Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-02-19
philadslpnia County Farmers Institute.

EDITOR DEMOCRAT
Having attended the Farmers Institute
for Philadelphia County, held at Horticul
tural Hall, Broad street, above Locust,
will at your request compare it with thos'
held in our own county. The surround
ings were very different from our own
After passing through the vestibule of TIL
building man in uniform took your UNI
brella and checked it, your overcoat also
you desired it, The walls of the large hal
were beautifully frescoed, and the hall wa
I,decked with palms and other plants, anC
brilliantly lighted by clusters Of electri'
lights in the ceiling; the attendance alto
gether was probably not so good as in som'
of our own institutes. The program wa
very good one, most of the addresses very
good also, and the questions from the ques
tion box caused considerable discussion.
Mr.. T. E. OFT, of Beaver, Pa, gave ;
very interesting address on Poultry rails
ing as an Industry" and devoted consider
able of his time to the proper fattening o
poultry; said the amount of strictly fancy
poultry put upon the market was very
small, and there need be no fear of a glul
of such stock, as England would take almos
any amount at good prices.
Canada produced more fancy poultry
than the United States all Of which wenI
to England; there were but few localities
in the United States that produced strictly
fancy poultry, three or four of these being
in New Jersey, notably Swedesboro one Of
them. Advised the use of machines fol
stuffing the food into poultry to fatten il
quickly and to perfection. These machines
have been in operation in France for long
time, and are now being largely used in
Canada; few are used near Kansas City
now, and they are decided success. In
their use the bill of the fowl is opened, a
rubber tube inserted and pushed down its
throat and by movement of the foot the
food is forced into the craw of the fowl,
this is repeated about every five hours for
fifteen or twenty days; the fowls get to lik-
ing it so that they will open their mouths
ready to be fed; by this method strictly
fancy poultry can be produced in a short
time and at little expense.
A number of questions were fired at Mr..
Orr, which he seemed quite able to answer.
E. L. Watts, a graduate of an Agricultural
College, and now engaged in trucking and
gardening in Western Pennsylvania, spoke
upon ''How plants feed and grow" Few
laIutlS I6dllZS budb 81 pei C6ub Vi All
plants is water, and while all plants take
carbon from the air through their leaves,
they can take the other essentials for
growth, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash,
ETC., only in very diluted form in water
through their roots; as this water is SO
very slightly charged with these elements,
it is necessary for the vigorous growth of
plants, that there should be an abundance
of water in the soil during the growing
season for the roots to take up. We speak
of exhausted soils, there are no exhausted
soils; chemical analysis will show that
there is plenty of phosphoric acid and
potash in any soil to grow crops for hun
dreds Ct years, the c-ealled exhausted soils
are only destitute of humus; restore the
humus and they will become fe tile. He
cited case where the n Y Agricultural
Station at Geneva took soil from field in
which beans were growing, those in val
ley in the field growing luxuriantly and
those on clay knoll showing scarcely any
growth; also took piece Of building stone
from building operation going on, and
analysed each; the stone was slightly the
richest in elements of fertility, in the soils
there was practically no difference, the
whole difference being in the mechanical
condition of the soils caused by the lack of
humus in the soil from the clay knoll. This
humus is necessary to enable the soil to
retain the moisture; take a cubic foot each
of dry sand, ay and of a soil well supplied
with humus in a box and pour water onto
each to saturation until the water flows
from the bottom, and the clay will absorb
about three times as much as the sand, and
that with the humus about ten times as
much, proving the necessity of the humus
in retaining moisture.
Water is a great dissolvent of matter
water kept in a glass tumbler will in time
perceptibly dissolve the glass, and it in con-
nection with the air dissolves and breaks
down the particles of the soil SO that the
fertilizing qualities they contain are hber-
ated and taken up by the roots, dissolved
as they are in the water, for the crops.
The farmer can obtain this humus
through manure, or blowing under green
crops or vegetable matter in other forms,
but it must be had so as to separate the
particles of soil to enable the water to sur
round these particles and act upon them
and liberate the fertility they contain. The
rainfall in this section is such that if the
farmer VIII conserve the moisture by hav-
ing a sufficient amount of humus in the
soil to retain it and then proper cultiva-
ton of the soil to prevent evaporation it
will be seldom indeed that he will suffer
from drought.
Interesting addresses were also made by
Francis Canning on "The summer flower
garden" by E. D. Darlington on 1.-THE
vegetable garden" by w. A. Hutchinson
on 1.-The modern dairy FARM by Samuel
c. Moon on 1.-THE judicious planting of
trees around our homes" 1t was prob
ably the most interesting institute 1 have
ever attended, although it is proper to say
that l have attended other institutes at the
same place that were not any better than
some of Onr OWL i G. W