The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1895-01-24
FOB THE FARMERS.
USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT FARM
WORK
A Few Words Regarding Surface
Ou1tivatiOn-How to Measure an
Acre-HOw Much Butter Can he
Made From Mflk-Pcs1ltry Notes.

-#%
Farmers are gradually getting out Of
the old ruts and changing their meth
DDS of preparing the soil and cultivat-
ing their crops. During the past ten
years most Of the farmers Of my ac-
quaintance have learned that they can
grow much larger crops OF oats with
three inches Of the surface soil made
fine than to plow six or eight inches
deep. I have now practiced this meth
cd Of putting in oats for twelve years,
and have grown much larger crops
than formerly, and have not had a
single failure, while under the old
way we had frequent failures.
1t is u great advantage to prepare
the seed beds for oats with an i'm
proved harrow, for one team will put
in as much land in day as three
teams will to break the land and har-
row and roll until it is fine. We often
have but day or two of nice weather
at time in March when the land is
dry enough to work, and when our
clay upland gets thoroughly saturated
fore it dries so at to be tit to work.
1t is great advantage to adopt a
speedy method, for usually early soWn
oats yield much more than those sown
late. l usually first use disc harrow,
and then sow the oats and cross har-
row with an Acme harrow, which is
the best implement to give fin, level
seed bed that have ever used.
R11f r t1,o In,
dition l have made an elegant seed
bed with the Acme har w alone, and
grown excellent crops. l am told that
this method of putting in oats is now
almost universally adopted. and that
whenever one farmer begins it in a
nelghborhood in a few years all the
rest follow this plan. 1t is now uni
versally acknowledged that a shallow
seed bed produces the best wheat, and
wheat on such land endures the winter
better, and this was found out by OBJ
serving that where the horses turned
on the plowed land and tramped it so
hard that barely enough loose earth
could be had to cover the seed with,
the crop was better than on other
parts Of the field.
The same is true Of sweet potatoes.
and this fact, which was discovered
from setting plants on hard tramped
land, has led to shallow blowing and
the making of small ridges for the
crop, and the result is a large increase
IN yield and better shaped tubers. I
meet occasionally at the institutes a
man acknowledged by his neighbors to
be one of the best corn growers of the
locality, who claims that the same
KIND OF a seed bed gives the best crop
OF corn, and there is an increasing
number Of farmers each year who
nave found that shallow cultivate
Which stlrs two inches Of the surface
soil In the corn field gives much bet
ter results than tearing the roots of
the corn with plows that run four to
SIX inches deep. In my judgment the
implement which will give perfect sur
race cultivation in the corn fields IS
yet to be invented, and when it is we
want it made so that it Will cover
these rows OF corn and enable us to
stir the soil on strip not less than
ten feet wide at each time through.
AnT Of the good weeders will do this
| TO perfection on some soils and under
favorable conditions, but it is not yet
what we want in the large corn fields
| or the West. The reason we want to
get over a wide strip is that the best
work is done in the corn field soon
after a rain, when the land will clrlm-
bic at a touch, and the weeds will be
killed before they see the light L
have no doubt that inventive genius
can give us such an implement, or il
not one that will cultivate three rows
or at least two. The Acme harrow
makes an ideal seed bed. and the prin-
ciple Of slicing and turning the sur
face ought to be applied in our corn
| fields in cultivating, and l see no ditti-
Guilty in the way of using the slicing
cultivatOr in the cultivation of corn.
Waldo. +. Brown