The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-01-29
Flowing i the Night.

Flowing i the Night.
In breaking thS prairie lands ofthe
Red river county, says the St. Paul
Pioneer Press, obny Of the farmers did
most of their work at night last sum.
mer. They put their teams in the field
late in the AFTERNOON, after the heat of
the day was past and utilized the cool
hours of the night, free from the fretting
annoyances of deer-fie and otner in
sects SO trying to horse-fesh. After
stopping to rest and feed two or three
hours at midnight, the sulky plows
were started again at peep of day, or
about 3 A. NJ, and kept going till the
sun was some two hours high. It was
found, moreover, that breaking when
the grass was wet with the heavy night
dews materially aided in rotting the sod
the essential in subduing all prairie
soils. Land that was turned where the
growth of grass was longest, greenest,
and we'll drenched with dew rotted the
quickest and most thoroughly, and left
the sod in the best condition for the
harrow. This experience accords with
tho WelEknOw fact that the fermenta-
ton and decomposition Of vegetable
fibre is most immediate and rapid when
the plant is cut off and covered with
earth in the full flush of vigorous life,
while its juices are in active circulation,
and the midsummer sun supplies a
high degree of heat. Success in rotting
the obdurate prairie sod is found to be
strictly contingent on the observance of
this law in practice. If the close and
spUngy network of turf is turned too
early in the spring, before the grass has
started, or too late in the season, when
the supply ofmoisture is reduced and
the fibre of stalk and root is dry and
measurably cured, the sod becomes al
most indestructible and remains to tor
ment the farmer through successive
seasons.
Another point not without interest in
this connection is afforded by the re-
cent experience of farmers who have
made use of heavier draft animals than
the average farm horse in opening up
farms in the prairie regions of the Red
river valley. Large, heavy horses are
coming into favor for this work.
The preference among farmers for
rather light or medium teams
horses of from ten to twelve
hundred weight-has been almost uni
versal. And, under the old system of
small farms, with, hand-plows, light
drags and seeders, quick travelling horses
were undoubtedly preferable; but with
the agricultural machinery ofto-day,the
sulky plows and heavy disc riding har-
rows, the wide sweep combination seed
ers and cultivators, and selfbinding
harvesters, farming has become quite
different matter, and requires not only
three-horse teams, but animals of great
er power than the traditional farm
horse. A farmer who settled last spring
near Breckenridge, Richland county,
Dakota, informs us that team of three
heavy horses in weight from
1920 to 1,445 pounds-he mounted his
sulky p]ow and began breaking on the
Goth of May, and averaged three acres
per day straight through the season.
With this team he broke $50 acres, took
short vacation to put up his hay in
midsummer and then turned around
and back setthe entire breaking, going
two inches deeper; and, in addition,
while accomplishing this handsome sea-
sons work, he had to haul his supply
of water between three and four miles.
back.setting SO deep was fully as severe
strain upon his team as the breaking,
but when the work was done, his horses
were in fine condition, and actually
weighed three pounds heavier than
when he began. This farmer imputes
the success of his summer campaign to
his powerful team, and his practice of
working at night instead OF sweltering
through the hot sun=hine. During the
day he slept soundly in his tent, while
his team rested in q cool stable from
which flies and mosquitoes were exclu-
ded by wire window screens. The ex-
perience of the gentleman-who, being
fresh from commercial pursuits, was
not hampered by traditional methods
in neutrality-suspicious. the observations
of others who have declared that the
heavy work of opening prairie farms in
the northwest is ruinously severe on
horseaesh. One party reports that he
spent two days, late last fall, in the town
of Campbell, Wilkin county, where the
st. Paul, Milwaukee and Minneapolis
railroad enters the Red river valley, and
during his stay in the place he counted
over twenty farmers teams, every one
of which presented q rundown, over
worked, and jaded appearance. The
farmers said that their horses had all
they wanted to eat. The severe labors
of the season had produced effects
which no amount of food or care could
remedy.