Willamette Valley
TO
arimer
arid Fieics of Farm and Garden
Unusual Ranching
Mushrooms ProcJuced in Quantity
At Mpdern Valley Plant,
i .' :By TJTJJB L, MADSEN
. - -: Statesman Farm Editor.
We bad always lecn led to believe that farming was as open !
as a book. But ve discovered that in this, as in: some other things,
we could be wrong We found a man whose farm is entirely tinder I
cover and who keeps his work in the dark. With a little. lamp
fastened" to his cap, the farmer himself doesn't look like a farm
er, but a miner. However, he insists that this light is actually
as much a part of bis equipment I
as a tractor Is of the grain farm
er's. .
This "rather unusual ranching
began in 1938, when Mr. and Mrs.
Roland West came to Salem from
Santa Cruz, Calif, and bought a
run-down poultry farm a few miles
out on the penitentiary -road.
New Instead of the one or
lglnal rood . building, , a ben
house, there are six completed
hoases and a seventh under con
struction. Instead of v the ordin
ary old fashioned farm house
that was en the place there is
now a ranch house similar to
. those pictured In the slick-paper
garden magaslnes, and Mrs.
West explains it Is "really the
same house, only different-"
Most surprising of all: instead of
chickens' there are mushrooms
-400f pounds a month,
' While we, as a child, believed
everything our Bible school teach
er told us, yet we wanted an ex
planation for the Biblical mir
acles. Therefore, the manna which
we were told Just came from hea
ven with no work attached, we
decided must be mushrooms.
But Mr. West says this can't be
so. There is lots of work attacked
to growing mushrooms. The Wests
have studied the business and had
experience before, coming to the
Willamette valley.
In growing mushrooms com
mercially and profitably there
- mush first be a mushroom house,
according to Mr. West The mush
room houses on West's ranch are
.made with flat beds about eight
inches deep, about four feet wide,
accessible i from aisles on bom
sides. The beds are arranged in
tiers, about 5& feet apart,: with
tiers of boardwalks to make pick
ing possible on the higher
"shelves." j
Oat and wheat straw and stable
manure, helped along , by chemi
cals, are composted a process
' taking from 18 to 20 days and
done 'in an ' open-sided compost
bouse. Filling one' of the mush
room houses with compost is
full day's work for two men.
Prior to 1903 no commercial
mushroom spawn had been devel
oped in the United States, the
larger part of the spawn used, be
ing brick spawn imported from
England, Now spawn is produced
r v"
in the east by at least one com
pany or laboratory, Mr. West told
is. - - j 1 " -
When i the spawn, or cultures
arrives, it Is inserted from one
to two inches below the surface
of the compost. This Is done by
holding It with one hand while
pressing! the ' compost firmly
about It with the other hand.
In about ten days, the new
growth i appears around each
piece of spawn. At this stage,
the "casing" of loamy screened
soil Is applied evenly to a depth
of 1V& inches. It Is firmed as
applied, j -
No further attention, other than
sprinkling three times a week to
maintain I an even moisture, is
needed. Usually it takes about 90
days from the time the beds are
first begun until . picking can be
started. 1
Mr. West, gave us a picking de
monstration. He takes hold of the
cap of the mushroom, . twists it
lightly, cutting the basal portion
of the stem off which he drops
into one little box, the mushroom
goes into another. Both boxes are
in a .carrier fashioned after the
strawberry carrier. Usually Mr.
West picks his mushrooms when
they range in size from -a quar
ter to one half dollar. They are
then termed "buttons." Picking is!
done every other day and a good
picker can gather 100 pounds of
mushrooms in four hours.
Jokingly we asked if there were
ever any crop failures feeling
sure we knew the answer before
we asked. But this was no Joke
to Mr. West
"Unless," said he "the great-
est care is used at all times, the
crop failure can be complete."
A little farther conversation
revealed that both pests and
disease can enter this crop. There
is a mushroom fly, we were
told, which, unless controlled,
produces maggots and makes the
' mushrooms unfit for sale. There
are a number of diseases as as
welt Utmost sanitation, com
plete sterilization and care in
preparing the beds must be
maintained. When each crop is
completely harvested, all the
flats are emptied quite a pro
cess In Itself and the entire
house disinfected by using sal-
, , "...
.X
jut. WU.S.i
ROLAND WEST .
He farina in -the dark
pher. This takes several . days.
The Wests' first harvest of
mushrooms in the Willamette val
ley, was in . 1937, when they sold
nine pounds in one week. Now
4000 pounds are harvested each
month. Of these approximately
300 pounds are sold fresh in Sa
lem, Portland, Seattle and San
Francisco. The remainder is
canned for .the navy. The Wests
have their own cannery, white
and sanitary looking as a medical
laboratory. . ,.'..,
Five people are employed by
the . Wests, and canning -takes
about four hours on picking days.
When brought into the cannery.
the buttons are run through , a
grader, washed, ; blanched, run
through the salt brine and' Into
the pressure cooker.
Both Mr. and Mrs. West have
made a thorough study of mush
rooms. The type they grow is the
so-called common variety with
the uncommon sounding name
agancus campestris. There are
other edible varieties, but only the
very experienced should ever at
tempt to r gather mushrooms in
the field. Otherwise, instead of
edible ones, they may have some
of the "toadstools." Frequently,
the varieties resemble each oth
er very much, as mushrooms cross,
according to the Wests, and some
times the poisonous ones take on
Ranch Ramblings
By Rural Reporter'
Up in Clackamas county (or
is : it down, we always get our
ups and downs confused) we found
some corn being replanted. Clack
amas, as we have indicated before,
is a great corn growing country
and they will grow corn there
despite phesants and a cold spring.
Fiber flax Is making good growth.
And we found that a blueberry
arboretum with plants -from var
ious parts of the United States had
been established en the red soils
experiment area at Oregon City.
This is under supervision of Coun
ty Agent J. J. Inskeep. Eight
named high bush varieties most
of which were developed at the
New Jersey experiment station. In
addition to native low bush seed
lings from West Virginia have been
obtained. A shipment of native
bushes from Maine is. expected
in the near future. Carl Joehnk
of Canby has provided plants from
the Grays Harbor . country. Al
though only a few successful com
mercial plantings "of ' blueberries
are to be found in western Oregon,
Inskeep finds great interest in
this subject, he reports." ' S .
Tomatoes were still' being set
out in Linn county during the week
and hops are reaching the wires.
Tree fruits are very spotted but
berries are more promising than
they '.were earlier in the season.
Pastures seem to like Polk coun
ty ; for they are doing very, well
ovft in that section. Strawberries
were also looking good very good
to; those of us who passed the
strawberry fields en the other side
of: the fence.
Prune and cherry crops will be
light in Marion county. What early
weather conditions didn't care for,
recent winds took off. The past
week was rather cold for corn
and beans planted, causing them
to get off to poor start ' We
are still thinking about the very
white wooley lamb which we-saw
down at the Turner show. We have
never seen nearly so clean a" lamb
outside of the toy departments in
larger stores. . If all lambs ere as
white and . wooley as Lambkin,
owned and cared for by Phillip
Jantze of Turner, We could cer
tainly go in for lambs in a big way.
- We found some hopgrowers in
Marion .county dusting their hops,
busting of peas will soon get un
derway. Aphids were bothering the
field peas in some locations. '
-Everywhere we traveled we
found the farmers concerned with
CaaaJa thistle. A-id a rlit they
had to be, for" we never seen as
many Canada thistles any season
as we saw wis past week. Barn
yards, fields, Victory gardens, rose-
beds, everywhere we looked
there we found Canada thistle.
We recalled when we were child
ren there was for a time, a great
fight against the thistle. In recent
years this had somewhat subsided
out this spring again there seems
to be great concern.
We were told that there may be
plenty of weed seed in relatively
pure seed. Canada thistle has
393,000 (I wonder who counted
them) seeds per pound. If one buys
red clover seed 99 per cent pure,
he is getting seed considered to be
up to the: commercial standard for
good red! clover. But if all of the
1 per cent of inmpurity should
happen to be Canada thistle, and
he plants 11 pounds of seed per
acre, he is seeding almost exactly
one Canada thistle seed on each
square foot of his land.' Jack Stump
over near Monmouth tells that
"we -have tried several different
ways of controlling Canada thistle
and we have had. good luck with
all of them. Possibly the most
satisfactory is the use of fresh
horse manure, where the patches
are small The manure should be
put on at least 3 feet deep and
about 2 feet past the last thistle
to allow for possible spread. This
has always given 100 kill, but of
course- ran only be used where
very few plants appear" -
Sodium chlorate spray, used 1
pounds to a gallon of water, is
recommended both by Harry I
Robinson and Gustav Krause, both
from Washington county. Robinson
sows his field in oats and vetch,
cuts this ! for hay and afterwards
sprays, about September L He
gives them two follow up. sprays
at four week intervals. Then he
adds, "do not plow or work through
them after spraying, and do not
work within 10 feet of the patch
sprayed- If you do they will come
up very ' thick around the edge
with a kill in the center of the
patch. It would be better if you
want 100 kill not to work the
field the next spring, and go over
it a couple of times and look for
one that i might come- up. Before
spraying them mow them off. Tall
thistles take too much spray.
As we travel around the counties
we feel sure that we will learn of
other methods of killing the weed.
The main Idea is to get it killed.
Tomato Diseases
Incurable, But
Preventable :1
Tomato streak and mosaic are
two incurable tomato diseases and
control can only be accomplished
by prevention. Both are extreme
ly infectious and can be carried
from plant to plant by simply
tuoching one plant then another.
The use of ; tobacco about ; or
near tomato seed beds during pot
ting, transplanting or pruning
should not be permitted. Tobacco
users working with tomato plants
must wash their hands thorough
ly in strong soapy warm water be
fore working with the plants. All
potato plants and potato debris
should be kept away from fields
where tomatoes are grown.
the appearance of the non-poi
sonous. But those in the know.
claim 'they can always spot the
agaricus campestris in the field.
Be Careful
Of Tomatoes
If Spraying
Choose Sprays Which
Do Not Injure Leaves
Neither sulphur sprays nor sul
phur dusts should be used on to
matoes.. Sprays and dusts in
which copper is the active in
gredient are preferred for use on
tomatoes. Copper sprays or dusts,
especially those containing lime,
should not be applied to .tomato
foliage until really needed, since
immature tomato plants are ra
ther intolerant of such sprays and
dusts. Yields and quality! of to
matoes will be reduced if these
control measures are applied
while the plants are young. After
the plants become mature and the
crop is set there Is much less dan
ger of injury. As the tomatoes
approach maturity the applica
tion of spray or dust which leaves
a heavy deposit on the tomatoes
may i be objectionable. For this
reason it is desirable to use ma'
terials which will reduce this re
sidue to a minimum. ' ,
I. Bordeaux spray, if properly
made and applied, Is one of the
most i effective controls for late
tomato blight A solution of four
pounds copper sulphate, two
pounds lime and: 100 gallons of
water lis the proper 'formula, ac
cording to. Oregon State college.
But if you prefer to dust in
stead of spray, copper-lime dust
may be used. . This may be pur
chased ready prepared from a
dealer.' -'V
? If the weather remains dry
with ho threat, of rain, the first
application may be delayed- until
about the first of September. It
should be. applied at that time,
however, even if no rain has fallen.
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Problems of
roultrymen j
Discussed
Poultry men are learning thai
a deficiency In vitamin-D is fre
quently the cause of soft shelled
eggs in poultry houses. Should
the hens be receiving plenty of
oyster shell or limestone grit, and
still lay soft-shelled eggs, double
the normal amount of vitamin D
for . flocks In confinement,; Is The
hew order.." The "double portion
'could , be" continued"" for about a
month to learn whether .the .'defi
ciency is the. cause ?of the. soff
shelled eggs, . v ' ? '
If the' hens still continue to lay
soft shelled eggs 'after this or eggs
with -a.' poor shell ' texture, the
cause may lie in' the failure of the
organs to produce the proper shell
material and in such instances the
hens should be disposed of." . v .
Egg eating habits may be
brought about by lack of sufficient
shell or grit or vitamin D. Eggs on
the floor of the laying house may
also cause hens to develop this
habit
v Pictured above Is Jerry WlppeYolthV
Clorerdale 4H dub.! with the ewe' that'
won grand cfarmpicnvoi the fat lcanb
show In Turner on ScrWd. cmd.olso:
champion of the 4H club entrees. The
Iamb was later sold at auction.
At the right Is Edward Ahrens and
bis dog Pat first place winner In the
state dog trials In sheep herding before
a crowd of several! hundred at Turner
- on Saturday. (Statesman photos) ;
0f . kJr(Mjy
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Truck Farm Crops
On Increase
Some increase in Polk county's
commercial truck acreage is an
ticipated this year by county ag
ent, W. C. Leth. Last year, Polk
county had . a ' commercial truck
crop acreage , of approximately
675 acres, consisting primarily of
beets, green corn, snap beans and
asparagus.
The total acreage of truck crops
in Oregon in 1943 was reported at
77,600 acres, an increase of 50 per
cent over the previous year. The
Willamette valley accounted for
about 39 percent of the total truck
crop acreage. , -
Today's Gnrdon
- By LTLLTE MADSEN
Turner's flower show, sponsored
by the consolidated Turner Bet
ter Homes and Garden club and
the Four Leaf Garden club in con
nection with the fat lamb show.
was unusually attractive. , Mrs.
Stanley Riches proved conclusive
ly how well the African violet
started from a leaf. Iler excep
tionally healthy African violet
which she had started a short time
ago was. in full blossom. ' '
Mrs. Elmer Ball had an unus
ually attractive bouquet of garden
heliotrope and the wild astSbe,
Mrs. Helen Rosenau had arranged
a bouquet of double pyrethrum
and blue and salmon- lupines. At
tracting considerable attention
was a bouquet of red roses. Coun
tess Itrausbrook from the Ahrens
farm. The fragrance of these ros
es was also noticeable. - r-
"X. i I - ' I It
MAMfll
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no fouits dequihed on aiiy rrni m this ad
- SHOP TIIE EASY i UftY!
The "Easy Way is the Marion Street "Market Way." The largest displays, wider selection of scarcest items,
the savings you make, the case in shopping, makes the "Marion Street Market Way" the ideal shopping: way.
Shop here for your June foods. j i
Garden-sweet, and tender.
24 No. 303 cans
$2.65
Rosedale sweet.
24 No. 2 cans...
$2.89
Sunkist Early Garden.
24 No. 2 cans
.$3s55
Bar None Dog Food,
12-oz.
50
Pure Lard,
4 -lb. carton
730
Porter's Frillet&v
1-lb. pkjf...
190
Amaizo Syrup,'
light or dark, 1K-Uv
130
Sunkist Coffee,
lb.
250
Clabber Girl
Baking Powder.
2n-. 190
- , --,-'''!', . - r .
Marion,
24 No. 303 cans.
$2.75
Marion, ,
24 No. 2 cans.
$2.S5
Sunkist Early Gardes Cat,
12' No. 3038 in gizss
,$E.65
3eal JeHarimeni
Lcg-o-Pork Roast,
330
Pork Chops,
lean end cuts, lb
300
Grade A Bacon,
not sliced, lb-
350
Leg Pork Steaks,
350
Frnii esd Vegetable Spends
NEW PEAS
No. 1 local...
3 ibs. 250
NEW SUPDS, Shafter 4 fk : L
Whites, U. S. No. 1 All lbs. eV
SUNKIST LEMONS
360's, dozen.
230
NEW VALENCIA ORANGES j
Lots of juice. Dozen.
150
LOG
Heavy waxed.
Pts, dot
i i
CABTOIIS
390 r 490
Econoinv CapsLd. 3.70
CoCc3Jnridds!?,SaO0
iiihs Jars
QnartsL!.,, doz.
730
Dcilh Gap
.fTOSS.
250 .
ORM
Diamond "A" Whole KerneL
24 No. 2 cans ;
$3.75
Three Sisters Whole Kernel,
24 No. 2 cans.. . ....
$3.39
Sunkist Cream Style Gojden
Sweet, 24 No, 2 cans ....
$3i25
GSISCO
no points..... .3 lbs. 680
Swift's Prem, ready-to-eat meat O ! 4.
in glass. No points . dAy
X. -.3. 680
package
Maison Royal Imitation .
Vanilla, 8-oz...; Z. Ally
Cheerioats, . A
package... : . AU
Puffed Wheat.:...! . .Ll 3 for 250
Toilet Tissue. .. ,' JO rolls 250
..- .t'-..'. .V, i , .'- jyt.. !-,! 1
v. f i".. . ..-,,.;--,-...'-- - --, J. '.
StaleyyCorn or O ' Kf
Gloss Starch..,. Cm for n3)S
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- N0H11I COMMEHOAL AT IIATJON
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