Oklahoma Farmer (Guthrie, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 37, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 11, 1905 Page: 1 of 16
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OTVE> DOWN=TO DATE FARM PAPLR OF OKLAHOMA AND IND*
1 iiK.
Vol. X111 No. 37
Cotton Drop.
0£ c ourse the census bureau's ginning
report has sent cotton downward. The
fact that 11,484,000 tales had been ginn-
ed to this time, aa compared with 8,-
548,000 at the corresponding time a
year ago, more than bears out the de-
partment of agriculture's estimate of
a crop of 12,162,000 bales. These fig-
ures are so much larger than those of
any previous crop that many persons
in the planting regions and elsewhere
expressed doubt as to their correctness.
For 1901, 1902 and 1903 the crop had
been only a little over 10,000,000 bales.
In 1900 it was under 9,500,000. The
crops of 1898 and 1899, the largest ever
gathered until this year, were each
nearly 1,000,000 below the department
of agriculture's estimate for 1904.
It is evident now that the depart-
ment's estimate will prove to be too
low instead of too high says the Glofie
Democrat. This is usually the case.
The ginners' report, which gives the
cotton actually dealt with indicates a
crop that may reach 12,500,£00 bales.
The market was prompt in recognizing
this probability, and prices dropped to
the lowest point touched in the past
three years, and it made a further drop
yesterday. This very thing, however,
ought to have been forseen. The re-
port of acreage and condition made by
the department of agriculture—which
of course, has no concern in the mat-
ter except to ascertain the truth and
to tell it—made it plain for several
months past that 1904's crop would
break all records.
Some of the gamblers for a rise in
the market propose that 2,000,000 bales
of cotton be burned so as to wipe out
the surplus which Providence has pro-
vided for the country. The object is to
send prices up and compel the 80.-
000,000 people of the United States to
pay extra for their cotton goods. Re-
port has it, indeed, that a few hundred
bales have actually been burned in
three or four places. If there be any
law in those communities which can
be made to hit the perpetrators or
this crime it ought to be put in opera-
tion immediately. The Kansas corn
burners of a few years ago had the
excuse of being forced to do this on
account of the low price of corn and
the high price of coal. Corn was for
the time the cheapest fuel which they
could get, and they were justified in
using it as such. Nobody who has any
regard for the elemental moralities will
make any apology for the cotton burn-
ers. If Georgia and the other states
which are affected have no statutes
which will reach these vandals, their
lawmakers should promptly supply this
deficiency.
Forest Congress.
The American Forest Congress,
which is in session in Washington this
week, is the most largely attended and
enthusiastic convention of the kind
. that has ever been held. Representa-
tives from the lumber districts all over
the United States telegraph and ele-
phone companies, and many officials of
the leading railroads are in attendance.
In the afternoon of Thursday the
Guthrie, Oklahoma, Wednesday, January 11,1905.
president will attend the session of the
congress and deliver an address on "The
Forest in the Life of the Nation.''
Among the other speakers at that ses-
sion will be M. Jusserand, the French
ambassador; Howard Elliott, president
of the Northern Pacific railroad; F. L.
Weyerhauser, president of UiP Weyer-
hauser Lumber company; Senators
Simmons, of North Carolina, Bard of
California, and Warren of Wyoming,
and President J. J. Hill of the Great
Northern railroad, the title of whose
address will be "The Railroads and the
Forest."
The real business or the congress will
begin today when Secretary of Agri-
culture Wilson, president of the Amer-
ican Forestry Association, will preside
and deliver the president's address. Hon.
Depleted Soil.
Indiana is paying the penalty of long
continued grain raising. State Statis-
tician B. F. Johnson prefaces his report
on farming satistics for the year 1903-
04 with the statement that "it is con-
sidered by those interested that wheat
can no longer be raised in Indiana at
a profit. In 1904 the average yield was
a small fraction more than ten bushels
to the acre. Deducting one and one-
halt bushels for seed, the net crop was
but eight and one half bushels to the
acre, to pay for sowing harvesting,
threshing, marketing, to say nothing
of the interest on the value of the
land. It may be expected that under
these circumstances the wheat acreage
scMmrn
m
WHITE HEATHER, CHAMPION SHOR T-HORN SHOW COW OF
From Photo by Parsons in the Breeder's Gazette.
ENGLAND.
John Lamb, member of congress from
Virginia, will speak on "The Imuort-
ance of Forests to Agriculture," on
Thursday evening and at the after-
noon session of Friday, Prof. Gilford
Pinchot, the forester of the departing. t
oi agriculture, will give an address on
"A Federal Forest Service." The Wed-
nesday afternoon session will be giv-
en up entirely to the subject "Import-
ance of the public Forest Lands to
Grazing," and among the papers i.o t.e
read are "Sheep Grazing in the Re-
serves from a Layman's Standpoint"
by Trof. L. H. Parnel, of the Iowa state
college; "The Necessity of Using the
Forest Reserves for Grazing P i-pos-
es" by Senator Warren of Wyoming,
and "The Advantages of Co-operation
Between the Government and Hie -toek
Men's Associations in the Regulation
of Grazing." "Importance of the Pub-
lic 1 aiuls to Irrigation" will occupy
the whole of the afternoon sessio i ->n
Tuesday, and a number of interesting
papers will be read.
will decrease from year to year."
The report states that although the
wheat acreage had been reduced from
1903 yet the reduction in the crop had
been greater' in proportion, the crop
falling off from 27,713,357 bushels in
1903 to 13,371.340 in 1904, and the yield
per acre decreasing from 12 bushels to
a fraction above 10.
All this is suggestive of the damage
that inevitably results from grain rais-
ing. Twenty years ago Indiana was a
live stock producing state. Now it is
preparing to go through the same ex-
perience suffered by Michigan before
the latter discovered that restoration
of fertility is possible through the me-
dium of sheep raising. Illinois, also,
is drifting into the practice of selling
grain, and sooner or later must pay the.
same penalty unless some agricultural
scientist discovers a method of pre-
venting soil depletion without robbing
the soil of plant food or necessitating
the use of manure to restore loss of or-
ganic matter.
50 Cents a Year
Fattening Sheep.
Having selected your lambs for fu-
ture breeders, prepare the best for fat-
tening. Have the best pasture avail-
able and water handy. Be sure there
is no shrinkage during the fall, but
steady gain. To insure this, give them
a shelter and windbreak when the
nights grow cold, with moderate and
regular rations of corn, according to
the pasture.
When grass disappears, give them
warm barns and no exposure to bieak
winds, allowing exercise in the yard
on fine days. Be sure they are tree
irom ticks and disease. Insect pow-
ders may help some, but will scarcely
take the place of the summer wash,
which is now, on account of colds,
rather dangerous.
Good clover hay, corn and oat ra-
tions, warm and dry quarters, salt,
with water at hand, and regular feed-
ing, are about all healthy lambs need
lor best results, unless a daily ration
of roots is added, which will help to
keep them well.
Concerning culls. There should be I
none. A good shepherd dislikes to turn
off a ewe as long as she shears a fair
lieece and raises a lamb or two. But
watch the mouth. A sheep with scat-
tering or loose teeth is past her prime.
Sell her at the first sign of decadence,
and she will fatten all right. When
you shear, knowing each individual of I
your flock, watch the teeth and put a|
special mark on those to be turned off.
If they are dry, they will generally bel
good mutton in the fall. If so, it is I
best to let the dealer have them, lfl
not, treat them like the culls. If by I
mischance you have a toothless sheep, I
let her go if you can; if no,t nurse herl
and give her warm quarters and mixedl
rations of ground corn and oats, with I
a little good stock food. Grain is tool
liiMh to indulge in much fattening of|
culls.
I find wethers generally robust, stal-|
wart fellows, requiring only fair treat-l
ment to give a mutton carcass of goodl
quality and plenty of it. A good meth-l
od and one which is growing in favorl
in many localities is to put bundles ofl
corn in long, narrow racks in the sheepl
yards or sheds.
The practice is becoming quite prev-|
alent of winter shearing. In morel
southern latitudes it may be all right,I
but in the north it seems barbarousT
.If kept till warm weather it might bel
wi ll to clip before shipping. In any!
case if it is done, the barn should bel
free from drafts, and great care should|
be taken, or loss will follow.
Sheep are not difficult to manage.|
Three things are required of the com-l
mon sense breeder. He must feecil
enough without clogging, maintain|
health without dosing, and keep his
finger on the pulse of nature while
she works for him.
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Greer, Frank H. Oklahoma Farmer (Guthrie, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 37, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 11, 1905, newspaper, January 11, 1905; Guthrie, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc88033/m1/1/: accessed June 18, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.