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VOL. LVII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., MAY 3, 1902.
NO. 17
Permanent Pastures.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Permanent pasture is a term often used
with a changed aud an imperfect meaning. It was formerly pasture and only
pasture, with no reference to a hay crop.
Such are known, both from written document and oral tradition to have been in
use for a couple of hundred years and
probably more in the old country, and are
good yet for time indefinite. Farmers
here, with few hands and much wori;
would do well to imitate their fore-fathers
in this respect, for when once laid down,
permanent pastures would bring in all
profit and no trouble. They could have
the comfort for once of "washing their
hands of them," except to give them a
little fertilizer once a year.
An old friend of ours, Mr. Frank Butler, who has gone in for intense farming
in England, has this to say now, after 20
years successful farming on the Pacific
slope: "An acre," he says, "will keep a
beast, or three sheep for a year, and will
cost eight dollars in seed to lay it down.
The more it is fed
the better i t
thrives. It has no
off time through
the open season,
because a fresh
grass comes to perfection each month
from April to November. To en-rare
this, care must be
taken in- the selection of seed. He
used in England
about 30 grasses;
some of these were
in all mixtures for
this purpose, some
added for special
localities. The earliest is the Alo-pe-
curus Pratensis,
(meadow foxtail).
The Anthoxanthum
Odoratum, (Sweet
vernal). This is
considered to give
the hay fever. The
P o a Pratensis,
(Kentucky blue
grass). These are
all early grasses.
The PoaNemora-
lis is useful for
growing   under
on a fine, still day. After this lightly
harrow, with brush bound on the harrow
nnd then roll. Choose April and if pos*>
sible just before rain is expected. For
quantity, sow two bushels of grass seed to
ten pounds of clover to the acre. Thirty
pounds of grass to eight of clover is the
minimum. When- the top gets dry in
April or May, roll lightly. Mow early
this first year to destroy flowering weeds.
If the growth requires it mow again later.
Pasture young eattle to begin with, and
when the pasture gets wet and sodden
trke them off.
Well rotted stable manure may be hauled on with advantage in the dry weather
and completely spread, or any nitrogenous
fertilizer in quantity of 100 pounds to the
acre. Louisa  A'hmuty   Nash.
Nashville, Ore.
SOY BEANS IN CORNFIELD.
We give an illustration showing sny
beans growing in a field of corn in Kansas. At the last cultivation of the corn
in June the beans were sown between the
sun till thoroughly dry. Then take a hay
rake and rake them just as you would
hay. If you put your oats in the barn.
as you put them in sprinkle a little sulphur
through them, every load or two, and yon
will find it will keep the mice and rats
from working through them. If you stack
them out, apply the sulphur just the same.
"twill do the stock good if the rats and
mice don't bother. Oats will keep in the
stack just as well as timothy hay. We
have fed mowed oats for six fears, ami
they are the best feed we can find for
horses and cattle, both old and young-
they will be in better shape in the spring
than when fed on any other kind of feed
we  can  find. F.  O.   P.
I
When Should Oats be Cut?
Editors Indiana Fanner:
As ordinarily managed there is great
waste attending the use of oat straw. If
threshed it is thrown on the ground and if
put in the barn in sheaves the butts are
often- worthless from being over-ripe. To
get  the  very  most  out  of  an  oats  crop,
The Locusts Are Coming.
Edltora Indiana Farmer:
The press dispatches and contributed articles in the newspapers stating that this
country is going to be visited by a plague
of the seventeen-year locusts, and that in
consequence much damage will be done,
borders on sensationalism, something unfortunately sought after by a great many
papers. The truth of the matter is, as
Or. Howard, the Entomologist of the Department of Agriculture states, that the
"locust plague" is being exaggerated beyond all reason*. Of course the shrill
cries ami discordant notes of the cicadas
will be heard on every hand, but at the
very greatest, they will be present for
only about five weeks, from the middle
of May until possibly the first of July.
Many farmers seem to confound the
cicada with the grasshopper or real lo-
hu-t and thus lay at the door of the former, all the cause of the destruction made
bv tke latter insect. As stated by the Department of Agriculture, the cicada is
not   migratory   and   generally   makes   for
and
"small trees
shrubs where it
will stay until it
falls to the ground,
dead.
G. E. M.
Field of Soy Beans sown between corn rows just after last cultivation of the corn.   Photographed August 10, 1901
From  late  report  of  Kansas   Board  of   Agriculture,
trees. However, of course the fewer trees
that are left standing the better, excepting for the sake of sheltering animals.
The Dactylus Glomerata (Orchard grass)-
Festuca (Fescue) in eight varieties; the
Cynosurus Cristatns: the Phleum Pra-
tense (Timothy), becomes perennial when
not'cnt; the perennial variety of the Lolium
(Rye grass), the value of which everyone
knows. The Holcus Lanatus, or as we
call it, Mesquite, is a wild grass in England. The two following are useful for
sandy soils, the Elymas Arinarius. and the
Peterium Sangui-sortia. The clovers are
too valuable to be omitted: they may include the red. white, yellow and the Alsike. These seeds should be all true to
their names and free from weeds.
In preparation, beside the usual clean
ing, the ground should he cultivated six
er eight inches in order to ensure a firm
level surface that the seed may be evenly
sowed. Then after the first year when
the sod is established, no drouth will destroy the grass. Sow the clovers first, then
after well mixing, the lighter grass seeds
rows, and the photograph from which the
cut was made, was taken August 10th,
which shows the luxurious growth of the
soy beans. It all shows the method of
growing double crops in the field. We do
not here discuss the value of the soy bean,
rich in protein* as it is as the Farmer has
many times lately alluded to these things.
The value of such double crops on strong
corn land is obvious in an economical
point of view, and especially so in the
matter of feeding, for the supplemented
crop affords the important element in
which corn is somewhat deficient, though
rich in fat.
Oats for Hay.
Edltora Indiana Farmer:
In cutting oats for hay, first let the oats
begin to ripen just a little, that is, let just
a few of the heads begin to turn yellow
then take a mowing machine and cut them
down. Don't cut them much higher than
you would timothy hay because you should
save all the straw, for if properly handled.
Ihe stock  will eat  it all.      Then let them
1 would mow and treat as hay. To do
this raise a clean erop from clean seed,
treated so as to prevent smut: sow thick
so you will have no weeds, and to insure
small stalks of straw. When heads begin to turn slightly, or rather when the
grain is passing from the milk to dough
stage, select a bright day after the dew
is entirely dried off: jump on your mowing machine and make her hum till the
last oat head is laid low. At this stage
much of the crop will look green, but I
prefer that, than over ripe and tasteless.
Let lie till next day after the dew passes
off; rake and mow away like any hay. If
it seems heavy, turn windrows over ainl
dry out. Do not turn or thrash around
more than necessary, as you want to retain every blade and grain. Put up this
way you have grand provender for all
kinds of stock, and while it lasts you need
not fuss much about a balanced ration,
because you're close onto it. The only
objection I have to putting oats up this
way is the paradise for rats and mice
you create. A. B. M.
Experience   with
Oats and Clover.
Editors the Farmer;
In the issue of
April 5, a gentleman* told how hogs
ruined his clover,
where his oats had
fallen and he had
pastured it. It
was the oats that
smothered his
clover and not the
hogs killing it. East
year I sowed a
field of 10 acres to
oats for pasture. It
was stalk ground
and I sowed my
oats broadcast, cultivated
them in, sowed
my clover and then
gave it a good harrowing. As soon
as the cattle could
 get a good mouthful at a clip I turned eight cattle, 47
hogs and pigs, and two horses, at night,
on it. and kept them there all summer, except two or three times, for a day or two
after heavy rains.
By this time the oats were gone tin
joting clover was readv for them and
1 had tine pasture ail summer. When
fall came I fed 500 bushels of corn to 38
hogs on the clay points, and I am plowing under as fine a stand of clover this
spring as man wants to see, except where
the hogs were fed and traveled to and
from feeding to watering and sleeping
quarters. Just a word about clover in
oats. I have never missed in several
years experience in getting a stand of
clover in oats where the oats are sown
broadcast, cultivated in, clover sown and
harrowed in. 1 always sow two bushels
of oats to an acre, and a bushel of clover
to six or seven acres. I also sow a bushel
of timothy extra to eight or ten acres. If
oats fall down I cnt them and not hog
them and the clover will be all O. K.
F. M.  S.