HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
United States Department of Agriculture Special Page
Bulletins and Special Articles Issued by the Government, of Interest to the Northwest;
Suggestions Covering a Wide Range of Activities; Result of Federal Investigations, Etc.
8
Government Finds No
Fooa Shortage Likely
THE Department of Agriculture
lias issued the following state
ment: The 1914 wheat crop of the United
States was estimated to be 891,000,
000 bushels. The estimated surplus
carried over from the 1913 crop was
about 76,000,000 bushels. There
was, therefore, a total available sup
ply of 967,000,000 bushels.- As the
normal annual per capita consump
tion of wheat in the United States
is about 5.3 bushels, 520,000,000
bushels should meet our normal do
mestic requirements for food; in ad
dition, 90,000,000 bushels are re
quired annually for seeding. Six hun
dred and ten million bushels, there
fore, should supply the normal do
mestic demand.
This would leave a surplus of 357,
000,000 bushels. Of this surplus
about 210,000,000 bushels were ex
ported by January 30. This left 147,
000,000, or 40,000,000 bushels more
than our average annual export for
the past five years, for export be
tween February 1 and the appear
ance of the new crop, or for carry
ing over into the next crop year. The
amount is sufficient to permit the
export of nearly 1,000,000 bushels a
day until July 1, before which time
the new crop will begin to be avail
able. This is about the average re
cent exportation.
The large demand for our wheat
arises from the fact that there was
an estimated world's shortage of
over 400,000,000 bushels outside of
the United States; from the fact that
the Russian exportable surplus of
100,000,000 bushels is not available
generally, and from the fact that the
belligerent nations are eager to se
cure food supplies. If it were not for
these things we should be discussing
ways and means of disposing of our
tremendous surplus of food products.
As has been stated, the new Amer
ican crop will begin to appear before
July. The Argentine crop is now
coming on the market. It is estimated
that from that source there will be
available 100,000,000 bushels. A
surplus of 75,000,000 bushels or
more from India will be available in
May and June. The increase in the
Fall-sown wheat acreage of the
United States in 1914 was 11.1 per
cent, or over 4,000,000 acres; in the
Northern hemisphere generally the
acreage of Winter wheat shows an
increase of from 3 to 33 per cent, as
follows:
Denmark 3 Per Cent
Italy 6 Per Cent
Switzerland 10 Per Cent
United Kingdom 10 Per Cent
United States 11 Per Cent
India 22 Per Cent
Canada 33 Per Cent
But suppose a shortage in wheat
should develop in the next three
months, what would be the situation?
There is a great surplus in other
food crops in the United States, a
number of which can be used as sub
stitutes. Wheat does not constitute
more than 12 per cent of the normal
diet, about the same as poultry and
eggs. Meat and dairy products con
stitute 4 8 per cent, vegetables 11 per
per cent, fruits, nuts, sugar, fish and
other items the remaining 19 per
cent.
There are larger supplies of corn
and other grains, meat animals,
dairy products, potatoes and fruit at
the opening of 1915 than for many
years. The most important compet
ing products are corn and potatoes.
This Is shown by the fact that while
the normal consumption of wheat is
5.3 bushels in Maine it is only 4.7
bushels, and in Michigan five.
In the wheat-growing Btates where
wheat is abundant, such as Minne
sota, the average is 7.2, whereas in
the South, where corn is much used,
the average is four bushels. Nor
mally about 3 per cent of the corn
crop is consumed as food. Of our
total crop about 80,000,000 bushels
would be used for food, the remain
der could be used for foods and sub
stitutes used for animals.
The potato production in the
United States averages 3.8 bushels
per capita. This year the available
supply is 4.1 bushels. The average
price of meat animals was 7 per cent
cheaper in January than a year ago,
butter 2 per cent lower, the price of
chickens slightly lower, of potatoes
35 per cent lower, and of apples it
was 37 per cent lower.
It would seem that the United
States Is not likely to be threatened
with a shortage of foodstuffs.
Mixed Flour Bread Experiments
BAKING experiments to test the
value of making bread of potato
meal mixed with wheat flour
are now being undertaken by the
U. S. Department ot Agriculture's
Bureau of Chemistry. This is to test
the possibilities of the potato in the
same manner as Germany and Aus
tria are now advising their people to
do. The increased cost ot living
throughout the world has emphasized
the fact that flour made of other
substances than wheat, or of these
substances mixed with wheat, might
provide people with healthful food
quite as nutritious as the pure wheat
flour and at the same time cheaper.
Austrian bakers are now compelled
by law to use at least 80 per cent
potato-meal In making their bread.
The Bureau of Chemistry's potato
meal bread has been baked with
from 25 to 50 per cent potato-meal
and the remaining percentage wheat.
The most satisfactory loaves In com
bining economy and appearance were
those made with the minimum per
centage allowed in Austria or less.
The loaves made with more than
30 per cent potato-meal were not so
satisfactory, as they were heavier
and less attractive in form. The bread
has a rather coarse texture and dark
appearance, but possesses a distinc
tive and agreeable flavor. It also re
tains moisture for a much longer
period than ordinary wheat bread.
Potato Flake.
The Bureau of Chemistry used the
imported "potato flake" In some of
Its experiments and In others meal
made by slicing, milling and drying
potatoes on a small scale In its labor
atories. It should be added that such
ordinary "potato flour" as is on our
American markets is not the same as
the German "potato flake" or Walz
mehl which has given such satisfac
tory results in the experiments.
The question has been raised as to
whether the ordinary cooked potato
might not be satisfactorily substitut
ed for the prepared potato-meal. The
experimenters believe that it might
serve the same purpose It used in
just the right proportion, but this
would be difficult for the average
housewife to determine, as there is
great danger of using too much and
producing a very Boggy loaf. How
ever, the custom of adding a very
little potato is already used by many
housekeepers to keep their bread
moist and this practice can very well
be recommended for more general
use.
Banana and Chestnut Bread.
Dried bananas, ripe and unripe,
and chestnuts are other substitutes
for wheat flour with which experi
ments are being made by the bu
reau of chemistry. Still other prod
ucts which offer promise of furnish
ing the public with a cheap and nu
tritious bread are the following:
Bran, soy bean, white bean, millet,
kaflr, milo, dasheen, cottonseed flour,
oatmeal, cassava, buckwheat, rye,
corn gluten, kaoliang, rice (polished
and natural), peas, potato (Irish and
sweet), corn meal (white and yel
low). The breads made from these vari
ous ingredients have already been
photographed and analyzed. The
flours from which the breads were
made are being analyzed that It may
be known exactly how nutritious they
are in comparison with the pure
wheat flour. The soy bean and cot
tonseed flours, when mixed with
wheat flours in proper proportions
(about 25 per cent), give a bread
with about twice the amount of pro
tein (muscle-building element) that
ordinary wheat bread contains.
Law Makes Mixed Flour Unpopular.
The bureau of chemistry is making
these experiments in spite ot the
fact that there is a law which makes
it difficult for manufacturers to
make mixed flour satisfactorily. This
law surrounds the manufacture of
mixed flour with so many restrictions
that the business has not become a
popular one. The result is there is
very little mixed flour at present
manufactured and offered for sale.
The mixed flour act was passed in
1898 before thero was a food and
drugs act, and was passed for the
the purpose of raising a war revenue
at a time when many of the common
articles of food did not command so
high a price as now.
The tax of 4 cents which Is now
Imposed on every barrel of mixed
flour is not In Itself a heavy one; it
is the collection of it with the attend
ant regulations and restrictions that
hamper any manufacturer who would
like to make such flours.
It should be stated in connection
with the mixing of other materials
with wheat flour in making bread
that this cannot always be done eco
nomically. There must be taken into
consideration the prevailing market
prices ot the commodities to be used.
This article Is written primarily
for the purpose of bringing to the
attention of the public the fact that
In order to obtain good, nutritious
and wholesome bread it is not nec
essary to use an entirely wheat flour.
A mixture will in many cases produce
a bread which is quite as satisfactory.
With this a matter of common
knowledge, It is believed in times of
over-production and the consequent
favorable market prices of substances
suitable for mixing with wheat flour
that bakers may wish to experiment
with certain mixtures.
Care should be taken, however, in
marketing or selling of bread to
which has been added In appreciable
amount any ingredient other than
wheat, that no deception is practiced
and that the consumers are aware of
the kind of biead being furnished
them.
Use Cactus Solution
in Arsenical Sprays
AN ENTOMOLOGIST of the De
partment of Agriculture, who
had seen Mexicans add cactus to
whitewash in order to make it stick
to boards, derived from this the idea
that cactus solution would make ar
senical sprays for killing insects ad
here to plants and thus protect the
plants against insect ravages for a
longer period. As the result of a
series of experiments with the ordi
nary "prickly pear" or (Opuntla
Iindhelmeri) Engelm, which is plen
tiful In the Southwest, it has been
found that if sliced prickly pears, or
indeed any other cactus of sufficient
size, are added to the water before
the zinc arsenite or Paris green and
the lime are put in, the mixture will
stick to the plants much better than
be effective for a much longer period.
The experiments were made with
the cucumber and similar plants,
which are attacked by the belted
cucumber beetle, (Diabrotlca baltca
ta,) and it was found that In regions
where prickly pears are obtainable
the method Is excellent to prevent
damage by Inserts with habits simi
lar to those of the belted cucumber
beetle, such as the 12-spotted cucum
ber beetle, etc.
The method used was as follows:
The spines were first burned from
the prickly pears, then sliced at right
angles to the spine, or In cases of
large pears, cut both ways. The
sliced cactus was then put In water
and allowed to soak over night. It
was found that 1 5 pomids of spiny
cactus to 50 gallons of water is about
the proper proportion.
Where too much cactus Is used it
interferes with the spray. The
water over-night draws out the muci
laginous substance from the cactus,
which makes the adhesive for the
poisonous substances. Cactus grown
on low, wet soil possesses less of
this muctllaglnous substance and
more water than cactus growing In
high, dry regions.
Another test was made with cactus
solution as compared with whale-oil
soap. Very careful notes were made
and It was found that the soap
equaled the cactus in spreading
power, but the cactus spray adhered
better than the soap spray. There
fore the cactus was favored, since
heavy dews will wash poison with
slight adhesive qualities from the
foliage in a short time.
The water from the cactus waB
drawn off, and with It In one set of
experiments were mixed three
pounds of zinc arsenite with 50 gal
lons of water. This was used in
sprays on sugar beet plants Infested
with the striped cucumber beetle.
Check experiments showed that in
about six days after spraying all the
beetles were dead.
In another experiment one-half
pound of Paris green and two pounds
of .lime were used with 50 gallons
of the water of the cactus solution.
Again the spray, within a few days,
killed all the beetles.
European Starling Is
Found Pest in Orchard
IN ITS annual report for the last
fiscal year, the bureau of biologi
cal survey of the United States De
partment of Agriculture reports as
follows on the European starling:
. Introduced into the United States
nearly 25 years ago, the European
starling has gradually extended its
range from New York City, and now
it it found in the neighboring states
of Conoctlcut, New Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania and Massachu
setts. During its migrations in search
of food It ranges much farther from
the original center and occurs in con
siderable numbers as far south even
as the District of Columbia.
The starling is markedly insectiv
orous, especially in Summer, and
preys upon many noxious varieties.
In this respect it is to be classed
among our most useful birds. So far
as is known, it has not proved de
structive to grain crops, but it is
knowu to be very fond of small
fruits, and as it associates in large
(locks It is likely to become a pest to
the orchordlst.
In addition, It prefers tree cavi
ties, boxes, or recesses In buildings
for nesting sites and thus Is brought
into direct competition with certain
of the useful native birds, more par
ticularly the bluebird, purple martin,
whitc-bollied swallow, house wren
and flicker.
The bird Is steadily extending its
territory, and it will be wise to with
draw all protection from it, as has
already been done in Connecticut,
New Jersey, New York and Pennsyl
vania, Including the center of its
abundance, with a view of checking
its increase and spread. The ship
ment of these birds from one state
to another has been prohibited under
heavy penalty by act of Congress.
Under ordinary cirsumstanccs,
even after all protection is with
drawn, the bird will probably prove
to be capable of taking care of Itself.
That ultimately it will spread over
a large part of the United States is
highly probable.
Hog-Cholera Remedy
Makers Misuse Facts
THE attention of the bureau of an
imal industry of the United
States Department of Agriculture has
been railed to the fact that the mak
ers of a medicine sold as a hog-cholera
remedy are misusing Government
figures of the results obtained by
Federal agents by the use ot anti-hog-cholera
serum, as evidence of the
efficacy of their medicine. In several
magazines there have appeared read
ing notices In which there are state
ments that, this medicine has resulted
in saving many hogs from hog chol
era In Pettis County, Missouri, Mont
gomery County, Indiana, and Dallas
County, Iowa.
The figures given to Indicate the
results are exactly those reported to
the department by Its agents as show
ing the use and effect of antl-hog-cholera
serum In sick herds.
For example, the Government fig
ures on the use of serum, which are
misused In this way by the medicine
concern, are as follows:
Tenia County, Missouri lings In In
fected lieids treated, 5901; hogs lost.
1038.
Montgomery County, Indiana Num
ber of eiek hogs In Infected herds
treated, 4562; hogs lost, 894.
Dalian County, Iowa Number of
nick hogs In Infected herd treated,
5686; hogs lost, 1998.
It Is scarcely possible that any
remedy could havo been used on
Identically the same number ot hogs
and with exactly the same results as
the antl-hog-cholera serum. On this
point the Inspector in charge in Pet
tis County, Missouri, says: "As far
as we are able to acertaln, none of
this remedy has been used in Pettis
County."
Farmers and others, therefore, are
warned not to confuse this "remedy"
with the antl-hog-cholera serum
which Is the one method of treatment
used by the Federal Department of
Agriculture.
Progress,
"And you actually went to ask old
Billlnger for his daughter's hand?"
"Yes, I did."
"How'd you get along?"
"Fine. Not the least bit of trou
ble. He talked war talk all the time
I was there and never gave me a
chance to say a word." Cleveland
Plain Dealer.