The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29
lesson Tauaht by eophers.

that the gophers and squirrels had un-
dermined this patch and worked the
ground up.
Lesson Taught by Gopters.
They have been sub-soiling, 1 said.
1t has let the moisture down lower. 1t
has continued to come up with the sun
and the grain has continued to grow.
The heads are larger. the straw is long
er and sitter and / believe if the whole
field were sub-sciled we would have ten
to fifteen bushels more to the acre.
am going to send east for a sub-sOiler-'
I did So The next year | plowed
that up and sub-sOiled the whole thing,
the 200 acres. This was, as near as
can remember, in 1879 or 1880. l sOwed
the seed, thirty-five pounds to the
acre. on the entire 200 acres. We had
a heavy snow that winter, and in the
spring as soon as il dried out, the
ground was baked over the top and be-
gan to crack. ] went to town and got
a big harrow, one with levers, so that
l could tie the teeth back. This l did
at an angle of 30 degrees. I narrowed
| the field, and the harrow teeth being
| tipped back, broke the crust and pull
verified the ground. After l had har-
rowed the field lengthwise l turned and
! narrowed it crOssWise. That year we
raised on that 200 acres forty-five
/ bushels and eighteen pounds to the
acre. Since then we have continued
to sub-soil every third year.
Opens the Thresher's Eyes.
-Four years ago 1 hired a thresher.
l told him 1 had about 10000 bushels
of wheat to thresh, and asked him if he
could do the job for me.
You are the man l have been
looking for he said, and 1 started
him III on the big field. While his
men were setting the machine in the
center of the field he looked about.
. How much do you think this will
make to the acre?' he asked.
well I says, I think it will go
over thirty bushels.
"'Oh, no. No, sir. Why he says,
I have threshed all the wheat from
Brigham City clear up here, and l
have threshed in fields where the stub
bic was more than twice as thick as
this, and thirty-two bushels is the best
I have threshed.
=" Well, 1 says; I don't raise wheat
for the stubble'
q" What do you raise it for?'
. For the heads
Well he said: that may be all
right, but there is not stubble enough
here to make thirty bushels TO the
acre
RAISES wheat, Not Straw.
Wen see about that. 1 said. Then
l picked up a head of wheat and said
to MIN: L will show you what l mean
by raising wheat for the heads L
sowed thirty-five pounds of seed to the
acre
Is that ALP he demanded Why
we sOwed a bushel and a half
That is why you have not threshed
more than thirty-twO bushels to the
acre / told him. Now l says, take
this head of wheat and scratch out
the center row-there is a row down
| the center and row on each side
We'll, he scratched out the row and
turned the head over and scratched
out another row and counted the ker-
nels. There were twenty-six.
g Now / says to him, if you were
to SOW bushel and a half seed to
| the acre there would not be a particle
of grain in the center row. but YOU
have twenty-siX plump kernels from
that one row. Two rows of twenty-six
kernels each on all the heads on this
ground, and how many bushels of
wheat do you think it would make?'
Why he says, I was never so
surprised in my life. l never noticed
that
We threshed the field. The grain
was weighed carefully as it came from
the machine. The total figured up
forty bushels and eight pounds to the
acre.
Pointers on Raising Rye.
I plowed a hundred acres at one
time and prepared to SOW it in rye.
A neighbOr had just moved in. He
| had been successful farmer in Dem
mark He came to me to buy rye for
seed, and I told him if he would SOW
my field L would pay him at the rate
] of three bushels of rye a day. He said
! he could SOW twenty acres a dav. We
| agreed and he reported for work at
o'clock the next morning. l had the
| boys haul out the seed rye, half bushel
| to the acre.
You'll have TO haul out more seed
| said my neighbOr.
No, not bit more | told him.
How much do you sow to the
| acre?' he asked.
! Half q bushel.'
/ Well he says; you don't know
much about raising rye
I don't profess to know much. bur
/ don't want to SOW more seed than
| that to the acre. Can you sow a half
| bushel to the acre?'
oh, yes. 1 can SOW only a neck
if you want it.
Well, SOW half bushel to the acre
and let it go at that
He did his work and I gave him
| fifteen bushels of seed rye in nav
ment. He took it home and sowed if
on i've acres, three bushels to the acre
The next spring my rye came up. a
root here and there. I hired a bow
TO harrow it both ways and kill the
suniiowers. When ] paid him he told
| me all the rye / would get off that
field l could, put into my eye. He
said had killed the rye when | killed
| the Sunfiowers- That was in April.
Pretty soon heavy rain fell and in
| less than no time you could see the
rye coming up through the dirt 1t
was the finest crop of rye YOU ever
saw. The heads were seven inches
| long and bent over with their own
weight. The grain was big and plump
1t made twenty-seven bushels to the
acre. My neighbor dickson got TWEEN
| ty bushels on his five acres
Little Rain in Summer.
In response to direct questions Mr.
Farrell gave the following additional
information that will be of value to
many in solving the dry farming prob
lem:
THE average rainfall in my portion
of the state is from ten TO fifteen
inches. Some seasons il runs as high
as twenty. Our rainfall is mostly in
the winter and early sDrinr II ie