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EXPERIENCE DEPABTMEfij. : We are receiving many assurances by letter and otherwise that this department is greatly appreciated by the readers of the Fabmer. The practical things published here from the best prac- tlcsl farmers, many write us are very acceptable and beneficial to the reader. We refer to these matters for the gratification of the contributors to our Experience Department. Three cash premiums of $1,75 cents and 50 cents are paid for the three best articles in each issue. The department il limited to one page and the article must be brief. Itis not always the longest that wins by any CLEARING- LAND. ! Cutting eif ln the Oreen or Deadening How to get rid of TMcketa? 'i How Do You Clear? 4 1st Premium. After cutting all timber that is of value for sale or building lumber, if you do not need the timber that is left for tire wood, by all means deaden near the ground, catting deep, and deadening everything clean. Within the last ten years I have cleared 90 acres both clay and loam, and the best time I have fonnd to kill timber and have it rot quickly and the limbs rot and break oft at the body of the tree, and many of the trees break off at the "dead line," is the •-last half of June and first half of July. I always grub thickets. A- neighbor "slashed" about an acre, cutting in August near the ground, firing the leafy brush the next spring. I grubbed a bairn of about an acre, same fall, and there has not been a sprout a foot high in mine while my neighbor "slashes" every spring and fall to say nothing of vexation in breaking and cultivating. But some one says "grubbing is hard work." Not very, If you prepare for It and know how. If grubs are small, two men working together can do more than twice as much 'as one. If grubs are heavy use pulley, if Very heavy use one double and one single pulley, putting double pulley on grub. .This with one team will give an eight ■horse power, and a strong rope will ba 'needed, as chain would be heavy to han- •dle. | Now for the clearing ot the heavy f timbered land. Any time after your tim- | ber ia deed at odd times clear a strip along all fences, so that at the proper time you can let fire run where it will in clearing and by scattering fire (I use an old iron shovel). You can burn a great amount without piling. The logs that are left are to be cut in proper lengths to be easily handled. A double log hook is made of iron, or steel, 1]4*.% inches. (I used the gangs of an old walking corn plow) on the same principle of Ice hooks, only the hinge rivet must be about one- fourth the distance from the hitch end, «properly bend and shape so that the points will hold in a log. Put strong links in hitch end, with hitch ring in both links. To the hitch ring attach a piece of strong chain two feet long, with a good ring in end to attach to "stretchers." With this hook you need not pry a log, as all you have to do is to throw the hook over the log and-drive oft. If log is large pull straight on hook; if small put hook well back and put both points under the log. One man to manage the team, one to the hook, and two with spikes will pile a large amount of logs in a day. It will pay to wait a few days to let the heaps dry a little before firing, if piled in the spring, set fire to them in the evening. The next morning two men with spikes can throw together the logs that are left. X 2d Premium.—Cut it off while the timber ia green. Timber is too valuable to deaden and burn. Burn your brush as you cut it. It is not so hard to do as you might think; then you will only have a ew logs to drag together and burn. The grass will grow up among the stumps if a little seed is sown, and you will have excellent pasture until the stumps rot go you can farm. Don't clear the old slipshod way; brash piles every place; thistles, briars and weeds grow up among them; that's out of date. Thickets should be cut off even with the ground in winter, when ground is frozen, or in August when in full leaf. As soon as dry burn them. We select August, it in summer, as we usually have dry weather then, and a little more time to spare than at any other time during the summer. Wm H. Peffley. Carroll Co. 3d Premium.—Clearing land to any great extent is a Ihlng of the past, and the attention of the American farmer should be turned to how to preserve what land is cleared rather than to clear more. The American forests to a great extent have been wasted by our forefathers, and it is getting a common practice in this county (Brown) that where you see one man wasting his timber you see ten saving it. The easiest and best way to clear is to deaden, but it is not the quickest. The quickest'way is to cut oft in the green, bnt not the best for the land The best time to deaden is when their is the most sap in the wood, and then it will decay quickly. The roots will de cay quickly in the ground, which will be a great benefit to the soil. Also the burning over of the deadening will distribute the potash evenly over the soil. The best way to clear up a thicket is to cut it off, three or four inches from the ground, about the last of July or first of August, and when it gets real dry in the following spring, set fire to it and burn it over; helping the fire by keeping it stirred up for a few days. Have a few sheep to turn in in case it should sprout, and if any trash remain pile and burn at your leisure. This would be my way of clearing, and I think is best and easiest. Brown Co. C. M. Patterson. In clearing land I am governed by the condition of the timber, and the state of the land to be cleared. If densely timbered I I prefer to deaden, and let the timber become thoroughly dead before clearing. If the timber is thinly scattered over the ground and portions of it being bushes so the ground has tbe benefit of, more or less sunshine, then I cut, pile and grub, burn and get into cultivation as soon as possible. The most successful way to get rid of thickets is to select some dry time when the sap is up, run fire through the thicket, which will generally kill the bushes that get anyways hot. And if anything of a successful buru the fire will destroy all briars and trash, and leave the thicket in good condition to work at. And if not too thick and large I go right on grubbing the small bnshes and cutting off the larger ones, and get the ground into cultivation as soon as possible. D. M. Lett. Jackson Co. Fire the patch to be cleared early in April when vegetation begins to put forth buds. See that a very dry time is selected, that the fire may do most effective work. Do nothing more for 12 or 18 months, or better two years. Pasture closely during this time to prevent all new growth. The fire will deaden all bushes "and Ivery small trees. Do necessary additional deadening with the ax. At the end of time indicated many small roots will have rotted. Much ol the deadened "growth can now be easily pulled up—some of It by hand, yet others with a steady strong team of horses. That a; considerable period of time is required is not necessarily an objection to this process, if the use of the land can be spared. Economically there is no loss but rather gain, as compared with green clearing and cropping at once. This latter process is very unsatisfactory so far as cultivation and welfare of land are concerned. It Is next to impossible to cultivate and keep down new growth which springs from the green roots beneath. Daring the eighteen, months or two years the deadening and rotting are going on the land is actually gaining in fertility and improving In physical texture, rendering it easily tilled and responsive to crop-growth. Many roots and stumps perish very slowly after green clearing. In fact this process invigorates many growths. It causes them to spread and become more tenacious. If the entire bush or tree-roots, trunk and limbs, is firBt deadened there can be no possibility ot this and not so much of tough matted roots to hinder cultivation X. Y. • When we wish to clear a pieoe of land we use or sell the valuable timber. We soon have a strip of land pretty well cut off. Then, some time when it is dry, we go in with fire and burn off. But now we have the stumps left, and we cannot do much on the "new ground" with our Improved farm machinery until we get clear of them. When tbe stamps have stood two or three years we blow them out with dynamite. It will not pay the average farmer to "blow" green stumps on account of oost. Some of the largest stamps we do not aim to blow ont clean. We put under three or four sticks of the stuff. This will blow the dirt out and split them some; then we pile on the other stumps we have blown out, and this will when fired burn out the large stumps. With due care this is a simple and safe operation, but of course no one should use dynamite un.il he bas received instructions in detail from some competent person. Any person who wants to can learn to use it as soo:. as he sees some one who understands it blow a few stumps, giving instructions how it is done. It is a grand euooess. To get rid of thicket-: If cutoff the last of Mayor the first of Jane, our experience is, the roots will decay sooner than any other time. Cut from 12 to 18 inches high. We start fire and throw on and burn as cut off The poles make good wood it large enough. Trim them out. Get an engine and saw and cut them up. If the stumps begin to sprout fence oft the land from any that has grass on and turn in sheep. The ewes with their lambs are best. The lambs take great delight in nibbling the young shoots. Let them back and forth every few days, from the clearing to the pasture. Four or five sheep to the acre will keep oown the sprouts. If not turn on more. The stumps don't live long without leaves, and they soon decay with this treatment. For clearing oft button wood I would pull with a team using block and tackle if necessary. Wayne Co. Harry Nichols. review. One criticism sent in on this department is that the writers don't agree. My friend, we don't live and work under the same conditions. By comparing methods we may find a helpful suggestion here and there. It is a popular .belief that ground is made richer by deadening timber, than by clearing in the green. That sap goes back to the soil. Tbat roots rot more quickly. May I express my doubt of each of these statements. There la a slight amount of humus added to the soil by rotting timber, but It is mostly licked up by fire. The Bap does not go back to the soil. "The roots rot much more quickly when trees are cut down than when deadened; as it takes three years for a deadened tree to die. ' It Is true that trees thtlt sprout from the stump will sprout less if deadened, and also true that if sprouts are not killed) the roots will stay green. Of course we all agree with friend Isenhour and others that a green clearing is mean to cnltivate. But Mr. X. Y. pastures his deadening till the stumpB become more rotten. BenWilliams makes the logs and chunks burn out the s tumps. Harry Nichols uses dynamite on the long lived stumps. If 1 had money to spare I'd blast all the oak and walnut out of my land, including my deadenings at once. These have been cut several years. B. W. uses the logs and chunks to burn out stumps. So does Claude Storm. Mr. W. also grubs at once as the speediest way. Oar readers will be muoh interested fn the various ways of getting away with thickets. One grubs them, others bushwhack and burn. Some cut when frozen hard. One runs fire through, the first thiDg. The writer published in the Farmer a year or two ago the experiment of a neighbor who walked on icei formed on overflow water, in a very cold time and cut down a thicket, which scarcely sprouted. Adjoining my lower farm is a thicket which was whacked 18 inches high fore part of June, and scarcely sprouted. One can kick the tall stamps over now (two years after). We pulled grubs two inches and less with a chain over the back bolster of a common wagon. As the wagon moves it pulls forwards and upwards with great force, we had a hook made for the purpose. A neighbor turned 40 big steers in his eight acre thicket with nothing to eat for three days, and they took oft every leaf in reach. This was in August and moBt of the stuff died. When to deaden is quite important. I think there is not so much in the date, or the moon, as in the condition of the timber. Large timber deadened when full of flush sap, say June, rots more quickly; while deadened in September or later the limbs shed their bark and become "hard as iron." I bought 80 acres of green timber, seven years ago, and followed the plan of selling and working off all valuable timber first. It I had it to do over I'd deaden every thing, where I wanted to clear, the first June that ever shone. It will then be dying and rotting while I cut what's of any value. I'd keep grubs from coming, as the light is admitted by pasturing. I once cut off ten acres "in the green" and put in corn; plowed it with a jumper,, harrowed with an Acme, planted with a. shoe, cultivated with a double shovel andi got GO bashels of corn per acre; but it was rough. It didn't damage the grounds bit to clear in the green. I had a rotten deadening joining it that does no better than it does. Several have asked for more discussion, in this department, on stock. And since the next six months is the critical period with hog growing we have concluded to change the topics by pushing part of them ahead a little, and Introduce three topics on hog raising. Through the kindness of Mr. W. A. Hart, of Portland, who is an expert breeder and feeder, we shall publish three articles on this subject. [Mr. Hart's article will appear next week instead of this. It came too late.— Eds. Farmer]. The future topics will read as follows: No. 49, Feb. 13, That sweet little daughter. Her opportunity, her danger, hor destiny. No.50, Feb. 20. Butter-making; saving cream, ripening, churning, salting, etc. No. 51, Feb. 27. Our schools; their shortcomings. Suggestions for improvement. No. 52, March 6. Hog raising No. 1. Yards, buildings, beds. (Careful now and only give plans, not bills. No. 53, Maroh 13 Hog raising No. 2. Choice of stock, not choice of breeds, but appearance of individual parents. Treat- Contlnucd on 18th page,
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1897, v. 32, no. 06 (Feb. 6) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA2806 |
Date of Original | 1897 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-01-24 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | EXPERIENCE DEPABTMEfij. : We are receiving many assurances by letter and otherwise that this department is greatly appreciated by the readers of the Fabmer. The practical things published here from the best prac- tlcsl farmers, many write us are very acceptable and beneficial to the reader. We refer to these matters for the gratification of the contributors to our Experience Department. Three cash premiums of $1,75 cents and 50 cents are paid for the three best articles in each issue. The department il limited to one page and the article must be brief. Itis not always the longest that wins by any CLEARING- LAND. ! Cutting eif ln the Oreen or Deadening How to get rid of TMcketa? 'i How Do You Clear? 4 1st Premium. After cutting all timber that is of value for sale or building lumber, if you do not need the timber that is left for tire wood, by all means deaden near the ground, catting deep, and deadening everything clean. Within the last ten years I have cleared 90 acres both clay and loam, and the best time I have fonnd to kill timber and have it rot quickly and the limbs rot and break oft at the body of the tree, and many of the trees break off at the "dead line," is the •-last half of June and first half of July. I always grub thickets. A- neighbor "slashed" about an acre, cutting in August near the ground, firing the leafy brush the next spring. I grubbed a bairn of about an acre, same fall, and there has not been a sprout a foot high in mine while my neighbor "slashes" every spring and fall to say nothing of vexation in breaking and cultivating. But some one says "grubbing is hard work." Not very, If you prepare for It and know how. If grubs are small, two men working together can do more than twice as much 'as one. If grubs are heavy use pulley, if Very heavy use one double and one single pulley, putting double pulley on grub. .This with one team will give an eight ■horse power, and a strong rope will ba 'needed, as chain would be heavy to han- •dle. | Now for the clearing ot the heavy f timbered land. Any time after your tim- | ber ia deed at odd times clear a strip along all fences, so that at the proper time you can let fire run where it will in clearing and by scattering fire (I use an old iron shovel). You can burn a great amount without piling. The logs that are left are to be cut in proper lengths to be easily handled. A double log hook is made of iron, or steel, 1]4*.% inches. (I used the gangs of an old walking corn plow) on the same principle of Ice hooks, only the hinge rivet must be about one- fourth the distance from the hitch end, «properly bend and shape so that the points will hold in a log. Put strong links in hitch end, with hitch ring in both links. To the hitch ring attach a piece of strong chain two feet long, with a good ring in end to attach to "stretchers." With this hook you need not pry a log, as all you have to do is to throw the hook over the log and-drive oft. If log is large pull straight on hook; if small put hook well back and put both points under the log. One man to manage the team, one to the hook, and two with spikes will pile a large amount of logs in a day. It will pay to wait a few days to let the heaps dry a little before firing, if piled in the spring, set fire to them in the evening. The next morning two men with spikes can throw together the logs that are left. X 2d Premium.—Cut it off while the timber ia green. Timber is too valuable to deaden and burn. Burn your brush as you cut it. It is not so hard to do as you might think; then you will only have a ew logs to drag together and burn. The grass will grow up among the stumps if a little seed is sown, and you will have excellent pasture until the stumps rot go you can farm. Don't clear the old slipshod way; brash piles every place; thistles, briars and weeds grow up among them; that's out of date. Thickets should be cut off even with the ground in winter, when ground is frozen, or in August when in full leaf. As soon as dry burn them. We select August, it in summer, as we usually have dry weather then, and a little more time to spare than at any other time during the summer. Wm H. Peffley. Carroll Co. 3d Premium.—Clearing land to any great extent is a Ihlng of the past, and the attention of the American farmer should be turned to how to preserve what land is cleared rather than to clear more. The American forests to a great extent have been wasted by our forefathers, and it is getting a common practice in this county (Brown) that where you see one man wasting his timber you see ten saving it. The easiest and best way to clear is to deaden, but it is not the quickest. The quickest'way is to cut oft in the green, bnt not the best for the land The best time to deaden is when their is the most sap in the wood, and then it will decay quickly. The roots will de cay quickly in the ground, which will be a great benefit to the soil. Also the burning over of the deadening will distribute the potash evenly over the soil. The best way to clear up a thicket is to cut it off, three or four inches from the ground, about the last of July or first of August, and when it gets real dry in the following spring, set fire to it and burn it over; helping the fire by keeping it stirred up for a few days. Have a few sheep to turn in in case it should sprout, and if any trash remain pile and burn at your leisure. This would be my way of clearing, and I think is best and easiest. Brown Co. C. M. Patterson. In clearing land I am governed by the condition of the timber, and the state of the land to be cleared. If densely timbered I I prefer to deaden, and let the timber become thoroughly dead before clearing. If the timber is thinly scattered over the ground and portions of it being bushes so the ground has tbe benefit of, more or less sunshine, then I cut, pile and grub, burn and get into cultivation as soon as possible. The most successful way to get rid of thickets is to select some dry time when the sap is up, run fire through the thicket, which will generally kill the bushes that get anyways hot. And if anything of a successful buru the fire will destroy all briars and trash, and leave the thicket in good condition to work at. And if not too thick and large I go right on grubbing the small bnshes and cutting off the larger ones, and get the ground into cultivation as soon as possible. D. M. Lett. Jackson Co. Fire the patch to be cleared early in April when vegetation begins to put forth buds. See that a very dry time is selected, that the fire may do most effective work. Do nothing more for 12 or 18 months, or better two years. Pasture closely during this time to prevent all new growth. The fire will deaden all bushes "and Ivery small trees. Do necessary additional deadening with the ax. At the end of time indicated many small roots will have rotted. Much ol the deadened "growth can now be easily pulled up—some of It by hand, yet others with a steady strong team of horses. That a; considerable period of time is required is not necessarily an objection to this process, if the use of the land can be spared. Economically there is no loss but rather gain, as compared with green clearing and cropping at once. This latter process is very unsatisfactory so far as cultivation and welfare of land are concerned. It Is next to impossible to cultivate and keep down new growth which springs from the green roots beneath. Daring the eighteen, months or two years the deadening and rotting are going on the land is actually gaining in fertility and improving In physical texture, rendering it easily tilled and responsive to crop-growth. Many roots and stumps perish very slowly after green clearing. In fact this process invigorates many growths. It causes them to spread and become more tenacious. If the entire bush or tree-roots, trunk and limbs, is firBt deadened there can be no possibility ot this and not so much of tough matted roots to hinder cultivation X. Y. • When we wish to clear a pieoe of land we use or sell the valuable timber. We soon have a strip of land pretty well cut off. Then, some time when it is dry, we go in with fire and burn off. But now we have the stumps left, and we cannot do much on the "new ground" with our Improved farm machinery until we get clear of them. When tbe stamps have stood two or three years we blow them out with dynamite. It will not pay the average farmer to "blow" green stumps on account of oost. Some of the largest stamps we do not aim to blow ont clean. We put under three or four sticks of the stuff. This will blow the dirt out and split them some; then we pile on the other stumps we have blown out, and this will when fired burn out the large stumps. With due care this is a simple and safe operation, but of course no one should use dynamite un.il he bas received instructions in detail from some competent person. Any person who wants to can learn to use it as soo:. as he sees some one who understands it blow a few stumps, giving instructions how it is done. It is a grand euooess. To get rid of thicket-: If cutoff the last of Mayor the first of Jane, our experience is, the roots will decay sooner than any other time. Cut from 12 to 18 inches high. We start fire and throw on and burn as cut off The poles make good wood it large enough. Trim them out. Get an engine and saw and cut them up. If the stumps begin to sprout fence oft the land from any that has grass on and turn in sheep. The ewes with their lambs are best. The lambs take great delight in nibbling the young shoots. Let them back and forth every few days, from the clearing to the pasture. Four or five sheep to the acre will keep oown the sprouts. If not turn on more. The stumps don't live long without leaves, and they soon decay with this treatment. For clearing oft button wood I would pull with a team using block and tackle if necessary. Wayne Co. Harry Nichols. review. One criticism sent in on this department is that the writers don't agree. My friend, we don't live and work under the same conditions. By comparing methods we may find a helpful suggestion here and there. It is a popular .belief that ground is made richer by deadening timber, than by clearing in the green. That sap goes back to the soil. Tbat roots rot more quickly. May I express my doubt of each of these statements. There la a slight amount of humus added to the soil by rotting timber, but It is mostly licked up by fire. The Bap does not go back to the soil. "The roots rot much more quickly when trees are cut down than when deadened; as it takes three years for a deadened tree to die. ' It Is true that trees thtlt sprout from the stump will sprout less if deadened, and also true that if sprouts are not killed) the roots will stay green. Of course we all agree with friend Isenhour and others that a green clearing is mean to cnltivate. But Mr. X. Y. pastures his deadening till the stumpB become more rotten. BenWilliams makes the logs and chunks burn out the s tumps. Harry Nichols uses dynamite on the long lived stumps. If 1 had money to spare I'd blast all the oak and walnut out of my land, including my deadenings at once. These have been cut several years. B. W. uses the logs and chunks to burn out stumps. So does Claude Storm. Mr. W. also grubs at once as the speediest way. Oar readers will be muoh interested fn the various ways of getting away with thickets. One grubs them, others bushwhack and burn. Some cut when frozen hard. One runs fire through, the first thiDg. The writer published in the Farmer a year or two ago the experiment of a neighbor who walked on icei formed on overflow water, in a very cold time and cut down a thicket, which scarcely sprouted. Adjoining my lower farm is a thicket which was whacked 18 inches high fore part of June, and scarcely sprouted. One can kick the tall stamps over now (two years after). We pulled grubs two inches and less with a chain over the back bolster of a common wagon. As the wagon moves it pulls forwards and upwards with great force, we had a hook made for the purpose. A neighbor turned 40 big steers in his eight acre thicket with nothing to eat for three days, and they took oft every leaf in reach. This was in August and moBt of the stuff died. When to deaden is quite important. I think there is not so much in the date, or the moon, as in the condition of the timber. Large timber deadened when full of flush sap, say June, rots more quickly; while deadened in September or later the limbs shed their bark and become "hard as iron." I bought 80 acres of green timber, seven years ago, and followed the plan of selling and working off all valuable timber first. It I had it to do over I'd deaden every thing, where I wanted to clear, the first June that ever shone. It will then be dying and rotting while I cut what's of any value. I'd keep grubs from coming, as the light is admitted by pasturing. I once cut off ten acres "in the green" and put in corn; plowed it with a jumper,, harrowed with an Acme, planted with a. shoe, cultivated with a double shovel andi got GO bashels of corn per acre; but it was rough. It didn't damage the grounds bit to clear in the green. I had a rotten deadening joining it that does no better than it does. Several have asked for more discussion, in this department, on stock. And since the next six months is the critical period with hog growing we have concluded to change the topics by pushing part of them ahead a little, and Introduce three topics on hog raising. Through the kindness of Mr. W. A. Hart, of Portland, who is an expert breeder and feeder, we shall publish three articles on this subject. [Mr. Hart's article will appear next week instead of this. It came too late.— Eds. Farmer]. The future topics will read as follows: No. 49, Feb. 13, That sweet little daughter. Her opportunity, her danger, hor destiny. No.50, Feb. 20. Butter-making; saving cream, ripening, churning, salting, etc. No. 51, Feb. 27. Our schools; their shortcomings. Suggestions for improvement. No. 52, March 6. Hog raising No. 1. Yards, buildings, beds. (Careful now and only give plans, not bills. No. 53, Maroh 13 Hog raising No. 2. Choice of stock, not choice of breeds, but appearance of individual parents. Treat- Contlnucd on 18th page, |
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