Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1916-01-05
CHAPTER III.
Joe Begins Experimenting.

"1HE next day was Sunday.
Tom Weston was red eyed
and surly from the effects of
~ the liquor he had drunk the
night before with Jim Sullivan and
moped about the house, snarling and
swapping at his wife and little Annie
and joe
AS soon as breakfast was finished
Joe took his precious volume about
agriculture and slipped off to a shell
tered nook behind the barn. He pored
over 1t until dinner time; then he closed
his eyes and reviewed in his mind the
essential points Of what he had read.
First Of all, that plants must have
food, just as human being do; that lack
of enough food or proper food made
puny plants, just as it does with peo-
pie; that the principal source Of food
for plants is the humus or decaying
vegetable matter in the SOIL From
this largely comes the nitrogen, the
phosphoric acid, the potash and 9TH
er essentials to plant life, absorbed
through the thousands of tiny roots of
the growing plant above.
<r'Also, he learned that the soil becomes
barren and exhausted and devoid Of
these essentials with continued culti-
walton; that the crop takes these nee
essary things from the soil year by
year, and something must be put back
into the land or it will become sterile.
The wise provisions Of nature are
seen," said the book, Tin the annual re-
newal of the SOIL The grass, weeds.
trees, shrubs, all take from the soil in
the summer, but they pay back the
debt with interest in autumn, when the
grass dies and the leaves fall to the
ground. They are beaten into the soil
by the winter rains and by the next
summer have decayed and have given
more to the land than the plants that
bore them have taken away
And never knew before said Joe
to himself, what makes newly clear
ed ground so rich and give such large
crops Of course it is the humus from
the leaves that have been dropping all
the years.
After dinner he began to devour the
book again. By dusk he knew that, in
oAoSA " SCI LuC ScSI4 VI
plant food to the plants to fatten them.
as it were, deep blowing or breaking
and loosening of the soil was essential
until it was light and mellow. This
allowed the tiny rootlets. each with
hundreds of minute hungry mouths, to
have wider range in search Of the
life giving juices in the soil and there
by furnish the strength to make larger,
more virile plants. The stronger the
plants the more fruit. the better and
larger fruit they made as a reward to
the planter for this care.
Daddy" said Joe, Monday morning,
please come on and let's pick out the
four acres Mr.. Somerville and me are
going to work"
"All right. I'll give you part of that
field across from the oak grove. It's
so blame poor it won't sprout peas. l
want to see what you all are going to
do with that"
Come on down. then. Let's lay it
of. know how poor it is, and the
sooner something is done to it the bet
ter
A tape line was secured, and the plot
of four acres, two Of the acres abut-
ting on the road, was marked with
stakes. 1t was poor land, distressingly
poor. as the stunted dead grass and
scantily nourished weeds attested. It
was part of an old field that had been
cultivated for sixty years.
5ttT 6op,+ cr,,oc,e, ro,,al. .,-s%I,
that" announced Mr.. Weston, with a
triumphant grin.
Its pretty bad, but well do the best
we can" said joe II don't reckon
you've got any objection to my cutting
enough locust wood posts from the
thicket back Of the hill to fence this ~
"Not if you trim the tops and limbs
for firewood and have it hauled up to
the house."
"All right, SIR
just then old Uncle JEFF Washington
and his boy. Abe Lincoln Washington,
came shutting down the road, both of
them with their hands in their pockets
Want a job, Uncle Jeff?'' inquired
Joe. iii
'Who7 Me?'' III 98
mo; you. You heard what / said"
We'll, sub. hit sorter pens on whut
de job is.'' .5
Getting out some locust fenceposts. z
who fer?"
They are fer the king Of Siam;
but, as a matter of fact, I am having
the work done, il that's any consola-
ton to you.'' 8 y. 5 Eft
'Yasser, reckin I'll take de job mex
week" II
You'll take it now or not at all, &
Well, eff hits er hurry job, den /
reckin III halter take hit now. i
Wucks fer er dollar en- two bits er day
en- mer viddles.''
Not for me. I've seen you work.
You kill too much time i will pay
you 5 cents 9 post, and you must trim
the branches and tops for frewood and