder. Calves and yearlings should gain from forty to seventy-five pounds during the winter.• - e Although only . 4,400 stars. can be seen with the naked eye, a catalogue of 4,000,000 is being prepared. THE CHILDREN'S HOUR ' STORY OF THE LEAVES. "What becomes of all these leaves, ' Auntie?" asked Elizabeth, as she and her playmates scuffled through the leaves piled knee-deep on either side of the old wood road. "I know they fall from the trees every year, but somehow they never seem to- get much deeper in the woods. Why don't they get piled up so high you can't wade through then?" "Do you remember when we came to the woods last fall?" Aunt Mae asked, • "Yes, indeed!" came in a chorus from the children. "Say, we had a great time playing in the leaves, didn't we, girls?" shouted the Little -Boy -Next -Door. "Remember the houses and forts we made, Miss Harris?" "I certainly do." Miss Harris smiled at the happy recollection. "Were the leaves the same then as they are now?" "Oh, no," answered Edith. "They were -light colored and dry then, and were scattered all over the ground.1 Why, Auntie!" Edith stared in sur prise at the ground beneath the trees, green -carpeted now withferns and plants, "why -Auntie. Mae, what has become of all the leaves that came off those trees last fall?" "The wind blew them into the hol- lows, ollows, didn't it, Mise Harris?" asked one little lass. "Not all of them, dear. Come, let's see what has happened to•them. Pick a few of those' ferns and notice what Is at the roots."' "Old wet leaves as black as dirt."' It didn't take the children long to die -1 cover that. I' "Yes, those are last year's leaves. :.�.em. • h �A;v�z •, a easseeeene SMILING SCOTCH POMasTtes F:pn AP ADA: This groupshows art of a, large party of Scotch aomestics, who sailed from Glasow' to Canada on the Cana - in P g p Y g in a separate article. • dian: Paeifleliner "Wont Laurier." These gir!,s` are all going out to assured posts in various parts of Canada. that fell the year before are?" "Oh, underneath!" came the ready response. "Dig down and see." Six pairs of little hands quickly dug into the cool damp earth. "This dirt's nothing but leaves, Auntie." Edith was the first to•'an- nounce her discovery. "There o' g leaves on top, but underneath e leaves are broken and pressed down ever so firmly." "And deeper down the leaves are all in little bits of pieces so they hardly look like leaves at all," added Eliza- beth. "Just look at the hole I've dug, Miss Harris," the Little -Boy -Next - Door broke in. "I'ye dug down to real dirt," "Real dirt?" .questioned Aunt Mae. "Yes." Then, nothing the look on Miss Harris's face, "Oh, I knowe what you mean. It's all rotten, decayed leaves, just like that other dirt was all old rocks and stones, isn't it?" "Yes. That- is exactly right. You have dug deep enough to seeth leaves in all ' stages of their decay, from the whole leaf to the moist, black soil What is it, Edith?" seeing a puzzled look on the little girl's face. "Don't you understand?" "I understand about the leaves here in the woods, Auntie; but I was won- dering abbot the leaves down in the village. Do they change into soil, too? And'how about the plants and flowers that the frost kills, and old apples and fruit that are left to rot on the ground? Before the snow comes in the fall, there seem to be dead leaves and plants and flowers every- where, but in the spring when, the snow meltsand everything gets green, I can't see those old brown, dead things anywhere. Have they turned into soil?" "Perhaps not all in one winter. But eventually they will. The snow and rain help to rot . them, the sunshine dries them out and powders them, and the wind carries the particles from place to place; or else they get buried in the ground, where they gradually rot and help another year to provide nourishment for new ;ferns, flowers and plants." "I'm awfully glad you've told us what happens to the leaves and flow- ers, Auntie," burst out tender-hearted Elizabeth, "for now I'Il never feel bad again, when the frost comes. I al- ways thought that was the end of the pretty things." "I know how you feel," said; Aunt Mae. "I always felt the• same, way when I was a little "girl: Come; let's pick a pretty bouquet of ferns,, and flowers to take `home,` and we'll see who can tell the best story about them j to Mother."—By Margaret A. -:!s... Bartlett. After using an'oil-can a small •am- ount of oil runs dawn the spout onto the can, A good -way to eliminate this is to take a washer, .one which' is de dressed in the centre, and by drilling the hole larger it can be made to fit the spout. The Washer is then press- ed on the spout with the, -depressed - side • uppermost; thus when the oil runs dawn the spout it will accumu- late in the washer and when the can: is used again it -will run out.—E. H. Lloyd's new register informs us that in 1923, although' many new ships were; built, the carrying capacity of the' ^merchant fleets of the world decreased almost • 1,143,000 tons. The merchant marine of Germany and Japan are forging ahead relatively faster than those of their rivals.