Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-10-15

The sandy SoH Of Muskegon County
and us Possibilities.

culturists in the state. Mr. Under
man was the first secretary of tho
Michigan State Pomloglcal Society,
took an active part in organizing the
society, and has since been an enthu-
siastic, practical and devoted member.
In speaking of the possibilities of
Muskegon county's sand. Mr.. .Liu-
derinan is right at home. owning as
he does about 800 acres of II. 700 of
which is in Cedar Creek township and
is fast being put in shape for a first
class fruit farm. 80 acres set out in an
apple orchard in the spring OF 1890,
and 80 acres more now in readiness TO
be set out this fall.
Speaking of the trouble to get apple
trees to live through the first year or
two, he said: II do not believe, IL
my plan is followed, It is necessary to
lose any trees at all. In nearly every
locality there is clay some where close
by. On my farm in Cedar Greek l
have hill right on the farm. The
rest of the land is as light as any in
| the state. / take the clay and mix 1t
thoroughly with ashes and land
plaster, although / think the clay
would do just rs well alone. The
holes for the trees are then dug IS or
20 inches deep, aud about five inches
of the clay mixture put in the bottom
of each hole and sprinkled over with
light covering of sand. The tree is
then planted on top of this and the
inches of the surface, when clay
enough TO ill up level is used. Not
very expensive, you see, and yet out
of-the tirsBssadtrees set mathis way
not half a dozen have died. I use
mostly the Wagner and few other
hardy varieties, and venture the
prediction that what is now called the
waste land of Michigan will all be
taken up and used in this way and
for sheep raising. Nothing better can
be desired.
"Oh, yes; that is all right, but what
will you keep the sheep on through
the winter"l
Corn and clover, said he. 1.-THE
best food in the world for sheep. l
raise corn, aud lots of it, in this way
The first year the ground is broken
the corn will be light of coarse; at the
last time cultivating, say about Au-
gnst LIST, ! SOW rye on the ground and
cultivate it in this rye. by the time
you want 10 plant corn next year it
has attained pretty good growth
Turn it under, and plant to corn again.
Repeat this process every year il neces-
sary and my word for it your corn
crop will increase as fast as your land
will improve. Expensivel No! No
expense at all. Only the cost of the
rye for seed, say SLIGO per acre, 80
cents bushel for the rye, that is
fair price. And the beauty of the sys-
| TEN is, you don't lose the use of the
| land at all, as il the case in a summer
fallow. Now this not theory it is
practice, as can show anyone that
will take the pains to come aud see.
My first crop OF corn tried in this way
was about "a bushels to the acre, that
is ears; nubbins and I was going to
say. stalks and all. The yield was
steadily increased until / can safely
count on 60 TO 20 bushels TO the acre
on the same land too.
.-s.A great deal of tsifsicnity 81 exper-
fenced in getting clover to catch on
| this kind of land. The cut-worins
and drouth being the two principal
enemies. l have tried plan that
works TO my entire satisfaction, and
have not patented it either as do
most of my inyentions-I sow clover
seed early. say in August, and with
the seed for every acre, l mix about a
pound of turnip seed. This comes up
at about tue same time as the clover,
makes a good growth in the fall, the
leaves help to protect the young clo-
yer plants and the roots obtain quite a
size and IL there is anything a cut
worm likes it is turnip. He will feed
on this in the spring and pass clover
roots by. Then also the roots rot in
the ground and furnish a great deal
of moisture to the growing clover. 1
have tried this plan three years in sue
cession, aud always with good results.
Any pcaehes2 Oh, yes, have a few
up near Whitehall, but the borers got
into the orchard and nearly ruined
them before found it. BY the way,
we raise some trout up there on Cedar
Greek. Come out and try your luck.
Well good-by have to get off here.
We are going to see the Mikado at
Mnskegon, Tuesday night.
This is food for thought for our
farmers in the above. 1t is exactly in
line with the facts developed at the
experiment station here, which will
soon be issued in a bulletin by the
Director of experiment stations for
Michigan, and which will be given
briefly in the AVALANCHE.
While at Vanderbilt last Ffidav