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This newspaper page contains 26 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Muscatine Journal
Location
Muscatine, Iowa, United States of America
Date
Nov 30, 1908
Page
8
California Experiment Station outlines winter pruning of young grapevines to two buds, with later care including suckering topping and tying. It describes thinning, pinching, and summer pruning to direct growth, plus forming a symmetrical crown with two to four spurs and two to four buds per spur depending on cane strength.
The piece counsels cautious adaptation to new methods, urges experimental farming with small plots, and warns against rash changes. It contrasts patient improvement with reckless innovation, notes the farmer who processes meat at home avoids adulteration risks, and mentions a sausage formula used by a large packing house.
A collage of rural tidbits notes Sidney Kidman's vast holdings in Australia, prairie grass retreat in several states, honey production leaders in Texas and California, and rising Shetland pony interest. It also highlights misfit business lessons, a farmer daughter cook, a five foot circumference pitchfork trunk in California, and studies on grasses by Professor Hansen.
Late in summer unsightly webs appear on trees as pale yellow caterpillars with black heads. They destroy leaves quickly and should be burned when seen. two southern broods and one northern brood yearly. Paris green or London purple sprays help when worms are young. If many worms are found, cut off and burn infested limbs.
A method describes a trough guarding door built from one inch boards with a top 2 by 4 frame. It swings on pin hinges and uses a middle fastener to slide and lock the door for filling, then lifts to reveal the trough from outside the pen.
Advice on dairy farm management emphasizes preventing ensilage and hay before milking, using a tight cement stable, and strict cleanliness. It contrasts first and second class dairymen by cow productivity, noting good cows produce 250–300 pounds of butter annually versus 125–200 pounds for lesser cows. It also discusses cow valuation based on milk output rather than flesh.
A grower outlines methods for steady strawberry yields using matting rows five feet apart and two feet apart plants. The plan cycles truck crops, green manures, cow peas, hog manure, and field preparation each year to renew fertility before spring planting.
An elderly African American couple in Alabama transport produce on a wagon. They lay eggs and fruit on top of bed springs to prevent damage, while riding in a self made seat without springs. They prioritize preserving goods over rough travel.
A farmer shares a parable from a farmer's institute about cattle feeding. A young man finds feeding cattle unprofitable when priced at market, but the elder notes the farmer who grows his own feed and sustains his business will become rich and leave a rich farm. The story emphasizes long term self-sufficiency in farming.
The method describes spading in an opening, planting by a boy, and firming the sail to the root. After level cultivation until July first, runners from the parent plant are layered to create 8 to 10 inch spacing in narrow matted rows 16 to 20 inches wide. Rows are managed to favor outside plants, surplus plants are removed, and manure is applied after ground freezes. Season plants are set with bloom removed to prevent fruit set.
A Chicago event drew hundreds of desperate men seeking work. Three hundred were sent to coal mines and railroads in a day, but none went to farms. The piece condemns foreign workers from cities, argues most foreigners stay in cities, and insists only the home workforce can help farms, naming Japs, Chinese, and Negroes as regional labor references.
A reader reports lame hens with swollen feet and asks for cause and cure. The editor responds that the condition is bumblefoot from bruising, often from heavy birds landing on roosts. Advise trimming away affected tissue and applying iodine or boric acid, and cull if recovery does not occur.
A neighbor shows a method to reuse hillside soil by fine plowing and storing it in an old outhouse to fight chicken house lice and absorb odors in the dairy barn.
The piece argues for persistence in farming and warns against constant changes in enterprise. It notes the King Edward stallion and questions prize motives, then urges deliberate, gradual shifts to more profitable lines only when gains are clear, promoting stick-to-itiveness as a key to success.
The United States Department of Agriculture recommends clover farming to reclaim jack pine lands in Michigan Wisconsin and Minnesota. The sandy soil lacks humus and nitrogen and settlers often abandon land after finding it unproductive.
A Colorado station farm runs an alfalfa nursery with sixty four varieties. Researchers select promising plants to maximize hay seed and fertility yields under Colorado conditions. The breeding program began in 1904 with a test comparing common alfalfa to Turkestan seed from Germany. The first season showed better seed production from seed selected for heavy yields. The goal is a plant ideally suited to Colorado.
A guide describes leg structure to assess riding quality. It notes that legs set too far back may drag, with a sequence showing defects across four example pairs. The focus is on identifying faults in conformation for buyers or riders.
A rider notes four horses' leg alignment. The first stands too straight on pasterns with hind legs rearward. The second has overly straight legs causing stiff motion. The third is similarly straight and would jar movement. The fourth is best but still lacks spring due to straight legs.
An open fireplace creates a draft when lit that cleans the room and adjoining spaces by drawing in impure air. Even without a fire a gentle draft through the chimney keeps air changing, and in winter the fire boosts the draft to expel air exhausted by occupants.
A half horsepower motor costing about $60 can run a separator for two hours on a pint of gasoline. It removes daily time drag, keeps workers productive, and can be operated by a woman as safely as a stove. Larger engines extend use to feed cutters and water pumps, saving heavy labor.
J B Lyon notes the buffalo tree hopper harms apple and other trees by laying up to 200 eggs in twig slits, with bark darts inviting wood borers. Oil control is removal of nearby weeds and cultivation of the orchard soil to starve the insect. The pest may become serious if not managed.
After weaning in mid June at about 30 months, lambs are split into rams and ewes flocks. Diet includes white clover rape cabbage and turnips, plus occasional grain beginning at one eighth pound daily and rising to half a pound by six months. In fall and winter they graze turnips with grain and hay, salt is provided, and feeding is regular and orderly to instill punctual habits.
A few U.S. suppliers provide bees to doctors. F G Herman of New Jersey once handled a 20 000 bees order shipped alive in a bottle with a cross arm rest to prevent suffocation. Bees’ sting yields formic acid used by homeopathic physicians, obtained by shaking bees then pouring alcohol to preserve the acid.
Readers learn of Arizona petrified forests with long intact trees near the surface and vividly colored stone resembling agates. The feature describes fossil oranges and seeds, a petrified potato, a rock crystal root, and shells and flowers turned to rock by nature’s processes.
Agriculture column praises cow peas as a profitable and versatile crop. It argues peas mature in three months unlike clover, offer hay and grain in one, and fit the fruit-farming rotation. Notes regional adaptability, sowing timing, varieties Whippoorwill and Clay, and market value around $1.50 to $2.50 per bushel.
The west and southwest potato crop yields fall short of early estimates while rust threatens southern Missouri wheat fields. A farmer near Carthage Mo fell from hayload and was killed by horses. A Kansas farmer near Florence was cut to pieces by a disk plow. A swindler scams bankers with bogus notes pretending to be Farmers' Co operative Company of Ohio. Katy Bartell near Salina Kan was severely injured in a cream separator accident. A former farmhand recalls oiling mowers as horses ran away, causing the boss lifelong injury.
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