The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1911-02-09


and they attended willing to learn.
Many questions were asked of the
speakers and all took lively inter
est.
The business men Of Minot provided
free dinners for the farmers each day
of the institute and hundreds were
served. The ladies of the Catholic
church were engaged to serve the
! lunches at the new Johnson block,
! and no one was allowed TO 60 away
hungry.
The Jourgen Olson Land Co. served
free cigars and lemonade ut the oprea
house during The entire institute.
Several thousand cigars were given
( away and gallons Of Lemonade.
Prof. Shaw gave good tall on al
falfa Saturday afternoon. Alfalfa
stores up the moisture and it is the
best sub-soiler in the world. After
! the plant itself dies, the dead roots
permeate deep into the soil, allowing
much moisture to be stored. It is the
, hay plant of the future. If you want
to raise alfalfa, try this plan. The
year before, scatter ten or fifteen
loads Of manure over each acre OF
land, and pillow it deep. Grow corn
or potatoes that year and kill out the
weeds. There is some relation be
! tween the manure and the alfalfa
| germs in the soil that helps this
plant to thrive. Early the next spring
| make a fine seed bed, not too deep,
and the first year don't seed more
than eight pounds Of alfalfa to the
acre, putting 1t in one or two inches
deep. Sow it after there is no more
danger of frost, generally at the end
; of May. When it is four or five inches
high, harrow it well Don't be afraid
OF killing out the plants It will pull
out some of the plants, but the others
will thrive all the better. When il
is eight or ten inches high, go into
the field with a mower, and set il
high, cutting the plants off about hall
way down. This will strengthen the
roots and the tops as we'll Northern
Montana seed is the best for this ell
mate, tho Grimm does well. In this
country, don't SOW alfalfa with nurse
crop. Where there is irrigation, OF
80 inches of rain year, it is all right
to SOW it with nurse crop, spelt7
or barley. You can cut alfalfa once
or twice year and get from one to
three tons per acre. Alfalfa is good
for horses if fed cautiously till they
get used to it.. Every ton of alfalfa
properly cured, is worth very nearly
as much as ton of bran, the speaker
declared. 1t fertilizes the land too
; J. S. Murphy told how h. had disc
ed 80 acres of his land last March be-
fore blowing, and in that way got 100
did not disc it. An important point
, to remember. If weather 10 dry, the
soil should be rolled as soon as plow-
ed. .s..
| To grow winter wheat, plant field
of corn, squaw corn for instance, run
ming the rows east and west. In
! August, drill in your winter wheat,
the Turkey Red seed, and then let the
swine harvest your crop of corn. Sow
three or four pecks to the acre, three
! is better. 49,.
How do you manage to get good
crop of wheat after a fax, grown on
sod? was asked. The answer was
merely to disc up the sod we'll, in the
spring, making fine seed bed and
SOW.
j. M. Devine gave very interest
ing address on"What Minot owes to
the farmers and what the farmers owe
to themselves !"
The governor mentioned at the
beginning that he farmed 920 acres
of land near T0wner, so the farmers
could consider that farmer was talk
ing to them. He didn't want to crate
but give them cold facts
II find that the hardest Job ever
tackled was to run successfully a $40
acre farm. It would be infinitely
easier to run the state Of North Dako-
ia" he declared.
Its a mistake to think that it is
easy to run farm. A farmer should
read the best literature pertaining to
his business, and make study OF it.
Mr.. Devine has 16 acres Of alfalfa,
though he does not need it, as he had
$50 acres Of the finest wild hay last
year. to be found n tho state. Speak
ing of his alfalfa b said: II was
told BY my old friend, Clark Kelley
Z