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SOIL SURVEY RESULTS
Interesting Statistics Announced
by Government.
Dwarf Kflr Corn Haa Proved Profit
able Farm Crop Peruvian Alfalfa .
Valuable In Warm Cllmatei
Dlaeaaee of Potato. . ' "
During the year ending "June BO,
1913, an area, amounting to 62,609,600
acres was covered by soil aurveyi by
the department - of agriculture. Of
. this amount tl.210.88u acres were sur
veyed 'and Snapped In deUIl. Parte
of thirty-one atatea were Included In
thia work and all aectlona of the coun
try were repreaented. The remainder
of the area surveyed was ; covered
which took In a reoonnoissance sur
vey. The , total . area of which soil
' surveys, have boon made up to June
30, last, la 703,235 square miles. -
Dwarf Kafir Corn Has Proved a Prof
"' Itable Farm Crop. -The
department of agriculture an
nounced that the dwarf kaflr corn has
been extensively distributed through
. federal states and commercial agen
cies and has proved to be a very de
sirable and. . profitable .farm crop.
Feterlta has awaktened much Interest
as a desirable type of white durra.
Doth fatertta and dwarf kaflr are
adapted to harvesting with the ordi
nary grain header, which add greatly
'to the value as crops for extensive
farming. : .: y . .. r,
The department has taken a promi
nent part In the campaign now being
waged for the planting of . pure and
viable broom corn seed. Experiments
with dwarf broom corn tend to prove
that this crop is usually sown too
thickly for best results.' " '
' High Value of 8udan Grass.
Sudan grass has continued to dem
onstrate its high value for the semi
arid regions,' .and even Id the humid
regions has given exceedingly-'" satis
factory results. Extensive expert
. menta are being, made with thia grass
" and arrangements have been made so
that sufficient seed will be grown for
all demands. '
Rhodes grass is continuing to show
Its high value for Florida and Quit
coast .conditions. American-grown
seed will be produced to meet the
continued growing demands.. .
Vetches. .
Interest , In , the. cultivation : of
vetches, 'especially ' the hairy vetch,
continues to Increase, and ' there Is
probably now' a greater acreage grown
than ever before. ' In -many parts of
the United States seed Is now being
grown successfully. One difficulty In
the production of hairy-vetch - seed,
which ordlftarlly must be grown with
a small grain crop, "has been the aep-
. aratlon of the seeds.
By means of the Bplral seed sepa
rator, this can easily he accomplished,
and these machines are now available
to American farmers. There Is rea
son to believe that within the near
future sufficient American seed Will
be raised to meet the demands and
probably reduce the price of seed
. much below what Is at present asked,
- The department has . recently lntro
. duced the -purple , vetch, -. which - is
especially promising, Inasmuch as it
yields as much hay and. more seed
per acre than the common vetch. . '
Cowpeaa. . ,
The cowpea Investigation especial
ly In ' breeding, baa resulted In the
. production of a considerable number
of exceedingly promising new varie
ties, some . of which,' especially from
the view point of seed production, are
apparently superior to any of the
'standard varieties'.' .,
i .. i.r. '. Alfalfa. !'. .h'-h -t.n
i The breeding of Improved varieties
of i alfalfa, ' .especially hardy and
- drough-endurlng . strains, . has, devel
oped new possibilities through the
'.' finding of forms of ' yellow-flowered
Medicago falcata' that produce new
plants from true lateral rotas.' Cer
tain of the" forms that possess this
lib
Ninety. Acres of Alfalfa on J. E.
' ... .. Northeast of
character are good forage types, and
It Is hoped that by hybridising them1
with selected plants of common al
falfa an extremely vigorous t strain
will result -
As a result of the recent Introduc
tion of new.rqots of seed of Peruvian
alfalfa, the chances orestabllshlng
this variety in the southwest are be
coming extremely favorable. Peruvian
airalfa has so thoroughly demonstrat
ed its value as a quick-growing strain
for warm climates that little difficulty
is anticipated in getting It thoroughly
established as soon as the seed Is
placed on the market tj
' Potato Diseases.
The appearance In a ' - destructive
way of several new diseases of po
tatoes In large producing areas bas
caused great alarm and heavy loss In
certain of the Important potato pro
ducing districts of the Rocky Moun
tain territory. :; . Aniorig these mala
dies, heretofpre unknown In this coun
try, are leaf-roll, known in Europe for
a number; i of years,? curly-dwarf,
rosette, and the mosaic .disease, ,
The attention of the pathologists in
charge of this line of work has been
devoted exclusively to a study or me
causes and methods : for : controllng
these troubles. . As a result of the in
vestigation a method has been worked
out by which the resistance of the
follagi of potato varieties or seed
l'ngs msy be tested in the greenhouse
i tiring the . winter which will greatly
facilitate the .'work of potato breed
ing and will, also furnish a method
of determining whether seed potatoes
are free from this disease. Recent In
vestigations have proved that the dry-.
rot of potatoes, which has . been .de
structive in . certain regions, is hot
caused by Fasarlum, as . was previ
ously supposed, but' that this disease
Is due. to other. wound parasites.
" Date Ripening.' . ..
The work during 'the last year bas
proved beyond a doubt that the arti
ficial ripening of, dates such as the
Degelet Noor may be carried on
cheaply 1 and efficiently ' merely by
keeping the full-sited though Imma
ture fruit in a moist, warm condition.
Fruit so ripened is cleaner and more
attractive than that ripened on the
tree. Thus the failure of the Degelet
Noor to ripen on the tree as it does
in some parts of the Sahara Desert,
which at first seems 'a great draw
back to date culture, In California,
turns out to be an actual advantage,
permitting the ripening of the fruit
more uniformly and more efficiently
than is possible In the open air, where
the conditions cannot ba controlled.
New Hybrid Substitute for the Lime
A new hybrid, a substitute for the
lime, fruited for the first time during
the year.' This Is the limequat, ob
tained by crossing the West . Indian
lime with the kumquat It has proved
to be not only a very prococlous but
also exceedingly fruitful end hardy. It
bears a very acid fruit, much like the
West Indian lime In size and flavor.
The tree, however, is much hardier
than the. lime,, having withstood the
past three winters. In' extreme .north-
em Florida where the lime can not
be grown. ; " ' .' " J ' '
Tobacco Investigations.
It bas been found that a rotation
in which special fertilisers are applied
Is of great Importance .In maintaining
the character and burning qualities of
the product Investigations are made
during the year In the Connecticut
Valley, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Kentucky, .Tennessee, , Maryland, Vir
ginia and the Carolina. . In the last
four states the most Important prob-
lem Is the restoration of the much de
pleted supply or vegetable matter In
tobacco soils through the use of cover
crops, which do . not.,, increase the
nitrogen supply. " .";'.,"
1 Breeding Trotting Horses. -
The only man who can breed, trot
ting horses profitably Is the man whoJ
Is breeding on a. large scale and who
supplements his breeding with racing
and sacrifices so-called "culls' or non
winners, at public sales; a dead letter
to the' breeder, as the auctions of, the
past few years have proven. .,.'.
; i .i.. .it' v.
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X
Long's Grand View Farm, Seven Miles
Wagner, Oklahoma. - . ., rj..
CLEANED ;THP DOC'S BUGGY
Which Was Not' What' Boys intended
tto.Do, but Thaf Was, the-End
of the Adventure. -rv
.ji(K'''
remember." said Uncle" Josh.. who
had Just finished a hearty dinner and
waa In the humor for telling a yarn,
"I remember one. balmy day in July
when the other boys and I decided to
steal old Doc Hoffum's horse and
buggy and drive s to the river to gd
swimming. ' Doe wasv visiting at our
house that day, and it looked easy to
us to . drive two miles over to the
river and get cooled, oft and then
bring the horse and buggy back before
'the old man missed them." '
' "There were a good many of us
and we, were not, dressed very fine.
Slim, for example, was attired In. a
long linen duster that flopped out be-
blnd. The springs allowed us to bump
pretty bard, there being so many pas
sengers, but. we, got to the river, eare-
ly.. ' .
"We had a bully swim, but Slick
said be thought we ought to wash the
buggy while we were there. . The way
to do It, he said was to run the buggy
nto'the river. - - ;
We unhitched the horse and pro
ceeded to . back .the buggy into the
water. But the buggy got away from
us, and away it went, much further
than we expected. We couldn't hold
It and so It "disappeared entirely, r A
couple of bubbles .canie up and that
was all! ' '' "I '
"While we were diving to locate the
buggy the horse got away, and we all.
took after him. We chased blm
around a clump of trees, half of us
on one side and half on the other to
head htm off. Both parties, rounded
the clump of trees at the Bame time
and ran- plump Into a camp meeting,.
mostly women! . ,v- .;
"We, let. the horse go . then and by
that time we had forgotten .where we
left the buggy." , " V ..'.'.'.,':
"I suppose some one stole 'all your
clothes .-while i. you were- gone, sug
gested the man from Topeka.
"No," said Uncle Josh, "we found
our clothes, and from their position
on the bank we figured out where the
buggy ought to be. One of the camp.
meeting people brought the horse
back and we got a rope from him and
dived around until we got the rope
tied to the buggy. Then we got tt
out on the bank. That la the only
time Doo Hoffum's buggy was ever
clean!" . . .. .
"Didn't It hurt the buggy?" asked
the man from Topeka.
."Didn't harm a thing , but the
squeak. The -bath . utterly destroyed
that Old Doo Hoffum. often wonder
ed what had become of. the squeak,
for he missed it badly. The horse
missed It too. It was a good, soothing
sound that . the two of them were ac
customed to doze by as they Jogged
Over the road." " . " ,
' ' Even Thing.' v :' '
"Sir," began the man with the
newspaper, in his band, as he turned
to the man on his right, "this Is an
age of deception."' . ',
"I quite agree with you, was the
reply. ' T; " v"
. "Nothing Is what it seems to be." '
."No; nothing.1' : .
"For Instance,' you have been' try'
tng for the last ten' minutes to get
bold of my watch. I, wear k chain,
and the natural Inference Is that there
Is a watch on the end of It'.' -"But
there Is no watph". ,.;
No, sir. I wear the chain for an
ornament " You' have simply thrown
away your, timer. TT
"And oh your J part' said the man
who had failed, "you took ibis scarf
pin for a real diamond,' and have
made no less than three trials 'to se
cure it- - -
."And It Is not a diamond?" T .L'
"No,: sir only a dry goods store
rhlnestone, but I wear It for air orna
ment, and it serves my purposes. You
have wasted your energies." It's an
even thing, however, and let's go for
that old duffer asr.be gets off the car
and whack up on , the boodle."...
One of Those Trifles.
John Miller : Gregory, playwright,
short story writer and editor of Town
and Farm, was invited to Cincinnati
recently to help prganlze a branch of
the Drama league. A meeting of; so
ciety women was called and Jack was
callen on to address ' the gathering.
Jack, by the way,. Is not at all "high
brow," and at one time was the pro
prietor of the Consolidated Shows of
which he writes so entertainingly,
The chairman transfixed blm with
her lorgnette. "'Do you know, me deah
fella w," she drawled, "youan name
has escaped me? . Ypu must pah.
don me, I'm suab, for forgetting
youah name." . , .
"Well." replied Jack wltn a smile,
"the name of Gregory bas been cur
rent almost since the time of Christ
It figures In the annals of the early
Christian church but one does some
times forget those trifles, doesn'
one?" Chicago Inter Ocean. , ,
Diffusion. ! .
Stella Why were the Smiths di
vorced?
Bella Incompatablllty; they were
both fuslonlsts. "
FARM Jm ORCHARD
Notts and Instructions from Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations
at Oregon and Washington, ' Specially Suitable to Pacule Coast CondlHors
Many Ways to Control
Insect Pests On Farm
4
Oregon Agricultural College, Cor
vallis Good farming'' methods are
necessary to the complete success of
insect " control by - spraying. Other
very helpful factors are protection of
birds and friendly insects, selection of
resistant strains of plants, and co
operation amon neighbors.
No matter how carefully spraying
has been done during one season, a
goodly number of pests are bound to
escape destruction. -These bold-overs
are necessarily among the most hardy
and prolific of the species, and propa
gation Is very rapid among them.
They take shelter in weed piles, brush
heaps, litter and trash scraps, and
odds and ends of . last year's crops.
Here they build their nests, deposit
their egM, and lay ' by for winter.
Practically every scrap heap about the
farm shelters ' a brood of pests that
will,, let loose a swarm of destructive
insects as the warm days,: of . spring
approach.
knowing thIV, the careful farmer
will rake these farm wastes and by
products into piles and light huge bon
fires when the pleasant days of au
tumn have dried out the trash ready
for burning.
Myriads of insects,, eggs, nests and
food stores will 'be destroyed in the
burning- This ' scavenger work will
add immensely to the appearance of
the farm, will destroy vast stores of
weeds and weed . seed, favor." good
drainage, to that earlier plowing may
be done the following spring, and
wipe out prolific sources of disease
germs. Notwithstanding these many
advantages of cleaning up, the princi
pal gain is in the . reduction . of the
propagating force of . insect pesta so
that the following season's crop , of
worms, bugs and beetles will be much
smaller than it otherwise would have
been, arrive later and find the crop
stronger to resist them.
"A knowledge of the feeding habits
and the life history of the pests Is es
sential to successful crowing meth
ods,", ssys Professor A. L. LoveU,
assistant entomologist at the college.
With this knowledge, growers may
look ahead and so manage their land
and crops as to avoid the most serious
losses. The careful rotation of crops;
fall, winter and early spring plowing;
clean cultivation; general cleaning up
of roadways, fence corners, and trash
about the field; the best time for
planting: the proper use of fertil
izers: the use of trap crops; and the
frequent examination of young plants
for Insect peBts : each in itself is a
big step in the right direction for the
control of insect pests.
The use of Insecticides, while et
sential to the highest production of
truck and garden crops, is not a rem.
edy for all troubles that 'arise from
neglect and. abuse. -Having, the crop
in a clean, thrifty and growing con
dition is the first step." '
Crop rotation is often essential be
cause the ground ' itself becomes in
fested with the insects which devas
tate the crops.. This is especially true
of insects of the worm and caterpillar
types. Often, by ' substituting some
other crop, these pests will either be
starved out or forced to leave.
Other insects, such as grasshoppers.
deposit eggs in holes in the ground in
early autumn, so' that the' next sea,
son's crop of pests can be destroyed by
fall plowing. Where plowing is not
feasible, as in a meadow or pasture,
good results can be obtained by . disk
ing the field. If the grower knows
the time of depositing eggs he csn
often do much. to. destroy them by
some cultural methods that are at the
same time helpful to the crop. -
Clean ' cultivation will tdestroy the
weeds which often harbor the pests,
offering them shelter through the win
ter and facilities for , successful prop
agation of the young. And clean cul
tivation means not only the eradica
tion of weeds from among the culti
vated plants, but also the cleaning up
of .weed patches in corners,, fence
rows, waste places and roadways.
": With ar knowledge of the time that
a crop of insects destructive to certain
plants is likely to appear, the grower
can often plan to plant the crop either
late enough to escape the , insect in
vaslon entirely, or early enough that
the plants will have gained sufficient
size and strength to resist it If thi
cannot be done it may . be profitable
to substitute another crop, when the
insects threaten to be . unusually ac
tive. At any rate, the grower will be
prepared to meet them In the most
effective manner ' if he knows when
they are likely to appear.
There is, according . to Professor
Lovett, a double . advantage to be
gained in the use of fertilizers. In
the first place : some of the .valuable
fertilizers have a distinct action
killing the insects or driving them
away. The other value of the fertil
izer is found in the fact that Its wise
i use so strengthens the plants that they
ire able to successfully weather the "
attacks of the Insects.
The use of trap crops to entice the
pesta away from the more delicate .
pianis ts wormy oi more niusnuun
than it has generally received. A ;
knowledge of the insects' feeding bab- -
its will often enable the grower to
plant a variety of grain or garden , .
crops that will attract , insects from
the crops to be protectee; as wen as
produce a valuable crop of itself.
The life history of the moBt common "
and harmful truck and garden pests is
mply and plainly given . in College ,
Bulletin No. 4, Extension series 2,
called "Insect Pests of. Truck and Gar
den Crops.". This was prepared Ty '
Professor A. L. Lovett, for use or
gardeners, truckers and school garden .
directors for the year 1914. . Copies
may be had free of cost by requesting
them of Prof. K. U. tletiel, extension
Director, Oregon Agricultural College,
Corvallia, Or. ' ' - '
Loganberry Growers; Should
. ' , Organize, Says Professor
Oregon Agricultural College,. Cor-
vallis "It is lust as necessary. for the
loganberry growers to organize as it
was for the apple ' and prune men," - .
says Professor C. I. Lewis, O. ' A. C : , .
horticulturist "It seems absolutely
necessary that a certain period of or
ganization, ' standardization, and co
operation shall be gone through with
before the products are handled in a -satisfactory
manner and with profit to
the producer. ,- . .
"For years the apple - men had no
difficulty whatever in getting rid of
all the fruit they could grow, but in ,
1912 they encountered many and ser
ious difficulties, -j As a result there
was a cry of overproduction, but it is
now known that over-production had
little to do with it , During the last
ten years we have grown 40 percent, j
fewer apples than in the previous ten
years, while 125 per cent more apples
were consumed In Mew York during
the last ten years than in the previous
ten. '
' 'Something else was wrong. What
was it? Merely this, the growers did
not attend to the distribution of their
product They did not advertise nor
educate the people to the possibilities
of the apple, to know the different
varieties and their . best seasons for
use. . . " '. . -
The prune men bave gone through -
the same period of ' association, and '
co-operation and It is found upon look
ing into the history of the industry
that the low prices and apparent over
production were due simply to a lack
of standardization, to a lack of proper
advertising, to a lack of co-operative
methoda, a lack of the spirit of , work
ing together. - - -
The loganberry men may profit by
the experience - of the other fruit '
growers who have learned the value of
organization and standardization. We
should start in right now to standard
ize the loganberry 'products. ' Not a . '
single dried loganberry that is not fit
to eat should be sent out of the state.
Canned goods must come up to the
best standards.! The same is true of
jells and jams.' And If we put a juice,
on the market let us put on one that '
we can stand behind. .. ' L:
''Preliminary steps ; have already
been taken for the organization of
loganberry growers. A committee of :
five, headed by Mr, Britt Aspinwall,"
bas been selected, to prepare a. tenta
tive constitution and by-laws and rec- .
ommend districts of the state that are
entitled to representation, 'to make
recommendations for having a perms-. ;
nent loganberry . association in the
state.:. ,:;'.'--.':; i': a.. '
Many loganberry growers are apt '
to ask themselves what is the use of
an association of this sort to me, and "
is it merely a scheme to get a few dol
lars out of me? There is in reality a
tremendous amount of work to it and I ,
would: like to urge upon every grower ..
in the state that be become interested ' 1
in the loganberry association."! l
:-' .'i: : i r- .,;.'.' - V-
Fruit men should .come to the aid of f
C. E. ' Whisler, who is representing , ;
their interests in the proposed nation .
al legislation at Washington, by writ-
ing him or their congressmen in favor
of the standard box . bill and against ' .
Including apples and : pears in cold
storage measures. ,,ln, order to be sue- '
cessful, Mr. Whisler must be able to
make a showing, before , the . commit- '
tees in charge oi the bills, says Pro
fessor Lewis, O. A. C. horticulturist. ,
.4 .... .' - -
The dairy demonstration train terv- .
Ice came to a most , successful end. ,
By universal consent of farmers and
the state press,' the' Agricultural col
lege and the railway company have
shown their interest in the most prac- V
tical and helpful way that can be de
vised. ' ' ''
The short course students at 0, A. :
C have decided to present their appre- '
elation fund to the committee on Stu
dent Loan fund. - .. .