Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-06-01
NEW AND UNUSUAL CROPS
BY Frederic j. Haskin

II is estimated by students of the diff
ferent branches of agriculture that the
present crop season in the United States
and Canada will produce a wider range
of commercial articles than any previ-
Gus summer. AS farming becomes more
of an exact science. and the average size
of farms becomes smaller. the agricultur
ist is looking for new and better-paying
crops. This is particularly true of the
gardener, the trucker, the florist and the
fruit grower.
The department of agriculture is rem
dering great assistance to this movement
for new and more profitable crops. 1t is
ransacking the flora of the world for
things which may be advantageously in
troduced here. Its most recent study re-
lates to camphor. japan has long had
practical monopoly of the production Of
this staple, which is as essential in war
as iron or steel. 1t enters into most OF
the high explosives, especially smokeless
powder, used by the army and navy, and
if Japan cut off our supply she might
handicap us seriously in case of war.
The bureau of plant industry has inves-
tjgated the matter and reached the con-
clusion that camphor can be grown in
the southern part of the United States.
A three-thousand acre tract of Florida
land has been acquired by the govern
ment and will be set out in camphor
trees In Japan il has always been the
custom to allow the trees to grow 10 ma
turity and then cut them down, distil-
ling the camphor from the logs. In Flor
ida and Texas the government will plant
them very close together and when the
shrubs reach height of about three feet
1 will 10 MT 8
machine and taken to the distillery. A
new crop will follow in short order.
Peppermint culture is one of the most
interesting of the small-crop operations.
Michigan is the center of the peppermint
growing region, and the soil where 1t is
grown is so muck that the horses have
to be fitted with large wooden shoes be-
fore they can walk on it, The cost Of
cultivation is about fourteen dollars an
acre, and the prott from fifteen TO thirty
dollars. One farmer las about ten thous-
and acres of land devoted to the growing
of peppermint which is the largest farm
of is kind in the world. He keeps about
five hundred shorthorn beef cattle, feed
ing them peppermint hay In the winter,
which they eat with great relish when
the oil has been pressed from it.
ers concluded they could corner the pep
permint oil market. They sent a repre-
sentative to England to find out how
much oil was needed TO supply the de-
mand which was about 1900 pounds
year Then they went to the New York
producers and the Ohio growers and paid
them not to cultivate peppermint for five
years After this they bought the entire
product of Michigan at a price mutually
I nj
oil at their own price. After three years
some of the Ohio and New York grow
ers. seeing how prices had advanced, con-
Guided that they would break their con-
tracts. The peppermint oil trust did no.
attempt to prevent their doing so, having
made a profit large enough to satisfy its
greed.
The growing of mushrooms is one OF
the most profitable occupations in the
world-if the grower thoroughly knows
his business. The prices range from 10
cents a pound to $3.50. The majority of
growers of mushrooms have less than
thousand square feet of beds, but they
make more out of these than the aver
age farmer makes from a two hundred
acre FARM There is perhaps no other crop
In the United States or Canada which
can be grown with such profit where the
conditions are favorable. 1t is said that
the cave region of the Shenandoah valley
and the blue grass region of Kentucky
offer splendid opportunities for mush-
room culture caves being ideal growing
places for fungi.
Castor bean culture is quite a profitable
little industry in some parts Of the
south. 1t is from these beans that cas-
tor oil is made. Okra or gumbo is also
orourr, with nroft in 10 south EXnpri-
ments have been made in crossing the
sand cherry with plums and the indica-
tions are that the new hybrid will make
q valuable cquisition to the small fruit
garden. Horticulturists regard the sand
cherry as the most promising of all the
native undevelOped fruits. The juneber-
ry is another native which science is
trying to domesticate. Mankind at large