Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1906-01-04

what the growing Of small grains and
corn do for northern soils, only they
get in their work quicker
Rural mail carriers without excep-
ton speak in highest praise of the new
method Of dragging the dirt roads.
Wherever the roads are thus treated
the work in delivering the mail is
greatly facilitated.
The rural mail service has produced
some very radical economic and social
changes. 1t has killed the city weekly
newspaper; it has multiplied the num-
Der of small daily papers; it has seri-
ously injured the trade of the country
merchant; 1t has made farm life great
ly more attractive and endurable.
Some men think If they seed their
land down to timothy they thereby
rest and renovate the soil If timothy
is removed from the field. either as
hay or as crop of seed, it drains on
the fertility of the soil to as great an
extent as any grain crop, but if the
crop is pastured off the land is bene-
flied. Timothy possesses no power to
fertilize the soil as does clover. Seed
ing down with timothy will clean the
land, but not enrich it.
The disk and the blue grass pasture
should be better acquainted Rough
NJ a TO
is nothing the blue grass likes better
than to be all torn up in the early
spring with a disk. If the pasture is
hidebound and weedy disk it. If you
want to double its feeding capacity
disk it, double disk it, then scatter
trife of medium red clover seed and
harrow it thoroughly, and you won't
know the old pasture lot
Inasmuch as the average boy wants
to shoot something about as soon as he
is weaned and as there Is very much
risk in allowing boys to use firearms,
why would 1t not be a good plan to
train them in the use Of the bow and
arrow and let them practice upon the
sparrows, which might thus be so east
ly killed and which are becoming such
a nuisance all over the country? Be
cause they are unmolested these birds
have become exceedingly tame and will
permit any one to approach within four
or five feet Of them. A boy with bow
and blunt headed arrow could soon
become an expert in knocking them
over and thus crafty his love of sport
and desire to kill something and be do
Ing some good to the country without
risk to himself.
The bushel box Is rapidly displacing
the old fashioned barrel as package
for marketing apples. 1t has much to
commend it. 1t compels a more honest
packing Of the fruit, not affording so
much of hiding place for culls. 1t
dispenses with the expert services of a
cooper in the making of it.. 1t more
nearly meets the requirements of the
average family than does barrel Of
fruit. while there is very material
gain in the matter of freight charges,
there being no waste space in filing
car. We understand that the first cost
is about the same as that of the barrel,
and, not being greater, we look to see
the apples Of the future go to market
in boxes rather than barrels. The fine
condition in which the fruit growers Of
Colorado and Utah are putting their
apples on the markets this season fur
,jcIo 10 hot nov I
perior to the barrel.
Do you happen to have a field of
wornout, unproductiye land, a field
which only gives you twenty bushels
of oats or corn to the acre, and would
you know the easiest and most practi-
cal method of restoring fertility to
such field and making it productive
and profitable? The following has
been done with very great success and
is commended to our readers: First
seed the land down to mammoth clio
yer, the next year turn the crop un;er
in September, then follow with crop
of corn and then with wheat, oats or
barley. In this crop of small grain will
be another good stand Of clover, the
product Of the clover seed turned I'M
der. Follow the clover crop turned un-
der again with another crop of corn.
The result of this treatment will be
that the first crop of corn will in all
probability give you fifty instead of
twenty bushels an acre, while the sec
ond crop will go sixty rather than fifty.
This method of restoring wornout
iand is but little understood and rarely
followed, but it is the one practical and
sensible methods Of accomplishing such.
result. In no manner can poor land
be made productive and fertile so easi-
ly and so cheaply as by following the
suggestion above given.
@sss--e. Z, {. q 20 ,00s s out