Number 9 had
a fair clover sod, and was not disturbed. We ploughed in all about 114
acres, but we did not subsoil. We spent twenty days ploughing and as
many more in fitting the ground for seed. The weather was unusually warm
for the season, and there was plenty of rain. By the middle of May, oats
were showing green in Nos. 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13,--sixty-two acres. The
corn was well planted in 15 and the west three-quarters of
14,--eighty-two acres. The other ten acres in the young orchard was
planted to fodder corn, sown in drills so that it could be cultivated in
one direction.
The ten-acre orchard on the south side of the home lot was used for
potatoes, sugar beets, cabbages, turnips, etc., to furnish a winter
supply of vegetables for the stock.
The outlook for alfalfa was not bright. In the early spring we
fertilized it again, using five hundred pounds to the acre, though it
seemed like a conspicuous waste. The warm rains and days of April and
May brought a fine crop of weeds; and about the middle of May I turned
Anderson loose in the fields with a scythe, and he mowed down everything
in sight.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191