THE OFFICIAL BECOBD, OCTOBER 22, 1924 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



Qoestions of feneral interest on thtt 

 work of the department will be answered 

 in tliis column. Ttiose of limited inter- 

 est will be answered direct. 



Queation. What ia cercloae? 



Auswer. Cerelose is the trade name 

 given to a graile of dextrose sugnr In 

 granulär form uianufiictured tiy a New 

 York conceni. Dextrose is a simple 

 sugar, usually prepareil froiu starcli, an<i 

 Is knowu to cliemists as a nionosnct-lia- 

 ride. It bas aina-oximately tlie sarae de- 

 gree of sweetness as maitose (also pre- 

 pared from starch) and is less sweet 

 thau cane sugar. White, crystalliue dex- 

 trose of a high degree of purity has 

 recently been placed ou the market. 



Qnestion. Doea the department believe that 

 ahallow or deep plowing is better? 



Auswer. Tlie results from tlie iuvesti- 

 gations conducted by the department of 

 the effects of different doptlis of plow- 

 ing upon crop yields lead to the con- 

 clusion that the best practice .'<eems to 

 be to do a good elean-cut Job of plowing 

 to a depth of from 4 to S incbes when the 

 soil is in proper condition and the work 

 can be done to the best advantage, taking 

 into consideration the most economical 

 distribution of labor throughout the year. 



Qncation. What are the hantine righta on the 

 watera? 



Answer. Hunting upon the waters de- 

 I)ends upon the riparian rights of own- 

 ers of land containing or bordering upon 

 lakes, ponds, or streams. Riparian 

 rights, or rights incldent to ownership 

 of land, depend upon the law in force 

 in the various States. The common law 

 in force in some States provides that 

 riparian rights of landowners on waters 

 where the tide ebbs and flows extend 

 to normal high water mark ; thus the 

 bed of the stream and the shore below 

 high water belong to the sovereign, and 

 hunting and fishing within the terms of 

 the game and fish laws of the State are 

 open to the general public. On non- 

 tidal waters, however, the common law 

 rights of the riparian owner extend to 

 the Center thread of the current of a 

 stream or the center of a lake or pond 

 upon which his land borders. The 

 landowner thus enjoys the exclusive con- 

 trol of hunting and flshing ou such 

 waters, within the terms of the game 

 and fish laws of the State, but subject. 

 In the case of navigable waters, to pub- 

 lic navigation. The rule in force In 

 other States disregards the matter of 



tide water and adopts the navigability 

 of the waters as the test of public or 

 private ownership. In such States the 

 riparian rights on waters navigable In 

 fact extend only to normal high wator 

 mark, unless otlierwi.'fe proviilod by law, 

 as in Virginia, where tlie landowner 

 holds to nicau low wator miirk, and the 

 public enjoys the right of hunting and 

 fishing on the navigable waters of tlie 

 State as perraitted by the game and fl.sli 

 laws without interference of the adja- 

 cent landowners. 



AGRICULTURE HAS BIG 



INTEREST IN RADIO 



(Continucd ]rom pai/e V 

 liigh-powered stations. National pro- 

 grams available to all parts of the coun- 

 try are proposed. In this counection the 

 iuterests of the agricultural Community 

 stand out as paramount. By means of 

 the interconnection of radio stations by 

 both wire lines and by radio retransmi.s- 

 sion it has already been demonstrated 

 that large numbers of people in dift'ereut 

 parts of the country can be reached si- 

 nmltaueously with material from a Single 

 source. The possibilities of the methods 

 of interconnection and retransmission 

 from the Standpoint of a national pro- 

 gram of agricultural Information are 

 almost limitless. 



Another of the Problems in connection 

 with agricultural broadcasting is that of 

 gettiug the material from its source of 

 origin in the Weather Bureau, the mar- 

 kets, and at the agricultural Colleges to 

 the announcers at the broadcastiug sta- 

 tions. For those stations located in the 

 large market centers the problem is 

 simply one of telephoning or messenger 

 Service. For the stations at the agri- 

 cultural Colleges no particular difüculty 

 is eneountered .so far as extension mate- 

 rial is concerned, but for those stations 

 located away from the markets and other 

 sources of Information the problem is 

 more difflcult of Solution. If timely 

 weather and market reports are to be 

 broadcast, they must be telegraphed from 

 the centers of Information to the broad- 

 casting Stations. This is expensive, and 

 just who should pay these costs has not 

 l>een determined. 



An Adeqoale Receirinf Set 



From the Standpoint of reception it ap- 

 pears that considerable effort must be 

 directed toward the study of what is an 

 adequate receiving set for a given local- 

 Ity. No one at the present time scems 

 to be in a Position to State deflultely that 

 any particular type of radio set is best 

 for any particular coramunity. One of 

 the recommendations of the radio Con- 

 ference was to the efifect that those types 



of radio receivers that glve off electrlcal 

 Impulses are a distinct detriment to satis- 

 factory reception. In obvlatlng this type 

 of interference the Conference further 

 recomniended that so far as possible pref- 

 erence be given to those types of re- 

 ceivers which can not reradiate energy 

 or which give off very little roradiation 

 and that receivers which do act in this 

 way should be provlded with means of 

 preventing this energy from lieing dls- 

 trlbuted through the receiving autenna 

 and also that through campaigns of edu- 

 cation from every possible source people 

 owning receiving sets be instructed in the 

 proi)er nianipulatiou of their sets so as 

 to mininiize this type of interference. 



What type of receiving set should be 

 used on farms is a question which can 

 not be answered any more thau we could 

 say what type of plow a farmer should 

 have or what kind of chickens he 

 should ralse. 



Although radio is new and changing 

 in mauy aspects all the time, neverthe- 

 less its present usefulness has been suc- 

 eessfuUy demonstrated, and large num- 

 bers of people are getting practica! 

 beneflts from its use every day, so it is 

 no longer a matter of waiting for some- 

 thing to be accomplished so that the 

 American farmer can benefit, but it is 

 a matter of makiug use now of present 

 facilities and being in a position to take 

 advantage of advances which may be 

 made. 



Olaf Jüuasson, a graduate Student and 

 instructor of geography in the University 

 of Stockholm, is visiting tlie department 

 and working on his thesis on the climatic 

 and soil conditions influencing the pro- 

 ductiou of wheat, oats, barley, and rye. 

 Mr. Jonasson lias come to the United 

 States upon the recommendation of Dr. 

 Steu deGeer, director of the geographica! 

 Institute of the University of Stockholm, 

 and exppcts to w-ork in this department 

 until next February, when lie will accom- 

 pany Dr. O. E. Baker to Clark University 

 at Worcester, Mass., and siiend the spring 

 Semester at tliat institutioii. 



The broadcasting of market Informa- 

 tion in New York City, through the Co- 

 operation of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Econoraics, the New York State Bureau 

 of Markets, and the American Agrlcul- 

 turlst, is proving to be of considerable 

 interest to producers, dealers, and even 

 to consumers In the territory served by 

 two powerful radio stations. Market In- 

 formation is sent out regularly from Sta- 

 tion WEAF, operated by the American 

 Telephone & Telegraph Co., and Station 

 WJZ, of the Radio Corporation of 

 America. 



