Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1917 — Page 2

LOW-HEADED TREES HANDY FOR ORCHARD

Plant trees but one year old. You can head them as low as you desire, •nd in these days of spraying we must hare low-headed trees, and low heads •re better in many respects. The steins ■re soon shaded and protected from sunscald; they do not blow over so badly, and tn sleet storms in winter the ground catches the limbs before they can break. They are so easily harvested that many large orchardists •re now planting only this kind. The Illustration shows how small a tree can be planted and how lowly pruned. The first pruning of the apple should be done when the tree is ope year old. Cut back to within two or two and one-half feet of the ground. The young tree will then throw out small shoots from the ground up, When these are two or three inches long, all should be rubbed oft except from five to six of those near the top, which are left to form the head of the tree. The sec-ond-pruning consists in cutting these back to about twelve inches. Two year

PRACTICAL PLAN FOR LAYING OUT ORCHARD.

INFORMATION PICKED UP IN THE ORCHARD

Paying Proposition for Every Farm Any of Common Fruits Grow Successfully. If the tops of your trees are nipped by excessive cold this winter do not chop down the trees at first sight. Wait until the leaves start, prune off all dead wood and cultivate the ground thoroughly. This will put new life ih your trees. Some people seem to think that in order to spray their orchards they must have a big two-horse outfit and pay out a lot of money to start. Nothing of the kind! An orchard of 100 trees can quickly be sprayed by a barrel sprayer set on a sled, drawn by a single horse. , Scraping out the dead wood and filling the cavity with cement will be the means of saving valuable trees that would otherwise be destroyed by rot. We cannot paint peaches a nice lustrous color without a liberal use of potash. Plow the peach orchard in the spring and keep down the weeds and grasses until September, then sow rye or crimson clover to plow under next spring. Elevated sites are desirable for peach orchards; some of the oldest peach trees are on the tops of hills. The application of too much fresh manure stimulates an unhealthy growth of wood and leads to winter killing of many of the peach buds. A few mulberry trees set out around the fruit orchard will divert the attention of birds and afford a windbreak for the fruit trees. Poultry and plum growing make a nice combination for the small grower who wishes to make use of his poultry yards. ZZZZZZ The human eye is the great fruit buyer and we must put our fruit up in neat attractive packages if we care to obtain the best prices on the market. A small orchard is a paying proposition for every farm. Fruit raised at home is better than that purchased from some other man’s farm or from u fruit stand. _ *

Any of the common fruits grow successfully on almost every farm. Appears, peaches, plums, cherries and grapes should be the principal fruits. v The orchard should be on an elevated location. It is not wise to set trees in a “flat.” In low places late frost often kills fruit. Soils should be carefully selected for the orchard. Select soils best suited to the fruits planted. Prepare the soil thoroughly before planting. The best method is to break as deeply as possible and follow with the harrow in order to pulverize. direct from a reliable nursery that is inspected regularly by state officials. It Is not desirable to deal with agents. Trees are propagated principally by budding and grafting. Seedling trees are undesirable, as they seldom produce good fruit. When plantlog trees, remove all injured limbs ana roots. Holes in which trees are placed should be large enough to allow the roots to take natural positions. Trees should be cultivated regularly. They respond to good treatment as well as any of the cultivated crops. Trees will not do well in poor' soil without a liberal supply of fertilizer.

old trees purchased from the nursery are usually headed back the first yeel** and come with -these first side shoots. In such cases, they should be shortened as above stated. The third year the new shoots which are left to form the main head of the tree should be shorttened back to about 16 inches. At this time it is also necessary to remove some of the side shoots in order to keep the growth from becoming too thick. Pruning the fourth season is similar to the third. The shape of the trees depends largely on the pruning which is given the first four years, so the work should be carefully done. After the f ourttryear there is not much need to shorten back the main branches unless one has grown much longer than the rest. In such cases, in order'to preserve the shape of the tree, they should be made as nearly even as possible. All the pruning after this consists mainly in keeping the tree thinned out and also dead and interfering branches removed.

An application of fertilizer often means the difference between a good crop and no fruit. For the first two or three years after setting the tT6es, two or three rows of any of the low-growing crops can be grown between the rows of trees. Grain should always be avoided. Leguminous cover crops, sown regularly, will take the place of a large amount of the fertilizer necessary for the orchard. Sow them in September and turn in early spring. Pruning carefully every year will prolong the life and increase the value of any fruit tree. The diseases of the trees and fruits are very numerous. The only method of controlling them Is by spraying regularly every year. The best varieties should always be selected for the orchard. Select them in such a manner as to provide fruit the entire year.

PREPARING SEEDBED FOR ALFALFA PLANT

Plant Cultivated Crop Year-or Two Earlier and Keep Soil Well Conditioned. (By M. A. BEESON, Department of Ayronomy, Oklahoma A. and M. College. Stillwater.) In preparing the seedbed for alfalfa you should begin a year or two before you wish to seed by planting a culticated crop, keeping the ground wellcultivated and free from weeds. Corn is a good crop to precede alfalfa. The critical period of alfalfa is the first six weeks of the life of the plant. The ground should be plowed early and deep. It should be free from weeds and as free as possible from weed seed. It should be well tilled, but firm up to the surface when seeded. Fall seeding in September without a nurse crop is considered the surest method to follow. However, if there is not a favorable season and sufficient moisture tn (he fall, you may sow at corn or cot-ton-planting time in the spring. From 12 to 15 pounds of seed per acre is ample if the seedis clean and strong. When it is sown with a grain drill attachment, on well-prepared seedbed, and when sown carefully and not too deep, from ten to twelve pounds of seed is quite sufficient. The seed is small and does npt need to be sown too deep—just so you get It into the moist dirt.

WEED SEEDS ARE SELF-SOWN

Some of the Most Numerous Are Ragweed, Snapdragon, Dock, Barnyard Grass and Tumbleweed. _ Thousands upon thousands,' millions and millions of weed seeds are selfsown each summer, when these weed pests are left Undestroyed. ’ Some of the most numerous of these seeds ■ are the ragweed, snapdragon, dock, barnyard grass, lamb’s quarter, plantain, thistles and tumbleweed. Their growth next year means more labor in the of crops, not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors as well. 'A little extra hard work in keeping such plants from seeding this year will save us and our neighbors much labor next season. We know this to be true, of course, but sometimes we put off cutting weed pests too long. Strange how fast the pesky things do grow and go to seed I

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. TND.

FARMING IN 1840

Amazing Changes in Living Conditions Are Shown. In Early Days the Farm Produced Practically Everything Family Consumed, Food and Clothing. In view of the modern-day high cost of . living and of the many wonderful advances made in the last century —■ the railroad, the telegraph, the ocean cable, the telephone, the automobile and farm and labor-saving machinery these inventions have necessarily wrought in all directions In almost every. walk of life —it may be of interest to recall living; on a farm in the year 1840. The farm I have in mind, writes Warner Miller in the New York Times, consisted of 200 acres. The stock was 15 cows, a yoke of oxen, 20 sheep, ap old white horse, a dozen pigs, 50 hens, 10 geese, a few ducks and a flock of turkeys. The farm produced practically everything the family consumed, both clothing and food. The sheep furnished the wool, which was carded at a “fulling” mill and made into rolls for spinning. At home it was spun into yam and woven on a hand loom. There were no ready-made clothes; all clothes were made in the home. Several cows were killed each - year. There was a tannery near by, where the skins were tanned. A shoemaker made our boots. They were usually too small and gave much trouble and pain. The flax, cut and laid dowp until the fiber loosened from the woody part, was put through a heckle worked by hand and then spun and woven. ° This strong linen doth was used for summer clothing, towels, etc. The seed was saved to make flaxseed tea (a medicine), or poultice for bruises. For food we had everything needed —fresh meat, potatoes, beets, cabbages, parsnips, pumpkins for pies, apples, w’hich lasted from fall to spring; cider, which gave us vinegar or produced a cider-champagne.

Half a dozen pigs killed in the fall gave us plenty of ham and bacon, lard, There were plenty of chickens for roasting and potpies and eggs, turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas, occasionally a roast goose with apple sauce. * From the cows’ milk we made both butter and cheese. What butter and cheese the family did pot consume was Sold in a near-by village._ Butter usually brought 12% cents a pound. Cheese was also made at home, as there were neither creameries nor cheese factories. Cheese was sold at 5 to 6 cents a pound. All eggs not used went to the village store and brought 10 cents to 12 cents a dozen. Every farmer made his own soap. It was called “soft soap.” It was soft, but very strong, and took the dirt off your hands and face very thoroughly, and some skin, also, unless you were careful in your ablutions. Little was heard of the world at large. Twenty miles from the railroad the great four-horse stagecoach came every day, bringing the mails. There were few newspapers or magazines. .The telegraph was unknown. The Atlantic cable dldjnpt succeed until 1866. There were only 23 miles of railroad ip 1830. ■

Admiral Beatty’s Hero.

Go into Admiral Beatty’s parlor and glance at the line of books which lie on the table, says the London Daily Telegraph. It Is “Nelson’s Dispatches.” Look on his desk and you will find a bust of the great admiral. The prints and pictures on the walls here commemorating great deeds of the navy also are lit with the light of the navy’s greatest inspiration. Here is the, dinner table of the captain of a famous ship of the first battle squadron. Note the centerpiece—a silver statuette. Need you ask whose it is? Nelson stands shining before him as sitting he drinks the king’s health in the way of the navy, and the statuette is his mascot. Only once did he leave it behind, and the ships had trouble. That was on maneuvers and never since has Nelson been forgotten. His servant, who knew the value the captain attached to it, asked before the battle of Jutland if he would stow the statuette safely away. “No,” replied the captain, “he must go through it.” And go through it the little statuette did, and the ship that carried him went through it, too, and earned fresh laurels.

A “Dickens Spot" Going.

It Is, of course, impossible to preserve all such places, but one hears with regret that “development” is to claim another Dickens landmark in London. It is an old house, overhanging the river in the neighborhood of Limehouse Hole, and was formerly occupied by the Waters family, who, for generations, there carried on the business of lightermen. The house is reached from the shore at low water by means ot a flight of wooden stairs, and a recent .writer relates how Richard Waters used t« recount, with great interest, the visits which Charles Dickens paid to his house when engaged in writing “Our Mutual Friend.’ In order to secure the true local color for his riverside scenes, the novelist spent many days in the little bow windowed room overlooking. the Thames, "writing away as if for dear life,” as Mr. Walters would say.—Chrlstiai Science Monitor, -■•"k ■ \

WARFARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Armies of Future Will Have Strong Artillery and Few Infantrymen, Each Heavily Armed. The army of the future will have an immense equipment in artillery; the Infantry will be few in number, but heavily armed, each man with a machine gun, capable or holding a width of front that otherwise would need a company armed with rifles. Trench warfare, at any rate on the scale that has been witnessed Ip France, will disappear, for the airplane will overleap the trenches and substitute a war of movement for a war of fixed posltions, says H. Sidelbotham in the Atlantic. The atrpiane witt be used, not only as at present for reconnaissance work, signaling . ranges to the artillery, for raids on communications, and for bombing a retreating army, but also for the transport, on a large scale, of Infantry. One can easily imagine airplanes sufficiently large to carry 50 or even 100 infantrymen. A hundred such planes could transport an army of 10,000 with Incredible rapidity to any point behind the hostile line desired by the general in command. Such movements will make trench lines obsolete. The whole art of war will have to be rewritten from its elements. The development of the uses of the airplane will change the strategical and tactical direction of the war, from a game comparatively elementary, like draughts, into an elaborate and complicated game like chess, with greater variety of moves and endless possibilities of fresh combinations. Such a game will be too difficult to be fought with millions. With proper use of mechanical invention a company of men will be able to do the work of a division in this war. We shall go back to the days of small professional armies of long training and high technical equipment; the great general of the future will be he who is able to divine best all the possibilities of this new war movement, and military power will no longer depend on numbers, but on the genius of the direction and the technical accomplishments of a comparatively few human instruments.

A Novel Dinner Bell.

A camp cook whose only means of calling the members of” his party was pounding on a pan with a knife handle was unable to make them hear when they were fishing or hunting at any considerable distance from the camp. One of the party""toTwhoifrTie’ complained thereupon made what he called a “klepalo.” The “klepalo” was merely a piece of well-seasoned oak plank two inches thick, six .inches wide and four feet long. Through the center he bored a hole, passed a rope through it and suspended the plank from the branch of a tree. The cook “rang” the instrument by striking it with a mallet, first on one side and then on the other. The man who made the “klepalo” had seen similar contrivances in small Bulgarian villages, where they areused instead of church bells to call the people to worship. A test of the instrument used by the campers showed that in ordinary weather conditions it could be heard two miles.

The Zodiac.

The earliest astronomers, who were probably the shepherds and herdsmen of the old Sumerian civilization, noted that the sun appeared to make the circuit of the heavens in one year. This is merely an appearance, due to tthe revolution of the earth around the sun every 12 months. So they divided the belt of sky through which he appeared to travel into 12 divisions. One for each division or constellation was named for something which they fancied its shape indicated, as, Aries, the ram; Taurus, the bull, and so <>n. This belt of 12 constellations is called the zodiac, from the Greek word zoon, an animal. Various superstitions gradually grew up; among them, that each part 4 of the body was under the influence of a certain constellation, it influenced that part of the body. No sensible person believes any of this old-time superstition that the position of the heavenly bodies in these constellations affect either the body or plant life.

Exeunt Scarecrows.

One of the hiany improvements 'resulting, from permitting women tn run the farm instead of to waste out their lives cooking for the thresher crew is said to be the substitution, on Long Island sound at least, of tailors’ models for scarecrows. It is not likely that crows can distinguish a welldressed man from an ill-kempt one, but no matter how the dear girls slump around" when they are by themselves, they do like a man who dresses up well. Besides, the models undoubtedly improve the appearance of the place more than the scarecrows do. For one thing, a man with good clothes is not expected to engage actively in the farm work; one in his old clothes is out of p’ace idling until the evening chores ate done. —Buffalo Express.

Saving Food.

“ ‘Drink to me only with thine eyes’ —so said the poet.” “Well?” “What did the poet mean by that?” “An early example of food conservation.” ■

The Practical Girl.

He —You are the prettiest girl I ever saw. She—That sounds al! right, but I don’t know how much the compliment is worth until you tell me how many pretty glrls you have seen.

The Future of Anglo-American Relations

By Lord Northcliffe, Editor of the London Times

In the light of this huge conflagration we can all of us, on both sides of the Atlantic, rate at their true value the trumpery boundary disputes, the irrational and manufactured controversies, that for so long kept Great Britain and the United States apart. • They have now come together under the stress of an unprecedented crisis, but a crisis that will infallibly recur if they again fall apart. Far beyond anything else, the peace of the world depends on a working union between its great democracies, and especially between the United States and the British- empire. There will or there will not be a “next time” very largely as these federations succeed or fail in shaping their

future policies in common. But among the self-gov-erning English-speaking peoples policy follows opinion. It is not enough that their respective governments should act in concert They must be buttressed by that informed opinion which can only spring from sympathy, just as sympathy can only spring from knowledge. The United' States and the British empire must learn to know one another. They must be made conscious through all their diversified millions of that central unity of ideals and instinctive ways of looking at things and forms of government and society that binds them' closer than the peoples of any other two politically separated entities on earth. A simultaneous campaign of education in the United States on Great Britain and the British empire, and in Great Britain on the history and daily life and institutions and temper of the American commonwealth, would be a contribution of the first moment not merely to their present comradeship in arms, but to their destinies hereafter. American, Ambassador Page has made some fruitful suggestions as to the ways and means of this campaign. I may add another. It is that Great Britain should always be represented ip the United States by ambassadors of the same type as himself and his predecessor. .—’

What American Manhood Is Doing Today

Giant strides have been made toward active participation in the war. The raising and equipping-of-a-million men for duty on the field of battle is a tremendous task, and for a nation that had within its home boundaries three years ago a mobile army of less than 40,000 regulars it would seem to be a staggering undertaking. But back of our need of men and material were unparalleled growth and wonderful industrial development. . . . , —-> No other nation has the manhood or the machinery to make its power so effectively felt in war or peace as the United States. It has drawn from all quarters of the world men and women of aspiration, ambition and enterprise. England gave of her best blood to found our colonies and from that stock have come many of our most illustiious men, and what this nation has become as a land of the free and the home of the brave is due in large measure to the fact that “there yet lives the blood of England in our veins.” Many have come, too, from the land of Napoleon and from that heroic land where today the sons of France to glory.” From France we learn the lesson of the courage and heroism of those who in the hour of the nation’s crisis. “March on! March on! AU hearts resolved on Victory or Death.” Great, too, has been our heritage from the sturdy ■ German stock which has contributed valuable elements to our citizenship and whose sons have fought on opr bloodiest battlefields for freedom, for union and for liberty. Our arms have opened wide in welcome to the brave and the oppressed. From the green fields of Ireland and the historic homes of the Norsemen; from southern Europe and the slopes of the Ural mountains we have gathered here men hardened to toil and unafraid of great adventure. It has been our task, our contribution to “that far-off, divine event toward which the whole creation moves,” to mold them into one people, proud of our country and loyal to our flag; and the way the country has taken up the gage of battle for civilization and the liberty of the world shows that we have not failed as a nation builder.

Discipline of Military Training Is What American Youth Needs

By E. P. Ripley, President of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

We are the most lawless people of any civilized nation, and I believe the reason for this is the lack of discipline in the American home, and lax administration of our laws. Our children, as a class, resent discipline as an infringement upon their rights. They are headstrong and inconsiderate. Not being controlled and guided, they lack self-control. In failing to insist upon immediate and full compliance with reasonable requests, parents do their chil-C dren a grave injustice and make trouble for them and others in the years to come. Similarly our courts and juries are too lenient in punishing infractions of law. It is my opinion, after a long period of observation and study, that the best corrective of thus condition is compulsory military training. This would do more than any other agency to build up the physical manhood of young men, to instill patriotism, to create a respect for authority, to teach self-control and make the young man taking it more capable of adapting himself to meet any situation in life. It would broaden his vision, clarify his thinking, and bring home to him the fact that in a democracy every man owes his country an obligation that, whether rich or poor, he must pay in personal service and upon equal terms with every other young man in the country and must yield obedience to authority. The next important factor in the safeguarding of our country is the compulsory use of the franchise. Popular government, or, as the greatsouled Lincoln said, “a government of the people, for the people and the people,” requires that everyone-entitled tn vote shall do so. The price we must pay for liberty, if it is to continue, is training for citizenship plus sacrifice and service. ' •

By Thomas O. Marvin