Rocky Ford enterprise., 1895-10-10
WESTERN FARM NOTES.
(FrOm Field and Farm.)

|
The Wet Mountain Valley rejoices In
an unusually large crop of hay and
| grain this year.
Elias Garcia of Albuquerque, New
Mexico, has sold $1,000 lambs and
wethers this season.
Cattle buyers are Offering $2.S5
| hundred for two and three-year-old ma
tive steers in Kit Carson county.
On their farm near Grenada, Prov
ers county, Mckenzie & Walker have
threshed 300 bushels of alfalfa seed.
Cattle thieves, brand burners, and
maverick chasers are at work all over
the range, from Montana to Texas.
Colorado will feed about 100000
steers this winter. Seventy thousand
will be required for the local markets.
George Smith of Albuquerque, New
| Mexico, the recently appointed receiver
Of the Y cattle company, says the herd
numbers over 10000 head.
Henry Lutz, Il Lincoln county, New
| Mexico. ranchman. has taken 1000
sheep on shares. He pays a rental of
| two pounds of wool for each sheep.
Laramie county lamb feeders will not
use cottonseed this year. Last years
| experiment was enough to convince
| them that it was no good for their busi-
| ness.
Commission merchants at the princi-
pal markets are advising cattle raisers
and feeders to hold on to their stock
| where they can do so until 1t becomes
| properly matured.
The eastern feeding states are taking
an unusually small share Of young cat
tie this fall owing to dry pastures.
| This will leave the coast clear for West
ern feeders next year.
Broom corn is being harvested In
Bent county and the crop is reported
splendid. Not half as much alfalfa
seed will be threshed as last year.
Michael Bryan Of Baca county Is har-
vesting 12O acres of broom corn which
he thinks will bring him $500.
1t is not the COW that eats the most or
the COW that eats the least that Is the
best COW, but the COW that makes the
best use of what she does eat-that
manufactures 1t into the highest quail
ty of product. AS between two cows
that convert the same proportion of their
food into butter, the COW that eats the
most will be the most valuable.
Much harm is often done in a dry time
by superficial watering. Water which
vets the surface merely has tendency
to make the plants put forth roOtlets
near the surface to drink in the water
so applied. and in dry. hot weather
these roOtlets are killed and the energy
which put them forth Is wasted. 1t is
! Just so much useless effort subtracted
from the vigor of the shrub or tree.
An Otero county farmer planted sew
eral acres Of corn for fodder this year
after he had planted his field corn. He
freshly prepared the ground, drilled
the corn, then straddled the rows and
drilled again. Two weeks ago he went
into 1t with his binder and found 1t
would cut just as readily and was as
easly handled as other grain. He
thinks 1t the best fodder one can raise.
Eastern commission men are securing
the Utah and Nevada ranges and buy
ing up the wethers, which the rich pas
turnge this year has brought into a con-
dition Of supreme fatness. Utah mutton
has long been in great demand and
this seasons output is far above the av-
erage for size and condition. Knolin
shipped twenty eight cars from Reno to
Chicago this week.
There Is great activity at Berthoud,
the center of the great grain district Of
Larimer county. About one-half Of
the wheat crop is threshed and the
greater part is being sold. The farm
crs lost money by holding their crops
for several years and they seem in
clined to sell this year. The sorghum
cane was damaged some by the frost.
The mills will begin working 1t up at
once The potato crop is also begin
ming to move.
Colorado stockmen and farmers have
made and are making n serious mis-
take Is not taking advantage of the de-
preston Of prices for well-bred stock.
The rearing or feeding of live stock will
always have large place In this state.
Good stock, wisely purchased and
handled, is more profitable than poor,
ttnV. Of fTt
disposed to buy good breeding stock at
phenomenally low prices than they
were when prices were, perhaps, I'M
duly high. The farmer. like everyone
else. likes to follow the crowd and buy
when the others are buying.
Rabbits are easily kept off by wire
screen around the trees or any kind OF
paper except tarred. Corn stalks cut
two feet long, split or unsplit. then set,
or stuck around the tree and tied ton
and bottom with willows or binder
twine, will, if well tied, stay on three
years, and will keep off borers, mice and
rabbits. They will also protect the tree
from sun-scald. Stalks put on this way
seldom ever get tight; as the tree grows
the stalks dry up and dust out, leaving
but thin she'll Trap gophers or put
poison in bits Of apple or potato and
drop the pieces in their hole.
On a central Colorado farm the pota-
toes were allowed to stand last year un-
til late in October before they were
dug; upon the remainder Of the field
they were dug in July. and the ground
Immediately thereafter plowed and
sowed in turnips. This year the entire
field was treated alike in every respect,
but the part which last year bore tur-
nips this year made nearly 200 bushels
Of potatoes to the acre, while the part
which lay idle last summer and fall in
the beauty of the mOrnIng glories and
weeds. produced less than 100 bushels
to the acre. The yield was doubled in
this case without the Introduction Of
any outside agency-a result which Is
due without doubt, to the extra culti-
walton which that part of the field re-
ceived the year before,
Over in Huerfano county an attempt
at cranberry culture will be made in
the marshy tracts along the mountain
streams and plants have been ordered
with which to make the trial.
Last week $500 stock cattle were