Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1914-10-03

the underbrush might be thick in a
hardwood forest where the shade was
equally as dense.
The third great cause in many
places, is the iron hard-pan which
underlies much of this soil, and which
must be broken up to permit the cap
Hilary waters to come up from below,
and the surface waters to go down.
The three main operations IN re-
/ claiming these waste lands are there
! fore. FIRST. to neutralize the acd in
the surface soil second, TO restore
the hdmus, or decayed vegetable mat
ter; third, to break up the hard-pan
so as to produce drainage and allow
the plant food below the hard-pan
to come to the surface through the
alfalfa roots.
The next exhibit showed how this
land is disced in order to get enough
earth on the surface in which to plant
the vetch and rye which are used as
the first crop, because both plants
will grow on acid soil, live through
the Winter, catch the nitrates which
otherwise would escape from the soil
during the fall months, prevent the |
sand from blowing, and add humus,
while the vetch adds a quantity of |
nitrogen to the soil. At this seeding
1000 pounds of ground limestone is |
scattered over the surface to help |
neutralize the soil, and supply suffi-
cient lime for the growing plants.
The next exhibit was named: Roll
ing, the most important process on
the Sand Farm" and the "Sand
Farmer" laid special stress upon
rolling, stating that many farmers
had come to him saying that their
vetch and rye had been a failure the
year before. They had plowed, disced
and seeded properly, but had failed to
roll the land, and as it was explained,
the air passages formed by turning
under the brush and tough sod, dried
up the young roots of the plants as
soon as they reached them. The
"Sand Farmer" said that unless the
ground was rolled so as to re-estab-
lish the capillary action of the waters
beneath the surface, the other opera
tions might as well be omitted.
Before this land was rolled it was
seeded to vetch and rye, and the next
exhibit showed this crop growing.
The exhibit following showed the
difference between the land treated .
with lime and phosphates and the
land untreated. The untreated land |
had rye about Is to 20 inches high, |
with little spindling stalks, and small
heads, while on the treated land the |.
rye was five to six feet tall, and the |
heads we'll filled. The difference in |
the crop was very noticeable, while |
the "Sand Farmer" said that the diff
ference in the price was only about
Sc, and the land was getting ready
to do business.
All were astonished when the
Sand Farmer" walked into the next
exhibit, to learn that this first crop
yielding about Is bushels of rye, and
from one to four bushels of vetch seed
per acre, was disced into the soil, and
none Of it taken off from the land
The exhibit was labeled THE first
deposit in the sand bank" and the
"Sand Farmer" stated that checks
could not he drawn upon any bank
until a deposit had been made, and the
man who attempted t. take every
thing out of this soil the first three
years, was simply vending his way
90 the pOOrhouse. and the trouble
with the development of these pine
barrens" was that their cheap
original price attracted the poor man
who did not have enough capital to
enable him to live the first three
years, that he might turn under his
crops to add the lime and phosphate
necessary to make the clovers and al
falfa add the nitrogen from the air,
and that these lands were not cheap
at 81 an acre unless the purchaser
had means to develop them, which
would require about $50 per acre but
after they had reached this point they
would produce bushel for bushel and
! dollar for dollar with Dakota or any
of the corn states, but he warned his
hearers not to purchase these lands
! on contracts when he said "You
might better buy one acre of good
| land if you must produce your living
the first year, than to take 100 acres
of this land as gift and attempt to
develop it without capital"
The next exhibit showed the differ
ence between the native and South
African rye, one seed of which pro-
duced this year 55 stalks having an
average of ~ kernels per head
This exhibit ended the first section
and the "Sand Farmer" stated that
we were now ready to begin farming
by seeding sweet clover, red clover,
and alfalfa, after we had taken off
the crop of South African rye. The
sweet clover was to help inoculate the
alfalfa and produce the first crop Of
hay. He laid special stress upon the
sweet clover, which he said was worth
as much as alfalfa for hay if cut
before it was % inches high, and
urged all of his hearers to try a
piece.