The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-08-11
DEFIES THE ELEMENTS.

Farmer J. c. Brown Of Willow Lake
S d., defed the whole cong'omerat,
assortment of the elements.
There was an element of fear il
Ajax's definance of the lightning IL
that he accorded to that element thu
virtues of a contender, a factor in hi!
future and a possible combatant, en-
gagged with which he might come of
second best, and SO with Farmer
Brown. He feared the elements, re
spected them, knew their power and
value, and when he defied them he
prepared well for the battle.
In other words, Farmer Brown TO
tated his crops, enriched his soil by
using a mechanical fertilizer, plowed
just as deep as his pillow would go, and
narrowed and dragged the soil until
il was as near talcum powder fineness
as he could make it.
And forty acres on his farm thus
treated will yield twenty-five bushels
to the acre of velvet chaff wheat and
straw that reaches waist high, while
his neighbors who used old fashioned
methods of farming and trusted to u
generous rainfall are in the dumps
with a small crop.
That shows the result of scientific
8 4, ~, ~ N ~ nvolatn,al ~, ~, Drnuu, nm
a visit to Minneapolis yesterday. II
didn't learn scientific farming in col
lege as the young men do today, but
| learned it from reading at home, at
tending the farmers institutes and APP
plying the same business methods to
my farming that any successful bust
ness man in any walk of life must
use in order to get the best results"
The bes. farmer in South Dakota"
is what the agricultural experiment
men out there say of Farmer
And they say it because they
that whatever soil he puts seed
into grows a paying crop and that he
has w had a crop failure no mat
ter what kind of weather has come.
Il guess | have opened the eyes of
of my neighbors out there who
didn't believe in summer 'fallow and
dry farming methods" he said, with
a smile. Last fall / says to my hand,
l want to take hold of that forty this
and see just how good a crop of
wheat we can raise off it. The crops
been rotated just right and I be-
ieye that We can raise the best wheat
n South Dakota on it if We go about
t. So let's fall plow and drag it very
carefully and in the spring We'll go
it with a fine-toothed comb
incidentally, / have the best farm
land in South Dakota. He agreed that
We would attempt a record crop.
When We came to plow it last fall
We noticed a streak of hard dirt clear
across the forty that rose almost to
he surface. | figured if W. could get
lnder that and turn it over it would
re very fertile. So we hitched four
to a big pillow and turned it
'yer. 1t vas almost as hard as rock,
tut We ground it up as fine as powder.
The result is that streak shot up
rain six inches higher than the rest
f the forty. We went over the en-
ire forty just as we were grinding
orn up into meal. When We got
through I could go any place in that
orty and pick up a handful of earth
hat would be as fine as il it had been
ut through a mill.
There was not enough rainfall on
hat forty to fill a footprint from the
we planted the seed until last
tuesday, when We cut it. Just two lit
Ie showers came altogether. They
wen wet the straw. But l
idn't mind that. Ny neighbors were
1 despair on account of the lack of
ain. Every time they complained
'ould offer to take them over and
how them my exhibit of the value of
ummer fallow and dry farming. /
elieve they have learned a lesson,
ut 1t has cost them dearly.
MY oats are a great success too.
he ground was prepared for them
18th almost as much care and while
ne farmers around me are getting
hort yields my oats show forty bush
Is to the acre. They were about a
Dot high and had heads about four
lches long. Other farmers hear me
ould not III their oats in many in
tances because Of the short stand"
Minneapolis Tribune.