Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1908 — PLANT LICE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PLANT LICE.

A Prize Formula For Freeing Vegetation of the Pests. A government report states that the Practical Counselor For Fruit and Garden Culture of Frankfort recently offered a prize for the best method of destroying plant lice, for which fiftyeight persons competed. The prize was awarded to the author of the following preparation: Quassia wood, two and one-half pounds, to be soaked over night in ten quarts of water and well boiled, then strained through a cloth and placed, with 100 quarts of w'ater, In a petroleum barrel, with five pounds of soft soap. The mixture is then ready for sprinkling on plauts infested with lice. Leaves, even those of peach trees, will not lie injured in the least by the solution, which can be kept covered in the barrel from spring to fall without deterioration. As soon ns lice appear the leaves should be sprinkled with the solution. If this is repeated several times the pests will disappear.

Culture of Tobacco. The application of shade and semishade to tobacco plauts has worked considerable of a revolution in this important crop. In Connecticut by the use of expensive shading methods it has been possible to greatly change the character of the crop, while in other sections by simpler methods of natural shading important modifications In type are attained. The department of agriculture reports a simple corn-to-bacco planting experiment at the Kentucky experiment station, covering a period of three years, where the tobacco was planted between rows of corn. The tobacco was of a finer texture and brought a higher price. Most soils which have been cropped to tobacco for any length of time are deficient in vegetable matter. At the same time commercial fertilizers are necessary in the production of such a highly specialized crop as tobacco, but it is only

by the incorporation with the soil year after year of a considerable amount of vegetable matter that its proper physical condition o:;n l>e maintained and improved. An Uleah tobaecu soil will produce heavy yields of almost any crop. Such a soil is stated by George T. McXeiss. tobacco expert of the department of agriculture, as one “of good depth, mellowness and water holding capacity, and in order to possess these a soil must contain a considerable quantity of decayed vegetable matter.” Without these basic conditions it is not to be expected that full benefit to tobacco or any other crop can be derived in this way.

■ An Expert Farmer. An exchange says a young man asks, “What would you advise a young man raised on a farm who cannot stand the dust of haying aud thrashing and is most too light to do heavy farm work to do?” Gardening, floriculture, poultry raising. civil engineering—all are good, if he is built for an expert, there are landscape gardening, inside deeoratiug and a number of other good occupations open to him. The young man who is built for an expert—that is, one who is naturally bright, careful and painstaking—will succeed in any of the above or in almost any other occupation. have to learn the business he selects. He cannot learn any of them from a “correspondence school.” He needs a practical Instructor who can show’ him, and the way to become an expert is to begin at the bottom and work up. thoroughly learning all the details as one goes along. The expert is always in demand, and he commands the top wages. Whatever vocation a young man goes into, he should be thorough as he goes along, always keeping bis eyes open for better ways of doing the work he has In hand. All vocations are crowded with ordinary workers, but there’s still lots of room In the upper ranks.

COOLEY HYBRID TOBACCO