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The Exeter Advocate, 1923-9-6, Page 2address communications to Agronomist, 73 Adelaide at. West, Toronto gULTIVATION OF ROOT CROPS. The object of cultivation is four- .gald; (1) To destroy and prevent the growth of noxious weeds. (2) To de- velop various degrees of openness of texture and uniformity of soil condi- tions suitable to plant growth. (3) To modify the movement of soil mois- ture and soil air. (4) To change soil conditions so as to make it either warmer or colder. The cultivation of the soil should begin at the first indication of weeds; in fact, it is still better to make a start before the weeds get rooted. To ex- pose them to the hot sun in the ger- minating stage is the most effective way to kill weeds. If harrowing has been properly carried on cultivation may begin with a cultivator, the teeth of which are 2 to 2% inches wide, but, if the soil is soddy or lumpy, a narrow - toothed cultivator will be necessary to do effective work. Be sure the cul- tivator has a sufficient number of teeth to cover the ground effectively --that is, so that the whole surface of the ground will be thoroughly stirred to a depth of from 2 to 3 inches. The harrow -tooth cultivator is the best to start with; the teeth are nar- row, they do not throw the earth over requisites to success is the early sow- ing of clean plump seed, of suitable varieties, in a seedbed that is well prepared as regards drainage, fertil- ity and tilth. By starting the crop vigorously it is enabled to hold its own to the end with the minimum growth and seeding of weeds. However, in spite of the best of care there will al- ways be weeds demanding some extra attention. In cultivated crops this can be• given the season through, andespe- cially before harvest; in grain and hay there is little opportunity until the crop is off. If not delayed then too long, many of the weeds of these crops. can still be taken in hand, and some of them with the greatest of time- liness. Some weeds Like ragweed and Rus- sian thistle push up rapidly about this time. Where grain has been 'seeded weed growth may have to be kept down by the use of the mower-, but other stubble should be worked over by means of a disc harrow or culti- vator, or plowed very lightly. Besides preventing the seeding of weeds, this also makes conditions favorable for the germination of seeds already in the surface soil, which can be destroy- ed in the later fall plowing. Some seeds—wild oats for example—do not the young plants, and one can culti- germinate readily, if at all, the first vete closer to the plants without cov- season, but any farmer who has prac- ering them. Later the larger tooth is ticed after -harvest cultivation knows better, and as the cultivation season that considerable germination of many advances and the plants get well root- weeds can be induced in favorable ed, the cultivator should be narrowed and cultivation should be deeper in the centre of the rows. The most ef- ficient work can be accomplished by first going one way all over the field. years. After -harvest plowing of weedy hay fields is also desirable at the first op- portunity that occurs. Such persist- entIn a dayor two cultivate again but perennials as couch grass, Canada and sow thistles, the hawkweeds, ox- go xgo in the opposite direction to that of eye daisy, etc., are probably at their the previous cultivation. Cultivation weakest after using up their reserves should be continued at intervals just in the attempt to mature seed, which so long as the plants are not injured timely cutting of the hay should pre- ly horse or cultivator, vent. Plowing at this season is not The reasons for thorough cultiva- always the easiest done, but the dry - tion are briefly as follows: The soil ness of the ground, if it does not pre - particles are rounded in form, and vent thorough work, is all to the good when massed together without being in weed destruction. Couch grass, in - crushed they leave a large amount of deed, might well be left alone,, unless Unoccupied space; this unoccupied the ground is somewhat dry. The space in the soil is needed for the plowing at this time need not be deep; movement of the soil water and air for couch.grass particularly it should and the spreading. out of the root fibres; it is also the home of micro- organisms which develop the available asitrogen used by the higher plants. If these soil particles are too large hay or grazed, as pointed out In the pian- for.. the destruction -of the peat, its rootstock reserve rapidly diminish- es, and it soon 'falls down in yield of forage. If old meadows are replowed every two or three years, -however, the,, grass gets re-established and the yield • fee` can be kept up. But I have never seen many quack grass stands which the owner would net willingly trade for' some other kind of growth. ,It is a pest to be swatted root and branch. t Profitable Methods of - HandlingMa nure: >z:�• � '�,'�.�r s Manure is worth money, varying in amount depending upon the method of handling and upon the crops to which it is applied. If the best methods can be followed at no greater expense than the poor methods, the difference in In Honor of Brute, profits represents- the return upon intelligence. It is one of the objects The first monument' erected to the of the Experimental Farms to dis- memory of Etienne Brule, the d1s- cover the best and most profitable coverer of Lake Superior and the first methods of handling manure. explorer who penetrated the lake re' In brief, the cheapest and at the gions with a view to trade. . The same time the best methods of handl- memorial was erected during Dis-. ing manure is to spread it on the field covery Week at Sault Ste. Marie. I daily as it is made. This method avoids the losses of fertility which are bound. The underground material is incurred when the manure is piled, much less in extent and is confined to and reduces the amount of labor in the first three inches from the surface. handling to a minimum, As the Beginning with an old meadow sod, greater part of the manure is made there is a much. better chance to kill during the winter months, the manure out the quack entirely than where the can be spread when the time of both beginning is made on just recently) horse and manual labor is not so cultivated fields. I valuable. This is the method which is. e But the spade will show the most, used in manuring sod land for corn surprising thing in a field that has' on the Central Experimental Farm, been in meadow and then pastured for I Ottawa, after considerable experience a couple of years. It will show that with other methods. Whenever pos- the quack is scarcely fortified at all.; sible, this method is recommended. The underground parts here are very I However, there are some circum - small in extent and usually are con- stances when this method should not fined to' the upper two inches.. This, be used. If there are many noxious is the ideal place to begin the killing- I weed seeds in the manure, it is a mis- out process. - I take to scatter them about a field in In repeated tests I have killed out! green manure. The manure should quack by late summer tillage on both be allowed to rot in order to kill these old sod and old pasture land. The task' weeds before spreading it upon the does not call for undue labor, and this! field. The rotting of the manure is a labor comes at a time when other farms very reliable method of killing all the work is not pressing, I weed seeds and, as it is very poor The best scheme I have tried is to business to plant viable weed seeds, plow shallow some time in July. It is this practice, under such circum - important that this plowing be shat -1 stances, should always be followed. low. The plow should run just under! Again, if the land is very hilly so that the mass of rootstocks. Where a gang,, the manure is leached away, it is not plow is available it can usually be sett good practice to spread it during the to turn a very shallow furrow. There, winter on the snow. In this case,it is also a special type of walking plow should be properly stored in the yard made for turning a shallow sod. It until the snow is off the land. In has a long, gradually sloping mold- Northern Ontario and in Northern board and is usually sold under the Quebec, or in districts which have a name Scotch Bottom. I very late spring, manure applied on This shallow plowing leaves.the the snow causes the land to remain whole quack plant, root ...end branch, frozen and wet late in the spring, thus right near the surface. If it is bur- delaying seeding. This is a rather ied deep, it is likely to- live over the serious objection sometimes, especial - winter and be on hand to start growth ly when grain or a crop of green feed again next spring, and, coming from is to be grown which is to be planted deep down in the ground, it is hard to earlier than is necessary for corn. kill out. But with the whole plant Where, for any reason, it is neces- kept right near the surface, going sary to store manure in the yard be - over every two or three weeks with a fore drawing it to the field, some disk harrow, or spring -tooth harrow, simple precautions should be taken to will usually finish up the killing job avoid excessive and „expensive losses. before frost. If there is any doubt Moreover, as these losses in a large about all life being extinct, a smother measure are avoidable, it may be in - crop the next summer can be counted teresting to give the matter some on to finish up this work. study. Perhaps the greatest loss is Quack grass is especially adapted to incurred from leaching, the water the smother crop treatment because it from the eaves of the barn being al- sticks close to the deep, rich lands. lowed to drip into thb manure pile and At least, here is where it becomes the the soluble fertility, in consequence, worst pest. Some dense -growing crop being drained away. This can be suited to local conditions should be avoided by placing the manure in a used for smothering. Smother crops, cheap shed or shelter of any kind. If however, are of little or no avail un- it is possible, it is wise to allow the less the quack -infested land is of bet- stock access to this shed because the ter than average fertility. trampling of the manure excludes the • The smother crop method of killing air and reduces the losses of fertility. quack to be economical must utilize Furthermore, if it is convenient, the some crop having a value over and horse and cow manure may both be above its quack -killing qualities. Buck- placed in. this shed, so that the horse wheat has developed a good reputation manure will not suffer such heating for its smothering effect. If the land as it would were it piled separately. is kept well cultivated up until some- If the manure must be drawn away time in late June and then seeded from the yard and cannot be spread thickly to buckwheat, the quack al- on the field, a large pile should be ways gets a dolt, and if the land is made with straight sides and the top rich enough to make a heavy buck- sloped somewhat to the centre in order wheat growth, the grass is pretty well to catch the rain, thus keeping the down and out by fall. manure sufficiently moist and avoid - Any farmer who has not yet got this ing excessive losses of fertility. pest on his farm should always be on So far as their influence aipon the the lookout for its arrival. The seed growth of crops is concerned, unrotted may come via baledhay, grain, seed and rotted manure are of equal value. for planting, or it may be brought . For twenty-one years, experiments from a neighbor's farm by a threshing were' conducted at Ottawa with the. outfit. If identified while confined to result than an average "yield of 21.7 a few small patches here and there bushels of wheat were secured on land on a farm, the most heroic and ex- pensive methods can sometimes be ad- vantageously used on these- small in- fested spots. Covering over the whole area with building paper—a . heavy grade of tarred paper should be used —lapping the paper and extending it several feet beyong the infested spot tion that neither class of manure will and covering the 'edges with dirt or produce larger crops from equal am - be only deep enough to get beneath the matted surface rootstocks. After plowing, the object will be to drag the rootstocks into the drying sun by means of a spring tooth or other im- and too loosely packed the soil permits plement. Thistles and sow- thistles the rain -fall to pass through it too will not be so readily dragged out, and. freely and the water is soon out of can best be dealt with by the use of a reach of the plants; nor does it return duck -foot cultivator to keep all growth rapidly enough under capillary action cut off as often as it appears. The to meet the needs of the crop. If the amount of fallowing thus possible particles are too small and too closely after the removal of a crop should go crushed together the water moves very a long way toward cleaning a field, or slowly and the air is excluded from at the least preparing for a cleaning the roil; and when the water dries hoed crop the following year. A rota - out, the particles are cemented to- tion which allows of this procedure gether too strongly by the salts, which every three to five years will hold have become too concentrated to stay weeds reasonably well under control. in solution. Consequently, the root Many of the worst weeds of crops fibres are unable to set the soil par- are also commonly weeds of waysides, tides aside; the root system of the pastures and waste places and should crops is prevented from proper de-' by cut by means of mower, scythe or velopment; the plants are cut off from spud, or hand -pulled after a rain, if efficient food supply; and as a re- only to prevent their seeding. Places snit the yields are reduced. which can be broken up and cleaned If thorough and continuous cultiva- may be later reseeded if so desired, us - tion is carried on it will correct the ing strong -growing grasses and cloy - detrimental conditions mentioned, will ers, which will fully occupy the lesson hand hoeing, and increase the yield and profits, which is one objec- tive to be borne in mind in all farm- ing operations AFTER -HARVEST WORK AGAINST -WEEDS. The time to start fighting weeds is in the spring, and among the pre - Make - th Rinse liquid first Lo not put Rinso direct from the package into the \ tub. Mix half a package of Rinee in a little cool water until it is like cream. Then add two quars of boiling water, and when the froth sub- sides, you will have a clean_.,.. amber -coloured liquid. Add this liquid to the wash tub, until you get -the big lasting Rinso suds. Then soak the clothes clean. 7 ' - i :,is,. ell II I': P r1 i•.�,b .,i °I Rinse is as splendid for the regular familywashing as Lux is for fine fabrics. Lever Brothers Limited Toronto R305 Horne Education "The Child's First School Is the Famliy"—Froebel." The Golden Years—By Edith Lochridge Reid A young mother stood on the porch and watched her little son trudge off to school for the first time alone. Her face was pensive and the yearning of the mother heart was . almost trans- lated into tears as she turned to a neighbor and said, "I feel almost as if I'd lost him, five years seem a short time to have him to myself." The neighbor, older in wisdom and experience, smiled encouragingly, and replied, "A short time, perhaps, but a golden time, full of loving training, rich in home influence, every day of which was, a preparation for this little journey on which he has just started." "Well, I hope I've succeeded in giv- ing him the right things to take with him," observed the young mother seri- ously, "but it's a big responsibility to take a child through those golden years, isn't it?" "The biggest responsibility, my dear," agreed the neighborly advisor, and then added, "but I'll whisper a secret,—the rewards ,of this duty well- done are the sweetest and most satis- fying in the world." ground. Besides removing a menace to crops—and often to the good -will among neighbors—a little puttering about in odd corners of the farm works wonders in making the old place more likeable. After midsum- mer such weeds rapidly become con. spicuous, and may well claim some of the hours or half -days when wet wea- ther has upset other plans. The Way to Wallop Quack Grass Begin the Job by Tackling an Old Meadow Sod. BY J. SIDNEY GATES. If I can make clear the one -simple cat. If you tackle it when it has the and well-established principle about vitality of the frog, there is a hard quack grass killing, we will be getting job ahead. If you first get it into. well along towards controlling this, the cat -resistant stage before attempt - the worst of all weed pests on the ing to give the final blow, the killing farm. This principle explains ragged is comparatively easy. experience with control methods --ex- Farmers who have killed out quack plains why the plan that worked the are usually those who have—usually alone in their own way. Not to pro- tect from the world, but to prepare for life in the world. is our duty as mothers during the Golden Years. Some mothers out of their tender love, err in giving too much super- vision in early childhood. If we see an aggressive playmate taking more than his share of toys in the, yard, our,flrst impulse is to help our child to maintain his rights, but unless the encounter threatens to grow beyond his strength, it is much wiser to let tiny son fight his own battles. Ha must do it some time, and the older he is the harder it will be to start. Self-reliance is an absolutely nec- essary asset to success in life, and the child that goes out equipped to make his own decisions -and look after his own personal interests without too much assistance, will have fewer griefs and hard knocks. In those first five years, our child gets his ideals for life's conduct. He may never have heard the Ten Com- mandments or the Golden Rule, but he has seen them acted, if he is in the right kind of a home. He isn't on, the fence in regard to right and wrong. He has learned by seeing. mother handle situations, that a thing is either right or wrong, but that there, is no neutral ground. So while we all may have ideals of conduct for our children in after, years, the possibilities for attainment during early childhood are manifest and measured by their response to temptations in the home environment,' Yes, the Golden Years are the sweetest and fullest of opportunity, so let's enjoy them, and live happy, nor- mal, everyday lives WITH our chil- dren. We can never tell them how to act, that is a flitting method of train- ing, but we can show them how we meet difficulties and problems and dis- appointments with fortitude and a smile, and then, most important of all, allow them to meet their own trials POULTRY When new cockerels are needed for a range flock it . often pays to select them in the- late summer and let them grow up together. This prevents a lot of fighting that may resultif full grown cockerels from different sources are placed, together during the wintfr. The early buyer also has a good se- lection of the best early maturing males at a price much below their win- ter value. The best breeding cockerels are birds that show signs of good size for to which unrotted manure was applied the breed, early maturity and a bright and'21.6 bushels on land to which rot- intelligent head with medium beak. If ted ,manure was applied; with man- you have pedigrees back -of the birds, gels, 20.6 tons were secured from un- that is desirable, but do not take birds rotted manure and 20.2 tons from rot- ted manure. These yields are strik- ingly uniform and show beyond ques- heir ' pedigree alone. I have seen cockerels from the same mating tired after' each milking. Then paint wing great variation. One is the the teat with the following:' One part w feathering type and about half of tincture of iodine in four parts of size of the other an four months glycerine; paint this on with a camel - on t two showi :� the Treatment should be given early, and then it should cause very little or no inconvenience. Teats that are sore and tender should be treated after, each milking with an ointment made of vaseline, ten parts, and oxide of, zinc, one part. If the condition bee comes pretty serious before treatment has been started, it may be well then to use an antiseptic solution and bathe the teat in this; for this, bichloride of mercury can be used, one part to one thousand parts of water; a two per cent. solution of cresol or creolin may be used, but the mercury is as good as any. Fill a cup with the solu. tion and place it against the udder, with the teat suspended in the liquid for several minutes; this should be downfall of quack in one ease proved accidentally—started the smothering stones to prevent blowing away, will ounts of application. However, as the of age. One shows 'weak vigor, the hair brush. to be utterly impotent when the job or cultivating work on the already kill out the grass in a single season. rotting process causes a consii,erable other a picture of strength and vital Com late exclusion of light is what' loss in weight,.. it is evident " that a does the trick , much larger supplyof n 'll b was tackled in another field on the weakened gears_ whereas those who p ity. There is no question of which'. farm. In addition to the one fundamental principle, there are two. general plans in use to kill quack. grass: One: is known as the smother' plan and the other as the tillage plan. In both eases the quack is killed because it is prevented from making above -ground growth- It.takes Ieaf surface and sunlight to keep alive a plant. Keep- ing down leaf surface, or keeping what is produced so cut off from sunlight that it can't function, kills by much the same propess as drowning an animal. Now, ' same animals have to be kept wader a long.time to drown, whereas. with others the process is relatively short You would have a hard time drowning a frog, though it ` can be done; but a cat,.despite its reputed nine lives, succumbs very quickly'. Quackgrand rave is almost as variable in its response to the killing process, no matter whether the tillage, or smother plan e -e '>aad; as are the frog and the have failed, though using the same plan, have in the main gone at the job hammer and tongs just where and when the pest got to be the worst. The strategy to be used in weaken- ing quack grass is very simple, and a few .minutes with a spade out on: most any: quack infested farm will enable you to check up.on what I have to say. The spade will show, in a cultivated field, where the grass has become so. well established that there is a full - stand even after the early season fight against it, that the ground down to the depth of the furrow slice is completely matted with :wirelike rootstocks. This is merely stored up material which quack has put there to draw on next year. It is a rather hopeless task to attempt to kill it 'directly when so well established as this. THE $ xo rEETa 14MFYrrOD OF ERADICATION. And then the spade will show, on a Piece of old meadow land, that the pest has becou 9 mono or le" root Plant poisons are sometimes used on these small patches. 'This treat -I Ment; however, not only is- quite ex. pensive, bat the poison puts the land out of commission for raising other crops for a considerable period after; the quack has been killed. Common salt in quantity sufficient to kill most plants is the one poison which seems. -to have little or no effect on quack • grass. - But for its tenaciousness in, culti vated fields, quack grass would be a splendid, addition to our domesticated plants:: `'It makes good hay—far:rich- er than timothy. It carries 5.4 pounds of digestible protein, 48 pounds of di- gestible carbohydrates and only 23 pounds of crude fibre to 100 pounds of hay. Timothy has only 3.3 •pounds of protein and only 44.7 pounds of carbo- hydrates, with crude fibre .running up to 28.3 pounds to 100 pounds of hay. But quack,does not make a lastingly good hay meadow or pasture. Cut for zanure w; e type you wish to multiply. available from the unratted source. Another important point which has been learnedfrom experimental work, is that smaller applications of manure, Chapped or cracked teats in the. either made more frequently or cov- cows are more common than usual this ening larger acreages, have proved summer, probably due to the dry sea - more profitable than heavy applica- son, although this ands cru 'may be tions.. While it is impossible, owing to brought about by many cruses; such the difference in the fertility of var- as walking wet grass or through loos soils, to prescribe'exactly :what mud holes and streams also from might be tailed -smaller applications, wading in manure or lying in wet bed - it may be said, in a general way that, ding; it may be caused from the nuts- at Ottawa,anapplication of 15 tons ing- of the calf• or from milking with wet hands; or again, from cold air. per acre has given as good returns in a four-year rotation as an applica- ! The extent of the trouble will vary, tion of.18 tons per acre, in a three-' depending upon the sensitiveness'of ear rotation. In other;`voids,, an the skin, the manner of treatment that �' the condition has -had, the length of application of 3 tons per: acre per time the animal has been affected •etc: year has given as good results as an -tlie teat is verydr application of 6 tons per .. acre per,• At first y and' red, t restlessness of the cow during milk- _ ing. • If this is allowed to exist rot Public service is one of the coon -any length of time, without trestmert, try's greatest needs., deep cracks will form in the t, -.:t I • year. This :difference is quite marked ender to the touch as shown by the and is very important. Kendall's fipavlu Tr' aiment 1s the old reliable, ratio remedy for all woe of eyorvlU..eplint, curb. ringbone, bony growth and lautenete from other muses, known for more than forty yoara n4 Kendall's 9pavlu Cure. it deeps the horse a.orkin5-'not ioafiag, 'What it has done for oWora, It will do for you. Keep a bottle of loondafl's Spavin Treatment bandy so you can use ifgvtekly when the need arises. A hottio cony ewe a lroi'eo far you • "Tie Worth. WhfJe , to be ready. Ma your dealer the next time You ace in town.. Tear this advertisement nut to remind yam,:. Sold everywhere.: het a free copy of "A Treabiso on .--..the !Corse ':at your druggist's, or write neq. "Regular" for none treatment lino "itedned" for Rune„ nen DR. S. d..Ksrbna.l. CdMPAtd'Y, EaaaSu'e Fe:%.3. Vt., U.S.A. ISSUE No. 36-1