Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1909-11-10
Nebraska's Productive Soil.

CA central Nebraska farmer. writ
ing to his friend who still clings to
the rock bounded hills of New Eng
land, told of the wonderful fertility of
Nebraska soil
''We have dirt floor in the stable,
and we have to NOW it every morning
to find the horses so we can curry
them. Talk about jack and his won
derful beanstalk-I hung my hat.on a
cornstalk while rested for few min
utes in the shade, and when l woke
up l had to go the house and get an ak
to cut the stalk down. 1t had grown
so fast | could not reach my hat.
When the stalk fell, it made such a
dent in the ground ! had to bridge it
over to get to the other side of the
field. A neighbor family had twin
babies and had provided only one
cradle. The babies have to take turn
about sleeping on the floor, and care
must be exercised in keeping up the
rotation regularly. If one baby should
sleep on the floor close to the soil more
than the other one it would grow
twice as fast. When we stand still
we must take care to keep both feet
on the ground. If we did MT the one
on the ground would grow faster so it
would bother US in walking. One rail-
road was enabled to declare extra
dividends last year on the saving
made in railroad spikes. 1t sowed
single nails along the right of way
in the fall and they grew into spikes
in time for the spring track repair
ing. I'D give anything if we could
raise pumpkins on our farm, but we
can't. The vines grow so fast they
wear the pumpkins out dragging them
over the ground. Early in June l cut
80 tons of alfalfa from my 20 acre
patch and then turned in a drove of
hogs. When got ready to market
the hogs l had to get my neighbors
to help me find them-the alfalfa had
grown so fast, it hid the hogs COM
pletely. They gained $50 pounds
apiece without an ear of corn, and got
$3.50 for them in South Omaha. Cut
my wheat last week. Had sixty acres
and the yield was so heavy I had to
rent twelve acres extra from a neigh
stack the straw. We are awfully busy
out here, and we have to conserve
every energy. One of my neighbors
has crossed lightning bugs with his
bees, and now he has honey in the
making twenty four hours a day. We
get so much for our butter fat at the
collecting stations that we've found
j.; necessary to cross the milkweed
with the strawberry vine in order to
have strawberries and cream on our
table. l was Smelling old corn last
week and the engine broke down.
was in hurry to get the job done,
and while the man was putting a new
water guage on the traction engine I
lacked up the rear truck of my auto
mobile, threw the belt over one wheel
and shelled l, ZOO bushels of corn. Wife
swings baby in a hammock swung be.
tween couple of young trees in the
back yard. We have to equip the
hammock with a rope and tackle be.
cause the trees and the baby grow sc
fast. If we didn't we could not
reach high enough to touch the ham
mock, and if we could, the baby would
be too heavy to handle with ease.
Last week was raking down radisk
bed in the garden with rake thai
had four broken teeth. Wife called me
to the house for something and
stuck the rake handle in the ground
before l went into the house. When
went back half hour later the rake
had grown four new teeth and l hao
to trim the limbs off the handle be-
fore / could use it. This is the great.
est country that you ever saw, and the
sooner you pry yourself loose from
these stony fields of yours and get out
here, the better off you will be-