Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1921-06-24
in adopting the new sales agency.
Cuts Big Crop of Alfalfa

Cuts Big crop OF A1a1ta
"A. D. Grant Of Randall is cutting the
first crop Of alfalfa which will yield 219
to 3 tons per acre. The alfalfa is of
the Grimm variety and was seeded with
oats, as a nurse crop last year. The
oats were seeded at the regular rate of
2 bushel per acre and returned a yield
Of IS bushels.
eff alfalfa will grow like that every
year, said Mr.. Grant, "my feed prob
lem is solved. III grow more alfalfa.'
Lawrence Doucette has taken q posi-
ton at the Fearing & Kidder barber
shop here.
County Agent Campbell returned
Wednesday morning from two days.
conference at Duluth Of county agents
in northeastern Minnesota. The out
standing feature Of this conference was
land clearing and the study of the
Bessette law, which may be used to
considerable advantage by farmers
in cutover regions of this section of
the state. The Bessette law, passed at
the last session Of the legislature, pro-
vides that land clearing may be financed
by the county selling bonds for this
purpose. Provisions of the law require
! that not less than nor more than 20
acres on each 40 be cleared and broken
And that not less than 100 acres in one
county be broken up in one year. The
land is located and a report made by a
civil engineer, and then an appraisal
is made by a committee of men ap-
pointed by the board of county COM
missioners. If the report Of the ap-
praisers is accepted, bonds may be sold
by the commissioners for financing the
work of clearing and breaking. These
are sold under such condition that the
owner is not required to make any
payment until five years after the
breaking is done, and then payments
are made in annual installments. Bonds
thus sold are a first lien upon the prop
erty. Mr.. Campbell says he sees no
reason why the application Of this law
could not be made in the cutover dis
tricts Of Morrison county. 1t gives the
land owner necessary credit for fnanc
ing the clearing operations until such
a time as the farm shall become large
enough to return an income large
enough so that the owner is not obliged
to go out and work in the woods, on the
road or other places. The owner him
self can bid on the contract for doing
the work and thus put in his time in
charging his farm and making the
farm productive. The land clearing
train will probably be put on for about
five weeks in Minnesota this fall. All
arrang ements have not been made but
in all probability the work will start
in September just after the state fair,
and will include many towns in the
northeast section of the state. In :
probability Hillman will be included in
the itinerary.
A trip to the Northeast Experiment
Station under the direction Of Mark
Thompson, director, was made by the
agents at the conference. Great pro-
gress has been made at this farm dur
ing the past five years and many in
teresting experiments are being carried
on. Sun flowers are quite generally
grown for silage and are giving good
results. Demonstrations are being car
ried on this year with the sun flowers
sowed SO. So and ~ inches apart to de-
tcrmine the yields and quality of feed
under these conditions. In the variety
tests, No. Psi oats seems to be the best
variety on the average. In testing out
commercial fertilizers on the new soil
they were found to be rather expensive
and did not give returns above the cost.
One interesting series Of experiments
was that the new soil in this country
requires an addition Of fertilizing ma
terial to give the largest and most
economical yields. Continuous cropping
Of virgin soil without the addition Of
manure or blowing under clover leads
to low yields and greater loss per acre.
Demonstrations are also being carried
on to determine the effect of forest fires
on the productiveness Of the soil. De-
monstrations thus far 60 to show that
forest fires do not in ure upland soil,
but do injure the lowlands and mead
ows. especially peat soils. One meadow.
productive before the fire of October.
1918, has been rendered almost useless
because the upper layer was burned and
left the rocks exposed.
The method Of clearing land in this
section is to brush and burn, then pull
ally blast and pull the larger stumps.
About 10 to 20 per cent Of the stumps
require blasting. No stump piler is
used. The stumps are merely decked.
with a team and chain, in piles as large
as convenient, and then allowed to dry
and burn. The brushed over land Is
utilized as pasture for sheep. The sheep
are turned into one pasture for few
weeks and then into another and SO on.
The advantage of this, Mr.. Thompson
explained, is that the grass is not
killed by the sheep but really improved
by each season. Spring lands with this
treatment have. weighed as much as 50
pounds on tn first of November and
were in good market condition without