New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-10-21
EXPERIMENT PREcEDEs SUCCESS

EXPERIMENT. RECEDES SUCCESS
Experimenting to attain perfection
or at least better results, has always
been an important feature in almost
every line of industry, it is a forerunnel
of progress; it wipes out failure, opens
up newer and brighter fields, and trans.
forms sickly failure into robust and
thriving success. 1t has been character
isitc among men of every walk from the
beginning of time. But new experimer
ment- we might say new, for it has
acquired fresh and active impetus only
within the past two decades or so, is now
commanding attention wherever it is
being tried-and that, agriculture
Experimenting and scientific work ir
agriculture has greatly revolutionized
the course and fruits of that industry
This fact was clearly brought to oul
attention the other day when we hao
occasion to visit the school garden used
in connection with the agricultural
department of the Sleepy Eye High
School,
What could be produced on five
acre plot of ground was shown us to our
own bewilderment- miniature farm,
not only in equipment but in production
neither does it follow the larger things:
it leads them The plot is fenced with
woven wire, around the inside border
of this fence is sown ten foot timothy
margin. This is plot of about the
necessary size required to turn team
when blowing or cultivating the field.
The timothy may be cut for hay, thus
making it possible to utilize every foot
on the farm. How many of our farms
are so arranged that large loss must
necessarily be suffered each year be-
cause the proper precautions are not
taken to provide for utility?
The crops, and even the system used in
raising them, is also matter deserving
of mention. Perhaps if you had a
certain field that failed you this year,
you will know the reason after reading
what the writer learned while visiting
the school farm. We were shown field
of clover where two different kinds of
oats we're used as nurse crops. On one
patch fine stem early oats was sown;
this produced both good crop of clover
and a good crop of oats. On the other
patch heavy early oats was sown, which
resulted in the oats falling down and pro-
ducing little grain, and very poor
showing of the clover. We we're then
shown two patches of clover bearing
similar results, the potatoes planted on
the patch fall plowed were still growing,
and were large and hardy variety,
while those planted on the spring blowing
had long since dried up, and were inferior
in quality as we'll as production to the
former. An explanation of the alfalfa
crop was exceedingly interesting to us.
Three crops had already been cut, they
yielded about five tons per acre. A ton
of alfalfa is said to be worth as much as a
ton of bran, and the latter is worth $40
per ton, thus we see how this field pro-
duced for the season of 1914 at the rate
of 500 per acre-can you beat it? AS
fine field of corn as we ever saw grow
still stood ready to be husked on this
little farm; it is of the Minnesota 13
variety, and if used by all our farmers
would be means of bringing them un-
told wealth.
A trip through the garden reminded
us of walking on virgin soil where only
first prize vegetables and fruit grew
A small patch of strawberries were shown
us which produced the equivalent of $2(
this season. They had been sold at ter
cents a quart, and 200 quarts were placed
on ready market. The berries of about
100 currant plants realized SIS or Sc this
year, also. Besides this there is a great
deal of vegetables still in the garden
such as the potatoes, cabbage, sugar
beets, tomatoes, carrots, onions, mangels
squash, etc. They will be placed on the
81 market, and no doubt a neat little sun
= will be realized from them. And we
want to emphasize the extra fine quality
of those vegetables They were not the
small sickly kind we often times see il
our neighbors' gardens. The experiment
showed that not only could garden truck
be raised at profit, but it could be made
finer product for table serving. Those
of us in town or in the country who are
fortunate enough to have gardens should
profit by the experience Of people who
have made gardening a success from
the growing standpoint alone, as well az
from the standpoint of profit.
Although the farm school and schoo
farm at Sleepy Eye are not provided
for as magnifcently as some of our largel
exneriment stations in The state. theJ