Arizona republican., 1917-04-01
With The Farmers Of The
 Salt River Valley weekly by Macopa County Bureau will be and should be addressed 1376

with cultivated crop such as corn. cotton, beets, lettuce, etc.
 The United States bureau of plant industry is recommending the meth cd of roofing date palm shoots which IS being successfully used in parts ot California and in the Salt river val ley With this method a house is constructed which has closed sides without ventilation. The top is GOV cred with canvas This is the method successfully used the past season at the Mesa experiment station and by C. l. Helm. the Comeback nursery man.
 At the x. w Egg laying contest at Pullman, Washington, the highest individual record for January was a Barred Rock with record aof 27 eggs. So far the Barred Rocks have returned the best average egg pro duction and made the highest average profit
 Mir. Roy Ward, the Salt river valley nurseTyman, has some interesting figures on the production of olives. From a small grove of eight year old trees he picked an average of 192 pounds of olives. These olives were picked and returned a gross revenue Of s2S.S0 for each tree.
 Hoard's Dairyman. the great na- tional daily paper. in a recent edi- torial, calls attention to the import ance of cutting alfalfa just as the new shoots begin to start. Some Salt river valley farmes. who have carefully observed, state that this re- suits in a better development of the succeeding crop.
 One of the recent bulletins of the l United States department of agri- iS.s of 1rI interest is Farmers Bulletin No. 765. entitled Breeds of Swine" This valuable little pamphlet of only 16 pages gives in brief the character istics Of all the best known breeds of swine, something of their history and the address of the secretary of the breed association. The bulletin is free. and may be had by writing the secretary If agriculture. Washington. D. C.
 SORGHUM VALUABLE CROP Sorghum as q farm crop has been generally underestimated. Corn is ! frequently grown and used under conditions wherein sorghum would be a much more valuable crop. The department of farm crops of the Missouri college of agriculture is of the opinion that more general use of sorghum is hindered by a lack of 1 information concerning the crop, by ! the fact that under certain very ex- csptional conditions sorghum becomes l poisonous 10 stock. and by the op- incn that the crop is hard on land. The last two hindrances are by no means serious.
 Aside from it's special use for syrup, sorghum owes it's avlue as ], ' general farm crop to three outstand- i ing characteristics of the plant. In the first place, the sorghum plant i pound for pound. is nearly aseNal- : uable for feeding as corn. Again, unde~ conditions favorable fer the 1 growth of corn. sorghum will out yield corn as forage Gncluding in- silage) and VIII compare faTorably with corn in yield Of grain Finally the ability of sorghum to withstand adverse conditions, espc-ialIy'@ drduti makes the crop an extremely reliable
 one for the production Of feed.
 Since the greatest use of sorghum is for feed. it's value must be reckon
 ed in it's ability to produce feed. The varieties of sorghum are divided into
 two groups sweet or saccharine and
 grain or non- -sa ccharine. The sweet sorghums are grown for forage, pas
 tur2gc, silage, and as soiling crops while the grain sorghums are grown chiefly for grain.
 VITALITY OF UNMATCHED CHICKS
 How to tell vigorous chicks before
 they are matched is an ingenious
 method originated by Frank l..
 Plumb Mountain Grove. Missouri
 That this is an important problem
 Gmong poultry raisers has long
 been recognized. Weak chicks are
 more susceptible 10 disease which
 the vigorous chicks are more apt to contract if the disease is encouraged
 hI- rho DraSen9a of weak chiekorlS in