The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-08-15
1876 Days and
Nothing Done
G!RLSASKED TO
HELP WITH FAIR
Two Thousand Plants
Will Be Given Away
During Fair

y &
Do some Of the Idaho girls want to
do something for the fair? Will they
work and donate something like the
men and the merchants and stock
men do? Here is request for help.
Editor Trego wants two girls or
two women to distribute perennial
pea plants at the fair grounds every
afternoon from l o'clock till the race
program starts and then from the
time the race program Is finished
until people quit filing thru the ex-
hibit halls. It need not be the same
persons each day or each shift. II
enough persons offer their service,
none need serve more than couple
of hours unless they wish to. II you
are willing to help without pay ring
or write The Republican office.
Mr.. Trego has tried giving away
seeds and plants and cuttings at the
newspaper office and somebody al
WAYS starts the report that none but
subscribers can have them or that
only those whose subscription is paid
in advance can get them or that get
ting people into the office is only for
the purpose of asking them to sub
scribe for the paper or to pay up
arrears. OF course we can't stop
people from talking and circulating
something that is not true, but we
are going to beat them to it this time
by having the plants given away at
the fair grounds and by somebody
not connected with the newspaper
work, and then everybody will feel
free to anything that is being Of
fered.
If we gave the plants free to
everybody that came along, there
would be large numbers of children
and others who did not understand
the matter and would carry on
plants just because they we're being
offered, and they. might not want
them at all when they found out
what had to be done with them. We
want to avoid wasting the plants
and we want to insure that they will
all be planted and have good care so
this method will be followed.
We will have 1000 plants packed
in moist earth at the booth, and
each person desiring a plant will
write their name and address In the
register kept for that purpose. Then
the girl in charge of the book will
hand out printed slip telling just
how to prepare the soil and care for
the plant to get the best results.
When this slip is shown to the girl
in charge of the plants she will fur
nish the plant, and the person &C
cepting it agrees to plant and care
for it and to fill out QUESTIONABLE
next fall when we send. it to his or
her address as given on the register.
The QUESTIONABLE to be sent out next
fall will ask few questions like
these:
Did you plant perennial pea in
September, 1921?
How deep did you dig and fertilize
the ground?
Did the plant bloom in 1922?
How high did it grow?
What did you give it to climb on?
Are you pleased with it?
Did you raise any seed from It?
Have your neighbors asked for any
of the seed?
We will furnish the printed
QUESTIONABLE and the postage to carry
it both ways and will pay the girl
who addresses them to you and will
know little or nothing about who
gets the plants. What we want is to
get them out among the people who
want to try them, and then we want
to know whether they are satisfac-
tory and successful after a years
trial. We have distributed a good
many flower seeds that did not grow
or the plants did not do we'll, and we
want to handle these flowers so they
will win or we will find out why.
Directions for Planting
The perennial pea is not sweet
pea. The plant grows up like alfalfa
for appearance, but it has clingers
and wants something to climb upon.
Under ordinary conditions it grows
four or five feet high, but with
special care it climbs much higher.
Ithas tap root like alfalfa, and the
height of the vine probably harmon
lies with the depth of the root. The
young plant makes tap root at the
rate of about two inches week for
a while, and the root goes down ten
to twenty-five inches the first sum-
mer according to how rich and mel
low the soil is. If it had rich, loose
soil ten feet deep and four feet
across it would probably fill it in
three or four years and might make
plant that would grow fifteen or
twenty feet high If supplied with
proper support. The largest one we
have raised was ten feet high and
1t was planted in soil that was only
loosened and fertilized about two
feet deep, but the roots went far be-
low that, we do not know how far.
We wish that somebody with suitable
soil would make an experiment and
report to us. II the soil is loose and
deep, dig as deep as you care to and
fiji in with rich manure, then turn
plenty Of water into 1t to carry the
fertilizer deep into the ground. Do
tilis now and after a few weeks OF
this seeping, take out the manure
and fill in the hole with rich moist