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On# looking at the accompanying
picture* would not think that theme
were picture* of a “College Field
I►»>.’' hut *uch i* the cane.
I-ast year the School of Agriculture
of the University of Minnesota varied
a little from the usual field day pro
gram, and added two new features to
the regular field day tq>orU.
The first wnm a hitching up contest
In which both girl* and hoys took part;
IMP WINNER Os SECOND PPI7P AND HIS TPAM.
1 HP riLLD OP BATTLE
the other new feature «ai a plowing
contest In which only Im>.v* partici
pated. Plowing Is not altogether a
had aport either, no matter in what
light you look upon It. This was ll*
lust rated by the participants who
proved to the spectators that In order
to ho a good plowman, one must l>o
somewhat of a civil engineer, as well
as an excellent horseman.
Plowing as commonly don# Is often
considered as drudgery, and ho it Ih
for the thoughtless, careless plowman,
who hns no other object In view than
that of making the field look black.
Hut there Ig no other farm operation
w hich requires more knowledge to un
derstand or more skill to do well, than
does the simple art of plowing. The
contestants had In mind making a
straight furrow of even depth and
width, turning It squarely over so as
to cover all stubble and weeds. 19ach
one took pains to start In squarely and
evenly and to drive straight out at
the ends so as not to leave the least
curve. There was no time to dream
or gaze about to see what some one else
was doing. All the plowman’s skill
and ability were taxed to the utmost
JjV * ' % [Cj3
A Bit Oh UttN AT THL LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION.
He must sot his plow perfectly in the
first place. Next, he must l>e kind to
end train the confidence of his team,
for no man can do good plowing with
out the confidence and co-operation of
his team.
A half day was set aside for the
contest, and all three classes, that is,
the Freshmen. Junior and Senior
classes, competed for the prizes. These
were, a sulky plow for first prize, a
hand plow for second prize and ten
dollars In cash for the third rrlze.
These prizes were furnished by one
of the leading plow concerns of the
United States gratuitously.
In scoring, expert plowmen who
have been with the University Farm
for years, acted as judges. A standard
of excellence was established. Twelve
points were glv«*n on the "dead fur
row;*’ fifteen points on straightness
of furrows: eight points on in's and
out's at ends; fifteen points on depth
and width of furrows: ten points on
evenness of top of land: thirty points
on the covering of weeds, and ten
points on the finish. Time was not
taken into consideration in scoring.
Kach contestant was given a strone
farm team and a plow. He had to ad-.
just the plow, device and whiffle tree ,
to suit the condition of the land. He
was allowed to mark out his land in (
any manner he saw fit. The "land"
was to be twenty feet wid* and three
hundred ieet long.
Henry Johnson, of New Richmond.
Minn., a member of the Freshman
Class, took first prize. His score was
ft per mt. perfect.
| O. K. Lnthrop. of the Benlor Class,
i took second prize, with a score of 81
per cent., and
w. I. Peterson, of the Junior Class,
third prize, jjrlth a score of 80 per
cent.
The rest of the contestants of course
got no prize, hut they got something
much more valuable. They found that
they could plow, ami plow right. This
conviction will remain with them al-
ways, and they will be batter farmers
and hatter oltlzens for having entered
the plowing contest.
To ninny of Iho onlookers the con
test was a revelation. Farmers anil
farmers' sons, who have plowed for
days and months, never before saw
such plowing, slid many went homo de
termined to plow ns they saw it done.
It has been decided to make this a
permanent, feature of the annual field
day.
The greensward Is the canvas upon
which all architectural and landscape
effect* are produced. A lawn may
vary in extent from a f«w square feet
at the side steps leading to the brown
stone front of the city dwelling to the
broad acres of extensive parks. It
matters little whether the extent of a
lawn bo great or small, its Inherent
qualities are the same, and its intrin
sic worth Ih determined by its charac
ter and the manner In which it is
kept. Green grass is not only of great
economic value, but It Is also of great
a'sthetlc value. The herbage of the
field I* the primary dependence of all
animal life, ami It Is the green color,
the sweet fragrance, and the soothing,
effect of nature which come from well
kept greenswards that make them so
congenial to man. Grass is nature's
halm and healing for all erosive sears.
Nature abhors rough edges and brok
en places, and immediately proceeds to
cover such ugly spots with green
grass. Man likes to get his feet upon
the soil, but better still upon the
soft, yielding greensward. Rich ruga
and carpets do not give the elastic
i spring that the well-made and well*
i kept greensward yields. So says L. C.
Corbett, one of the horticulturists of
the Department of Agriculture, in
’Farmers' Bulletin N 9. 254” just about
to be printed by Uncle Sam. Since
this pamphlet is free as well as in
teresting and instructive, why not
send for a copy to your member of
Congress or your Senator. If his sup
ply runs out. Secretary Wilson will
send you a copy.
In general, Jdr. Corbett says, further,
a lawn should he beautiful and it
should be useful. Its beauty depends
; upon the contour of the land, the col
or the texture of the grass, and the
! uniformity of the turf. The use of
' the lawn is to provide a suitable set*
I ting for architectural adornment and
■ landscape planting.
The Soil.
The Ideal soil for a lawn is avail
able In but few cases where it is de
sirable to establish a *preensward. Or
dinarily the lawn In which a man is
most Interested is that immediately j
surrounding his abiding place. The j
•oil of this immediate locality i». in
general, greatly modified because of
building operations or necessary grad
ing. The soil with which one has to
deal, therefore, ig seldom a normal soil
of the locality. In general, It is a
portion of the surface soil mixed with
more or less of the subsoil which has
come from excavation, in making the
foundations of a house.
The ideal soli for grasses best suit
ed for lawn making is one which is
moderately moist and contains a con
siderable percentage of clay—a soil
which is somewhat retentive of mois
ture, but never becomes excessively
wet, and Is inclined to be heavy and
compact rather than light, loose, and
sandy. A strong clay loam or a sandy
loam, underlaid by a clay subsoil, is
undoubtedly the nearest, approach to
an ideal soil for a lawn; it. therefore,
should be tfce aim In establishing a
lawn to approach as near as is possible
to one or the other of these types of
soil. In many localities It will, how
ever, be very difficult to produce by
any artificial means at one’s command
a soil which will approach in texture
either of the types recommended. Our
efforts, nevertheless, should be direct
ed to attaining as closely as possible
these ideals.
Preparations for the Lawn.
Since the lawn is intended to be
a permanent feature of the decoration
of a place, its endurance or span of
life is of utmost importance. In gen
eral, grass seeds are small and the
surface seed bed for the reception of
these seeds need not be more than 1
inch In depth; but since the grasses,
as they become established, send out
long, lateral feeding roots, It is nec
essary that the area containing the
available food for these plants should
be amplified. This object can only be
attained by deep cultivation and
thorough preparation of at least 8 to
10 inches of the surface soil. The soil
to this depth should he made rich and
should he put into an ideal condition
for the development of plant roots.
The meehanicaJ operations of pre
paring the soil can he carried on by
the use of the modern plow if the
area is large enough, or by spading
if the area is small. The seed bed
should he thoroughly and frequently
stirred, so as to grind the soil par
ticles together as much as possible
for the purpose of reducing them to
a uniformly fine condition and to lib
erate plant food. Cultivation should
also have for Its object the destruction
of weeds which may interfere with the
establishment of the lawn or which
may he detrimental to it after it Is
once established. After the soil ha 9
been thoroughly plowed or spaded it
should he carefully fined by harrowing
or raking, after which it should be
thoroughly compacted by the use of
a lawn or field roller and the surface
again loosened by the use of a ateel-
Copyrlshtoil, by Petek Henderson A Co.
ON LARGE tSIATLS THE AUTOMOBILE LAWNMOWCR IS A PICTURESQUE ADJUNCT
toothed rake or a fine harrow'.
After the seed bed has been thor
oughly and carefully prepared and
the grass seed scattered in appropriate
Quantities, according to the kind used,
the surface should be given a careful
raking or rolling if the area is dry.
If showers have been frequent., rak
ing after the seed has been sown will
suffice until after the grass has reach
ed a height sufficent to be clipped by
a lawn mower. Prior to clipping the
grass with a lawn mower, if the
ground was not rolled after seeding, a
heavy lawn roller should be passed ov
er the surface in order to make it as
smooth as possible. After the grass
has an opportunity to become erect
it should then he elipped with a mow
er.
What Fertilizers?
Since the lawn is a permanent fea
ture. It is hardly possible to make the
soil for the reception of the lawn too
rich. Stable manure which has been
thoroughly composted and rotted and
which Is as free as possible from de*
t trimental weed seeds is undoubtedly
the best material to use In producing
A LARGE LAW N IS fASHY CLIPPED BY HORSEPOWER
the desired fertility of the soil. Forty f
to sixty loads of well decomposed sta
ble manure are not too much to use
upon an acre of land designed for the
greensward. Where such stable man
ure is not available the next best plan
to follow is that of plowing under •
green crops, such as clovers, cow
peas. soy beans, and similar plants.
The land should then receive an ap
plication of about 1.000 pounds of
lime to the acre, and at the time of
1 preparing the seed bed 800 to 1,000
I pounds of flneground bone, together
- with 300 to 600 pounds of a high-grade
> fertilizer upon each acre. The fertil
l izer may contain 3 per cent nitrogen,
i 6 to 8 per cent phosphoric acid, and
i about 8 per cent potash,
i After the lawn has been established
i and it has gone into “winter quarters,”
it is well to give the young grass a
■ mulch of well-decomposed stable man
ure, which shall not be heavy enough
to disfigure or mar the lawn, but
should be so fine and well decomposed
that it will be carried beneath the
surface of the grass by the rains and
snows of the winter, leaving very lit
tle rough or unsightly matter to be
raked off in the spring. If this is not
desirable, after the greensward has
passed through the first winter it
should be treated to a top-dressing of
fine-ground bone at the rate of 1,000
pounds to the acre.
The Kind of Grass.
Kentucky blue grass is undoubtedly
the great lawn maker for all that sec
tion of the Atlantic coast region north
of Washington, D. C., and for the Al
legheny region as far south as north
ern Georgia. Blue grass thrives best
in a comparatively retentive, strong
soil where there is an abundance but
not an excessive amount of moisture.
Upon soils of a lighter character in
this region, in localities where preci
pitation is greater, such grasses as red
top, Rhode Island bent grass, creeping
bent grass, and white clover are more
to be relied upon for lawn making
than blue grass. Redtop, Rhode Is
land bent grass, and creeping bent
grass all have the same ability to
make a compact and deep sward, as
in the case of blue grass. In fact,
under certain conditions redtop and
the bent grasses are able to make a
softer, although not a more permanent,
turf than does the blue grass. Upon
the light soils found in the States
couth of the latitude of Washington,
D. C., white clover forms an important
feature in lawn mixtures.
In general, because of the varied
conditions of shade and moisture ex
isting upon a lawn as the result of
trees, shrubs, and architectural ob
jects, mixtures are more desirable
than pure grasses. The different de
grees of shade and moisture maintain
ed in the soil which result from the
presence of trees, shrubs, and build
ings afford a variety of conditions un
der which a single species would not
produce a uniform lawn.
Harvesting by Gas Light.
An interesting trial made In Eng
land on a farm near Biggleswade, j
shows that fields can be so illuminated
by acetylene gas that harvesting may
be easily carried on at night. In this ,
test two mowers, each cutting a six
foot swath, were employed and a
field of 15 acres was mowed in three
hours and 35 minutes. A gasoline trac
tion engine furnished the power.
Romulus II as Perplexed.
Old Romulus took sick one day, and
in a little while it looked as if his end
was near. The minister was sent for,
and came promptly—a stout man, done ,
up in one of those religious waistcoats
without any buttons down the front
or any opening at the neck.
The minister said to Uncle Romu
lus:
“ ‘ls your mind at ease, brother?’'
‘"Yes sah,* answered the old man.
" ‘Are you sure there’s nothing
troubling you?’ iho minister went on
f ‘lf there is, speak up. Don't be afraid.
I am here to help and comfort you.’
“‘Dey is one sing, jes one, sah,' said
Romulus. ‘Dat ’plexes me.'
“ ‘What is it my brother?’ the min
-1 ister murmured.
“ 'Ah kalnt o' de life o’ me make out.
sah.’ said the old man. ‘how yo’ gits
yo’sef inter dat dere vest’**
There are four prosperous American
Mormon settlements in the Mexican
state of Chihuahua.
I Mysteries or the Ages*
During that wonderful and mysteri
ous period, popularly spoken of as
“before the ice age,” in other terms,
the pre-glacial period, nature expressed
herself with a lavish abandon of
which we can form but a faint idea.
The primeval rivers were mighty tor
rents, instruments of stupendous meta
morpbic energy. In their work of
erosion and dissolving, vast quantities
of gold were freed from confining em
bedment and deposited along their
channels. Through untold ages, per
haps, this work of uncovering and
depositing —Nature’s prehistoric gold
mining and storing—continued, or
until that particular formative cycle
was completed. Then the earth passed
into the travail throes of more ener
getic formation, as expressed in vol
canic and glacial action. Fierce vol
canoes sent forth their molten streams,
filling up ravines and gorges, creating I
new elevations and depressions, and
burying deep under layers of volcanic
debris, the old river beds, the evicted
waters of which laboriously w'rought
out new channels for themselves. Fol
lowing this storm time came a season
of comparative quiet in which the
newly located streams were permit
ted to take up again with diminished
force the old work of tearing down,
dissolving and dropping the freed gold
along their channels. In some in
stances old beds were crossed and
broken into by the new streams and
additional deposits mingled with their
uncovered treasures. A't last came the
long winter of glacial action, from
which the earth emerged transformed,
with little of the primeval surface left
save the giant redwood forest region.
Such, briefly summarized, is the geo
logic record, as read by modern sci
entists, of the changes that immedi
ately preceded our own period. Pos
sibly, certain giant trees of the Cali
fornia redwood parks which have
swayed in the Pacific Ocean winds for
thousands of years—at least their own
ancestors —might have observed from
their undisturbed abode the stupen
dous changes in progress at their very
doorway. Had they the gift of speech
they could reveal, as no other living
thing could do, the stata secrets of
Nature, including that of th® buried
rivers.
While no reliable method can at
present be given for the detection of
the presence of added vegetable colors
in general it is necessary that special
tests must be made for special vege
table colors. The bulletin gives quite
a number of simple methods for detec
tion of artificial coloring matter which
may be had on application at the De
partment of Agriculture.
Sheep act as beasts of burden In
many of the ranges of the Himalaya
Mountains. Each animal is capable of
carrying from seventeen to twenty
five pounds, and lives entirely on way
side herbage.
mmwmm page-wire
Made by the basic open-hearth process in our Steel Mills, Monessen, Penn
sylvania. Has double the tensile strength of common fence ware, the springi
ness of a high grade spring wire, and is used only in the manufacture of
Page Fences and coiled springs. Ask for “ A Trip Through Our Mills.” It
tells how Page-Wire is made; how it differs from common fence wire and
why it is stronger and better. Sent free by return mail. Writ® for it to-day.
Page Woven Wire Fence Co., Box 925, Adrian, Mich.
~r —- “ • !| —‘— |
mrmniftt
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1 Remarkable Discovery That Cut* Down
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till ■ 1 Can Save a Lot of Workl
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we’d like to send you our new book about
ELECTRIC STE Wheol® I
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DR. COFFEE’S SO - PAGE
EYE BOOK FREE
It tells how to cure eye diseases mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmrnm
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DR. W. 0, COFFEE. 104 . Century Bid;., Des Moines, la.
45c DISH PAN SAVED
By I'Bing St. John’s Tin Mender a ml
f a Match. Don’t pay the tinsmith IS
L ~1 1 mIM cents every time you have a little
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Write to-day for St. John's Tin .Mender, 2ftoents,pra
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fifeS* fcdil Mi
ftRfiACI how to select a good furnace. No. 45 I
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