The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1918-10-24
LAND PREPARATION
IS NECESSARY

Farmers desiring to take advantage
of the Federal Aid for farmers in the
drought stricken areas must give their
land good preparation.
But small part of the 100000 al
lotted to North Dakota from the fund
set aside by the president for aid to
the farmers in drought stricken areas
has been used for fall rye. The rest
of this amount, about half million
dollars, will be available to farmers
for aid in putting in spring wheat,
The loans will be on the basis of five
dollars per acre with 100 acres as the
limit. If a farmer has secured a
loan on 100 acres of fall rye he will
not be entitled to another loan on
spring wheat but if he has secured a
loan on less than 100 acres he will be
entitled to another loan on spring
wheat, so as to make the total acreage
100. For instance, if a loan has been
secured on 40 acres of rye the farmer
will be entitled to another loan on go
acres of wheat
In order that farmers may know
just what aid they will receive and so
that plans can be made for additional
assistance from the banks and other
institutions, applications for spring
aid will be received after November
LIST at the Federal Seed Grain Loan
office in Great Falls, Mont.
The government will require that
the land be we'll prepared for the
wheat, that the wheat is we'll put in
and that it be sown early. For south
of the Missouri River the latest date
of sowing will likely be May 1, and
for north Of the river, May 10. A cir
cular will be issued on these require
ments little later. No loans will be
approved on land stubbled in, except
new land that has produced but one
crop of flax. The land must be we'll
bowed either this fall or in the spring,
but reasonably clean summer fallow,
corn and potato land need not be plow-
ed and such land is recommended. The
early planting required, and that
which usually brings the best crop,
may make it advisable to have at least
some CT the land fall plowed. Heavy
clay soils plowed in the fall, in case
it is not too dry, can be worked into
a more mellow seed bed with less till
age than if plowed in the spring.
Light, sandy soils will be more in
clined to drift if plowed in the fall,
and the stubble will catch snow which
will furnish some moisture. Fall
blowing of clay loan permits the soil
of the seed bed to become firmer and
better weathered by seeding time and
the blowing is done at a less busy
season of the year. In western North
Dakota spring plowed land on the
whole does as we'll for spring grain
as fall blowing, provided the grain can
be seeded as early. Spring blowing
makes the seeding later, which usually
means a reduced yield and in some
cases big loss in crop.
A fair depth of blowing will be re-
quired. Ordinarily, land plowed rea-
sonably deep is to be preferred. With
an increase in depth up to, say, six or
seven inches, a net increase in crop
returns can generally be looked fer.
The deeper blowing better buries the
trash found on the surface of the
ground, forms larger reservoir for
the rapid absorption of heavy rains
and provides larger body of soil
to be acted upon by the air and bac-
terra to provide plant food for the fu-
ture crop. Fall plowed land chould
generally not be worked down to a |
smooth seed bed before the onset Of |
winter. The plowed land left rough |
blows less and catches more snow ;han
the smooth worked soil. Regions SUBJ
Jet ia, land drifting or blowing should +
oe spring plowed exclusively ss a
means of offsetting that difficulty. :