St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-25
OCTOBER ON THE FARM.
What Is Being Done and Should
BE on the Programme.

Special TO the Globe.
FOUNTAIN, Mimi, Oct. 1S.-These
crisp, cool mornings that greet our
senses are sometimes varied by damp,
heavy air that is laden with thick
pungent smoke that tells tale Of the
straw stacks set Oh fire by the owners
of land to get the straw out of the way.
To person that has been accustomed
to see the straw as it comes from the
threshing machine carefully stacked
near the stables for "bedding the cattle
down. for beds that the hogs and pigs
can nestle down into. and the horses to
lie down upon if they feel disposed, and
the cattle yard carpeted with generous
supply for their use through the day,
and then form thick mass of manure
in the spring to be put back Oh the land
wherever required, even to giving the
hay fields carefully arranged supply,
this burning of the straw seems to me
wasteful and wicked to do at any time.
That is taking from the land and Civ
ing little or nothing back to keep up its
fertility, but requiring a generous sup
ply from the impoverished soil. Almost
every evening since thTeshing COM
menced, there have been fires in various
directions. where thd straw was being
fed TO the flames, which should have
been rotted and fed to the land on
which it grew. and OH some damp morn
ings the air is almost SutfOcating i'll its
effects on the human system.
Tons Of fax fiber have been burned
about the country so far. and there is
vet more to be added when threShed
and be cast into the fire. l am told by
an engineer that fax straw is prefera-
BILE to any other fuel tor burning in the
engine, lasts longer, and being quick
to ignite, it soon generates steam suffi-
cient to go to work at once, which with
threSherS is money in their pockets, il
the work is done well and as speedily as
possible.
One farmers wife, in speaking of
company of threShers, said: They
threshed us out so cleanly and so
quickly, l did not have an opportunity
or time to get acquainted with them"
But it still seems as il fax fiber were
wasted, yet to the farmer that has little
or no wood on his farm, the straw to
his material.
In such cases there does not appear
any waste of material where other fuel
is high in price. AID we read of Ebay
Stoves" or rather of stoves being made
expressly for burning hay or straw. and
we feel an agreeable pleasure in know
ing he or she has straw to use, and save
the high price of wood or coal.
TO the settler on a new farm a crop
of flax seems almost a necessity and
gOdsend, as the seed is always well up
in price and brings the money that he
needs at once, as well as the fuel to
burn for time at least, until he can do
better on the fuel question.
But the man Oh farm that has wood
or is able to obtain wood and coal when
he requires it, no necessity exists for
his setting fire to his straw and burning
it up. 1t should be returned to the land
in some way, or some other fertilizer
must be obtained and applied. or his
land will cease to be as productive as it
is at present. There is no denying the
richness of the land in this vicinity;
the large yield per acre tells the tale
even after years of often careless cult
ure.
The elements may WreSt his reward
for his labor from him, but that is not
often. nor does he lose all-there Is no
inter failure of his products from his
land. They are only in part failure;
for the richness of the soil leaves pOr-
ton for him. But in time this richuess
will be gone from the land and nothing
VIII Thrive, uHlcSS TIC lCtullS III SOtllC
way what he takes from it by thought
less or careless cultivation, and
the right-down watchfulness of the
great supply of material he has
at hand in the straw that he burns up as
waste material, instead of rotting 1t for
the fertilization of his land. This
practice is like many farmers in the
East, that sold off their straw for manu-
featuring into paper, worked the land
for all it was worth until they decided
it was old and worn out, and so it was,
but much of this land has been, and all
of it may be in time brought back to its
former producJivenesS by more sensi-
bic way of farming than has been pur-
sued by Its late owners, and
they will not say ''it's cheaper
to purchase new land in the
wide West, than it would be to reclaim
the worn out land here" They have
gone on taking from it and returning
nothing. That same class of people is
everywhere and they always have some
reason for leaving the old home after
they have devastated the whole estate
by their stupidity. and don't care. any
way of working the land with the least
labor possible" It's the old story over
again, some one or something was to
blame for their failure.
Mrs. MARTHA CRANDALL.
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