Show FARM AND GARDEN MATTERS OP OF INTEREST TO agriculturists some up rp to date dat blots about lion on of tike soil sell and yields thereof horticulture viticulture and nd culture cottar grass ara question la in south dakota HE natural addan of the state of south dakota as a stock country have long been rec cognized 0 g n 1 z e d our range beet and I 1 mutton Is regarded as second to none in its class our wool has earned an enviable reputation in all of the wool centers of america and last in order of 0 development but by no means least in importance our dairy products have established a name tor for themselves mong the very best on this continent all of these achievements have been won almost entirely without the aid ot of cultivated grains and nd grasses our native prairie grasses have in nearly all cases been the principal and in many instances the only food of our stock block in some parts ot of our state the system which has produced such satisfactory results in the past can be continued fox fo a considerable time to come with but slight modifications while in other portions particularly in the older and more thickly settled districts conditions have so eban changed ked and are still changing that a very different system must eventually be instituted in these localities our native grasses which have been the basis of nearly all ot of our success in the past are last fast disappearing and being replaced by interior inferior introduced grasses and worthless weeds the causes which have brought about this undesirable but inevitable result are not bard to discover over stocking and tramping which seem almost unavoidable during some portions ot of the season it if enough stock be kept to utilize the teed feed during flush tithes times Is one of the most potent and also the most mast difficult to avoid for if only such guch an amount of 0 stock Is kept during flush teed feed as can subsist upon the pasture without overstocking over stocking during the dry parts of 0 the season the grass will moke make such a rank growth during the spring and early carly summer that stock will not nol eat li it during the dry per periods another orl slightly less potent but more universal factor and one still less amenable to any known methods ot of prevention Is the gradual migration ot of hardy weedy grasses and plants from tte older to the newer settled portions portio nc DC 0 the country it Is true that some of at our farmers claim that our native grasses are so much biml bior to the cultivated grasses ol of the net east that we can successfully success tully compete with eastern dairymen without the aid ol of forage roots or silage and these claims are not without foundation it Is a well known fact that our native grasses cure upon the ground as soon ti as the dry weather of august and sep sets in and before they have bave been injured by frosts and that a falio quality of well cured hay superior to the average meadow hay of eastern states can be cut upon our prairies at any time after august before the ground Is covered with snow enow As A it frequently happens that we do nut have enough snow EDOW at any one time during the winter to prevent stock from grazing it ought riot not to be difficult to understand why we can truthfully say that our stock can range this year round and we can cut hay upon our prairies from august until march there are however some years ani an I especially this year when this statement cannot be substantiated while it is 1 unquestionably true that we have the advantage of our eastern compete tors in the quality of our native grasse it Is also true that they have the ad vantage of us in the length of tim during which stock can obtain bucell lent lood food such being the case it seems that it Is even more important that we should supply forage roots and si lage for the late summer fall and winter feeding than it la Is for the eastern dairyman or stockman to make a similar provision E C chilcott |