VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, APRIL 17, 1909.
NO. 15
Robbing a  Baby.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
It is not considered good form to rob a
baby, yet it is done most wantonly every
day There is no question but what your
son, bor:i day before yesterday, is the
most remarkable example of human progeny that ever happened. Only this morning he sat up in bed and said—well, never
mind what he said. It is more important
to inquire what he would say if he should
sit up in bed and look you straight in the
eye fifty years from today. Why all this
concern about the infant, who today has
so many luxuries? But let us see how he
is being robbed of his heritage.
According to Mr. James J. Hill, fifty
years from now we shall not have, by millions of bushels, wheat enough to supply
bread for us all to eat, let alone havin;,'
any to export. This statement may not
interest jour newly-born son, but it may
fifty years from today. We have a daily
waste of a million dollars by preventable
fires, some of which destroy hundreds of
acres of timber that your boy thirty years
hence will need when building and fur
nishing his house. Two million dollars
a day is the tribute paid to ravages of in
sects ,and one million and a half is daily
lost by soil erosion, all of which comes
out of your boy's pocket, or will by th
time he grows old enough to have a
You might say that there is a plentiful
supply of sea food an dthat a fish diet is
more wholesome than meat, but unless
Congress appropriates more money for the
Department of Fisheries and is more
watchful to prevent piracy among the fin-
ney tribe, the only kind of a lobster and
crab your boy will see fifty years from
now will be the preserved ones in the mn
wms. There was a time when the great
coastal plantations of Virginia and the
Carolinas got much of their wealth from
the sea, the great seines scooping in countless millions of shad and herring. One
seine alone in the Potomac River is reported to have taken 126,000 shad in one
season. Not long ago the year's catch
fell to 3,000 shad, which is less than used
to be taken at one haul by the seine. The
shamelessness of the Western Salmon
Fisheries is fit to go hand in hand in general unholiness with the American Lumbering operation. Last year the salmon
hatcheries on some streams could not get
any eggs for their hatcheries. This means
that each such stream is going barren,
barren forever, because salmon return
only to the stream which bore them. Your
baby will pay for all this in due time.
What are you doing for him on your
own farm? You chuck him under the
chin, swell with pride when you say "My
son, my heir!" and then go out and practice a system of farming that will impoverish the soil to the extent that it will not
pioduee enough wheat to supply him with
bread fifty years from now. The National Conservation Commission say in
their report: "Neither the increase in
acreage nor the yield per acre has kept
pace with our increase in population."
This statement, is nothing less than a formal notice that the people of this country
must adopt better agricultural methods or
suffer the prodigal's fate. It is up to
Jou to do your individual part by selecting
better seed, by a more perfect rotation, by
increasing humus content, by maintaining
the supply of potash, phosphoric acid and
nitrogen. It is absolutely impossible to
do the last named by using barn yard
Manures alone. Commercial fertilizers
must be resorted to, purchased in an intel
ligent manner and used at the proper season. Your weak straw, your scabby potatoes, yonr undersized poorly colored and
poorly flavored fruit is a warning that
your potash supply is practically exhausted, and you need to replenish your fields
by buying moro in the form of muriate or
sulphate of potash. When the leaves
sre pale green and the straw short, your
soil is hungry for nitrogen; therefore, if
you have no green crop to turn under, you
should pay the nitrate or some other,
agency a call.
Just now there is much talk of the "yellow peril," anti-Japanese leigislation, etc.,
enclosed iti an air-tiglit eell which remains
sealed until the process of fertilization is
complete. This shows that the pollen
carried from one plant to another by the
wind, insects or other forces never reaches
the female part of the flower until long
after fertilization has taken place, and
the embryo plant is well along in its development.
After this discovery successful crossing
was possible. Now plants are more easily changed to any desired type by breeding than are animals, and once we fix the
type in cereals, nature with her immutable
law  of    self-fertilization    preserves  that
but unless there is a check put on this
wholesale robbery of timber, mineral and
especially soil fertility, your son will see
China-like conditions here in America.
Agaiii agreeing with you that your son,
born day before yesterday, is the most remarkable infant that ever happened, let
me ask the question: "What is he going
to eat if you continue this extravagant expenditure of his inheritance?"
D. I. Duncan.
»  ■  i
Improving the Oats Crop.
At the National Corn Show, Omaha,
Mr T. R. Garton of Cheshire, England,
explained what the breeding of oats
means and does as based upon the experience of his family. The following ideas
are taken from his talk:
AVe suffer great loss every year by not
having better seed and better farm plants.
Practically all the pure breeds of live
stock have descended from a mixed ancestry by skillful crossing of distinctly
different animals to fuse and establish the
desirable points of each parent into one
r.ew type. We find that the same principles of breeding can greatly improve our
farm crops. Plant breeding is not a
matter of mystery but merely an intense
application of the principles that govern
plant life.
— A Great Discovery. —-
Contrary to the tormer teaching of
botanists. Mr. John Garton .after years
of experiments to prosluce new varieties,
discovered that self-fertilization is the
eommon rule among cereals (corn being an
exception). The microscope cle:irly revealed that the organs of propagation are
type in its integrity.
In  plaut  improvement  simple  selection
ot the preserving of varieties    that seem
superior, is the first method employed.
— Regeneration of a  Plant Variety —
Regeneration is cross breeding which
does not upset the true character of the
plant, as the crossing of a variety grown
under hardy conditions or superior environment with the same variety grown
under less favorable conditions. This is
on the same principle as improving a herd
of Shorthorn cattle by using a sire of outstanding merit, possessing remote blood
relation but so far removed that his use
is practically an out-cross. The Regenerated Swedish Oat was produced by mating an American Swedish Select Oat with
a superior Swedish oat grown under more
favorable environment, as of New Zealand or Europe.
— Increasing Yield 20 to 50 Per Cent. —
In public trials the regenerated breeds
have out-yielded all the original varieties.
The Canadian report shows a 20 per cent
increase; thirteen tests by the Irish bureau of agriculture, an increase of 35 per
cent; similar trials in England and Scotland, -47 to 52 per cent.
— Simple and   Composite Crossing —
The third method is simple crossing of
d'stinct varieties, as the mating of a
Swedish Select Oat with the Kherson, to
blend the desirable characteristics of the
two varieties into one new variety.
Composite crossing means the blending
of the desirable qualities of several varieties into one new plant. For example,
take eight varieties, the Swedish Select
and Black Tartarian as the first pair for
mating; Banner ansl White Tartarian as
the second pair; Yellow Side oats and Yellow Kherson as the third pair, and Sixty-
Day and Clydesdale as the fourth pair.
Mating these as indicated we have the
second season four varieties instead of the
original   eight. Mating   these   four   in
pairs we have the third season two varieties, which will produce, the fourth season, one progeny that combines the blood
of the eight varieties. Wonderful varies tion may result from such crossing, and
from the hundreds of distinct types produced, a few may be extremely prolific
and worth permanently fixing by years of
selection.
One hundred vareties of oats were collected from Great Britain, Germany, Russia,
Hungary. Greece, Italy, Australia, China.
North America and other parts of the
world, including a few varieties of wild
oats.
— Several Kinds of Improvement. —
The progeny resulting from mating
tlese varieties show differences in length
of straw, yield of grain, period in ripening, thickness of skin or husk, in color,
shape and hardness, enabling them to resist frost, mildews and blights. The
wild varieties proved especially valuable
plants for cross-breeding. The wild oats
added strength of straw hardness and rust
resistance to increased yields. The
Chinese oat-grass in composite crossing
brought about types that possess as many
as 21 grains in a spilket and show remarkable thinness of husk.—Illinois Farmers'
Institute, per Arthur J. Bill,
Fertilizers on  the Free  List.
Fertilizers and materials used in the
manufacture of fertilizers have tlways
been on the free list. Owing to misunderstanding of their uses two fertilizing materials, basic slag and sulfate of ammonia,
were made dutiable under the McKinley
act. The pending bill places them on the
free list.
There are no mines or mills in the I'nited Stasles producing potash salts, nor is
there any probability of any such mines
being discovered. Potash salts are used
almost exclusively as fertilizers or components of fertilizers. What is not used
ir» agriculture is used as raw material in
chemical works. Potash salts compete
with    no American product.
There are 77,000,000, acres of swamp
land in the United States suitable for agriculture. These lands are being rapidly
reclaimed by drainage. In from two to
ten years these lands become unprofitable
unless potash is applied to them.
The farmers of the United States spend
annually for fertilizers about $100,000,-
000. A duty on potash salts will increase
the cost of the farmer's fertlizer without
increasing his crop, or conferring any
benefit on either the producer or consumer
of farm products. ' The proposed duty
vvculd add about one cent per bushel to
the cost of producing both wheat and corn.
Should the duty result in the refusal of
the farmers to buy fertilizers containing
potash salts on account of the increase in
the price, the wheat yield iu the sections
east of the Mississippi river would be reduced  about thirty  per cent.
Therefore, potash salts should not be
left on the list of materials on which a
retaliatory duty may be placed.
A leading German electrical company, it
is said, will shortly erect a plant for the
building of airships and aeroplanes.