The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1901-12-05
ROMANCES OF AGRICULTURE
Chicago Inter Ocean.

Any one still under the delusion
that farming is an occupation giving
little opportunity for mental effort
should read Secretary Wilson'S latest
report. There he will find the out
lines of scores of real romances of a.
chievement, with the world for their
scene and the most patient and acute
minds as their actors.
A few years ago frost, such as
living men had not known, swept away
the orange groves of Florida. To
many this was calamity without re-
medy. They could see nothing to do
but to replace the blasted trees and
hope that such frost would not soon
occur again. But the scientific experts
said: s.Let us find or make an orange
tree that will resist FROST" Over in
Japan they found the tree, out its
fruit was of little value. So they set
to work to combine this japanese tree
with the Florida sweet orange. They
have produced the hardest orange tree
known, and are confident that in a
few years they will have fruit both
resistant to frost and of good quality.
Rice has been grown in Louisiana
for a hundred years, but the yield
seemed to be diminishing and the in
dustry was dwindling. About three
years ago the Agricultural Depart
ment suggested the substitution of the
japanese rice plant for that formerly
grown. The experiment was so sue
cessful that the production this year
exceeded that of 1899 by $4,000, 900
pounds. and imports of rice have fall
len from 154, 100000 to $4,000, 600
pounds. About $50, 900, 600 new cap
ital has been invested in the gulf coast
rice industry.
Coffee has long been the small Porto
Rican farmers chief money crop.
Though little known in this country,
Porto Rican coffee is 10 steady demand
at high prices in Europe. Soon after
Porto Rico became American our ex-
pertS began studying coffee culture.
They speedily found that the Porto
Ricans were shading their coffee plants
too much-that the shade was not me-
ceSSary in itself and that its chief value
was in the effect on the soil of the
roots of the leguminouS trees
which supplied it. Better meth
DDS have been suggested which are
expected to double or treble Porto
Rico'S coffee crop.
The cold and dry winters of the
Northern great plains states have fire.
quently killed the grass and SO curtail-
ed paSturage that heavy loss of live
stock resulted. In Russia the Agri-
cultural Department has found a grass
and in Turkestan an alfalfa which
stand cold and drought better than any
previously known here. The former
has proved perfectly hardy clear up in
North Dakota and assures the farmers
there both pasturage and hay.
Not long ago an insect known as
the "San Jose scale" was found to be
numerous and destructive in the Cali
fornia orchards. Several European
countries took alarm and adopted
measures which threatened greatly to
curtail our foreign fruit trade. Rea-
soning from such past experience as
that of the rabbit and the thistle in
Australia, it was seen that the reason
this scale was SO destructive was that
1T had reached country where it's ma
tural enemies did not exist to keep it
in check
Their a worldwide search for this
insects home and natural enemy be-
gan. Both were found in North
China. There the scale infested all
sorts of fruit trees, but did no extern
sive damage because beetle kept its
numbers within bounds. So this
beetle has been brought across the
Pacific and set to work upon its nat
ural prey, and California fruit growers
are feeling much more cheerful than
they felt few years ago.
Such are few of the achievements
of scientific intelligence applied to the
farming industry. They justify, al
though on other grounds than his,
Catos saying that agriculture was the
pursuit most worthy of the good citi-
zen. For they prove that in farming
operations there is scope for the most
painstaking research and the most
acute thought of which the human
mind is capable. They show that
those who talk of farming as dull
and unintellectual occupation are SIM
ply ignorant of what modern agricul-
ture means and is.