Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-04-02
How About Your Seed?
And the Seed Bed, Too

ting ready for spring The tanning
mill, the grader, the wild oat separ.
ator and many other kinds Of ma
chinery has been used in cleaning up
the small grains for at least a part
OF the acreage that viii be sown to
small grain this year. This is as ii
should be, as 1t is absolutely essen
tial for the securing of good seed.
There are two other propositions
that we must not lose sight Of if we
would secure the best results, The
one is, will it grow? The other, will
lit have smut?
Viii 1t Grow?
Will it grow? If you have not
tested it you q not say. 1t is SO
easy to test it that no one can afford
to take any risk on that score. Ii
lYou have not already tested your
wheat, oats and barley, be sure to test
it right away, as it will only be a few
days perhaps until seeding will be
under way.
Farmers Club the other evening sew
eral of the members reported as to
the condition of their seed grain! With
only one exception the tests were
very satisfactory. And yet they var
led some from n farm to another
in nearly every case.
is 1t smutty?
smutty grain will cut down the
yield and quality of the grain har-
vested. Even if your grain was not
smutty last year, smut may have been
brought In through the threshing ma
chine, or by being handled through
bins where smutty grain has been
stored. The formaldehyde treatment
is so simple and cheap that as a safe
guard no farmer can afford to neg
lect to treat.
Your druggist will be able to sup
ply you with the formaldehyde and it
is generally sold in a solution con-
tanning 40 per cent of fo~rmaldehyde.
One pound of this 40 per cent solution
of formaldehyde should be used to
every 40 gallons of water. This So
luton can be used for dipping the
grain into, or it can be sprinkled on
the grain and then allow the grain to
remain covered for at least two hours
or some of the smut machines found
on the market car be used, The
method employed is not nearly as i'm
portant as to make sure that the
grain is treated.
How About Seed Bed?
After the grain has been cleaned
tested and treated for smut of course
we want to SOW it in a seed bed thai
will give the best returns for the labor
invested. And that brings up thu
question, what is a good seed bed
We all know that a piece OF grount
that had a cultivated crop on it tn.
year before is the best place to SOY
small grain, because 1t will give
better yield than small grain follow
ing small grain. And it will do IT be
cause the soil is in a better physica
condition, there is more moisture il
1T, and because of these factors Their
is generally more plant food avail
able than where the ground grew
small grain the previous Blu
Of course, we do not have enough 9
this cultivated ground to go around
so we must do the next best thin
and that is to make a good seed be
for he grains. A good seed bed ]
one that is fine and firm, with tn
emphasis on the firm, and fairly deer
Al two inch furrow might be made fin
and firm and yet we would not call !
a good seed bed, because it would no
be deep enough.
Have You Narrowed?
Fall blowing should be narrowed a
early in the spring as possible i
order to form a mulch to consery'
moisture. Whenever possible IT hat
ought to be narrowed before sowing
II one could spare the time and ]
seemed necessary It would be a goot
plan to run the disk over the plowint
to act as a sub-surface packer. /
will do this if 1t is run rather straigh
1t is more important for spring plow
ing that for fall blowing. Be SURE
that the seed bed is fairly firm, ant
that a dust mulch is placed on the
fields as soon as possible.
A. w. Palm, County Agent
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