River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-12-31
Farm improvements.

stitute recently held at Hudson was
one upon the subject of Farm
Improvements, by our esteemed
fellow.citlzen c. V. Guy, which we
take pleasure in laying before our
readers as follows:
The subject is so comprehensive
and there are so many ways in which
our farms call for improvements it is
not easy to choose for this discussion
the most important. The house, the
barn, granary, sheds and stables,
fences and tools, draining, how to
prevent washouts, fertilizers and
when to apply them, what stock and
what breeds, how to feed soilings,
silos, how to make and with what to
ill them, water supply, what crops to
raise and in what rotation, what
manure and when to apply it, what to
seed for pastures and when to SOW it,
how often the pasture should be
seeded-theSe are some of the many
questions pertinent to this discussion.
To the pioneer settlers WHO found
their future home in the forest, the
former haunt of the Indian, and to
whom the trees AM Indians were
alike objects To be eXtermlnated, the
improvements were to build log
house, with the creyiees between the
logs plastered with mud Ito be re-
moved later by the careful housewife
with broom and dust-pan), to chop off
bit of clearing and with fire and
AK destroy the forest, and from this
cemetery of dead trees improvise a
farm. TO the pioneer settler IN the
timber the best tree was dead tree
and the only good Indian was dead
Indian.
The genial DR.. Holmes says : The
first idea purely American of civiliza.
ton is stump"
The one idea of the settler seems to
be to develop such ideas as fast as
possible. To the brother emigrant on
the prairie the solution of the problem
of home was more difficult. The
material for rough board shanty in
which to rear the future American
sovereign had often to be hauled
many weary mile over bad road,
and often no road, with team ex-
hausted by long journey and
possibly short rationS. The architect
builder and owner often combined in
the same person, and the resultant
structure was not noted for elegance
of design, convenience of domestic
arrangement, or elaborateness OF
finish-lf indeed it were finished
before torn down. But it was home
and shelter from the inclemency
of the season, and the nucleus about
which future Improvements were to
be made.
The means to make Improvements
are to be created; wrought out by the
arduous labor of the settler, and con-
sist in the provision of the necessaries
of life, followed later by the luXuries
Of refined and cultivated home.
The idea of size for a house is
"large enough to accommodate
threshing crew." Buildings must be
erected to shelter crops and stock
first, and shade trees set out and a
nicely kept lawn also, on which to
store wagons, plows, harvesters,
seeders and sleds, with an occasional
dilapiddted threshing machine.
But often, before this ideal home is
attained, the richest soil by repeated
groupings of small grain has failed to
yield satisfactory return for the
labor of raising, and the question
becomes serious what system can be
adopted, that will pay, to restore to
the soil the ingredients lost by too
frequent groupings. This question |
propose to discuss briefly in this paper.
BY the report of a committee OF the
Board of Trade of a neighboring city
it was found upon investigation from
authentic sources that the wheat crop
of 1885 in the st. CrolX valley aver
ages but seven bushels per acre, and
badly mixed with foul seed, it may
be added. In view of this fact one is
almost forced to assert that the only
way to improve the farm is to i'm
prove the farmers.
BY proper cultivation farm should
yield enough to support a family, and
from the sale of produce furnish
ample funds to keep up the fertility
of the soil and make necessary i'm
provements. In other words, if
farm managed on business principles
cannot be made TO support and
educate family and afford means,
not only for the support of the family
during the fathers active life, but
permit sufficency for the decrepi-
tude of old age, then our civilization
is a failure in the quiet court of
nature, The Iaborer is not worth the
hire.
In order to make farming success
all crops must be in the most cOncen-
trated form All coarse products, as
hay, straw, corn, corn fodder, oats,
and the coarser products of wheat,
such as bran and shorts, should be
consumed by live stock on the farm,
and sold in the form of beef, pork,
wool, dairy products, etc. On newly
broken prairie, after crop or two of
wheat, then a hard crop, so called by
courtesy, is of great benefit. But to
this, while cultivation Is a partial
substitute for manure, some product
of the barnyard should be added.
When one is near a town the best
and cheapest way TO replenish the
soil is to haul manure at any and all
times of the year. 1t helps the
young farmers credit with the mer-
chant and banker to see him drive out
Of town with load of manure vastly
more than to see him go home full
himself, while the wagon is empty.
But to those living away from
towns where manure cannot be OBJ
tanned something in the way of green
crops to turn under must be supplied.
A very good rotation of crops may
consist of wheat, ami then corn to
perhaps the extent of one-iifth the
plowed land, with a good dressing of
such manure as the barn-yard affords,
wheat following corn, then oats or
some other small grain with grass
seed. A crop or two of grass, and If
the aOil is light, or mas been often
cropped, treat the grass crop to
dressing of land plaster soon alter
sowing.
In my experience, a good catch of
clover with bushel of salt and $50
pounds of plaster to an acre proved an
lntidote to chinch bugs, having never
lost | per cent. of a crop by chinch
bugs when clover and land plaster
have been sOwn.
The fall after seeding, a catch OF
clover will afford fine pastnrage for
stock, and if it cannot be fed off by
cattle or sheep it pays well even then
to turn under. Thus treated, field
will yield luxuriant crop Of hay the
next year, which may be cut the last
of June or first of July, and when the
second crop is well starUed-about the
first of August-it should be plowed
under. BY this treatment field Will