Oregon Republican. [volume] (Dallas, Or.) 1870-1872, 1870-09-24
Treatment of Farm Land.

O6Slu ANCWaOhCg IA tnC W tttsaHStkto
Former, dicussing the question of rota.
tive of crops in the Willamette Valley,
makes these remarks about the soil and
its treatment: There are variaus sorts
of crops here which can be produced,
that will not exhaust the soil, if they
are sown in rotation. Aud would urge
on our farmers and gardeners the great
importance and necessity here, of deep
ploaoin9 and thorough harropiag. And
there is no portion of North America
where the manuring is of greater bene-
fit than it is in this valley. Rotten
straw, barnyard manure, muckearth
from the bogs, river,sand, fax-straw
stock~manure, stubble, chip manure
and, in fact, everything Of decaying
nature, - especially bone-dust, mari,
lime, and ashes, scattered on the land in
the fHl, are good fertilizers Green
swards, plowed under, (such as clover,
timothy, oats, and peas). are good for
the land. Our lands requires appropri
ate food as much as our live stock re-
quire it. There is mode OF summer
fallow, here, that should be more known
and pursued, than it is: Plow the land
ten inches deep in the fall Iu the
nnth oi May plow it twelve inches
.erp, and harrow it thoroughly. Then
list it off two ways, and plant it 10 pota
toes, corn, cabbage, rutabagas, beets,
= ~ squashes. Plow the land
sith shovel pillow three or four times
aud hoe it we'll several times. From one
to three hundred bus heis of potatoes !;
from twenty to thirty bushels of corn.
per acre, and large amount of other ce-
reals mentioned, can be raised on such
simmer -fallow, and the land left in the
very best order for grain crop. We
can raise all the corn we need here, in
his way, without buying our meal a1d
i,ominy from Walla WalIa or California
fhe land thus managed, would yield
good fax crop. or grain. If the flax
s.ubble were turned under, the crop of
aax would not exhaust the soil for .
good grain crop the next season.
6ni that old meadow lands. sunni ner
flowed. produces potatoes and other
root crops 10 great abund nee. And the
,ext season heavy crops of grain can be
raised on the same land.
Underground draining is greatly need.
ed here. ALI the swales aud pondS can
he brought into most successful tilIag
by underground draining Our VII e
Or gray lands are execellent for timothy
furuips, oats, and cabbages, but not
good for wheat. BY summer tillage,
he sorrel, ru. III other toul weeds can
be destroyed An experiment was made
this season, on piece of prairie land on
French Prairie, in Marion county The
land had been run in wheat Cor thirty
years, skimm ng it once year, four
inches deep! It was run down, and
yielded only eight or ten bushels per
acre. Last fall the plow was set to sew
en- inches deep; last March to eleven
inches deep; and, in May, to twelve
inches deep, well narrowed, and sowu
to wheat and oats. Thirty bushels of
good wheat, or sixty bushels OF oats
were harvested per acre, on thai old, run
.dowa .farm At depth under the
former plowing, there was crust i'm
pervious to water, and it itrequired three
horses to the plow, to brake it. And
this is the condition Of more than half
Of our old farm lands in Western Ore
gon.