Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-10-24
Evening Up the Yield Of Crops.

4O Atk0 OCCll SGtlS VI IlC1 WuO llf0 upOu
and farm poor land, that they should
go about the premises always having
gypsum in n pocket and clover seed
in the other. There is a meaning in
this expression broader than is con-
veyed by its mere literal Interpretation.
Acting upon this idea il is we'll to look
over ones fields as crops have matured
and see the extent to which defective
places have failed to yield a paying re-
turn. A very significant hint is fur
nished by the yield upon a given por-
ton Of the field, of oats that make short
sheaves, or corn that grows to a short
stature and bears nubbins only. The
same may be- said of thin spots in the
pasture or meadow, and of low places
where water stands. The significance
of carrying gypsum in one pocket and
clover seed in the other, is brought out
by the scanty bearing knoll, while in
the instance OF a sag IN the land the
decreased yield is not due to defective
nutriment in the soil, but to too much
water about the'roots of growing crops.
1t is a fact, that cropscan not be grown
successfully upon food highly diluted
and chilled by being held in solution
in cold water; just as it is
true that animals can not be
fattened upon food similarly diluted
and given in such way as to keep the
digestive and assimilative organs at too
low a temperature. Concentrated, un-
diluted food is required to build, up the
tissue of animals and make them firm
withal, while to undertaking we 1aust
look for the removal of the diluted and
| nhs11ol cfok1 ~ WI, H. A. ,,,o%o~-o.-
plants is held in these wet Says upon
the farm.
We may call this ..evening up. the
yield" If in a team working together,
one horse is in good flesh and another
in thin condition. no even, fair exeeu-
ton of work is expected till the thin
horse is fed up and made effective. In
the case of these uneven, yields. the
plan of leaving land to lie over, 'fal-
lowing" as 1t is termed, is not practl-
cable, for perhaps nine-tenths of the
field will be amply productive with one
tenth only at fault. Now that, the
crops have given evidence of. the local
shortcomings, drive a stake, where
these evidences have appeared, and
through liberal loads Of manure in the
one case and tapping the water accu-
mutation from Leneath in the other. it
will be fair to expect next seasons yield
will be, in q measure at least, ''evened
up" No one need be at a loss and
think he must call in a chemist to
analyze the so in these cases of spotted
crops, as they may we'll be termed. AS
a rule, crops themselves make a better
analysis of the land-and this is true
OF the whole field as we'll as of defec-
tive spots-than any chemist can, show
ing the evidences above ground in tho
one case, in the stunted, pale-colored
growth, and in the other, in the lux
uriant, - wide-spread1ng, de%ep-tinted
plant. The same rule "a wisely be
applied to a field spotted in the manner
named, as to a collection of farm ami
mails under the feeding process. Among
these will be individuals that should be
singled out from the main herd, and
fed in a special manner, upon rich
foods, Now it is known to pretty much
all farmers that, continuously, from
year to year, the crops are what we
here term spotted, and that this comes
from the cause named. 1t takes the
highest skill in breeding and feeding to
keep up a uniform state of flesh and
appearance in a herd; and a herd not
so kept looks uneven and unsightly,
yet not more so than the fields whose
yields are not kept evened up.:-Na.
ti0nal LiUe Stock Journal.