The Butler weekly times., 1910-06-23
FARM BURROWS.
Farmer and stOckmAn

\ Row a quarter-Section farm with
a draw or ravine running clear across
it'that cuts nearly three tons of wild
hay per acre each year for the last
two decades. 1t is the best-paying
part of the farm, and better than it
would be if plowed and tiled for
other crops. The fertilizer from the
rest of the farm and from the lot Of
adjoining land washes across it every
spring. The owner says he would
not have il tiled and broken up If
anyone would do it for nothing.
Willow roots will find a tile six
rods from the tree in dry season.
The woven wire fence and a small
flock of sheep are the best weed kill
ers for the average farmer. Smaller
fields and more sheep, more money
and less work. Give the sheep the
stubble field after the grain is out for
a month and the fall blowing won't
be green.
One man plants corn in March and
it grows, another plants it May 10th
and the same seed rots in the ground.
The condition of the ground and its
location has a lot to do with it. A
sheltered field that is a little sandy
will stand a lot of cold nights.
The Lord made the ground right
side up to raise grass. Pastures
where the seed was sown on the vir-
gin prairie, on low ground, have
more feed now than twenty-five years
ago. Blue grass, white clover and a
sprinkling of red top makes sward
that will pasture three head to the
acre one year with another. Very
few upland pastures will pasture half
that number one year with another.
/ The man who is going to raise fruit
in order to get out of work and still
make money is going to fail. There
is just the hardest kind of work in
fruit raising and a lot of it, but it pays
out better generally than either stock
raising or grain raising.
1t was something new to me to hear
someone brag on some extra good
farm in the state of Washington, and
find that the owner had drained some
swamp or slough. Sometimes these
swamps are covered with growth of
pine, or other timber that costs as
much as 500 per acre to clear il be-
fore draining. The drainage of a
prairie slough is mere child's play by
the side of that kind of job.
once saw Piece of land cleared
of timber and the wood burned into
charcoal, where the stumps by actual
measure covered more than half of
the land. When they were blasted
out, and burned out it had cost about
5000 per acre, less the value of the
charcoal, to clear it, but it made the
owner $500 the first year when plant
ed to blackberrieS and strawberries
and later on to pear trees and winter
apples.
Our plum crop died "a-borning"
this year, but it looks as though we
will have few apples, whichis more
than was expected a few weeks ago.
Field crops are very backward
about coming forward, but ii is rather
early to predict a general crop failure.
A warm rain and week of warm
weather will change the looks of
things. 81
The seed corn question is still will
u.s. Many fields are being replanted
with flint corn even in June. Others
are sowing barley or flax on fields
where corn failed to grow. The cries
of, ''Test your seed corn" did agreat
deal of good, but could not make seed
enough to 60 around.
You feel rather disappointed after
building hog house and fixing up
narrowing pens with all modern con-
veniences and then, have the sows
wander off and start housekeeping
with their brood Of little ones in an
old straw pile.
Nearly all implement dealers have
good-sized scrap pile Of machinery
that has been taken in part payment
for new machines. It is true that it
does not pay to try to farm with worn
out machinery, but it looks as though
the bright new paint has an irresist-
ible attraction for some.