Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1909-09-17
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|Sh0rt Farm TalkS3
i AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE !
AGRICULTURAL,

i AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE y
There is some talk of gasshoppers
doing damage next year. because
in places in North Dakota they
are numerous this season.
Burn off the stubble where they
are this fall, and pillow every acre
you can before snow flies. This
is the best remedy known, and if
generally followed will be found
effective.
Many papers over the state write
to inquire about rust. and what
can be done to prevent it.
The reader will remember that
the rust that does damage, the
black wheat rust, strikes the hard
est late in the season.
There is no way of preventing
it save to sow early and get the
crop out of the way before it be-
comes a menace.
We cannot tell when rust will
prove serious and when it will not.
The best precaution is therefore
to sow early. Because of this fact
alone. Winter wheat, if we can
successfully raise it, will be great
benefit to North Dakota.
Early sown crop largely escape
hail, rust, and frost. Plan for an
early seeding next spring.
1t would be practically imposs-
ible, says H. j. Hughes of the
Agricultural College, in recent
issue of the Jamestown Capital,
to estimate the cost to the farmer
of the growing, threshing and
distributing of foul weed seed.
! An instance may be mentioned
where a farmer bought what he
thought to be bronze grass seed.
With it he sowed 80 acres of his
farm, which came up over one
half quack grass. In this case there
was clearly a mechanical mixture
of the seeds. The fraud was de-
liberate. He will find it a very
expensive business to rid his farm
of the pest introduced in the sced
sown.
Weeds cost the farmer more
from the time they show their
heads until they are threshed and
safely housed for another sowing
than any other one thing l know
of, in view Of their absolute lack
of value to him. They take fertil-
ity out of the soil, that must be
accounted for some day. They
drink up the moisture that should
go to the crop. That lessons the
yield and quality. and in dry
year may cause failure. The ill
effects follow up during the sue
ceeding season. TIL. reserve of
moisture that should be in the
ground is lowered. and the crop
of he next year suffers from drought
unless there is an abundance of
rain. Weeds shade the growing
plants, and often overshade it to
it's destruction. They increase
the Irvine bill. They mean added
draft and wear on the machinery.
1t takes little longer to shock
than to shock the same amount of
grain without them. The thresh-
ing goes little slower, just
bit more help is needed, and they
trip the weigher, pound for pound,
just as quickly as a half bushel of
wheat. 1t cost something to haul
them to market; the railroads get
paid for their transportation to
Minneapolis or Duluth. 1t pays
MOTTO raise weeds.
Weeds seeds are distributed in
the fall in several different ways.
One Of them is through the very
common practice of letting cattle
and other stock run at large, and
their droppings carry hard coated
seeds intact from one field to an
other. Another common carrier
of weed seed is the threshing out
fit, particularly the racks of the
bundle teams. All racks should
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