The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-09-23
HANDLING straw on Che Farm.

In southern Ohio a great deal of
wheat straw has no market value. In
my locality, writes Alva Agu in 'Prac-
teal Farmer" its usual selling price is
81. 90 ion, and there Is more offered
than finds buyers. Prof. Armsby says
that ton of straw con tains 81. 96 worth
of plant food, valued in the same way
that commercial fertilizers are valued,
and yet plenty of men are glad to sell
straw at dollar ton, and then buy
fertilizers The truth Is that they have
no way of readily reducing the straw
to available manure, and the manure is
slower in action than chemicals. 1t Is
my experience that a limited amount of
stock can convert great deal of straw
into manure at little cost when one ar
ranges for it beforehand. The chaff,
blades and heads of straw are good
| forage r all kinds OF stock. When
T, free access S given to it a great saw
ing in hay can be made. The refuse
can be tramped in shallow basin.
and together with com stalks and
: other refuse, will rot without
handling. and be ready to
draw out in the summer. All that
is needed is to make sure that there
is little or no teaching from the rains,
and that the mass is kept level. An
open lot forty or fifty feet square is
sufficiently large for refuse that will
make n hundred or more loads OF ma
nure, and such n lot makes good
place for horses or cows in winter
afternoons. The droppings are
mixed in this long manure, and
there is no appreciable loss. How
ever, all cannot have all the
wheat straw at the barn, and these
stacks stand for years over the farm or
are sold for trifle, and thus a steady
drain is made upon the fertility of the
farm. Usually have tried to get all
straw at the barn, but last year | tried
another method with few tons, and
the result was so favorable that this
summer / am handling about fifteen
tons in the same way. The straw is
used as mulch on fallow land, being
burned off before seeding time, and
despite all prejudice against burning
straw | am inclined 10 think that this
straw is more proftab BILE to me than that
drawn to the barn, except in case il
might be needed as an absorbent in the
sta bic and basin. Last summer
mulched thin piece of rolling land,
and the mechanical effect upon the
|
When burned off, the ground was
moist and made far better seed bed
than richer portions of the field, al
though all was plowed early and well
tirmed with the harrow and roller
This land had the best stand of wheat
stood the winter better, headed out
first and was clearly the heaviest
One could see the irregular outline OF
the mulched strip at any time during
the season. The mulch enriches land
do not pretend to have any knowl
edge of the method, but it is Away.
noticeable that soil is loosened anC
enriched by shading. The scientist.
say that niirates are formed under
these conditions. This year | have
mulched few acres, with this stacl
of fifteen tons. The ground was
plowed early, narrowed and rolled
The cost of applying the straw |:
about Sl.75 au acre, besides use o
team and value Of straw, and in return
l have thin piece Of land in a goot
preparation Tor seeding to timothy o
wheat as it would have been, l think
had applied fifteen loads of straw,
manure per acre. That is to say, judg
ing by last years experience, tn,
yield of grain on this mulched lane
will be just as good as it would hav,
been if that much manure had beer
applied to it. Of course it is heres,
to advocate the burning of straw, bu
If this mulching, together will
the ashes, gives me a chance I,
grow vegetable matter in abundance
then 1 can afford to lose tn,
vegetable part of the straw. Thu
stand of grass is the thing sought
The mulch burned at seeding tim,
gives this, just as pretty heavy manur
ing will do. There is no hauling o
the straw half mile to the barn, ant
then half mile to the field when rot
ted II this straw was needed for al
absorbent, or for feed, or rotte,
manure was needed worse for an hoe,
crop than on wheat or timoth,
field, the case would be d fferent.
seems to me that all these stacks o
straw that now stand over our stat,
| away from barns. and that seek pur
chasers at a dollar a ton, could b,
made to do wonders for thin fields b.
being spread as mulch When seed
ing such field to grass, | would ex
pect that the burning of Eve tons o
straw on an acre that had been GOV
cred through all of August, would d,
as much good as twice that much wei
rotted straw used as top dressing.
/ ~ Pasteurizing.
In pasteurizing cheating to Ia