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

hall on Friday, under the auspices OF
the K MT Grange, was lightly attended
to the regret OF those having the ar
Engagements in charge. A program Of
high order had been prepared and ar
rangements made by the ladies of the
Der at dinner. The only persons pres
ent from out of town besides the speak
ers were William Welton of Warren, l
Q. 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 then
great credit. Gilbert Vincent, master
of Kent Grange, presided and intro
duced the speakers. A practical ad
dress was given in the morning by Prof
l.. H. Clinton of StOrrs college, who
spoke on 1.-THE Successful Potato Crop.
Prof Clinton declared there was nc
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
thatiwould do the work as we'll as by
hand. He favored planting potatoes
II 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 a harrow over
them week after they are planted.
The time 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. Prof Clinton said
ne was trying to get a potato that
would mature ahead of the blight.
Prof Clinton's address was we'll re-
ceived and all were gratified With the
man and his message.
An address of an exceedingly practi-
Cal nature was given by Prof Beach on
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 24O
COWS to 1000 human population and in
Connecticut only 40 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
auu UIl0 lOCdl uudIhcU 10 COuSlu0IdOly
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 S1.O8 or "A
cents more than in Kansas. The price
rises from the West to the East, and
eachlcow brings in more revenue, some
times SIS more annually. The objec-
ton may be raised that it costs more
to keep COW in the East; but invest
igation shows that the price of feed is
only in any instance little more in
the E asst and whatever the increase, it
prices for dairying products Put good
care and intelligence into the business
and the West need not be feared. For
fertiliZing farm, for bringing 1t 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 80 persons were present at
the afternoon session. Dr. E. Fl. 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.
Jenkins said that tobacco needed not
only to be grown in warm weather, but
cured before the cool nights come on
Perhaps the most interesting address
Shamel, of the United States depart
ment of Agriculture. He is a young
man, modest and unassuming, bul
having a thorough knowledge OF hi!
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 NJ
more to raise good plant than a poo
one. 1t has been discovered af5e
careful experiments that the heavies
seed produces the best plants. Tn
difficulty first encountered was to SEP
arate the tobacco seed. They frs
used sieves, but this was found to b
impractical. Another plan was tt
throw the seed into water. Pro
Shamel then exhibited tobacco see
separator. The terminating qualitie
} of the heavy seed is nearly three Q
four times as good as the light seec
, Tho total cost OF the seed separating
machine Prof Shamel exhibited wa
not above SO, consisting of foot be-
) lows and a glass tube six feet long
The second point Prof Shamel touche
on was care in the selection of th
seed plants. The principal cause Q
failure with the Sumatra tobacco wa
that the plant was not acclimate(
They got the cart before the horse an
+ didn't pay attention to the seec
= There never has been a pronounce
r success in transporting seed from or
state to another, or one district
another. Each farmer should prOduc
his own seed. In protecting the see
plants he used paper bags tied owe
>. the flowers to prevent crOss-fertiliz
tiOn. Prof Shamel believed that tt
, farmers could control the size an
shape of the leaves by the seed Sele'
ton. In broadleaf tobacco each seed pc
1 contains from 5000 to 5000 seed. TT
o seed saved under the bag is heavi
'. and larger than that outside.
, In closing the program Dr. Jenkll
was called on for few words on feed
Many manufacturers of wheat bran {
10 not comply with the state law
printing the analysis of their feed (
:. the bags. At present there is mo
, adulteratian of wheat feed than al
- otbor Monv firms INV corn cOhS ri