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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1908 



Farm and Garden News 



"PVERY reader of The Garden Maga- 

 -*— ' zine - Farming should write to his 

 congressman urging the support of the 

 Davis bill which provides for the teaching 

 of agriculture in the schools. It goes further 

 than merely providing for the teaching of the 

 subject in the city high schools, its main 

 purpose being to establish agricultural high 

 schools in the rural districts — one for every 

 ten counties in each state or territory. 

 With these it purposes to establish branch 

 agricultural experiment stations. We lead 

 the world in provision for higher agricul- 

 tural research, but are far behind Germany 

 in technical schools. The extraordinary 

 keenness of Germany in world competition 

 is due to the fact that she trains her workers 

 industrially. Farmers' children ought to be 

 taught how to farm better. Every child 

 should have a chance to grow fruits, flowers 

 and vegetables. This is the way to make 

 people want to live in the country, because 

 they will be more efficient, prosperous and 

 happy. 



Two hundred and fifty dollars was paid 

 for a single ear of corn at the National Corn 

 Exhibition held in Chicago last October. 

 The variety was Boone County White. 

 The prize ear was grown in Franklin, 

 Ind. It was one of ten that took the 

 chief prizes in that class. The keen interest 

 which farmers show in the selection of 

 corn for seed is one of the most convincing 

 evidences that breeding the higher types is 

 really a profitable undertaking. 



A 250-egg hen is reported by the Maine 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. This, 

 we believe, is the record. The hen laid 

 251 eggs from Thanksgiving to Thanks- 

 giving. The Maine Experiment Station 

 has taken the leading position in poultry 

 investigations and for the last six years 

 has been steadily working upon the matter 

 of increasing the winter egg production. 

 Hens that give over 200 eggs were used as 

 the foundation for selected strains, and, 

 by continuous selection, a yield of 240 eggs 

 in a year has been produced in several 

 cases. The average hen lays less than 100 

 eggs a year. 



The life of a post may be multiplied by 

 two or three by chemical treatment, as 

 shown by the office of Wood Preservation 

 of the Forestry Division of the Department 

 of Agriculture. Luckily the open-grained, 

 quick-growing and naturally quick-decay- 

 ing timbers are the easiest woods to treat 

 in this way. The method consists in filling 

 the pores with a creosote preservative, and 

 the cost is little and the trouble but slight. 

 It merely requires an open, iron tank 

 large enough to accommodate the timbers 

 to be treated. Farmers in the South and 

 West are especially interested in these 

 matters and should not fail to communicate 

 with the Department of Agriculture and get 

 the necessary information. 



Dexter M. Ferry of Detroit, Mich., seeds- 

 man and one of most progressive horticul- 

 turists of the West, died at his home on 

 November nth. He was born in Low- 

 ville, N. Y., in 1833, and became one of the 

 leading men in the seed trade. Vegetable 

 culture in this country owes much to his 

 initiative, and "Ferry's Seeds" have been 

 for years a familiar annual feature of the 

 country store. Mr. Ferry also had large 

 banking interests. 



The Chrysanthemum Society of America 

 met in New York last November in con- 

 nection with the annual chrysanthemum 

 show of the American Institute. The 

 officers re-elected were A. J. Loveless, of 

 Lenox, Mass., president, and David Fraser, 

 of Pittsburg, Pa., secretary. This society, 

 by a series of local committees in the larger 

 cities, passes upon the merits of the new 

 introductions each year, and issues a tabu- 

 lated report showing the ranking of each 

 admitted novelty. Thus it succeeds in 

 killing off a flood of useless novelties 

 that represent no real improvement. This 

 society deserves your support. 



It really looks as if we should have parcels 

 post at last, for Postmaster-General Meyer 

 seems to have overcome the opposition of 

 the local merchants and storekeepers by con- 

 fining the cheapened service to the rural free 

 delivery routes. A special rate is to be 

 charged on packages for delivery from the 

 distributing office of the rural route ; or if 

 mailed by any patron of any route for deliv- 

 ery to another person on the same route; 

 or for distribution through the same local 

 office. The rate proposed is five cents 

 for the first pound, and two cents for every 

 additional pound up to eleven pounds. 

 The anomaly of handling parcels for foreign 

 countries and not for our own people will 

 be removed. The greatest importance of 

 this service will be in the delivery of the 

 necessities of living, in response to mail 

 orders, in outlying districts. Incidentally 

 it should also have a very direct bearing on 

 the horticultural trade in making possible 

 the handling, through the mails, of larger 

 sized plants than has heretofore been pos- 

 sible. Roses sent by parcels post will be 

 far more satisfactory because the plants will 

 be larger, and bloom better the first year 

 and prove hardier. It has frequently hap- 

 pened that in short cross-country runs the 

 expense of delivery of one or two plants sent 

 through the express companies would amount 

 to more than the actual value of the plants 

 themselves. This created a certain feeling 

 of resentment in the recipient and undoubt- 

 edly has been an effectual bar to the devel- 

 opment of the plant trade. With the new 

 regulations in force, it will be possible for 

 anyone to procure such plants as rooted 

 cannas and other fairly good-sized objects 

 at a price for delivery that is not out of 

 proportion and out of reason. Write your 

 congressman that you are in favor of Post- 

 master-General Meyer's plan for parcels 

 post. 



Dr. Robert T. Morris, of appendicitis 

 fame, is making a hobby of improving nuts. 

 He is offering prizes for big nuts of high 

 quality and is planning to practise asceptic 

 grafting. 



«- 



The largest individual chrysanthemum 

 flower staged at the exhibition of the 

 national Chrysanthemum Society was F. S. 

 Vallis, which had a diameter of thirteen 

 inches. Has anyone ever seen a bigger 

 flower ? 



-^ 



The pecan crop of 1907 promised to be 

 the greatest in years but the "drop" that 

 attacked the immature nuts reduced the 

 yield to about the average. That pecan 

 raising is a profitable industry for Texas 

 and other Southern states is very evident 

 since it has been found practicable to graft 

 the large, soft-shelled varieties on the trees 

 of the small, hard kinds and on the 

 bitter pig nut. Crops are yielded two years 

 from the graft. Pecans do best in river 

 valleys that are overnooded, exactly where 

 cotton growing is hazardous. The demand 

 for pecans in confections is by no means 

 inconsiderable. One Eastern chocolate house 

 alone used 30,000 pounds of shelled pecans 

 from one San Antonio establishment in one 

 winter, and another dealer has his entire 

 crop sold in England for the next eight 

 years at forty cents a pound. 



The world's supply of peat is enormous, 

 but, up to the present, little or no use has 

 been made of it. Peat is a good fuel and 

 in the rural districts of Europe it is used to 

 some extent. At various times, attempts 

 have been made to place it on the market 

 in the form of briquets, the peat being 

 compressed into small masses like lumps of 

 coal, but they have never been successful. 

 Now, however, it seems as though it can 

 be put to a good use, for a company capital- 

 ized at something over $1,000,000 is suc- 

 cessfully converting the fibre of peat into 

 wrapping paper and pasteboard. This is 

 being done in Sweden with English capital, 

 but the patents are American. It takes 

 about two hours to convert the peat into 

 paper, and paper selling for about $30 a ton 

 can be produced for about $15 a ton. This 

 discovery is very timely as our forests are 

 fast being depleted by the enormous demand 

 upon them for wood which will make good 

 paper. Sulphate of ammonia is also being 

 extracted from peat in paying quantities. 

 Heretofore it has been difficult to separate 

 the different chemical constituents because 

 of the excessive moisture. The Woltereck 

 process has overcome this difficulty. The 

 byproducts of the manufacture of the sul- 

 phate of ammonium are several and useful. 

 There is paraffine tar, for which there is an 

 almost unlimited market; acetic acid, ace- 

 tates, and their derivative — acetone — which 

 is used in large quantities by manufacturers 

 of smokeless powder; and the ash of the 

 peat, containing in soluble form lime, phos- 

 phoric acid and salts of potassium, makes 

 a good cheap fertilizer. 





