The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-05-18
FARM MATTERS.
Suggestions or and For the Season
Butter Making-Take Care Of Your Homes
Farm Notes, Etc.
Suggestions OF and For the Season.

No farmer needs to be told that this is a
month in which work presses, but many
of our readers will find this year that a
large share of the work of two months is
crowding into one. Over several of the
Western States the late and lingering SHOWS
have delayed work disastrously, and the
ground has not been fit for the pillow until
long after the usual time. In season so
unreasonable as this, in such localities, care
full laying out of the work is more than ever
necessary. Fortunate are those who pre-
pared the land for spring wheat last fall. In
many cases farmers may be compelled to
let this crop 80 by, and give more attention
to corn Early sowing is on many accounts
desirable, yet good crops have been made in
New York State when the sowing was not
done until May 20. Oats rarely do well I'M
less sown very early. The crop may be
much improved by care in preparing the
seed. Pass it through tanning mill to
blow out all the light, imperfect seeds.
Corn planting will be the leading work
throughout broad area. 1t is matter of
common remark with those who observe the
weather, that, take one year with another,
the LIST of July will find vegetation about
equally advanced. no matter how backward
the early part of the season may have been.
Corn land is to be put in readiness as soon
as may be- but the seed must not be planted
until the soil is warm, and the grain will
start into vigorous growth at once. There
is often serious loss from planting too early;
the grain remains dormant or rots in the
ground 1t is often the case that a field
planted in April will In June be far behind
one planted two weeks later. The old rule
is: - sod for corn" One can not always
follow this; besides, in many cases grass
land is too valuable as such to be plowed up
for another crop. The American farmer is
learning that meadows and pastures furnish
the most valuable crops. Corn does admir-
ably on stubble land; the extensive expert
ments referred to by Professor Atwater and
others show that il does not matter what the
preceding crop has been, so long as the soil is
in good filth and abundantly supplied with
the food elements which the corn plant re-
quires. There is as much difference of opin-
ion as ever as to whether il is preferable TO
plant in hills or in drills. Corn can be kept
free frem weeds with greater ease when
planted in hills, as the cultivator or horse
hoe may be run in two directions, and thus
leave a much smaller part OF the work for
the hand-hoe. There is the advantage in
drills that the plants ere more evenly dis
tributed over the ground each stalk has
more immediate room TO Itself. A larger
crop can he grown with the corn in drills,
but il is claimed that, in most cases, this is
more than offsetby the Increased labor in ten
ding it, especially if the land is weedy. The
importance of selecting seed-corn has been
so strongly set forth at the proper season.
that it is presumed that this first step
toward a successful crop was taken in time
II one has q variety that he has improved by
careful selection through several years, he
should be slow to change it for new kind
though we would by no means discourage
the testing of new varieties OF promise.
The root crop increasesln Importance, and
a greater acreage is devoted to il each year.
and il must advance in favor as the country
becomes older and our methods are forced
to adapt themselves TO the change in our
condition. Roots do best in loose, friable
soil, with a gravelly subEoil.
soil should be ploughed to at least ten
inches. II the soil is not rich, give good
supply of well-rotted manure; bonedust
guano or superphosphate, at the rate of 300
to 500 pounds per acre, may be applied with
profit All such concentrated manures
should be sown on the surface and narrowed
in, or otherwise thoroughly mixed with the
ant root crop They should be sown by the
middle of this month. After mangels come
sugar beets and blood beets, which
may be sown early in June,
but do the best. usually, when
put in the ground the last of May. The
leading varieties of yellow-heshed mangels
are: Webb's yellow globe, yellow-heshed
Tankard and the long yellow. The red va
rieties are less solid. With the fodder crops
sown in April, and the corn and roots in
May, there is little of the farm land unoc-
cupied. A small portion may be devoted
with profit to fodder corn for June, July or
August, after the early rye and clover.
A top-dressing of fine barn-yard manure.
or artificial fertilizer applied to the grass
land, either pasture or meadow, Will often
give new life TO the grass. and return the
expense many fold. Plaster often produces
excellent results upon young clover fields.
Thus applied, it will help increase the crop
to be plowed in as green manure. One to
eight bushels per acre may be sown broad
cast This should be done as early as posi-
BILE this month Do not let the animals go
to pasture until the ground is settled and
firm.