The herald., 1893-02-19
ABOUT OUR DESERT LANDS.
How Can They Be Properly
Made to Pay?
A Suggestion Made for an Extensive G
Experimental Test.
The Tsnnin- Bearing Acacias of the South
Continent and the Big sunfiower
of the Kansas Prairies. Who 6
Will Make the Trial?

What shall we do with our boys? i!
the question that Thousand parents in
Los Angeles ask every night Of theii
lives. The Juvenile question ia not one
that troubles the average Angelefio as
much as the question OF the vast ex-
panse of desert lands that lie between
US and the northern slope of the great
Tehachepi spur of mountains. The man
who asks at Mojave, "whst county is
this?" and gets as his answer "Los An
geles," certainly cannot be very much
blamed for imagining that he has been
roorbacked into visiting an alleged par
adise that is sailing under false colors.
Yet the available portion of this county
is less than one third of its area, the
rest being steep mountains and barren
sand wastes; and how shall we proceed
to reclaim them and make them habita-
BILE and productive?
wv
BY singular combination of Kansas
and Australia-the sunfiower and the
wattle-Kansas forms large portion of
what was laid down on the maps pub
Ilshed up to 1850 as the "Great American
Desert" yet its produtcts are enormous
IN spite OF severe winters and barren
soil. THE big sunfower that mods and
pends TO the breezes" has proved great
source OF wealth to that state. It will
grow without any irrigation, but thrives
the better for having little moisture
to aid it. The product of the sunflower
is all well utilized by the Kansas farmer.
Ha gAlla tho oaa1 10 h., <>;I f,1
which press it twice over; and he keeps
the heads and stalks for his winter fuel.
The scrap-cake, as the residue Is called,
after the oil is pressed out, he buys back
at from 500 to $50 per ton, as feed for
his cattle, hogs and chickens. He haulH
the seed to the mill in his wagon and
brings home load of scrap-cake for tina
dumb animals whose increase forms 30
important part of his livelihood.
NY
The oil made from the seeds of the
sunfower is doubly pressed, as afore-
said. The result of the first pressing ia
shipped to France and Italy, where it is
used in the adulteration of olive oil.
The second pressing is thicker oil of in
ferior color and quality; and after being
boiled and strained is generally used for
painting purposes. Not one.fifth of the
oil sold as linseed oil is made from the
seeds of fax. You can always tell the
genuine linseed oil when applied with
white lead, as it ia dull and lusterless,
while that mixed with sunfower oil has
slight gloss, though by no means equal
to the gloss that is yielded by grinding
down paints in damar varnish. At some
mills the pulp is pressed third time.
yielding very inferior grade of oil used
only in the manufacture of toilet SOAPS,
~
The wattles are of Australian nativity,
and, it should be borne in mind, do not
thrive under transplantation in nurs-
eries. To be hardy and grow rapidly
they must be planted just where they
are intended to grow. The bark is
very available ingredient in tan vat,
and commands from $36 to $42 in the
London market for tanning purposes.
The following table shows the percent.
ages OF tannic acid in various kinds Of
bark, together with the London prices
for tho vUaftlaas