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Show iMttfMffl FARMER CARRIES Oil MANY INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS Owner of Magnolia Crest Farm, in Scott County, Iowa, of Wide Diversity Di-versity of Interests Believes in Rotating Pastures Wherever Possible Carefully Selects and Stores Seed Corn Never Was Successful With Potatoes Profit in Sheep. ' mA (By G H. AX-FORD. State Demonstration Agent, Maryland.) C W Lau, who lives on the Magnolia Crest farm, six miles from tho city of Davenport, in Scott county, Iowa, is a man of such a diversity of interests and carries on so many interesting inter-esting and valuable experiments that we can learn much by a study of his methods. Mr. Lau owns 160 acres of land. Of this 120 la tillable, while 40 la left In permanent pasture and carries car-ries about one head of cattle per acre. This ground is low and has a very troublesome ditch running its entire length, making it difficult to maintain fences and impracticable to cultivate. He believes that he can double the carrying capacity of this pasture by disking In the ground occasionally and sowing in a mixture of grasses. He will try a mixture of timothy, blue grass, white clover and sweet clover needed in a two-year-old alfalfa field to produce a pasture of this sort next season. sea-son. Mr. Lau believes in rotating pastures pas-tures wherever this is possible. First Success With Alfalfa. Mr. Lau maintains a rotation of two years of corn, one year of barley in which alfalfa is sown, followed by two years of alfalfa. He can rightly claim the distinction of having first gained an unqualified success in the growing of alfalfa in Scott county. He now has on the place some 30 acres devoted de-voted to this crop. So firm is his faith in the alfalfa plant that he has discarded dis-carded red clover entirely and expects to follow a rotation in which alfalfa has a prominent part. He also has placed his seal of condemnation on timothy. Charles Lau says that on") year's" seeding is five years' weeding. To prevent pre-vent this he clips his stubbles with the mower before the weed seed ripens. This is better than plowing early and exposing the land to parching suns and leaching rains. From 40 to 60 acres of corn are grown and the averae'J production is about 66 bushels per acre. The seed is gathered early and the ears placed In ricks in the open doorway of his barn loft. In this way it is located in Mr. Lau has 14 Red Polled cows of high grade which produce from 2,500 to 3,000 pounds of butter annually, which he sells on contract delivered at 35 cents the year round. In 1914 the production was 2.550 pounds. Each cow returned him $73.65 last season as follows: 170 pounds butter, $60; 4,' 000 pounds skim milk at 15 cents per hundred, $6; calf, $5, and 15 pints of cream used in household, $2.65. They are fed Bllage and alfalfa as the basis, with a small quantity of corn grist consisting con-sisting of corn and cob ground together. to-gether. These cows- constitute the largest factor in his total income every year. He regards silage and alfalfa as the very best feed. He owns one of the oldest silos in Scott county, having had it for 21 years. It holds 85 tons, has dimensions dimen-sions of 14 by 25 feet and requires from 7 to 8 acres to 311. It is constructed of wood staves and is built inside the barn and has proved practically permanent per-manent there. The cost was $150. Mr. Lau estimates the annual cost of filling at $50. He always adds water to his ensilage in filliag and finds that he can get a good grade of feed by putting it in when just beginning to dent. To prevent spoiling on top it is thoroughly sprinkled with water and tamped down three different times. He had never had any trouble from feeding and values ensilage highly foi both cattle and sheep. In his opinion every farmer should have a silo. Cows and Steers. He keeps, in addition to his cows 25 head of young cattle. The steers he sells as butcher stock. Purebred Red Polled sires have been used in hie herd for 20 years, but the start was made with common cows of different breeds. Now their owner regrets that he didn't use purebred dams as the foundation. Seven horses are kept to do the work on Mr. Lau's farm. They are fed alfalfa as roughage almost exclu sively. They are also given some silage and oats and corn. Care is taken thai the alfalfa and ensilage be bright and wholesome. No colts are produced. Mr. Lau has found sheep very profit various Bales are given herewith: Deducting De-ducting four acxea for roads his gross receipts for 1914 were $29.23 per acre. Record of Sales. 191 Hobs Jl. 192.99 Barley 63,J Butter 646.42 Cattle 3''5-47 Hay 6TS.00 Sheep Calves 6S.4o Poultry 92.14 F.rrjrs 7S.53 Fruit 247.05 Corn 2M.17 Beea 17.00 Sundries .S0 J1.K9.50 It is interesting to note that Mr. Lau realized $1,050 in cash from his 1914 crop of alfalfa. There was no better field of alfalfa in Scott county, last year. He put up over five tons per acre from these cuttings. In 1913 he cut five tons per acre and was offered of-fered $20 per ton for all of it. He estimates es-timates that it costs $1.50 per ton to put It up. The first cutting in 1914 he kept for feed and it carried 40 head of cattle, 15 sheep and 6 horses through the winter, while the second, third and fourth cuttings returned him y i Wits iliiip Method of Drying Seed Corn. $1,050 in cash. He harvested 130 loads from 26 acres in three cuttings and ' 7 acres cut the fourth time. He baled and sold at 16 to $17 at home, or $18 to $19 delivered. Mr. Lau tried alfalfa ( repeatedly for 25 years but had no suc-( suc-( cess until he applied some lime eight years ago. Since then he has found al-( al-( falfa a very profitable crop. In 1914 a strip a rod wide through his field left unlimed produced practically nothing. .Iron and Concrete. Mr. Lau declares that this is an age of steel, iron and concrete, and, where-ever where-ever possible, these should be substituted substi-tuted for wood in farm construction. He has concreted his entire barnyard this year and will keep straw In the cow yard to catch all the liquid manure ma-nure as well as the solids. The cost was 7 1-3 cents per square foot. Mr. Lau's barn is 40 by 80 by 24 feet and contains 80 tons of hay and straw for bedding. He has an elevated tank supplying 10 hydrants, including 3 faucets in the house. He has shelter for 40 head of cattle and 7 horses. His hoghouse is provided with self-waterers self-waterers and self-feeders, the latter for hogs on full feed. Thus the hogs eat and drink at leisure, there Is no sudden exposure and no wrangling, no rubbish to clean oS but clean cobs for the tank heater or kitchen stove. Item of Chores. In doing the work on the farm where there la lots of stock, the chores become be-come a considerable Item. Mr. Lau has a two-horsepower gasoline engine mounted on a truck sufficiently light , for one man to easily pull around and ; he makes this the chore boy for a mul-' mul-' titude of jobs. He regards gasoline aa cheaper than hired help. He is careful that no feed shall be hauled or carried in baskets to live stock and J puts the hay in a place overhead with the feed bunks below for the cattle ; and has a feeding place for hogs ad-1 ad-1 joining the corn crib. Water is also piped to the slop barrel and the table ' is set before the hogs are invited to 1 their dinner. In this way no feed is dragged through the snow or mud but the animals come to their dinner them-1 them-1 selves. 1 Another important point in the man- agement of this farm is the dividing and subdividing of the place with fences which are hog and cattle tight. ' In this way many weeds, volunteer grains and shattered kernels- of corn, oats and barley which otherwise ' would be wasted, can be utilized in producing mutton, pork and beef. In his experience a thrifty lot of hogs with such a range will return from 80 to 90 cents per bushel for corn when fattened. Vineyard and Orchard. This discussion would not be complete com-plete without a statement in regard to Mr. Lau's fruit. He has a vineyard vine-yard excelled by that of very few farmers. It contains many choice varieties vari-eties of grapes. He has apples, pears, plums, cherries and plenty of small fruit as well as a good garden. The orchard of one-half acre has been sprayed each year for four or five seasons and has always produced fruit since the spraying was started. In 1913 he sold $247 worth of fruit Mr. Lau has raisod a family of five boys and one girl. He thinks the farmer farm-er has an oppcrtunity of having something some-thing more than a farm. He can have an attractivA home and It should be the ambition of every farmer to make his homestead beautiful as well as his farm profitable. To render farm ilfe more attractive he has Installed a carbide plant outside the house to light all his buildings, has transformed an old well into a cold storage place for cream and victuals Concreting the Barnyard of C. W. Lau Farm. a draft where It dries out very quickly. quick-ly. It is left until quite thoroughly Cried out and then taken to the basement base-ment under the house where the furnace fur-nace completes the task of drying. He tests for germination In the spring. Mr. Laa's corn tested In the county experimental plots at the orphanB' home yielded at the rate of 85 bushels per acre. From 25 to 80 acres of barley are produced. Last year he threBhed 756 bushels, or 36 bushels per acre, which he Bold at 75 centB. For two years he treated the seed with formaldehyde and had no smut In the crop. No oats are grown and only one acre of potatoes. pota-toes. Mr. Lau has never been very successful with potatoes, but his son, Carl, raises from one-half to one acre of popcorn and has gotten very satisfactory satis-factory returns from it. Careful of Manure. The production on the rolling farm which Mr. Lau owns is maintained by about 200 loads of manure annually, ' :.V- . . . ... - ' . . . R i . 4 - Experimental Alfalfa Plots. .spread at the rate of six loads per acre on the corn grouud. The hills are ivu an extra dressing of manure ovary two years. Mr. Lau is very care-x care-x tul t0 conserve all his manure. He has built a concrete cistern to receive all tho liquid drainage from the cow barns. When the manure is to be haulod out, It is heaped up in the vard and Uien this liquid is pumped over theo manure heaps and hauled Into the fields in that way. able, as they cost very little, clean ui the weeds and transform much rough age into money through the Bale ol wool and mutton. He now has 17 ewee and gets about ten pounds of wool at the average clipping. Before he kept sheep, he had a great deal ol rag weed in his pasture, but now a rag weed Is a scarce article on his farm. Experience With Hogs. Mr. Lau has had many and varied experiences with hogs. He raises frorr. 70 to 90 head of Poland China per year. In the 34 years he has farmed he had cholera three times. In 1915 it broke out and from some 50 or 6C head he saved about 25. They were not treated, as Mr. Lau had no faith In serum at that time, having made a test the preceding year with some so-called so-called serum which was being used In the county. He treated with this two of his hogs and put them in a neighboring hord where cholera pre vailed. In a short time they contract ed tho disease and died and Mr. Lau was convinced that the serum treatment treat-ment for hogs was a failure. However, the success of the treatment treat-ment at the Iowa farms near Davenport Daven-port soon set him to thinking again and he secured three pigs in the fall i of 1912 from the Iowa farms which had been given the simultaneous treatment and placed them in three Infected In-fected herds in his neighborhood. All three pigs weathered the storm successfully, suc-cessfully, although nearly all the hogs in the three herds died. That put a new aspect to the subject and In the summer of 1913 Mr. Lau gave all his pigs the serum-simultaneous treatment without any loss, although cholera prevailed pre-vailed in the neighborhood. He now gives his hogs the serum-simultaneous treatment every year. Mr. Lau raises about 100 head of chickens each year, planning to sell off the cockerels and old hens each winter and Keeps the pullets. Ho sells them dressed at 20 cents per pound in Davenport. He has had considerable trouble with chicken cholera and with blackhead in turkey, being compelled to cease raising the latter fowl ou that account. Gross Returns. There are few farms in Scott county which givo higher gross returns per acre than that operated by Mr. Lau. Hjj gross returns for 1914 from hia |
