The Columbus journal., 1903-01-28

| l'ONOV0-01SSv
-
Notes Of Agricultural Advance.
Hampton Normal and Agricultural
institute has introduced the teaching
II agriculture into all its courses, ne
,essitating the employing Of two ~
sistant instructors in agriculture.
During the past summer there were
iet out on the grounds Of the Tus-
.egee Station In Alabama 800 mul-
berry trees. with q view to making
experiments in silk culture in the
future.
Prof. H. n. Cottrell. formerly d.
rector Of the Kansas Experiment
station. IL now professor OF agricul-
ture in Ruskin College. located at
Trenton, Missouri. This college IL
the educational institution OF = large
cooperative movement that has OBJ
tanned considerable prestige In Kan
sas. Missouri and adjacent states.
The Bureau Of Plant Industry Of the
United States Department Of Agri-
culture has had an agent I'm Europe
studying the sand-binding grssses
and their management in Holland.
Belgium. France and Germany. This
work is likely to have very important
results On the utilization Of millions
Of acres Of drifting sand along our
seacoasts. lakes and rivers.
The North Carolina State Board Of
Agriculture is doing some work Of
very valuable kind. It has estab-
lished three experiment farms in dif.
ferent parts Of the state. two on the
light soils along the coast, and one
on the red Piedmont clay. Expert
ments are being carried on to test
fertilizers, cultural methods, rota-
tons, and varieties Of corn. cotton
and peanuts. Some of the work is CO
operative. This work is entirely dis
tinct from that Of the state expert
ment station at Raleigh or Of the hor-
tiSultnral experiment station at South
ern Pines.
At the New Mexico Station the in
terest in the irrigation experiments
continue. One good result of. the
work Of the station has been the dis
covery Of the fact that in the Mesilla
Valley at least the supply Of under
ground water is very much larger
than was considered possible. This
water ID reached at q depth Of only
20 feet In some cases, and 10 well
adapted to irrigation purposes. Us
ing steam made by the use of wood It
was found that land could be irri-
gated at an expense Of about sS cents
per acre. This was the case, too.
when the water had to be raised 4S
feet. A series OF tests with various
pumps under varying conditions and
with variety Of fuel is in progress.
Possibilities in Truck Growing.
Recently the writer was. favored
with visit from Mr. Fred Engel, of
Dolton, Illinois. That gentleman is
a truck gardener. and on little over
Is acres Of land makes q living for
his family of six persons. He says
he could make q living of 10 acres
II he had too. Asked as to his most
profitable crop this year. he replied
that it was asparagus. on this he
had in the past cleared $500 per
acre. This is an illustration Of what |
intensive farming can do. He had
also. he said. made good profits from
his crops of potatoes, cabbages and
onions: Intensive culture must be |
looked to for profits in the future. 1t |
is not SO much q problem Of how to |
get more land to farm, a. 1t 10 q |
question of how to get OF the land
now under cultivation double the |
amount we now obtain. That such |
an increase is possible on the aver.
age is absolutely certain, as the av.
erage production per acre is very |
low. The use of fertilizers makes it
possible to increase the products of |
the garden. and the draining Of the |
land, where natural drainage Is not |
perfect, is another means to make I
the land more productive.
There are great possibilities of de- |
velopment in this part of the farm
work. BY the last census more than |
10000 farms are shown to be grow.
ing such large quantities of this
kind of produce that they are put
down under the head of vegetable
farms. We can learn much in meth
DDS from the French and Belgian
farmers, who grow tremendous crops
on small areas. The gardeners
around our great cities are also max
ing some good records. which should
be taken to heart by the men whose
methods needs intensifying.-Farm-
ers' Review.