THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



173 



having from eight to twelve good ears on 

 each stalk. There are several mixed col- 

 ored kinds much esteemed for ornamental 

 frames of dainty handwork. When popped, 

 one quart of good corn will make a bushel 

 of balls or bricks in which form it is usual- 

 ly sold at confectionary stands, pleasure 

 resorts and thousands of other places. The 

 pop corn business has become so important 

 that large sums are paid for privileges of 

 selling at fairs, picnics and public con- 

 ventions. 



The corn gets better with age, but it can 

 be sundried and made marketable the first 

 year. As a general rule the poppers want 

 want it three years old. After getting 

 thoroughly dry in the shoch it can be 

 husked put in gunny sacks and left in the 

 sun for several days, when it will bd thor- 

 oughly dried. If completely dried it will 

 sell better after being shelled, which can 

 be done with a commercial shellers. Many 

 farmer boys might find a very profitable 

 winter trade in popping corn, buttering the 

 rolls and selling it in neighboring cities 

 and towns. Two or three quarts, costing 

 less than a dollar, will plant an acre. The 

 cultivation is about the same as for field 

 corn, and consists in keeping the plow 

 going and cutting out the weeds. It must 

 not be put in near field corn, as the pollen 

 will cause the varieties to mix. 



Pop corn may be planted closer than any 

 other varieties. One man reports having 

 grown 176 bushels the past year upon an 

 acre. His plan of planting is to make the 

 furrows three feet apart and have the corn 

 stand one stalk in a hill, fourteen inches 

 apart in the rows. If the corn is planted 

 very early or late it will not suffer so much 

 from the worms as the medium planted 

 crops. Where irrigated care must be taken 

 in keeping the water from the stalks and 

 not give the plants more than two periods 

 of irrigating during the growing season. 

 The poor ears can be fed to poultry with 

 profit and the fodder is relished by the 

 cows, sheep and horses. A ready market 

 always awaits the grower of good pop corn 

 and the business is certainly profitable. 

 JOEL SHOMAKER. 



SUGAR OF WATERMELONS. 



D. Hansz, a farmer and gardener, of 

 Bowling Green, Ky. , has recently made 

 some successful experiments in making an 

 excellent quality of syrup from water- 

 melons. He will shortly attempt to con- 

 vert some of the syrup into sugar, and ex- 

 pects to be successful. 



Mr. Hanz figures a big profit in melons 

 if used for making syrups. In an inter- 

 view he said: 



"From 18 melons, weighing from 20 to 

 25 pounds, we made two gallons and one 

 pint of syrup. We cut the melons in 

 halves, cut out the pulp, ground it in a 

 cider mill and pressed out the juice. We 

 boiled the juice in porcelain kettles on the 

 kitchen stove for 12 hours. With a eider 

 mill and hot air or steam evaporator two 

 men can make 25 or 30 gallons of syrup 

 per day. At the above figures it wouM 

 take about 270 melons to make 30 gallons 

 of syrup, worth $15. Melons would be 

 worth at wholesale about $5 or $6, and it 

 would take two or three days to haul and 

 sell them at market. With a mill and an 

 evaporator in the melon patch, a farmer 

 and one or two hands could realize 100 per 

 cent, more by making them into syrup and 

 feeding the refuse to hogs, cattle, horses 

 and chickenss, which eat it greedily." 



CUTTING OFF BEET TOPS. 



Secretary Wilson tells a story to the 

 Chicago Record which illustrates the uses 

 of adversity. A farmer out West planted 

 a lot of ground with sugar beets. They 

 grew beautifully and sent out a glorious 

 foliage of dark red leaves, with deep red 

 veins in them, which he admired very 

 much. A tornado came and cut them off 

 close to the ground. The poor farmer was 

 discouraged. He decided that he would 

 give up farming and go back East. Before 

 they had finished packing, however, he 

 noticed new, healthy shoots coming from 

 all the beets, and told his wife he guessed 

 they had better wait a while and see what 

 happened. In a few weeks the foliage was 



