The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-07-19
Taken from Standard Farm Journals
Grain Substitute a Sure Crop.

Grain Substitute a Sure Crop.
Farmers can secure some relief
from the purchasing of high-priced
grains to keep up production, by
growing more alfalfa says Ben For
bell University Farm, st. Paul. Al
falfa balances admirably with corn
fodder or corn silage and corn, barley
and oats, and give splendid results.
In case the prices of corn, oats and
barley should become prohibitive,
farmers could still get fair results
from feeding only alfalfa and silage.
The rules to follow to get a good
stand are these:
Select only well-drained fields.
In the eastern part of the state,
have the soil tested for acidity. A
half-pound sample from the field
tended to be put into alfalfa, sent to
the Division of Soils, University
arm, St. Paul, will be tested without
charge.
Work the ground we'll, in order to
obtain firm, clean, moist, seed-bed.
Sow IL pounds of seed to the acre.
If fields are to be kept four or more
years, write to G. P. Bull, secretary of
the Minnesota Crop Improvement as
ISOLATION, St. Paul, for lists of sources
of reliable Grimm alfalfa seed.
Inoculate the seed. Gather pound
of soil from around thoroughly in
oculated alfalfa or sweet clover
plants. Air dry in the shade and
pulverize. Dissolve five cents worth
of furniture glue m one pint of hot
water; cool, spread on seed; mix
thoroughly and scatter the soil over
the seed, and mix again. Do not ex-
pose the seed to the sunlight before
seeding. Drag the field at once it
the seed are sown broadcast.
The best time to seed alfalfa on
heavy soils in Minnesota is in July or
early in August, if moisture condi-
lions are favorable. The safest way
is to SOW on ground which hiss been
fallowed during the early summer.
Stack or Shock Grain-Which?
Stacking and stack threshing of
grain are often advisable in spite of
the fact that the cost is from 10 to
20 per cent higher than the cost OF
shock threshing, says F. w. Peck,
University Farm, St. Paul. From five
to eight minutes more is required to
stack and stack thresh a bushel of
wheat than to shock thresh the same
amount. The difference for oats is
from two to three minutes in favor
of shock threshing. Practical rea-
sons, however, have to be considered.
The farmer gains by stacking be-
cause he distributes his labor over a
longer period, leaving his threshing
to be done later, when shock thresh-
ing, owing to scarcity of relatively
high prived labor, would have been
inadvisable or impossible.
Stacking protects the grain, though
little evidence of the grain here is
available.
Stacking preserves the straw much
better for feeding and bedding live
stock, and threshing can usually be
more proftably done near the barns
than can shock threshing.
If, again, a community has not
enough machines to thresh the grain
in short time, stacking as measure
of protection and safety is advisable.
Alright Silo Keeps Silage Best.
Practically all the trouble from
spelling of silage comes from the
action of air on the material after
the first necessary fermentation is
over. The first fermentation or cheat
ing" of the green material uses up all
the oxygen of the air which is pres
ent in it when it is packed into the
silo. If no more air can get in, ne
further fermentation or decay can
possibly take place. If the silo is air