The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-11-08

tlons-muriate of potash for a few lit
Tie peat patches and bisulphide of car
BON for the skunks that were digging
up the meadow. By that time dinner
was ready, and the man who would run
away from one of Mrs. Klein s dinners
could lay no claim to being judge of
good cooking. Between the solid filing
ana the pie neighbor down the road
called up for the crop doctor to stop
ana tell him what to do for the ants
that were eating up his garden. An ex-
animation showed that the ants hired
men, the root lice, were doing some
damage, and the weeds a good deal
more The crop doctor AUTOMATICALLY
suggested that wheel hoe or a one
row cultlvator would be the making of
the garden, and we went on to see the
next man who was in trouble.
| Winning Father-in-Law.
1t was young fellow this time. a
renter. The farm was owned by his
father-in-law, a well-to-do codger, who
was not overly enthusiastic over the
county soil expert.
II wanted father-in-law to 90 over
the farm with US, but he thinks he
would be wasting his time,' the young
| ..
"Call him up and tell him we re just
ready to start and want to ask him some
questions about the FARM the crop
expert replied.
We walked down the road and out
into the pasture opposite father-in- law s
house. Before the first hole was dug
father-in-law was with us.
Going to dig well, or are you look
ing for gold?' he asked.
- expect there S more gold in this
farm than in some of the Klondike
mines, If we can only find how to get it
out, answered the crop doctor. 81
see you use drill, young man. That g
GOOD he went on, as we climbed the
woven wire fence into the oat field.
You We drilled the field north ana
south, too, and have a stand of clover
You re on the right track, all right. -
But when we had reached a higher
spot In the field and made litmus pa
per test of the soil, he shook his head
"See that clover9' He pointed to the
clover at our feet, which was looking
sickly and shriveled. "You' III have to
give that some help if it makes YOU
hay crop next year. Glover can It stand
that" He showed us the litmus paper.
which had turned red from the acid.
Father in law did not seem greatly
impressed, and we went on to the next
held, which was in corn. The field
showed Enthusiastically the result of hard
and careful work, but the corn had not
responded to the boys efforts as it
should. He wanted to know the rea-
son why
Cornering the Corn Root Worms.
A question brought out the fact that
this was the third consecutive crop of
corn. You we done work enough here
for an s0-bushel CROP" the soil expert
said, "but you won t get more than 40
Let s see what the trouble isl He
pulled up a stalk and showed us a root
system half eaten off. A little probing
brought the criminal to light-a little
white worm a quarter of an inch or so
long. "That s a corn root worm,'' he
told us. "You can t get away from it
where you are raising corn after corn.
What sort of an ear can a stalk pro-
duce with root system like that9' He
turned to father-in-law.
Father-inlaw admitted that the pros
poets for pound ear were pretty SLIM
He was becoming interested, and in
sisted on hunting up some more of the
worms. They were not hard to fini
for almost every hill was affected
When we had gone over into the next
field and the crop doctor exposed to
view the root lice that were interfer
ing with prospects for a bumper crop,
father-in-law was still more interested
GIVE been farming for 40 years, and
this is the first time | ever saw any of
those things he said. cove often
wondered what made the corn look like
that, too
"Here IS what I call an alkali spot,
the boy said, as he pointed out half
acre tract where the corn was not over
three or four inches high "Corn never
does anything here.'
"We' III see. If it is alkali, this will
make the soil bubble. " The crop doc
tor took a bottle of hydrochloric acid
from his coat pocket and poured little
of it on the ground. There was no a.
parent result. A little work with the
auger showed that the supposed alkali
spot was a deposit of hillside peat, and
the soil expert told the boy how to
make it productive with potassium.
The greater part of this field lay. OF:
a hillside, and boring showed brown
sandy loan subsoil The corn showed
plainly the need of nitrogen. "Yon
asked me to pick out place for an al
falfa feld,' said the crop doctor
"Here it is. This is an ideal alfalfa
field, and the soil is badly in need of
the nitrogen that the alfalfa will gath
err Then followed detailed instruc
tions for getting the field into alfalfa
the following summer.
Father-in-law had been skeptical
when the soil expert spoke of putting
limestone On the clover. He was still
skeptical when told that it would be
necessary for the alfalfa. By this time
we had reached the top of the hill, and
were surprised to find an acre or so CT
corn that was almost twice as big as
the rest. Father-in-law and the boy
were both sure the hill top had never
been MANFRED.
"I'L show you what causes it" The
crop expert pointed to the pebbles and
small stones that were scattered through
the soil, and brought out his hydro
chloric acid bottle again to prove that
they were limestone. "There has been
clover in here some times'
"Three years ago. the father-in-