The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-01-20
GREAT AWAKENING IN VOCA.
TIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE

TIONS OF COUNTRY LIFI
| Visiting six or seven towns eacl
day between breakfast and bed time
is the record of the eight or nins
men sent out by Gen. Pass. Agent
D. E. Burley of The Oregon Shor,
Line system for the purpose of com
municating to the farmers the latest
tests, discoveries, methods and theo.
ries for the advancement of theii
interests by taking advantage of the
elements as discovered in nature.
Sparing no effort nor expense to
place these new powers quickly and
clearly in the hands of the masses,
the general passenger agent handling
that part of the Hartman system
known as The Oregon Short Line,
from his Office in Salt Lake City di-
| rects the movements of a lecture
train to cover all the agricultural
country along their lines, keeps in
close touch with the work by tele-
gram, notes the. interest shown by
the different localities, encourages
them to organize for, greater insti-
tutes in each town, and leaves it to
the people and the press to carry on
the good work and apply the prin-
ciples and methods laid down for
their guidance.
On Saturday afternoon the lecture
train arrived in Blackfoot within a
few minutes of the schedule time,
and was met by large gathering of
farmers and business men who i'm
mediately boarded the train and took
seats. The lecturers were much
pleased with the interest manifested.
Two day coaches for lecture rooms
were filled and lectures began, the
speakers changing about every fifteen
minutes.
F. D. Farrell, director in charge
of the Southern Idaho Agricultural
Extension of the University of Idaho,
spoke in part as follows on grain
crops.
IA deep soil is better for any crop
than is shallow soil, and our tests
have shown that the deep soils pro-
duce better crops of grain than shall
low soils. We are apt to think of
grains, such as wheat, oats and bar
ley, sending out roots that are only
a few inches long, but in the study
of this subject in connection with
winter wheat and dry farm wheat we
find that the roots penetrate to great
depths If the soil is such that it can.
The roots of winter wheat If they
get below the frost line in the fall,
will grow all winter and be down |
far below where it is ever plowed. |
Ir the exhibit car ahead you will see
a bunch of winter wheat in a glass |
case, showing straw less than three |
feet long that sent it's roots to a |
depth of seven feet. These roots can |
survive dry whether for they will be
getting moisture from below when |
everything near the surface is dry.
Wheat that is sown in the spring
does not have any such root develop
ment and must of necessity be sup
piled with water or 1t fails in the
hot dry weather I do not mean
that all winter wheat sends its roots
to a depth of seven feet, but this
one case is proof of what it may do,
and it furnishes the key to the secret
Of winter wheat yielding about seven
bushels per acre more in this inter-
region than spring sowing.
I'm sowing wheat be careful to
get good seed. Do not take wheat
raised from spring sowing and sow
Il in the fall for the reason that
plants form habits of growth that
DO not readily conform to such radi-
cal changes. The grain that has
been bred for years Of spring sowing
has become accustomed to making
only short roots and subsisting on
moisture that lies at or near the
surface. It does not readily adjust
Itself to the rigors of winter and
make the vigorous downward growth
.ecessary to penetrate the hard
ground below where the plow went
wen though II WAC nrioinaIlu a win