The Holly chieftain., 1900-06-22
FARMING MATTERS.
Notes from Field and Farm.)

j v
The Santa Fe Land and Cattle Com
pany u now engaged In contracting
10000 young steers in the South, and
Major Towers has purcfAsed Z por-
tion Of them In Grant county, New
county. south Of the Arkansas.
The army worm has done some dam
age to the sugar beets In the vicinity
OF Grand Junction during the past year,
and may do damage during the coming
season. Professor Gillette of the Agri-
cultural College, has prepared short
press bulletin giving means OF COM
batting the pest by Paris green, London
purple and white arsenic. This bulle-
tin may be obtained upon application
TO the director of the experiment sta
ton, Fort Collins, Colorado. Z,
A man in Brighton has been keeping
ledger account with his herd and as
= sample of what one COW has done in
a year the following Is cited: The first
month the COW yielded 2S.S pounds of
butter fat, the second month 1913
pounds and the third month 37.1
pounds. During the twelve months she
produced 1887 pounds of butter fat or
45l pounds Of butter. Valuing skim
milk at Is cents hundred pounds, she
Welded $l3.11 worth Of dairy products.
This COW was taken of n straw stack
with light corn bite and was placed
on alfalfa and cornmeal, which ac-
counts for the gradual gains shown in
her department throughout the year.
A correspondent In Weld county
writes: Il have discovered method of
setting tomato plants which is much
easier than the old one of digging a
hole or plowing a furrow and setting
by hand. Mark the ground with a COM
mon corn-marker three and one-half
feet apart each way. Then n Planet
Jr. corn cultivator closed up with but
three teeth following In the mark one
way opens n little furrow and leaves
the soil loose and fine. The plants are
then dropped 1engthwise In the furrow,
the roots lying where they are to be
planted. A man follows with a hoe,
pressing the roots down and drawing
the plants up straight The earth is
then firmed around them without
touching the plants or bending more
than is necessary in handling the hoe.
l have practiced this method for two
seasons and have not lost plant"
The Oregon experiment station made
valuable test of the Importance Of
regular hours for feeding and milking
the cows, matter which we have
many times urged upon our readers.
They took six cows and divided them
Into two lots us near alike in condition
as to age and length of time in milk
as they could. One lot was fed and
MIXED regularly at $50 a. m. and 2:3O
p. m, while the other lot was fed and
MIXED at hours ranging from to Z
a. N. and from 4 to p. m., which last
Is Il too common practice among farm
ers. This was kept up for three weeks,
the amount of feed being the same for
each lot. AS result those fed and
milked regularly increased their milk
production so per cent, while the 9TH
er lot shrank "A per cent. This differ
ence of ten per cent. In three weeks
emphasizes what we have so often
said.
The question has been asked if 1t will
pay to pump water for alfalfa. Like n
thousand other questions asked us in
the course of n year, we feel safe in
saying that much depends on circum-
stances. A six-inch irrigation of alfal-
IA, about as much as one would care
W " tAC II WcIS
depended upon, would only wet down
a foot or foot and half at the most
This would cause the roots to spring
out near the surface. These would
soon drink the available moisture and
begin to suffer II another Irrigation
were not soon given. They would not
have the vital force to produce crop
Of alfalfa justifying an expenditure of
81 to $3 an acre in irrigating. What Is
wanted for alfalfa Is good soaking.
which will reach theslower depths of
the soil where the deeper roots are,
and which do not soon dry out and will
sustain the plant for the production Of
two or more crops Of hay without an
other wetting.
The movement Of Irrigation water in
the soil is governed by two forces
that of gravitation which draws the
water downward, and capillary action
which forces it to the surface by solar
influences. Hence il we subsoil deeply
we not only separate the particles Of
earth 80 they will contain many times
as much water us in its natural dense
condition, thus actually creating res
ervoir under each plant which with
proper surface cultivation will tide us
over the most protracted drouth we
are ever called upon to encounter, but
the plant food thus rendered soluble Is
returned to the surface for the use of
the plants. There is still another point
in connection with small fruit tillage
on which growers do not place suffi-
Client stress and that Is fining the sur
face before planting. On clay or clay
loan soils. or In fact anything but the
light sands, the surface is too often
broken up and returned to the bottom
of the furrow leaving mass of Jumps
and air-chambers which no after fitting
will close. The Jumps are SO dense
that the oxygen of the atmosphere can
not enter IL to render the food ayail-