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Shop at the Extension officeBy Richard C. Snell Barton County Extension Agent, agriculture It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We don't have a bunch of snow on the ground, but St. Nick and Rudolph will find their way anyhow. Snow or not, Christmas is coming. The temperatures have certainly been more winter like the past week or so. Many people have their lights and decorations up. It's time to get that Christmas gift shopping done if you haven't already. By the way, I haven't. If you still haven't got something for the farmer in your life, I've got some items that are inexpensive that can really be useful. Even if you don't want to call them gifts, these are useful items for any farmer throughout the year. The first item that I'll mention is the one year-end special that we always have and that's the small red beef books. They are a red pocket sized cow-calf calendar booklet. These make great stocking-stuffers or regular low-cost gifts. Each pocket calendar has a complete cattle record keeping section including gestation table, pasture usage, calving and weight details, cow health recorder for shots, and breeding records. It is a good book for carrying with you to the pasture or when you feed. You can identify which calves go with which cows and record ear tag numbers right then. There is also a telephone number-address section in the back for people you need to contact frequently. These books have been very popular the last few years. We have a very limited supply and they sell for $5. We have several for sale publications for $5 or less including, Diagnosing Wheat Production Problems, Diagnosing Corn Production Problems, Diagnosing Sorghum Production Problems and a new one called the Pocket Guide To Crop Development. Most of the material that we have at the county extension office is free to you through K-State. It should be noted however that until this year our office used to get $2,500 from K-State toward publications and because of the budget situation, we now have to pay for every publication. We have a number of crop, livestock, and home buildings and facilities planning booklets through the Midwest Plan Service catalog. These range in price from $3 to $20 each. You are welcome to stop by and look at the catalog or any of the booklets that we have on hand. Other pay publications ranging from 50 cents to $12 are available to look at. These range from information on grain marketing to septic system management. One particular book that is very good is Steve Watson's "Wheat Varieties For Kansas". This is updated every year and sells for $8.50. Unfortunately, we do not have any on hand now and probably needs to be ordered between July and September. Weeds of Nebraska and the Great Plains is a book with over 500 colorful pictures of common weeds with written details about each and how to identify them. Range and Pasture Plants is an excellent resource with color photos from Fort Hays State University. A third weed identification guide is the Weeds of the West. These range in price from $20 to $35. Then there are four livestock manuals in 3-ring form. We have one for the production of beef cattle, horse, swine and sheep. They range from $20 to $60 in price. Each has hundreds of fact sheets on nutrition, breeds and breeding, health and management. Some are available on CD-ROM.
More on--What the heck? As promised, this is the final chapter on the saga of "tales of the deep" or "what the heck?" The other possibility for the large tuber that I wrote about previously, found deep in the ground south of Great Bend, is the buffalo gourd. Most of us didn't know how large the below ground tuber could be even though we are somewhat familiar with it. It grows prostrate and has yellow flowers as opposed to the whit flowers of the bush or big root morning glory. It is in the Cucurbitaceae--Cucumber Family and flowers from June to August. It is also called wild gourd or fetid wild pumpkin. The stems trail radiating 5 to 25 feet from large taproot, stout, rough, forming large leafy mats. The leaves are foul- smelling when crushed, alternate, simple, grayish green, slightly 3 to 5 lobed, long- stalked, triangular-ovate, 2- to 8-inches wide, 4- to 12-inches long, thick, rough; margins irregularly toothed; tips pointed. Some of the other characteristics are: Flowers: Large, showy; male and female flowers produced separately on same plant, staminate flowers on stalks 1 to 2 inches long, pistillate flowers sessile; calyces 5- parted; corollas bell-shaped, 5-lobed to about middle, 2- to 5-inches long, to 4 inches wide, yellow to orange; stamens 5, anthers united. Inflorescence with solitary flowers in leaf axils. Fruits: Gourds, spherical, 2- to 4-inches in diameter, green with lighter stripes, glabrous; seeds flattened, smooth, straw-colored. Habitat: Dry, disturbed areas, waste places, roadsides, and fence lines, commonly in sandy or gravelly soils. Distribution: Throughout Kansas. Uses: Native Americans attributed mystical and medicinal powers to the root. Special care was taken when unearthing the root, for it was believed that an injury to the root would lead to injury of oneself or one's family members. The gourds were sometimes made into ceremonial and children's rattles. The carrot-like taproot of buffalo gourd grows to enormous proportions. It can reach 4- to 6-feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds.
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