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° How Weeds Come In.
Weeds come Into new regions large
ly through the carelessness or the
land ] owner. One of the commonest
ways of bringing them In Is to Import
them In screenings from flour mills
or from other mills that clean grains
and sell the screenings. Probably
none of our states have a law like
that , In the Northwest TerrItorIes of
Canada , which prohibits the sale of
screenlng'3 except to feeders of sheep ,
and then under certain restrictions.
k Screenings contain almost all kinds
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of weed seeds , and from these they :
get Into the manure pIle and are car-
? . rled onto the land ant are placed In
I the soil In the very best shape for
growing. Frequently the farmer pro
lutes the weeds on one part of his
j farm , has them screened out when
t the wheat Is thrashed and shovels the I
! refuse Into the manure pile 01' Into
, . some place from which It reaches
" 7 . ; -.L he t manure pile , and Is thence sent to
J' all ] ] parts of the farm. There Is yet
1 another way hy which a little clump
7 of weeds In the hay field may get to
all parts of the farm. The said weeds
1 are cut with the hay and fed at a
time the weed seeds are enough ma
. ture to resist the digestive efforts of
the bovine stomach. They pass
through and out Into the manure and
the next year start new centers of influence .
.
fluence In all parts of the farm. A
good deal of care needs to he exer- .
cased In this case. The greatest trouble .
f ble is that the farmer does not ! I
know the new weeds till they have I
been thus successively sown and reo
sown.
, < Good and Poor Seed Corn.
Recently In passing a new field of
fo
corn , a resident farmer remarked to
the writer on the yarlablllt of seed
corn , as to germinablllty. In the field
a large part of the corn was coming
up beautifully In the other part of
the field almost none was to he seen ,
the demarcation between the two sections .
tlons being as distinct as if a straight
line had been drawn through the field
and one.half left unplanted. Yet the
whole field was planted on the same
day with corn bought from two neigh .
bars The corn , too , was of the same
4 ; , variety ; yet the seed corn saved b y
one man came up well and of the oth
er hardly at all. The farmer was
, asked what made the difference and
replied that It must have been In the
way of taking care of the seed or of
, J ) . _ the maturity of the corn at Oe time
. 1. it was harvested. It Is easy to sup
pose that the farmer that furnished
dn
the worthless seed planted his own
farm with It and had fils work all , to
do over again. This Is a lesson ns to
#
the value of good seed corn , and the
unwisdom of planting seed without
knowing whether It ! Is good or not
Improvidence In this matter Is the
cause of the failure of many a far ,
mer.
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Forestry In Texas.
The United Slates Department of
Agriculture Is making estimates at the
forest areas of Texas. We generally
think or Texas as a state of Immense
. prairies stretching In every direction ,
I' f Jt Is found that Texas has the largest
. ' . r } wooded area of any state In the
. .f'r iniori , that area being now not less
than 64,000 square miles. Of this at
least 27,000 square miles consist of
merchantable timber. This does not
. include the chaparral growth. Aboli"
, 60 varieties of trees commercially 1m i
portant are reported. The most vat u .
able forests are those of the eastern
part of the state. This Is because the
rainfall here Is abundant and the
trees grow to a. larger size than In the
central or western part of the state
The state forest lands have been sold
of till 95 per cent are In the hands of
. , . . . - . I1f I private nwners.
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Grass In the Apple Orchard.
Grass In the orchard has been the
theme talked r.n by many a speaker
at Carmel's' Institutes. There have
been a few men that have said It was
a good thing , but more that have pronounced .
nounced It to be one or the greatest :
enemies oC apple growing. Grass In
the orchard Is a sentimental idea , far
removed from that of practical use. It
Is very pretty ) to talk oC lying under
fire apple trees looking up Into the
blossom.laden branches. Whenever
the artist draws u picture of nn orchard .
chard , be It Cull of blossoms or of
bright red apples , the ground under It !
Is covered with a. rlchcarpet of grass ,
on which the ripe fruit may fall when
It Is ready for the hand oC the gath
ereI' The city man that buys a farm
In the country with an orchard on It ,
tapes not kindly to the Idea or plow
ing up the sad oC his orchard. He
would far rather keep It cut short by
the use of the lawn mower , that It
might be n play ground for his ciril
ch'en. Well , wherever R man can afford .
ford to put sentiment at the front the
sad min the orchard Is all right. The
man that wants a summer home where
the red apple falls onto a green caret .
pet of verdure can perhaps afford to
put up with a less crop oC apples and
proJably ! he gets his money out of it
nut the farmer that has to mate ) ©
money out of his orchard has a dif
ferent proposition. He has to set sea
tlment aside. The poetry of life would
cost him too early If made the basis
of his orchardlng. He must put In 1
the cultivator and the harrow and
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prevent the ground from bearing any !
thing else than apples , provided the
orchard be not on a hillside that would I
wash In rainy ; weather if left bare of
grass He cannot afford to have the
roots of the grass using up the plant
food that should be given to the roots
of the apple trees. He cannot afford
to have the moisture that falls from
the clouds arrested by the grass roots
before It gets deeper down .to the
1
roots of the apple trees This loss at
.
moisture Is a very ; serious affair In i
nf .1
times of drouth when the amount of
water falling would ! be hardly suffi.
dent for the trees theml el\'es. There
Is no question that on love ] land the'
soil of the apple orchard should bo
cultivated so thoroughly that no
weeds will grow unless It be late In i
the season , and then they should be
turned under by ; the cultivator in the
spring.
Tub Grown Lemon Trees.
The growing of lemon trees In tubs
Is becoming something of a fad In i
some of cur northern localities. Doubt
less a good many of our readers han
trIed at various times to grow lemons
and have succeeded In getting goo d .
sized trees , which , however , never
bore anything of value. The trouble
was that the tree had not been grafte
The lemon tree that Is to bear good I .
fruit must be' grafted from a tree that
Is bearing good fruit , and In most
cases the tree from which _ to do the
grafting Is not at hand. Probably : If
anyone want ! : ! to raise lemons
In tubs , the best way Is ! to secure a
tree from a reputable nursery that
handles such trees and that has gua r .
anteed that the tree has been grafted
Cram some good variety It Is reported -
ported that In some parts Ot / the north
people that have these trees In tubs
ss
get from them a great many lemons
yearly . the quality of the lemons b ° .
lng better than of those Imported. Ar t
any rate the lemon tree 1& an Interesting -
esting object. Grown in a tub It may
be kept l out of doors In summer and
In the house In the winter The lemon
was unknown to the Greeks and Romans -
mans and Is supposed to be d. rather
modern fruit. It was Introduced Into
Spain hy the Arabs In the fourteenth
century and In the very end of tit at
century lemons found their way to
England , having been grown In th ©
Azore Islands
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The Codling Moth.
The cOdling moth Is without doubt
the most important insect enemy with
which aPllle growers In the United
Stu.tes have to contend The llest
does not ut the present time appear
to have reached all the apple growing
regions of the United States , notably
Rome parts of the northwest regions
or the country ; , Including Oregon and
Washington. Yet how soon It wlll bc
como a destructive Pest thorn no ono
call tell. The Insect Is easy to distribute -
tribute , as e\'Qryone that has pur
chased apples can well understand ,
for the worm travels incognito in the
fruit itself. The part at the apple
with the worm In It Is thrown out on
the ground and In due time the moth
emerges. This Is doubtless ! the way
In whch : the pest has been spread.
or course no man In making a slliir- ) )
mf.nt : of apples has taken a second
thought of this malter. When fruit
Is shipped long distances In boxes
and barrels the worms have frequently -
ly emerged from the fruit and spun
cocoons In the corners of the boxes
and the moths have come out before
the apples were disposed of. When
the boxes were opened the moths , of
course , went out and sought the near ,
cst apple trees. Where there are
largo commission houses the larva
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crawl out of the apples and often get
Into cracks and under boards and spin
their cocoons , and thence the moths
emerge to become the means of in
festing the orchards in that vicinity
When the spreading of this pest Is so
easily accomplished , It Is a wonder
that any part at the country remains
where the codling moth Is not.
Had our people at first well under
stood the Importance of this pest and
the method It uses In spreading from
locality to locality It would have been
comparatively easy to have prevent
ed Its spread altogether , for then enl 3 '
perfectly sound apples could have
been shipped to new 10caHties. But
with this , as with most of the othe r .
pests that have made trouble , we ou r .
selves Imported It and carried It about
with us , never thinking about the possible -
sable results Now It must be fought
and at great expense year by year In y
a million orchards. Our Improvidence
Is costing us dearly. The spraying of
the trees with arsenical poisons aLthe
time the cOdling moths are laying t
their eggs Is the only remedy that is i
very effective. . .
Patent Absurdities.
If farmers would read more they
perhaps would be caught by the
sharpers less often than they are. It
seems at little use however to warn I .
farmers against being caught by the
various swindles that are being
worked ; for the reason that the fa s
mers that are the dupes are the ones
d.that do not read agricultural papers ,
We believe that very few of our read ,
ers are food for such sharks. Somfo :
time ago a. farmer In 'Oklahoma was
worked by a man that was soIling p a .
tent rights for a. preparation that he
claimed would , If put on trees , kill all 1
the borers and that If ! burled in the
ground of an orchard would cause all 1
the gophers there to leave. Ho also
told the farmer that the experiment
station had offered ' 3,000 for a half In.
terest In the patent. The farmer
wrote to the Oklahoma station asking
It the thing was a fraud and received
a reply that It was. The remarkable
thing about such games Is that the ) '
rgive enough revenue to keep the men
that work them In good condltlo
This does not speak well for the
acumen of the farmers that are swi n.
dIed. The truth should be patent to
all that there Is no "cure-all" for any
disease or Insect. Gophers do not
care what Is burled In the ground an
acre away and the borer does not
care what preparation Is put on the
tree , so long as it Is kept out .of his
hole.
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Different Kinds of Dairy Asoelatlon. ,
There are n good many Itlnda of
dairy associations , most of them on-
tirely trustworthy and others not so
much so. In the main , whoa dairy
mon go Into nn association It Is wltt
some high object In vlow. We notice ,
by the dairy exchanges that In WIsJ '
cons in un association Is trying to .
come Into existence that Is looked up- ,
on with n good deal of suspicion by
men engaged In dairy work In the
stute. The cause or suspicion Is always -
ways found In some way of malting
money for the promotors. In this
case the association , which 18 for butter -
.
tor anti cheese makers , starts out to
get 1,000 members each one of which
Is to pay ; $5 entrance fee and $2 per
y 'ear. The officer5 oC the aS8ociation
are to have for their compensation
such fees and dues as remain after
paying operating exp llses. In the ,
case of securing 1,000 members this
would mean receipts the first year of .
at least 5,000 , which might leave a
very handsome purse to bo divided
between the three or four men that
comprise the otncers. An Investigation -
tion Into the personnel of the assocIation -
tion showed that none of the officers
were engaged In the malting of butter -
ter and cheese , one being a station
agent , another n hotel keeper ) and an-
other a postmaster. The Intentions or
the organizers may ho of the best , but
they will certainly be under suspicion
fill they have proved that they are
not trying to work ) simply a money
making scheme.
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Molasses for Milk Production. I
Molasses for milk production Is per-
haps a now idea with most of our
readers. In various parts or the tropi-
cal lands where molasses Is very
cheap being a byproduct or the sugar
mills , It is being fed crtito extensively
If wo can speak or any dairy opera .
tion being extensive In a land where
dairying Is little practicod. In Eng
land and some other
Europeaq coun-
tries experiments are being made with
It , as It Is ! quite cheaply obtained In
some localities near beet 8UgE fac- .
. It is not fed clear , but Is
mixed with various absorbents , among
which Rte sphagnum moss and ground
corn stall < s. It can be fed only to the
extent of one and two pounds a day ,
but Is said ! to be very palatable and to
be greatly liked by the cows. Proba .
bly If dairying develops much In ! tlJc
South , especially In the cane growing
regions , we will hear of the Increased
use of this byproduct for thc feeding
of dairy cows , as It Is now being quite
extensively used In the feedIng oC
horses. '
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An Unsolved Problem. I
There area good many problems
connected with the feeding of swine .
that have not been solved. One ot
these Is why a. certain combination of
foods wlll give better results than
certain other combinations Thus It
Is discovered that sldmmllit and corn
fed together give greater gains tuna
when fed separatel One hundred
pounds of sklmmilk has been fed to
a growing pig and five pounds of gaIn
made from It. After that 100 pounds
of corn has been fed and a gain of
ton pounds made with that. Then wo
would naturaly think that the feeding
of the two together would give fifteen
pounds of gain. But this does not
prove to bo the fact. When these are
fed together the gain In weight I is ,
eighteen pounds Instead of fifteen ,
showing that three pounds was the result -
suit of the combination. With pigs
as with other animal and as with
man a variety of foods gives a bettor
result than one alone , even when hc
one Is very evenly balanced.
One of the commoneflt. mistakes of
the fruit grower Is tc neglect to cultt-
vato his orr.hard.
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