The gazette-times., October 08, 1914, HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION, Page 2, Image 8

HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTfON
Oregon Agricultural College is the Friend of
Page of News Notes and Interesting Articles Specially Written by College Experts For
View of Oregon
INNDUSTRIAL CLUB MEMBER
MADE MONEY IN POULTRY
P PROFIT of $32.33 on an invest
ment of $110.98 for eight months
was made by E. Vernon Rains,
a member of the boys' industrial club,
who engaged in the poultry contest
eonducted by the Agricultural College
and tho State School Superintendent.
This is a 30 per cent gain, and since
the period of actual investment hard
ly averaged six months, ihe actual
rate of profit was about 60 per cent.
And in addition to the money gain
the flock has been transformed from
mongrel to pure-breds, and the con
testant has a valuable stock of in
dustrial and business experience that
will stand him in good stead for the
remainder of his natural life.
During the eight mouths of contest,
from January 1 to September 1, the
average size of Vernon's flock of lay
erg was 40 hens. From this flock he
secured 4021 eggs, an average of 100
eggs for each hen. This was an aver
age of bat 12.6 eggs per hen for each
month of the contest.
The eggs were Bold mostly to the
neighbors and to his own family, a
few going to the local market Only a
few were sold as high as 40 cents a
dozen, and some were sold at 15 cents
per dozen. Peed was all bought except
tho green feed, and the prevailing re
tail market price was paid. Vernon
ays that hens must have green feed
to keep them in health and vigor, and
that they must have meat if they are
expected to lay.
Chickens were hatched by incuba
tor and by hens, the latter proving
the most satisfactory. From 305 incu
bator eggs 213 chickens were hatched,
and from 288 eggs set under hens 221
ehiekens wore hatched. Vernon set
two hens at the same time when pos
Bible, and gave all the chicks to one,
resetting tho other.
That ho made mistakes, he admits.
in his report. Tho worst mistake was
feeding young chicks wet mash to the
extent that they would not eat grains,
Thoy grew so slowly that at four
months of age they weighed but a
pound each.
On his report, Vernon was graded
100 per cent. He has yet to make an
exhibit of two pullets and one cock
erel at a fair, where it will be scored
by local judges. This score will be
added to his 100 report score and
average made for his final grade.
Valuablo prizes go to the winner, so
that his profits may be still further in
creased. But he is entirely satisfied
with his experience, and says that for
a small amount of troublo he received
great plcasuro and fair compensation,
and that tho contest brought him into
eontact with the real world.
THINKS MALHEUR WILL BE A
GREAT DAIRY COUNTRY.
HAY THAT NOW SELLS at $5 a
ton in the stack in Malheur
County should, if marketed
through the dairy cow, bring $15 to $20
a ton, thinks E. B. Fitts, O. A. C.
Extension dairyman. He has just
spent two weeks in the irrigated dis
tricts of that county and is impressed
with the opportunities offered there
for successful dairying. The climate
is very favorable to the production of
alfalfa hay and corn silage, and enor
mous yields of both crops are se
eured. A combination of these feeds
with a little grain is what he calls an
ideal ration for a dairy cow.
"Corn grows in great luxuriance,"
says Professor Fitts, "and it is esti
mated that thero are 2,000 acres de
voted to this crop this year. Some of
this corn will yield about 100 bushels
to tho acre.
-. 1
Agricultural College, CorvaUis, Oregon,
"Silos are being built and very
large yields of ensilage are reported.
County Agriculturist V. R. Shinn and
myself weighed the yield from a
measured square rod on the farm of
E. B. Conkin and Becured 286 pounds,
which is a rate of 45,760 pounds per
acre, 22 tons a yield Bcldom exceed
ed even in tho corn growing sectious
of the East.
"Dairying is in its infancy as yet,
but I find a desire for information on
dairy subjects wherever I go. A cheese
factory is iu successful operation at
Nyssa and provides a good market for
the milk that is produced, i
"I feel safe in making tho pre
diction that dairying will Boon become
ono of the leading industries of the
irrigated sections of Malheur County,
and prove a large factor in developing
the county and adding to its wealth."
SELECTING SEED SAMPLES TOE
TESTING AT THE FAIR.
FARMERS who wish to take advant
age of the offer of free seed test
ing by the Agricultural College at
the Oregon State Fair, are oliered the
following directions for securing satis
factory tests:
In order to secure samples that are
strictly representative of the entire lot,
all small seeds, such as gTasses, elovers
and alfalfa, should be spread on a
cloth or clean floor and thoroughly
mixed. This is necessary in order to
make the test a reliable guide to the
character and quality of the entire lot.
If samples are taken from the top of
the sack more than the normal amount
of chaff and light seed will be secured
and less than the normal amount of
some of the small, heavy weed seeds,
such as dodder and mustard.
After having thoroughly mixed the
lot of seed, samples of each lot of the
small grains are taken by dipping up a
heaping tablespoonful and putting it
into a bottle or sack which is to be
properly closed and correctly labeled.
Samples of cereals and other large
grains should include six heaping table
spoonfuls of each kind. These samples
are to be put into receptacles and prop
erly Labeled.
Tests for purity will be made at the
fair as largely as possible, by Miss
Jacobs, expert seed tester for the Col
lege and U. S. Department of Agricul
ture. Miss Jacobs will have seed germi-
nators in operation in this exhibit, but
farmers who wish reports on the ger
minating quality of their seed will
necessarily have to wait until after the
fair to receive them, It requires at
least six days to mako a reliable test
of germination.
COLLEGE YEAR OPENS.
EG1STRATION at the Oregon Agri
cultural College began Friday,
September 18, and instructional
R
work began on the Tuesday following.
The number of upper classmen and
graduates who returned to continue
collego work is Bomcwhat larger than
last year. Owing to the higher stani
ards of admission and to disturbed
business conditions throughout the
whole world, the number of freshmen
entering show a slight decrease over
tho number last year. Entrance sta
tistics have not been compiled but it
is probable that 'the considerable num
ber of vocational students will bring
tho total registration slightly in ad
vance of that of last year. This is the
first year in which vocational work,
open to eighth grado students of re
quired ago and to more mature men
and women, has been carried by the
Agricultural College, and there are in
dications that tho work of the course
will attract a great many students.
Collego buildings, grounds and equip-
tie Sole Aim of Which Is to Aid Agriculturists.
ment are in better condition for the
beginning of tho school year than ever
before. Also thirty-nine new members
have been added to the faculty, either
to fill newly created positions or va
cancies caused by resignation. The out
look for a good and prosperous year is
exceptionally bright.
FLIES DESTROY CUTWORMS.
ANY CUTWORMS have been para-
sitized by tho species of blowfly
that deposits its eggs on the cut
worm's neck, whence the larva enters
the worm and causes its death. In an
insect breeding cage at the Agricultural
Collego Professor Lovett found that
80 per cent of the worms collected in
the Willamette Valley are fatally in
fested. Ho hopes that this means a re
duction of the pest that has wrought
such havoc in clover fields and garden
crops to a point of little importance for
next year. He is very anxious for farm
ers to co-operate with this natumal
enemy of the cutworm by cleaning up
and burning or plowing under all crop
remnants, weeds and other trash of
fields and roadways, which may offer
breeding homes for the cutworm. All
cutworms that have been parasitized by
the Trachid fly may retreat to their
winter home, spin their eocoon, and go
into the pupa stage. But when the
warm sunshine of next spring calls
them to eome forth as moths they will
have been consumed, and in their stead
there issues from the chrysalis not a
cutworm, but a Trachid fly. If larra
ers will do their part, it seems that
the cutworm pest will be eut off from
serious damage, possibly for sevoral
years.
EUILD UP HORSE HERD GRADING
ON ONE LINE.
BIT
EN WHO have made a success of
horso breeding are those who
have picked out one tvpe and
ono breed and kept up improvement
along the one line, is the viewpoint
of Professor Carl W. Kennedy, the new
horse man at O. A. C. "The stallions
that they used wero of the Bamo breed
and always puro bred and sound.
"Few men are able to sell all of
their poor horses and replace them
all at once with good ones, but there
aro few localities in the state where
thero are not sound, pure bred, licensed
stallions that will greatly improve tins
work stock. A continual use of these
good stallions is always making for
improvement. A use of poor stallions
or stallions of different breeds is not
grading stuff up, but is generally hold
ing it at a standstill or grading it
down. The economic, or money view
point of livestock raising, demands that
the horses be improved. The Oregon
Agricultural College is advocating that
tho farmers and ranrhmcn choose the
breed of horses that they prefer and
then breed to a sound, licensed, pure
bred stallion that will improve their
stock consistently."
GRAIN FOR RANGE CATTLE.
SEVERAL cattle feeders of the
4m? irrigated districts of the Prine
ville country tried the experi
ment of feeding grain to their fatten
ing cattle last winter, according to
R. E. Reynolds, who has just re
turned from an extended observation
trip through that part of Oregon,
where farmers institutes were held by
the agricultural advisor and members
of tho O. A. C. staff. "Very satis
factory results were Becured," says
Mr. Reynolds, "and further exptri
mcnts will be carried on this com
ing winter. Owing to a scarcity of
range, cattlemen are considering the
advisability of feeding the one-yiar-olds
instead of the two year olds, as
the Farmer
This Newspaper.
23
was done in the paBt. Cattle raising is
the principal livestock industry, and
although hogs would undoubtedly do
well there, farmers are reluctant to
undertake hog raising because of the
distance from market"
WIPE OUT HOG CHOLERA.
HOG CHOLERA will be banished
from Oregon and kept out per
petually if tho co-operative plana
of the Agricultural College and Bureau
of Animal Industry succeed. A veter
inarian specially trained in method
of eombatting hog cholera win be em
ployed to conduct an educational cam
....i fhrnnchout the state. The work
will be in charge of the director of
Extension. Dr. Virgil W. Knowlcs, who
has been appointed to carry on thiJ
work, will co-operate closely with the
state livestock sanitary board and the
Btate veterinarian. This work will be
begun immediately.
COURSES OF STUDY.
OREGON Agricultural College offer
the following courses of study,
each of which extends over four
years and leads to the degree of Bache
lor of Scienee:
In the School of Agriculture, majof
eourses in
(a) General Agriculture.
(b) Agronomy.
(c) Animal Husbandry.
(d) Dairy Husbandry.
(e) Horticulture.
(f) Poultry Husbandry.
(K) Agricultural Chemistry,
(h) Agricultural Bacteriology.
. (i) Botany and Plant Pathology,
(j) Economic Zoology,
(k) Eeonomio Entomology.
In the School of Forestry, major
eourses in
(a) General Forestry.
(b) Logging Engineering.
In the School of Home Economics,
major courses in
(a) Domestic Science.
(b) Domestic Art
(c) nomo Administration.
(d) Institutional Management
In the School of Engineering, majof
courses in
(a) 'Civil Engineering.
(b) Electrical Engineering.
(c) Mechanical Engineering.
(d) Highway Engineering,
(c) Irrigation Engineering,
(f) Industrial Arts.
In the School of Mines, major courses
in-"
(a) Mining Engineering.
(b) Ceramics.
(c) Chemical Engineering.
In tho School of Commerce, a majof
courso in
(a) Commerce.
In the department of Tharmacy,
course in ,
(a) rharmacy.
In addition to the abovo baccalaure
ate courses, provision has been mado fot
the following vocational courses;
(a) Agriculture (one year),
(b) Dairy (ono year).
(c) Home Makers' Course (one year),
(d) Mechanic Arts (three years).
(e) Forestry (Nov. 2 to April 16).
(f) Business Short Course (2 years),
No work below sophomore grade
will be given in Civil Engineering durs
ing the year 1914-15. .
L. R. Breithaupt, in charge of the
Harney County Branch Experiment
Station, was at tho college last week
in the interests of his work. Mr,
Breithaupt has conducted some very,
useful experiments in dry farming
methods, and is getting hold of facta
that will be of great value to farnn
ers of the pleateau portions of Ore
gon.