Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1913-08-08
DAY WITH COUNTY AGENT
What F. D. Hawk Does on His
Daily Travels.

@AS pASaSuAS O1 d trip tuEu the WGSG-
ern part of county on Tuesday of last
week and fine opportunity to see
just the work which the county agent
is attempting to do.
Leaving Morris at about 10 80 in
Mr.. Hawks Ford car, we took the
fine road to the west. The first stop
was at the farm of Christ Plocker in
the township of Pepperton. Christ
was out moving the weeds from the
sides of the road as many a good
farmer does, when we came along.
The purpose of stopping at Plocker's
was to see the patch of alfalfa which
he had put in this year with a nurse
crop of barley. Chris had fine piece
of land so we'll worked up that the
barley is growing so we'll that it is
smothering his alfalfa. Christ sowed
FIVE pecks when he should have sowed
only three pecks for nurse crop
However, he expected to get the bar
ley off in few days and give the al
falfa better chance.
From Mr.. Plocker's we travelled
west over the grade which Louie Loher
is building, some of which is pretty
bad going just now, to the Coffman
farm, where Milo Billings lives.
Mr.. Billings is interested in Holstein
cattle and the purpose of Mr.. Hawk S
visit was to see if Mr.. Billings would
take some if carload of Holsteins
were shipped in.
From Mr.. Billings place we went
into Chokio and took dinner with
jolly old Jim Hendricks, and Mr..
Hawk got his usual two pieces of pie.
Dinner over, Mr.. Hawk called on L.
C. Dorweiler, the treasurer of the
Stevens County Farm Bureau, and ex-
changed news and views on the ques-
.tion of getting carload of Holstein
cattle for the Chokio country.
Having heard that a man had come
into the country northwest of Chokio
with herd of Holstein cattle, Mr..
Hawk decided he was good man to
get in touch with. After little In
quiry his farm was located, and Mr..
Carl Schmeling, for that is his name,
was found at home. Mr.. SchmeIing
came here from Juneau, Dodge coun-
ty, Wisconsin, last spring and bought
a section of land, and brought with
him a registered Holstein herd, which
now numbers 81 head. They are all
of good tpye, but at the present
time look bad on account of shortage
of pasture. MIR. Schmeling is putting
up a silo, and making other improve.
ments about the place in order to con-
vert it into a real dairy farm. He
has sold off few head of Holsteins to
his neighbors and those who have
bought are most pleased with the re-
turns the Holtsein is yielding, and it
is say to see that in a few.years, the
country northwest of Chokio will be
quite Holstein center as result of
Mr.. Schmeling bringing in this herd.
From here we went south again to
the farm of ]. E. Graham. Mr..
Graham was busy cutting oats. He
has recently bought farm of mis- own
and is going to improve it, and he
and Mr.. Hawk were soon in the midst
of discussion as to what kind of a
silo to build. Mr. Graham spoke of
different barn plans he had in mind,
and Mr.. Hawk told him the advant-
ages of each type of silo fitted to the
different plans. Mr.. Graham is on
the list for Holstein sire when a
carload is brought in.
Early in the day, the writer had
asked to see some of the patches of
alfalfa that are being raised in this
county as result of the work of Mr..
Hawk, and Mr.. Hawk promised to
take US to fine patch which Louie
Dorweiler has south of Chokio. Here
we went next and just as we stopped
to look at the field, Mr.. Gust Oh
son, of Stevens township, came along.
We stopped him to enquire where
Leslie Spaulding lived, and after Mr..
Hawk had introduced himself, Mr..
Olson turned the conversation to
alfalfa. He said he had understood
that alfalfa could not be grown here
because the soil had to be inoculated
with bacteria, but Mr.. Hawk said the
alfalfa would do the inoculating itself
on account of the sweet clover and
other plants of that kind which have
grown wild here. He offered to show
the bacteria noduIes to Mr.. Olson,
and SO while the editor held the team,
Mr.. Hawk and Mr.. Olson went
into the field and dug up few alfalfa
plants, and there, sure enough, were
the little White nodules. Mr.. Oh.
son was delighted, and asked fol
directions as to putting in an alfalfa
wafch of hiss own M~ uovsL, %nIc