Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1916 — IOWA ALFALFA FARMER GARRIES ON MANY INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IOWA ALFALFA FARMER GARRIES ON MANY INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS

Owner of Magnolia Crest Farm, in Scott County, lowa, of Wide Diversity of Interests—Believes In Rotating Pastures Wherever Possible— Carefully Selects and Stores Seed Corn—Never Was Successful With Potatoes—Profit in Sheep. ■

<Br O. H. ALFORD, Btate Demonstration Agent, Maryland.) C. W. Lau, who lives on the Magnolia Crest farm, six miles from tho city of Davenport, in Scott county, lowa, is a man of such a diversity of interests and carries on so many interesting and valuable experiments that we can learn much by a study of his methods. Mr. Lau owns 160 acres of • Of this 120 is tillable, while 40 is left in permanent pasture and carries about one head of cattle per acre. This ground is low and has a very troublesome ditch running its entire length, making it difficult to maintain fences and impracticable to cultivate. He believes that he can double the r carrying capacity of this pasture by > disking in the ground occasionally and sowing in a mixture of grasses. He will try a mixture of timothy, blue grass, white clover and sweet clover seeded in a two-year-old alfalfa field to produce a pasture of this sort next season. Mr. Lau believes in rotating pastures wherever this is possible. First Success With Alfalfa. Mr. Lau maintains abolition of two years of corn, one, year of barley in which alfalfa is sown, "followed by two years of alfalfa. He can rightly claim the distinction of having first gained an unqualified success in the growing of alfalfa in Scott county. He now has on the place some 30 acres devoted to this crop. So firm is his faith to the alfalfa plant that he has discarded red clover entirely and expects to follow a rotation in which alfalfa has a prominent part. He also has placed his seal of condemnation on timothy. Charles Lau says that one year’s seeding is five years’ weeding. To prevent this he clips his stubbles with the mower before the weed seed ripens. This iB better than plowing early and exposing the land to parching suns and leaching rains. »_ From 40 to 60 acres of corn are grown and the average production is about 56 bushels per acre. The seed is gathered early and the ears placed in ricks in the open doorway of his bam loft In this way it is located in

a draft where it dries out very quickly. It is left until quite thoroughly dried out and then taken to the basement under the house where the furnace completes the task of drying. He tests for germination in the spring. Mr. Lau’s corn tested in the county experimental plots at the orphans’ home yielded at the rate of 85 bushels per acre. From 25 to 30 acres of barley are produced. Last year he threshed 756 bushels, or 36 bushels per acre, which he sold at 75 cents. For two years he treated the seed with formaldehyde nnH had no smut in the crop. No oats are grown and only one acre of potatoes. Mr. Lau has never been very successful with potatoes, but his son, Carl, raises from one-half to one acre of popcorn and has gotten very satisfactory returns from it. Careful of Manure. The production on the rolling farm which Mr. Lau owns is maintained by about 200 loads of manure annually,

spread at the rate of six loads per acre on the corn ground. The h|lls are given an extra dressing of manure’ every two years. Mr. Lau is very careful to conserve all his manure. He has built a concrete cistern to receive all the liquid drainage from the sow barns. When the manure is to he hauled out, it is heaped up in the yard and then this liquid is jjumped ovwf’ these manure heaps and hauled into the fields in that way

Mr. Lau has 14 RedVolled cows of high grade which produce from 2,600 to 3,000 pounds of butter annually, which he sells on contract delivered at 36 cents the year round. In 1914 the production was 2.660 pounds. Bach cow returned him 273.66 last season as follows: 170 pounds butter, S6O; 4,000 pounds skim milk at 16 cents per hundred, $6; calf, $6, and 16 pints of cream used in household, $2.66. They are fed silage and alfalfa as the basis, with a small quantity of porn grist consisting of com and cob ground together.. These cows constitute the largest factor in his total income every year. He regards silage and alfalfa as the very best feed.' He owns one of the oldest silos in Scott county, having had it for 21 years. It holds 86 tons, has dimensions of 14 by 25 feet and requires from 7to 8 acres to fill. It Is constructed of wood staves and is built inside the bam and has proved practically permanent there. The cost was $l5O. Mr. Lau estimates the annual cost of filling at SSO. He always adds water to his ensilage in filling and finds that he can get a good grade of feed by putting it in when Just beginning to dent. To prevent spoiling on top it is thoroughly sprinkled with water and tamped down three different times. He had never had any trouble from feeding and values ensilage highly for both cattle and sheep. In # his opinion every farmer should have a silo. . Cows and Bteers. He keeps, in addition to his cows, 25 head of young cattle. The steers he sells as butcher stock. Purebred Red Polled sires have been used in his herd for 20 years, but the start was made with common cows of different breeds. Now their owner regrets that he didn’t use purebred dams as the foundation. Seven horses are kept to do the work on Mr. Lau’s farm. They are fed alfalfa as roughage almost exclusively. They are also given some silage and oats and com. Care is taken that the alfalfa and ensilage be bright and wholesome. No colts are produced. Mr. Lau has found sheep very proflt-

able, as they cost very little, clean up the weeds and transform much roughage into money through the sale of wool and mutton. He now has 17 ewes and gets about ten pounds of wool at i;he average clipping. Before he kept sheep, he had a great deal of rag weed in his pasture, but now a rag weed is a scarce article on his farm. Experience With Hogs. Mr. Lau has had many and varied experiences with hogs. He raises from 70 to 90 head of Poland China per year. In the 34 years he has farmed, he had cholera three times. In 1912 it broke out and from some 50 or 60 head he saved about 25. They were not treated, as Mr. Lau had no faith in serum at that time, having made a the preceding year with some socalled serum which was being used in the county. He treated with this two of his hogs and put them in a neighboring herd where cholera prevailed. In a short time they contracted the disease and died and Mr/ Lau was "convinced that the serum treatment for hogs was a failure. However, the success of the treatment at the lowa farms near Davenport soon set him to thinking again and he secured three pigs in the fall of 1912 from the lowa farms which had been given the simultaneous treatment and placed them in three infected herds in his neighborhood.' All three pigs weathered the storm successfully, although nearly all the hogs in # the three herds died. That put a new aspect to the subject and in the summer of 1913 Mr. Lau gave aH his pigs the serum-simultaneous treatment without any loss, although cholera prevailed in the neighborhood. He now gives his hogs the serum-simultaneous treatment, every year. Mr. Lau raises about 100 head of chickens each year, planning to sell off the cockerels and old hens each winter and keeps the pullets. He sells them dressed at 20 cents per pound in Davenport. He has had considerable ‘trouble with chicken cholera and with blackhead in turkey, being compelled to cease raising the latter fowl on that account. Gross Returns. There are few farms in Scott county rt®dh gbMT higher gross returns per acre than that operated by Mr. Lau. His gross returns for 1914 from his

various sales are given herewith: De ducting four acres for roads his gross receipts for 1914 were $29.23 per acre. Record of Sales. 1uu*r...:.;.r........ sh7ep'v.v:;.v.v.v.v::: S Poultry Erg BeeS 17.00 Sundries * 14,569-60 It is Interesting to note that Mr. Lau realized $1,050 in cash from his 1914 crop of alfalfa. There was no better field of alfalfa in Scott county last year. He put up over five tons per acre from these cuttings. In 1913 he cut five tons per acre and was offered S2O per ton for all of it He estimates that it costs $1.60 per ton to put it up. The first cutting in 1914 he kept for feed and it carried 40 head of cattle, 15 sheep and 6 horses through the winter, while the second, third and fourth cuttings returned him

$1,050 in cash. He harvested 130 loads from 26 acres in three cuttings and 7 acres cut the fourth time. He baled and sold at sl6 to sl7 at home, or $lB to sl9 delivered. Mr. Lau tried alfalfa repeatedly for 25 years but had no success until he applied some lime eight years ago. Since then he has found alfalfa a very profitable crop. In 1914 a strip a rod wide through his field left unlimed produced practically nothing. Iron and Concrete. Mr. Lau. declares that this is an age of steel, iron and concrete, and, whereever possible, these should be substituted for wood in farm construction. He has concreted his entire barnyard this year and will keep straw in the cow yard to catch all the liquid manure as well as the solids. The cost was 7 1-3 cents per square foot. Mr. Lau’s barn is 40 by 80 by 24 feet and contains 80 tons of hay and straw for bedding. He has an elevated tank supplying 10 hydrants, including 3 faucets in the house. He has shelter for'4o head of cattle and 7 horses. His hpghouse is provided with selfwaterers and self-feeders, the latter for hogs on full feed. Thus the hogs eat and drink at leisure, there is no sudden exposure and no wrangling, no rubbish to clean off but clean cobs for the tank heater or kitchens stove. Item of Chores. In doing the work on the farm where there is lots of stock, the chores become a considerable item. Mr. Lau has a two-horsepower gasoline engine mounted on a truck sufficiently light for one man to easily pull around and he makes this the chore boy for a multitude of jobs. He regards gasoline as cheaper than hired help. He is careful that no feed shall be hauled or carried in baskets to live stock and puts the hay in a place overhead with the feed bunks below for the cattle and has a feeding place for hogs adjoining the corn crib. Water is also piped to the slop barrel and the table is- set before the hogs are invited to their dinner. In this way no feed is dragged through the snow or mud but the animals coine to their dinner themselves.

Another important point in the management of this farm is the dividing and subdividing of the place with fences which are iiog and cattle tight. In this way many weeds, volunteer grains and shattered kernels of corn, oats and barley which otherwise would be wasted, can be utilized in producing mutton, pork and beef. In his experience a th’rifty lot of hogs with such a range will return from 80 to 90 cents per bushel for corn when fattened. Vineyard and Orchard. This discussion would not be complete without a statement in regard to Mr. Lau’a fruit. He has a vineyard excelled by that of very few farmers. It contains many choice varieties of grapes. He has apples, pears, plums, cherries and plenty of small fruit as well as a good garden. The orchard of one-half acre has been sprayed each year for four or five seasons and has always produced fruit since the spraying was started. In 1913 he sold $247 worth of fruit. ‘ Mr. Lau has raised a family of five boys and one girl. He thinks the farmer has an opportunity of having something more than a farm. He can have an attractive home and it should be the ambition of every farmer to make his homestead beautiful as well as his farm profitable, iTo render farm life more attractive he has installed a carbide plant outside the house to light nil his buildings,j, has transformed an old well into a cold storage place tot cream and victual*,

Concreting the Barnyard of C. W. Lau Farm.

Experimental Alfalfa Plots.

Method of Dryinfl Seed Corn.