Weekly journal-miner., 1919-08-27
KEEN MINDS WORK OUT NEW FARM PRODUCTION METHODS;
 FOOD SHORTAGE IS MOTIVE
Trying Out New Plants.


 fun out of small farming, as most ot us Yavapai ranchers must farm, and that is to try out something new every season, new vegetables, new varieties of corn or forage plants, new chickens or pigs or turkeys.
 If you've lived on farm for forty years you know just plain beans and potatoes and chickens so well that you get tired looking at them but planting seeds of new variety or setting eggs of a new kind has some of the thrill of sinking new pros pect hole or betting your money oil 1 the high card.
 This year 1 simply painted the ranch red" with new seeds and some ,of them are winners-and some wouldn't assay a color to the ton but it was fun finding out which was which. There's the tree-high won der grass" developed in California from a supposed cross between Su- dan and honeycane; it promises to be worth the dollar d pound which the seed cost and deserves a sensible name. for Arizona ranchers will be planting it next year for heavy tor age crop.
 All the same the dry weather corn Ideveloped by Halbert, the famous watermelon man-it will go on the map along with his best watermelons,
 A big. deep-graincd white corn with a root system planned to bore down 10 deep water on dry years.
 The Italian corn promises new type of great value and there IS a corn
 grown by the Indians in North Can ada that will probably give roasting
 ears by the Fourth of July, with
 little irrigation.
 Some of the vegetables are not
 really new but still not generally known. as the asparagus bean which grows pod Is to 20 inches long and is a good snap bean ii used when small. and the lemon cucumber which
 is shaped and colored like a lemon but is sure the most delicious mem
 Der of the cucumber family and even makes fine preserves when ripe. II Is 4 heavy bearer and rank grower and will crowd old varieties out oi l the market when better known. This year all our visitors exclaimed over q beautiful bronze-leafed tree, i variety of plum from Manchuria
 listed as prunus pasardi and common
 1v grown for an ornamental tree il parks. It bears cherry-like red fruit i really small plum, which is fine toi fielly and preserves and equal to
 cherry in pies, while the tree itself i' { the loveliest thing on the ranch, es
 pecially when wreathed in its pink
 white blossoms.
 1 As For Chickens.
 We have here in Yavapai a maj r who for years operated one of thu first successful big plants for raising : and shipping poultry in the United ' States. He is so busy now running
 q cattle ranch that he has to be cor
 nered to get him to talk chicken bu
 it's worth doing for he knows th' whole game. Among other things h u has demonstrated to a finish that Fl dozen heus from stock bred to lal F at least two hundred eggs a year ar better investment than big buncl of average stock.
 t Most of Us don't realize that chick r ems have taken about as many jump n forward lately as the rest of farming If has and that it keeps us hustling t' d keep up. It is only ten or tltteel = years since the breeding of poultr.
 for high egg production was taken II
 but already the 3OO-egg hen is her
 and soon she will be common. Ou e old pet biddies are headed for tn Il dinner pot and certified layers at s q each are destined to take their place u This man who knows poultry ha g just presented me with a young Ply 'f mouth Rock whose father cost $50 l. sum which made our home men y folks sit up and look at the fluff O y blue feathers on two long yellow leg r. with lot of respect, and flnishe' y theiu by telling of the money invest e ed in poultry plants where every Dir d had a certified egg record about ZOC .. Our own Ancouas have filled tn t egg basket for d year, outlayini G everything else on the place, even tn White Leghorns. They are not y large fowl and not much in the fryini # pan but they are sure busy on tn W Job oi meeting the egg market h This is the time for us countr. d poultry keepers to be planning ahea' d for the fair; we can make the poultr, f department the biggest ever if we ge r. busy right now. Let's warn the fai It management to list prizes for every e thing from peafowls to trick bantam > this year-we all hope to win rib y bon of some color for our ranch pets O A Canning Method Not New