Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1894-06-13
Those Pine Barrens-An 0scoda farm
er Explains How He Made Them
Fruitful.

oPtSC III JOui Naludulc poPci, VIII
give my experience as a farmer on
the pine plains of Oscoda county,
Mich, from July, 1888, until the
fall of 1890. In the month of Ju-
ly, 1888, ] cleared and plowed tw o
acres Of jack plans land on section
80, town 2 east and % north. |
cultivated the land few times dur
ing the summer and in the fall. |
seeded the land to clover and tim
othy and used the land for pasture
in the summer of 1884. In the
spring of 1885, | plowed the land
and planted one acre of potatoes
and received 100 bushels of No.
potatoes. | planted the remainder
of one acre to corn and received a
fair crop. The only fertilizer used
was wood ashes and plaster.
In the spring of 1886 sowed the
same two acres to barley and peas
and seeded to clover and timothy;
the barley and peas were fair
crop. In the month of July, 1887,
l cut 10 loads of hay from the two
acres; four and one-half tons as a
low estimate. In the spring of
1888 / plowed under clover sod,
planted potatoes and received 240
bushels of potatoes on the two
acres. Jack pine wood ashes was
the only fertilizer used.
In the spring of 1880 | planted
the same land to potatoes and re-
ceived 100 bushels per acre. Dur
ing the winter of 1889 and 1890 /
covered the two acres over with
good rotten manure and planted
one acre to sweet corn and squashes
and one acre to corn and pumpkins;
the corn was the yellow smut. |
received over 100 bushels of good
corn from the acre planted to yell
low corn, and pumpkins nearly as
large as a bushel basket. ] sold
$27 worth of pumpkins ndsquashes
from the two acres and fed five
wagon loads to my stock; sold $50
worth of green corn from the one
acre of sweet corn at 40 cents per
bushel and husked 80 bushels of
ears in the fall.
The above land was not cultivat-
ed and treated as the land at the ex-
perimental farm at Grayling, but
was cultivated and fertilized in a
common sense manner--not with
commercial fertilizers that start a
crop in wet weather and burn them
up as soon as there is drouth.
The only way to make success
Of farming on the plains of North
ern Michigan is to clear the land
and burn over the ground as little
as possible. By-plowing under all
the loose and rotten wood and al
lowing it to rot in the ground the
crops will be benefited; by burning
over their land and raking off roots
and leaves and carting them off in
to the woods, as has been done by
some of the book educated farmers,
the land will be robbed of all the
fertility that nature has furnished.
have raised over 400 bushels Of
carrots per acre. After raising two
crops of potatoes to subdue the soil
and rot the roots | did not use any
foreign fertilizers.
| have also raised good wheat and
rye and rutabagas that weighed 10
pounds. / have raised No. 1 gar
den on the plains land after the
soil was subdued and some barn
yard manure applied to the land.
1t is my opinion that if experiments
had been made at Grayling and
other stations with crops that can
be successfully raised in the south
ern part Of Michigan, no failure
would have been the result. But
when you send to China and other
parts of the earth for seed and ex-
pertinent with grasses and other
crops that were never raised in any
part of Michigan, the result must
be failure.
IL the agricultural farm at Lam
sing was not backed up by the state
appropriations and $4,000 from
the United States government an
nually, there would no doubt be
a total failure at that place. |
could take the experimental farm
at Grayling, Mich, and make it a
would not ask the state
to give me as much money annual
ly as has been expended in the past.
Geo. c. Petehaus, in Detroit Even
ing News.