The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1909-04-09

The gradually Increasing price OF
corn during the past three years Is
quite accurately reflected In the de-
crease in the exports Of the cereal.
The exports for 1906 were 102,518,S17
bushels, in 1907 .s3,2OO,872 bushels,
while during 1908 but 37,577.717 bush
els were sent abroad.
One farmer living three or four
miles from Twin Falls, Ida, reports
three crops Of alfalfa from forty
acre tract that measured in the stack
ten tons per acre. This is calculated
to give the eastern granger, who strug-
giles hard to cure two tons per acre
in a season, a sort Of tired feeling.
Complaint is being made In several
states that shipments of ornamental
shrubs and plants from Holland and
France are badly infested with eggs
of the brown tailed moth. Of forty
three shipments into one state 1nspec-
ton by state officers showed that
tWenty-one were infested with the pest.
Estimates issued by the crop report
ing board of the department Of agri-
culture give the amount of corn in the
farmers hands on March 1, 1909, as
1913 per cent Of last years crop, equiv
alent to 1.947.753, 900 bushels. 1t is es-
timated that 21.3 per cent of this
amount will be shipped out Of the
counties in which it was grown.
The increased attention devoted to
the growing of alfalfa has resulted In
the putting on the market of an alfal-
ia cultivator which works on the
disk fashion, but has spiked teeth in
place of the disk blades. 1t Is said
that the new machine loosens the sur
face soil thoroughly and kills the
weeds without seriously injuring the
alfalfa roots.
A good many farmers have adopted
the plan Of sowing some clover seed
with all small grain, and the idea is an
excellent one. The practice is worth
while even If the clover is plowed I'M
der in the fall. To give best results 1t
should be allowed to grow the second
season, a crop being taken off in June
and the second growth plowed under
in the fall, when the well developed
root systems will add materially to
the nitrogen supply Of the soil.
That tuberculosis has considerable
capacity to spread is shown in the ex-
perience of one northern dairyman
whose herd at the first testing showed
twelve infected animals out of fifty
nine head He failed to take action
with view to disposing of the dis
eased animals, and when some time
later a second tuberculin test was ap-
piled sixty-seven animals out Of hun
bred gave evidence of being affected
with the malady. This instance could
doubtless be duplicated in the expert
ence of hundreds who are following
the dallying policy to save few dol
lars at the start, but who will find
their delay in dealing with the situa-
ton in the end both costly and trying.
The cumulative evidence relative to
the operation of the milking machine
would seem to indicate that it Is an
Improvement which has come to stay.
A number Of tests which have been
studied and tabulated under the d1rec-
ton of the Wisconsin experiment sta
ton show results which are, on the
whole, very favorable, the machines
being economical in operation with fif-
teen cows or more while the milk is
freer from germs than when secured
by hand milking. In practice it has
been found that the cows shrink but
little in milk flow when transferred
from the hand to the machine system,
and best results were obtained where
the COWS were hand stripped after the
machine work was done.
Let the women vote If they want to,
but let them also remember that no
influence which they can exert at the
ballot box will begin to equal that
which they may have over boys and
girls properly reared in the homes
over which they preside. A painful
feature of many present day problems
which are taking SO much time and
attention for solution is that they
trace their origin to social conditions
which lie beyond the reach of the bal
lot box and will be solved not when
women are given the right of suffrage,
but when mothers and fathers devote
more time and thought to the rearing
Of their sons and daughters and In
making the home what it ought to be.
ZT