The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1921-03-10
RETAIN FERTILITY
in FARM LANDS
Watertown Farmer Lectures To Farms
ers At Miller Last Saturday

j.. NJ Browning, OF WATERFOWL. de-
iivered a lecture at the Costain Hall
in miller last Saturday afternoon to
the farmers of the county. He ap-
peared here and at several other points
in the county under the auspices OF
the Success Harrow Co.. of st. Law
renee
The subject of his lecture was on
the care of the soil. replacing the ele-
ments taken away by crop production.
He stated that "if you have raised
bushels of corn or wheat off your land
you certainly have taken elements out
of the soil to grow il and you have got
to put it back. III you sell ii away
from you you have lost that much of
your soil. While if you feed the pro-
ducts to your animals and spread the
manure on your fields you put back
92 per cent of the elements onto the
soil that you have taken out OF it."
Mr.. Browning also Is a strong advC-
cate Of growing alfalfa and sweet Glow
er as a soil fertilizer. Along this line
he said.
Mature saw many years ago that
there were two general form of plants.
The grasses, like your short grass,
wheat, oats and barley, etc, belong to
the grass family.
"The legumes like alfalfa, sweet
clover, soy beans, etc, all do a certain
thing for the soil. They make a soil
richer in nitrogen They have a power
to take this element from the air and
they are the only plant that does.
Therefore, we have got to learn to
grow more clovers and alfalfa.
I'VE have a natural habiter in this
country for the growing OF legumes.
Any country that has alkali or hard
water forms a natural habiter for. the
growing of these plants. You have
the finest sweet clover in this country
of any place In the United States. The
seed that comes from the sweet clover
grown here is the finest seed in the
world"
You can grow sweet clover for a
couple of years and then grow as
much wheat or corn off the land the
following year IS you would IL you
planted il year after year to wheat.
Alfalfa is a profitable crop. but |
would plant sweet clover for the first
two years Then the following year
plant alfalfa and you have an ideal
bed for alfalfa. Alfalfa increases the
farm value, for it enriches the soil.
It's roots penetrate down through the
hard soil to such a great depth and 1t
rs able 10 draw so much moisture from
the soil, that it makes 1t a great drouth
resistant plant.
Alfalfa has a certain food element
in ii that is valuable to build up ami
mails, that is protein and 1t makes the
meat in an animal. Alfalfa ranks high
in what we call protein.
AS an experiment we o seven
pigs, each weighing "a pounds and put
them in one pen and let them run In an
alfalfa field till that was consumed,
then fed them on alfalfa hay alone.
We took seven other pigs, weighing
"a pounds apiece and put them In a
pen and fed them nothing but corn
and water for $50 days. Gave them
all the corn they wanted and all the
water they could drink.
At the end of six months the first
lot, those fed on alfalfa, weight 1S5
pounds apiece, while those fed on corn
for the same length of time weighed
but about rs pounds apiece.
The reason for this is that the alfal-
ia goes to make the frame OF an ami
NAL The corn contains but very little
protein and hence, those pigs fed on
corn alone, could not get enough pro-
TEN to make the frame.
Mr.. Brownin galso touched upon the
subject of cooperative marketing of
the farmers product and the benefits
derived therefrom.