HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Editorial Page Home and Farm Magazine Section
TO ADVERTISERS
Advertisers in this locality who wish
fully to cover all sections of Oregon
and Washington and portion of Idaho
will apply to local publishers for rates.
General advertisers may address C L.
Burton, Advertising Manager Home
and Farm Magazine Section, Oregonian
Building, Portland, Oregon, for rates
and information.
TO READERS
Readers are requested to send letters
and articles for publication to The Edi
tor, Home and Farm Magazine Section,
Oregonian Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions' and prob
lems that bear directly on the agricul
tural livestock and poultry interests of
the Northwest and on the uplift and
comfort of the farm home always are
welcomed. No letters treating of re
ligion, politics or the European war are
soy cited. We proclaim neutrality on
these Blatters.
Comparatively brief contributions
are preferred to long ones. Send ns
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 to do it.
SMALL FARMS.
ONE of the leading New York
bankers, in fact one of the
leading bankers of the world,
in passing through Portland recent
ly, gave out an interview in which
he predicted that Oregon, Washing
ton and Idaho would lead all other
states in the Union in financial and
commercial progress during the
next ten years.
The prediction was made by one
who is perhaps as able to fathom
future financial conditions as any
man in the world today.
One of the thing9 he mentioned in
particular was the cutting up of
large tracts of land into small farms,
and thereby making a hundred
farms where one now exists.
So much has been written regard
ing large farms that the people of
the East are prone to consider the
Pacific Northwest only in the light
of large farms. The great financial
and commercial success that is cer
tain to come to the Pacific North
west will come only in proportion to
the number of large farms that are
made into small ones.
Highly cultivated small farms
means a hundred people on the same
number of acres where now one or
two exist. .
' Many a fanner has failed to suc
ceed because the profits from his
crop went to pay hired help, who,
having no greater interest in their
work than their monthly wage, were
in no way fit to serve their employer
properly. Hired help on an acre farm
is not to be thought of, for one
moment.
The head and the hands of the
owner combined are the forces that
will wring from that acre of soil its
greatest abundance. The ultimate
financial outcome of commercial
Buccess of the Pacific Northwest
hinges largely upon concentrated
farming, which can only be done by
cutting the large farms into small
ones and placing thereon a satisfied
owner.
THE APPLE MARKET.
(Editorial in' Hood River News.)
DURING the past two or three
weeks, according to a dispatch
from Chicago, the Gibson
Fruit Company, of that city, has un
dertaken to secure what amounts to
9 corner on the apple market. They
started picking up holdings here and
there about a month ago, and now
have what are declared to be the
largest individual holdings of box
apples left this season, amounting
to 140 cars of high-grade stock. The
total holdings were cut nearly in
half daring the month of March, and
the movement has been decidedly
bullish. According to Mr. Gibson,
the holdings' east of the Mississippi
River this year are now the lightest
that they have been in five years,
and he predicts that there will be a
strong feeling in the market the bal
ance of the season.
These stateemnts are borne out
by reports from other apple-distributing
centers and, coming at the end
of a big crop year, are decidedly en
couraging. It is naturally expected
that there will be no such bumper
production this season, and conse
quently the prospects at this time
are bright.
THE FARMER CAN DO IT.
(Editorial in Albnny Democrat.)
TO WHAT an extent business is
dependent upon the farmer
may be well illustrated by the
statement of the fact that three
fourths of the deposits in the Al
bany banks, and probably in the
banks in the other Valley cities
of approximately the size of. this
city or even larger, are fit the
names of fanners. They have the
money. They have made money
and have it in the banks, where they
are keeping it, waiting for things
to loosen up and confidence be fully
restored, when it will come out and
in different ways go into' circulation.
That will mean a good deal for the
country. Whenever a fanner makes
up his mind that there is something
special that he wants he has the
money to buy it with. The sooner
he sets things to going the better it
will be for this Valley. He can do
it. Will he start something?
PROMISING NEW FRUITS.
THE problem of a varietal selec
tion of plants is one of unceas
ing importance, and new sorts
are being introduced each year. As
the improvement of fruits continues,
it is necessary for the progressive
grower to follow the advances made
along the particular line in. which he
is interested. During the past year
no new varieties of apples or pears
have appeared which are worth con
sideration. However, the' Greensboro peach
assumed importance in many sec
tions during 1914. The variety or
iginated with W. G. Balsley, of
Greensboro, N. C, about 1893, from
a seed of Connett's Southern Early.
The fruit is large, attractive, white
fleshed and ripens from August 1 to
15. The variety deserves extensive
trial in good peach-growing sections
of Northern states, where early
peaches are in demand.
The Late Muscatelle plum, which
was obtained by the Government
from Germany in 1900, proved dur
ing the year to be one of the best
late plums tried out by the Geneva
(N. Y.) station. The frait is of good
size, roundish, but inclined to be
truncate in shape, and is of an at
tractive purple brown color slightly
splashed and mottled with russet.
The tough skin is a valuable asset
for shipping. It is one of the latest
ta ripen, but its season is short and
it is inclined to shrivel in storage.
For local market trade, Late Mus
catelle should prove a valuable'va
ricty. A single variety of black rasp
berry, known as Black Pearl, has at
tracted attention. It combines size,
color and firmness with excellent
quality and flavor. From the single
year's trial it promises to be valu
able and a variety worthy of com
mercial recommendation if future
tests show it equal to its past '
standard.
The Industry gooseberry, which
was originated by Robert Wyndham
in Northern England early in the
nineteenth century, is one of the
most productive European varieties.
The bushes are strong, . vigorous
growers. Where shoots grow long,
they fruit to the very tips. This is
a good variety to grow for market,
either green or ripe, and is equally
worthy of a place in the home gar
den. While more apt to be affected
by mildew and possibly less hardy
than most American sorts, Industry
is among the healthiest and hardiest
of all English gooseberries.
Another fruit of late prominence is
the Indiana strawberry. It origi
nated with II. J. Schild, of Ionia,
Mich., in 1905. The color is some
what variable at first, but later be
comes a uniformly dark, glossy scar
let. The variety appears to be one
of the best shippers, having firm,
meaty' flesh. The Barrymore is a
berry resulting from a cross made
by H. L. Crane, of Westwood, Mass.,
in 1901. The variety is slightly sus
ceptible of leaf-spot and in the later
pickings the color has sometimes
been variable. Notwithstanding
these defects, however, the Barry
more is almost an ideal variety for
early midseason.
PLEASURE IN FARMING.
HOW many people are farming
for farming's sake, to appro
priate the words of the artist,
or how many would joyfully sell out
tomoiTOW without the least regrets,
if some other opening promised
greater financial returns? We nat
urally farm for the money there is
in it, but the question is, is that all
there is in it for us and is that all we
are getting out of it? How many
farmers are really enjoying their
business and how many find a keen
pleasure in their work from day to
day on the farm?
We must of necessity keep an eye
on the financial side of our opera
. tions, for this is essential to success ;
we admit that. But too many of us
go about the farm in a blind, me
chanical sort of way, dragging from
one task to another without getting
an iota of enjoyment from the work ;
one day follows another just as one
round follows another with the team
and plow, each merely contributing
its part to the financial success of
the season's work.
The man who has never gotten be
yond that conception has got much
coming to hhn yet. The world of life
and happiness swings on, unnoticed
by him, except when he is attracted
from himself by such creatures as
crows, Effglish sparrows, moles and
snakes.
What's the trouble ? Why carry a
long-faced grouch around all the
time, when everything about ns is
working together for our pleasure?
We are out of tune, that's all out
of love with our work; we need a
shaking up to be brought back into
line.
The man who finds pleasure in his
daily work on the farm, who has a
habit of looking for it in whatever
he undertakes, is not only a happy
man, but the chances are that he is
a prosperous man as well. The nar
row, self -centered money-maker is a
pitiful spectacle on a farm, because
there is so much that he is missing
and so little that he is really getting
out of it. Let us all make money,
but we cannot afford to become
money-blind.
Let us instill into our work a lit
of the "farming for farming's sake"
idea and train ourselves to look for
the happy sides of our work.
HIGH PRICES IN MEXICO.
(From the Mexican Herald.)
SINCE the shortage of flour has
been so acute in the city there
has been a run on every kind of
crackers, both of local and imported
brands. Soda crackers are to be
found in very few stores today, and
sell at $10 for a square tin box, even
for the local product. The 10-cent
boxes of sea foam or saltines, for
which the housekeepers formerly
paid 60 cents, and felt very much
abused, now are held at $2.50 in a
few stores where they still have a
few boxes in stock. English sweet
and fancy crackers and biscuit sell
for from $10 to $20 a box.
5,039,000 MEN GONE.
A NEWSPAPER in Rome, after
a careful comparison of offi
. cial statements, estimates that
5,950,000 men have been lost by the
belligerent nations during the first
eight months of the war.
This is more than the entire pop
ulation of Ohio men, women and
babies. It is more than the popula
tion of any state of the Union ex
cepting only New York and Penn
sylvania. It is more than the entire
population of Serbia, one of the con
testants ; more than the entire popu
lation of Bulgaria, which may be
come a belligerent. Eight cities as
large as Cleveland would not repre
sent the loss. It would require
eighty or more cities of Cleveland's
population to supply a military pop
ulation to equal the total of men
here reported already lost in a war
which is not even yet near a con
clusive issue.
Such comparisons are appalling,
but they may be of service if there
are any Americans yet unconvinced
of the folly and horror of war.
Edison is now engaged in manu
facturing dyes, our supply of which
has been cut off by the war. "I am
not making very much money in this
line," says the wizard, "bat I
,thought I would at least make the
start, and I hope some of these timid
Americans who lack backbone to
father a movement worth while will
now come along and follow suit"
The country owes a tremendous debt
to Edison ; it ought not to expect
him to supply it with backbone.
A new police regulation in Phila
delphia requires all children under
15 to be out of the streets after 11
o'clock at night Is this 11-o'clock
curfew business designed as a re
form? It would be interesting to'
know at what hour the Philadelphia
kids have been in the habit of get
ting in. In the good old times it was
9 o'clock or a spanking.
The investigation into the alleged
wheat corner, which President Wil
son ordered the Department of Jos
tice to make, has resulted hi the dis
covery of no evidence. What is the
use of trying to find corners in a
circle?