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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1915)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Editorial Page of Home and Farm Magazine Section Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News; Suggestions of Interest to Readers; Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought 4 TO ADVERTISERS Advertisers in this locality who wish to fully coTer all sections of Oregon and Washington and, a portion of Idaho will apply to local pub lishers for rates. General advertisers may address C. L. Bur ton, Advertising Manager of Oregon-Washing-ton-Idaho Farmer, Oregonian Building, Port land, Oregon, for rates and information. TO READERS Readers are requested to send letters and articles for publication to The Editor, Oregon-Washington-Idaho Farmer, Oregonian Build ing, Portland, Oregon. Discussions on questions and problems that bear directly on the agricultural, livestock and poultry interests of the Northwest and en the uplift and comfort of the farm home always are welcomed. No letters treating of religion, politics or the European war are solicited, for the .Oregon-Washington-Idaho .Farmer .pro claims neutrality on these matters. Comparatively brief contributions are pre ferred to long ones. Send us also photographs of your livestock and farm scenes that you think would be of general interest. We wish to make this magazine of value to you. Help us do it POWER MACHINERY FOR THE FARM. THE gasoline engine lias long since passed the experimental stage. There was a time when, it took both skill and pa tience to manipulate one of the "monsters," but with. all the improvements that have come by the application of skill ami genius, a gas engine is as safe and reliable as any other piece of equipment about the farm. Any equipment that will obviate labor and increase the output is worth considering. In these times of activities and rush and hurry a piece of machinery that will perform with out being constantly watched is deserving of a plaee in farm operations. The uses are so varied and so extensive that the labor problem takes on a much dif ferent aspect where the gas engine is on duty. It not only pumps the water, but it runs tho feed grinder, silo filler, cream separator, churn, washing machine, woodsaw, and if properly equipped furnishes electric lights for the house and barn. The gasoline engine is one of the labor saving devices on the farm. It pays for it self within a short time; it enables the farm help to be devoted to the tilling of tire soil, rather than doing chores. "Women can use it as well as men. It is a long stride in eco nomical farm operations when gas power is made to perform various operations about the farm. COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS, THE matter of plant food is all impor tant in purchasing fertilizers. When a farmer buys a ton of an average commercial fertilizer he buys in reality only about 300 pounds of actual plant food. If he buys a cheap fertilizer he gets less than this amount. If he buys a high-grade fer tilizer he may receive as much as 600 pounds. It costs as much to mix a ton of fertilizer containing 300 pounds of plant food as it does . one containing GOO pounds. The cost of sacking, hauling and freighting is the same. Therefore, it is evident that the manufac turer can sell the plant food in a high-grade fertilizer cheaper per pound than he can tho plant food in a low-grade fertilizer. In other words, the higher the grade the cheaper can the plant food be bought. Farm ers are advised therefore to purchase only high-grade fertilizers. Attention is called to those brands which have less than 2 per cent of ammonia or pot ash. Less than 2 per cent, of either of these in gredients is too snnll a quantity where such ingredients are needed, and where not needed it is useless to purchase them. It is an utter waste of money to purchase potash or ammo nia in fertilizers containing less than 1 per cent of these ingredients. PAYING THE TEACHER. ONE of the striking situations revealed by the Federal -investigation of teach ers' salaries in tho United States' was the wide variation in pay for the same or similar work. The inquiry showed that pub lic elementary teachers may receive $2400 a year, as some do in New York City, or $43 a year, as in certain rural communities. Even in cities of the same class there are considerable differences in the salaries paid. Ou the administrative side there are county superintendents with pay ranging from $115 to' $4000 a year, and college presidents re ceiving salaries of from $900 to $12,500. In city school systems salaries have in creased steadily in recent years, particularly in the "Western states, and in general, sal aries in city school systems are fairly well standardized. It is in the colleges and universities, how ever, that the widest variation prevails. Salaries of men with the rank of "profes sor" range from $450 to $7500. "Pro fessors" in some institutions receive less than "instructors" or even "assistants" in others. Salaries of deans of these institu tions vary from $500 to $5000. University teachers of subjects for which there is direct commercial demand outsida receive somewhat higher salaries than teach ers of academie subjects, but the difference is less than might be expected. The highest average salaries for full professors are paid in law and civil engineering. "DEAD" SUBJECTS. AN INSTRUCTOR in the English depart ment of a, certain agricultural college says that students do not take nat urally to reading about London in the six teenth century, while they are interested in the war, woman suffrage, the Filipinos, col lego athletics, and a score of other modern subjects. Besides, these are the topics that most writers are handling and will continue to handle. What point is there, then, in giving stu dents such subjects for treatment as "The Literary Style of Ben Jonson"? Upon such subjects they have no ideas, but are brim ming over with ideas about the matfers of which the literature of tho moment is full. Upon them, therefore, they arc asked to write. "Naturally," it is gratifying to learn, "their written work is improving." At the risk of seeming to align ourselves with those fossilized individuals who place the literature of 3616 above that of 1914, we may remark that this instructor is not the first to find that it is easier for most persons to write about subjects that are in the air than about those of a day that is dead. . MARKETING NEW YORK APPLES. JOHN J. DILLON, treasurer and general manager of the Rural New Yorker and one of the most aggressive champions of farmers' rights in America, has been ap pointed Commissioner of the Department of Foods and Markets of New York City. ' It having transpired that there are about 2,000,000 barrels of apples in storage in New York state, Mr. Dillon proposes to experi ment with a public sale of apples in New York City by the growers themselves. The plan is to sell these apples at a "fair" price evidently meaning a price that will be sat isfactory to both grower and consumer and the prices named arc $2.50 per barrel foB first grade and $2 for second grade apples, the sale to be in open market under state supervision. The growers are asked to do their part and co-operate with the department and thus, move these apples into consumption, for it i9 stated that if some such plan does not suc ceed the growers will lose both apples and cost of storage. In Mr. Dillon's letter H says: "There are 10,000,000 people within shop ping distance of New York. If each one of them can be induced to eat two apples a day, in 50 days there will not be a barrel of ap ples left in storage in the state." The success or defeat of this project will intensely interest all who are advocates of free public markets and any other method of business that will bring producer and con sumer into closer relations for their mutual benefit. s THE SCHOOL GARDEN. IT is not too late to plant a great many, varieties of ornamental things. Those deciduous plants and shrubs that have begun to grow when this issue reaches our readers might best be left to another season, although most early starting shrubs, such as lilacs, may be obtained of nurserymen in a dormant state several weeks after those which have not been disturbed have started to grow. Practically all of our flowering an nuals may be planted now with the best of ' success. There are many school grounds in the Northwest that are not in a condition to be. attractive to our 1915 visitors; iu fact we are not proud of them ourselves. These grounds should be planted to some growing thiug now and thus give an impression to the children who gothere to school that A schoolhouse and school grounds are really of some importance to the people who send their children there. Who can tell just how much influence 8 well-planted school yard has upon the pupils in the way of creating an interest in their school work, and how much influence the bare yard has in discouraging themf A small glass house would not bo amiss in some schools where some of the tenderer Ta rieties of flowers may be started early or pot ted plants protected from Winter frosts. Of course such a house would be valuable, and so would hotbeds, cold-frames or a lath house. The fact is these things would not only add to the at tractiveness of the grounds but if the pupils were allowed to build and operate them themselves they would get & better understanding of the uses to whicH some of the subjects which they are studying may be put. A small sura invested in a good sire tot his services will in a very few years mean 4 , large sum in tho better quality of the( ani mals handled and fed. The tide of gold is now homeward bound, and the first shipment comes from China, gold-band China, so to speak. , Whajevcr you dislike in other persons l sure that you are not afflicted with the same trouble. ( 1 The man who is afraid of burning up 3 wick need not hope to brighten the world,