The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-02-13
AGRICULTURAL
DIVERSIFIED FARMING.



A Practical Man Accomplishing Prac-
teal Results in a Practical Way.
During the recent meeting of the Mime
sofa State Grange the agricultural editor
was fortunate enough in being entertained
by one of the young farmers of Rice county
who is doing work well worthy of imitation
by many older men. Mr.. J. w. Alexander
has fine farm of $50 acres just east of the
city of Northfield. The land was originally
prairie, some brush, slightly rolling black
loan with clay subsoil, except a portion
near the Cannon river which is somewhat
sandy, including 20 acres of timber. A large
substantial farmhouse surrounded with a
beautiful grove of decideous trees ever
greens, including some very fine specimens
of spruce and balsam, which gives a charm
ing effect to winter scenery, besides afford
ing protection from drifting SHOWS and
driving winds.
While milk production is the special fea-
ture of this farm, the other branches of
farming play an important part in the sum
total of the years work.
At the time of our visit the stock con-
sisted of 20 milk cows, a dozen head of
young stock, one-half dozen fattenng
steers, dozen fine shoats, four well-bred
sows five head of work horses two of
which were brood Mares two 3-year-old
colts, two 2-year-old colts, and two year
ling colts, turkeys and chickens in goodly
number. The annual sales of milk amount
to $1,000; all feed being grown on the farm
except 500 worth of wheat bran.
The brood mares weigh 1,4O0 apiece. Mr..
Alexander says despite the low price of
horses, he has difficulty in marketing
well-bred well-grown draught horses at a
fair price
The field crops consist of corn, rye, oats,
barley, timothy hay and seeds, but very
little wheat. The principal variety of corn
and the one most largely planted is the va
riety of Flint, which goes by the rame of
Smut Nose
Rye is sown for late fall and early spring
pasturage a well for grain. Pumpkins
are planted with the corn. Manure is hauled
direct from the stable to the field, all corn
ground being literally MANFRED, plowed
deep, thoroughly pulverized with disc har-
row. Mr.. Alexander says he avoids all clods
and humps common to many cornfields,
by narrowing every day all the ground
plowed that day A point it would be well
for those farmers to note, who have found
difficulty in narrowing corn because of the
clods and Jumps that either covered up or
tore out the corn. 1t is a common mistake
to pillow the ground and leave it week or
more before narrowing. Mr.. Alexander be-
gins narrowing corn as soon as 1t shows
through the ground and continues the har-
rowing until the corn is three or four inches
high. He then uses a four hoe, fine tooth
cultivator, with coarse wire guard; the adj
vantage of the wire guard over the sheat
iron guard is the fact that a shower or fine
dirt Is thrown along the row. The success
of this method was demonstrated by the
clean fields, free from weeds of any sort
among the corn stubble. He has no silo but
cuts his corn after it begins to glaze and
shocks it in the field. After cold weather
sets in this is hauled near the barn and
stacked in ricks. A Ross cutter, worked by
horse power is fastened to the barn floor,
and all the corn fodder, with the corn un-
husked is run through this.
The average feed per being one
basketful of this cut corn fodder, a painful
of bran night and morning, with timothy
hay for the midday meal.
In the rotation of crops small grain fol-
lows corn, the ground being thoroughly
puverized with a disc harrow and seeded
without blowing.
Mr.. A. had tried carrying a larger num-
Der of cows, but found that the extra labor
necessary not only entailed constant at
tention on his part, but increased the work
at the house to undesirable extent;
50 he decided to cut down the amount of
milk cows, and by diversifying the work
he was enabled to handle it with one hired
man.
Total sales, even in these depressed times,
of milk. horses, hogs, poultry, hay and
grass seed approximate 81 100, or aver
age of $40 per acre for crops and paStur-
age.
1t would seem that Mr. A. had about
struck the golden mean between the broad
fields and careless system of the single
crop farmer the hand and the in
tenSive system of the special dairyman or
market gardener, and that he has utilized
the maximum amount of land with mini
mum amount of labor at the time
that he secures maximum results Any
single crop farmer who thinks the tide of
agricultural depression has reached so low
an ebb that intelligent, diversified farming
cannot give satisfactory returns. would be
well repaid by visiting the farm of Mr..
Alexander and devoting a day two to
studying his methods and their results
GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS.
The Great Importance Relatively of
Grass. Forage, Fodder and Root
Crops.
The increasing interest in diversified farm
ing has made necessary a reliable text
book on grasses, forage fodder and root
plants adapted to the conditions of the
Northwest.
Prof Shaw says of the book: 1T was
written for the publishers at their request
and with the sanction and approval of the
lf,,vo ~