Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-09-05
Farm x#tssssts,
Now Your stubble Fields.

/ have experienced so much benefit
to my farm from the practice ofmow-
ing over the stubble fields in August,
that / write now at the seasOnable
time, to urge your readers to try
it on at least portion of their fields.
1t is work that is almost universally |
neglected, as can be proved by in
spection of the farms of most lOcali-
ties during the fall or winter.
travelled in seven different States in
August OF 1890, and the following
winter travelled thirty>five hundred
miles in Ohio, and 1 did not see fifty
farms on which the moving ma
chine had been used after harvest,
but / saw thousands on which
heavy crop of weeds had been allow
ed to 60 to seed. have no doubt
that it would pay we'll to cut over
the stubble fields if no other benefit
was received except preventing the
weeds from going to seed, for weeds
rob the soil of both fertility and
moisture needed by the plants, and,
while reducing the yield, add largely
to the labor of cultivation Of the
crops. There are, however, other
benefits which are perhaps as great
as the killing of the weeds before the
seed ripens. One of this is to rid the
hay the coming year from weeds and
stubble, which will, if left in, damage
its sale. There have been meadows
cut in my neighborhood this year on
which there was such a quantity Of
weeds and old last years stubble.
that the hay is hardly salable, and if
it is sold it will be at reduction in
price, which represents enough
money to pay for cutting twice over.
An inexperienced farmer might
think that it would be necessary to
rake and remove the weeds and stub
BILE after they are cut, or they would
be just as troublesome in the hay. l
do not find this to be true, for we cut
the weeds while they are green and
immature, and they wilt and settle
down to the earth and decay before a
crop of hay is cut, and while the
wheat stubble will remain stiff and
dry, if left standing, if cut the rains
and SHOWS get it in close contact with
the earth, and the new growth OF
grass or clover springs up through it
and before hay~making time it has
crumbled into dust. have come to
believe greatly in mulching or cover
ing the soil as a means of enriching
it, and / believe there is no other
way in which we can improve a soil
so cheaply and effectually as by
covering it. Cutting the stubble and
weeds gets them down flat on the
soil, and cutting the clover thickens
it, just as trimming a hedge thickens
that. Since l adopted the plan of cut.
ting over my clover fields, l have
been surprised to see what a thick
velvet covering they have by the
middle of October. When clover j;
allowed to make its full growth II
the fall, it is often the case that the
dead stubble is too tall to be easily
plowed under the following spring
if it is to he plowed, or is troublesom,
in the hay, and have known 81
heavy a growth as to entirel!
smother out and kill the crop; blu
when cut in August, the later growth
does not mature so but that it fall
over the roots and protects then
when the frost kills 1t, and the Glove
field is much more likely TO winte
well for this treatment. l hav
started the machine earlier than usua
on my stubble fields this year be
cause the stubble is unusually heavy
and we cut few acres to-day, Jul,
90, and should the fall prove yer,
favorable one for growth, l shall Gu
the clover again in about a month
but usually one cutting is sufficient
have long since come to the cor
clusiOn that l cannot afford, unde
any circumstances to pasture youn
grass or clover the first fall, for
think that one always loses MOI
than he makes by it. If the fall
dry and the growth small, the cattl
crop it too close, and if it is wet, tn
young plants are badly injured b
tramping. 1 believe that if this ru
were adopted by farmers generally {,
moving the stubble fields and nevC
pasturing them the first fall that
would do more to give clean ric
fields and good grass and Glove
crops, than anything else the farm,
could do that would cost the san