Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-04-13
BOYS AT STATE INDUSTRIAL
SCHOOL BEGIN SEASONS Ex.
rENSlvE WORK.
GETTING MUCH PRACTICAL
EXPERIENCE At ELDORA
Expert Gardeners Turned Out by state
School While Lads Are Kept En-
p:oyea ard Raising Al! Vegetables
Required For Institution-No Coun-
try Boys Found Among Wards.
Special TO Times Republican

Special TO Times Republican.
Eldora, April 15-Nearly every
morning last week several groups Oh
boys were to be seen busy as boys
could we'll be. working with rakes,
shovels and other implements incident
TO the employment of the different
parties Spring had opened and Gard
ner Vorbeck, OF the boys Industrial
school must lose no time in planting
that little garden of some seventy
acres that the institution grows ana
for the most part consumes annuailS.
And after lille, be it added, some OIL
these boys will be showing other peo-
pie in different parts of the country
how to conduct real gardening, for APP
pearances and results at the school
are convincing enough that the methods
elnploved are scientific. Four or 1--WE
hundred active boys need great deal
of garden stuff in the course OF year
and seventy acres of good Iowa laliu
will grow a lot of it, too, when proper
" handled. Mr. Vorbeck furnished the
following details of the work ana It's re-
suits of his department.. The only team
work is the blowing of the ground anu
cultivation of part of it with two SIN
gle horse cultivator. Forty to forty -hVe
bows aged from to IS years do all the
work About seventeen acres OF the
land is in grapes, 300 bushels of the
fruit being reasonable expectation LOT
this season. The greater part OF THIS
will be canned. There will be hVe acres
of onions planted, most of the product
for the market. Three acres or late
cabbage will be set out and or TINS
about twenty five barrels or kraut anu
several hundred heads Of the plant Will
be consumed at home, the rest mar
keted An acre Of cucumbers VIII Iur-
nish twenty barrels of pickles Tor the
season One acre of peas Will De
grown and eaten, green. Halt an acre
Of parsnips will last thru the next VIM
ter An acre of tomatoes Will be SUI
ticient for use thru the tomato season.
and for 1000 gallons of the canned ar
tiCle Half an acre of celery VIII DC
raised. Ten acres of early POTATOES,
thirty acres of beans, eight acres OF
plums, cherries and apples ana otnef
fruit and garden products make up the
remaining acreage. The big cave IN
which much of this stuff is stored is
ninety feet long, thirty feet wloe anu
seven to nine feet high. Its moor. ROOF
and walls are of concrete covered WITH
four feet of earth and this covered
with sod. 1t is electric lighted ana the
| temperature is SO regulated that pota-
| toes stored there had not commenced
| to sprout as late as April TO- In addl-
| ton to this there is potato squash
and cabbage cellar S0x40 feet. Con-
nected with the garden department IS
the greenhouse in which many beauu-
| full varieties of plants and flowers are
grown. One of the striking objects IN
this building is banana tree about
, ten feet high on which bunch OF pa
nanas is growing at the present time.
The stalk or trunk Of the plant which
| produced it is about six or eight inches
! in diameter.
The entire farm of this institution
| com prises 500 acres of many dlfferent
varieties of soil ranging from heavy
muck to sand and gravel. About 200
acres are devoted annually to corn and
! oats and the remainder TO pasture
meadow. etc There are nine work
teams and about fifty mich cows kept
and two car loads OF hogs per year are
marketed. altho this part of the bust
ness has been temporarily deranged as
the result of a cholera invasion.
The field work is under the super
vision of a single man who chooses
bout ten boys for the team work. Did
he select country boys for this work?
No, because there are practically no
country bows to select from. They
come from the cities and towns. But
CITY boys can be taught to drive horses
and handle farm machinery and places
oro found for. them outside the inSti-
tuition when the proper time comes.
Under the auspices Of the agricultural
department at Ames an experimental
station consisting Of twalve to fifteen
acres is maintained here and it is pro-
Iposed to Investigate extensively ques-
lions relating to fertilization Of the
different kinds of soil. There are two
= silos here the largest in Hardin county.