The Gem State Rural

FARMERS INSTITUTE.

Institute at Caldwell rich in Practical Suggestions and food for Agricultural Thought but Slim in point of Attendance on Part of The Farmers.

Perhaps the most important event of the year just past from an agricultural standpoint, was the Farmer's Institute held in Caldwell, December 22nd and 23rd.

The Institute was fairly well patronized by the people of Caldwell, but the farmer, the person financially interested, was about as scarce as hen's teeth. The amount of information afforded by those especially qualified, each in his own department, if appreciated and properly applied, would be worth thousands of dollars, annually to the farmers of Canyon County.

In the department of stock growing, for various purposes the illustrated lecture of Prof. French gave more information of an exact character than the ordinary farmer would acquire in ten years of observation. The life size photographs of the various breeds of cattle, sheep and other stock, displayed upon canvas with explanatory remarks by the professor, demonstrated very clearly that the intelligent breeder would always have the pecuniary advantage of the hap-hazard stockman.

Dr. Avery's lecture upon reclaiming alkali soils, ought to have been heard by every farmer in the country owning such soil. He explained the difference between white and black alkali and the most approved methods for treating or reclaiming such soils.

The evening session was made doubly attractive by the charming instrumental and vocal selections, rendered by Miss Julia Cooper, Miss Edna Jones, Mrs. Olmstead, and Mrs. Redway.

Mr. A. Doore of Pleasant Ridge gave a very entertaining and instructive talk pertaining to the culture of small fruits. He is experimenting with eighteen varieties of strawberries and different varieties of raspberries and strawberries. He has already established a reputation in Caldwell for fine fruits and gets the top price. His talk was free but he intimated that if any one wanted to profit by his experience and get his best varieties they would have to pay for them.

Prof. Aldrich spread before his audience his extensive observations and experiments with some fruit pests that are common in Idaho, with the best known methods of destroying them; also giving the experience and observations of experts elsewhere on this subject.

The growing commercial importance of fruit exports alone, should have brought out a good audience. Prof. Aldrich called attention to a brief synopsis of the entire proceedings can give but a faint idea of the richness of the treat afforded the audience at every meeting.

One of the most amusing as well as instructive features of the sessions was the two lectures of Mr. H. P. Carpenter, a graduate of Prof. Henry's at the Wisconsin Agricultural School and a disciple of ex-Governor Hoard publisher of Hoard's Dairyman.

Mr. Carpenter told us that he had made dairying the business of his life, having had experience in 30 states and might be termed a "dairy crank". He pronounced Idaho the best dairying country he had ever visited and gave his reasons for it which were clear and convincing. He described the best strains of stock for dairying purposes and gave his preference for Jerseys, but added, that there was not one man in five hundred that knew how to treat a Jersey cow. The management of the creamery was also reviewed and the Babcock test fully explained. His exhibit of samples of butter in the test tubes and separating it into its constituent parts showed the reasons for the average in its manufacture, and the percentage thereof. As the creamery industry is just being inaugurated in Southern Idaho, this feature of the lecture should have been heard by every patron or prospective patron of creameries. It does not seem to be generally known that good butter contains from sixteen to twenty per cent of material, besides the butter fat, as shown by the Babcock test. His tables of analysis of forage plants showed alfalfa to be the nearest all around perfect ration for the dairy cow that could be grown, and our immense crops of alfalfa assured us an ideal dairy country.

The soiling process versus pasturing also came in for a share of attention. In fact, his lectures were loaded with valuable information for the farmer, from beginning to end.

Mr. John Callaway, a student of the College of Idaho, had a well written and suggestive paper on the benefits of irrigation.

May the good Lord preserve us for another such a treat as was afforded by these meetings and may we then be able to divide our joys with a much larger number of friends.

some experiments he conducted last season in trapping the codling moth with bands and in spraying and also to determine the varieties of apples that were either least or most liable to injury from codling moth These experiments will be given in later issues of this paper.

President McPherson of the State Horticultural Society entertained the audience, by humorously relating his experience and observations while traveling last fall in the interests of Idaho fruits. He found nothing from California that would equal many of the Idaho products, and a display of his samples always brought forth the highest encomiums, and often resulted in placing valuable orders