Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and FiresideVarious
Science
Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
Agriculture -- United States -- Periodicals; Farm life -- Periodicals; United States -- Rural conditions -- Periodicals
old papers and rubbish in the corner, are usually rewarded by finding a
copy of these valuable reports. But we, who live far away from the county
seat, do our farming without this aid, and mostly without any knowledge of
their existence. This looks like a lamentable state of agricultural
stupidity. Notwithstanding this dark picture we would all read, and be
greatly profited by these reports, if they were laid on our tables.
If it pays to expend so much labor and money in preparing these reports
and sending them half way to the people, would it not be wise to expend a
little more and complete the journey, by making it the duty of the
assessor to leave a copy on every farmer's table? Compulsory education.
As an explanation of much of the above, it must be remembered that we are
nearly all recently from the East, that we have brought with us our
Eastern experience, education, literature, and household gods; and that
not until we have tried things in our old Eastern ways and failed, do we
realize that we exist under a new and different state of things and slowly
begin to open our eyes to the existence of Western agricultural reports
and papers giving us the conditions on which the best results have been
obtained.
There will be more grass seed planted this spring than ever before, and
the farmers will be guided by the conditions on which the best successes
seem to have been obtained. But this seeding will not give us much grass
for this coming summer. What must we do? I write for our Western farmers
who have no clover, orchard grass, blue grass, but have in their
cultivated fields.
CRAB GRASS.
This grass, the most troublesome weed of the West, smothering our gardens
and converting our growing corn-fields into dense meadows, makes the best
hog pasture in the world, while it lasts. Put hogs into a pasture
containing all the tame grasses, with one corner in crab grass, and the
last named grass will all be consumed before the other grasses are
touched.
Not only do they prefer it to any other grass, but on no grass will they
thrive and fatten so well. Last spring I fenced twelve acres of old stalk
ground well seeded to crab grass. With the first of June the field was
green, and from then until frost pastured sixty large hogs, which, with
one ear of corn each, morning and evening, became thoroughly fat. These
were the finest and cheapest hogs I ever grew.
This grass is in its glory from June till frosts. By sowing the ground
early in oats, this will pasture the hogs until June, when the crab grass
will occupy all the ground, and carry them through in splendid condition,
and fat them, with an ear or corn morning and evening. A. D. LEE.
CENTERVILLE, KAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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