Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-05-22
Jefferson County Farm Notes.
LEAF SPOT" IN ALFALFA.

Several farmers have reported that
their alfalfa is dying in patches in
Jefferson county. We hope to visit
these fields shortly, but feel the
trouble is with "leaf spot" fungus
infections of alfalfa leaves, that often
depelops in cool, damp weather. We
have seen fields almost dead to all ap'
pearances.
The remedy is to cut the standing
crop at once, and remove as soon as
dry enough. AS rhe brown sPecks on
the leaves appear it is the ripening OF
the spores or "seed" of the disease
which will scatter to the new shoots
and cause the disease to spread 10 the
second crop in some cases.
THE FIRST 17-YEAR tOCUSTS.
In C. L. Cranes orchard we found
our first l7-year locust to come out Of
the ground, Saturday, May 10th. He
had just broken his she'll and come out
a full-fedged locust. Many are 5eing
found near the surface in ploVing.
They will soon be here in numbers.
The young locusts make fine fish bait.
SOME THINGS FARMERS ASK.
From running thru the files of letters
of Jefferson county farmers written 10
the West Virginia Experiment Station,
we note herewith the nature of few
inquiries CLEANED from this CORES
pondence, as follows:
Identify soy bean varieties, care OF
soup beans after harvest, diseases of
apples (many inquiries), analysis Of
soils (many inquiries), suitable crop
rotation, wheat after rye and vetch, how
inoculate soy beans, testing cows,
newspaper article, farm records and
accounts, securing alfalfa stands
(many inquiries), cedar rust, alfalfa
varieties, tomato wilt, cover crops for
orchards, analysis of mari (many re-
quests, animal diseases, (many in
quireS), hog cholera sour soils, seven
teen-year locusts, nitrate of soda, fer
tilizer recommendations, plant diseases,
(many requests), planting late pota-
toes, building plans, wheat varieties,
planting sweet clover, use of manure,
woody aphis on trees, lightning protec-
ton, sheep feeding, top dressing of
wheat, hog feeding, sowing orchard
grass, potato sprays, requests for labor
(many), birds, sawdust as fertilizer,
analysis of feeds, time and methods
of pruning, seeding blue grass, testing
seed corn, cost to produce crops, wheat
diseases, loss of bees, identify bugs
and insects (many requests, bad seed
corn, spaying sows, spraying ma
chimes, spray materials, methods (very
many requests). These are a few
topics of inquiry that have gone from
Jefferson county to our State Expert
ment Station. To all these an answer
was returned. This will give you
some idea as to the problems and
questions that come to a county agent,
for the questions a people will ask in
writing are but a very small fraction OF
those inquiries that come from person
al work and contact. At the same
time it is difficult to realize the benefit
that has come to it from the State De-
partment of Agriculture We dare say
there isn't a silo, spray, bag of ferti-
lizer or a ton of lime or mari used
which practice isn't directly traceable
to our research departments of agrl-
culture, who find out these facts and
pass them on to the farmers. Gener-
ally all this passes thru many hands
before it comes to us, and we do not
know the source.