Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1918 — The Neighborhood Corner. [ARTICLE]

The Neighborhood Corner.

A Department of Farm Welfare Conducted by County Agent Stewart Learning. - Jasper County Man Honored. C. P. Moody, well known farmer of Barkley township,. was elected district vice president of the Indiana Cattle Breeders’ Association at the annual meeting in Lafayette, December 15th. In spite of extremely cold weather over 200 feeders attended the convention. A heavy run of cattle during the winter with a shortage next summer, was predicted. Among the tests carried on by the experiment station, assisted by the association, will be a comparison of the value of com and soybean silage with other feeds. Many leading farmers are using either soybeans 'hr cowpeas to supplement the com in their silage and the. outcome of this trial will be watched with interest. Doing Their Bit. It takes a good farmer to grow 70 bushels of com on an acre, ■ but this yield was exceeded by seven of the boys, who joined the County Com club last spring. The boys worked hard and faithfully all summer in spite of unfavorable weather conditions and will be rewarded for their efforts in the form, of substantial premiums. -—— ' —— The awards will be based upon yield, quality or corn, judging and composition. The yields of the ten highest constestants are as follows: Charles Maurice Reed, 97.51. Charles Waling, 88.37. Charles Stevens, 86.50. Ivan Blankenship, 86.00. Arthur Krueger, 78.90. Alva' Weiss 73.67. Earl Parks, 72.47. Üby Golden, 64.00. Lester Alter, 56.49. Clermont Stack, 45.73. The first and second premiums are platform scales, 3rd and 4th cultivators and the fifth a double shovel plow; Equally valuable and practical rewards have been provided for the members of the pig, poultry and canning and breadmaking clubs. War Time Orchard Management. The orchard on the farm is usually the first thing to be neglected. Trees of this county bore abundantly last season but the fruit was of such poor quality as to render it practically worthless. Much of the work of keeping an orchard in good condition can be done in the winter time and certainly the present prices of fruit would justify the farmers in giving his trees a thorough pruning and spraying. If, however, the farmer feels thqj he cannot give his trees it would be better to reduce the number to a very few and put something else on the ground. A neglected orchard is not only a loss to its owner but it is a menace to every other orchard in the neighborhood by serving as a breeding place for insects and diseases. This would be a good time to consider whether or not you can make your orchard pay. If not, the sooner it gets the ax the better.

Farmers* Club. The North Union Farmers’ Club meets at Virgie Saturday eyening, January sth. An unusually good program has been arranged. A special program will be given by the ladies of the South Marion Farmers’ Club Thursday evening, December 10 at the New Consolidated School. This program will be in charge of a committee consisting of: Miss Nora Daugherty, Mrs. Paul Wood, Miss Linton, Miss Isabel Martin., - , - This Conimittee has been working very hard and they have secured an excellent program to which all persons are cordially invited. Fletcher Smith carried on a little experiement in hog production last summer for his own satisfaction. Out of his spring crop he selected 10 pigs, one entire litter of eight and two from another litter. When weaned he turned these into a two acre alfalfa field and fed them all the corn and tankage they wanted in self feeders. The hogs could not begin to keep the alfalfa down and Mr. Smith cut off four tons of hay from the pasture. The hogs were sold Septembr 10, at the age of six months and 3 days and weighed 198 pounds CftClla Mr. Smith submits the following statement: Receipts: 1980 lbs. hogs at 17c5336.60 Expenses: % cost of keeping 1% brood sows at $45 per year .... 28.00 2001 b. tankage at $3.75 .... 7.50 Damage to alfalfa meadow . . 10.00

$36.50 Return for 100 bu. corn . . $300.60 Return per bu. of corn,s3.oo He reports that the rest of his crop of 31 hogs was placed on corn and bluegrass pasture until Sept. 15, when the hogs were turned into a field of corp and soy beans, supplemented with tankage in a self feeder and left until December 15th. These were then 8% months old, weighed 196 pounds and brought $16.50 per cwt. As a number of brood sows were fed along with these hogs Mr. Smith has no accurate record of their costs. He is convinced, however, that this method is less economical than the use of legumnious pasture. . These figures indicate the value of protein supplements.’ With the mounting prices of feeds, the successful pbrk production cannot do without, alfalfa, clover, tankage or other feeds of this class. To further substantiate the results of this work, Mr. Smith, Joseph Kolhoff and I. F. Meader will conduct tankage demonstrations and keep a record of feed costs an d pork produced. Their results will be watched with interest. The Fertilizer Situation. After drainage, proper and adequate fertilization is the most important factor in crop production.

Our farmers, looking forward hopefully to a good crop year in 1918 are confronted with a fertilizer shortage. What are they going to do to derive the greatest benefits from the material that they can secure? The first step will be to utilize all manure, and plant residues that can be secured. On the black soils of the southern part of the county this should ,be supplemented with acid phosphate or mixed , frtilizers with as high per cent of acid phosphate as may be obtained. '■ On the light and dark sands and muck soils, potash should show a profit especially on corn. The highest obtainable potash fertilizers at present are the, 0-8-3 and 0-5-5. The great majority of farmers who used these last year seem to have been well repaid, in spite of the early frosts. This would be a good year for the farmer to start a “permanent fertii , ity” scheme on. his farm. Lime i clover and livestock will go a long i way towards solving the soil fertility problem and the sooner we realize the economy of this system the more progress will we make. Clover seed is high but many of our lighter soils will never be at their best until they are supplied with more organic matter and nitrogen.