The Dickinson press., 1912-11-30

Harvesting
HARVESTING OATS AND PLANTING
LEGUM1NoUs CROPS IN
THE SOUTH
BY G. H. AFFORD Of the III c Service Bureau
1t is now time to plan for the har-
vesting of our oat crop. If we do not
OWE a good moving machine, or better
still, a good binder, now is the time
to buy one. The cradle is too slow
and the waste when using a cradle is
enormous.
One binder will harvest from 80
to 100 acres-eight acres per day. One
or more farmers in every neighbor-
hood should own a good binder. The
binder will generally pay for itself in
one season.
A moving machine will often do
the work for several farmers in a
neighborhood. Where one farmer can
not afford to buy a mower for his own
use, several farmers can purchase one.
One farmer will often find it profitable
to own a mower or binder and work
for his neighbors at a reasonable price.
Now is the time to get our mowers
and binders ready for work., Let us
sharpen the sickles, oil the bearings
and test the machines on the grass be-
fore our oats are ready to cut. 1t is
also advisable to have an extra binder
tongue, a knife, and several extra wings
and arms for the reel ready beforehand
for repairing breakages.
We should harvest our oat crop early.
Cutting should begin as soon as about
Is per cent of the field has turned
yellow-just as soon as all the grain is
in the dough stage. Oats should not
be cut while wet from dew or rain.
There should be a thresher in every
neighborhood for threshing all kinds
of seeds such as oats, wheat, rye,
barley, katir corn, sorghum, grass
seed, beans, and peanuts.
Many farmers will find it profitable
to own a thresher for use on their own
farms and they can at the same time
be of great service to their neighbors
by threshing for them at a reasonable
price.
The oats should be threshed as soon
as possible, but should not be threshed
when grain is wet from either rain
or dew.
Store oats in bulk and not over three
feet deep. Be sure and examine grain
daily for at least three weeks and
turn with shovel, if there are any indi-
cations of heating.
The packed, crusted soil should not
be exposed to the suns rays a single
day after oats are cut. We should use
a disk harrow and make the surface
for two or three inches as fine as
possible for a cowpea, soy bean or
peanut crop. By the use of the disk
harrow, we can thoroughly prepare
several acres of stubble land every day
for these crops. At this season of the
year we are usually very busy and are
often, unable to spare the necessary
time to break the stubble land with
. plow.
These leguminous crops are valuable
on account of the nitrogen and the
humus-making organic matter they
contain. When they are harvested to
be fed to live stock, nearly half the
nitrogen and humus-making materials
are left in the roots and in the bottom
of the stems and in the leaves, and
other portions of the plants not OBJ
tanned in gathering the crops. The
results of the Calhoun, La, experiment
station show that one acre of Spanish
peanuts grown on poor pine land con-
tanned 1872 pounds Of nitrogen; an acre
of cowpeas, 108 pounds; and an acre of
soy beans, 100 pounds. These crops
made from two to three and a half tons
of feed stuff, richer in food elements
than wheat bran. When such feed
stuff can be grown after oats and fed
to stock without serious loss of fertiliz-
ing value, is there any excuse for cult
waiting poor land and for having poor
livestock2
The advantages of growing cowpea
crops are briefly summarized by the
Louisiana experiment. station as fol-
lows: First, the cowpea is a nitrogen
gatherer;second, itshades the soilin the
summer, keeping it in a condition most
suitable to the most rapid nitrifca-
uAOA ouA ACoNCo ~ 111oO10 dIlU IOOS06 uU
In the best possible condition for fu-
ture crops; third, it has a large root
development, and hence pumps up
from a great depth and. a large area
the water, and with it the mineral
needed by the plant; fourth, its adapt
ability to all kinds of soils-stifest
clays to the most porous sand, fertile
alluvial bottoms to barren upland; fifth
it stands the heat and hot sunshine
of hot climates; sixth, its rapid growth
enables us to grow two crops on the
same soil; seventh, when sown thickly,
it shades the soil efectually, smother.
ing out all weeds and grasses, and
thus serves as q cleansing crop; eighth,
1t is the best preparatory crop known
to the southern farmers every kind
of crop grows well after it; ninth, it
furnishes a most excellent hay and q
most excellent food in large quantities
for man and beast.
The following is a summary of Far.
mars, Rnl1ofin M 2OR. 1n-1OOS tho