The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1905-03-25
If Mr.. Mason. or anv one, seeds


bronze, and uses the product Alright
he surely will get even enough Out
of it to more than kespeyen all the
time as he goes along, and at the
end Of five or more years, by break,
ing up the bronze sod, he will put
in another deposit in the first bank
ever known, to-wit: The Soil. That
will enable him to check out a whole
lot more wheat, flax, etc. Mr. Ma
son asks that if he can get rid Of
the grass when once it gets started.
For the sake of his sheep, we hope
not. But from what we already
know Of this new grass, there is no
more risk in breaking it up and
sowing the sod to fax, wheat, ETC.,
than there is in breaking up the
prairie sod, perhaps not as much.
Bronze sod we'll disked up forms an
ideal seed bed for all small grain,
and even if some bronze comes up.
the humus in the decayed roots will
so nourish the young grain plants
that you will get a crop like old
times. AS for getting entirely rid
Of it, the best thing that couldever
happen to Dakota would be never
to get entirely rid Of it. We need
it now and always shall need it in
any decent and proper crop system
that will revive and save the soil
fertility. If we are to keepon as we
have with wheat after wheat, this
country will become in surety and
indeed, the Great American Desert.
In May, 1898, the writer sowed
the first field of bronze grass in this
UaMoure) county. The seed came
from Russia. Since then he has
been, as The Dakota Farmer read
ers will know, a bronze grass advo-
cate. This fall he has gathered
some figures and conservative esti-
mates, which show that from this
county and a small part of Dickey
there has been sold about $4,000
worth of seed. The LaMoure seed
house alone has handled over four
car loads, one of which cost a little
over $1,000. One wagon load was
hauled into Berlin by two light
horses and sold for over $500. It
sold, as threshed, for about 5 cents
per pound and yielded $50 to 300
pounds per acre. If properly har-
vested the grass makes the best Of
hay after it is threshed, worth about
So Or So more per acre, which is
"not so worse" in a year of rusted
wheat and cheap cattle. One thing
sure, there was no rust on the bronze
grass, not this year any way. What
the future price of the seed will be
is as hard or harder to predict than
the future price of wheat. The seed
houses say the demand has been
fairly steadyfor three or four years,
and this year they are buying seed
here instead of in Russia or Austria
as they have usually done. They
will reclean this seed and sell it
next spring all over the great mid
die west, from Minnesota to Oregon
and from Texas to Alberta. All
over this vast region it seems to do
well in spots, but there are some
localities whore it is consided very
poor stuff. But whether it is ow-
ing to a difference in soil or to
prejudice, it is hard to say, perhaps
both. In Idaho and Nebraska, it
is sown with alfalfa very success
fully, as cattle pastured on the MKT
ure do not bloat SO often as they
do when pastured ON alfalfa alone.
It can be sown at almost any sea-
son and in almost any "old way
but is very puny and small the first
year, and the straw, if used in the
manure, will seed any land where
it is spread, to some extent at least.
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