Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-12
Cost of Raising Potatoes.

II &c estimated that it costs the average
farmer % cents per bushel to raise and
market his first hundred bushels of pota-
foes after that the expense will average
about II cents buShei. For the past HVe
years the potato growers of Oklahoma nave
sold their crops for naVerase OF % Genus
bushel and the earliest ones IN the market
have received 20 and 10 cents by the train
load But this year those who are able to
realize % cents a bushel on the cars Will
be satisfied.
The town of Shawnee is the great potato
market and from the first of June to the
middle of July, from daylight to dark,
procession of wagons lines up beside Inc
cars which lie upon the side tracks, while
every night trainload of potatoes starts
for Chicago, st. Louis and the cities farther
east.
The people are in good shape just now to
endure a poor harvest. They nave enjoyed
a remarkable season of prosperity, lasting
seven or eight years. Ten years ago there
was mortgage on almost every farm In
Oklahom to pay for improvements and
machinery. Today nearly every one of them
has been paid off. The only exceptions are
the cases of the e'erdo-wells who are
found in every community. Notwithstand-
ing her rich SOIL her blue skies and her
other advantages, lazy people and fools will
fail as easily in Oklahoma as they do In
any other country, and the atmosphere will
not cure people of shiftlessness or extrav-
agance.
been given in Oklahoma during the past five
or six years have been given to secure notes
for the purchase of additional farms. The
farmers in this part of the country are still
land hungry. 1t Is a disease for which there
is no cure. No matter how large his farm
may be- the average Oklahoman covets the
land which adjoins 1t.
He covets the Indian reservations that re-
main unopened, and you are going to see
tremendous effort made to secure the OPEN
ing of the Usage and other reservations very
soon.
To Kill the Tick.
Down in Texas they have a curious way
of treating cattle for the "tick"-an insect
parasite which attaches itself to the hide
Of the animal and produces irritation and
fever The disease is contagious, and as it
prevails in Texas more generally than else
where cattle from that state are usually
auarantined before they are allowed to
cross the border going north. method of
disinfection has been devised, however,
which is said to be sure; and 1t Is a curious
one The animals are driven from the cor
rails, one after the other, up narrow in
cline When they reach the top the pres
sure from behind crowds them over the
ridge into slippery chute, and they go
down a toboggan slide at the speed of a
thousand miles minute. At the bottom of
the chute is vat of crude petroleum ff-
teen or twenty feet square and three or four
feet deep. The animal Is as likely to land
on his head as his launches, and that is the
intention Before he can climb out of the
vat his hide gets a thorough soaking, and
the result is holocaust of ticks 1t only
takes three or four minutes immersion to
do the job, and in a well-arranged dipping
vat as the place is called, about 200 steers
can be treated per hour. Under the rules
of the Agricultural Department steers that
have been dipped in crude petroleum are
exempt from quarantine