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,