EE TE SONS:
I —
Bellefonte, Pa., June 11, 1926.
PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL RE-
FORESTATION.
For all present practical purposes
the forests of the United States are
private forests. The public hears lit-
tle of them and much of the public
forests, but the former now yield
about 97 per cent of our lumber and
others forest products. These indus-
trial forests are the base of a tower-
ing pyramid of industry and com-
merce. They represent an investment
of $10,000,000,000; they provide em-
ployment for 1,300,000 people, ‘and
support for 10,000,000. Great cities
and imperial regions depend prinepal-
ly upon them for their prosperity if !
not their economic existence. The fate
their economic existence. The fate
of these forests is the destiny of for-
estry in America, and the weal or woe
of a large sector of our commercial
life. They are the major part of our
forest problem.
“My worst troubles were those that
never happened,” said an old lady, re-
viewing her life. The mere progress
of events has a way of solving many
of our personal and social problems
that seem beyond voluntary solution.
There isn’t a great nation in Christen-
dom that hasn't been “ruined” in
every generation by some problem or
other, but they keep right on, vigor-
ous and active, just the same.
Twenty years ago one of the great-
est forest lovers in America—a lead-
er of the conservation movement—
predicted the end of the forests as
producers by 1927, his only qualifica-
tion being that regrowth in the mean-
time might extend the producing life
of the forests by five years. The
“end of the world” for the forests and
forest industries is now at hand, ac-
cording to the prophecy of 1907, but
the forest statisticians of the day tell
us that we have almost as much saw
timber now as their predecessors fig-
ured 20 years ago; and the latest
prophet of the end of the forests
(sanctioned by the prophet of 1907)
now puts that dire event at about 35
years hence.
These prophecies of woe have had
a certain value, as the sensational
headlines of the conservation move-
ment. They served to attract atten-
tion and thought to a really serious
problem; but the time has gone by
for their use. The time has come to
let the public know that there never
will be an end of productive forests
in America, and that even at the very
lowest possible ebb the lumber and
other forest products will still be
available in substantial volume.
The facts are that great progress
has been made, that the turning point
from the era of exploitation to the
era of reproductive forest use Ras
been definitely passed.
The private forests of America con-
sist almost wholly of farm woodlots
and commercial timber holdings. Pre-
cise figures are not available but ap-
proximately there are 150,000,000
acres of forested land on the farms of
the . country and about 235,000,000
acres in the reserves of the forest in-
dustries or held for their ultimate ac-
quisition. As the entire remaining
area of land left to forest growth is
put at about 470,000,000 acres, it ap-
pears that about 80 per cent of it is
privately owned. Obviously, the fu-
ture of our supply of forest products
rests with private rather than public
lands, except as the national and state
government may elect to extend their
forests.
All privately owned land is neces-
sarily a commercial problem for its
owners, whether it be forest or prai-
rie, mountain or plain. The owner
will make only such use of it as pays
or promises to pay a return on labor
and investment. No private owner,
except now and then a wealthy park
or estate owner or a biological en-
thusiast will grow trees, corn, wheat,
sheep or cattle on his land if it will
pay. If it should happen that grow-
ing trees will never pay in America,
then it is certain that there will nev-
er be any commercial forestry, that
virtually all of the land on which trees
will grow will revert to the govern-
ment, if no other profitable use can
be found for it, and that reforestation
and forest perpetuation will become
solely a public function.
The history of forests and forestry
in Europe indicates that so much for- |
est land is not susceptible of profit-
‘able administration that state own-
ership of as much as 50 per cent. is
perhaps inevitable in the long run.
Inasmuch as forests have certain com-
mon values and benefits, partly aris-
ing from the nature of their products
and partly from the contribution to
the general material background of
civilization (such as their controi of
waterflow, climatic effects, relations
to tributary argiculture and their rec-
reational and aesthetic values) the
public is practically justified in main-
taining forests where the indivdiual
could not.
It is thus seen that primarily the
practice of forestry is a purely eco-
nomic one from the private point of
view. The all too frequent denuncia-
tion of land owners for not replacing
forests is usually quite as absurd as
would be denunciation of farmers for
abandoning plowed fields when it ap-
pears the part of economy and pru-
dence to do so. Whereas, to remove
the natural crop of timber may be a
paying undertaking, its replacement
may be unprofitable. Such has been
the general situation in the United
States in the past—and that is why
there hitherto has been so little man-
aged reforestation.
There is ‘good reason to believe that
the situation is changing so rapidly,
or ig so ‘clearly due to change, that
reforestation is now commercially
justifiable in many parts of the coun-
try. Human nature is conservative
and men are apt to lag behind the
facts in their business habits. Prob-
ably the present economic promise of
forestry ig greater on the whole than
many “forest proprietors, accustomed
always to dealing with virgin forests,
are willing to admit. On the other
bermen are looking ahead 30 to 50
years and are inaugurating reforesta-
tion under unpromising present con-
ditions. Abstractly, it would appear
that, with the output of forest pro-
ducts necessarily so restricted that
per capita consumption of them is de-
clining as population increases, the
forest grower for the future would en-
joy the advantage of a limited pro-
duct and an intensifying demand. He
would thus be in a position to obtain
a favorable price for his products.
Actually, there are some offsets to
this pleasant view. As the price of
forest - products goes up substitutes
tend to come in and check the price
or take the market. A profitable
market for their products is necessary
to the perpetuation of forests. The
rapidly growing number of timber
owners who are embarking on refor-
estation or policies of conservative
yields indicate that the forest indus-
| tries ‘are convinced that substitutes
can never crowd out wood. At the
same time the inroads of substitutes
are a reminder that forest use is as
necessary to forest maintenance as
forest planting. Cease to use the for-
ests and private owners will cease to
protect and decline to replace them.
The most dramatic advance in pri-
vate forestry was the abrupt whole-
sale inauguration of sustained yield
practice in the redwood forests of
California. Since 1922, about 70 per
cent. of the lumber production of the
entire region has been under such
management, including much arti-
ficial planting, as insures the present
volume of lumber output for an indef-
inite period. That means that the in-
dustrial life of the whole region from
San Francisco Bay, north along the
coast into Oregon, will always be
maintained as actively as at present.
There will be no dead lumber towns
there, as in other forest regions.
Among the major redwood lumber
companies definitely committed to re-
forestation are the Union Lumber
company, the Mandocino Lumber com-
pany, the Pacific Lumber company,
the Hammond Lumber company, the
Glen Blair Lumber company, Albion
Lumber company, Northern Redwood
company, and the Little River Red-
wood company. Three of these com-
panies have established large nurser-
ies for the propagation of seedlings.
All the other major redwood opera-
tors are considering embarking on
“perpetual lumbering.” An interest-
ing and significant fact about the red-
wood is that while it is the tallest and
perhaps the longest lived of Ameri-
can commerical trees, it grows very
rapidly in its youth. A redwood may
be sound at 800 years and vigorous at
2,000, but it is a big saw-tree at 40.
The present redwood stand would en-
dure 100 years at the present rate of
cutting; so there is an ample “factor
of safety” in this region’s conserva-
tion.
The outlook in the California pine
regions is really just as promising as
in the redwood country, though there
has been no such spectacular progress.
The qriginal white and sugar pine
tinth® ~of - California will last 200
years at the present rate of consump-
tion. Many owners have such large
reserves and such conservative poli-
cies that even without deliberate for-
: est management the forests will grow
{ about as fast as they are cut. This
{is especially true, now that protection
| against fire is so systematically striv-
| en for and becoming a settled feature
i of public policy. On some large hold-
| ings it is only necessary to keep out
(fire to reconcile continuous use and
I tive cutting is already beginning on
| perpetuity. Selective or conserva-
{some tracts, the smaller (and seed)
i trees being left, thus maintaining the
| forest as a whole; instead of the tra-
| ditional clean ‘cutting, which leaves
i a period of total denudation. Conser-
vation of natural second-growth is
now reasonably assured throughout
the California pine country, and that,
of course, is forest perpetuation. At
least two large California pine com-
paines—the Michigan-California com-
pany and the Fruit Growers Supply
company—are making a study of
managed reforestation. They are of
lumber companies that are co-operat-
ing with the forestry research divi-
sion of the Western Forestry and Con-
servation Association. They and four
other pine companies are now avow-
edly on a sustained yield basis, they
being the Clover Valley, Diamond
Match Standard Lumber and W. P.
Pickering companies. The Red River
Lumber company is the largest tim-
ber owner in the State and at its cur-
rent rate of production is automatical-
ly on a perpetual yield basis. The
California White and Sugar Pine As-
sociation (comprising the representa-
i tive pine lumber companies) has re-
| cently set up a Department of Forest
| Research with a competent forest en-
gineer in charge.
It is chiefly in Oregon and Wash-
ington, however, that the forestry
work of the Western Forestry and
Conservation Association is going for-
ward. Before taking up the study of
reforestation of cut-over lands this
organization of timber owners had al-
ready achieved distinction as the
world’s foremost forest fire fighting
body. Of course, the prevention and
suppression of forest fires is funda-
mental forestry. Nature has always
been the great forester, and her chief
enemy. has always been the forest
fire. The W. F. and 8. A. is a federa-
tion of local timber protective bodies
that have spent in the aggregate as
high as $2,000,000 a year and have
had several thousand men on the fire
lines in emergencies.
Along with the two California com-
paines, among the first owners to in-
vite the new research bureau to study
their lands were the Booth-Kelly
Lumber company, and the Hammond
company, in the Douglas fir belt of
Oregon; the Shevlin-Hixon company,
in the Pendosa Pine region of Ore-
gon, and the Potlach Lumber company
and Boise-Payette Lumber company
of the Idaho white pine belt, and the
West Fork and Weyerhaeuser, and
St,- Paul & Tacoma and Clarke coun-
ty companies in Washington, The
general trend -of these studies so far
indicates’ that it is good business to
conserve young growth, protect the
hand it is to be noted that some lum-
seedlings and fight fires more energet-
(ically than ever.
In consequence, the Weyerhaeuser
company, which is reputed to be the
| most extensive timber owner in the
world, has organized a forestry com-
pany to look after its cut-over lands.
The Shevlin-Hixon company is using
exceptional care to protect the small
trees, limit protective firing after log-
ging and keep out accidental fires. No
doubt is entertained that all of the
co-operating companies will be in-
creasingly active in forest fostering.
Independently, the Crown-William-
ette Paper company, Oregon, has em-
ing much planting.
More recently the following com-
panies of the Gray’s Harbor region of
the State of Washington have invoked
the good offices of the above research
bureau with an earnest view to mak-
ling their operations continuous: The
i Polson Logging company, Donovan-
| Corkery Timber company, Simpson
| Logging company, Northwestern
{ Lumber company, Clemmons Logging
company and the Weyerhaeuser Tim-
ber company. These companies own
400,000 acres of cut-over land, most
; of which is naturally restocking, and
1 as cutting progresses the area for re-
| forestation will be much larger. There
iis certain promise that lumbering
will be a perpetual industry in this
| region. As E. T. Allen, manager of
| the Western Forestry and Conserva-
| tion Association and forester of the
National Lumber Manufacturers As-
sociation put it: “There are 500, may-
be 1,000 companies, that can show as
good results as the National Forests
show. God grows trees in spite of the
devil if they escape the fire.”
The most sensational reforestation
advance in the Douglas fir country
came last summer with the announce-
ment of the Long-Bell company, a re-
cent and powerful “invader” from the
South; that it would immediately be-
gin forestry studies and the inaugu-
ation of nurseries with a view to per-
petual operation. This company is
just beginning its enormous opera-
tions at Longview, Wash., and has 30
years’ timber supply ‘on hand. Never-
theless it takes up the reforestation
problem at the start. President M.
B. Nelson has publicly declared that
the policy of his company is that of
sustained yield of the forests and per-
petual operation of the mills—said
to be the largest in the world.
Reforestation and forestry on the
Pacific Coast are especially signifi-
cant and encouraging because about
50 per cent. of all the standing saw
timber in the country is in California,
Oregon and Washington, Oregon lead-
ing all the States with about 500,000,
000,000 feet of saw timber.
lumber producing region of America,
and the present rate of production can
be kept up forever if the cut-over
lands are adequately cared for. The
present stand will last 50 to 70 years,
taking the region as a whole.
Progress toward sustained forests
and forest industries in the South is
marked. Until recently, the south n
for more than two decades. Includ-
ing both hard and soft wood lumber
they are still in the lead, though the
trans-Rocky Mountain region ‘now
leads in softwood. The business out-
promising. It has a climate favorable
to tree-growing and millions of acres
of land whose soil is of indifferent
value for agriculture but excellent for
timber growing, and it is at the door
of the world’s greatest lumber mark-
ets. The fact that between 30 to 40
per cent. of all the huge lumber: ouput
of the South comes from land that
has been logged off at least once is a
token of the future of forestry here.
Nature went on the reforestation job
when the first tree was felled and is
still on it. Alone and unaided she is
regrowing the southern pine forests
at the rate of 7,000,000,000 feet of
saw timber a year, which is one-fifth
of the entire present lumber produc-
tion of the whole country. But now
the lumbermen are rallying to her
support in large numbers.
The Southern Pine Association re-
ports that it has information of 85
lumbering operations, mostly large,
that are active in maintaining pro-
tection against fire—which is a major
reforestation step. Fifty-eight large
companies are practicing selective
cutting (leaving trees below a cer-
tain diameter and seed trees) and 39
of them are definitely planning con-
tinuous operations. Four other large
companies have engaged foresters and
are considering forest management.
Many others are interested.
Large-scale lumbering in the United
States originated in the nertheastern
States, and to a considerable degree
it is fair to say that reforestation is
now most advanced in those States.
Owing to proximity to markets for
structural and industrial lumber even
small-tract reforestation is now a
paying enterprise in New England.
And there are probably hundreds of
such small undertakings of many
years standing. Second-crop saw
timber white pine abounds in this: re-
gion. For many years, however, the
pulp and paper industry has been the
foremost forest industry of the North-
east, and it is to it rather than to lum-
ber that we must look for extensive
commercial reforestation.
The U. S. Forest Service calculates
that there are 9,000,000 acres of pulp-
wood land under management in
Maine. A few of the Yeloresting com-
panies may be mentioned, thé word
reforesting being used in the broad
sense of encouraging natural repro-
duction. The Brown compahy, Ber-
lin, N. H., conducts its pulpwood cut-
ting operations on a diameter limit
plan. It has a forestry department
and is carrying on extensive forestry
research work; it owns 750,000 acres.
The Great Northern Paper company,
Millinocket, Me., owns about one and
one-fourth million acres, protects its
lands and observes a diameter limit in
cutting. The Coe-Pingree Estates,
Bangor, Me., amounting to over a
million acres, have been administered
for 45 years on a diameter limit of
cuttings, The Prentiss Estates, owning
about 100,000 acres, are similarly
managed. The International Paper
barked on “timber cropping,” includ- |
This re- |
gion is now the greatest soft wood .
States were the principal = softwabd
lumbering region of the United States
look for forestry in this region is |
1
! company, owning somewhere around
1
800,000 acres of land in Maine, pro-
tects its land and conserves smaller
trees for future production. The New
England Box company, which owns
30,000 acres in southern New Hamp-
shire and in Massachusetts has done
some improvement cutting on its
lands and has handled some tracts on
a selective cutting basis. Its forester
advises tributary farmers about hand-
ling their woodlots. The Lincoln
! Pulpwood company, Bangor, Me., not
only operates with the State forester
in fire prevention work but has its
own fire-fighting organization. Like
most Maine commercial timber own-
ers, it follows diameter-limit cutting.
T. C. Luther, Saratoga, N. Y., is
planting 50,000,000 trees.
From such data as is available it
does not appear that much progress
has been made in industrial reforesta-
tion or forest management in the
Lake timber states—Minnesota, Wis-
consin and Michigan.
tion, however, has gained greatly in
these States, and there is an import-
ant volume of natural reproduction
of the pines and spruce. The North-
ern Hemlock and Hardwood Associa-
tion, an organization of the lumber-
'men of these States is taking an active
interest in reforestation problems, and
achieved or contemplated changes in
timber taxation laws, will result in
rapid progress in the near future. The
| Weyerhaeuser interests have been
conducting a great forest-realization
experimental work at Cloquet, Minn.
i and state that simply on the basis of
effective fire control a half-dozen for-
rest industry plants at Cloquet will be
|-able to keep on indefinitely. The un- |
| derlying Weyerhaeuser idea is to find
| profitable ways of utilizing small and
“weed” trees, so that the timber crop-
| period may be rendered relatively
' short. The Holt Lumber company
"and the Nekoosa-Edwards Paper com-
{ pany are leaders in Lake States refor- |
estation.
| There appears
awakening of farmers to the value
| and possibilities of their woodlots. As
they own about one-third of the tim-
position to profit greatly from the
approaching period of restricted out-
put of the commercial forests. The
and some care and management may
be expected to result in a considerable
lots are now the source of supplies for
many sawmills and pulp mills, and
will have an increasing importance in
that respect. In addition they yield
fence posts. Fuel, it may be said, is
still chargeable with about one-third,
by volume, of the annual wood con-
sumption of the United States.
With the farmers, as with the com-
mercial companies, unjust taxation
of growing timber is a deterrent to
forestry. The public has little ap-
| Preciation of the intimate relation be-
tween taxation and forests, but it is
a question that staggers many lum-
bermen who would like to make their ;
-operations permanent. An illustration
“found in the case of a Mississippi
| lumberman whose local property taxes
"are $825,000 a year; to ease off his
irate of cutting with a view to pro-
| longing the life of his forests would
be business suicide. The same man
undertook to save the smaller trees
for the future and then found that the
tax assessor assessed culled land as
high as the virgin forest. Another
lumberman saved the hardwood as he
cut out the pine, there being no mar-
ket for the former at the time.
The assessor rated the land as high
as ever; so high that the owner found
it profitable to send a crew of men to
slash down the hardwood and let it
rot, thereby getting the rating of de-
nuded land. Local assessments and
taxes in some localities are so high
ment capital of re-stocking timber-
land in 13 years.
Forest fires, however, are the chief
obstacle to more rapid advance of
natural reforestation. Regardless of
taxation, forest land not already ster-
ilized by fire will grow trees unaided
if fires be kept out. They rage at the
appalling rate of 50,000 to 100,000 a
year, (mostly set by agencies beyond
the control of forest owners.) Own-
ers may not profit, but forests of a
kind will reappear without any man-
agement.
On the whole the private forestry
outlook is encouraging. It is really
surprising that so much has been ac-
complished already, but the new era
is only beginning and will gain mo-
mentum from now on. With econom-
ic reward in prospect and taxation re-
form and forest fire protection com-
ing, it may be assumed that owners
of timber land suitably situated will
come gradually to handle their lands
as sources of successive timber crops.
trial News Bureau.
Cause and Effect.
Sweeping his long black hair back
with an impressive gesture, the visi-
tor faced the proprietor of the film
studio.
“I have come, sir,” he said, in a
deep base voice, “because I desire to
secure a permanent position in your
moving picture company.”
“You are an actor?” asked the oth-
er.
“Yes,” was the answer.
“Have you had any experience act-
ing without an audience?” was the
next query.
A flicker of sadness shone for a
moment in the expressive eyes of the
actor as he replied:
“Acting without audiences is what
brought me here, sir,”—London An-
swers.
Don’t Buck Storm.
If caught in a driving rain, while in
motor and forced to stop until the
worst is over, wetting of the coil and
other electrical equipment under the
hood can be prevented by turning the
back of the car to the wind. This also
obviates a lot of annoyance from
leakage around the windshield.
—Subscribe for the “Watchman.”
Fire proteec- |
to be a general
ber land of the country they are in a |
farm woodlots are now yielding about |
$400,000,000 a year to their owners |
increase of this amount. These wood- |
huge quantities of fuel wood and :
that they wipe out the original invest- |
—From the Manufacturer and Indus-
Baton First Used by
Conductors in Chu:ch
Ludwig Spohr, famous violinist,
conductor, and composer, who is
known to the general public chiefly by
his oratorio, “The Last Judgment,”
and his song, “Rose, Softly Bloom-
Ing,” was the first to use a baton for
conducting a large orchestra in Eng-
land.
But, like Safonoff, who became fa-
mous ten or fifteen years ago as the
man who conducted without a baton,
he was simply reviving in a more cop-:
venient form an older custom.
The use of the baton is, in fact, a
very ancient one, though the manner
of its use has varied. It probably
arose from the fact that in the larger
churches, and especially on great oc-
casions, the director of the choir had
a staff . of office something like a
bishop’s crozier, but with a different
head, This he held in his left hand
while directing the singers with the
right.
Now and then, however, he had to
recover the attention of his singers, |
when he would stamp on the floor
with his staff, doing the same thing
also on occasion to keep them te
gether.
In later times, when boys began to
take part in the singing, he used it as
a means of chastisement, and grad-
ually transferred it entirely to the
right hand. We may, therefore, say
that both conducting with a baton
and conducting without one come
from the same ecclesiastical methods.
Entirely New Angle
to Payment of Bills
The smart young man approached
.hie hotel proprietor.
“Look here,” he said, “I want you
to settle a little argument that has
arisen between me and my friend
here. I said I was coming to you to
pay my bill.”
“Very glad to hear it,” said the pro-
Jdrietor. “But what is wrong with
that?”
“Well, my friend says I ought to
nave said your bill. That’s the point.”
“Come to that, I suppose it is my
Jill”
“But you said it was my bill just
.4OW.” :
“So it is—your bill and my bill,
£00.” HEE
“In fact, then, you contend that it’s
»ar bill?”
“Of course it is!” :
“Well, that suits me all right. It
‘ .US our bill, of course, we divide it.
Just make out my half, will you?
There’s nothing like getting things
straight.”
Really Deadly Wine
The dark fluid in tke sponge on
Mount Calvary intended for the lips of
“Jesus of Nazareth’ when he was suf-
fering on the cross was not ‘vinegar,
but morion wine, wvelieves the English
biologist, 0. A. Newell. This so-called
wine was a powerful, sleep-producing
drug in ancient times often given con-
demned men when they were being ex-
ecuted. During the Roman occupation
of Palestine the method of capital
punishment was crucifixion, a long
process that caused the victim great
i agony. The Jewish women, under the
sanction of the grand sanhedrin, would
administer the death wine to the vie-
tims on a sponge, whereby they were
put to sleep and their sufferings
abated. This wine, says Doctor
Newell, was distilled from the root of
the mandragora plant. He finds refer-
ences to it in ancient teachings with a
formula for making {it.—Capper's
Weekly.
Woman Astronomer
How many people, who think that a
scientific woman is a Twentieth-cen-
tury product, know that Caroline
Herschell was, a century and a half
ago, assistant astronomer royal?
Her brother was the famous astron-
omer, but her mother in Hanover
would let her have no accomplishment
outside household duties, except knit-
ting. Her father, however, gave her
violin lessons on the sly.
Then her brother offered her a home
in England, and she came over and be-
came a successful singer. Taking up
astronomy, she became her brother's
assistant, and herself was responsible
for the discovery of eight comets. Un-
doubtedly a very clever woman, she
rejected all praise, thinking it might
detract from her brother’s reputation.
: Picture Screens
Screens have come into their own,
and rightfully so, because they are use-
ful and bring into a room a charming
note of variety. A most attractive
screen is one which is covered with
wallpaper, plain or having a very tiny
pattern, and then decorated with a col-
orful picture, mounted on the upper
part of each panel of the screen. Pic-
tures done in silhouette effect could
well be used here.
After the picture has been appiied to
the background it is advisable to shel-
lac it in order to make it appear to be
really part of the background. This
will give the rich, antique appearance,
so much in vogue today.
Effective Advertising
The traveling salesman was telling
the other fellows in the pullman smok-
ing compartment the reason why his
uncle in Cleveland bad the most pros-
perous -shoe-shining stand in a block
dotted with footgear polishing em-
poriums.
“My uncle's advertising got him the
business,” he said. “He had a big
sign reading, ‘One shoe polished free.’ ”
—From the Funny Side Out, by Nellie
Reveik
FARM NOTES.
FED MINERALS WILL MAKE
MOST RAPID GAINS.
Minerals in the ration for pigs pre-
vented lameness and gave the best
gains in a series of winter or dry lot
tests conducted at the Ohio experi-
ment station. The mixture of two
parts ground limestone, two parts
bone meal, and one part salt, as here-
tofore recommended by that station,
again proved the best in a long list
of mineral mixtures in the swine ra-
tion in which soy bean oil meal was
fed as the protein feed with yellow
corn.
This mixture, it was explained to
visitors on Live Stock day, supplied
not only the necessary salt, but also
all the calcium and phosphorus need-
ed. The latter are prime essentiajs.
Without these elements in the grain
ration pigs soon contracted rickets
and lameness.
Gound limestone was superior to a
refined grade of lime or calcium car-
bonate, due in part apparently to the
small amount of iron carried by the
limestone and required by the pigs
for proper development. This fact
has not been appreciated heretofore,
and is evidence of further need of
much careful investigation in the
feeding of live stock.
Barns and sheds used during the
lambing season need not be very elab-
orate affairs nor is it necessary to
provide much extra equipment. There
are, however, several precautions
which, if observed, will not only in-
crease the comfort of both ewes and
lambs but will also assist in raising
a larger number of lambs. While
sheep can withstand cold weather and
need ventilation if confined in barns
and sheds, drafts should be carefully
avoided.
PIGS
Farmers feeding dairy cows during
the spring and summer should be sure
to use plenty of properly mixed grain
feeds with the legumes or grasses Yo
get best and cheapest milk returns,
according to the national dairy coun-
cil. Leading college dairymen have
made a study of this important prob-
lem, and agree that dairy cows cannot
possibly consume enough grass to
maintain milk flow and their body re-
quirements, too.
“Cows can’t make milk on air and
water,” writes Prof. A. R. Merrill,
dairy specialist of the Connecticut ex-
periment station. “They need some
feed. Pasture grass is one of the
best forms of succulent green feed
that we have, but as a rule there is
not enough of it. Cows that are de-
pendent on pasture alone cannot get
the amount of feed they need. When
we stop to consider that the/average
cow needs 100 to 150 pounds of pas-
ture grass per day for maintenance
and production, we can easily see
why it is necessary to furnish some
additional feed.”
“The feeding of grain on pasture
is so important,” states Prof. E. L.
Savage of Cornell university in Dairy-
men’s League News, “That I am go-
ing to take the time and space to em-
phasize it again. L mixed grain feed
containing 17.5 per cent. to 20 per
cent protein tld be fed on pas-
ture.” g
Turkey hens, chicken hens and in-
cubators are commonly used to incu-
bate turkey eggs. During the early
part of the laying season it often hap-
pens that one has on hand a number
of eggs that should be incubated be-
fore any of the turkey hens are
through laying their first litter and
become “broody.” In such case, and
also when it is desired that the tur-
key hens lay more than one litter,
some of the eggs have to be incubated
under chicken hens or in a incubatar.
About a week before the poults are
due to hatch, turkey hens enough
should be allowed to sit to take all
the poults hatched. They can be giv-
en a few eggs from the incubator or
from under the chicken hens and al-
lowed to hatch the poults themselves,
or at night a newly-hatched poult can
be slipped under each turkey hen that
is to be given a brood of poults and by
morning she will be glad to take
them.
Lice are a great annoyance to set-
ting hens and are one of the worst
enemies of young poults. To prevent
their getting a foothold, dust the hen
thoroughly with some good lice pow-
der before she is placed on the nest
and once a week thereafter while she
is setting. The nesting material
should be kept clean, and if the eggs
become dirty they should be washed
with lukewarm water.
If the weather is warm and dry n.
shelter is required, as the poults d.
better in the open. Should it be rainy
however, they need to be protected,
for nothing is more injurious than for
them to become wet and chilled. The
most satisfactory plan is to confine
the mother turkey hen to a coop and
allow the poults to run in and out
whenever rain does not prevent. This
coop should be placed in a field where
they can run out and find grasshop-
pers, green vegetation, and other feed.
The coop should be moved to fresh
ground every day.
Long before she is ready to lay, the
turkey hen goes nest hunting. She
steps lightly here and there, peering
into dark corners, into empty barrels
and boxes. When she is ready to lay
she goes direct to the nest she has
chosen, and settles down. If we want
our turkeys to lay in convenient places
near by where there can be no ques-
tion as to the ownership of the eggs,
then convenient nests for turkey hens
should be put out, and the hens al-
lowed to find them.
When the turkey becomes broody,
like a chicken hen, she should be al-
lowed to sit on the nest for two or
three days before she is given her
clutch of eggs. While she is on her
term of probation, dust her with so-
dium fluoride under each wing, around
the thigh joint, over the back, under
the body and around the vent.
Do not give her too many eggs.
From fifteen to twenty are enough.
Chicken hens are inquisitive crea-
tures. If the turkey nest is within
reach of their powlings, they will
disturb her; if necessary to shut the
turkey hen in, she should be released
at the same time, preferably in the
evening, for food and exercise.