The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-31
UNCLE SAM, EXPERlMENTER.
LIKE A TRUE YANKEE, HE is TRY
ING NEW THINGS CONSTANTLY.

Doing, and Never Content to Let
Any Question Remain UnsoIved.
What He Tried to Do with the
Great Salt LaISe-How He Raised
Sweet Oranges on Sour Orange
Tree-The Mysterious Fish That
He Lost and Has Not Been Able to
Find Again-PittinE Insects
Against Each Other-Trying to
Make the Waves Tell the Mariner
His Way Into Harbor-Deserts
That He Wants to Change Into
Farms.
Uncle Sam is true Yankee-as in
quisitive and inquiring as any of his
sons. Whenever he hears of a mystery
not only in the United States, but in
almost any part of the world. he cam
| not rest until he has explained 1t.
Whenever anything does not go exact
| ly right he is determined to find out
how to make it go as it should.
| AS a natural consequence of this
frame of mind he has tried many queer
experiments and continually is trying
more.
For a good many years he has not
liked the Great Salt Lake. He felt dis
satisfied because it seemed such a
wasted opportunity to him-a great
body of water that would not support
any life. So he determined to try If
he could not make it sustain salt water
animals, since it would not support
! fresh water creatures
Thereupon his fish experts collected
| the finest and healthiest CLAIMS, oys-
tiers and crabs and other similar edible
creatures that they could find, placed
| them in big tanks made for transport
| ing fish, and loaded them on one of his
| great big railroad cars that have been
made for the sole purpose of trans
porting fish. These cars are full of in
| genlous appliances and devices to keep
| the fish alive, even though they may
| be taken clear across the continent.
The water is kept running through the
tanks in steady streams by pumps.
There are ice coils to keep the water
cold, and steam pipes to keep it warm,
| according to the needs of the particu-
| lar fish that are to be carried. Thus
| Uncle Sam can take snappers and
other tropical fish out of their warm
homes in the Gulf stream, and carry
them to lower California. He can take
mountain trout from brooks that are
fed by icy waters from snow-clad
peaks, and carry them through the
hottest part of the country without
| harning them. Indeed, his fish pas
| Sengers possibly find the trip more
comfortable than do the human pas
sengers in the same train.
Travelling at their ease in such a lux
urious car, Uncle Sans oysters and
| crabs arrived in the Mormon. country In
| excellent condition, and there was
every reason to expect that they would
do well in the salt water of the great
inland lake. Uncle Sans men did not
| just dump them into the water, but
| placed them carefully into the best
spots. They avoided places that were
very briny. and selected coves into
which fresh water streams emptied,
| making the water brackish.
Uncle Sam was much interested in
| the result, for it would have been a
great thing for the country il he could
have raised oysters and CLAIMS and
crabs, and perhaps even salt water
fish, inland in the United States. But
the experiment failed. All the Great
ures died.
Uncle Sans experts had feared all
along that they would, but the old
gentleman is not bit satisfied, and he
Is bound to devise some way yet to
make the big body of water profitable.
He has been trying queer expert
ments for years with insects. The San
Jose scale. which devours his fruit
trees, has kept him busy. Several
times he has sent his men out to catch
other insects that he thinks may be
able to fight and destroy the scale He
| imported queer bug from Japan a
| few years ago, and tried to breed II and
then turn 1t loose on the trees that
were infested.
His experiments have given his
fruit growers the valuable knowledge
that often, when they spray their
fruit trees to kill obnoxious bugs, they
also kill the insects that wage war on
| those bugs. So now a fruit grower
knows that it is best to spray only
at certain times, when the beneficent
bugs have not yet arrived.
Uncle Sam has experimental with
all sorts of queer chemicals to kill both
| insects and queer fungus diseases that
| attack crops. He has found a way
| of covering trees with tents and then
smoking the insects off of them. He
| has discovered mixtures that can be
| sprayed on trees with a hose to dsin-
| feet them just as one would dlsinfect
a house. In these experiments he has
| tried nearly everything from tobacco
| juice to kerosene oil.
He has sprayed parts of orchards
with one Kind of preparation and other
parts with another and then studied
the trees to find which was best AS
result, fruit growers and farmers can
get photographs from him showing
just what the effects of different treat
ments were. They can get tables
showing how strong certain mixtures
should be for certain crops There
isn't bug or a disease that affects
crops for which the agriculturist can
not get prescription from Uncle
Sam now.
He tried some odd experiments with
orange trees in the last few years.
One thing that he is trying to do now
is to breed an orange that, shall be
hardly-that is, proof against such
frosts as occur so frequently in Florida,
often running entire plantations in a
oranges he works selecting strong
parent stock and cultivating 1t with
other strong plants of different species
until some day he strikes the right
strain.
One of his men thought he had hit
on success few years ago in expert
menting with sour orange tree. He
worked on original lines, and instead
of trying to improve the tree by cross
ing 1t with other stock, he set to work
to feed 1t according to an elaborate
and carefully studied plan. He loos-
ened the ground around the roots and
put in certain kinds of fertilizers which
he had mixed especially. A good many
of Uncle Sans tree experts watched
the process with a mingling of amuse-
ment and curiosity. But when the
fruit was Tipa pvervhodv fpott1dfnrr tt,o