Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1895-05-21
Agricultural Department.
-, Conducted BY
NELS GUAM, Norway Lake, Mimi,


NEL1S GUAM, Norway Lake, MINI,
How shall we cultivate? Use a
slant tooth harrow before the
corn is up and at least twice
afterwards. This not only keeps
the soil fine, does fast cultiva-
ton, but. kills off little weeds.
There is this popularity about
weed killing. Nature can sprout
a new weed cheaper than she can
repair a broken one and every
weed killed is one less. When the
corn gets too large to drag, use
Il cultivator. What do we cult
vate for, to benefit the crop or
rip things up from the bottom,
and OF what use is the latter ex-
cept to cut off, tear up and de-
stroy corn roots, the very thing
you want to let alone to make
your corn plant put fortf,
g 'owth? Every root you cut off
nature has to stop and repair
damage, and she does it by send
ing out new and more roots, and
these take up elements that the
plant needs. All we need to do
is to scarify the soil, use a Guilt
vator with many but short
tongues and keep the surface free
from weeds. The old idea that
a deeply-stirred soil, and that
often, attracts moisture and
holds moisture is not borne out
by the facts. Land that is dis
turbed as little as possible holds
it's moisture best. With fodder
corn the broad branching leaves
will soon drive out the cultivatOr
and probably twice will be as
many times as one will run
through it. twill soon so shade
the ground that no weeds or
grass will do it damage, and the
many needed workings uf field
corn will not be wanted in fodder
corn.
When the ears begins to glaze
a little, then is the time to cut,
to get the greater feed value.
This brings us to another in
quiry: How shall we cut up this
big crop? With us, it is wholly
done with a sweep rake reaper
one that uses rakes instead Of a
reel. The machine is driven
along a row, and the reaper lays
it down in big gavels. The larg-
est growth of fodder corn was
cut with a reaper, and was the
best job | ever saw done. After
you have got the crop down,
draw it as fast as possible and
put it in a silo; but we will have
to shock it up. III did not have
a silo, | think the reaper the
best way to cut it. The Hurd
brothers, who join farms with
me, have a 4OO-ton silo, and an
other farm of like size; they put
in large quantities OF fodder corn
and shock it, running it through
the cutters in the winter; but all
is cut with a reaper. This year
they shocked their fodder corn by
reaping it, and letting it lie three
or four days in the gavel to wilt.
They then tied it up with tarred
strings and set it up in shocks of
about 125 bundles each. The
willing prevents the liability to
sour or rot in such large shocks,
and they soon settle SO solidly
together that they are storm
proof. After standing a couple
of weeks, they take a. few of the
outside bundles, cross two of
them on top Of the shock and
then lay eight more bundles on
top, two in each angle of the
cross.
They tell me, and they hire all
labor, that it costs them as much
to tie up and shock this fodder
as it did to put the other crop,
acre for acre, into the silo. Now
they have all this fodder to draw
and run through the cutters, and
lose the waste of storm litter.
The crop in the silo is ready to
feed, while the other has yet to
be drawn and made ready.-The
Farmers Union.