Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-03-09
WHEN TO SEED.

Text Of Agricultural College Bulletin
For 1900" Line Seed Special.
The following bulletin NO s. NV
Prof. J. H. Shepperd, agriculturist of
the North Dakota agricultural college
and experiment station and O. O.
churchill, assistant in plant breeding
was issued for distribution by the
500 seed train special:
Soil Preparation-Prepare your soil
thoroughly before seeding. Good
seed Is essential, but good seed can
not give a heavy yield upon poorly
prepared soil. You do not expect to
get a we'll developed animal when
you use straw for feed and a wire
renee for shelter, and you can not
get good crops upon weedy land
which is only half prepared. The
| difference in the water holding ca.
pac1ty OF good seed bed and a poor
one will pay well for the extra work
required in preparing it. A loose
seed bed warns up sooner than a
hard one and in consequence the
seed gets a better start when it is
young.
Time to Seed-The time depends
upon the crop, but the seeding of
wheat, oats and barley should be
done as early in the spring as the
soil can be put into good condition.
The seed should not be rushed into
the ground without preparing a good
seed bed merely for the purpose of
having 1t in early. Late seeded
grain usually fills and ripens when
the ground contains less moisture
than it did ten days earlier, and for
that reason the yield and quality are
both reduced to a marked degree.
Early grain is not so likely to rust
as the late sowm crops. Seed your
wheat first, then your oats and barley
and, after that, your fax, corn and
millet. 1t is folly to plant corn when
|
put into cold soil it will either rot
or make very weak growth. If
corn ground is prepared early and
narrowed once or twice before plant.
ing, there will be much fewer weeds
in the field later in the season and
less work will be required to keep
the crop clean. Do not plant corn
or millet when the ground is so cold
that they will not sprout and grow
readily. The first of June is as early
as it is safe to plant them in most
seasons.
Death to PIant-Large seeds may
be planted deeper than small ones.
There is less food stored in the small
seeds and young plant has to de-
pend upon the soil and air sooner for
food supply. 1t is folly to plant
flax seed as deep as you would corn
or wheat. A fax seed does not con-
tain plant food enough to build a fax
stem more than 3k to inches
long. No food outside of the seed
can be used until the plant has its
leaves in the sunlight. 1t must also
be remembered that the stems from
the smaller seeds are very weak
and can not push their way through
a heavy covering of earth from a
sheer lack of lifting force. If the
soil is dry near the surface, the seed
should be put in deeper. No seed
will grow unless it is in contact with
moisture. The better the ground is
prepared the shallower the seed may
be planted; and the shallower the
seed is put inf we'll covered and
supplied with moisture-the better it
will start. Wheat should be seeded
at a depth of inches in the ordinary
field. Flax will do best in we'll pre-
pared soils if not seeded deeper than
1 inch, but it must be put in deep
enough to come in contact with moist
ground. Flax seed should never be
planted deeper than 8 to 3k inches.
Rate of Seeding Macaroni or
durum wheat should be seeded
heavier than fife or bluestem as the
berries are enough larger to require
greater volume to contain the same
number and it does not stool as
heavily as common wheat. Six and
half to seven pecks of macaroni
wheat and Ave pecks of fife and blue
stem are about the right amounts,
on average soil. A half bushel OF
fax seed per acre usually proves sat
isfactory. The experiment station
has had good results from seeding
oats at the rate Of two and half
bushels, and barley at the rate OF two
bushels per acre. Millet seed OF the
spike head varieties is commonly
sown ait the rate Of two pecks and
the broom corn sorts at the rate OF