American Agriculturist, June 14, 1924 
555 
June Farm Talk 
A Succotash Mixture of a Little of Everything 
[A Birch Bark Berry Carrier 
Completed 
H OW many times have you been out in the woods 
and rambled across a lot of berries or some¬ 
thing like that which you would like to carry 
home with you but could not do so on account 
of no way to carry them? Well next time you are in the 
woods and want to pick three or four quarts of black 
berries, just look around for a birch bark tree and strip 
a piece of this bark off the 
tree. Then look around 
for a small slender green 
twig or branch of a little 
bush which you can use 
to weave the basket with. 
Just fold the piece of 
birch bark and gather it 
in at the bottom, then 
take the little twig that 
you have and pierce the 
birch bark so that you 
can sew this back and 
forth through the sides 
and bottom of the basket. 
You'will have a very good 
receptacle to transport 
your berries home and if 
you still want to improve 
on your bark basket you 
can easily make a handle 
for it out of a small green 
twig. Cut this twig off 
so that a little branch of another shoot will be left on 
the main piece so that this will act as a stop to hold it 
in place on the basket. 
The birch bark basket shown in the photograph was 
filled with black berries and held nearly four quarts 
and was carried some eight miles without the berries 
getting jammed up.—A. A. Reader. 
* * * 
Cheaply Grown Melons 
r PHIS^ photo is “Ole Uncle Bill,” an old “befo de 
A war” darkey from Tennessee. He is a very 
successful melon grower, 
and tells just how he does 
it, as follows: 
“ I breaks de ground deep > 
den puts it in good con¬ 
dition wid a section harrow, 
den busts de middles wid a 
deep furrer both Ways, eight 
foot apart. De checks whar 
de furrows cross is de hills. 
Den I hauls de fertilizer 
f’om de barnyard and puts a 
shovelful in each hill, den a 
forrow on each side covers 
de fertilizer, den run de har¬ 
row over and ’pare de hills 
fo’ de seeds. I plants six 
seeds in er hill, and have 
fo’ ‘reddish’ seeds to come 
on ahead and feed de bugs, 
while de millions grow, den 
when started growing good, 
thin to two plants in a hill, 
an’ cultivate once a week 
wid a small hoe to keep 
“Old Uncle Bill”—Melon Grower 
down weeds and sich. When vines get so big as to be in de 
way of cultivation I sow wid whippoorwill peas, broadcast all 
over de patch, and cover wid harrow, or cultivator, and I makes 
a satisfactory crop of water millions, and a fine crop of pea vine 
hay all on de same ground. I lays de melons by as I sow de 
peas.”— Edna Dalton, Tennessee. 
* * * 
How We Get No. 1 Hay 
O NE thing which has impressed every farmer who 
has followed the published reports pf the hay 
market for the past six months is the oft-repeated 
statement that a large percentage of the hay offered 
in the markets of the large cities can be rated only 
poor. Very little really first class hay seems to find its 
way to these points. 
One must arrive at the conclusion that farmers do 
not do their haying as carefully as they should. Of 
course, some seasons we have a good deal of bad 
weather. This makes haying difficult. But as a rule 
we should get our hay in in better condition than we do. 
Here is our way of cutting, curing and storing our hay 
crop. 
We begin early. I suppose we lose something in 
tonnage this way, but we make up for it in the better 
quality of the hay. When the timothy and clover 
plants are in the blossom we try to start in. Each day 
we/ mow as much as we can get in the next day. It 
looks good to the boys to see the grass fall before the 
machine; but it is easy to get down more than we can 
handle. 
What we cut the first day is cocked up in the after- 
By A. A. READERS 
noon and left till the dew is off the next day. Then we 
open the cocks out thin, and mow down another piece 
to be cured and put up as on the first day. In the 
afternoon of the second day we draw in that cut the 
previous day, and so we keep the work going day after 
day. If some days are lowery hay put up as we have 
described will stand quite a rain without injury, while 
that which is newly cut does not hurt as much as it 
would if cut later in the season. When the hay gets 
more mature it is possible to put it in the same day it is 
mowed. 
Following this plan our hay looks fine in the mow; 
it comes out bright and quite free from dust, and stock 
eat it all up to the last spear. On the market it stands 
A No. 1.—E. L. Vincent. 
A Poster Sells Apples 
W HAT a roadside poster can do has been demon¬ 
strated at the John Dollings’ fruit farm in Ohio. 
The poster is at once, unique and catchy in that the 
attention of passersbv is quickly arrested and held. 
It is made of heavy cardboard and is mounted on a 
wooden frame three by three feet. Here is what the 
sign says: 
Slow Down, Neighbor! 
Just want to tell you that there’s some mighty 
fine Grimes Golden apples for sale on this farm; 
at $1.50 per bushel 
Thanks, For Listening 
This sign has been used for about three years and has 
converted a lot of apples into dollars for the owner. 
This form of advertising is much cheaper than other 
forms and wins customers by a more direct and shorter 
route than the tedious mail correspondence. The 
customer sees the fruit, examines it and buys, knowing 
what he gets.—W. E. Farver, Ohio. 
Why Not Work the Local Market? 
W HEN we see in looking through the city market 
reports in summer and early fall, how many 
train loads of Western cantaloupe come to our larger 
cities every day, it makes us wonder why the local 
men do not try to take over more of this business for 
themselves. Of course, this trade in the shipped melons 
begins before the home melons are ripe, but there are 
never enough of the home melons to nearly supply our 
cities and larger towns. It seems as though the people 
buy more cantaloupe every year. 
Here is one place where the high freight rates help 
the local man, as they make the price of the shipped 
melons that much higher. It is no trouble for a man 
to build up a reputation for fine melons if he will let 
them properly ripen on the vines. That is where the 
shipped melons have no chance, for they must be 
picked greener than you need to do at home, and so 
can never develop a really fine flavor. Give a city man, 
who has been eating the commercial cantaloupe, a taste 
of a real vine-ripened, home-grown melon, and see him 
reach for his pocketbook. We sell mostly to grocers and 
hotels, except for our big auto trade at home, but it is 
the same in the end; pleasing the ultimate consumer 
brings repeat orders on a larger scale. 
Probably the greatest mistake of many who raise 
melons for the home market is in trying to raise a late 
variety. They miss the quick sales at high prices that 
the early melons bring, and if they happen to have an 
early frost, often lose part or all of their crop. It takes 
a little more time to raise the late kinds, involves much 
more risk, and never brings so much money. To make 
the most of your home trade, get a good early melon, 
and stick to it. The experimental stations advise how 
to successfully fight the pests, so that any man who can 
raise other crops successfully can do the same with 
melons if he will give them his care and attention. Too 
many try it in a very small way, so that they neglect 
the melons during a rush time. It is better to have a 
field large enough to consider it an important crop and 
give it proper attention. Then it pays.—H. J. W., Ohio. 
How Do You Kill Cucumber Beetles ? 
WOULD like to hear through your columns what 
experience other melon or cucumber growers have 
had in killing the striped bug (cucumber beetle) with 
the nicotine dust we have been reading so much about 
lately. Of course all the companies that sell this dust 
claim that it will kill them, but what I want to know 
is whether practical growers find that it will really kill 
the bugs, and whether it costs so much that it is not 
practical on a 5 to 10 acre field of cantaloupe. 
I have always fought off the bugs with some form of 
repellant and always get a crop. However, if there is a 
better way, I want to know it, as I find that nothing 
pays me better than melons and I want to find and use 
the very best methods. I don’t think there is any dan¬ 
ger of over-production anyw'here in the East if all 
growers will raise good melons and grade out the culls. 
People buy lots of the “shipped-in” melons, which are 
no good compared with those we raise at home, and 
from the way they grab for the home-grown melons 
when they can get them, it looks as though the crated 
melons would have no chance if there were enough of 
the home variety. For my part, I am through trying 
to raise the late kinds of melons. I can’t see where it 
pays anyone in this country to wait for a late kind to 
get ripe, when he could be getting big prices for early 
ones, and not risk losing them by frost, as so many did 
last year. 
Another thing I would like to ask about is the cone 
or duster pipe for covering a hill of melons when dusting 
with nicotine—how can you use this when the vines 
are larger? Will the dust be effective then? I find that 
the bugs are often very bad when the vines are running 
and I know that killing the first bugs won’t prevent 
some later ones from hatching out. Anything a reader 
can give me along this line will be appreciated.—B. H. 
Walrath, North Kingsville, Ohio. 
Mule Mare Foals Two Colts 
TAARWINIAN laws were knocked into a cocked hat 
-L-' when a mule mare twenty-two years old, bred by 
Texas A. & M, College, to an eighteen year old stallion, 
foaled a colt which has all the appearances of a horse. 
The thing was said to be against science and nature 
but the College authorities, headed by Dr. E. P. 
Humbert,professor of the 
new department of gene¬ 
tics, say the occurrence is 
authentic and the test 
was conducted under sup¬ 
ervision. 
The mule mare belongs 
to T. L. Branham of 
Mount Alba, Texas, who 
two years ago bred the 
mare to a jack and was 
rewarded with a mule 
colt from the cross. The 
story came to the ears of 
Prof. W. L. Stangel of the Animal Husbandry Depart¬ 
ment of the College and he arranged for a test under 
strict surveillance which would leave no doubt as to a 
mule’s ability to reproduce offspring. 
The breeding was done under direction of Professor 
Stangel with Dean E. J. Kyle in general charge. Dr. 
Humbert, Dr. R. P. Marsteller and Dr. Mark Francis, 
noted veterinarians, followed the test officially and 
pronounce it authentic. 
The sire of the colt is Pat Murphy, owned by the 
College, a grandson of Chester Dare, a famous stallion 
and saddle horse.—C. A. Fleming, Texas. 
THE MULE MARE AND 
HER COLT 
Pre-occupied Artist (for the second time)—I 
said, “Run away to school !”—Weekly Telegraph 
(London).— 
