The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-05-12

moist ground or the wetter grass early in
the morning. 1t will cost but little to ar
range some coops like that shown in the
illustration which will keep the chicks dry
until the sun has absorbed the moisture
on the grass Make the Slated run in the
regula ton manner and then cover the top
and the far end and the sides with cloth,
letting ii run down the end and the sides
half way to the ground and holding i; IN
place with a few tacks. After the chicks
n, "iil Il :: ;. Z: Q j{s''' Il
~ 49, Y.
lll!|I! .lI:l|: :ij;1l.l'I1|| 4. Z.
have huddcd under the wings of the old
hen at night place a board along each
side and one at the end of the coop so
that the chicks cannot get out; leave a
little space between the board and the
cloth for air. After the grass has dried
these boards may be removed and the
chicks have access TO the grass between
the Stats. The roof of cloth will prevent
the rain or dew from wet1ing the ground
floor of the coop so that their feet will De
kept dry at all times. The cost of such an
arrangement is very small and II certainly
VIII save the lives of many of the chicks.
Unbleacheu muslin is an excellent mate
rial to for this purpose and is better
than the oiled muslin unless a section is
liable to heavy rains.
USING GULL POTATOES.
A week ago the writer visited one of the
most famous potato growing farms in the
east and was aStOniShed to see over hun
dred barrels of seed potatoes being I'M
loaded preparatory to planting. The own
ers of this farm calm that it pays them to
buy seed potatoes OF their favoritc varie
ties at least every third year. using their
|. own products the alternating years. They
pay the highest price for selected tubers
throwing out specimens that we would use
for seed without hcsitancy. These men
grow potatoes largely for the hotel and
restaurant trade of a ncghboring city and
must have the very best. Noticing that
| the stock We're being fed some very fair
looking tubers we asked why those were
not sold if they id not consider them
suitable for seed. The reply was that they
| would not suit their trade and that they
had no inclination to find a general market
! for them, and. again, under no clrcum-
! stances would they be guilty of selling
| them for seed for they knew they were
| running out and not fit for seed. If po-
| tato growers generally would work on this
same plan, in a modified degree perhaps,
| they would get results which could not
| fail % De profitable. There is nothing
| with the possible exception of wheat
| where poor seeds cause such serious loss
as in potatoes. and ii is fair to say thai
about one-half of the tubers used for seed
potatoes are cu.ls and should be fed to
stock whore thov will accomplish much
more in the way of money-making than
! by plantiI for crap.
WHERE STRAWBERRIES ARE
PROFITABLE
| While it is probe by safe to saw that
| full threc-quarters Of the varieties of
wbcrrics on the market are valuable
1t does not follow that th"y are equally
valuable everywhere; indeed, some of
them are total failures on certain soils and
! under certain conditions. This being the
| case it pays to have an experiment. plot
| and test new sorts on il. A friend of the
writer who had been a successful farmer
F., of many years standing concluded to re-
| duce his area and go into strawberry
| growing. Here was the way he went at it.
| one acre of ground was fitted up for
| strawberries. 1t was first class SOL for
the purpose and properly prepared. Then
he bought the requisite number of plants
| medium and late sorts. They were prop
| crly set and cared for and allowed to fruit
for two years, careful records being taken
at intervals 50 that the behavior of the
! sort was known for corresponding da ties
during the two years. AT the end of that
period our friend was in a position to be
reasonably sure just what he might cx-
+! pect from the sorts he chose for extending
paintings from among the LOT. One may
say that was too bad to lose all this time
but he has demonstrated that 1t paid. The
plan is well worth trying If one is not al
ready sure what certain sorts VIII do OH
the soil one has to give them.
OVER-FERTlLIZlNG THE FARM.
Possibly it is not fair TO say that many
farms are ovcr-fcrtilized. but II is certain
that many of them are fortified unwiscly
especially in the older states where de.
pendencc has long been placed on CONNER
cal fertilizers. The trouble IS not that the
farms have too much fertilizer. but tina,
they have too much in the way of mineral
fertilizer and not sufficient Of vegetable
fertilizer Here is where the farmer who
| raises stock and utiliEcS the stable manur,
in connection with commercial fertilizers
has the advantage of him who depends
wholly upon commercial fertilizers. Fol-
a long series Of years southern cottor
| fields were cropped without much in tho
way of fertilizers: then, when the soil be
gan to run down, commercial fertilizers
were used. For a time the results were
satisfactory and again the soil began t.
run down and il was plainly seen tina
humus, or vegetable matter, was needed
Some stock was raised and the want sup
Piled but by far the ma jority of farmer:
! used COW peas and obtained nitrogen ant
| humus at the same time. Valuable a.
commercial fertilizers are we must no
lose sight of the fact that humus in tn,
soil is essential and either the soil mus
have stable manure or II must be green
! manfred by turning under some vegetable
growth. It is hard TO beat the combina
ton of stable manure dropped by properl,
fed animals and commercial fertilizers in
diligently used. One has only to study tn,
needs of his particular SOL to grow tn,
crops he desires and grow them with {
fair profit.
STABLE MANURE AND Potato
CROP.
Slowly but surely we are learning to sue
Cessfully fight the potato rot and one O
the things we have learned is that a sol
well filed with humus gives us troubl.
when we attempt to grow potatoes, par
ticularly II 1t is soil inclined TO be heavy
To get around this 1t has been found al
excellent plan to use commercial fertiliz
Srs entirely on the potatoes and never t,