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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1914)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Overcoming Seed Shortage (Special to Farm Magazine.) wl(fOME GARDENERS may bo their 4j own seedsmen in many cases," said Professor A. Q. Bouquet, pgetable garden specialist at the Ore gon Agricultural College, in answer to rjfbestions as to the best method of Overcoming the probable seed short age due to the interruption by war of European importation. He continued: "There are a few vegetables easily forked with whose seed may profitably te saved for next season's crop, pro dded it is properly selected, extracted Bnd stored. Among the vegetables that may be made to yield good results with home-grown seed are melons, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, beans and corn. But there are several vegetables, such as celery, cauliflower and other biennials that thrive well only in favored local ities, which should bo left alone. Onions, however, may be successfully handled with home-grown seed. "Great care should be taken in the Selection of seed plants. It is very necessary rnt to allow any deteriora tion in the plants grown from the home Belected seed. Therefore the plants se lected for seed should have the stand ard characteristics and be true to type. Only plants that are healthy, strong, vigorous, true to type and of the vari ety best suited to the market should be selected for seed. Saving Seeds, "In saving tomato seed choose the plant that has borne the largest num ber of early tomatoes of suitable size, color and quality. Select from this plant the medium to largo specimens of fruit A single good plant should yield about 30 to 40 fruits. Mark the plant bo that the fruit will not be unintentionally picked, and then leave the fruit until It is well ripened. Then pick the suit able fruit and leavo it in a basket or barTel until it is dead ripe. Halve the fruit and squeezo the seed pockets into a tub. Cover with good clean water, when the seed pulp will ferment in 15 HAVE read with considerable in terest a number of articles on sprouting oats, and have tried sov eral of the methods out. Finally I struck on a plan of my own which answers the purposo so well that I con cluded to writo it up and let yon have it, as it uay help some. My sprouter consists of a cabinet six feet high, and the oat trays slide in on cleats. The trays are two feet wide and two feet six inches long, with four-inch sides. The bottoms of the trays are perforated to insure good drainage. The trays are made of half inch redwood, with a three-inch piece nailed flat on the bottom of each end, making a smooth surface to slide on, tind when made up resemble green- to 20 hours. As fermentation progresses the pulp will rise to the surface, when it may be skimmed off and the vessel refilled with clear water. Let seed settle, and then collect and ran through a fiue-mesh sieve. Then spread on sheets of blotting paper to dry. Stir frequently and protect the seed from mice. "Select heavy-netted melons that ar early maturing and of ideal type. Seed should be saved from those that are continually judged for quality. They should be healthy, vigorous and prolific Wash seeds as for tomatoes, allowing the fermentation to take place before washing out. "For lettuce seed select plants that make a big leaf growth and that are of the desired type and variety. Gather the seed as soon as the seed pods be gin to open. Keep birds away. Put the seed stems in a sack, and flail or rub out the seed. By careful fanning, or pouring in the wind, the seed may bo cleaned of chaff. Examine Carefully, ' "Beans are most easily saved when well cured and thoroughly dried. If there is danger of frost while the vinos are still green they Bhould be pulled and piled in windrows to cure and dry as quickly as possible. They can be removed to a dry house if the weather is unfavorable for curing oat doors. The seed should be carefully examined and all seeds deviating from the type desired should be rogued out "Some splendid acclimated corn has been privately grown in Oregon. Home gardeners and farmers can easily save their own seed by careful selection of ears from plants that produce the earli est and best specimens. Acclimatization is a big factor in the production of early corn. It can. be worked with profit for many years with good re sults. Keep the selected seed suspend ed away from rodents." houso trays. The whole thing looks very much like a provcr such as bak ers use for proving bread in, only it has no door. My idea at first was to pnt glass doors on and use a !amp for heating during the winter months, but here in California I found it not neces sary. The sprouter stands in my feed room, where it gots little light and no sunshine. My process is as follows: I place twelve quarts of dry oats in a fifty pound lard bucket which I got from a grocer for 25 cents, and put sixteen quarts or more of water on them and leave them soak for twenty-four hours. I then carry them outside and dump them into a box that has sufficient holes in it to insure good drainage and allow them twenty-four hoursr lor draining. This box will become slimy and should be washed out every few days as required. A fifty-pound butter box answers this purpose fine. I then carry them in and dump them into No. 1 tray and place them in the cabinet on the top cleats. The following day the tray is low ered to the second cleats and th oats are sprinkled first, then stirred. For the two days following I do the same, lowering the trays each day. On the fourth day, after sprinkling and stir ring, I cover the oats with an empty sack and wet it good. The fifth day I remove the sack and stir the oats, re place the sack and wet it good. On the sixth day I sprinkle the sack, but do not stir the oats. On tho seventh day the sprouts will be two inches long, nice strong, tender, juicy ones, and the oats will be matted with niee tender roots. The hens snre relish them. I use three quarts of dry oats for each 100 hens, and tho twelve quarts will make thirty-six quarts of feed. I had diffi culty in getting the oats to sprout at all, but on inquiry found that the oats I was getting were not sprouting oats. Since then I have been suppliod with the proper kind and have no trouble By using the one box for draining and keeping it clean I have had no trouble with moldy oats. By following the above it just takes nine days from the time you start the oats to soak until you can feed, and it only takes ten minutes each day to attend the sprouts. THE DANGER IN WOOL ALCOHOL. THE IDEA that something "just as good" is as good as something else is responsible for many fatal mis takes. Substitution is the bane of the present day, and was the chief reason for the enactment of the national pure food and drug law. One of the worst deceptions practiced has been in the substitution of wood alcohol for the pure grain alcohol. The latter is safe to use in medicines and about the body, I and when it U necessary to prevent de composition, but the former is a viru lent poison, and yet experience has shown that there are people unscrupu lous enough to substitute the one for the other just because there is more profit in using the wood alcohol. The inferior article has its uses in the trades, but not in anything that is likely to come in contact with the per son. A recent report showed that more than sixty deaths and cases of blind ness have been caused by wood alco hol sinee January in New Tork alone. Investigation has revealed that of the thousand firms engaged in the manu facture of barbers' supplies 90 per cent are using wood alcohol, and yet as these preparations come in contact with the face or the fumes of the alcohol penetrate the eyes serious damage is likely to result, with possible blind ness. It has been found in some cor dials, and is a common ingredient in varnish, a particularly dangerous use for it To drink the stuff is to die. To inhale it is to cause blindness through injury to the optic nerve. Ex cept when wood alcohol, or its substi tute, denatured alcohol, is needed for mechanical purposes or for lamps where it can be used with as good advantage as the grain alcohol, it is well to keep away from it Bettor bo safe at all times. DUEL WITH A TARGET. THE DUELING target is ono of the new games for children recently introduced in France. It is really a duel between a marksman and a spring target, for every timo the play er hits the target it throws a rubber ball at him. The weapon used by tho marksman is a small spring pistol which fires soft-headed darts and has a wiro basket fitted upon tho muzzle for catching the returning ball. Be hind tho target there is a spring arm which is released when a dart strikes the bull's-eye and throws a ball in a long sweeping curve towards tho play er. The gamo is to fire at tho target, hit the bull's-cyo and catch tho ball in tho wiro basket on the end of tho pistol. An ideal cleaner for kid gloves is carbon tetrachloride. BUSINESS IN DRY TOWNS IS MUCH BETTER Oregon Committee Gives Report on Cities MERCHANTS TO VOTE DRY BT ORTON E. GOODWIN, Publicity Department, Committee of One Hundred. The Committee of One Hundred, composed entirely of prominent Oregon men and women, has made a care ful investigation of every dry town in Oregon. The result has shown thai business is far better in every dry town as a whole; that collections and morals are unquestionably better; that civic improvement has been much increased; thai building generally is much greater and that sentiment is now overwhelmingly in favor of a dry town. There is bo town in Oregon new dry that will rote wet This can be stated without fear of contradiction. Ftoaeentinf officers testify that BP , rests are far last, ranging in one teas) from 50 to one, to fear to on. Officials assert tho vast majority of criminal cases are dno to liquor. When crime dintinishea taxes wO Oregon Dry Lower Taxes. Hence, Oregon dry means not onrj better bumaus and more work, bat lower taxes. In Boss burg practically every mar chant came out openly in favor of a dry town. In Salem and Oregon City a large majority expressed themselves, In Ashland it was found impossible to find a merchant who favored a wof, regime. Pendleton, though wet now, wsa asserted by many business men to haw shown far better conditions dry than when wet, and they asserted the town would, in all probability, vote dry, but that Umatilla County most certainly would vote dry, . Dry Towns' Collections Better. Dry sentiment was unusually strong ' in Medford because Medford merchant have noticed the enormous amount oi business done and the fact that eot lections are better in dry towns. Albany was overwhelmingly dry mainly for business reasons. In the whole Willamette Valley there1 was hardly noticeable any wet senti ment of great weight Merchants and residents declared the hop argument had failed because it was realized that . 98 per cent of Oregon hops were sold outside Oregon, and Oregon wet oi Oregon dry could not affect the Oro gon hop crop at all. Hop Pickers Want Dry State. For the same reason, hop pickers realized their jobs were in no danger, and by far a majority of hop pickers favored Oregon dry because they knew a dry state would bring bettor condi tions in the hop fields by banishing liquor and drunkenness from them. At least half a dozen prominent hop growers came out openly in favor of Oregon dry. Because of better business, lower taxes and better collections it now seems certain the merchants of Oregon1 will vote the state dry. Pail tdverUstmsnt by the Committee of One Hundred, Tit Morfaa BulMlnf, Portl kno, Oregon. ijl Have any of your friends in the Eastern states considered the value of a homestead in the Northwestf The initial expense is not great, and the results of a little work are gratifying. Though it is not generally known, thousands of the choicest acres in Oregon and Washington are f. t i ! 1 awaiting the coming of the home-builder, and may obtained for homesteads at a reasonable concession. The above illustration is of the home of E. A. Burns, near Albee, in the Blue Mountains south of Pendleton, Oregon. It is in a fertile region, anil Mr. Burns is making an excellent livelihood. There is opportunity for the homesteader in many such a section of Oregon and Washington. Sprouting Oats for Hens By J. H. Tolson of Petahuaa, California
