The Greeley tribune., 1910-01-13
TAKES EXCEPTIONS 70 ,,.>.,,s
w TE0FESsOES' NrNlthhN'N

fakr mo naus t0 r"aA your l't
y,ap, and vrs not only NIei Fl"
' nm frsfrnaraH. Nevertheless ~ uN'
: Who ms made farming the nHslne'
,f his UFr tHora crops OUT now 4N'
mon I'M NOT only these lectures p"
raarN Am others on agricultural sNu
, isrrs rpth theories and Statements
gIuridatinr Them which are mo-. m'''
} In crude but. 90 those not learn
rom experience 10 discriminate 40
soutcly misleading, --..
Now Tor instance when Iro.ose'
Keyser was lgyurus on now t' tA
crease the Yield of grain crops A'
made some statements In .iAs.IA
! tfnD OF his subject which, li one
Judged OF ils real practical value N
himself by the points which were
|coutrary 90 his own experience. uH
might well condemn the whole l..-
ure as worthless Let me specify.
The professor said in the course
|of his lecture. But it Is not u5ces-
sarv 10 30 outside our own state for
examples tuI soil deterioration fer
lack OF rOtationl Wheat mo Greeley
uspd 20 WELD sixty bushels, but the
time came when il would not yield
ten.
Now t happens 10 this connection
that | am perhaps as competent to
criticise that statement as anyone and
'it ought to be disputed I began
farming under No . in the spring Of
1870 and grew continuously, wheat
I and other grain crops for twenty-five
/ years thereafter IL happens aso that
In began the cultivation OF potatoes
. r,ysa j.. 80 ., fFFtg.BlH
and Ernest Won GOhrgn were the
drst farmers iu Weld county 10 grow
alfalfa. and the facts are. not mere
fy that our soil never became so re-
iuCed that it would not produce ten
bushels to the acre. but that il never
produced sixty bushels NJ its best.
My record OF crops grown during
that first decade after our settlement
here shows one crop only which ran
below twenty bushels. and that was
injured by winds after coming up;
and no crop that ran as high as thir-
ty-tye bushels until we began to |
plow under alfalfa. There were ex-
ceptional yields now and then on
well rOtted sod OF previous years |
ploWiug, but I recall no instance |
" where any farmer of credit claimed |
p yield or sixty bushels, and very few |
who claimed an average of thirty on |
all his wheat ground. After we be- |
gan turning under alfalfa ii was of |
course different. and the yields of |
both wheat and potatoes greatly in |
creased | made prediction in |
some OF my letters to the papers con-
'erning alfalfa shortly after my trial /
If it here, that the time would come /
when alfalfa would prove itself to |
le of more value to Colorado than
vas corn to Iowa or Nebraska: and 1
t certainly has fulfilled the predic-
ion. Our wheat yield was soon in
'reased through its agency by at
east 80 per cent. and our Yields of /
potatoes by just about a hundred. |
believe hundred sacks to the 4
acre now are fully as common as
Hfty sacks were at an early day. \
am not just at present in as close
touch with the farming interests in
this vicinity as formerly. but | think
am right in saying that in the |
Greeley district. proper. land is great
" more productive than when we
began its cultivation in its virgin /
tate nearly forty years ago. Never !
-heless yields of sixty bushels of |
wheat to the acre are even now so
Uncommon that it is not worth while !
a claim for them as an H. |
ustration OF any fact or theory in |
The professor, in naming some var
eties of wheat best adapted to our
needs, spoke of Turkey Red. and he
affirmed that ''on irrigated land it |
bushels. On dry land it averages |
'orty-five and fifty bushels" Now
al | care to say of that statement
can be comprised in very few
words | do not doubt that there
ire Instances in which seventy bush
els of wheat-Turkey Red or other |
'arieties-have been grown on an |
acre of ground, but so far from be-
ing frequent yield it is, on the |
other hand, such an infreuuent yield |
hat. as a practical farmer myself, |
would not believe any ten men not
known to me if. under oath, they
made the statement that they had
achieved such results: while. as for
dry land farming. ] would be entire
ly willing. insofar as its commercial
aspect would be concerned. to bet
last years straw hat that
there are forty-five acres OF dry land
wheat stubble, even of our last wears
good season for such
cultivation. which did not yield five
bushels for every one that yielded
thirty.
There was one other statement in
part of the professor remarks
about poisoned soils which seems in
credible to me, although he was then
exploring field beyond by personal
knowledge. He was speaking of the
effect OF spraying with Paris green.
and he told of an orchardist who
placed some arsenate OF soda on the
top OF cottonwood stump and in
two days time it had burned an ap-
pie tree thirty feet away all black
and charred its roots as II by fire.
That sort of stumps me; because I
know of but two forces to-wit, chain
lightning and pink pills. which act
with such remarkable expedition.
would not wish to be understood