The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1907-02-02

students in tho college taking the short
course. They came to me agricultural
college because their pastorates are in
rural districts and they desired to be-
come well informed on agricultural
subjects 80 as to be able to help their
parishioners. This Is an index of the
growing interest In agriculture.
The United States department of ag-
riculture through a series Of expert
ments is going to try to settle the two
important questions In poultry culture
as to whether mash should be fed to
fowls wet or dry-a much mooted ques.
tion-and as to whether hopper" feed
ing-the placing of the feed In bins
and allowing the fowls to help them
selves-really pays. The 'settlement
Of these two questions by satisfactory
experiments will be welcomed by poul-
trymen all over the country.
Prof w. A. Henry, dean of Wiscon-
sin agricultural college. advises that
only few acres of tobacco be grown
on each farm II the fertility of the
farm Is to be maintained. He says
the remainder of the land should be
devoted to rotation of crops and q
large amount of live stock kept Dairy
ing or sheep raising go particularly
well with tobacco growing. In order
that COWS or sheep be profitably kept.
let there be a large production Of
clover hay and Indian corn.
The use of commercial fertilizers
and manures on agricultural crops
gives SO vide range of results from
success TO failure that the many cases
Is worth our consideration. "The SOL
utility of all substances" says the
American Fertilizer, lis the first con-
sideration that should be given by the
farmer when he proposes to use them.
Barnyard manure is sometimes a COM
plete fertilizer. but to be complete It
must be in such condition chat before
the maturity of the crop it's ingredi-
ents must be dissolved by water.
Now that the law concerning de-
naturized alcohol has gone into effect
the question is again being asked why
the farmer should not establish small
stills. The argument made against 1t
Is that the cost Of government inspec-
ton will be prohibitive. There is no
such difficulty IN Germany. The stills
are made in such way that the tank
Is locked with government lock and
sealed with government seal. They
are operated principally in the winter,
when other work is not urgent. When
a farmer wants to operate his still he
gives the government 80 days notice.
Most of the alcohol made in this way
is disposed of through the great CEN
trail selling agencies.
The Wisconsin experiment station,
in cooperation with the government
agricultural department, is at work
breeding up barley in an effort to get
two or three good varieties to take the
place of the so or 70 varieties now pro-
duced in the state. During the nine
years of experimenting the effort has
been to produce rust-resisting va
riety. In the attempt to destroy rust
on the heads of barley the formalde-
hyde treatment has been used for sew
eral years, but 1t was found that while
this killed the covered smut 1t did not
reach the loose smut, and new
method, modification of the Swingle
method, has seemed to correct the diff
ficulty. The grain is soaked in cold
water for IL hours and then sub
merged in hot water (130 degrees) for
ten minutes. That kills the germs,
and the experiment station reports
that the fields on which that kind Of
barley was sown showed remarkable
results in the way of barley free from
smut.
The Oregon state board of agri-
culture has ordered nurserymen to dip
trees in lime sulphur mixture instead
of the customary fumigation. Presi-
dent w. X. Newell of the board says
that the standard mixture will be
used, that is Is pounds of lime and Is
pounds of sulphur to so gallons of wa
ter. In addition to this method Of
treatment to destroy the scale and
prevent the spread Of the pest, the
state inspectors have the right to
seize and destroy fruit found on tho
market which has the scale on. 1t.
1t would seem that II ever the scale
pest is to be checked and removed.
1t must be by the general adoption
of such drastic measures. In New
Zealand 1t is said the laws relating
to infected fruit are quite as stringent
as those of Oregon, and appear to
have worked satisfactorily for years.
British Columbia has similar laws re-
garding the confiscation Of insect-in-
tested fruit.
Feeding experiments carried on By
the Washington state agricultural ex.
pertinent station at Pullman during
the last ten years have shown that
wheat yields better results with cat
tie and swine than any other cereal,
and now the station has begun a So