The Huttig news., 1914-07-11
Commissioner Pages Weekly letter.

rains are general throughout the state and that the drouth has been broken. The crops will now take on new growth, and cultivation should continue. All the moisture that has been taken up by the soil should be saved for maturing the crops.
 Many of the farmers have made 1t custom in the past to try to
 lay-by" their crops by the 4th of July or as soon thereafter as pos- sible. This is not for the best. The crops should be cultivated as long as it is profitable. Keep the ground stirred and the weeds and the grass out. The same rain that gives the crops a new growth will also give the weeds and grass a new growth. Continue to cultivate shallow The late cultivation in this way pays. Shallow cultiva- tion will keep the moisture in the ground. If it continues to rain at regular intervals so much the bet ter. If 1t does not, then you are prepared to meet a further drouth
 When corn is just now tasseling 1t would be well to use about 100 pounds to the acre of nitrate of soda. Scatter it freely in the mid dles. If the ground is too dry to absorb it freely run a light harrow between the rows. The roots will find the fertilizer and use it judi ciously in making grain It is we'll to continue cultivating the corn, even after it is in the silk. It will make bigger yield.
 Keep the cotton clean and stir the soil lightly once a week if you can, until the first open boil ap- pears. Cotton responds well to late cultivation and makes bigger yields by. it. Remember that you have had all the trouble and ex- spense of preparing the seed bed, planting and early cultivation. Now we are coming to the period of fruit making. which is really the most important Help your crops to put on all the fruit they can. If grass and weeds are allowed to grow in the crops they will be talk ing up good part of the plant food and moisture in the soil that the crops would use for making fruit. To leave your crop without atten- tion at the fruiting period would be like caring well for your COWS until they begun to give milk, and then feeding them on the outside where the hogs and other stock could crowd in and eat a part of their feed. and thus cut down the milk supply. The plants that make your crop in the fields gather food from the soil through moisture and digest it just as sure as do the ani- mals take food and digest it to get nourishment for their bodies. Keep this in mind and exercise your own good judgment in caring for your crops. You would not think of feeding hog for pork and when he gets fat enough turn him out until killing time. You would con- tinue feeding him and he would continue to put on fat Then treat your crops as we'll. Feed your crop by cultivating it until 1t reach es the maturing period and 1t will respond to your good treatment.
 Clear some more land this sum- mer, fall and winter. Good land in the woods has no earning capacity. Good land in cultivation has. Don't keep woodland for range if it is tillable. Put it in cultivation and make pastures for your stock, where you can look after them and keep them from catching diseases from othar stock on the range. More than half the disease among hogs comes from neglect and run hing on the range.
 See that your hcgs have plenty of salt. In fact all stock should have salt every day. If stock need