Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1895-11-08

ALSO CONDEMNS LATE SEEDING
II Palotise Lands Could Be Plowed Far
Her Summer Following Would
Be Unnecessary.

James X. Kennedy of Walla Walla
writes to the Spokesman-Re Review:
I went up In the beginning of March
TO Fairfield. The ground around that
Epleasant town was sodden with mois-
ture; blowing was utterly impossible,
and would be for long time. On the
2Sth day of July I revisited the same
place, and in September once more
went up, when harvesting was in pro-
gress. and the rain was falling. bleach
ing and damaging the grain, though
fortunately there was dry weather
enough afterwards to enable the farm
ers to save the greater part of their
crops in tolerably fair condition. Now,
in the Walla Walla country in March,
all spring crops were sowed before
went to Fairfield, and summer fallow-
ing was well along. The late blowing
and seeding in your country make all
crops backward, SO they will not ripen
/ until late, and are liable to damage
from both frost and rain. Is there
any remedy for this state of things?
THE REMEDY.
On my first visit in March saw
among the thousands of acres of I'M
plowed land, one farm on Hangman
creek that had been summer fallowed.
The wheat on 1t was forward, and look
ed as well as that of the Walla Walla
valley.
Returning on the 9Th of July, when
the harvesting had commenced in many
parts of Walla Walla county. I found
the whole upper country covered with
fields of vivid green. Some of the
wheat had not cared out yet; in other
places the grain was in the milk, in
others in the dough, but nowhere was
the spring grain approaching ripeness.
In visiting the summer fallowed field
to which have alluded, found the
wheat dead ripe; indeed, if it had been
mine I would have harvested it some
z time before. While returning to Fair
held by another route, met with four
more summer fallowed fields; two of
them were dead ripe and the other two
would be matured, thought, in from
q week to ten days.
81 If the crops of the whole country
had been as far advanced as these, there
would have been comparatively little
difference "a couple of weeks or SOY,
between the harvest time of the upper
country and that of the best land in
Walla Walla county, and the yield,
Judging from comparison in 1895, be-
Tween the spring sown crops and the
Hsummer fallowed ones would have been
nearly double.
"a If land in the vicinity Of Farming
Ton, Latah, Tekoa, Fairfield and other
places near them (and [ believe that
land is the best ever saw, could be
plowed early enough in the spring
At is probable that, except to destroy
weeds, summer following would be I'M
Necessary, for there is an abundance
of moisture in the land, too much in
deed, and so the farmer has to wait till
The ground dries out, which renders
his blowing and seeding SO late that
he has no certainty of his crops matur-
ing before the autumnal rains, and the
result is too often bleached and dam
nged wheat, which brings low price
md is unfit really for flour.
The whole difficulty arises from the
lateness of the sowing, for in Walla
Walla, where the crops can be put in
Early in the spring Though there is
very Attle spring sowing there. the
Farmers nearly all summer following
now), there is only a week or ten days
Inference between the ripening of the
Tall and spring sown crops.
Indeed, the principal object of sum-
mer following in Walla Walla and the
neighboring counties of Washington
md Oregon is, by mulching the sur
nee, to retain and carry over por-
Ion of one years moisture to the
uext, and so secure enough to mature
y good crop.
In the land I have spoken of, there
icing an excess of moisture. the sum-
uner fallow plays an entirely different
art, though one equally important, for
~ insures an early harvest and an
abundant one, too, nearly double what
4 spring sown one would yield, and so
y as necessary for a wet as a dry eli
nate.
Then, too, the weeds of various kinds,
lid oats, ETC., are multiplying to such
N extent as to do serious damage to
he crops, and a thorough cultivation
q the summer fallow is the only thing
nat will hold them back.
am satisfied that your country will
liver be thoroughly prosperous, at least
he farmers will never be sure of saving
<heir crops in good order till they adopt
he system of farming prevailing in
ne Walla Walla country, though the
<<asons of employing the same methods
ok cultivation are entirely different in
"a ~ %xrrN III T. T. INT