Show 1 AND GAEDEN MATTERS OF INTEREST TO AGRI culturists some up to date hint about ration of the soil and yield thereof horticulture viticulture and floriculture fruit to ores oregon winter apples matured nicely under favorable october condl alons and picking has begun the crop la below average washington late apples were let er than early ones but the crop was chort phort except in favored localities where irrigation Is practiced california orchards have been greatly benefited by recent rains the raisin season is closed late grapes are being sent to the wineries the orange crop Is fair as regards yield and of excellent quality it Is now be ing shipped new york some damage to fruit trees Is reported as a result of the snow and sleet storm ot october I 1 the kansas horticultural society has lenued the following estimate con berning the 1901 apple crop of that state number of acres in apple or chadds 19 number of bearing trees 7 average crop per tree 3 bushels total crop tor state 23 bushels average price per bushel 69 cents total value of crop 15 average gross receipts per acre 99 I 1 the ontario department of agrical ture estimates the yield of apples in that province as 13 bushels or legs than 40 per cent of last year crop pears yielded an average crop of fair quality grapes yielded well the oranges and grape fruit of flor ida have colored nicely and shipments from that state are now heavy but the flavor of the fruit la not yet up to par the acreage of strawberries is large but plants need rain 1 observation the growing of violets in winter has received some attention at the expert ment stations last year the tennes see atlon succeeded admirably with plants that had been grown from seed planted the previous spring the grow ing of violets fits in well with the work of farmers living near the cities whose gardening has developed sufficiently to enable them to have a good system of hot beds for summer work and some thing in the nature of a hot house for winter work in the south as well as in the north the problem of how to protect the trees cold Is an important one among the orange groves of florida temperature a little below the freezing point Is as much dreaded as Is 30 be low zero in the north of course among the devices tor protecting the trees about everything has been tried some of the methods are probably too expensive to become popular while others are of doubtful eulue among the various methods to which our at tent lon has been called are the follow ing fires of faggots are built between the rows of trees young trees are banked up with sand sheet iron stoves are placed between the trees and mod erate alres kindled in them trees are covered with cloth or water pro pa per and lamps or oil stoves used be neath these covers groves are en closed with high palings of cheap lum her the great cost of covering trees with tents or temporary houses makes that method of protection practically out of the question yet it has been at tempted by some men gradually apple growers are getting blown to a uniform apple barrel a bar 1 el that holds three bushel hitherto the lack of uniformity in the barrels has caused much dissatisfaction among buyers as well as among honest apple sellers the dishonest man has no par nicular objection to a barrel that is short in capacity one result la that the market quotations based on barrels give no real idea of the true state of the market the standard barrel meas ures 17 laches across the head Is 28 inches high and has a circum ter ence of 64 inches around the bulge ul ti the bushel box will we be aleve drive out the barrel it can be more certainly measured and can be packed with less loss of space the barrel has the advantage of being of euch shape that it can never be packed in any manner so as to prevent a cir cul atlon of air the general fruit crop A report from washington says that of the 14 states having 3 or up ward apple trees in bearing at the eleventh census 7 report an apple crop comparing unfavorably with their respective ten year averages among these are new york with less than one third and pennsylvania with less than one halt of an average crop a half crop being also barely exceeded in michigan and texas while crops in excess of the ten year aver agea are reported from several more or les important apple growing states euch excess Is noteworthy only in kansas where the crop is nearly BO per cent above the ten year average and Is the largest since 1891 while the pear crop Is by no means a failure it not only falls considerably abort of the crop of last year but also compares unfavorably with the ten year average this Is due mainly to the deficiency in new york and call foila a majority of the more imbor tant pear growing states reporting a production somewhat above their ten year averages the production ol 01 grape Is somewhat below the ten year average the crops of california and new york being slightly below and that of missouri considerably below the respective state averages for the ten byear period with only a relatively un important increase of production in other states dairying in professor E R nichols president ol 01 the kansas agricultural college says we have expended 25 tor an ag ri cultural building for dairy apparatus and 5 for a dairy herd and shelter giving kansas one of the best equipped dairy schools in the united states kansas offers id ial conditions tor profitable dairying climate short winters fertile colls cheap feeds and good markets AH 1 IS i i the mild winters necessitate cheap shelter only kansas butter can be delivered in good condition to our best eastern markets for one and one fourth cents per pound a lower rate than that paid by many eastern farm ers situated within miles of these markets kansas butter can be bellvi ered to rocky mountain markets tor two cents per pound and to english markets for less than two cents per pound A good market Is opening in china and japan dairying offers to kansa farmers the advantages of monthly cash returns the year round profitable employment tor the entire year and good home market for the farmers crops on the farm where they are produced butter brings more per pound than any other farm product and kansas tanners many of whom live distant from the railroads can condense tons of cheap rough teed into pounds of high priced easily mar feted butter there are nearly creameries crea meries skimming stations and cheese factories in kansas the more milk each of these plants receives the less will be the cost of operation per 1 pounds of milk received and the higher can be the price per pound paid for butter tat to be most profitable to the farm ers of the state plants must re belve ten times their present supply of milk the greater the production of milk and butter fat in the state the greater will be the profits to all con necked with the dairy interests kan sas Is well equipped with dairy manu tac turing establishments but the milk supply is much too small to make dairying most profitable for these reasons the chief work of the kansas dairy school will be to give instruction to farmers in milk production including the selection of the cow ban adling and feeding her the care of her milk and calf and the feeding of skim milk buttermilk and whey to secure greatest profit kansas cows have been bred chiefly for beef secretary coburn reports the average yearly value of the product of the kansas dairy cow to be 9 65 several creameries report that the av receipts per cow per year tor their patrons Is 20 this college se cured in 1898 an average per cow ot 37 75 for butter tat at creamery prices from a scrub herd that in quality were much below the average cows of the state and one scrub cow tor which we paid 30 returned 60 88 for butter fat and gave a net profit above cost of feed of 40 37 these records show that with the cows they now own kansas dairymen can with propel feed and care double and treble tha present milk yield and make an even greater increase in their net profits we want farmers and farmers boys from every township in kansas to at tend our dairy school and learn to teed and handle cows so as to secure these results edible A bulletin of the department ol 01 agriculture says that the edible sa ble pea deserves to be better known among us many varieties are successfully cultivated in europe but here as yet they are grown chiefly by amateurs and are hardly in the market this pea has a very tender pod the ardi nary parchment like lining being much attenuated the pod Is thicker and more fleshy than the pod of the shell ing pea it is gathered when the pea Is just forming and used pod and all exactly like string beans some varle ties tested were found to be excellent in flavor and texture cow peas at madlon from farmers review in regard to cow peas sown at the wisconsin sta alon this season I 1 will say that I 1 sowed the whippoorwill variety southern grown seed in drills 32 inches apart using about 1 pecks of seed pw acre the seed was sown may 14 and peas were harvested oct 2 giving a yield of bushels per acre some of them did not mature on account of the early frosts many of the ripened a month in advance of others these early maturing plants were designated and peas picked and an effort will be made next year to develop an early variety A full account will be given la the eighteenth report of the sta eions work R A moore wisconsin agricultural college |