RIAGE MFG

Station 27 Columbus, Ohio

Farm and Fireside, May 24. 1913 Waste

By Barton Braley pOREST and field and orchard, mountains

of coal and ore, Mighty has been their bounty, limitless

seemed their store ; So we have blithely squandered, so we have

sacked and spoiled. Boasting about our "progress," bragging of

how we toiled. Drunken with nature's bounty, we laid our

plenteous gain To the magic of Yankee hustle, to the vigor

of Yankee brain. And we looted the goodly forests and planted

the wasteful crop. And we hooted the careful prophet Who said

that the loot must stop !

But we're learning our little lesson, and we

relish it not at all. And we're paying for past excesses in bills

that are far from small. We gutted and gouged our forests — and the

floods came roaring down To ruin the farmer's acres and ravage and

wreck the town. Over and over and over we planted the same

old field.

With the same old crop repeated, then sighed

at the dwindling yield. And we wasted our coal and iron, nor cared

for the wealth we lost. Till the price moved up and onward, and

we growled at the added cost.

We are learning our little lesson, but we have not learned it true.

For we waste in some directions the same as we used to do.

Our natural gas we squander to poison the healthy air.

We're wasting our oil-flow blindly, and no- body seems to care.

In factory, farm and forest we're throwing our wealth away.

And the bill for our careless living our chil- dren will have to pay.

Tariff and trusts and wages are problems that must be faced.

But the greatest of all our problems is the problem of careless waste.

The Decline of Hemp

, By Calvin Fretzer

ERE was a marked improvement in the prices paid for American hemp in 1912, and there are other tokens that this crop is entering upon a new era of prosperity in the United States. According to Lyster H. Dewey, in charge of fiber investigations in the United States Department of Agricul- ture, the previous decline in the hemp crop of this countr>', from nearly "3,000 tons in 1859 to 600 tons in 1911, was due to the fol- lowing causes :

1. The replacing of hempen "homespun" clothing by cotton.

2. The displacing of sailing-vessels with hemp rigging by steamships, and the further fact that the ropes now used on both steamers and sailors are of abaca (manila hemp ) instead of true hemp.

3. The use of jute instead of hemp to cover cotton bales, and even for carpet warp, webbing and twines, where hemp, stronger and more durable, would be better.

4. The improvement of machinery, and consequent decrease in labor, for the pro- duction of other staple crops, with com- paratively little improvement in the machines for harvesting hemp and preparing the fiber, resulting in an increased net profit in other crops as compared with hemp, in spite of the advancing price of the latter.

5. The lack, outside of a limited area in Kentucky, of detailed knowledge of the processes of growing hemp and preparing the fiber.

According to the same authority the hemp industry needs for its development in this country improved machinery for harvesting the crop, improved machinery for breaking the retted stalks and scutching the fiber, but above all more general recognition on the part of the public of the strength and dura- bility of hemp as compared with the cheaper biU inferior iute.

Inferior Substitutes Have Taken Its Place

The same statements apply to the hemp industry throughout the world, so far as the production of fiber is concerned, as this fiber has everywhere suffered from competition with cotton and jute. Of the other hemp products — resin (from which powerful drugs and intoxicants are made in oriental coun- tries) and seed — only the latter figures among American industries. Nearly all the hemp-seed grown in America comes from a narrow strip along the Kentucky River.

Hemp has been grown in the United States for about 135 years, and the chief center of the industry has always been the blucgrass region of Kentucky, where nine tenths of the hemp crop of this country is still produced. It is said that shortly before the Civil War hemp contributed more to the wealth of central Kentucky than all other crops combined, Kentucky hemp is still, for the most part, broken on old-fashioned hand-brakes, with which one man can pro- duce hardly more than one hundred pounds of fiber a day. However, during the past five years several machines to do the work have been introduced, with improved results.

I GARDENING |

I By T. Greiner I

Money in Squashes

WE MEET no great difficulties in rais- ing winter squashes, of which the Hubbard is the old standard variety, but the newer, drier Delicious is often more pleasing to the consumer. If limited to a home trade, either direct to the consumer or to the green-grocer, winter squashes usually leave us a fair margin of profit. For whole- sale production they are a more precarious crop, as the specimens must be handled rather gingerly and never allowed to be touched by the least frost.

Xhey are also subject to various diseases, rots or decays, and one must be quite par- ticular as to storage conditions. So before going heavily into winter-squash raising, be sure you have the market for the product, or the storage facilities.

I usually plant winter squashes in the sweet-corn patches, as a secondary or com- panion crop, just as farmers raise pumpkins in the corn-field. Then I have another little patch where they grow all by themselves. The land should be warm and rich. It will then take but one or two plants standing in hills ten to twelve feet apart each way to cover the entire patch with vines and give a big lot of squashes in the fall. We plant much more seed, but pull up the surplus plants as soon as danger from bug and beetle attacks has passed.

Spray the vines with Bordeaux mixture to which arsenate of lead has been added in the proportion of an ounce (paste or dry) to one and one-half or two gallons of water. Begin as soon as the plants are fairly up, and repeat from time to time as may be needed. This will protect the plants from attacks of flea and striped beetles.

Gather the squashes carefully, before the first fall frost, and store them in a dry and warm place. I have kept them in good con- dition up to spring, stored on a shelf in a moderately dry, ordinary cellar. But it is better to sell them as soon as possible after harvesting. They bring from three-fourths to one and one-half or even two cents per pound, wholesale. Consumers here in west- ern New York are paying, at this writing, five cents per pound.

As with other crops, the yield varies greatly, depending on richness of land, cul- tivation and length of season ; but I find squashes a reasonably dependable crop, and can raise a ton or more in a quarter-acre sweet-corn patch. Winter squashes are one of the small side lines in farming particu- larly promising for the boy who wants to earn a little pocket-money.

Propagating Various Shrubs

The best way to propagate the California privet is by hard-wood cuttings made in the fall, buried in sand over winter and planted in nursery rows in spring. Bridal-wreath and other spiraeas are usually increased in the same manner, but can also be grown by seeds sown in spring and lightly covered.

The syringas (lilacs) are very readily increased from suckers, but can also be propagated from hard-wood cuttings like the privet. The honeysuckles (lonicera) are increased by seeds, or by cuttings of ripened wood made in fall and treated as stated for privet, or by green-wood cuttings under glass in summen The tamarisk may be increased in the same manner as the honey- suckle.

It is really no great trick to increase many of our common and popular orna- mental shrubs by cuttings of the ripened woodi or in some cases by suckers. Some- times neighbors are very glad to buy some of these plants.

^ Horseradish for Profit

You can easily grow all the horseradish the family may want. It will grow in almost any soil, even if rather moist or wet, in any fence-corner, chip-yard or weed-overgrown spot anywhere on the premises.

A piece of root, or a crown from which the edible root part has been removed, buried in the soil, will soon start a planta- tion. It is far more difficult to eradicate it than to set it going.

Yet I would hesitate to give the general or broadcast advice to engage in horse- radish-growing for profit, commercially or as a specialty. The market gardener who has a good retail trade, and can work off a proportionate amount of either roots or the grated product, with the rest of his vege- tables, must or should have it. It will pay him well, even if his soil is not an ideal one for the crop, for he can work up roots (by grating) that he could not sell to ad- vantage in' a wholesale market. To ship horseradish to a general market, as roots, they must be such as buyers want, something like the ones shown at the extreme right in the picture.

These roots were bought on the public market in Buffalo at six cents each. To produce them the soil must be clean and deep and loose, and special pains may have to be taken even then in order to prevent the growth of a lot of side branches. In

our stronger loams that are somewhat shal- low, and rest on clay hardpan we are apt to get roots of the kind shown at the left of the picture. A nice, sandy, mucky or peaty loam, rather moist than otherwise, is what you want for commercial horseradish-grow- ing. It is best grown as. a fall crop, to follow early cabbages, early cauliflower, peas and similar early wide-planted crops. It makes its best growth with the beginning of cooler weather in the fall. Pieces of the side roots, perhaps of pencil thickness and from three to five or six inches long, may be planted in early spring, by means of a small iron bar, so that they can be put down rather deep, between the rows of

is quite a task in our clay loam. Dig the roots before winter. If not disposed of at once, they can be stored in a root-cellar or buried in sand and worked up during the winter. The grated horseradish, as offered by our groceries, is put up in bottles, such as is shown in the picture ; the total weight is about one pound, and the contents weigh slightly over one-half pound of the pre- pared mixture of grated horseradish and vinegar. It sells at retail for ten cents.

. The roots and the finished product

other earlier vegetables. Have the horse- radish-roots at least a foot apart.

In cultivating, pay no attention to the horseradish. You cannot hurt it much. Keep it down until the early crop is ready to harvest. Then let the horseradish grow. The roots run down quite deep, and much pains must be taken in digging to get as much as possible of the straight root. This

Worms Destructive to Vine Fruits

Widely distributed, but particularly de- structive in the Southern States, is the melon-caterpillar, larva of a beautiful moth with pearly-white, black-bordered wings. The full-grown worm is about an inch and a quarter long, translucent and of yellowish- green color.

These caterpillars do not only eat the leaves, but also dig cavities into the fruits of melons, cucumbers and pumpkins at all stages of growth, and often do a vast amount of damage. Watch for the first appearance of the enemy, and apply reme- dies promptly. You will find nothing surer to destroy them than arsenate of lead, say an ounce to the gallon of water or Bor- deaux mixture, sprayed on the vines.

We begin this treatment early for the flea-beetle and the striped cucumber-beetle. When the fruits begin to get some size, we may hesitate to apply such powerful poison and will find it safer to spray the vines with white hellebore, an ounce to the gallon of wattr. This treatment will also be found effective for the "pickle-worm" which is the larva of the "neat cucumber-moth" that closely resembles the other in appearance.

When You Buy Farm Implements Look for This Trade Mark

Write today for Free Booklets on BEST EVER PLOWS with Acme

Steel Shares. Guaranteed not to break. FLYING DUTCHMAN PLANTERS.

The World's Best. Now $35.00 in

Middle West. MONITOR DRILLS. 10% greater

yield with less seed. Even depth —

even covering — uniform growth.

McDonald pitless scales.

Requires no pit — can't freeze. Used for U. S Mails. MANDT wagons. Built to give hard service for a lifetime.

adriance binders and

mowers. Lightest Draft— Easiest handled. A record of 50 years satis- factory service.

MOLINE and FLYING DUTCH- MAN SPREADERS. Low down — light draft — short turn.

Write today stating what Free Booklet you want The above line manufactured only by