The Newtown bee., 1905-04-14
LITCHFlELD COUNTY.
KENT.
AN ENJOYABLE FARMERS INSTITUTE

|
The Farmers institute at the TOwr
hall on Friday, under the auspices OF
the K Mt Grange, was lightly attended
to the regret Of those having the ar
r AngementS in charge. A program OF
nigh OIder had been prepared and ar.
rangements made by the ladies of the
Grange for entertaining large mum
Der at dinner. The only persons pres.
ent from out of town besides the speak.
ers were William Welton of Warren,I l.
9. Fanton of Weston, D. S. Flynn OF
Charlottesville and Editor A. P. Smith
Of The BEE. An elegant dinner was
served by the ladies. which did them
great credit. Gilbert Vincent, master
of Kent Grange, presided and intro
duced the speakers. A practical adj
dress was given in the morning by Prof
l.. II. Clinton of Storrs college, who
spoke on The Successful Potato Crop. "
Prof Clinton declared there was no
royal road to success in potato growing.
II his advice was followed the speaker
declared he would have potatoes plant.
ed the second year from sod. In pre-
pairing the soil he favored blowing to a
depth of 10 inches. 1t is not necessary
to send to Maine for your seed pota-
toes. Plant the kind of potatoes you
hope to produce. Prof Clinton de-
clared he never found a potato planter
thattwould do the work as we'll as by
hand. He favored planting potatoes
IL inches apart in the rows and the
rows 40 inches apart. About 10 to II
| bushels of seed per acre were necessary
for use. Commence to cultivate the
potatoes by running harrow over
| them week after they are planted.
The thine to ridge potatoes is when
you plaut them The last cultivation
should be very shallow. The potato
blight is the most serious menace to
the crop at pre- ,ent. Prot Clinton said
be was trying to get a potato that
would mature ahead of the blight
Prof Clinton's address was we'll re-
man and his message.
An address of an exceedingly practi-
cal nature was given by Prof Beach on
"The Dairy Cow" The census statis-
tics show that the COW population had
remained for years in about the same
proportion to the human population.
In the country at large there were 240
cows to 1000 human population and in
Connecticut only 14O cows to 1000 per-
sons. The product of COWS has, how
ever, been increased by reason of bet
ter selection, better feeding, etc. Con-
necticut, in addition to the advantage
of less cows prOpOrtionately, has To-
cal market for all of its dairy product
and the local market is considerably
better as regards prices obtained than
the general and distant market. In
Kansas the farmers obtain 81 cents for
100 pounds of milk at the creamery; in
Illinois they obtain II cents: in Penn
sylvania 80 cents; in New Hampshire
SO cents; in Connecticut $l.O8 or "A
cents more than in Kansas. The price
rises from the West to the East, and
eachIcOw brings in more revenue, some
times SIS more annually. The objec-
ton may be raised that it costs more
to keep a COW in the East; but invest
igation shows that the price of feed is
only in any instance little more in
the East aud whatever the increase. it
is far more than offset by the higher
prices for dairying products. Put good
and the West need not be feared For
fertilizing farm, for bringing it up
to high standard of fertility and pre-
venting the land from becoming in
the course of years most injuriOusly
impoverished or even exhausted, dairy
ing was invaluable; and the matter of
keeping the soil from exhaustion or
bringing up it's fertility was now a
matter of great consequence not only
to the East but also to the West where
the soil was already feeling the lack of
rich fertilization.
About 30 persons were present at
the afternoon session. DR. e. H. Jen-
kins, of the Connecticut Experiment
station, was the first speaker, his
theme being tobacco and fertilizers.
DR. Jenkins pointed out the fact that
there was no better form of fertilizer
than horse manure, vast quantities
being used on tobacco land in the Con-
necticut valley. There was advantage
in using certain kinds of commercial
fertilizer with the stable manure. DR.
only to be grown in warm weather, but
cured before the cool nights come on.
Perhaps the most interesting address
of the day was that of Prof A. D.
Shamel, of the United States depart
ment of Agriculture. He is young
man, modest and unassuming, but
having thorough knowledge of his
subject. He said the U. S. depart
ment of agriculture was now making
a study of the breeding and selection
of the tobacco seed, for it costs no
more to raise good plant than poor
one. 1t has been discovered after
l
seed produces the best plants. The
difficulty first encountered was to sep
arate the tobacco seed. They first
used sieves, but this was found to be
Impractical. Another plan was to
throw the seed into water. Prof
Shamel then exhibited a tobacco seed
separator. The terminating qualities
of the heavy seed is nearly three or
four times as good as the light seed.
Tho total cost Of the seed separating
machine Prof Shamel exhibited was
not above So, consisting of foot bel
lows and a glass tube six feet long.
The second point Prof Shamel touched
on was care in the selection of the
seed plants. The principal cause of
failure with the Sumatra tobacco was
that the plant was not acclimated
They got the cart before the horse and
didn't pay attention to the seed.
There never has been a pronounced
success in transporting seed from one
state to another, or one district tC
another. Each farmer should produce
his own seed. In protecting the Seet
plants he used paper bags tied over
the flowers to prevent cross-fertiliza
ton. Prof Shamel believed that thu
farmers could control the size anc
shape of the leaves by the seed Selec
ton. In brOadleaf tobacco each seed pot
contains from 5000 to 5000 seed. Tht
seed saved under the bag is heavie
and larger than that outside.
In closing the program DR. Jenkln
was called on for few words on feeds
Many manufacturers of wheat bran d.
not comply with the state law Il
nrintinp the ANALYSIS of their feed OF