The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1912-11-01
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
INTERESTED IN AGRICULTURE
Washington Letter on Subject of. Inter
est to Farmer and Fruit Grower

/
trees, believes that he has established
fact which will prove Of the greatest
importance to the growers of all plants
and trees which are propagated by
other means than seeds. Mr.. Shamel
by careful study and tabulation of the
performance of individual trees has
demonstrated to his own satisfaction
that bud variation is much more i'm
portant in the development of an Or
chard than has ever been supposed.
1t has been taken Tor granted by most
fruit growers that tree would produce
fruit true to the characteristics of the
tree from which it was budded. Mr..
Shamel has found that one tree, from a
single bud, will sometimes produce
eight or ten distinct varieties Of fruit.
Perhaps ten per cent of the trees ex-
amined throw off no sports and there
fore are considered of especial value as
sources of buds for propagation. Our
hope is" he says in an interview with
the correspondent of this paper, that
in propagating from record trees Of
high production and the best quality
of standard types we may be able to
propagate and maintain uniform STAN
dard type of each variety, best adapted
to the conditions of soil and climate in
which they are grown
The importance of this investigation
may be estimated from the fact that it
was found in some orchards that fifty
per cent OF the trees were not produc-
ing fruit true to type, or in satisfactory
quantity.
Mr.. Shamel has made tentative in
vestigations during the past summer in
New York of peach and apple trees
which tend to confirm the deductions
he has drawn from his California work.
Mr.. A. v. Steubenruch, who is in
charge Of Pathological Field investiga-
tons, is doing valuable work, on lines
similar to those naugurated by Mr..
G. Harold Powell, when the latter was
in the Department of agriculture, to
determine the best methods for apple
storage, and when certain varieties of
apples should be picked. He is cen
trailing his work at Portland, Ore,
and has already secured data which
will be of much value to apple growers
and shippers.
While the scientific study Of agricul-
tural problems is constantly receiving
more attention from the various colleges
having agricultural departments, the
department of agriculture finds it diff
cult to secure as many specialists in
various lines as it needs in the great
work it is doing for the American
agrarian interests. The day of the
hap-hazard farmer is almost past.
With land values rising and the cost of
labor mounting steadily upward, it is
becoming daily more needful that the
best scientific skill should be brought
to bear on the problems that confront
the farmer. Young men who have
been reared on the farm can find in
scientific agriculture promising fields
for their best endeavors. The gov
eminent service itself employs some
5000 young men, graduates of the
agricultural colleges and scientists in
every sense of the term, who not only
receive good pay but are encouraged
to undertake independent research,
and who find their work in the Depart
1
ment Of agriculture stepping stone,
very often, to wider and more lucrative
fields in commercial life or in the ser
vice Of other governments.
In bulletin just issued, secretary
Wilson OF the department Of agricul-
ture calls attention to the fact that the
State of Louisiana, ranking second in
its wealth of timber only to the Pacific
coast states. will have cut all Of its 1919
billion feet of lumber in thirty years at
the present rate of consumption unless
it begins a plan of conservation and re-
forestation. He says: With eff
cient protection of this young growth,
and better utilization Of the present
commercial stands, the forests of Louis
lana, even in the face Of a much
greater agricultural development than
now, should remain an important
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