Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-06-16

| 1t would be we'll for other people tu
learn the lesson of cooperation from
the people of this town and vicinity.
J Wheat Root Rot and Wheat Wilt Di
seases-By n. L. eoIIey.
The Better Farming train furnished
by the Northern Pacific railroad has
allowed me to make observations dur
| in the week upon many wheat fields
| in many different localities in the cen
| trail and western parts OF the state.
So far, l have not observed any
wheat fields suffering materially from
drouth The stand is of good color
and generally strong for this stage OF
growth.
Wheat wilt and wheat root rot fungi
are, however, doing great damage on
certain of the old wheat land areas
and in certain fields of virgin, or new
lands, on which poor, diseased wheat
has been used for seed.
The wilt diseases of wheat kill off
the young wheat in the same man
ner as fax wilt destroys that grain.
l have seen the wheat in spots sick
and dying out just the same as it
willis off in the case of fax. The fungi
are different but the results are much
the same on the crop and on the soil.
Any one can find out whether he has
the disease on his lands from the
seed by pulling up the plants. Healthy
wheat at this time is white below the
ground, even down to the seed, and
will be stooling we'll. Diseased plants
will be whiting away in spots or will
be sending up only single unstooled
plants, which are brown or cresote COL
ored below the ground line, or so
spotted below. The diseases are more
destructive on slightly alkaline areas
than on we'll dairned land and such
diseases, think, have much to do
with the deterioated yields upon the
older wheat soils of the state. I am
not a strong believer that two or
three or ten or twenty crops of wheat
can exhaus the fertility of North Da-
kota soils. Farmers must cease SOW
ing low grade wheat and fax and must
rotate with other crops, cultivation
and pasture.
Better Farmbing Special, Coopers-
town, June 6, 1910.
In reply to urgent requests the
above letter was given to the repre-
sentatiyes of the press on the "Bet-
ter Farming Special" and is the re-
suits Of observations made during the
stops of seventeen stations on the
tourage Of the train.
Does Not Believe That the Soil Is
Exhausted.
Prof. Bolley says that he can not
believe that soil exhaustion is the
cause of the rapid decline in the acre.
yields over the state. That it took
thousands of years to prepare this soil
for the husbandman as it is today
That the richest mineral matter that
make up the soils were put here by
glacial action and that after that the
grasses have been growing and dy-
ing on the surface of the ground for
untild thousands of years, and that
the soils are exhausted or even ap-
probable depleted in a few years, he
does not believe.
Yet he knows that there is some.
thing wrong but he does not believe
nor will he admit that it is so ser.
ious, as many claim, as to be soil ex-
haustion.
Does Not Believe That There Is Plant
Sickness.
The real trouble comes from the
plants being sick from some disease
which is caused by infection from
spores carried by poor seed in the air
or by water, and in n,any cases the
fields arc SO impregnated with them
that it IS impossible for the grains
from these fields to produce healthy
plants when used for seed and, there
by, causing serious loss, or in many
cases total failure of the crops on
the lands thus impregnaaed.
Onos these spores or germs get
into the soils in any way, or where
diseased or weakened seed is used,
there is only one treatment that will
give relief. That is the rotation of
crops and treatment Of the seed before
sowing.
Cultivation Rotation, Strong, Healthy
Seed and Proper Chemical
Treatment Of Seed the
Remedy.
When fields are once full of the
germs of disease from poor or impure
see, from blowing from one field to
another, or the passing of straw or
manure made from straw of infected
lands, there is only one thing to do
and that is to get rid of the disease
and to stay rid of it just the same
as you must first rid your community
of such diseases as smallpox and
scarlet fever If you would have the
people we'll.
Now how are the farmers to get rid
of this trouble is the question, for
it is trouble that is now costing
North Dakota farmers losses aggre-
eating millions of dollars annually in |