The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-30


pounds to five gallons.
Another experiment conducted by the
Utah station was in the orchard; by
the use of Bordeaux mixture or Paris
green thoroughly sprayed, the Goblin
moth was eradieated and good market
able fruits were the results.
Questions on feeding experiments
were answered by the professor. Dry
grain foods ground, were most fec
dry with very satisfactory results, par
| ticula.ly in winter when wet food
often was injured by frost.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Music on the harp by Mr.. c. Sundeen,
was followed by an organ solo by Miss
I Cornwall.
BEE-KEEPING FOR FARMERS
was the first paper, given by Mr. E. S.
Lovesy, president of the Bee Keepers
association. The first essential to sue
cess in bee keeping is 10 have strong
colonies, as they can best protect them
selves from insect enemies, and are
absolutely essential to successful win
terine
The Importance of the bee industry
can be estimated when il is learned
that there are $1,000 colonies in the
state, and the business was, when prop
erly conducted the best paying rural
I
of profitable revenue, as some counties
already ship from six to ten carloads
of honey annually.
The speaker recommended the use of
the latest improved hives with movable
frames. as the beekeeper could as east
~ handle half a dozen colonies in the
improved hives as he could handle one
colony in the box or barrel hives.
STREAM MEASURING.
How to Measure and Appropriate
the Waters of a Stream" was the
next subject of the programme,
which was intelligently illus
trated by diagrams and blackboard il
Illustrations by Prof. S. Fortier of the
Agricultural college. His address will
probably be fully illustrated in a bulle
tin upon the subject at an early day,
as in the absence of plates to show the
diagrams, the lecture could not be I'M
derstoOd.
BOOK FARMING
was the next subject briefly touched
upon by Mr.. J. H. Parry, editor Church
and Farm. Every progressive farmer,
he said, should have farm library,
which should particularly include one
or two books treating upon his special
crop. The old time prejudice against
book farming is fast giving way to
more intelligent ideas, which recognize
the fact that no man knows it all, and
as life is too short for any one to learn
ii all, it would be the wiser way to
learn from the experience, the success
and the failures of others. In these
days of small margins and keen COM
petition, the well-read farmer alone
succeeds and gains competence. The
speaker recommended for the begin
ming of a farm library the Bulletin of
ho oil 70
the Farmers Bulletins, issued by the
department of agriculture at Washing
ton, which treat upon the leading top
les of farm operations. No farmer
should afford to ignore the farm pa
pers, as they present mature ideas
from the successful agriculturalists of
the country.
CULTURE OF SMALL FRUIT.
"The Culture of Small Fruit was
was next treated in brief by Mr.. John
Boice, a successful fruit grower of
Granite, Salt Lake county. We have
a fine local market for well grown and
we'll packed berries Early frosts are
the principal drawback with strawber-
ry growing; mulching will sometimes
keep the poisoning season back a
few days, The best upland varieties of
strawberries, in his experience, are the
Jessie and Bubach No. 5. OF raspber-
ries he would recommend the Cuthbert,
Schaffer's colossal, Gregg, and Ohio
The blackberries, for profit. are the
best small fruits for the farmer to
stocked and this fruit always brings a
good price.
EDUCATIONAL.
THE Education of Our Girls
a paper by Mrs. L. c. Foster of the
Agricultural college, was listened to
with much interest and pleasure by all
present and commended for its lofty
ideas anent the subject of the higher
and better education of the farmers
daughters.
EVENING SESSION.
A leading feature of the institute
meetings was the lecture Of Professor
Foster on Some Problems in Dry
Farming
The greatest consideration in dry
farming, the lecturer said, is the water
supply. Much of the success of farm
ing depends largely upon the texture of
the soil. its proper filth and liability.
Hard. lumDy soil will not grow good
crops, no matter how much plant food
it contains, because the food is not
in available form, and the soil is not
fine enough to let the roots penetrate
be in fine condition, may have produced
good crops when properly handled, but
a single injudicious blowing when the
ground is too wet, may so seriously in
jure it that three or four years of care
full handling will be required to bring
il back to its former condition of filth.
A sandy soil. too, may be very much
impaired for crop growing if the humus
-decaying vegetable matter-is all
lowed to burn out. 1t viii then get eX-
cesSively hot, lose it's moisture, and
leach its plant food.
The texture. or physical condition of
the soil, is nearly always more i'm
portant than its mere richness in plant
food. finely divided. mellow, friable
soil is more productive than a hard orr
lumpy one of exactly the same compo-I
sition, because. first, it holds and re-
tains more moisture: second. it holds
more air; third. it presents greater sur
face to the roots; fourth. it promotes
the formation of nitrates; fifth. It
hastens the decomposition of mineral
elements; sixth, it has less variable eX-
tremes of heat, and seventh, it allows
a better root hold to the plant. 1
The texture of soils may be improved, !
first, by judiciOus blowing and tillage:
second, by the Incorporation of humus
JhrouNh green manures, \ barnyard |
manures and stubble; third. by under
drainage.
The conservation or retention of soil
moisture is one of the most important
problems presented to the farmer.
gardener and fruit grower. A season /
seldom passes in which some important |
crop is not reduced in yield from %
to 80 per cent through the want of suf-