Legumes Make Up a Necessary Link in the Chain
LEGrMES
THAT
COME
BEFORE
OTHER
CROPS
INCREASE
THOSE
OTHER
CROPS
ELEVEN'
TO 33
PER
CENT
SEVENTY-EIGHTH YEAR
A Branching Variety of
Sweet Corn Promises
Much in This Field
Sweet corn is a typically Ameri
can vegetable, one of the greatest
delicacies of the garden. Corn
breeders have worked fro years to
develop field corn, the great farm
crop, while the table delicacy,
sweet corn, stood still and new
rarieties came slowly. It is a dif
ferent story njw. and now sweet
corns are oiierea eacn year.
A new branching variety intro
daced this year seems to be what
scientists would call a mutant, the
unexplained appearance of a new
type, which may greatly increase
the yield of the average corn
plantation. On the new type of
breeders have worked for years to
a plant and some times as high
as six. while the older types do
not average as much as two good
ears to a stalk.
This corn appeared in the gar
den of F. C. Kevitt of Athenia, N.
J., several years ago. The seed
was saved and planted and the
trait of branching at the ground
Into several stalks, each of which
bore ears of corn, reproduced it
self. It required several years to
"true" the stock so it would re
produce the type from seed. The
plants are said to average 6 feet
tall, the ears to average 7 inches
in length and the quality is said
to be of the best.
Golden bantam introduced a
new era in sweet corn and it has
been the most popular home gar
den and table corn ever grown.
It has been the subject of experi
ment among plant breeders for
years and there are a number of
hybrids with older and larger
types, the object being to take the
sugary sweetness of Golden Ban
tam into a larger ear.
The work of plant breeders has
taken a different tack recently
with Golden Bantam and that is
to isolate earlier and better
strains. The earliest strains have
been varieties of white and black
corn, the squaw corn as it was
formerly known. The early
trains of yellow corn did not come
so easily but they have now been
secured in Golden Bantam.
As corn has been hybridizing
through the processes of nature
for many years, plant breeders
find it necessary to inbreed or
self-fertilize over a period of from
five to seven years to unscramble
the family relationships and
traits. This has been done until
at last an early strain of Golden
Bantan maturing eleven days ear
lier than the earliest known
strains and three weeks earlier
than the latest strains has been
isolated.
Com breeding involves a rather
difficult task, as the quantity of
pollen shed by the tassels makes
it necessary to cover both tassel
and silk completely to prevent
stray pollen falling upotfMhe silks.
A LADINO
PL iNT WIZARDS
WH WITH CH
Fainnmio
1
WAY
M
ASTERS ARE THE QUEENS OF THE
FILL HU1LS; A WIDE VARIETY
Asters are the queens of the
fall annuals, the greatest material
of their season both for cutting
and garden decoration. There is
such a wide variety in this useful
plant that it is sometimes diffi
cult to make a selection. The
two general types, the branching
and the ostrich plume, are the
most desirable for the main crop
of asters. The late-branching types
give a great crop of flowers with
good stems showing an inclination
to an incurved shape. The os
trich plume section, which includes
the Crego. has curled and twisted
petals inclined more to out-curving,
following, in a general way,
the tendency in chrysanthemums,
of which they have become rivals
in size and beauty.
The Giant of California and
American Beauty type are noted
for the size of the flowers and
the length of the stems which
they offer for cutting. Those with
late-branching types are especially
valuable. Asters need rich soil,
a liberal supply of moisture and
good cultivation. But even with
these conditions, they have de
veloped several plagues that have
discouraged many gardeners.
as it is the contact of pollen nad
silk that causes a kernel to form
on the cob. each strand of the silk
representing a kernel.
Paper bags were used to pro
tect the plants employed in the
breeding experiment and the silks
were fertilized by hand from the
pollen of the same plant, the seed
ripened and planted and the pro
cess continued until strains that
would breed true from seed were
established.
Corn feasts were celebrated
events among the Indians in the
early history of the country, and
particularly in the history of the
Mandan Indians of North Dakota.
The French explorer. M. de la
Verendrye. in 183S describes a
corn feast by these Indians given
!in his honor when he visited the
tribe.
CLOVER BOOM IS STARTING IN THIS DISTRICT
and
W3
BETTER THAN LAST
SALEM, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 15, 1928
Chief of these is what is known
as the yellows, the blooms never
developing their true colors, but
remaining a greenish yellow, de
formed wad.
This trouble, it is now known,
is carried by certain insects. Root
aphis give more trouble. A dress
ing of hardwood ashes when the
asters are set out has proved one
of the best means of starting them
on their way to a healthy career.
Asters may be sown either in
doors, in frames, or in the open
ground, all depending on the earli
ness of bloom desired. This is
also regulated by whatever the
seed planted is of an early flower
ing or late flowering type. This
is a matter of selection from cat
alogues. 1
New anemone flowered and sin
gle types have gained great popu
larity during the last few seasons,
the Sunshine asters being the
finest example of the anemone
flowered type and unusually beau
tiful and graceful in soft colorings
with different colored centers.
Any of the new large-flowered
single strains are good. This type
is one of the most artistic for cut
ting. WE SHOLO GROW
The United States Is Now
Wisely Sending Scientists
to New Guinea
(Under date of April 4. the
press service of the United States
department of agriculture, under
the heading, "Sugar Cane Special
ists Will Explore New Guinea for
Disease-Resistant Varieties." sent
out the following:)
Having come to the conclusion
that New Guinea Is the native
home of sugar e-ane, the United
SH
of Our Growth
ectiomi
tiiteiiis
YEAR
States department of agriculture (
has organized an expedition under j
the leadership of Dr. E. W Bran- j
dcs. sugar plant specialist, which j
will use an airplane in searching j
the unexplored wilds of the island j
for disease-resistant cane varieties
that may prove valuable to the in-j
dustry in Louisiana and other parts j
of the south. '
Doctor Brandes was scheduled !
to sail from San" Francisco April j
12, accompanied by Dr. Jakob Jcs-
weit. who was formerly chief of I
sugar plant breeding work in Java!
and now of the University of1
Wageningen. Holland: and Rich-!
ard K. Peck, who will pilot the
plane. Peck acted as pilot for the
Stirling expedition to Dutch New
Guinea under the Smithsonian In
stitution in 1926-27. These men
will be joined at Honolulu by S.
E. Pemberton, entomologist of the
Hawaiian Sugar Plant association
experiment station, and proceed to
Port Moresby, the base of the ex
pedition on the southeast coast of
New Guinea.
The plane, a Fairchlld cabin
type, will be furnished by B. G.
Dahlberg, president of the Celotex
company, makers of synthetic lum
ber from sugar cane bagasse, who
is also interested in 6ugar cane
plantations in Florida and Lou
isiana. Equipped with pontoons
for landing on rivers, lakes or oth
er bodies of water, the plane will
make possible the exploration of
the interior portions of the island
otherwise inaccessible or difficult
to reach. The study is expeeted
to take from six to eight months.
The Australian government is co
operating to make the expedition
possible and successful.
While the idea of such an ex
pedition has been under considera
tion for the past six years or more,
it has not been possible to bring it
about until recently. Depression in
the sugar cane industry of Louisi
ana and other parts of the south
resulting largely from the declin
ing yields caused by mosaic and
root diseases, has given impetus to
the project. !
The P. O. J. Canes j
The most feasible method of im-
proving the production Of sugar j
cane in the south is by the use of)
varieties that are resistant or tol
erant of these diseases. Some
favorable results have already been
accomplished by the introduction
of several improved varieties de
veloped af" the Proefstation Oost
Java, the experime'nt station main
tained by private planter in Java.
These varieties have given such
satisfactory performance in tests
during the past six years that spe
cialists have been encouraged in
the work. More than 170.000
acres were planted in Louisiana
last fall with varieties recently in
troduced from Java.
"We believe," said Doctor
Brandes, "that the best solution
of the problem depends on sticking
to the search for tolerant varieties
until even better ones are devel
oped. "In New Guinea, where we be
lieve sugar cane is indigenous, we
know that varieties arise by cros-
(Coiitiutifd on p(fr 8.)
and Well Being
IN POLK
AND
MARION
Till? -
FINDING
MADE
FROM
TESTS
PV
statp:
AND
rEP.K I.
PRICE FIVE CENTS
SUPPLTT DF GREENS
They Are Good for What
Ails You, and They Are
Good in Every Way
"Greens" furnished an old-fashioned
dish because they were
pood for what ailed you whether
you liked them or not along with
the old-fashioned spring tonics,
sulphur and molasses and other
hygienic horrors of a bygone age.
Their health-giving value is now
recognized, but on a sounder sci
entific basis, and they are popu
lar because it is not a duty to eat
them as it was formerly. There
is opportunity to appreciate their
flavor without prejudice on the
ground of medicinal diet.
Spinach, the earliest of all
greens, is a brief crop in the home
garden. Other greens are needed
to take its place. The standby is
the beet, both the root types and
the swiss chard, which doesn't
form a large root but runs heavily
to foliage and produces greens all
summer. To some the chard is a
rather insipid, vegetable. For
these mustard, green are a real
these mustard greens are a real
old-fashioned, when it was cus
tomary to cut down the mustard
crop of Veeds in the fields and
gardens by pulling the young
plants for greens. The garden va
rieties are so superior as? hardly to1
ho recognizer! in the same class
with the weeds, although the lat
ter has excellent flavor when
cooked.
The garden mustards are used
both as salads, green, and as
cooked greens. There are two
types, the large leaved useful for
cooking and the small leaved use
ful for salads. The Chinese and
Southern Giant are large-leaved
sorts excellent for cooking and
giving liberal crops of leaves. Tho
White London is a small, smooth
leaved sort which grows quickly
and gives pungency to salads. The
Fordhook Fancy has become the
most desirable of the salad types
because of its curled and fringed
leaves, being as ornamental as
parsley and attractive for garnish
ing as well as for salads.
The mustards will grow In any
ordinary good garden soil. A
packet will fnrnish an ample sup
ply. It is best to plant a short
row of each type, one for salads
and one for greens. Thin th
plants to three inches to give
them a chance to develop. The
fancy curled should have six
inches to reach their best develop
ment. Mustards are seldom
grown in the homeogarden, but
they are well worth a try, and
once tried, they are likely to be
come fixtures. '
Some of the miniature tomatoes
will prove popular with the chil
dren as wel as being fine for pre
serves. Hed plum, red cherry,
red currant and their yellow va
rieties are all good.
KEEPING UP THE