THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 505, 2 October 1912, Page 6

THE RURAL WORLD.

HOW LEGUMES RE-MADE A FARM. A short but effective story told by Walter W. Finley in the May number of "American Agriculturist":— "At one time I depended on wheat and corn for something to sell en a loca 1 market. I could keep one horse and two cows, with a few calves and a few hogs. And now 1 can see why so many men fail in theifc farming enterprises. lam convinced by actual results that raising grain crops and selling them in bulk is unprofitable. I planted my low lands in corn, planting peas with the growing corn, to produce seed peas to sow the wheat stubble land, which was always the red clay soil of the foothills. I now realise that I lost an immense amount of valuable feed during the three years practised such a wasteful system.

"The peas grew very fast in the rich ground, otten climbing to the tassel and bending the cornstalks so that they would be broken at the last cultivation of the corn. Owing to the .shaded conditions, very few seed pods developed until the corn leaves died on the stalks. To hasten ihis condition, a destructive process, topping the cornstalks, was generally practiced. The tangled mass of peavines effectually prevented cutting and shocking the corn, either by hand or.machinery. An average 01 eight bushels of seed peas to the acre was considered a fair yield, but sometimes an early frost greatly reduced the yield. Careful experiments convinced me that removing the cornstalk leaves while green enough to make forage, reduced the corn yield by causing the immature grains to shrivel, more than enough to pay the value of the forage saved. The loss of about four tons of stover an acre, worth £1 5s a ton, proves that the peas were costing several dollars a bushel.

"Weather conditions, either during wheat harvest or succeeding, always made it impossible to cultivate the corn crop and sow the peas promptly. Of course, sufficient team power would have relieved the terrible strain of the extra work, but all my neighbours were overworked, and I could not hire an extra team, so 1 did all I could under the cirumstances, but the late sown peas could not make much hay, neither did they have time to nodule up much nitrogen for soil improvements.

"The sale of grain, even with splendid yields, did not'give satisfactory profits on the amount of time taken to produce the crop. If I sold from the harvest, I was always subject to prices offered by a limited market; while if I tried to store the grain and hold for a higher price, the extra labour, loss by shrinkage, weevil and rats, always kept do vn the profit. I was about to decide that farming in my section did not offer anything more than a great deal of hard work, at irregular intervals of seeding and harvesting and a means of living comfortably between times. On every hand manufacturing enterprises were building, and guaranteeing regular employment and full pay days. "I realised after visiting the agricultural college that to go home and follow one little team across the field would be folly. And that to continue selling grain crops from the fields, thus making them poorer, would be criminal. Then I realised that I must bring the wonderful legumes to my aid, that I might fued live stock. I now understood why cattle thrived on a small peavine hay ration, while they often became poorer on an abundance of corn fodder. Even more interesting to me than the composition of the soil were the elements demanded by a growing animal to produce bone, muscle and fat. The marvellous transformation of plant food by the plants themselves, and the storing of it up in stem, leaf and seed, for the use of animals, opened fields of endless delight to me, as I determined to bring plants and animals together knowing that the soil would also be improved. "It has taken a long time and hard work to change my system of farming but I am so far ahead of the eld methods now that I hope soon to forget them. I now plant peas in rows an cultivate them, and easily harvest 40 bushels an acre. I sow rye and vetches between the peas, and after picking the peas the vines are pastured, and the rye comes along with the vetches and gives pasture. I cut my corn off at the ground with a corn harvester, shock it disc the field and sow crimson clover, which gives abundant pasture in tha earlv spring, and when turned under greatly improves the next corn crop. Ido not sow as much wheat land now as I keep a heavy three-horse team, and by better preparation of the seed bed, and top-dressing the rain in the spring, with the best stable manure from my dairy barn, I have almost doubled the yield of grain on each acre.

After harvesting the wheat I sow soy bean, and if the weather is not favorable for making hay, I cut the beans and run them through the silage cutter into my silo, along with silage corn raised on the other portion of the land formerly sowed to wheat. 1 used to have no time to cultivate any of the corners or waste land, but now I make so much on the best land that I have to keep stock enough to do the heavy work promptly, and that done, I find time to plough and sow peas en the corners after pasturing with calves. It is no trouble to get a growth of rye and vetch.

"A few years ago two horses and two cows claimed th:3 place, now five horses and 20 cows make me forget that I ever knew what it means to quit work when crops were 'laid by,' because now it is always time to sow or to harvest some legume. Likewise have I forgotten the limitation of the grain market for I now ship finished dairy products to the best city markets."