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Show NEW STATION FOR THE GOVERNMENT Experiment Farm Will Be in Wilson Lane the Coining Year Excellent Excel-lent Results Obtained from Sweet Sorghum May Prove a Benefit Bene-fit to Sugar Factories Experiments Show Heavy Loss to Beets Expend to the lAir Points a Lesson to the Farmers Harry B. Shaw and Assistant Go to Washington. The agricultural experiment station established in Ogdon by tho office ot "Sugar Plant Investigations," department depart-ment of agriculture, in charge of Harry Har-ry B. Shaw, assistant pathologist, -will clone October 31 for the present sca-Fon. sca-Fon. Mr. Shaw and his assistant, .1. M. R. Adams, will then return to Washington, D. C, for the winter. It has been arranged to continue experimental work in Ogdon next season sea-son on the farm of S- P. Christiansen. Wilson Lane. Tho past season has beon a succe6s-I succe6s-I ful one. Mr. Shaw has carried on Important work in plant breeding, as well as studios on the non-production j of beet seed, etc. It has frequently .been observed, both in Europe and the United States, that 'mother beets" as the beets used for send purposes aro commonly called, partially or entirely en-tirely fail to produce seed, duo to causes hithorto unknown or but little lit-tle understood. Gratifying progress has been made during the season just closing in solving this problem. Fertilization of Beete. In addition numerous observations have been made on the natural means of pollcnizatlon effective in the fertilization fertili-zation of beet flowers throuch such agencies as the wind, insects, etc, as well as studies of tho best method J of effecting pollcnlzatfon artificially so that thcr.e methods may be applied in breeding sugar beets. Further studies have been made on the curly-top disease so-called blight of boots, with espocial reference refer-ence to the effect of the work of tho beet-leaf hoppor on tho production of beet seed It has been conclusively demonstrated that beets attacked by this insect are rendered unfit for seed production. Teating Sweet Sorghum. In connection with the experiment station Mr. Shaw has grown several of tho better aricties of sweet sorghum, sor-ghum, or sorgo, as It is now called, on plats located on various farms In the valley of the Ogdon and Weber rivers. These varieties were planted nearly a mile apart in order to prevent pre-vent cross pollenlzatlon by wind or insects. It appears that there were practically practi-cally no realjy pure strains of sorgo in the United States. It has been one of the problems of this station to isolate iso-late and breed out pure lines of sorgo from these more or less mixed strains, much as one might breod thoroughbred thorough-bred animals. The older residents nl this state well remember this under tho name of "cane," formerly grown rather abundantly for syrup. It Ib believed that oventually through breeding and selection, varieties of sorgo may Ihj produced which will possess a much larger percentage of saccharine and far leas impurity, thus rendering it available for the extraction extrac-tion of high-grade eyrup, and probably prob-ably even for the profitable extraction of sugar. In this way it may bo practicable prac-ticable for the beet sucar factories. with comparatively little additional machinery, to greatly increase their output, by working up sorgo as well as beets. One or another of the varieties va-rieties of sorgo can be grown successfully suc-cessfully over a much wider territory than can beets. This plant is also valuable as fodder, Almost Free From Disease. On the whole, the sugar beet in Utah is singularly free from diseases and Injurious insect pests, with the exception of the curly-top disease already al-ready mentioned. Even this malady is only seriously destructive at infre"-quent infre"-quent Intervals and in comparatlvolv restricted areas. The causative agent of this disease, the beet-leaf hopper, iB generally distributed throughout tho beet growing districts of tho in-termountain in-termountain region and California and may be found among beets in small numbers each season, but, apart from their uso for seed purposes, pur-poses, tho beets are practically uninjured unin-jured by the for factory "use. It should be realized, however, that diseases dis-eases may at any time be Introduced and established, and' that one of the best and simplest, perhaps the best and only, method of preventing the establishment and spread of such diseases dis-eases is through carefully planned syBtems ot crop rotation. Beets, for Instance, should only be planted in the same piece of grround once In four or five years, Such a system will improve the yield of all crops forming form-ing part of tie rotation svstems. Indeed, In-deed, this Is just the way in which the much poorer boIIb of Europe havo been so improved and kept up that they yield on the average twice as much per acre as is produced in the rich soils of the United States. Thus far the work of this experiment experi-ment station has been almost exclusively exclu-sively research and not demonstration. demonstra-tion. The problems have been of a wider scope and of more general application ap-plication than those commonly undertaken un-dertaken by tho state experiment stations. sta-tions. Th0 latter devote themselves to local problems for the moBt part Work of the Station Broad. Among the problems undertaken at this station are studies to discover the causes of certain undesirable conditions or diseases among beets and truck 'crop plants; to loarn tho best methods of beet culture for tho western states; to discover the varieties, va-rieties, of beet sed best suited to certain soils and climates; to ascertain ascer-tain whether moro economical methods meth-ods of handling the crop, through the reduction of labor by means of machinery, ma-chinery, etc., mlgnt be devised. Such studies are very neceasarv. The individual in-dividual farmer has neither the time nor the funds to carry on much work of this character. When this knowledge knowl-edge is gained it is designed to make it available to the farmer by sending trained demonstrators among them to give practical lessons in the improved im-proved methods. It is believed that coparativoly Tew farmers road or practice the instructions published and distributed by various agoncles Beets Lose In Weight. During the past two wpfes, this experiment station has carr'ijd on a series of experiments to determine the loss in weight of sugar beets after af-ter they are dog, topped and pUea Mn the field in rejtdlneas for hauling to the factory or the dump. The results re-sults are surprising. Eeets were dug, pulled and topped in tho manner usual usu-al iu this locality, und thrown Into open piles according to the ordinary practice, read for loading into wagons. Instead of being at once loadod and hauled, however, these piles were left for different periods of time, aftor first being carefully weighed. At intervals in-tervals the samo piles of beotB were ngain weighed and the loss through evaporation noted. It was found that tho loss during a working day of eight hours. In tho beautiful bright weather of a week ago, approximated j 5 por cent In the case of tho usual small piles. The loss during the cool nights is comparatively insignificant. When the topped beets are covered with beet leaves, the loss Is reduced to nbout one per cent in twenty-four! hours. Piles of beets averaging one- j quarter ton each were found to lose i during a period of one week at the i rate of 3 per cent a day, or about 20 per cent in one week, when left un- I covered. It should be noted that these experiments were conducted j during very still weather; had thoro j been much wind tho loss would have been greatly increased. It is there- ' fore obvious that the farmer should ' keep his wagon right after the dig- ging plow and lose no time In getting , his beots weighed. i Mr. Shaw greatly regrets that, on account of the close application nee- ' essary to carry on this research work, ! he has been unable to visit the farmers farm-ers of the vicinity nearly as much ' as he desired. , oo |