MAKING ONE ACRE DO WORK OF SIXTEEN
Making One Acre Do Work Of Sixteen IN Farm and Fireside Is the account of a clever crop rotation plan which has proved a signal success: "We have a one-eighth acre patch that makes more money for...
...The ashes made by burning the trash help to balance up the fertilizer so that this ground is never wanting in the necessary plant food...
...Just before cold weather we mulch this patch with corn-stalks, the refuse part of shredded fodder, and a good deal of manure...
...Our 50 hens usually take care of the green stuff so well that there is never enough left to choke the plow...
...Some time after the crop is cared for, and just before the weeds go to seed, we drive in with the mower and mow weeds, vines and all close to the ground...
...Then the ground is prepared for strawberries, and the plants set out at once...
...The mulch is made lour or five inches deep, which effectually pie-vents heaving...
...We cultivate once a week until frost comes and kills the weeds...
...Some of the mulch is left between the rows to help keep the weeds down until the berry crop is harvested...
...The plants start to grow as soon as a few warm days come, and the heavy part of the mulch Is then raked off the row...
...The ground is mulched heavily each winter, and burned over each summer...
...The second crop of potatoes was always dug and disposed of about the first of J uly, when prices are good...
...Making One Acre Do Work Of Sixteen IN Farm and Fireside Is the account of a clever crop rotation plan which has proved a signal success: "We have a one-eighth acre patch that makes more money for us thaa any two iicres on the farm," writes E. P. H. Gregory, "our present rotation is two years in potatoes and two in strawberries, and the yield increases each year...
...We then proceed to crop this piece in potatoes for two years, sowing wheat, rye, or rape for winter chicken pasture, and for making a green growth to plow under before planting potatoes in the spring...
...The heavy mulch is good for the ground, as are also the two coats of manure...
...When this cutting Is perfectly dry, a match is applied and the patch is burned off clean...
...We are always able to get sufficient growth for a full crop the next year when plants are set at this time...
...We usually get 40 bushels of potatoes off this one-eighth acre patch...
...Then the berry vines are cultivated until frost, and kept trimmed back, to a dense row about a foot wide...
...Two crops of berries are taken off...
Vol. 9 • March 1917 • No. 3
