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Prairie Pastures

Prairie Pastures image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
January
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Many'of the prairie pastures are nearly devoid of grass and offen given over to weeds. The departmcnt of agriculture in a circular issued on the subject of renewing weruout nativa prairie pastures affords some useful information in thia connection. . The canse of deterioration is nsually drought oroverstocking. The forrner is not withiu the farmer's control, but the latter is, aud overstocking should be avoided. When the soil becomes baked and packed, it should be stirred with a harrow. Ocoasional light top dressings of well rotted stable raanure are of advantage. Tho thin spots should be well filled with hardy tame or wild grasses before the weeds get a start, and the weeds should be ruowed ofï so that the grasses niay have the benefit of all the plant food there is in the soil. Cultivation of mauy of the native grasses has littlo or no effect, butothers, such as big blue stem, western wheatgrass, wild rye and prairie Juue grass, respond to culture very quickly and improve almost at once. The experience at the Kansas station is uited, where ou au upland prairie pasture, witb the native grasses dying out, the surface was thoroughly loosened by driving a weighted disk harrow over the iield in several directions. The pasture was theu sowed to orchard grass, meadow fesene, blue grass, timothy, redtop, clovcr and alfalfa, whioh was harrowod in and rolled. The seed gerniinated quickly and the tame grasses made a good start, but by September the wild grasses had crowded them out and had taken complete possession of the field. The stirring of the soil and the season's rest not only enabla the prairie grasses to recover and to overeóme the weeds, but tocrowdouta good stand of tame grasses as wel!. The sowing of thin places with liardy tame grasses ia advised, the varieties selected for upland pastures being Kentucky blue grass, sheep's fescue, red fescue and Oanadian blue grass, the fescuea being especially valuable if the soil ia very sandy. For lowland pastures - especially where grass bas been killed out by overflow - timothy, foul meadow grass, red top, meadow fescue and alsike are suggested. In easteru Nebraska, Kentucky blue grass is one of the best for reseeding native pastures, the seed to be sowed just aa the snow is melting in early spring. Ia'ssous of the Past Season. Tbe past season sheep men sustained great loss owing to the abundanca o rain and washy pastures, which seem t proniote the development of a host o: interna! parasites. Tbis is especial] true of the lamb flock. Infernal para sites are almost ahvays present in sheep and clonbtles.3 they generally tbro them oiï without apparent injury Jjarubs, on the contrary, of ten succumb It ia a matter of common observado that these parasites are more plentifu and inoïe active in seasons like the pas tban in those of comparative dioughi What to do in these cases is not quit certain, as remedies are only in their experimental stage. Some will be fairly snccessful with one; others do better with another. Lambs badly infested with worms of different species, causing serious fatality, may not be curable by a remedy that will effect acure in flocks where parasites are not so abnndant either in numbers or variety. Ordinarily, if a good verruifugeis fed to lambs during the summer season, making salt the vehicle in which to give it, tbere will not be a great deal of trouble. Powdered wormwood in the salt, at the rate of 1 part to 16 of the salt, is a wel] knowu remedy. Powdered areca nut is another weJl known reinedy, and shonld be uüxed with salt, or, better still, salt and bran, using 1 part of the nut to25 parta of salt and bran. Should another season come like the one of 1896, it will pay to keep sorne worm medicine on hand where thesheep may have free access to it, acoording to the lowa Homestead. Filme a Saw. Every one who files a crosscufc saw ought to know how to prevent the screeching uoise when the rakers aro filed. I fit mine in the manner shown in the illustration. It takes time to fik openiugs, B B, in tho rakers, but it pays, as it saves lots of time when one wants to put a saw in order in a few minutes. To inake these openings file on au angle slightly npvvard trom eacli side of the saw, aud the harsh noise is prevented. Now when dressing the rakera squarely across, or horizoutally, the "screeching" may be prevented by sirapjy holding a light piwe of iron on the opposite side of the raker, or, better stil], a tliin strip of irou (oue-eightb of an iuch thiok and three inohes long), with a hole largo enongh to admit the raker, placed over the raker, and gontly pressed down on vvhile the filing is done. The foregoiug is from the pen of a coiitributor to tho Ohio Farmer. When to Snbsoil. Professor Whitney, United States soil moisture expert, speakiug of eastern Kansas, ,=ays: "Whercver a drop of rainwater flows off of the plowed field, it is an indication that the soil is not in a proper physioal cjudition. VVhere this occurs in a dry soil, the ruain preparation of tlio soil should be as deep as possible, so that water may be carried down and thus diminish the rapidity of the evaporation and loss froiu the snrfaoe. Sobsoiling will be fonud invaluable in opening up tlio close and compact subsoil. A farmer can teil whether his soil needs Hubsoiling by noticing whether any water flows off the surfaoe of his plowed fields or uot. "

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat