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FARHERand PLANT BREEDER.
Work of Assistant Secretary Willet M. Hays.
OUT ELLIOTT MITCHELL.
The country hu realized for eome
time that it hai In its Secretary of
Agrlculturo a real tanner; Ua new
Assistant Secretary la likewise *
farmer, and union all reoorda and
pcaiance* are false, a good one.
has tho valuable faculty of knowing
how to do things, and at the same time
to be able to tell others how. This
Assistant Secretary Is Willett U. Hayi.
Professor Hays was Secretary Wilson’s
choice for Aulstant Secretary, after
Colonel Brigham's death, and It ap
pears as though Professor Hays’ ap
pointment was anything but a political
one. There Is a One entente cordial
between these two broad-gauge men
and the work of the Department has
taken a distinct forward sweep since
Mr. Hays' appointment He put his
shoulder to the wheel at once and
seemed able to dispense with the usual
two or three months of "breaking In,"
which an Assistant Secretary for a big
department usually undergoes. He fits
his environment well wherever be hap
pens to be. Instructing his classes In
the field at the University of Minne
sota, located Just between the Twin
Cities, you would have suspected that
Professor Hays seldom visited St. Paul
or Minneapolis; on the other hand.
When you see him walking along the
streets in Washington you would
scarcely expect him to be able to drop
a straight furrow. But In coming city
ward and wearing a crease In his
trousers he has not lost bis straight-
gratifying results. The average wheat
yield of the Northwestern State!—
Minnesota and the Dakotas—ranges, as
I remember, from thirteen to fifteen
bushels to the aclb, which Is about the
average for the entire United' States.
Increase this say one-fourth by simply
using this new seed, as In the case of
thousands of acres In the State of Min-
nesota, and figure out the gain to the
oountry. And this is only from re
sults already obtained In seed improve
ment.
Tp Double the Wheat Yield.
■ The whmt breeding work Is going
on steadily, and Professor Hays says
that he has probably not yet reached
the hall-way point In increased yield.
In the work of simple wheat breeding
by selection each grain Is planted and
cultivated separately, a thousand of
them In rows, each one like A tree, and
then the best ten heads are selected
from those thousand plants, and the
plumpest grains again selected from
those ten heads. Then you are ready
for the planting of next year. And so
on for ten years. In hybridization
there are many moro pains taken.
Here the best specimens of two differ-
ant varieties are crossed upon dach
other by band pollination and the com
plex system of selection simultaneously
carried on year by year. But the labor
Is more than Justified by the results.
Other experiments have been success
fully carried along under Professor
Hoys with the Idea of changing tho
nstltuents of the crops—putting more
protein or muscle-producing elements
in the grain and forage crops Just as
the beet grower works to put more
sugar Into bis beets.
Practical farm Teaching.
AH this work Is technical; It might
be the doings of the recluse. The
other side of Professor Hays’ make-up
stands forth when he gets out on a
swing ’round the circle and preaches
what be knows; when he distributes
literature and delivers lectures to the
farmers in halls or from the rear plat
forms of trains—a practical educator.
More agriculture In our national sys
tem of education Is bis slogan, practi
cal farm education that will enable a
man to farm-better and make moro
monoy at It He urges the consolida
tion of the small rural schools—bring
ing four or fire of them Into one good-
sited school where more competent
teachers can be hired And a much
broader education afforded. The In
teresting thing about his boys at the
University of Minnesota was that they
were there to study plants and ani
mals and then go back to the farm.
They were at a college, to be sure, but
by breeding. And Professor Hays
drew a parallel, step by step, between
the Improvement of the Wealthy apple,
tracing Its history and Improvement
from the tree developed by Peter M.
Hidden of Minnesota, and Messenger,
an Imported English racing horse,
which became the leading progenitor
of the American racing or trotting
, WHEAT ROOT SYSTEM,
horse, and he thus showed that plants
were capable of the same development
by breeding Aa are animals. «
If you are Interested In learning
something about plant breeding you
might write to ydur Congressman for
s copy of Bulletin 29 of the Department
of Agriculture, or probably Professor
Hays himself hu a few extra copies.
HYBRIDIZING WHEAT IN THE FIELD.
forward way of taking people at their
word and believing Just what they eay.
I asked him for a photograph to ac-
company this letter, remarking that I
Would Ilka to have one of him oa he
looked oa I test aaw him "down on the
farm" (he would bo arrestod It ha went
around Wuhlngton looking oa he waa
than), and he gravely responded that
he had no photograph auch aa I wanted,
hut that he would send mo one taken
at a later date.
Breeding up Plants.
The work which has made Profeaaor
Hays most famous Is his plant-breeding
experiments. He is the wlsard of farm
plant Ufa u Luther Burbank la of bar
tlculture. He hu taken wheat and
bred It np, by selection and hybrldUa-
tloa covering periods of five and ten
years, so that tho Improved strain
yields probably 16 to SO per cent
heavier. ‘He has done the same with
flax and with timothy and with com
and other (arm crops. This hu en
tailed the most painstaking work, con
tinued year after year, but always with
they wero taking a sort of blgh school
agricultural course, many of them lor
one or two years, and were not figur
ing on getting a diploma and then
leaving the farm and ntrlking out for
eome city, u Is unfortunately the hle-
tory of eo many of the graduate* of the
agricultural colleges.
Working through the Boys.
*Do your new methods stick with the
boys when they get back on the old
farm?" I asked. "How do tho boys’
fathers taka It?”
"Ob, they think at first when the
boys go home and want to make
changes that wo are teaching them a
lot of new-fangled noUons. After the
first year perhaps they let the boy take
a try on a small scale Then with the
good results shown by the trial they
are more than likely to come around
by the second or third year and there
le apt to bo quite a shaking up of
methods In tho work on the old plnco.
You can’t expect to make much head
way teaching the older farmers, but
you can get at them through the boys.*'
A WHEAT FLOWER (ENLARGED).
A seventy-page bulletin which Pro
fessor Hays wrote for the Department
of Agriculture some four yean ago on
the subject of plant breeding brought
his work Into great prominence. In It
he outlined numerous poastbllitlea of
increased production of nit crops
through plant brooding. Evanr man
know* that tho American trotting
horn frceiK.v,aadorfnllT Improved
FROM POLE TO EQUATOR.
Arctic Eaplorer Now Penetrating
the Heart of Africa.
Whether in the frigid grip of the
north polar country or the burning
■and* of tropical Africa, the Duke of
Abruzxl seems equally at home. This
Italian scientist, who made euch a high
reputation by his recent arctic explore*
tlona, has started for unknown regions
of Central Africa with a fully equipped
expedition, proposing to explore the
Ruwenzorl Mountains and climb their
hlgheet peaks. This range crosses the
Equator In the vicinity of the Lakes
Nyaasa, whence flow the waters of the
Nile. It la some eighty miles long, a
vaet pile of bine- rock burled upward
In some ancient convulsion of Nature.
The English explorer, Stanley, found
r.uwcnzorl twenty years ago. It was
pointed out to him aa a big salt moun
tain. Aa the sun ascended. It assumed
shape before hie view—a great moun
tain clothed In snow—and It took him
weeks of travel to find out that tt be-
longed to a range. Stanley believed
that the Ruwenzorl range and the
Mountains of the Moon, which can be
found on old maps, are identical. Ac
cording to the old geographies, the
waters of the Nile riao in the Moun
tains of the Moon.
The Duke of Abruzxl baa a difficult
task before him to conquer tbe Moun
tains of tbe Moon, even though their
summits fall somewhat short of that
orb. A large quantity of supplies must
be carried on the backs of natives, and
though the start will be made In the
moat torrid of tropical climes, tho party
will soon ascend Into temperate regions
and then trudge for months In a truly
polar climate.
Milk la Tow Tea.
"The use of plenty of milk with tea,”
says The Lancet (London), “Is n wla*
precaution apd must be regarded aa a
sound physiological proceeding, since
the protelds of milk destroy * strin
gency and probably prevent tbe other
wise Injurious action of tannin on the
mucous membrane of tho stomach. In
the Intestinal Juice the protelds era
separated and the tannin probably com
bines with tho sodium salts. The Im
moderate drinking of- tea Is an un
questionable evil, but, on tho whole,
we are Inclined to think that the evils
of tea-drinking have been exaggerated;
The real difficulty le to convince people
that a lightly drawn lnfuilon gives
them their money’s worth.”
6R0VIH OF RAILROADS.
INTERSTATE COMMERCE COM
MISSION PUCES PAR VALVE
AT it MILLIONS.
Mors than Three Quarters of a Billion
Dollars Paid Out Annually by tbe
companies in Salaries to Over a
Million Regular Employees.
Tbe annual report of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, giving- rail
road statistics at the end of ICO*,
shows tbe enormous total of 297,078
mtlea of railroad In the United
States. More recent railroad construc
tion baa brought this figure up to
more than 800,000 miles. Tbe num
ber of railroad corporations Included
In tbe report waa 2,10*. That the
railroads are prosperous la shown by
tho fact that only 1,323 miles of road
were In tbe hands of receivers.
The total number of locomotives In
use was *0,743 and of cars, exclusive
of those owned by private companies.
1.796.000. Of these, 89,000 were In
the passenger service and 1,092,000
engaged Id hauling freight Prac
tically all the passenger locomotives
and ears were equipped with air
brakes and automatic couplers, and
the same was true of freight locomo
tives and a large majority of freight
cars.
The number of persons on the pay
rolls of railroads In tbe United
8tates was 1,200,000, with annual
wages and salaries amounting to
6817.006.000.
The par value of the amount of
railway capital was 613.218,124,000, or
s capitalization of 601,200 per mile.
Six Per Cent. Dividends.
Of tbe total capital stock out-
standing, 42 per cent paid no
dividends. The amount of dividends
declared during the year was
6221.941.000. or a little over 0 per
cent on dividend-paying stock. The
number of passengers reported as car
ried by the railways In tbe year waa
715.419.000. Tbe number of tons
of freight carried was 1,300,890,000, an
Increase over the previous year of over
five and one-half mlllloa tons.
UNEXPLODED PROJECTILES.
Danger Lurks Thercln-Chlness
Inquisitiveness Proves Fatal.
The dispatch coming from the Far
East of the killing of nearly a dozen
people by tbe explosion of n mine near
Cbefoo. brings to light Incidents going
to abow that the land in the vicinity
of Port Arthur la a fertile field of un
exploded land mines and shells.
When tbe Russians were shelling
the Japanese poaltiona near tbe vil
lage of Sulsblylng many shells fell In
tho localities desired by the gun
lolnters, bat the ordnance waa of
snch a defective quality that they
failed to explode. A good lot of these
projectiles have lain where they fell,
objects of the careful Inveatlgmtlon
and Inspection of the wondering and
speculative villagers. On one occa
slon a dispute arose as to tbe danger
In these Innocent-looking pieces of
Iron, and a bold native, to prove bis
contention that they were harmless,
as well aa his bravery, struck one of
the missiles with a big stone. This
was going a little too far, and unfor
tunately he bit It on tbs nose, tbs ten
der spot of projectiles. It exploded
with a terrible noise, killing ten of the
tntereeted snectators.
Another Chinese discovered a then
wbleb had found s retting piece In
tbs fresh water lake Just behind the
Russian naval dockyard of Port Ar-
thur. At that tlmo the lake was one
mats of Ice end the head of the shell
Waa Just (ticking np through the
frozen meet. John Chinaman was at
tracted by tbe shining brass screw at
tho top and went out on the Ice to try
to get It off. Good metal was worth
baring In tbe land of the Oriental,
and this le what attracted him. He
ueed an old nail to remore the tempt
ing object Ills Inquisitiveness was a
dear lesson for his family, although
the pieces were never found.
SCHOOL GARDEN WORK.
The Department of Agriculture Is
Just Issuing an attractive Illustrated
bulletin on school gardens. In his In
troductory, Dr. Galloway, Chief of the
Bureau of Plant Industry, says, that
as agriculture in its broadest sense is
the primary basis of wealth In the
United States, tt seems essential that
efforts should be made In our general
educational system to bring early to the
mind of the child facte which will he
of value oa emphasizing the Importance
and necessity of agricultural work.
There la np better way to do this, ho
says, than through a well-managed and
well conducted system of school garden
training which early awakens Interest
In an Industry which means much to
tbe future prosperity of the country.
When the work of handling Congres
sional free seed distribution waa turned
over to the Bureau of Plant Industry
several year* ego efforts were made to
arouse Interest on tbe part of members
of Congress with large city constituen
cies, whs might be able to encourage
tbs school garden movement through
the distribution of specially prepared
•ted packages. Since then mUlIons of
packages of seeds have been distributed
In this wsy In the cities, and the result
has been that much school garden work
has been organized and thqusands of
pupils have learned something of grow
ing plants. t
A small tract of land back of tho De
partment ot Agriculturo Building has
been set aside for model school garden
work.
The bnUetln In question has Illustra
tions ot a number of successful school
gardens In various cities, and has plans
outlined for carrying on such work.
Tbe following Interesting paragraph Is
quoted from the bulletin on tho work at
Hamptoa Institute, Virginia:
“When It was announced two yean
ago to tbe children of the Whittier
school that they were to be taught gar
dening on a two-acre tract the new*
was received with mixed feelings.
While tbe little ones were pleased, the
older girls thought tt a disgrace to
work In the fields. After two years
there are no pupils In the school whs
do not look forward with eagerness to
this work. If It Is necessary to be ab
sent from school, they think tt must
not be am gardening day.*
Kirk’s
AMERICAN CROWN
SOAP
*tft grata toap, consistency ot past* a perfect
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Crown Hoap in stock, send ue his name and
address and we will aee that your wants are
supplied. Put np in ttfi Sand 80 lb palls.
James S.Kirk& Company
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