The Mena weekly star., 1921-11-24
COMMERCIAL
 CLUB PIC CKUPS s

portion of the time and attention of the Commercial Club has been given to the matter of lining up the forces on the proposition of getting the Western Assembly of the Methodist church, South, located in Mena. This work has been done in the belief that the location of the Assembly, if se- cured, would be the biggest thing that could come to this community. There are few that even yet realize the mag nitude of the project. It would put Mena in touch directly thru all the publications of great Methodist church, South, and thru the pulpits of the 13 conferences in five interest ed states with approximately 1,000,- GOO heads of Methodist families. 1t would bring into the community an- nually during the Assembly sessions from 5000 to 25.000 people, and with them would come some of the master minds of the country who from pulpit and platform would direct the activi- ties of the Assembly. It would bring the level of the moral, intellectual and spiritual atmosphere of the commun- ity to such high plane that hundreds LII 1dtEAliCS WOQiQ iiAahC lhCtA AOtACG in Mena. The possibilities are so great there would be nothing like it the world over. The Assembly commit tee headed by the Rev. F. F. Harrell, is cooperating with the Club in this great undertaking, but it takes more. From now until the final decision of commissioners is announced every man, woman and child should be booster for Mena as the most suitable place for the Assembly.
 It will be recalled by readers of The Star that some weeks ago mention was made of the fact that J. B. Wid- ener, the Careless Poet of the east end of the county, had brought to Mena whipporwill pea vines to show that from them could be ob- tained a fiber equal in tensile strength to flax and some of the other plant products from which fiber is manufac- tured. A sample of the vines and the fiber was ent to Dean Bradford Knapp of the College of Agriculture by the Secretary of the Commercial Club. Upon the receipts of the samples Doctor Knapp wrote:
 "I am interested in your letter of November about the possible use of whippoorwill pea vines as a source of commercial fiber. Frankly have never heard this suggested before. One of the difficulties that we must face is, of course, the many sources of fiber of splendid quality, such as cotton, wool, silk, sisal, hemp, flax jute, etc. 1t is fact that since Rus sia went out of business there has been a shortage of flax fiber in the world. I am net sure that this is to be replaced by other types of fiber or by introducing the production of flax for fiber in this country and other countries to replace the shortage from Russia"
 Concluding the latter Doctor Knapp states that he will take the matter up with his own people. and he also of- fers to take it up with Dr. l.. H. Dewey, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. s. Department of Agriculture, who has charge ef the plant fiber investi- gations.
 F. J. Greiner of the Golden Rule farm is one of the farmers who knows that it pays to raise sweet po- tatoes. In discussing the matter at the Commercial Club office one day he stated the yield from his patch of IA acres this year was 275 bushels. Out of this amount he was sure that he selected 150 bushels of standard No. 1 sweets" which at digging time could have been sold at 50 cents per bushel, amounting to $75. The total expense of raising the sweets" he figured at 15 cents per bushel, ap- portioned as follows: Preparation and cultivation of ground cents per bushel; raising and putting out the slips, 5 cents per hushel; and digging, grading and placing in the curing house, cents per bushel. His net returns, then, on the 150 bushels would be s32.50, and in addition he had 125 bushels left over, some of which could be used on the home table and those under size or defective could be fed the stock. Mir. Greiner is curing his own potatoes, having re- modelled a building already on the fa,.,,. fo sY,aaf his needs