The Glenwood post., 1908-11-14
GET A COPY
OF YEAR BOOK
(By H. q. overbeck)

paradox. But II you want to flnd
such volume. get a copy of the Year
book of the Department of Argicul-
ture, for the year 1907, just issued by
Uncle Sans big publishing house a.
Washington.
The volume is interesting in a
great many ways. To the tax payer it
tells what one department at Washing
ton is doing with the money allotted
to it. To the farmer it gives valuab
lie information. To the. plain citizen
like you and /, it tells some valuable
as well as interesting things. At the
end of the volume there are enough
tables of statistics to delight the arith-
metical crank for whole year
You and I probably do care about
how many hogs were imported into
this country during the past year, nor
whatwasthe range of prices for wool
in Boston during October 1875 That
and many other figures are in the hook
| AS | say, we don't t care for these
figures; but we are interested in the
national pure food act, and so we
read carefully the interesting article
on the workings of that law and how
how food authorizations may be de-
teeted
| We may not care about adaptibiity
| of different seeds to different sections
| of the country, but we do sit up and
take notice when we read about Dur
UNI wheat, introduced into this count
| ty few years ago by this depart
ment, and notice causual statement to
the effect that the market value of
last years Durum wheat crop in this
country was more than double the en-
tire cost of maintenance of its foster
father. the Department of Agriculture
with all its roots and branches for
the same year.
We may not agree with Mr.. Pinchot
as to his manner of running the forestry
service. Mr.. Pinchot is one of the
hands in this big agriculture shop of
Uncle Sam s. His forest service is one
of the branches of the agricultural tree
And in this interesting year book we
find an exhaustive report about what
can he done with some of the species,
of wood which we are now passing up
even tirewood. He's trying to find
a use for everything that grows on the.
forest reserves. is Mr.. Pinchot. and
there's some sense to his notion that
by utilizing these apparently useless
woods, there will be let up on the
consumption of the more serviceable
species. He doesn't like to see nice
timber used for fence posts, for in
stance
Then there 3 the bureau of Entomolo
gy That Is an awful name 70 call any
thing, but it fits, for this part of the
service looks after the bugs. First it
tells about bad bugs, until one is al
most discouraged. But there is hope,
for soon comes list of good bugs, who
| will lick the bad bugs "to frazzle, -
| There's one article about insect para
| sites which tells all about these good
bugs, and this should make the book
interesting to every orchardist.
You and are not personally inter
ested in, the Codling moth ,or the Pear
blight or the Boil Weevil or think we
, are not. The first is the bug that makes
the apples wormy. The second is the
insect or plant. ailment that destroys
pear orchards. Let 'em get hold of
| Garfield county orchards and you and
will understand why it is important
| to us that they be exterminaterd. Same
thing with the boil weevil. He's the
nasty specimen who makes the price
of cotton COUP. 1t g interesting, there
fore, to read, in plain, untechnical lang
uage what has been learned about these
pests, and how to fight them.
And then one comes upon a state
ment that the department is interest
ing itself in the determination of the
house rat. Here's something for yon
and again. The house rat spreads
disease, besides being a general nuis-
ance. The department has n special
bulletin giving directions how to dope
| up matters for the conclusion of MI.
Rat 8 existence. -
| Verify, the name Department of
Agriculture is misnomer. for it helps
the farmer, helps the merchant and
helps the householder all directly, and
the Yearbook is the textbook of one of
the best schools of domestic and busi-
ness economy that has ever been de-
| vised.