| OCR Text |
Show . WHAT THE DEPARTMENT y OF A6RICULTURE IS DOING HOFT FOR EAItfcV FOREST FLYING Army aviators should bo flying over national forests several weeks lu advance of June 15, when forest-flr'o forest-flr'o danger becomes serious according- to tho Fpreat Service, United States Department of Agriculture, which has orranged with tho War department de-partment for extensive tests during tho coming season oft tho plan, to detect de-tect and combat woodland blazes by means of an air patrol. It 1b hoped that the flying will bo begun In May, sojthat maps of Uio regions to bo patrolled pa-trolled will be ready for" the aviator by tho tliiib the actual fire work becomes be-comes necessary,' tn accordance wltn : Instructions from tho Secretary of war, tho director of tho air sorvlcc, MaJ, Gen. Charles T. Menoher, has instructed tho commanding ofllcers at Itockwell Field. March Field, San Diego and Riverside, Calif., and tho 'army balloon school at Arcadia, near HL Los Angeles, to cooperate by every fi'V. Posslblo means with tho oFrest ser-1 vlco in the'axpcrlmental work. MaJ. m Ocn. Menoher alBo has Informeil the V Forest Service that if It should be il desired to conduct exporlmcnUI work i m from aMther field, Sacramento, stops '; will bo taken to provide personnel. f FARM FIREWOOD IS A . VALUABLE CKOP St. That farmers helped materially, in R conserving coal In 1918 by substltut- ing wood as fuel Is shown by statls- ' tics recently tabulated by tbo Bureau of Crop Estimates, United States De- ( partment of Agriculture. An average k of 11.5 cords of wood or a total of t , 77,092,000 cords, wore burned on , " tho farms of -the country during i . 1918. Tho total production of cord 1 -wood during tho year, which includes wood burned on farms and that sold t by farmers to city dwellers, ainount- red to approximately 102,903,000 cords. The avorago far mvaluo in 1918 was $4.73 a cord. Upon tho basis of estimates for 1918, tbo Bur-, eau of orop Estimates says tho farm .j, fuel wood crop is one of the Import- ' , ant crops of tho farm, Inasmuch as ; only five crops corn, wheat, oats, I I r ryo and fotton execoded it in valuo ' . ia 1918. Tho figures show that far- mors in tho southern states aro tho I ( ' heaviest fuel wood users. North Car- ' . 4 ollna leads with an avorago of 18 ., cords used on each farm daring tWe year. The farms ot South CarellM ; - f V' , '"''"! and Arkansas averaged 17 cords; or Mississippi, 16 cords; ot Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, Nevada Ne-vada and Vermont, 15 cords. m FAKE AND FAD ALFALFA PRODUCTS Alfalfa has been Advertised so extensively ex-tensively that "mako money easy" concerns are trying', to capitalize on this crop by selling fake and fad pi-oducls'a's weir'asvorthless stock in the companies reported to prdouco them. As a rule the'' best which can bo said about many of these alfalfa products such as alfalfa' flour, alfal- ifa spiup, alfalfa candy, alfalfa break-fast break-fast food and, as one circular states jit, "everything except shoo blacking and toothpicks," Is that thoy aro harmless. But they aro Involved In stock jobbing propositions which I without question will result In loss of money to Individuals who succumb to the luro of thoso get rich quick schemes. Tho Untied States Dcpart- 'ment of Agriculture has a high regard re-gard for alfalfa as a forage but the department specialists brand as fads and fakes tho medicines and so- i calcd human food articles which are supposed to be mado from It. ARMY TRUCKS FOR FEDERAL. AID ROADS. An extra contribution of materials running into the millions of dollars willl bo made by tho Federal Government Gover-nment to road building In tho States through tho terms ot a recent amendment amend-ment to tho Federal aid road act empowering em-powering tho Secretary of War in his discretion to transfer military equipment equip-ment not needed by tho Army to the Department of Agriculture for ubo Jn highway construction. Tho Judge Advocate General's Office of tho War Department has decided that the mat erlal so transfercd can not bo charged charg-ed for. Tho war Department has informed tho Bureau of Fuollc ItoadB that It has a largo number of surplus motor trucks available for this purpose, pur-pose, and Stato highway departments now aro bolng asked by the bureau what quantities they ca put to uso, Tho Bureau ot Public Itoads officials believe there will bo sufficient to meet all demands from tho States. The Trucks and other military equipment equip-ment transfercd by tho War Department Depart-ment jnust be used only on Federal old projects and can not be sold by tho Stato after they aro donated from tho Federal Government. ISREWERIE8 BECOME MALTOSE FACTORIES. A big pioblem confronting the breweries is tho utilization of the plants, equipment and labor heretofore hereto-fore employed for the production ot beer. Many breweries are considering consider-ing and some have begun tho manufacture manu-facture of maltose sugar sirup which repulres but little additional cpulp-ment cpulp-ment and which utllzezs barley, ono of tho principles matorials used In tho making of beer. Maltose is a sugar which In addlt-ion addlt-ion to being sweet has a plcsant flavor, and otherwise resembles cane sugar. It can bo UBcd to advantage In numerous food products. The breweries, being already equlptcd with much of tho machinery necesu-ary necesu-ary for tho manufacturing of mnlt-ose, mnlt-ose, and as their employes arc ncqu-'alnteJ. ncqu-'alnteJ. with most of tho processes, tho conversion of tho ninltose from tho starch In bailey, corn, etc., Is a slmplo matter, ' I Maltose propaganda on anything llko a largo scale was begun by experts ex-perts of tho United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture, when tho sugar shortngo became acute, 18 mouth's ago. They recommended Its ubo, In the sirup form, in soft drinks, In ice cream and confections, in bread making, mak-ing, and as a table sirup. Recently brewercs havo been making pilgrimages pilgrim-ages to Washington to consult with tho experts of tho department both on matters of" converting plants and of outlets for the product. The breweries havo heretofore used us-ed In beer making about 70,000, 000 bushels of barley annual', moio than ono-fourth of the crop. The maltOBo Industry, when devoloped, Is likely to furnish a market for an equal eq-ual quanlty. SAFETY IN LHillTMNK RODS. Lightning rods properly Installed reduce rlBk of loss by lightning to almost al-most nothing say officials ot the United States Department of Agriculture. Agricul-ture. Tho annual property Iobs from lightning In the United States is about ab-out 18.000,000, and by far the greater great-er part of this loss is in the rural districts. dis-tricts. Directions for Installing light nlng rods aro given in Farmers' Bulletin Bul-letin 842, "'Modern Methods of Fio-tection Fio-tection Against Lightning," which may bo obtained free from the Division Div-ision of Publications of the Department. Depart-ment. AH fire Insurance companies, 'says tho bulletin, should reduco.pre-mluras reduco.pre-mluras in favor of buildings satisfactorily satisfac-torily rodded. ' BETTER YIELDS FROM OATS. ' Tho Iowar oat, devoloped by the Iowa Experiment Station and tho Office of CareaJ, Investigations, United Unit-ed States department of AgricuUwej Is becoming popular in tho llawkcye State Apporxlmatcly 1 OOCTbuBhels ot sevd were dlfitrrlbutcd during the current Benson, while a sufficient acreage Is being shown on tho station this spring to Insure a simlar dlstrlb utlon next year. This Is a high yield ing strain ot white oats, a selection from Sixty-Day It produces several bushels more an acre than do ordinary ordin-ary arletles. Albion (Iowa No. 103, Ctreal Investigations No. 729), a mate of the Iowai d!sti United a few yeais ngo, also has become popular from Indiana west to the mountains country where nn early white oat Is desired Richland (Iowa No. 105, Ccionl Investigations No. 78"), a shnit-sti-nwed, earl j yellow oat devoloped fiom the Kherson, Is especially desirable for? ubo of rich bottom soils, wlicro common varieties of oats torn! to lotlrje This new oat also Is cry popular pop-ular .uul yields from I to 5 bushels inoro than Its ancoalei Kherson. f Tin- Cornell Explernient Station has, distributed widely In Now Yoil; a sohetlon from the Welcome oat, do A eloped In coopcuttlon with tho Off-Ice Off-Ice of Cereal Investigations. Similarly, Similar-ly, a high-yielding, very heavy awn-less awn-less winter oat also has been distributed distrib-uted to a limited extent lu Mississippi Mississi-ppi and Louisiana under tho name ol Aurora. It was devoloped at the Arlington Experimental Farm by tho Otflco of Cereal Investigations, Specialists of the United States De partment of Agriculture report, that as a rule the oat crop In the South came through the winter In excellent condition. "KIM1KK PRINTS" FOR WHEAT VARIUTIKS. Specialists of the United States Department De-partment of Agriculture havo been busy for so oral yeais lu tho classification class-ification and Identification or vailo-tleB vailo-tleB of wheat giown In this country. They have Identified nppulma(ei 150 definite varieties, but these aro known by at least 500 different names. This work of wheat classification classi-fication Involves investigation of the early history of each vailety from Its Introduction Into tho United States up to the ptcscut 8tni;o of Its prog russ. Wheat was sown as early as 1002 by Goiowdld, tho ovploror. on ono or tho Elizabeth Islands In Ruzz-nids Ruzz-nids Da). It was not until nine yeais later that the first wheat was sown In Vlrglnn, while not previous tn 1018 did the total crop of tho Old Dominion exceed several hundred 'acres. Tho "ringor-pilnt" work .which the United States Depaitiuout (of Agriculture Is conducting In Iden- ' tifylng and classifying all varieties ol i this grain Is expected to bo of great I economic valuo to the wheat-grow- Hilfl Ing world In general and agronomic- HHH workers In particular. HHH A wheat varietal survey or qucs- HHH tlonnalr has recently been malted to HHH crop correspondents In all wheat-pro- HH duclng counties of thu United States hlhl From a summary or these reports, tho HH dlstrlbtlon of wheat vnilctleu lu 1919 HH U to be ascertained. !k3 |
