Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1913-07-03
BLOWING OF TOP SOIL
Neighbor Gets Best Of Your Farm
When Wind Blows Hard.
Farmer Should Never PIow Light Soil
Early In Spring and Then Keep It
Bare Rest Of season-DiscInp
Holds Moisture.

When the humus content Of our soil
begins to diminish as they surely do
with continuous grain farming, the
wind starts in It's work Of blowing
the top soil and making drifts In
whatever happens to be around to
catch them. 1t may be ravine. q row
OF grass. or weeds along the roadside
or the trees around the farmstead
(where the farmer has planted them).
Almost always neighbor with an un.
plowed field gets the best of your farm
when 1t blows.
One of the surest ways to lose the
best Of the soil is to practice what is
called bare summer following. There
is one thing man should never do
on light soil, namely, pillow land early
In the spring and then keep 1t worked
bare the rest Of the season. The bare
summer fallow will be fine thing 30
long as the land is full Of the original
grass roots but when they are de-
cayed then the dry land farmer finds
his hands full Of trouble all of the
time and the air full of dirt gooG
part OF the time. A farmer who is
carrying on the proper system OF
cropping very seldom has any land to
summer fallow.
But in case one does wish to sum-
mer fallow he should begin the first
thing in the spring and disc the stub
BILE field. Il take it for granted tho
field Is stubble from a grain crop
grown the previous year,. During
the fore part OF June another discing
will help to hold moisture and kill
the young weeds that may have start
ed. then, about the first Of July the
land should be plowed good and deep.
This will leave four to six weeks to
pack the ground with packer, har-
row or whatever machine one uses for
the purpose and about five or six
weeks more before the first frost is
expected. After the packing Is COM
pleted SOW the land with very light
seeding Of oats or barley coats are
the best as the frost does not seem to
shrivel them SO badly in the falD, and
1t will get large enough to protect the
land during the winter and to hold
some of the snow, which will leave
ns much moisture in the ground as
the oats have taken from 1t.
In the spring go once or twice over
It with the disc and you will have a
fine seed bed that is ready for the
drill The drill used on drifting land
should always be press drill as
they pack the land and help to hold
moisture, they also leave the surface
in small ridges which do not blow as
| quickly as the fields sown with chain
drills.
A still better preparation than the
above for field is a crop Of corn to
either cut for fodder. husk standing
in the field or to turn stock of some
kind on to feed of; a corn field can
be plowed deeply in the spring an1
the cultivating firms IT and gives the
Ideal seed bed for small grain and q
whole year Is not lost With the
proper kind of cultivation you are as
sured OF fine crop Of feed and II
the grain crop fails the next year 1t
will be no fault Of the farmer
In potato growing the land is put in
good shape for grain crop, but it
Is also in fine shape for the wind to
blow 1t away When the potato dig
ger goes over the field it makes the
top fine and loose as ashes to depth
Of six inches. After that the first
hard wind makes your real estate be.
gin to move. saw fields. last spring
where the wind had blown six inches
of the dirt away and two seedlings of
grain along with H. After the pota-
toes are dug the land should have a
thin coating Of manure put on with a
spreader. Now If your land drifts and
you cannot put on something to stop
1t after digging your potatoes the
next best thing to do is not to raise
potatoes.
We farmers in what is known as
the dry belt should always have one.
half Of our farms into grass. Sod is
the very best thing to have as with
1t one can give the proper cultivation
to the land. as plenty Of grass roots
in the soil almost wholly do away
with the drifting problem. A two.
year timothy sod Is better to prevent
| uAAS4h6 lWCAly.uFC VI
stable manure per acre after the ma
nure has been out two years. Just
let me say one word here in regard
to sowing grass seed. II you intend
to Sow bronze grass be very careful
to see that 1t does not contain quacb
grass seed. We have number OF
patches of quack grass in our part OF
the country and nearly every one can
be traced to either bronze grass OF
garden seeds.
/ A tame grass sod can be broken ur
in July. plowed deeply and can. stand
a lot of working with very little dan
i ger Of drifting or it can be worked
down and seeded with winter rye o,
winter wheat If the latter will stand
the climate. The next year after the
,winter grain crop Is removed the land
can be plowed early, worked dowr
and light seeding OF oats made up
on 1t and 1t is again safe for that
year.
II you have land that has begun tt
blow just as soon as 1t Is seeded take
4 your hay rack. go to some old straw
stack and haul atraw and snread or