The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-07-06
When Drains Are Appreciated.

This spring Of all others good drain
age is appreciated. With the ground
soaked with water and hard with frost
till late into April, the question Of
quick drainage is important, as well
as the capacity of the land to warm
up rapidly. While it is doubtless true
that drained land freezes deeper than
undrained land, yet it is also true that
such land dries out quicker and be-
comes warn sooner than undrained
lands. IN many thousands of un-
drained fields in the West the farmers
will yet have to wait for some time be-
fore they can get onto it to do blowing
or other kinds Of farm work. These
days of waiting are of immense con-
sequence to the coming crops. A late
ness of two OF three weeks often means
the loss of a large part of the crop.
The men with we'll drained fields will
be able to get their crops into the
ground quite early, even this season.
In the case Of gardens the green stuff
will be coming along weeks before
that of their neighbors. Where this is
to find a market in the towns or cities
4 VIII CdICn LlC DcSL mdEhSIs we D6-
lieve that the experience of this year
will greatly stimulate the work of
placing proper systems of drainage on
the farms.
What we have said of the garden is
true in a lesser sense of the large fields
and pastures. In England the wheat
fields are tile drained, and it is re-
ported that the increase in the yield of
wheat has been sufficient to pay the
cost of drainage in a few years. Many
low pieces Of land, now annually over
flowed and productive of only the
coarser grasses, might, if properly
treated, become the most productive of
meadows, growing the finest kinds of
plant food for stock. In the pasture
the drain is an increaser of the sod.
1t is very necessary that the pasture
land become dry and warm at a very
early date in the spring, SC that the
grass will get a good start before the
STOCK are turned onto it. Good drain
age will often greatly increase the
start the grass gets of the cattle, and
thls increase is kept throughout the
summer, more so on this kind of land
than on land left in it's natural state.
On the cold, wet pastures this spring
the grass will be very slow in start
ing. h stock will go on while the
sod is still thin, and the feet of the
animals will pound much of it into
mud, thus destroying the sod for years
to come. Water makes this possible.
Dry soil resists the foot, and the sod
is saved. Money judiciously invested
in tile and labor for drainage is we'll
placed and will return annual interest
at a good per cent.
Belgians Prefer Belgian Horses.-A
recent report from Antwerp, Belgian.
says: The Belgian department. of ag-
~riculture, becoming alarmed recently
at the increasing importation to Ant
werp of American horses, ordered from
a special budget committee a report on
the subject. After an exhaustive ex-
animation the committee report that
no special customs restrictions are nec-
essary. 1t characterizes the American
draft horse as vastly inferior to the
Belgian breeds. The decision is highly
important to importers, for the horse
trade is growing rapidly.
The poultry raiser who is constant
ly complaining about bad luck" is ad-
yertising the facts that his methods