Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 226, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1914 — WHAT WING SAID. [ARTICLE]

WHAT WING SAID.

Many were prevented from hearing Wing oh account of the pressure of farm work. We presume they would be interested in knowing what h$ had to say. We give the following from his speech. The sleeping porch, the bathroom and the open fire are coming to be necessities of the home; and might be more generally found were the returns from the farm sufficiently increased. No other product of the farm can do this more quickly than alfalfa. A good way to get it started is to begin a year ahead; give the hind a eoat of manure and plant to corn ; give this a thorough cultivation, going over it with a hoe * after laying by if weeds or grass appear. The worst pests of young alfalfa arc blue grass, fjx tail and crab grass. The first two may be ‘ eradicated by thorough cultivation. The latter is harmless where the alfalfa is given sufficient fertilization. Remove the corn in the fall as early as possible and plow at once. We use a tilling machine and go about 16 inches deep. Seed just as early in spring as the land gets in shape and warmed op a bit. Twenty pounds sown broadcast or 15 when a drill'is used will be sufficient. One bushel beardless spring barley is 90 wn with it as a nurse crop. Inoculate with infested dirt from alfalfa or Sweet clover anfi harrow in at once. We find it pays to apply 4 tons ground.. limestone and 506 pounds 16 per cent acid phosphate per acre at time of seeding. Finish the seeding by leveling with a heavy float. Watch the alfalfa for new shoots at the root. When they appear mow it all close. The barley and alfalfa makes splendid hay. We apply 500 pounds acid phosphate every year sometime in March, when it is hot frozen. Apply lime if the crop seems to need It. If bluegrass appears we give it a summer cultivation with a special spring-tooth harrow. When fed and treated in this way ufa expect it to last probably 25 years and pay better than, any other crop we can grow- We have one piece 8 and another 11 years old that Are splendid. It Is dangerous to cut it more than threj times per year, The fourth growth may be pastured by pigs until a heavy frost appears. Let nothing tramp it when frozen. That this heavy application of fertilizer pays is apparent from the fact that from the same land that produced SBOO worth of products the year before we began, iast year produced $7,829.59; fertilizer bill was $674.28. We do not use mixed fertilizer; if some land needs potash we apply muriato of potash. The best seed comes from Dakota and Montana. The two most Important things to aid in keeping a Stand when once it is secured is to feed if sufficient phosphorus and cut it at tjje correct time. He told the writer privately that they got 16 per cent acid phosphate at sl2 per ton, and an annual application of 500 pounds per acre had paid 300 per eent on th’e investment. Those who heard him are for-tunate-tor his health is fast failing, and it is hardly likely that he will make any mpre lectures.