The Okemah Ledger. (Okemah, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 24, 1911 Page: 3 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Gateway to Oklahoma History by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
his
one
of the American
farmer and In the- pres-
ent age scarcely less
than in the days of our
grandfathers Is the prob-
lem of transporting the
produce to market liable
to prove something of a
problem To the outsider it might ap-
pear simple enough if he does not take
into consideration the numerous fac-
tors that have bearing in the matter
For one thing there is the weather
which must always be taken into ac-
count in planning a trip to market
with produce even though the Journey
is to be made over good roads Then
again the product to be transported
may be fragile such as eggs or per-
ishable as for instance some forms
of berries and fresh fruits And final-
ly there is the necessity of taking into
account probable market conditions at
the prospective destination for pre-
sumably produce will sell more readi-
ly on "market days” than on "off
days”
Despite the complications that seem
Inevitable there are a surprising num-
ber of American farmers who still
persist in the practice of marketing
their products direct to the consumer
Indeed in some localities the number
seems to actually be increasing rather
than diminishing This is all the more
remarkable when we pause to reflect
upon the facilities that are now being
offered the farmer for marketing his
produce at his own door Agents of
commission merchants and “runners”
for dealers in the large cities traverse
rural routes regularly buying for spot
cash eggs vegetables etc and to
such a point have things progressed
that the farmer who prefers may sell
his berry crop on the vines and his
peaches or pears or apples on the
trees leaving to the “other fellow” not
Only all the worries of transportation
but the bother of picking and packing
nnd incidentally the loss from waste
At the same time there is no cer-
tainty tat the farmer who elects to '
market his own products has not the best of the
bargain' He is very likely to have if his farm is
located near any good-sized town or city and If
he is engaged in diversified farming or trucking
Of course the man who is farming on a big scale
and devoting himself to a specialty be It fruit or
celery or nuts or grain will not haul his produce
to town by the wagonload and dispose of it at
first hand to the hungry housewives All the
same it is ten chances to one that he is following
the same basic principles that are the wise ones
for the farmer desirous of selling to the best ad-
vantage the varied products of a small farm
All the shrewdest men engaged in farming —
: be they operating on a large or small scale —
have learned in recent years that it means added
wealth and reduced worries if they can adopt the
principle of selling as directly as possible to the
ultimate consumer Obviously of course they
cut out the middleman's profit and better yet
they are enabled to eliminate many of the losses
in perishable products which have caused bo
much controversy between commission mer-
chants and farmers Finally by marketing di-
rect the tiller of the soil can establish a reputa-
tion for the quality of his products and this Is a
most important asset for the man who expects
to continue in the same vocation year after year
Indeed building on the foundation of quality and
-prompt delivery he may build up a circle of
-patrons of his own that will render him inde-
pendent of everything because they will stand
ready year after year to takb the entire product
of his farm and take It too at prices higher than
rule for the regular run or similar produce in the
open market
As the advantages of such plans of direct deal-
ing have been brought home to the farmers they
'have I -sen gradually perfecting their facilities for
making the short cut from the farm to the city
! dinner table The farmer who Is a specialist in
fruit or vegetable raising or any other line is
likely to have his own sales agent who goes to
the city with each consignment of produce and
personally superintends its disposition or if he
is not operating on a big enough scale to do this
' single handed be is likely to Join forces with sev
eral of his neighbors to engage a representative
who will handle their pooled products to the best
possible advantage In any event the quantity of
produce to be handled insures to the shipper thus
situated the best of freight or express service if
Indeed he has not adopted the particularly up-to-date
method of transporting his farm products
by means of motor trucks
The small farmer or truck gardener operating
on a small scale cannot of course afford the lux-
ury of a sales agent but on the other band he is
no longer content if be be wide awake to divide
profits with the commission merchant who in-
sists on clinging to old ideas So the small farm-
er if he belong to a rapidly growing class makes
It a practice to Journey to the city two or three
times a week and to dispose of his products in
the open-air marts which are now a feature of al-
most all of our large cities His canvas cov-
ered wagon Is made to serve as bis sales counter
and he thus has no expense
In many Instances if the farmer or trucker be
too busily engaged upon bis farm to spare time
M ffffltlCMCO C7L - fl Cmsf MARKET
for the selling end of the business in this fashion
this task is delegated to his wife his son or his
daughter Particularly in the case of the young
people do these periodical visits get to fill a large
place in their lives There are hardships to be
sure not the least of them suggested by the fact
that usually the trip to market must begin ere
daylight in order to reach the city in time to
caich the trade of the earliest marketers but the
farmer folk who have acquired the habit of
huckstering in this way are invariably loath to
give it up Many a romance too' has bad its in-
ception during the progress of the caravans of
produce-laden wagons to market or in the ex-
change of courtesies between the farmer folk
whos wagons are ranged so closely side by side
in the congested urban market districts
In the sparsely settled and more isolated- sec-
tions of the country there are many odd spec-
tacles incident to the transportation of produce
to market In some localities where canals are
yet in use the quaint slow-moving boats are em-
ployed to carry the eatables and in the south one
may see donkeys bullocks and all manner of un-
conventional steeds pressed into service to move
the foodstuffs Just here it may be noted that
the old-fashioned colored folk of the south take
as naturally to the conduct of portable market
stands as a fish does to water In a kindly cli-
mate such as Is theirs most of the staple vege
tables will grow with very little atten-
tion and consequently they are en-
abled to devote most of their energy
to finding a market for nature's
bounty
Although as noted above the motor
truck has made a place for itself in
the transportation of farm produce
the major portion of this responsibil-
ity yet rests with the good old-fashioned
farm wagon drawn by one or
two horses Strength rather than
style is a requisite of a produce-carrying
vehicle and this same may be
said of the horses employed and the
harness The growing preference of
the American people for food commodities in
package form is an influence felt indirectly in
tbe transportation of farm products From
time out of mind berries have been sent to
market in trays boxes and crates but latterly
there has been a tendency to provide standard
size baskets for apples peaches tomatoes etc
In the old days the consumer who purchased less
than a barrel of apples or potatoes did not re-
ceive them in an “original package" bearing the
'grower’s statement as to quantity and quality
but all this Is being changed owing to prevailing
market conditions — aided and abetted by grow-
ers who are eager to establish a reputation for
their branded products
Eggs are another commodity which will bring
Increased prices all the year round if furnished
direct to discriminating consumers The stigma
of the cold storage egg is such that persons who
are keen for really fresh eggs are in many in-
stances willing to pay an advance of 50 to 100
per cent over the prevailing market figure for
eggs that can be depended upon Poultry raisers
have not been slow to take advantage of this and
instead of the large crates made familiar by cold
storage methods we now find the fancy-priced
“guaranteed” eggs put up by the dozen in boxes
of wood or pasteboard each box being closed by
a seal which insures that its contents have not
been tampered with
PASTIMES OF THE PAST
a —
It has not been so very long ago— middle aged
mothers and’ fathers of today will recall the happy-
happy time — when the game of grace hoops was In
fashion Indeed was quite the rage though of
that placid epoch It must be said enthusiasm for
out-of-door amusements as far as the dear glrlB
were concerned were as mild as pigeons' milk and
- never bubbled over the brim of pleasure's modest
cup If there was anything the young lady of
that halcyon time dreamed it was the charge of
being a Tommy No no she must never lose
sight of deportment' and her pretty lips were
framed on prisms and prunes to the proper tucker
for conversational purposes — that Is for the lit-
tle conversation that went with the game So
grace hoops were entirely en regie with the best
ideas for deportment
The charm of grace hoops was slowly but sure-
ly passing away when Maurice Thompson who in-
vented “Alice of Old Vincennes” and bis brother
will Thompson who wrote the thrilling poem
! “Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg" brought for-
i ward the long disused bow and arrow laid aside
for villainous gunpowder the Indianapolis News
says Maurice wrote a clever little book called
"The Witchery of Archery” and in a surprisingly
short time young men and maidens Joined in arch-
ery clubs were plugging away with blunt arrows
at targets as big around aB cream cheese boxes
of that day Though these marksmen and women
frequently went wide of the target not so Cupid
who was there with his bow and a full comple-'
meut of arrows He shot center nearly aw tim
for It was said that the witchery of archery no
matter how poor the score at the cheese box tar-
get was a great helper on of Cupid and many
marriages followed
The writer has seen the archery game played
on several occasions once on the grounds of tbe
Knickerbocker school with only girls engaged —
what a moribund affair it was! — and once on the
- same grounds with a detachment of young gen-
tlemen — with what a delightful difference!
But the archery game was not to last It was
at last to Join the grace hoops and for a time its
most ardent votaries were fain to solace their
grief with the game o i croquet and its melancholy
dawwdling
When one looks back to that day with its lady-
like amusements one can but wonder at the
astounding progress made by the sex In out-of-door
sports Now they shoot at a target or at live
game either no more with blunted arrows but
with revolver and rifle they play golf swim pad-
dle canoes play basketball even play baseball
after a fashion ride astride like their brothers —
what a horror that would have been in the days of
their mothers — and do anything that any proper
young man might be permitted to do without the
slightest censure and quite as a mutter of course
Yet there was something in grace hoops that
may be fondly cherished in one’s memory along
with tbe dear old plush album to which you con-
tributed your picture and some verses — And there
too lingering in memory are the doleful cadences
of ‘'Loren"
Annual assembly of Oklahoma’s big family at the Oklahoma State Fair '
Oklahoma City September 26 to October 7 Inclusive
THE MELON APHIS
The life history of the melon louse
is comparatively unknown We know
how it passes through the summer set
son and we know its food plants but
do not know where or how it spendB
tbe winter in this latitude Its first
appearance is often noted on young
cotton plants Soon after the cotton
begins to grow well the melon louse
becomes disseminated and often in-
fests cantaloupe water melon cucum-
ber and squash vines to a marked ex-
tent Its most radical effect how-
ever is shown on the water melon
and cantaloupe vines There are two
forms of the aphis: one has wings
and the other has none Both
however are females that pro
duce young at the rate of six or eight
per day
The melon louse has about fifteen
enemies in the form of other Insects
All of the enemies reproduce by lay-
ing eggs In cold weather the louse
Itself can reproduce as rapidly as in
hot weather The eggs of the eneqaies
however will not hatch quickly in cool
weather this fact is one of the rea-
sons why the melon louse is so serious
at the present time While the weath-
er has not been cold it has been too
cool for the rapid development of
such insects as prey upon other in-
sects -The enemies of this aphis in-
clude the following:
1 The lady bugs and their young
The latter are dark colored worms
with a few reddish spots on their backs
and six legs on the under side near
the head Many of these are now
transforming to the adulty stage In
doing this they attach themselves by
the tail to an object shed their skins
turn from dark to a light yellow color
and soon transform to the beetle stage
Both the young and the adult lad)-
bugs consume about fifty aphis apiece
per day
2 The lace wing flies and their
young The adults are ab out one inch
long of a greenish color and have
four lace-like wings They lay their
little pearl colored eggs on pale slen-
der stalks about an inch long These
hatch into six-iooted larvae or worms
which are somewhat si milar in form
and habit to the larvae of the lady
bug
3 The scymnus beetles and their
young The former is a little round
dark brown or black beetle about one-
fourth the size of the lady bug The
young is covered with a white wooly
coat Their food habits are similar
to those of the lady bug but on ac-
count of their size they can devour
only about one-third as many aphis as
the former
Remembering Faces
Remembering faces is a gift and
one cultivated should it not be grant-
ed by nature Many a kindly girl has
been unfairly characterized as rude or
haughty Just because lacking this
particular sort of memory she has
failed to recognize an acquaintance
In business life such memory is an
important asset and well worth the
effort needed to acquire it It took
me some time to learn this but the
lesson was worth while — Harper’s
Bazar
England’s First Airship
History repeated itself when a
lord’s debate was interrupted by an
aeroplane For when Lunardi made
the first balloon ascent in Englanu on
September 15 17S4 a cabinet council
was engaged on most important state
deliberations But King George said:
“My lords we shall have an oppor-
tunity of discussing this question at
another time but we may never again
see poor Lunardi so let us adjourn
the council and observe the balloon”
—London Chronicle
The Turkish Way
We don’t think we ever pungled for
real Turkish bath though we have
produced for the Turkish bath so-
called The real Turkish bath judg-
ing from the appearance of such
Turks as we have seen is a dry clean-
ing process
Beef Goes Down
The cow that fell through a Penn-
sylvania field into a coal mine fur-
nishes the first example in modern
times of a downward movement in
beef — Washington Post
4 Several species of young syrphus
flies The adults are yellowish in col-
or and are sometimes known as sweet
bees They eat the honey dew sec-
reted by the aphis but their young
which are footless sluglike worms
eat about as many aphids as the lady
bugs
5 The internal parasites These la
many places are now present in num-
bers equal to the melon aphis They
are like the little bees that sting and
lay eggs In the green bug A few day
after an- egg is laid in the body of the
melon louse by them the louse turn
brown and is attached to the leaf by
the young bee which hatches from
the egg Within a week or ten day
the young bee gnaws a circular hole ia
the top of the aphid's body through
which it escapes
Artificial Methods of Control: Ao-
cording to our experiments at this Sta-
tion we hare learned that Black Leaf
a tobacco decoction is superior to
any other insecticide for controlling
the melon louse as well as other allied
forms This insecticide will not seri-
ously Injure the enemies of the melon
louse It is a contact spray meant
especially for the soft bodied insects
Many of the enemies of the louse are
hard-shelled and withstand the effect
of the application remarkably welL
This solution is manufactured by the
Kentucky Tobacco Product Company
Louisville Ky and is generally sold
at the rate of one dollar per single
gallon or eighty-five cents a gallon in
five gallon lots Although its use has
been advised by this Station for the
past few years it is not yet generally
upon the market A similar spray
solution known as Black Leaf 40 is
equally effective but is more highly
concentrated and is sold at a higher
price in its dilution more water can
be used than in Black Leaf The Black
Leaf should be applied by means of a
spray pump fitted with an extension
rod provided with an upturned nozzle
The spray should be directed toward
the under side of the leaves where
the plant lice are present One gal-
lon of the Black' Leaf is sufficient for
spraying about an acre of plants If
applied at the proper time that I
when the infestation begins it will
not be necessary to spray the entire
field only the plants that are Infested
should be sprayed Often times not
more than from five t o twenty-five per
cent of the vines will be infested If
spraying Is resorted to in the begin-
ning of the infestation
— C E Sanborn Department of Ento-
mology A & M College Stillwater
Oklahoma
Try it for a Day
Do you begin the day saying thus?
“This day I will live as becomes a
man I will be filled with good cheer
and courage I will do what is right
I will work for the hightest I will
put soul into every handgrasp every
smile every expression— into all my
work I will live to satisfy my other
self” You think it is easy Try it
for a day — Elbert Hubbard
Cautious
Mr Willis — "But why don’t yon
take your bank book in and have it
balanced?” Mrs Willis — "I don’t
want that snoopy-looking cashier to
know how much money I’ve got therel"
— Puck
Watch the Small t hings
Grand temples are buut of small:
stones and great lives are made up
of trifling events
Petroleum in China
Petroleum abounds in China and
even Shanghai has its quota of mil-
lionaires made rich overnight as it
were by the marvelous wells
Spirit of Sympathy
Beware of that bane of social life
evil speaking Seek for the spirit of
love which is the spirit of truthfor
you can never know anyone without
sympathy or love — and take care how
to speak of those who have not yet
learned to love Never talk of other’s
faults without necessity and avoid
those who do— Ruskin
Nature’s Law
The desires and longings of man
are vast as eternity and they point
him to it — Edwards
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Gaston, O. C. The Okemah Ledger. (Okemah, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 24, 1911, newspaper, August 24, 1911; Okamah, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1860534/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.