Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-04-08
Horticultural Notes
EaErly Cultivation.
BY Frank Slnlons

the summer no one can get good
nights rest, owing to the hot OPP
pressive atmosphere. Even while
sleeping without cover with the win
dows open the sleeper Is bathed in
sweat.
Is it any wonder vegetation grows
so luxuriously there, while the great
plains in the cold northwest are al
most devoid of vegetation?
The old German made his wife
sleep without blanket so his corn
would grow.
The writer has lived here on the
banks of the Missouri for the past rs
years, and has never known q night
when he could not sleep under a
blanket.
While the people of the tropics
are loading themselves with colds
from excessive perspiring, resulting
in fever and consumption, deing of
like a pestilence. The word of greet
ing there is "How are you?" as If
you might feel little better today.
In North Dakota colds, fevers and
consumption are almost unknown.
The greeting word is q hearty, hap
by, healthy, cheering "Hello!"
Theer is an excuse for the people
being sick, tired and lazy and living
without ambition, who are where
they may not see the sun shine for
a week, breathing in q hot, moist,
suffocating and sultry atmosphere.
But the boys and birls Of sunshiny
North Dakota, who do not. rise from
a nights rest overlooking with
health, energy, life and ambition to
do something, must surely be doing
to undermine that health.
What is best for the growth of
vegetation is not good for animal
life. In fact, the carbonlocked in
our great coal beds had to be taken
from the atmosphere before animal
life could exist. The great plains
of the northwest would be covered
with a dense forest but for the frost
and fire. Such a dense forest cover
ing this part o fthe country would
retain the moisture and cold so that
We would have q killing frost every
month in the year. The intense cold
of our long winters, combined with
the cold nights during the entire
causes our soil If moist to
remain too cold and sour got the
growth of vegetation unless loos-
ened up to the warm rays Of the sun
by the hands Of man. While the
trees in the tropics grow with their
roots partly submerged in water
and ooze, have seen in the bottom
lands along the Missouri river hun
dreds of acres of red and diamond
willows die from standing in moist
cold soil. Irrigation In North Dako-
ia without cultivation would be a
failure. n
Thus is plainly seen the necessity
of very early cultivation r. in the
spring to warm up the soil and cause
the fungus growth that grows with
in the warm soil that causes the
chemical action to take placS which
is so necessary to prepare plant food
for the growth of vegetation.
never raised one-half the crop that
would have resulted had they cul-
tivated the ground as early In the
spring as possible. The frost is out
of the ground on the river bottom
from two. to three weeks earlier than
on the high prairie. ..
The successful farmers located in
the dry portions of North Dakota are
those who harrow and disc their
fields as soon as the frost is out of
the summer fallow, corn and potato
grounds sufficient to enable them to
make a scratch. This warns up the
soil. The moisture thus wamred
sinks deep into the subsoil.v The
chemical action caused by heat in
the loose, moist soil is absolutely
necessary to an early and successful
growth.
The seed that starts early in the
spring grows into a giant weed, pro-
ducing the largest seed, in which is
stored the greatest amount aof vi
tally. Just so with the cultivated
grain. The grain that starts first
and that makes an early and svigor-
Gus growth, natures and ripens the
largest seed before drouth and early
frost. The garden Vegetables that
get an early start will be worth the
gathering. No danger of a late frost
killing your vegetables when early
and thorough cultivation is practiced
as the heat stored in the moisture
in the soil will stave of any frost
that may come when your garden
truck has appeared. The shade tree
or fruit tere and bush that makes an
early and. vigorous growth In the
spring will ripen its wood, bark leaf
and fruit buds so no early frost or
cold winter can impair it. Its bark,
leaf and fruit buds will coat taem-
selves with a waxy substance that is
nonconductor of cold and heat,
thus preserving them and insuring
plenty Of fruit next year. The uni
versal practice in North Dakota is
to cultivate the grove shade. trees
and fruit garden after seeding. This
causes late growth and immaturity
of wood. bark and fruit buds 1t the
time of the first frost, often killing
the tree to the ground. This IL the
principal cause of the death Of trees
and of bushes failing to fruit, and
also Of their eventual death.
EPISCOPAL NOTICES. ~
Today. Thursday, the Guild meets
~