East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-02-23

NhS dNSldbt Is Ia l-6
inches as it is at Pendleton. summer
fallowing may largely be dispensed |
with. =.
The Remedy. |
At various points throughout the |
wheat belt it has been amply demon
strated that such crops as field peas, |
alfalfa, corn, milo maize. etc, may be
substituted for summer fallow with |
profit, These crops either use less
moisture or use such moisture as
would otherwise be lost through
evaporation and thus permit profit
producing crop every year. Where al
ternated with wheat these crops re-
store fertility though increasing the
nitrogen and humus supply in the
soil and thus assure the permanency
of agricultural production.
Where these substitute crops are
grown, however, it is imperative that
certain methods of culture be OBJ
served. Field peas must be seeded
just as early as it is possible to get
upon the ground. They will endure
much cold but not much heat. Plant
ed the first of March, If the weather
will permit, they will mature in 80
to 100 days or be ready to pasture
off with sheep or hogs at 70 days
and be out of the way by hot wealth.
er. The Canada field pea should be
used, l 1-2 to bushels per acre,
drilled 3 inches, harvested with hogs
or lambs or the mower or threshed
for seed. Stock should be turned on
the field peas when the seed begins
to harden in the pod, but the vines
still green. Mixed with barley or oats
and cut for hay, field peas will yield
here l 1-2 to tons per acre of fine
quality for cows and sheep. Seed
yields run from 800 to 500 pounds per
acre, making very profitable money
crop for the dry farmer To get rid
of the volunteer peas, the field may
be disked and seeded to wheat or
barley and pastured early the follow
ing spring or cut early for grain hay.
AS soon as the pea crop is off the
ground the land should be double
disced, plowed and mulched in prep
aration for the next years wheat
crop if wheat is to be raised. Where
good methods are used the returns
from this fallow substitute crop add
ed to that from the wheat crop fol-
lowing it will in the two years gve
| nearly double the profits per acre as
may be obtained under the summer
fallow system. Yet the soil fertility
will be maintained or increased.
Field Corn.
Corn, provided a hardy and early
maturing variety is secured, and
| thorough cultivation is given, will al
so give excellent returns in place Of
| the summer fallow The Minnesota
| No. 23, dent corn introduced by
| the Oregon experiment station two
years ago, gave yields of 80 to 35
| bushels of matured grain last year
on wheat lands. Fed to hogs the
profits can easily be figured. But un-
less this hardy variety is used ana
thorough cultivation given, success
cannot be expected.
Dry Land Alfalfa.
Alfalfa grown as a seed crop is
probably one of the best of the dry
land farmers future prospects. Grown
in double rows IS to "a inches apart,
| eight pounds of seed per acre, sown
in thoroughly cultivated summer Sai-
low in April, will give yields of 800
to 400 pounds of seed of the high
est quality commanding the top price
on the market. Where grown in rows
cultivation should be given and where
the stand is too thick it should be
cross narrowed. The first crop is
cut for seed.
Milo Maize.
| While milo maize, smooth bronze
grass, meadow fiscue, artichokes,
COW kale and grain hay and pasture,
are all crops that will furnish the
necessary forage for feeding livestock
on wheat land, the field peas, corn
and barley will be the chief feeds for
fattening stock and should be given
first attention. Alfalfa, on the other
| hand, raised for seed will furnish a
direct cash crop year in and year
out
Will Take Time.
This diversified system of farming
cannot be adopted at once to the 1000
acre wheat farm. There are not
enough hogs in the state of Oregon
to consume the first crop of peas
that might be raised in this county
alone.
Let this system once be started,
however, and the large farmers and
the single crop system will soon be
forced to the wall Field peas, al
falfa, corn, milo maize, drouth re-
sistent forage crops Of all kinds, rails
ed upon the wheat lands and fed to
pigs, lambs, chickens and cows, will
bring such profits per acre that the
summer fallow will go out with the
wheat baron. One hundred sixty
acre farms with comfortable home:
and prosperous owners will no long
er be considered an impossbility
and eggs and butter and pork raised
in the home county will no longer b'
thought an unheard of curiosity or
your markets. Better than this
growth in population and production
and prosperity will be the final as
surance of the permanence OF your
|, agriculture and of all the institution!
of mankind dependent upon it.