The Odem-Edroy Times (Odem, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 9, 1970 Page: 7 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Odem Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Odem Public Library.
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1
Soil Conservation
News
Today it is almost unheard
of to try and make a bumper
crop without fetilization. Plants
must have adequate nutrients
to produce maximum yields and
the same is true in fish produc-
tion. To produce a maximum
number of large, healthy fish
in the shortest time, a pond
must have an adequate fish
food supply the year round.
Phytoplankton (floating micro-
scopic plants) is the starting
point in the natural food cyle
by these water plants are the
same as those required by plants
which grow in soil; namely nitro-
gen, phosphourous and potassi-
um. Commercial inorganic ferti-
lizers are used to supply these
nutrients.
Most farm ponds will respond
to an initial treatment of 100
pounds of 20-20-5 or 16-20-0 ferti-
lizer per surface acre followed
by successive treatments of 20
to 40 pounds per surface acre.
Experience will tell which feti-
lizer is most suitable for your
pond. Research and experience
indicate that nitrogen and phos-
phorous are the two most essen-
tial elements. Most Texas soils
contain adequate potassium to
supply the small amount needed
by phystoplankton. If in doubt,
include a small amount of potas-
sium in the fertilizer.
Start applying the fetilizer in
March or April or when the wa-
ter temperature reaches 60 de-
grees. Follow this first applica-
tion with smaller applications at
2-week intervals until a desirable
plankton bloom is attained. A
desirable bloom is one that
shades out a shiny object at
about 18 inches below the sur-
face.
A good test is to hold a shiny
object underwater at elbow
dpeth. If you can’t see the ob-
ject, then the water is dark
enough.
’ The best way to apply the fer-
tilize is to buil da floating plat-
form and anchor it in the center
of the pond_ Pour the fertilizer
on the platform and let it dis-
solve slowly over a period of
days. This will maintain a more
even bloom and take less fertili-
ser than other methods. Often
when the fertilizer is just poured
into the pond there will be a
rapid tie-up of nutrients in the
bottom soil. The desired bloom
will usually appear in 1 to 5
weeks after the first fertilizer
application.
Fertilization should be stopped
around the first of. June. As hot
weather approaches there is the
possibility of a fish kill resulting
from oxygen deficiencies. Warm
water holds less dissolved oxy-
gen than cold water and heavy
plankton bloom can result in
reduced oxygen supply. Such
fiyh kills usually result after
two or three overcast, windless
days. If there are facilities for
aerating the pond such as water
sprayed or splashed in to the air,
all summer with no problem.
Another advantage of pond
fertilization, other than increas-
ed fish production, is the control
of aquatic plants or pond weeds.
Fertilization will darken the
water and shut out sunlight
required by aquatic plants. How-
ever, care should be taken to
make sure there is not an over
abundance of aquatic plants pre-
sent when a fertilization pro-
vgram is begun. Otherwise th
fertilizer will cause the plants to
grow rapidly and get out of con-
trol before the water has a
chance to darken.
For further information on fish
pond fertilization contact techni-
cian serving the San Patricio
Soil and Water Conservation Dis-
trict.
TIMES—Odem, Texas, Thursday, April 9, 1970—Page 7
Sketching
sv
J. L N.
My dad used to say, “I grew
to manhood and never saw the
backside of my dad’s corn crib,
nor the bottom of his meat box.”
I took this to mean that my
grandfather was a pretty good
provider, and that my grand-
mother was a good manager of
the family’s food supply .Anoth-
er adage my dad quaoted was,
“A woman can throw out the
back door .with a spoon, what a
man can shovel in the front
door with a scoop.” I have ne-
ver had reason to doubt the
truth of these bits of wisom.
But be it so, the corn crib
and the meat box are no longer
the method by which the aver-
age family measures its poten-
tial. The bank book and the cred-
it card can and does supply fool
that has already been gathered,
pre-seasoned and in many in-
stances pre-cooked. This is doing
it the easy way.
Before the advent of the family
freezer, and the credit card,
food was the princpal concern
of most every American family,
and its conservation had to be
looked after when the season and
the proudct was right.
Anyone who has not spent a
day or so canning corn is bound
to have a big gap in his educa-
tion. of course, canning corn was
a respiete from hoeing cotton,
but it was still hard work. We
arose early. We always arose
early if there was anything at
all to do. My parents never did
learn that a day’s work was a
day’s work, no matter when it
began. They operated on the
theoy that if one wasn’t half
through with a job by the time
the sun came up, he had just as
well not start the job that day.
Anyway, we hitched up the
mules to the wagon, and went to
the corn patch to get the first
load of com, while mama, got
the breakfast dishes washed, the
beds made and the floors swept.
By that time, me and dad would
be back, all wet with dew, but
with a load of fresh corn, and
the canning would get under way
in earnest.
Dad had a hatchet, which was
used to cut off both ends of the
ear of corn, and he attended to
that part of the job. The four
children were busy getting the
shucks off, the silks out, and
carrying the com to the porch
where maama and a neighbor
woman would be cutting off the
kernels.
Finally a cooking would be
placed in the giant pressure
mm mmm
cooker, and the cooker placed
on the wood stove. Keeping a
sensitive pressure cooker on 15
degrees over a wood fire took
some doing, but it was done.
By the time the day was over,
the hop pen would be full of
juicy green corn ears, flies
would be everywhere and every-
body on the place so sick of corn
until we would all avow, that the
day was wasted, since we would
never be able to look at corn
again, much less eat the stuff.
But we did eat it and it tasted
really good when the first north-
ers whistled into Jones county,
and it tasted even better when
the thermometer got down to
zero, and it very often did just
that.
Corn canning was the easiest
of all the canning duties. When
I think of he mountains of black-
eyed peas that I have shelled,
and the days it took to shell
them. My definition of eternity
used to be, “Me and a number
three tub full of blackeyed peas
to shell.”
Snapping pinto beans for the
big cooker wasn’* so easy either.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagina-
tion for me to go back to that
cane bottom chair at the side
of the house. Flies, gnats and
what have you, intruding into
my already miserable world, as
I saw bucket after bucket, and
tub after tub of fresh produce
brought in to sicken my heart,
as I thought of the pleasures of
the grape vine on the creek
which needed so desperately to
have me there to swing on it,
and the swimming hole that
needed a good muddying.
Just last year, I enlarged my
garden to somehwere near an
acre, and now. it is all planted.
If everything produces that I
have planted, I may face some
more tubs and buckets, because
Kathryn grew up during about
the same days that I did. She
learned the same adages from
her parents, so if I can’t give it
away, I have an idea that ’’you
know who” will be doing some
more canning.
House-to-House
Census Work
Now Underway
District Manager Mary Bod-
ger reports good progress in this
area of the 1970 Census of Popu-
lation and Housing. Census tak-
ers started the house-to-house
canvass April 1 to pick up the
filled - out questionnaires dis-
tributed earlier by the Post Of-
fice.
The District Manager pointed
out that residents can speed up
the big count by having their
questionnaires filled out and
ready for the census takers. This
action will save time for both
the householder and the census
taker, the District Manager said.
Answers 'should be made in
pencil so that if a mistake is
made, it can be erased. Most
answers are to be made by
blacking in a tiny circle beside
the right answer. This makes a
black dot which can be read by
an electronic device at the Cen-
su Bureau, which will, in turn,
speed up the processing of the
information.
At every fifth household, the
census taker asks additional
and housing characteristics
which are being asked of a 20
percent sample of the population.
The District Manager empha-
sized that all information about
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nished to the Census Bureau is
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der Federal law. It is used only
to provide summary figures such
as totals, averages, and per cen-
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for investivation, taxation, or re-
gulation.
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Winebrenner, Mary Cornett. The Odem-Edroy Times (Odem, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 9, 1970, newspaper, April 9, 1970; Odem, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1044534/m1/7/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Odem Public Library.