St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-23
AMONG THE FARMERS.
Some Points on Wheat Top Dressing
Profitable Information for Wheat
Growers.
A Unique But Very Comfortable House
That Will Accommodate About
Forty Fowls.
shop Tools should be Kept in Good
Repair Rye for Fall and Spring
PasIurage.
What Grain Lands Can Do if Supplied
with Water--H olstein Milk
Recipes and Notes.
wheat Top-Dressine.

Executing commercial fertilizers, which
should always be drilled in with the seed,
any manure for wheat will do most good if
applied as top-dresSing. There will be no
oss in putting it on any time after blowing.
N which case, if applied early, much OF it
will be worked slightly under the soil in
preparing the seed bed. This, however, is
not essential, and the very best crops OF
wheat may be grown on comparatively
poor soil by top-dressing after SOW
ing. and even after the surface of
the ground is frozen hard enough
TO bear up teams and wagon. In this way
little or no injury is done to the plants by
trampling the ground. A few leaves may
be broken Off but the root is uninjured, and
ready. with the stimulus of the manure, to
send ND plenty more leaves and stalks III the
spring. Sometimes the top-dreSSlng Is de-
ferred until the ground is covered with
snow. Manure is then drawn out and dis
tributed from the sled. 1t Is easier draw
ing out manure on the snow than at any
other time 1t is easy pulling for the team,
and not so heavy lifting the manure as into
wagon.
Whatever manure, however, is now in
the BARNARD should not be left until winter
before drawing out. 1t is impossible to
clean BARNARD thoroughly in winter.
The out-Of- the-way corners, where Valua-
Bile deposits of old and fnely-rOtted manure
are often found. will be either covered
with straw as they should be. or, If uncOv-
cred. will be frozen too Solidly to get at.
If manure is largely drawn in winter, it
must be mainly from heaps thrown out
from The stables and sheds as fast as made.
What is needed now is 10 thoroughly clean
the BARNARD and remove the accu-
mutations of manure made during
the summer. In spring it is very rare that
the winter-made manure is all got out.
Work is then too pressing. and besides, in
the spring much manure in the barnyard IS
so mixed with straw and cOrnStalkS as not
TO be easily or pr0ftably handled. Left
until fall. as much winter made manure
necessarily is it is then rOtted down. and,
with what is made by COWS III the barnyard
at night and horses in the stable, a farmer
ought to have enough to top-dresS what
wheat OF other winter grain he
should sow. If only so much wheat
were sown as could be thoroughly top
dressed. prices of wheat would
be much better, and, what is more important,
all would be grown at profit. The ex-
perience of English farmers proves that it is
possible to more than double the average
yield of wheat per acre, as they have done
within the last fifty years. If we grew the
same amount of wheat that we do now on
half the acreage. it would be sold with profit
even at present low prices. We are salts
fed that this is the way out of the difficulty
of wheat growers. and that restricting seed
ing to what can be top-dressed is the means
of securing profitable returns.