Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-04-04
HISTORY OF TWENTY ACRES Of BRONZE GRASS

per acre. That year the whole field
gave us IS tons Of hay and SO bushels
of seed. And At demon trated to my.
mind the fact that the old drbound'
theory was wrong and that my field
was suffering from nitrogen exhaus-
ton. At any rate i determined not to.
pillow 1t up until I had experimental
further. s3;
But the next question which arose
was Where. should I get a nitrogen
Gus fertilizer that should be available
to any farmer in the bronze grass belt?
Nitrate Of soda Is expensive, rail
freight rates are high and the price
of hay is low. Why not use fresh
farm manure? This contains notable
amounts of so1liabae nitrogen and what
IS better it contains . fresh supply Of
|nitrifying bacteria. Besides I had L
good supply Of fresh horse, sheep AMI
COW manure. So with some con-
fidence Is directed my men to give the
remainder Of the field heavv coating
of fresh manure, which they did at the
rate Of 10 loads per acre. They even
Elappepd on q. little ways where the
nitrate was soWn the previous year.
sEsi And SO this field started In on. it's
sixth year. But it. should be stated
that after the frost was well out the
field was given a thorough narrowing
with a heavy iron harrow: This fined
the manure and completed It's distri-
button. And the results fulfilled all
expect tions. The harvest yielded 100
bushels of elegant, plump seed and
20 tons of hay found their way into
the hay NOW. The heaviest stand
was where the fresh manure Tapped
the nitrate. 1t is worthy of note that
where the nitrate alone was used the
effects were plainly visible this year
also. It now appears that old bronze
grass fields are suffering from nitro
gen exhaustion or depletion rather and
that fresh barnyard manure lis better
than rotten manure and that where
nitrate of soda is available it will
repay the expense Of application. ~
Before give the financial side of
this experiment it would be wen to
say word in regard to bronze grass
seed. It has long been a matter Of
common knowledge with us here at
the college that imported seed is
grossly adulterated. The course Of
trade brings It down through Hungary
where 1t falls into the hands of the
hungarian Jew seed dealers where it
is mixed with fescues and other cheap
en- seeds that are valueless where
bronze grass Is desired. also showed
Id my previous article thatathere are
no less than II different vsrietiest OF
the bromes which we have tried and
found wanting. The worst thing
about some OF these worthless .bromes
is that their seed and even sometimes
their foliage resembles the genuine
Bron1us inermis so closely that 1t is
almost impossible for experts even to
tell from the seed itself whether it is
genuine or not. Moreover, after the
former article appeared Id the agri-
cultural press ! received many sam
pies Of seed that came from nearly
every western and southern state and
nearly every one was not true to
name, One farmer from Virginia
sent me a sample OF orchard grass
seed pure and simple that had been
sold him for bronze grass. Nearly
every hay grass was found ii the sam
pies send. Il NJ lss :.s$
Now for the financial side Of the
question, I have taken. no account OF
the straw obtained from the seed
stalks, but I have learned better than
to throw it away. have found that
this straw will carry my work horses
through the idle season about as well
as prairie hay. should estimate
roughly that It Is worth about three
fourths the price of prairie hay. But
leaving the straw out Of the account
entirely my ledger balances up at the
end Of the second period Of three
years as follows. making no charge
also for unexpended barnyard manure:
TO making SO tons Of hay at 81 {. 800
80 loads barn yard manure
at soc 3. \. !. /. 40
200 lbs. nitrate soda !. !. L. ...f 81.
hreshing and cleaning seed is
Rent three years at 50 60
lOJdl 90IS
The credit side of the ledger reads
as follows: a3s3s5
4th year BY is tons hay at $10 !. !. $50
so bushels seed at s2.1 10 1. &. 1l5
5th year BY Is tons hay at IS 120
SO bushels seed at 1910 los
9th year BY 20 tons hay at 81 40
100 bushels seed al s2.10 2s2