Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1892-07-28
FARM, FIELD AND GARDEN.
USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT
FARMING MATTERS.
For Restoring Exhausted Fertility
! The Coming Hog--Help the
Small Dairyman--Care OF
Calv!ng Cows--Num-
Der OF Eggs.
Fer Restoring Exhausted Fertll-
ity.

tty.
1t does not always follow that be-
cause farm 3 "poor" it was once
rich, and is simply run down." 1t
may never have been good, and to
get into fertile condition it might be
necessary, as Peter Henderson once
sarcastically remarked, to spread q
good soil over it half foot thick.
But when the land has really been
exhausted by continuous cropping
without restoring the elements with
drawn from the soil, the fertility may
be restored to it in various ways. A
flock OF sheep, pastured all over it,
would soon work transformation
But in many cases the best reliance
would probably be upon green ma
nuring.
When farmer is obliged. from
economical reasons, TO purchase u
"run-d down" farm, he naturally desires
to improve it in the quickest possible
way consistent with his means. Both
sheep and manure, it may be, are be-
You'd his means. But he can grow IL
crop of green manure in a few weeks,
and then, by turning it under, enrich
his land with as much fertilizinc mat
ter as will equal eight or ten tons Of
manure.
If, for example, he plows the land in
October and soNs rye, he may turn it
under in May or June and plant corn.
This will be ready to turn under early
in August, and, with the help OF q
chain looped from the plow-beam to
the land side end OF the inner whiflle-
tree, may be buried under the soil.
This will furnish ten or twelve tons
more ofvaluable matter. This, again,
may be followed with rye, and with
clover in the spring. After the clover
has been cut for hay and the second
crop plowed in, the land will, if not
too severely impoverished, be in fair
condition to begin cropping for a
harvest.
Buckwheat is frequently used as a
first crop and is very economical for
this purpose, as the seed costs but
little. 1t nay be sown in May and
turned unde: and sowed again in July,
and this, when plowed under in the
fall, may be followed by rye. A dress
ing OF lime on the ground after the
second crop is sowed viii aid in de-
composing the green matter turned
under, and also greatly help the
growth OF the rye.
The use o. clover for green manuring
is very earn stly recommended; but
before it can be grown to advantage
the soil must be in pretty good con-
dition. Clover is especially desirable
as means os maintaining the fertil.
ity of the soil after it has been
brought into. good "heart" by other
means. One of the most intelligent
farmers in New York State for years
practiced this system. He sowed the
distant fields on his farm, to which it
was not convenient to haul manure,
with clover along with wheat. The
following year he took off q crop Of
hay, dressed literally with plaster,
and the next year pastured the field,
then plowed it under again and sowed
with wheat. Under this system, fol-
lowed for fifty years by his father and
himself, they were able to grow a crop
of thirty-tive priority bushels Of wheat
to the acre one year, get d good crop
OF hay the next, pasture the third
year, and SOW to wheat again the
fourth year.