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Show Vern Gunderson's Son Written Up A former Mt. Pleasant man presently sanitation engineer .or Talara county, California, was the subject ot a recent article ar-ticle in the Farm Tribune, a (California publication. He is Ralph Gunderson, a son of Mr. and Mrs. V. 11. Gunderson. Gunder-son. Topic of the article, which included in-cluded a picture of Mr. Gunderson, Gunder-son, was his experimental castor cas-tor bean crop. The L'SAC graduate grad-uate has lived at Portcrville, Calif., since his release from .he Army in 1945. Text of the article from' the farm publication follows: "A heavy crop of castor beans is indicated on an experimental plot of approximately one acre being grown In the Vandalla district by Rolph Gunderson. "As many as 17 "spikes" (the shoots on which clusters of beans are produced) appear on individual plants, with a rapid growth being made by both plants and beans since seeds were planted about three months ago. "This commercial variety of castor bean is more on the type of a shrub than the common garden variety of castor bean tree. At three months of age, the garden plants have practically prac-tically no beans while the commercial com-mercial variety is showing a heavy crop. "At the present time, plants in the Gunderson plot are from three to five feet in height. Irrigation Ir-rigation water for the balance of the season will be controlled in order that future plat growth may be cut to a minimum. mini-mum. The commercial castor bean Is conslderd to be an annual an-nual plant, however, experiments experi-ments in other areas indicate that with proper pruning, It will produce for at least two years. Seed for the Vandalla planting plant-ing was furnished to Mr. Gunderson Gun-derson by the Baker Castor Oil company of San Diego. This company holds a contract for all beans produced on the Gunderson Gun-derson plot, wth a minimum price of seven and one-half cents per pound guaranteed. Yields of up to 3,400 pounds of beans per acre have been reported re-ported in other areas. "The Baker Castor Oil company com-pany has experimental plantings all through the state of California Cali-fornia and representatives of the company periodically Inspect In-spect Mr. Gunderson's plot and make recommendations as to its care. j "Introduction of castor beans as a farm crop is being attempted at-tempted in an effort to increase commercial production of castor oil. At the present time, there is a strong market demand for castor oil." i Burton K. Wheeler, former U. S. Senator from Montana: "We have got to stand up to the Russians in Berlin. If we don't, we've got to get out." Mrs. Cecilia Gunderson enter-jtained enter-jtained at a party In honor of the sixth birthday of her great-k.andson, great-k.andson, Tommy Mower, Friday Fri-day afternoon. Twelve small guests were present. Young Tom is the son of |