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The Commoner
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In the Field of Agriculture
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l REMKMBER! I REMEMBER!
I remember, I remember,
The hott&e where I was born;
The little window where the sun
Caino peeping In at morn,
You'd hardly know the old place now,
For dad is up to date,
And tho farms scientific
Prom the back lot to the gate.
The house and barn are lighted
With .bright acetylene,
The engine in the laundry
Is run by gasoline.
We have silos, we have autos,
We have dynamos and things;
A telephone foi gossip,
And a phonograph that sings.
the' ordinary meetings, there were
movable schools in 13 states which
had a registered attendance of 112,
498 different people. Field demon
stration meetings were also held in
15 states, although no record of the
attendance was kept. Special rail
road trains were organized in 17
other states for the purpose of giv
ing lectures and demonstrations. A
detailed analysis of this work show
ing the number of different kinds of
(meetings in each state, the attend
iance, and the duration of each, is
contained in the bulletin already
mentioned. This bulletin also con
tains a number of notes on agricul
tural extension work of a similiar na-'
ture in foreign countries.
)
Tho hired man has left us,
We miss his homely face:
A lot of college graduates
Are working in his place.
There's an engineer and fireman,
A chauffeur and a vet.,
'Lectrician and mechanic
Oh, the farm's run right, you bet.
The little window where the sun
Came peepins in at morn,
Now brightens up a bathroom
That cost a car of corn.
Our milkmaid is pneumatic
And she sanitary, too:
But dad gets fifteen cents a quart
For milk that once brought two.
Our cattle came from Jersey,
And the hog3 are all Duroc;.- -The
sheep are Southdown beauties
f And the hens are Plymouth Rodk.
To have the best of everything
: That is our aim and plan
-For dad not oniy farms it,
But he's a business man.
Canadian Courier.
SWINE SPREAD FOOT
MOUTH DISEASE
AND
FARMERS' INSTITUTES MORE
POPULAR THAN EVER
Both the number of farmers' insti
tutes held each, year and the at
tendance at these" meetings is steadily
increasing, according to a report on
farmers' institute work which has
just been published by the United
States department of agriculture as
Bulletin No. 269. During the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1914, the re
port states, 25,238 of these institutes
were held throughout the country,
with a total attendance of 3,1656,381.
This is anSncrease in attendance of
26 por cent over that of any pre
vious year. On the other hand, the
expense of conducting the work was
nearly $63,000 less than last year,
the total cost for the iiscal year end
ing June 30, 1914, being $447,897.51.
The farmers' institute orsanizatlon
conducts its work under many differ-v
ent forms so that it is almost impos
sible to summarize its activities
briefly. For example, in addition to
The susceptibility of swine to the
foot and mouth disease und the fail
ure on the part of swine owners to
recognize its symptoms are giving the
autnorities of the United States de
partment of agriculture no small
amount of worry-in their "clean-up"
campaign.
Sore mouth, a common indication
of the disease, is an ordinary se
quence of hog cholera, and contu
sions on the feet aro. frequent in
swine which have been driven or
shipped. For these reasons littln
attention is paid by the owners of
svlneto these symptoms, and unless
the herd is located within suspicious
territory foot and mouth disease may
continue in a chronic form for a con
siderable length of time before dis
covery. The danger of course lies in
the ability of these animals to dis
seminate tho disease.
Since the first case of foot and
mouth disease found in a herd of
hogs in Michigan, which later per
mitted the infection of the Chicago
stock yards, hogs more than, any
other animal have been responsible
for the spread of the disease. A
rev months ago, in the outskirts of
Philadelphia, in a district contain
ing close to 20,000 swine kept in
small lots, several thousand were
found to be infected.
On July 29 foot and mouth disease
infection was discovered to exist in
a herd of 20 cattle within the olty
limits of Hornell, Steuben county,
New York. Another herd of 25 cat
tle, pastured across the road from
from these, has been exposed and ia
under surveillance. As no known
cases of the disease had previously
been found within a radius of over
75 miles, the source of the infection
remained a mystery until two days
later, when 125 swine, divided amnn
five herds, were found infected with
in half a mile of the first-discovered
premises. These swine had evident
ly had the disease in a mild form for
a considerable length of time. In
fection had been carried from these
to the cattle through drainage.
This agaiSmpliasizes the need,
the authorities state, for continued
careful examination of all live stock
in previously infected areas, especial
ly large herds of swine. Farmers and
stock raisers by giving immediate no
tice of any suspicious cases to the
nearest health officer will greatly aid
the authorities in their efforts to
eliminate this pest, which if allowed
to gain a foothold would result in un
told damage to the nation.
Owing to the fact that few animate
aro shipped from the section in which
the latest outbreak occurred, it is
believed -that no serious or wide
spread complications will result from
this new center of infection.
THE ORIGIN OF THE TOMATO
SOUTHERN!
LANDS
No drouths. No floods. No crop failures. Mild winters
ool summers, uood water rights. Land very fertile and pro
ductive. Price $45.00 per acre up for fully paid up water right.
For further information write
B. MILLSON
W
Excepting our scientists, there are
.comparatively few neonle in this
country who ever stop to think of
how many important products that
now minister to the health, susten
ance, and pleasures of mankind were
added to the world's supply by the
discovery of America. A few of these
are incidentally mentioned in an in
teresting article on "The Tomato."
in the current number of the bulletin
o the Pan American Union, by Ed
wafd Albes, who writes:
"The greatest febrifuge known to
day auinine came irifn AvlRtvnnp.
because the Incas of Peru had dis
covered the medicinal properties, of
the bark of the cinchona tree; the
leaves of the coca plant, a South
American product, have served' to
alleviate pain the world over by their
essence cocaine; Indian corn, or
maize, was unknown to the Old World
before it waj found to be the great
food staple of the Americas; Irish as
well as sweet potatoes had their first
nome m the New World ; tho delicious
concoction known as chocolate, serv
ing man as both food and drink, had
heen known for centuries by the In
cus oi .reru aya the Aztecs of Mexico
before the Spaniards found it in these
countries and introduced it into Eu
rope; tobacco, whose rings of aro-
mi"ic smoKe now circumscribe the
earth, was added to man'R nionom.
by the Indians of America. Many
other products might be enumerated,
but .among them all perhaps none
ministers more delightfully to the
palate of the modern epicure than
does the tomato.Mhat lucious, succu
lent, refreshing vegetable-fruit which
gratifies tho eye with its beauty of
color and form, stills hunger with
its meat, and assuages thirst with its
juice.
"The name, 'tomato' seems to be
of Aztec origin, given as tomatl bv.
some authorities and as xitomate by
others, and still persists, in some few
-. tUO uiuci mexican town names,
such as Tomatlan, Tomatepec, etc.,
but the general consensus' of opinion
among botanists seems to be that the
plant and its culture for edible pur-
,UOM unsiuttiec in .reru, whence it
spread to other sections of the Amer
icas. It is certain, at any i?ate, that
it was known and cultivated for its
d'scovery!UneS befr0 " Colum
"That the cultivated tomato was
known to soma of , to., ""- wa
K. f f i SS
s .. .v,u mm two large varipMoa
TZt iXy1?? ?7 Ma"Wo?usV Near
ly as 1554 hut for many years it was
only in southern Europe that thl
value of the fruit for use'in soupa and
VOL. 15, Kg 8
as a salad was recognized, it WaB
quite 'generally used in Snain ?
Italy durihr the 17th century bun n
England and in northern Europe in
erally the plant was grown o'niyt
botanical gardens as a curiosity an!
for ornamental purposes. it wa
seldom eaten, being commonly J2
garden as unhealthy and even poison.
ous. TW belief probably arose be
cause of the close resemblance of the
plant to its allied relative the n Kht
shade, or belladonna, and had of
course, no foundation in fact. It waJ
not until the early part of the 19 th
century that the tomato came into
general use as a ood in northern
Europe and even in the United States
Since about 1835, however, the use
and cultivation of the vegetable has
tiiuwu tu sucu an extent that it has
now become one of the most import
ant of our garden crops.
"When a successful process of can
ning the fruit was evolved the tomato
industry at once assumed large pro
portions. It was found that for all
cooking purposes the canned fruit
was as good as that fresh from the
vine, and as a result the tomato has
become a staple food the year round
and millions of dollars are now in
vested in canning factories in the
United States, whose chief output
consists of tomatoes."
MARKETING OP FARM TIMBER
The marketing of form timber pre
sents some of the same difficulties,
but in an aggravated form, that the
farmer meets in selling other crops,
says a Forest Service contribution to
the Year Book of the United States
department of agriculture, just is
sued. The farmer finds it hard to
get enough for his timber. Most
farmers now sell their saw timber on
the stump to a mill man, such sale3
ordinarily beings made for a lump
sum. The' mill man, experienced in
estimating, goes through the woods
and sizes up the quantity and value
of the timber he whnts. The owner,
being a farmer and not a lumberman,
seldom knows anything about esti
mating timber and has only the
vaguest idea of what it ought to
bring. The consequence of this con
dition is that the farmer often re
ceives only a small fraction of the
actual market value of his stump
age. Astonishing examples of what a
farmer may thus throw away are
often encountered by foresters, con
tinues the article. For instance, a
Massachusetts farmer sold a million
feet x)f timber to a portable sawmill
man for $1,200-, and thought he had
obtained a good price. His neigh
bor, however, who knew something
about timber, got $7,000 for the same
quantity of white pine from the very
same portable mill man. The firsc
farmer, on account of his ignorance,
practically presented the mill man
with $5,800; the second owner wa3
wise enough to learn before he at
tempted to sell his timber how much
he had and what it ought to bring
him in money.
The productive capacity of the 200
million acres of farm lands through
out the country which either have
or should have timber growing on
them is enormous, says the article.
Tllia 1100 ia lnixran 4-Tnr oil t.llft lia
tional forests put together, and with
an annual growth of uoo Doara iw
per acre of saw timber a moderate
allowance under vthe practice of for
estry it would . produce annually
forever about 40 billion feet, or the
equivalent of the entire lumber cut
of the country, in addition to not less
than 120 million cords of firewood.
These figures continues the article;
probably never will be realized, for
the reason tha; the present area or
farm woodlands is much greater than
it wUt.be: eventually. For. example,
woodland compiises-Sl per cent ot
:ii
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