1
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
The Agricultural College Is a Valuable Friend to the Farmer
Vage of News Notes and Interesting Articles Written bv College Experts.
VIEW OP OKKGO.V AtilUCTLTl'R AL COLLEGE AT CORVALLIS, OH. IT'S SOLE AIM IS TO AID AGBICULTUniSTS.
Farm Gardens Are Both
Valuable and Necessary
THAT farmers the state over are real
izing more and more the value and
necessity of a farin vegetable garden, was
Stated recently by Professor A. G. Bou
quet, section of Vegetable Gardening,
Oregon Agricultural College, In a talk
to the Corvallis Grange.
"Vegetables form a very important
part of the diet of a healthy person and
many farm tables are poorly supplied
with them or have but a meager variety.
Personally I think the farm vegetable,
Karden is a reasonable and legitimate part
of farm work. In actual value It exceeds
by three to five times the value of the
average farm crop. Unfortunately, how
ever, the real value of produce grown on
the place is seldom considered by our
farmers. It would be, however, if they
were to live in the city for a few weeks
and have to purchase all the green stuff
they consume.
"The farm vegetable garden should be
carefully planned and properly planted.
No haphazard 'throw-the-seed-in-the-frround'
methods will suffice. The garden
bhould be regularly attended to the same
as other parts of the farm work."
A recent boys' and girls' industrial
club bulletin written by Professor Bou
quet gives suggestive plans, varieties of
vegetables to plant, and dates and meth
ods of proceeding. Although this bulle
tin was written for boys and girls, it can
be prontaDiy read by older persons.
Swine Management.
Bulletin No. 191 on Swine Management
has just been issued by the Extension Di
vision of the Oregon Agricultural Col
lege. This is a popular bulletin, written
ly G. R. Samson of the animal husbandry
department, dealing with the different
phases of the swine industry, particularly
with reference to Oregon conditions.
Among the subjects considered are lo
cality, the farm, the man, houses and
necessary equipment, miscellaneous
equipment, number of pigs for the farm,
adaptability of pigs to different types of
farming, market considerations, " points
for selecting farm swine, care and man
agement of brood sows, calculating ra
tions, feeding the growing pig and feed
ing for market, methods of feeding, and
a short treatment of raising pure-bred
swine.
The bulletin contains 43 pages and in
cludes several drawings of useful equip
ment for the swine raiser. Experimental
work is not reviewed nor mentioned In
this bulletin except Insofar as results may
' be applied by the treatment of the subject
matter in hand.
The records of experimental feeding
work conducted by the station in recent
years will appear in a bulletin soon to be
Issued but not yet out of the printer's
hands.
Bulletin No. 191 may be had by those
interested by writing the Oregon Agricul
tural College, Corvallis, Oregon.
Poland China Hogs.
For early maturity or ability to pro
flues a finished fat carcass at an early
flge, no breed excels the Poland China,
thinks R. E. Reynolds, livestock exten
sion specialist of Oregon Agricultural Col
lege. Having been originated in a corn
state, Ohio, and developed on corn feeds,
it will probably stand heavy corn feeding
better than most other breeds and is a
general favorite with the corn belt
farmer.
It is a typical American breed. In 'size
it generally ranks as medium, hardly av
eraging up to the Berltshlres, although
there is little difference. The earlier
types were freely marked with white, but
black is the fashionable color today with
white on face, feet and tip of tail.
A limited number of small white mark
ings on other parts are not seriously ob
jected to. Many breeders have gone to
extremes In the matter of selecting for
lineness of bone with the result that in
many cases they have evolved a hog that
lacks somewhat in size and fecundity.
This matter is receiving the attention
of many thoughtful breeders with the re
Bult that the over-fine type Is falling into
disfavor with the general farmer.
ii-U.ji l-H H' '' 54 U
Molding Cream Too Long
is Cause of Poor Butter
(I A5t fully convinced that the prac
J tice of holding the cream in order
to reduce hauling expenses contributes
more toward the production of second
class butter than any other factor," was
the emphatic statement of J. D. MIckle,
Oregon Dairy and Food Commissioner,
when speaking before the State Dairy As
sociation during the 0. A. C. Farmers'
Week.
"This is a most serious question for
every dairyman in Oregon and I regret
the fact that those who never attend dairy
meetings or dairy conventions are usually
the ones who need to give the subject
the greatest amount of attention.
"But the fault does not lie entirely with
the dairymen, for the scarcity of Oregon
dairy produce together with the expense
of added freight or express charges to
imported products had a strong tendency
to foster Borne of the bad methods of Ore
gon dairy and creamery men.
"Good butter cannot be made from
poor cream and poor butter should have
no place as a product of this state. But
as long as our creameries will accept an
inferior cream upon the same basis as a
good cream and through skillful methods
of manufacture attempt to overcome the
bad work of the dairymen and pass on to
the consumer an article of short life, just
so long will poor butter be offered for
sale. On the other hand make a mone
tary distinction in the grades of cream
and just watch the producers work to
get into the first class."
Catching Pocket Gophers,
G. F. Sykes, professor of Zoology, Ore
gon Agricultural College, contributes the
following interesting and very timely in
formation concerning the western pocket
gopher which S a common pest through
out the western or.d southern parts of the
state:
The gopher is a subterranean animal
and spends almost- its entire life burrow
ing about under the ground rooting up
lawns and fields and feeding on roots of
grass, grains and vegetables. It has a
particularly pernicious habit of gnawing
off young fruit trees from six to 10 inches
under the surface of the ground.
Not only is the pocket gopher a cave
dweller, but he dwells alone with the
exception of a few days during the Spring
season when he leaves his burrow under
cover of the darkness and makes a still
hunt for a mate whom he deserts almost
as soon as the nuptial season is over.
This habit offers advantages for apply
ing control measures which the farmer
cannot afford to overlook. Now is the
time to trap. The usual efforts to com
bat by poisoning should not be discon
tinued, but trapping should by all means
bo done at this time.
Our Answer.
We hnve had so many communleations
and inquiries relative to the Kuropcan War
that we are Koinpr to break our long silence
at last and remark:
"A soldier of the Legion,
Lay liyini? at Prenemvsl,
He remarked that Sherman lold the truth,
When he Raid 'that war was Hmvri,'
'It was a glorious canoe,' he said,
'in which I foiiKht and fmysl.'
'Hut what we have been flfrhtlng for,
"find knows I cannot tmysl" '.'
"The Germans and the French,-
Have been fightinif on the Aisne.
They flht a week without a reft, '
And then they fifcht asraicne.
They atop not for the thunder.
The liKhtnlns; or the raisne,
lint what the fight Ik all about,
will .ninronn nrl1SP rapialsne?"
Too Much Roughage May
Be Dangerous for Cows
r0N'T make the mistake of overwork-
" Ing the cow by asking her to han
dle too much roughage," was the sugges
tion of Mr. Ira P. Whitney when describ
ing to the Jersey Breeders' Association
the system of feeding nt the famous
Waikiki farm near Spokane, Wash.
"There is a limit to her storage ca
pacity. Give her as much roughage as
he can manage readily, then Biipply the
balance of her ration in the form of con
centrates. "To the dairyman who is growing
wheat, oats and barley, and I believe
nearly every dairyman in this valley
should be doing so, I would suggest that
you market them through the dairy cow.
If she can't handle them for you at a
. profit, sell her.
"Don't act too quickly on my advice at
the present time, for I realize that grains
of all kinds have soared out of sight, but
this condition will not last always, and
with normal prices for grain the dairy
cow should be able to handle them at a
profit for you.
"Bran and shorts are good but the de
mand is forcing the prices up and the
quality down, and I would prefer to grind
the grains as they are produced on the
farm.
"Linseed oil meal, soybean meal and
other feeds rich in protein can be used
to advantage, especially with heavy pro
ducers, but if used to excess they will do
a great deal more harm than good. Pens
grown and threshed with oats is an ex
cellent source of protein when well
ground, and no dairyman Is justified in
buying feed when he can produce it at
less cost at home."
Peas and Onts.
Farmers who have failed to sow a suffi
cient amount of vetch and oats last Fall
so they are short of green feed and for
age pasture, cow hay, or Summer silage,
will find field peas aud oats one of the
best crops for Spring sowiug for these
purposes.
Peas are an excellent substitute for
vetch and oats, which as a rule, do not
do well when sown in the Spring. For
best results field peas must be seeded
just as early as possible, preferably in
fact before the 15th of iarch. They
should be drilled in at the rate of two to
2 1-2 bushels per acre, three or four
inches deep, followed about ten days
later with one and one-half bushels of
oats drilled over the peas cross-wise to a
depth of about one and one-half inches.
Apply Land Plaster Now.
March ii the time to broadcast land
plaster over the clover, vetch and alfalfa
crops at the rate of from 40 to 60 pounds
per acre, the lower rate where the crop is
to be grown for seed. Land plaster does
not correct soil acidity. Neither is it a
fertilizer. It is a stimulant and hence
should be used only on the legumes and
on soils which have a good content of po
tassium and phosphorous.
A paire of Interesting; Items tram the
Oregon Aurleultiwal College at Conallls
will alternate In the farm woekly with
naxe ef news aotfn frum the Wah!nKln
State f oUrice at Pullman. This will afford
n tateri'bunsre of views from the two bin
airrirultural rollesje of the Northwest that
should prove of benefit to the reader, for
the Institutions deal with similar problems.
I the institutions deal wll
FREE BOOKLET FREE
'The Use of Explosives in Agriculture"
How and why to subsoil, how to get out stumps, how to ditch, how to break up
boulders. Written by an expert. This is a modern farmer's handbook on
up-to-date methods. ,
Sign blank below and send today,
Name
Address ,,,, ,
CALIFORNIA TROJAN POWDER CO.
307 Railway Exchange Bldg. PORTLAND, OREGON
Recent Experiment With
Alfalfa Molasses Meal
PROFESSOR R. R. Graves, of tho De
partment of Dairy Husbandry, Ore
gon Agricultural College, reports the re
sults of an interesting experiment made
to determine the relative economy and
efficiency in milk production by replac
ing the grain ration With alfalfa molasses
meal.
Two lots of cows were selected, each
lot containing four animals, all being
as nearly equal as possible in age and
period of lactation. The cows In both
groups were fed a balanced ration con
sisting of practically all of the alfalfa
hay they would eat, 30 pounds of corn
silage, and one pound of grain equivalent
to each four pounds of milk produced
dally.
One lot of cows were used as a check.
For the other lot during the second ten
day period, one-tbird of the digestible nu
trients of the grain ration were replaced
by an amount of alfalfa molasses meal
sufficient to give the same amount pound
for pound of digestible nutrients.
The third ten days the substitution was
one-halt. The fourth period the grain
was entirely dispensed with. The con
clusions reached as a result of the experi
ment were briefly as follows:
First, that alfalfa molasses meal can
probably be used economically to sub
stitute one-half the digestible nutrients
In the grain mixture when its cost is not
more than 80 per cent of the grain.
Second, it may be used as a substitute
to tho extent of replacing one-half the
grain ration in a proportion of five parts
meal to four parts grain or nutritive value
pound for pound without affecting the
milk flow.
Third, when more than one-half is re
placed the milk flow is chocked.
Fourth, when more than one-half Is
replaced Under the combination used In
this experiment some cows fail to relish
the ration.
Sudan grass is worth to the farmer of
Texas for 1915 not less than $1,000,000
while it was only introduced into the
United States five years ago
i j
tOFFEES
if r.-i
This Famous 40c fuslMffl
Fragrant, delicious, satiufy
inff. Perfectly blended and
roasted.
Now delivered to your home
poatpald Klpound JO Af
caik, an ordered... tPOrtU
(Enclose money .order- or
check with ordor.)
Quality Absolutely Kiinrnn
tco.t Money llnek if -Not
I'rrfeollv Satisfied.
hend for our Parcel
Pout Price Mat. It
will save you money.
rcmllmnnrhnoCo.
012 WESTERN AYE.
b SEATTLEWASH
I , A.
CHComme
: SAVF. YOl'R teeth :
COME TN nnd liavcyour mouth ex
amined whllo in Portland. I use the
very latest Selentlfle l'atnlexa Methods.
DR. A. W. KEENE
Dentist.
Address! IHnJestle Thenter lltilldlnK,
am Witshlniclou St., Cortland, Or.
Absolutely Free
A benutlf ill 42-plooe set of dishes given to
our dlreet cream shippers, this year. Write
for particulars. i
T. S. TOWNSEND CREAMERY CO.
P. O. Hot '2Xi, 1'nrtlund, Or.
Creamery Knat Seventh and Everett Streets.
Wanted to hear from owner of good farm
tot sale. .Send cash price and description.
. 1), V, ULBU, Minneapolis, Minn.