40 



After the seeding was done attention was given t© flearing and brealving 4 

 acres of low wet ground for the purpose of seeding it to timotliy and otlier 

 grasses. Seven acres of new ground which had already l)een broken, with the 

 3 acres broken later, make 14 acres of new ground broken this season. There 

 are now 36 acres of ground broken and about 5 acres cleared, which could not 

 be broken until the ground became too dry. The 4 acres broken for grasses 

 could not be got in shape in reasonable time for seeding, and it was tliought 

 best to defer seeding till next spring, and at the same time sow oats or some 

 kind of grain with the grass seed. Clearings of last year had to be fenced, and 

 it was also due time to fence off the pasture lands, as travel is ra])idly increas- 

 ing from year to year over this trail. < Enough stock passed here this season to 

 graze off our entire pasture in a single day; the last herd of beef cattle passing 

 numbered 76 head. 



One mile of barbed-wire fence was built, two-thirds of a mile of stake-and- 

 rider fence, and a picket fence inclosing about 1 acre around the cabin. The 

 yard was then cleared of moss, plowed, graded, and laid out with 5-foot walks 

 to be graveled and the remainder seeded to grass, leaving a good-sized kitchen 

 garden on one side and a small grass plat in the rear. 



WEATHER CONDITIONS. 



This season has varied somewhat from either of the two previoiis years of 

 our field operations. Tlie precipitation has been so light that croiis made \'ery 

 short growth. Even the wild grasses in open places were seen to be withering 

 in midsummer and did not make their usual growth. 



The snowfall was also very light last winter, amounting to but 25§ inches, 

 making i)ut 1.64 inches actual precipitation of melted snow. The I'ainfall 

 from the last snow until September 1 was but r>.0.5 inches, and this was dis- 

 tributed in light showers, usually just laying the dust and doing crops little 

 good. '*■ 



Other conditions remained very favorable to growing crops until August 1, 

 when cool, damp, cloudy weather set in. Fi-om this time on most of the grains 

 made very little advance toward ripening. August 14 the temperature fell to 

 26° F. on the main bench and 23° F. on the upper bench, seriously injuring the 

 crops. This frost was followed by killing frosts on August 19, 21, and 24, the 

 coldest being 20° F. on the lower bench and 16° F. on the ui»per bench. 



CULTURE WORK AND FIELD NOTES. 



It is becoming apparent that grain growing is not to 1)0 the chief industry in 

 this section of the Copper Valley, owing to the early frosts, and esijecially those 

 through the month of August. However, under usual conditions, any amount of 

 rough feed can be grown. Crops were light this year owing to the lack of rain. 



It has been thoroughly demonstrated for the third time that new land broken 

 and seeded the same year does little more than return the seed sown, and 

 even this is difficult to save on account of short growth. New land, however, 

 may be made to produce heavy crops by using some fertilizer. Experiments this 

 .^ear, in almost every instance, proved that new ground just broken and ferti- 

 lized with guano at the rate of 500 or (JOO pounds per acre — the greater amount 

 giving the best results — produced from 50 to 90 per cent better croi^s than where 

 no fertilizer was used. Where brush or logs were burned in some quantity, the 

 result was about the same as where the fertilizer was used. Third-year ground 

 also res])onded to fertilizers, but of course not to so marked a degree. 

 Wherever the fertilizer was used the growth was mure vigorous uud the crops 



