Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1913-07-10
FIELDS INSPECTED ON
DEMONSTRATION FARM
MUCH MOISTURE SEEN ON CORN
GROUND.
Value of Rotation in Crops Pointed
Out-Trees and Live Stock.

Supt. J. w. Porter of the state
demonstration farm, and J. E. East
gate Of Larimore, accompanied by
Prof. Borchert of the Better Farm
ing association and a number of far
mers of the county, inspected the
Stutsman. county demonstration farm
Wednesday afternoon. There are
26 of such farms in the state, being
conducted by the agricultural college
for demonstration purposes, and the
20 acres on the F. A. Wilhelm farm
north of jamestown is one of these
demonstration farms. The land is
divided into five plots of about four
acres each. They are seeded to corn,
wheat, barley, clover and timothy.
The corn looks we'll, having been
cultivated both ways and manure
spread over the field, which is clean
of weeds and pigeon grass. The
most noticeable feature of the corn
field was the large amount of mois-
ture in the soil. Boring with an au-
ger to a depth of from two to three
feet on the corn ground, showed that
the soil was very moist from the top
to the bottom. There was no lack
of moisture in any part of the field,
although the top surface appeared to
be as dry as the ground in the other
fields. Boring into the clover, wheat
and timothy fields showed different
result. The first three or four inch
es of soil was moist, owing to the
late rains, but below that for dis
tance of foot or more the ground
was dry until depth of about two
feet was reached, where there was
more moisture. The lesson is that
cultivating the ground and leaving a
crust mulch not only kills the weeds
but preserves the moisture, and this
to far greater extent than most
people are aware of. ~.c- d ..-,
ClOVcFs
An interesting feature of the farm
was the clover field. It was seeded
in the spring of 1912, with wheat
crop, on fall plowed land. The
wheat was harvested last fall and a
good yield per acre secured. The
clover grew along with the wheat,
came through the winter, and this
summer a ton and a quarter per
acre of fine clover hay was cut from
the field. The roots of the plant
were shown to be we'll inoculated
with the nodules necessary to their
growth. 1t was the Medium Red va
riety. The cutting was on June rs,
and the field promises another cut
ting from which a good supply of
seed is expected, if not second crop
of the hay.
Late Barley.
A field of barley also looks fine,
although planted late. 1t is being
grown to demonstrate the value of
late sown barley, which often bios
SONS about the time of the hot wind
period in the latter part of June or
first of July, and therefore suffers
most from the weather conditions.
The later sowed barley is supposed to
escape this period and to yield a
surer and better crop.
Wheat.
The wheat seeded on the farm is
intended to show that better crop
can be raised when that crop is
planted on either corn or clover
ground. Wheat following corn or
clover has been found to yield as
much as if the entire farm was in
wheat alone, the corn or the clover
being an extra crop.
Rotation of crops is the work of
the demonstration farm and the OBJ
ject is to show the decided advan-
tages of this system of farming. 1t
is held that If 40 per cent OF the
ground of an average farm is seed
ed to corn, clover, or some other
cultivated crop, that the balance of
60 per cent can be more profitably
cultivated with wheat, barley and
other grains, than if all the land
was in grain alone. 1t is necessary
that every farmer raise some grass
for feed, and the experiment with
clover, while fairly satisfactory here,
may be changed next year to alfal-
ia. A mixture of timothy and clover
ia usually tried out on the demon
stration farms. The strips Of tim
othy look fairly we'll at this season
of the year.
After returning from the field