No. 7. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



647 



that the wintor will not impact it aod the summer will not bake it. 

 Then much depends on the care we give the jonng grass. One of my 

 own numerous failures will illustrate this: Being fearful one year 

 of a shortage of straw, I ran the binder very low, and the sun and 

 wind killed the clover and hurt the timothy. The same year, all 

 other conditions being alike, I cut a field of wheat for a neighbor, 

 running the binder at the top notch, and the grass in that field was 

 fine. The high stubble shaded and kept the wind from the young 



grass. 



It would be interesting to know just how much moisture a fine 

 crop of rag-weed will steal from a crop of young grass. We should 

 mow the weeds as soon as they are higher than the stubble, and the 

 mower may be run lower if the soil is well saturated with moisture. 

 If the swath is not too heavy we let it lie as a mulch. If the w^eeds 

 are not mowed until they become stiff and wood-like, they should 

 be raked off. 



Some crops are benefited by special treatment. Land plaster, 

 through its ability to absorb moisture from the atmosphere and hold 

 it for the use of the plant, is of much value as a top-dressing for 

 clover and potato fields in a dry season. Kainite is largely used in 

 orchards to supply potash. In the United States Agriculture Hand- 

 book for 1896, under the caption of 'Totash and Its Functions," we 

 liud the folowing: ''The nature of these soils serves to keep th<i 

 soil moist, and thus, in seasons of drought, it may help secure for 

 the crop a more abundant supply of moisture." The amount of 

 moisture in two samples of soil, one with and one without potash 

 salts, is given as follows: 



With Kainite. 



15.3 per cent, of moisture. 



8.5 per cent, of moisture. 



5 per cent, of moisture. 

 13.3 per cent, of moisture. 



"From the above table the marked difference in moisture in the 

 two samples during the summer and autumn is quite instructive. 

 It is true that a soil impregnated with kainite would not give up its 

 moisture so readily to a growing plant as one free of that salt would 

 do; but there is no doubt that a soil containing kainite with thir- 

 teen per cent, of moisture would be able to supply moisture to a 

 plant more readily than a soil free of kainite and containing only 

 two per cent, of moisture." 



If we can make the work of shallow tillage more rapid, we can 

 cultivate more frequently. When, some thirty odd years ago I 

 first hitched to a harrow with a twelve-foot sweep, I thought it 

 could not be beaten. Now dealers advertise harrows with a twenty- 

 four foot sweep, and in the loose soils of the Southwest they are 

 using harrows with a sweep of forty feet. Of course, these har- 

 rows are of hinged sections and require two teams. In this region 

 we have some approach to such imjjlements in the weeders. If they 

 are used to supplement and not to supplant the cultivator, they will 

 be a valuable addition to any farmers' outfit. 



