The Prescott daily news., 1914-05-20
THE WEEKLY LETTER
 OF JOHN H. PAGE
Commissioner of Mines Manufacture and Agriculture. Says Little Spanish Peanut is Prof.
 table Crop in State

Cool nights retard the growth of the young cotton plants, but when the warm days and nights come the cotton will grow rapidly if it is in good condition. Keep the grass and weeds out and keep the dirt loose, so the cotton will do its best when the warm weather gets here. Corn pests are giving more or less trouble now. Cut-worms do good deal of damage to growing corn and other things too. Paris green mixed with wheat bran and sprinkle along the rows will kill off a good many cutworms and also some of the other corn pests. The small wire worm is perhaps the hard est to contend with. The Govern ment is now making an investigation of the wire worm in this State.
 During this month is a good time to plant soy beans, velvet beans or COW peas. Cow peas should follow the oats as soon as harvested. Early po- tatoes should be followed by peas or some other crop. Late cabbage is good follow crop. The custom of top ping corn and pulling fodder are both bad. Other arrangements should be made for forage. More than the value of the tops or fodder is lost in the corn when it natures. Of course the labor is lost. The reason is be- cause the corn stalk is weakened by being topped or having the blades pulled off, and so much of the vitality is taken away that the ear does not mature to as full weight as it would.
 Lots of land in Arkansas is better for truck farming than for staple crops. Truck farming requires more work per acre but it pays bigger. Truck farming, hay raising and stock growing will pay the best. Of course the most of the farmers do not believe this and will go on raising cotton and some corn and buying the balance. However, if they will look into things closely they will find that the farm CTS who raise truck crops, fruit, hay and stock, and enough feed to keep the stock, are the ones who are keep ing out of debt and doing we'll
 The Little Spanish peanut is a good end profitable crop in this State. Watermelons is another good crop. Fall beans makes a splendid truck crop. There is always demand for string beans in the fall at good price. Those who are raising sweet potatoes for the market should get in touch with J. G. Nelson of Russell vile, and join the potato growers as sociaton.' The farmers of Arkansas should give more attention to vege- tables and small fruits for home con sumption. In this day of high prices the farmers wives and daughters, with the aid of fifteen dollar can ming outfit, can put up enough canned goods from the surplus vegetables and fruits on the place to furnish good table all through the winter. This is a good means of providing a good living at home with almost no eX- pense.
 Now is the time to kill the rooster. It is too late to set any more hens until fall, and the rooster is of no use until then. Kill them off and buy new ones in the fall. The hens will lay just the same without the rooster, and the eggs will remain fresh long time. The farmers should eat the eggs and chickens produced on the farm unless they have a surplus, Eggs and chickens served on the table are cheaper than most any food that can be bought in town and are far better. Every upland farm should have small bunch of goats. The kids make fine fresh meat, and the goat being a browser is good animal to clean up the sassafras and persim- mon sprouts. Just dissolve some salt in water and sprinkle it over the bushes or briers and turn the goats in. They will do the rest.
 JOHN H. PAGE,