Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1911-05-25
TWO STORY FARMING
NECESSITY WILL SOON MAKE IT
COMMONPLACE IN IOWA.
Doubling Profits by Growing Two
Crops at onee-Fertility Of
Soil Not Impaired II Crops
Are Rotated.
eY A. G. MCCORMICK.

Two story farming is new In Iowa,
but necessity will soon make 1t COM
monplace. We are now using every
means to get the best seed and the
best stand of every crop we can and
the practice Of farming for money is
becoming more intensive. Just as
we always have a crop of clover COM
ing on under the small grain so will
we soon have a highly paying crop
coming on between the corn rows.
How many times while blowing the
corn the last time have we stopped
in the middle of the field and looking
around at the clean ground wonder
ing If the stalks Of corn really needed
all the space they were using. There
was not weed on the ground and
were it not so much trouble we might
have turnips growing all over the
field. But then what would we do
with them and anyhow there was
plenty of room in the potato patch to
raise all the turnips we could eat
There are several crops that pay
well for stock and can be grown with
out much work. Rape for example,
OF the Dwarf Essex variety. II sowed
in the corn at the last cultivation at
the rate OF about four or five pounds
per acre win make excellent returns
in pork or mutton. II the stand OF
corn is poor 1t is particularly valu.
able, not that It furnishes crop for
the bare land, but that It makes a
good fall pasture. The stand of corn
does not need to be poor for the rape
to be good, for in practice the places
where the corn Is thickest and strong
est are the places where the rape
grows best. Many farmers have
profited handsomely by pasturfng
lambs, wethers or even old ewes In
cornfields after the rape was large
enough to browse. II the corn has not
been blown down the sheep will do
70 damage. but win strip OF the lower
leaves which are partly cured. along
with some of the foxtail which will
tend to balance the rape. And a
minor reason which results is the
cleaner field, hence less unpleasant
husking. Rape for supplement In
the business Of hogging down corn
is one of the best feeds yet found.
There is practically no extra work
to grow II and the returns In pork
are excelled only in the fattening
pen. Shoats averaging ninety pounds
turned into a small lot of corn about
September 10 in which there is a
good stand Of rape will make surpris-
ing gains from the start. The prac-
tice of hogging down corn is a good
one as many farmers know. but the
results can be doubled, or nearly SO,
II rape is there to add its variety and
its feeding value. In a lot of one acre
nine pigs averaging 80 pounds apiece
made 634 pounds of pork from Sep
TENDER 10 to November II. This lot
had a very average stand OF rape, in
fact only around the edges was the
rape very good, but the corn was as
good or better than the average. The
returns II figured low were close to
$46 or $50 and the only labor en-
pended was the time II took to water
the hogs. Therefore the pront from
that acre Of corn would inspire most
any farmer to SOW more rape next
year and hog down more corn.
There 10 another crop to use with
corn which 10 close to rape. but which
takes SLIGHTLY more work TO raise and