River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-04-16
Notes from our Agricultural College
BY PROF. W. A. HENRY.
The TtreLffh Annllnl Rcnnlt

Inc twelfth Annual Report OF our
Experiment Station has now been
sent to all names on our new mailing
list. We have discarded the old list
and adopted a new one containing
many thousands of names. If we
have omitted any of our old friends
through oversight or otherwise, hope
they will not fail to remind us i'm
mediately of that fact. Others
interested i'm agricultural advance
ment, who have never received our
reports, are urged to send in their
names to be entered on the regular
list.
Recent Bulletins
We are now mailing two bulletins
of much importance to farmers and
gardeners.
Bulletin 40, entitled, 1.-THE Main
tenance of Soil Fertility; Commercial
Fertilizers" gives helpful informa-
tion concerning the fertility of the
soil and how this fertility can be
maintained; it also contains list of
all commercial fertilizers licensed by
law to be sold in the state during the
current year, together with their
analyses and valuations.
Bulletin 80 is entitled 1.-THE Hot
Water Treatment for the Prevention
of Smut on Oats, Wheat and Barley"
This bulletin is important TO all grain
growers since it gives directions for
using the Jensen hot water treatment
of seed grain to prevent smut. Every
farmer who reads these Notes knows
that every year he loses more or less
of his oat crop because some of the
heads turn into smut instead of
grain. The bulletin teaches how to
treat seed oats and other grains with
hot water which kills the smut spores
adhering to the grains and thus pre-
vents them from infesting the grow
ing plantsa and finally producing smut.
All that a farmer, adopting this
treatment, need purchase is a good
thermometer. The bulletin is fully
illustrated and shows plainly how the
work is done.
These two bulletins will as usual go
TO all farmers whose names are on
the Station mailing list, and to all
who send in their names on postal
cards, so long as our supply lasts.
Concerning the Potato Crop Of 1896.
A great many farmers, and especial
ly those in the north central part of
the state are feeling very sore yet
over their potato experience in 1895.
and many are so disguised with their
venture in that year that they will
not attempt to make little fortune
in single year as they did then, but
drop out of the business for the
present at least.
Prudent farmers will bear in mind
the following facts:
/. The immense potato crop OF 1895
will have all disappeared by the
middle Of July of the present year.
The surplus of potato crop cannot
NC SOOiSu vi ilhc WhCdO W hiSudSO OiC
succeeding crops; again, the price
which potatoes command in this
country is practically controlled by
the production of our own country.
In this particular it differs greatly
from wheat, the price of which is
made by what it brings in foreign
markets in competition with wheat
from every quarter of the globe.
,. Ia 1895 there was an unusually
large acreage of potatoes stimulated
through the large profit which had
come to growers in previous years.
The disastrous lesson OF last year will
drive out all the adventures this
season.
Remembering all these facts, our
prudent Wisconsin farmers, who have
lands suitable for potato culture,
will not fail to plant reasonable
acreage of potatoes the coming
season, in expectation that the
chances are largely in favor of profit
able returns. The wise farmer
DESTROYS of growing potatoes profitably
will adopt mixed farming in which
dairy husbandry or mutton production
is a leading line. To feed the stock on
such farm requires that clover,
grasses, corn and other grains be
grown. Potatoes will be planted this
year on one field, next year on another
and so on in rotation with other crops.
When prices for potatoes are low,
our prudent potato grower has his in
come from other sources sufficient to
bring him out even at least at the
end of the year; when prices for
potatoes rule high, he will have sur
plus of income tc lay up for rainy
day. Let us not forget that Wiscon-
sin has already established reputa-
tion for potatoes OF fine quality and
their equal cannot be produced in the
states south of US. Potato growingis a
legitimate industry for this state and
will continue profitable to our farmers
in the future as in the past, when the
returns for series of years are con-
sidered
Fdrgers' Institutes.
Superintendent McKerrow reports
that the interest and attendance at
the institutes for the past season
have exceeded that OF former years.
One hundred and six Institutes have
been held this season at eleven of
which cooking schools were held.
The fifty thousand copies of Institute
Bulletin No. 9 have now been all dis
tributed. State Superintendent
Emery called for 5000 bound copies
~ 90 into as many district school