Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1906 — INTENSE CULTURE. [ARTICLE]

INTENSE CULTURE.

It Will Give Bi* Crop* of Potatoes* Cabbage* and Hay. From experience and extended observation 1 am satisfied that not only can good cultivated crops be grown for a term of yeprs witbout the use of stable manures, but that large hay crops can be raised after such treatment and the fertility of a farm be increased materially. One of the best methods and a profitable rotation in fertilizer farming in my experience has been to plow under sod in the spring, then by frequent planking and harrowing up to the first week in June prepare a faultless seed bed. One ton to the acre of high grade cabbage fertilizer should be broadcasted and harrowed in, then as near June 10 as possible plant winter cabbage seed in hills by 3 feet, using 500 pounds per acre of ammoniated fertilizer, with a low percentage of potash, in the hills. As soon as the size of the young cabbages will allow they should be thinned to one plant in a hill. Cabbage Delight* In Cultivation. The cabbage is a vegetable that must have plenty of cultivation. Every day tillage would do it no harm, and if good culture is given a yield of eighteen to twenty tons of cut cabbages from the acre can be raised under the above treatment and with good climatic conditions. By the cellar method of storage the heads are cut close, leaving the roots in the ground, so that none of the unused fertilizer is removed and much value in the stumps and bottom leaves returned to the solL The second year in the rotation the land is planted early to potatoes, using one ton fertilizer to the acre, half or more broadcasted. This treatment should produce 200 to 400 bushels potatoes, varying in climatic and soil conditions. The crop should be dug as early as practicable, and if dug by machine the soil gets practically another plowing, after which the land is harrowed and immediately sown to gtass without fertilizer. Following this treatment, in which two and a quarter tons high grade fertilizer have been applied to the acre and two good hoed crops removed, we can expect three years of satisfactory mowing, when the land can again be taken up or by annual top dressing with a complete top dressing fertilizer kept in grass for a much longer period. The better plan, however, is to plow up often, as a better sod is turned under and a deeper soil that holds moisture better created. If the hay is sold as a cash crop the five crops named should at a low estimation sell for $450, with a cost for fertilizer of about SB3 and the farm improve in fertility under such treatment.—E. W. Sargent, Massachusetts, in New England Homestead. A FLOCK OF SHEEP. A Michigan Man’s Plan For Developing a Flock of Merino*. The flock I started with were of Merino blood and would weigh eighty-five to ninety-five pounds and sheared five to six pounds of wool per head. I had been using Shropshire rams, selling the lambs to feeders, until my flock was getting old, and I had to make a change. My idea of a ewe was one that would weigh from 120 to 130 pounds, shear ten pounds or more of wool, with a long, smooth back and one or two folds on the neck. The kind of ram I wanted was like the ewe, only larger, with eight to twenty pounds of long, white wool. I found a ram of the National Delaine breed that weighed 175 pounds and sheared seventeen pounds of wool. That was ten years ago, and I have been breeding with the same idea ever since. How well I have succeeded is shown by my present flock, which consists of sixty-five ewes that will average 120 pounds and shear about ten pounds of wool. The ewes are fed corn stover in the morning, one-half pound per head of corn and oats at noon and clover hay at night, with water before them all the time and good salt twice a week. On pleasant days the corn stover is fed in the yard, which gives them plenty of exercise. They are housed at night and during all stormy weather. 1 do not want them to get wet from the Ist of November until turned on pasture. The barns are quite warm and ventilated with a number of windows. In this locality the first half of April Is early enough for lambs to come and I find it beet to have the ewes sheared before lambing. With this management I have Increased my flock 100 to 125 per cent a year. Each year I save fifteen or twenty of my very best ewe lambs which come near my ideal. I give them the very best care, all the clover hay they will eat and about three-fourths of a pound of grain per day, a mixture of corn and oats, half and half. I want to get as much growth as possible while they are young. They are bred at nineteen to twenty months of age, and I set as many ewes go each, year as I keep lambs. The lambs from these ewes make excellent feeders.—F. E. Lowe, Michigan, In American Agriculturist.