River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1921-03-17
County Agent Notes
H. G. Seyforth

If the seed grain is clean, strong,
plump, heavy, it will! do its part tow
ard producing high yielding crop.
1t costs no more to prepare the seed
bed or to cultivate this crop than it
does one for which poor seed is used.
The tanning mill plays an important
part in securing sleect seed and in
creasing production. In a test made
some tine ago to show the value of
growing cleaned seed oats as against
uncleaned seed, it took two men two
hours to fan the oats twice with the
use of the tanning mill. Twenty-Five
Isbushels of cats were cleaned. The
seed was sown in fields which were
located side by side on practically the
same soil, same state of fertility and
drainage. The oats were seeded on
both fields the same day at the rate
of two and one-half bushels to the
acre, so that there were ten acres de-
voted to the growing of famed oats
and ten acres to the growing OF UNI
cleaned oats. Later, under adverse
conditions of weather, the weak,
shriveled, uncleaned seeds produced
weak plants, many of which turned
yellow and disappeared, while the
strong, heavy, cleaned seed produced
strong plants and thrived well. The
uncleaned oats apparently were more
susceptible to oat smut disease than
the cleaned. At threshing time the
cleaned oats yielded seven bushels
more to the acre.
If there are any more farmers IN
the county who wish to order alfalfa
seed, I will have to get their orders
within the next week, as / expect to
order what / have listed. / have sew
eral samples of very good seed at the
office and if there is anyone interested
/ would be glad to have them call and
look them over.
Anybody wishing to get any seed
grain or seed corn should get in touch
with me as soon as possible, as have
a large amount listed in this county
and can supply you now while they
have plenty on hand, and then you
will have it when you are ready to
use it.
have recently found out that the
limestone crusher which was to be
started at Elmwood this spring is not
going to be able to start until later,
so that those wishing to get limestone
will have to get in some other part
of the state. If there is any group
of farmers who wish to get some, |
have samples and prices of some here
and would like them to get in touch
with me at once so that / can have it
shipped in before the spring work be-
gins. The cost is about four dollars
ton delivered at most any station
in the county.
The apple trees in this county have
been very much neglected. and for the
| benefit Of those interested in the or
chard we are going to carry on sever
al experiments and demonstrations
| on Mr.. Swahn's five-acre orchard at
Ellsworth. These are being planned
by the Horticulture Department at
Madison so that we shall get some
very valuable information in a year
| or so from these demonstrations. The
fire blight is one of the orchards
| worst enemies 4 this county and we
| hope to be able to control it in some
way. Anyone interested should try
to watch the demonstration in this
orchard as closely as possible. Il
there is anyone wishing to get some
more information in regard to prun
ing and spraying, l hope they vii
write to me so that | can help then
as much as ! have time.
A meeting for the purpose of organ
izing the Duroc-Jersey swine breeder
in the county will be held on Marcl
% at Ellsworth, at 1:30 p. m. w
hope to have several speakers at tina
time to show the value of such an or
ganization. We hope to do the cam
with the Poland China breeders in tn
near future. Let everybody interest
ed in Duroc-Jerseys be present on tina
day.
When in need OF anything in tn