The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-01-28
INCREASING GRAIN CROPS.

Drain the Wet Places Your Farm and
Manure the Poor Ones.
Standing with a group of farmers in
billy portion of Portage County, 7
remarked: Wheat in this vicinity
will exceed an average this year"
''Why sO"' | was asked. Because
the hills and hillsides have no bare
places. / have seen that ten-acre
field with at least an acre altogether
OF hillsides entirely bare, when the
valleys were covered with Iuxuriant
growth. That deficiency reduced the
average two bushels per acre on an
eighteen-bushel yield. or. in other
words, nine acres produced $50 BUSH
els. while one acre produced nothing.
The actual yield of the bearing portion
was therefore twenty bushels per acre.
Now, 1T would pay to get something of
that barren acre which is plowed,
sown and passed over by the reapers
all for nothing" One listener replied:
''ln bad winter the snow blows off
the tops of the knolls and the wheat is
winter-killed. why not take meas
ures TO prevent it by top dressing and
mulching with straw as the berry-men
do?" WELL" answered one, "the
manure washes down and L prefer to
put it where it will stay and
trust to clover for the hill-tops.H
Another said he preferred to mulch
his sheep-sheds with his straw; another
got off the hackneyed remark that /.
doesn't pay to take too much pains
with eighty-cent wheat. WELL" I
replied. Il have known two very sue
cessful, money-making farmers who
practlced covering exposed hillsides |
with a thin mulch of straw in Decem-
Der and thought it paid. A ton and a |
half of straw is sufficient for an acre,
ana II the crop is saved half the straw
will be returned, while the value OF
the seed wheat will pay for the re.
nalnder, and whatever wheat is
harvested more than the seed is clear
gam, less the cost of shocking, draw
ng and threshing."
Besides this. the mulch keeps the
urface moist in spring. and sometimes
nsures catch of clover that other
wise might fail. As regards wastage
Il manure there is very little loss if it
well narrowed in. Far too many
ar12ers give too little thought to the
most economical use of manure; too
ften it is left to hired men, who begin
one side of the field and put it on in
inform quantities. regardless of
ne needs of particular portions.
Will pay every farmer to
go through his growing
rops and carefully note where they
re least vigorous. and remedy the
after at the first opportunity. III
now one farmer who sometimes top
'esses the poor spots in his cornfield
ther just before or just after plant
e. with a marked effect upon places
treated. L shall topdress a newly
i strawberry patch after compliant
g, because the team could not be- i
jared to do it sooner. drawing on
lie manure In a light wagon, strad-
ing the rows. Yesterday asked a n
Iccessful wheat grower how he man. Il
ed to have uniform stand of wheat I
hen the fields of his near neighbors u"
ere spotted and bare in places. "Oh. III
al easy" he said; II drain the ID
et places and manure the poor ones.n f.
know fOur-acre field that has a VI
meal knoll in the center that under V
ormer ownership bore little or moth az
:. Now 1T produces two tons q. q,
'ner per acre. 1t was brought up r,
stacking a couple of tons of hav ON
summit and feeding it out to sheen ai
the mild weather of early winter. IN
e owner of "a billy farm once said IN m
}: I'll put all my manure on the :
Is; the valleys seem able to 90 il "
ne L Is. Pierce. in N. Y. OF
bune m.