The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 21, 1917, Page 10

rop Crisis Menaces Future Farming Impure, Weak Seed Used to Increase Production ThlS Year Will Need Careful Watching S THERE a farmer who would B consider it laying the foun- A dation for improving his next year's profits to sow alfalfa 10wn to have two per cent of dodder in it? Is there a farmer who would wish to buy flax seed from his neighbor that was well sprinkled with wild mustard, or oats that was half wild oats? And yet that is a danger that is today confronting the farmers of the great grain belt of the United States. In the enthusiasm to plant their fields to the utmost acre, much seed has al- ready gone into the ground, in the be- lief of those who keep an eye on such things, that will raise trouble crops hereafter. Anywhere that inquiry is made it is found that the farmers, true to the demand of their country, have planted the fields that would have lain fallow this season and where possible have planted new sod. — For various reasons there has been a big movement of the grain in the farm- ers’ hands to the terminals. The scarce crop last year that forced great num- bers to market their full crops at once in order to meet obligations and the high price that has been obtained for the grain suitable for seed reduced the quantity in the granaries for this vear’s planting, and much that re- mained on hand was not of the kind that the farmers’ best judgment would lead them to put into the ground if they could get better. “BETTER FARMING” PUT TO THE TEST Summing it all up the 1917 crop—at least a great deal of it—will come from inferior parent stock. Here comes the test of “better farm- ing.” Will the counsel of those bankers and those institute lecturers who have been advising the farmers for years to improve the offspring by careful selec- tion of the parent stock—whether it be grain, vegetables or livestock—will this advice now bear fruit in the first em- ergency it has had to face? Will the advisers give further help? In the past no greater crime could be committed agriculturally speaking than to breed to inferior animals, or plant seed of poor quality or low vitality. The reason was plain. To do so meant going down the ladder instead of up. It meant certain running down and ul- timate failure so far as production alone was concerned. The farmers knew this prety well anyhow. Most intelligent farmers always made it a point to select their breeding stock and their seed carefully. That was advice they did not need a great deal of, al- though it was repeated to them in abundance. DRIFTING TOWARDS POOR SEED LIMIT Now suddenly the country is stretch- ed to the poor-seed point—with a pos- sibility of reaching the poor seed limit. Everybody throughout the tail end of ‘the planting season was urging the farmer to outdo himself in planting. Everything went. The main point was to fill the barren spaces with some kind of seed. In 2 moment the advice of years was forgotten if not repudi- ated. The first need was for bigger crops, and without organization to get the best, which was of course impossible on short notice, every effort was con- centrated to that end, and bigger acre- age is assured. But is the seed from these emergency, poor-seed crops to he kept for planting again next year? Is a generation of agricultural education to go for nothing? If farmers now reverse the principle on which they have been working they will get the same results that would have come to them in ordinary years by doing the same thing. The emer- gency need for more crops will not sus- pend the laws of nature which decree - that like produces like. The only salvation of the farmer is to provide now against whatever set- back the suddenly necessary over- planting of 1917 has thrust upon him. Those who were forced to use grain that they knew was not what it should be, already know what to expect. 1f it was impure seed, the impurities are flourishing in the soil today, preparing to increase many fold at harvest time. That will make a joke of noxious weed laws, and cancel next year many hard .gpent hours and many hard earned dol- lars. This is part of the farmers’ sacrifice '!or their country. No higher pay will compensate them for this. They will not get higher pay. They will get less in fact. Impure seed will lead to heav- ier dockage, extra cleaning, additional freight and lower prices. Low vitality will lead to lighter yield, heavier cost of harvesting per acre, bigger cost of production per bushel. But they did it with their eyes open, perhaps in many instances against their own better judgement, against the bankers’ advice through many a “better farming” in- stitute. But now that it is done, now that the utmost yield from every acre has been assured this season so far as the farm- ers’ own efforts could go, they must seek to guard against any such suddea necessity again next season. Now is the time to decide what fields shall be harvested for seed, so that the 1917 weeds, and the 1917 weaklings may not hand down to the farmers of the next ten years a problem like that the farm- ers have been fighting through bettar methods 'of seed selection, better ma- chinery, brains and muscle for the past ten years and more. They disregarded what they knew for a temporary gain in total yield. Now they must redouble the use of what they know to make this forever un- necessary in the future. Again it will be the problem of the farmers for them to wrestle with alone on their farms with their own tools, and teams and their families for help. But they can check the bad influences that they in many instances undoubtedly re- leased in this year’s planting, by care- ful foresight beginning soon. It will be to every farmer's interest not to sell seed from his unclean fields if he has any, next year when the de- mand for grains of all kind will be perhaps even stronger than it was in this year of emergency. He and his neighbor will get it back in bad seed hereafter. It will go to infect the ele- vator bins and leave its path through many seasons. It will be to every farmer's interest to select his best field to sell for seed, perhaps even to select very small por- tions and do some hand pulling of weeds while the crop is still growing. It will be,to his interest to buy, if he has to buy next year, only after care- ful inspection, and if possible after au- thentic certification of seed. FARMERS HAVE FELT CURSE OF IMPURE SEED Farmers of southwestern North Da- kota still remember with many a pang the curse of impure seed that fell upon them a few years ago when they were forced to take advantage of the emer- gency seed law and let county commis- sioners purchase seed. Their fields still bear testimony to the wild oats that was scattered. Perhaps congress will adopt Secre- tary Houston’'s*advice and buy good seed to insure only the highest yields of the best grains. That would be Dosoris Park Lily Dosoris Park Lily, a Jersey, is one of the high producing cows that are mak- ing the dairy-livestock industry a fascinating game. She has produced dver 900 pounds of butter a year in two successive seasons, a rare achievement. She started on her second test 95 days after completing her first. What One Cow Ate The champion cow of the world, a Holstein owned in I4innesota; produced almost fourteen tons of milk in her champion year, and over three-quarters of a ton of butter, on eighteen tons of feed. She is valued at $100,000 and her second calf, a bull, was sold for $20,000. She ate over four tons of roots, two and three quarters tons of alfalfa hay, three and one-half tons «f silage, and nearly one and one-quarter tons of bran and oil meal in her big producing year. These are the facts in round figures than can be remembered. Such a cow has more merit than merely producing milk. ;She must ha*e good teeth, a good stomach, and stamina in order to eat eighteen tons of feed, chew it into cuds, and work over these cuds again—besides all the water she had to drink. Such an amount of e’xtmg means work for the animal system. It suggests that ~a- pacity to eat well and digest well, should be points to consider in buying or producing dairy stock. Working towards an ideal of this kind is what stimulates dairying and increases prosperity. a cow is, she is thoroughly practica- ble. Her offspring diluted througn many herds can make many an aban- doned co-operative creamery hum with business. Abandoned creameries are one of the melancholy sights of the Northwestern states—abandoned ce- cause there were not enough butter- “Fancy” as such . making cows, and because the cream- eries had been mushroomed into com- munities not ready for them, through the urging of machinery salesmen. Not all the farmers’ troubles are wrapped up in the wrongdoings of the wheat gamblers. The manufacturers ‘of dairy machinery will have much to answer for to the farmers of the Northwest, for having misrepresented conditions and induced farmers to spend $4000 or $5000 apiece for cream- eries that must soon go idle again. There are hundreds of them now—and butter prices ballooning. But blood from such champion cows as this Holstein, or the champion Jer- sey that produced approximately eleven tons of milk in her best year; or from some other good milk-producing and cream-producing cows, will, help off- set injury done by building creameries where there was not enough cream to support them. The day of ‘“just cows” is passing away with other methods of low cfficiency in farm- ing. A cow is a machine for turning hay, bran, pickled corn, and cottonseed meal into milk and butter, and- the more raw material and finished prod- uct one such machine will handle the greater the dividenls available to hor stockholder. Banking the millt check is the near- est the farmer can come to clipping coupons. PAGE TEN - governmental efficiency made practical before the farmers’ eyes. It would be the best kind of “better farming.” But even at that, the crops that are being raised this season will have to " furnish that excellent seed for 1918 and 1919 and thereafter, and it is only an- other additional patriotic duty of the farmer, which he will perform when he realizes the situation, to make this year's harvest a turning point in the production of better seed, produce bet- ter than he ever did before, and save the country from a long drawn out war against weeds, inferior grain, low prices, and diminishing yields. The farmer must do it himself. He need not expect the elevator to do it for him. In the mixing houses there is every chance for sowing wild oats. ‘Whatever advice of bankers or pro= fessors, whatever aid of special appro=- priations, whatever machinery of col= lection and distribution of seed, may be provided, in the end it is all up to the farmer—the farmer of 1917, Thinkers The department of agriculture is sending out none of its customary, “firee seed” this season; it is too much fnterested in getting a good " crop. By mixing a little bran, ground rice and rye flour with millers’ deligit, farmers' wives can clip a little off the excess price of flour. The poultry supply is short but it iould profitably be made still shorter in the rooster department. Good eggs are worth more than the superfluous cockerels. Feed livestock as little human food as possible. Take care of the beans—what's an army without beans? ‘Use dirty, thin-shelled, mishapad eggs at home~—send the good ones to ‘the store. One farm boy acquainted with the farm'is worth two strong men who are strangers. Don't kill or sell the breeding animals because there are some high “top® prices at the markets, The National Bank of Commerce of New Tork has sent a delegation of bankers to Russia to help form profit- able connections between American bankers and Russian bankers. The American farmers as yet have no in= ternational connections to help make prosperity for their business. Leiter, who became famous in 1900 . by losing $9,000,000 in trying to cor= ner wheat, declares that food gamblers should be hung. He is now making millions in munitions. It depends on whose ox is doing the goring. This is the “on year” for fruit rais- ing in Wisconsin, and growers are urged to spray and care for their orchards tothe fullest possible extent. SOY BEANS GOOD FOOD Northern farmers may well plant a much larger acreage to soy beans for seed, according to the United States department of agriculture. In view of the present and prospectxve high prices of soy beans for food and manu= facturing purposes, there is no likli- hood of over-production this year. The soy bean also is a soil improver, and the straw is valuable for feeding pur= poses. But northern farmers should be par- ticularly careful not to plant the Mam- moth variety, of which much seed is in ‘the market in the north. This variety, also known as Late Yellow, Southern- Yellow and Virginia Yellow will not n:la,ture north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, As a seed crop the soy bean should be planted about June 1 in the north, However, in the southern part of the central stateés plantings may he made as- late as June 15. Where clover or grass has winter-killed, the soy hean may be planted to good advantage. Varieties with yellow seeds are pre- ferred by food manufacturers. The lio San is the earliest maturing yellow variety available and vields well in ‘Wisconsin, Michigan, northern Indiana, Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island' and Connecticut. In the central and southern parts of the northern states i the Medium Yellow, Mongol, and Mik- ado are more desirable sorts. Con- siderable quantities of seed of these ;:mctxes are sun available for plant- 55