WHO ARE THE CONSUMERS OF VIDALIA ONIONS?

Consumer/Household Economics,

Reducing Crop Production Cost

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Most Asked Agronomic Questions

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Sugar beet growing

The interest that attaches to beet growing in Iowa induced this station to conduct an experiment embracing conditions common to this industry by the farmer. Seed of German (Klein Wanzlebener) and French (Dippes Vilmorin) varieties were obtained from the Department of Agriculture; also a French variety called Desprez from Oxnard Bros., Grand Island, Nebraska. The ground selected was a piece of fall plowing adjoining timber. Some of it had been recently cleared. The piece comprised the following varieties of soil: Upland, sandy loam, low rich loam, medium sandy loam, timber clay loam, and stiff timber clay, all comparatively new. In order to ascertain the best time to plant sugar beets we begun April 15 and planted once each week, until May 25. We also desired to ascertain what benefit, if any, would be derived from fertilizing. Lime was used. A commercial fertilizer containing ammonia, phosphoric acid, and potash, valued especially for sugar cane in the South, was used; also ammoniated super-phosphate

Effect of feed upon the quality of milk

The teachings of some of our prominent agricultural chemists upon this subject— teachings which have received wide circulation only so recently that they will be new to most of our readers— may be stated as follows: First, In general— that while quantity of milk is largely dependent upon the kind of feed consumed, quality (i. e. composition) is almost independent of it; in other words that the quality of milk cannot be materially changed by varying the kind or composition of the feed. Second, In detail— that neither the percentage of fat nor o f total solids in the milk is materially influenced by the kind or the composition of feed consumed; that these percentages are fixed by the constitution or individuality of each animal, and so firmly fixed that to change them to any considerable extent and for any length of time, by feeding, is impossible

Hog experiment No. 1

The result of this experiment shows that 2000 pounds of grain produced 6263/4 pounds live weight, or 17.3 pounds of growth for every bushel of corn and equivalent; that we can approximate one dollar per bushel for corn when pork is five and one-half cents per pound; that the dam can be made to increase in flesh during the suckling period; that the proper balancing of the ration is necessary to secure these results. The object of this experiment is to determine the most profitable development of a litter of pigs and the maintenance of the dam. In other words to produce the greatest possible live weight with a given quantity of grain without detriment to the vigor and constitution of the growing animal. The experiment, therefore, involves two points, namely, increase of flesh and fat in proper balance with increase of bone and skin. The subject is a registered Poland China sow, two years old. She was purchased of W. M. McFadden, West Liberty, Iowa. She scored second in points of excellence at the State Fair one year ago. So we have a good animal to start with. She farrowed March 3, 1891. Her litter consisted of four pigs, three boars and one sow. The pigs and dam were weighed when the pigs were thirty-six hours old. The weight of the pigs, was thirteen and one-fourth pounds; weight of dam, 348 pounds. The weighing was done March 4, at two o’ clock p. m . The supplementary feed was prepared by mixing ground barley, oil meal, corn and cob meal and bran, the mixture being soaked thirty-six hours in cold water before feeding. The principal feed was ear corn, and shelled corn soaked. The sow was fed three times a day during the first two periods and twice a day thereafter

Calf feeding experiments

The state of Iowa has within a few years developed dairying in many counties to such an extent that great interest attaches to methods of feeding calves during the first four months of their lives, and until they have reached the age when grains, grasses and fodders will carry them on through the rearing period. Our farmers adopt various methods in calf raising. Special beef producers permit the calf to follow the dam until it is five or six months old, others yard the calves, and admit the cows twice a day. Those who want milk as a feature of profit resort to various methods. Some farmers require one cow to suckle two calves, while they milk the other cow. Others milk the cows, and after the calf has reached a certain age, varying with varying opinions of the proper time to stop feeding new milk, they raise the calf on skim milk, with different grains added. Still others, feed skim milk from the beginning, caring little for the calf, and relying for profit on the milk. What is most economical has not been demonstrated. The state has such great abundance of corn and other grains, such fine grasses and fodders that, the production of beef will always be a leading industry. It is also well settled that, the average farmer can not afford to give all of a cow’s milk for a year, to the raising of her calf, and cows that suckle seldom give milk long after the calf is removed. Our farmers who desire to make milk a profitable feature of the farm are leaning more and more to the belief that the calf must be raised by hand

Soiling experiment

The losses that occur annually to our farmers from the drying up of their pastures in July, August, and September, induced us to grow a few acres of green feed, and ascertain to what extent such feed, of different kinds, can be had from an acre of land; how much a cow requires of each kind, and the effect of such feeding on quantity and quality of milk, compared with well watered, well shaded, good blue grass pastures. Our dairies are mostly idle because the cows have gone dry. and the cows have gone dry because their pastures have failed and provision was not made on a large majority of farms to furnish them with something on which they could give milk. A succession of dry summers has regularly shortened our pastures, and made cows unprofitable, when all the elements of growth are present except moisture, or an arrangement of different crops sown at different times so that some one may always be at its best for cutting for green feed

Miocene magnetostratigraphy from Equatorial Pacific sediments (ODP Site 1218, Leg 199)

Pliocene and Miocene magnetostratigraphy from ODP Site 1218 (Equatorial Pacific) has been obtained by measurements made on u-channel samples, augmented by about 50 discrete samples. U-channel samples were measured at 1 cm intervals and stepwise demagnetized in alternating fields up to a maximum peak field of 80 mT. The component magnetization directions were determined by principal component analysis for demagnetization steps in the 20–60 mT peak field range. A relatively small number of discrete samples were subject to both thermal and alternating field (AF) demagnetization and gave results compatible with u-channel measurements. Magnetostratigraphy from u-channel samples are compared with shipboard data that were based on blanket demagnetization at peak AF fields of 20 mT. U-channel measurements add more detail to the magnetostratigraphic record and allow identification of thin polarity zones especially in the upper part of the section were the sedimentation rates are very low (∼2 m/Myr). The component magnetization directions determined from u-channel measurements also gave more reliable and precise estimates of inclination (paleolatitude). The magnetostratigraphy from Site 1218 can be unambiguously correlated with the reference geomagnetic polarity time scale and gives a means of dating the sedimentary sequence. Both Miocene–Pliocene and Oligocene–Miocene stage boundaries were easily identified from the magnetostratigraphic record. Although calculation of paleomagnetic poles is hindered by the low precision of the cores' azimuthal orientation, the data from both u-channel and discrete samples allow determination of the paleolatitude of the Site through time with good precision. Paleomagnetic data indicate that the paleolatitude of Site 1218 has increased form nearly equatorial latitude in the Oligocene to its present-day latitude close to 9°N. Within the precision of the paleomagnetic data, this is in agreement with current predictions of plate motion models based on fixed hotspots