The Oakes times. [volume] (Oakes, N.D.) 1906-current, 1917-12-27
Resume Of the Addresses

Resume Of the Addresses
The sessions of the Convention
were held on Wednesday and Thurs
day and good crowds were present at
each session and the interest shown
in the discussions was marked, On
Wednesday afternoon talks were made
by o. o. Uhlhorn, Lisbon, J. e last
gate, Larimore and j. G. Haney. All
of these men were practical farmers.
who have made a, success on their
own farms and their talks contained
much helpful information
Mr. Uhlhorn spoke On methods and
practices of increasing the stand of
corn. The points he emphasized were
first, the use of good high testing
seed, second a uniform planting. third.
shallow and careful cultivation, He
stated that most farmers do not real
ize that their stand is so poor as it
is generally found to be and that they
can not expect big yields unless they
have at least a 80 per cent stand A
100 per cent stand means three stalas
in hill and a hill every three feet
six inches both ways. Mr., Uhlhorn
does not favor the use of a weeder or
a harrow on corn after planting, be-
cause Of the danger of thinning the
stand. He admits both are good weed
killers. There was considerable vari-
ance with him on the inadvisability
of the use of these implements. He
advocates cultivating early, often and
shallow, especially during the early
civilizations laying much stress on the
proper adjustment and handling of
the cultivator when at work.
1t is very possible that Mr.. Uhlhorn
over emphasized the matter of better
stands of corn, and it is questionable
on account of scarcity of labor and
the price of our land, whether it will
not pay better to cultivate the corn
with the weeder and harrow even if
the corn is thinned and make up the
loss by planting larger acreage. AT
any rate this point elected consider
able discussion.
Mr.. Eastgate impressed upon the
audience the necessity for the Srotat-
ing of the crops grown on the farm
by calling attention to the fact that
nature practices rotation in it's growth
Of plants, and that it is the reason
why plants thrive SO we'll. under tie
natural conditions. A piece of nature
sod as We found it here in early dag $
yielded well, because it contained II
variety of plants, including sore of
the legtmes which furnished the soil
with nitrogen. 1t also contained some
deep roofing plants that when they
rotted areated the soil by leaving
open spaces in the ground for air and
moisture to enter. The roots also
furnished decayed vegetable matter
or hunlus which acts as moisture
holder. By constant cropping with
grain he showed we do away with
these agencies and consequently our
soil suffers from lack of plant food
and moisture retaining ability "a
crop Of corn and grass with a iegume
in it put on piece of land once in
every three to five years will keep
the land as productive as virgin SOIL"
says Mr.. Eastgate.
Mr. Haney in discussing the silo
question urged very strongly the use
OF silos in case one wished to save
feed. He is strong advocate of the
pit silo because they are inexpensive
and for that reason it makes it less
excusible for a farmer not to have a.
silo Of some kind or other. He re-
lated his experience in the erection of
stave silo recently to save a supply
of corn fodder that was spelling in
the stack due to hot weather in Nov
ember. The fodder would have been
an entire loss If he had not resorted
to erecting silo Immediately, even
though the corn fodder was consider
ably nodded when put in, it was mar
ing good silage. Mr.. Haney also said
that our farmers were well located to
raise alfalfa seed successfully and
urged the farmers to raise more as
there was good money in doing so.
He also showed, either for hay or
seed, alfalfa was proving the most
profitable crop on the farms in his
Charge.