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We are looking forward'to that February
thaw. 1
Moses Ward delivered hay at the Farm
Station on the 10th and 11th. Moses says
he is going to make i0 tons of hay next year.
Go to it, Moses.
(his Larjeunesse went to the Agency the
12th to arrange for purchasing that cow.
Frank and Louis Carl spent Saturday
night with Solomon Blue.
Louis Gurneau\s father and mother vis
ited him several days last week. Louis
says snow shoes are the thing. He goes to
his neighbors with greater ease than the rest
of us.
Mr. and Mrs. Brun went to Gonvick on
the lith.
Alex Gurneau, Joe Roberts and Henry
Sayers broke the road from Sayersville to
the Farm Station. They report the snow
very deep. It was necessary to use eight
horses.
Joe Way-be-nais says he is going to break
a large held in the spring. He says he does
not like the idea of buying feed when he has
so much good land. He is delivering 26
tons of hay to Father Thomas. We are glad
to see the people in this district so enthu
siastic. I
Sayers is hpinA^j^^Jui^are^
forJames his steels 'e"l
station.
William Blue stopped over with his father
recently. He was on his way to the Agency.
William was the first to come over the
road from Neptune to the Farm Station
since the heavy snows. It took him almost
a day to make about 12 miles.
Among the callers at the Farm Station
Sunday, the 20th, were Miss Thomas, Miss
McEvers, Mrs. Frank, Louisa Stone, George
Clark, John Redcloud, Mrs. Gus Larjeunes
se, Way juan and Mr. and Mrs. Brun and
family.
George Stately captured a very large tim
ber wolf on the 26th.
"Mother Earth may offer her choicest
fields, the Sun may lavish its brightest rays,
the gentle Showers may float down on the
Balmiest Winds of Spring: to nourish the in
fant plantyet, if this child of God has been
touched by the Blighting Breath of Decay,
or is the Offspring of perverted parentage,
all the kindly care of Loving Nature, aided
by the Hands of Man, but emphasizes the
more strongly that, 'Whatsoever a man
Soweth, That Shall he also Reap.'
From Farmers Tribune.
On account of the cold summer and early
fall very little corn matured for seed, and it
is "Very important" that all corn intended
for planting should be tested. This should
be done as early as possible in order that
VOLUME 4. RED LAKE, MINNESOTA, MARCH 1, 1916.
FARM ST ITIOX ITEMS er methods described in a former issue of
the Red Lake Xews and each ear tested after
the butts and tips have been shelled oft and
thrown away.
An easy way of testing- the seed corn af
ter it is all shelled off from the ears, which
is an old custom of the Indians, is to take
a pan, till it full of sand or sawdust, place
the sand where it Avill be kept warm or about
the same temperature as the soil is when
the corn is planted in the field. Moisten
the plant, but do not keep it too wet as the
moisture keeps the air out of the soil and
thus prevents germination. Place about
100 kernels in the sand, small end down, and
cover with a cloth or tin. It will take about
nine days for the kernels to germinate. If
75 per cent of the kernels do not show good
strong sprouts the seed should not be
planted. Some kernels may show small
sprouts. These will produce only "Nub
bins" or be barren stalks.
The reasons for selecting, storing, and
testing the whole ear are that we can select
the type of ear true to the variety of corn
we are raising and stick to this type year
after }rear
Way juan was a recent caller at the Farm in shape and the tip and butt well covered
one may have plenty of time to buy seed ferent pars of the earsno two out of the
that will grow if his will not. same rowshould be taken and placed in
Corn is one of our most important crops the squares of the box with the tips all one
.and requires the best of seed to produce a* way and the germ side up.
profitable crop. Too little attention has Another piece of muslin cloth, twice the
been paid to the selection, storing and test- size of the box, should be dampened and
ing of the seed. then carefully placed over the kernels. Fill
Corn should be stored according to prop- the box with wet sawdust (the same as te-
RE LAK E NEWS
SUBSCRIBE FOR THE NEWS
as, "Like Produces Like." It en
ables us to discard those ears which have
been weakened or killed by freezing, mould
or premature sprouting in the fall, and en
ables us to discover the scrubs or runts and
discard them.^ ^^^-.^^-j.*^.
rL^"e^foulonfeTargelarge,^
with kernels. The kernels should be firmly
together, forming a solid ear, the rows
should be straight, and the COD small, thus
the grain forming about 90 per cent of the
.ear by weight.
Each ear can then be tested, and only the
kernels from the good ears planted. The
kernels should be of an even size, so that
when planted the same number will be
planted in each hill. A great mistake is
made by letting more than three stalks
grow in a hill. When this is allowed near
ly every ear will be a "Nubbin" instead of
a good ear of corn.
When a number of ears are tested the
ears should be laid together in a row and sep
arated by driving two nails between each
ear, thus keeping them from getting mixed
up, and each ear should be numbered.
Make a box 30x30 inches and 4 inches
deep. This will test about 100 ears at once.
Fill the box about half full of sawdust that
has been placed in a sack and soaked over
night in water and allowed to drain for
about twelve hours. After placing the saw
dust in the box pack it down smooth and
firm.
The germinating cloth wddch should be
muslin is then placed over the sawdust and
tacked around the edge. Mark the cloth in
to squares about 2y2x2i/Unches and num
ber each square to correspond with the num
ber of ears of corn. Six kernels from dif-
cylindrical
AOEXCY ITEMS.
On Feb. 11th John English, Joe Mason,
Jinnnie Jourdain, Paul Smith, Charlie Dol
soii, James Brown, Bazil Lawrence, George
English, Albert Greeley and Frank Howard,
members of the "Central Farmers' Club,*'
met and plowed the snow out of the old
Leech Lake road for about five miles so that
dry and green wood could be hauled.
Andrew Wells made two trips to the
Agency last week, taking back 400 rods of
woven wire to make more pasture for his
sheep and cattle. Andrew is meeting with
good success raising stock as shown by his
return from a mixed car of sheep and cat
tle shipped to South St. Paul. His wool
clip last year sold for nearly $150.00. He
now has over 100 head of sheep and will
have 800 rods of woven wire fencing around
his place besides his barb wire fence.
On Feb. 18th Simon Spears, Pierre Say
ers, Ah-ke-wain-zee, Stoneman, William
Prentice, Baptiste Taylor and James Co-be
nais of the "Little Rock Club" hauled hay
for Ed. Prentice. Joe Way-be-nais also
helped by plowing a road to the hay stacks.
On account of the poor corn seed no one
should plant their corn without testing the
seed first. This should be done now. A
great many have just come to the conclusion
that they will hayajao^potatoe^^or
cornjorf'*
seed.
Joe Beaulie recently lost a valuable colt.
John English is still busy hauling cord
wood.
The Central Farmers' Club met on Feb.
19th at the Council Room and talked over
seeds and spring work.
Geo. W. Harnwell, local manager of the
St. Hilaire Retail Lumber Co., of Bemidji,
called at the trading stores, Father Thomas
and Agency office the 16th.
Twenty-five years.ago today,
When wilderness was here,
With powder in his gun, the man
Went out and got a deer.
But now the things have changed
And on another plan,
With powder on her cheeks,
The "dear" goes out and gets a man.
Ex.
fore) and fold the edges of the cloth back
over the sawdust. The box should then be
placed in a warm room and not disturbed
for at least eight or ten days. At the end
of this time remove the top cloth and saw
dust by rolling it "very carefully" back over
the kernels. Compare the tests and the
ears that show the kernels are dead or weak
should be thrown in the feed box. The ker
nels from the ears that show from the test
to be all right for planting should be placed
in a sack and hung: up in a good place until
planting time.
If this is followed we will soon be doub
ling our yield of corn with no more labor.
The most precious thing in the world is
the labor of a human being, yet by not test
ing our seed corn we waste hours every day
on vacant grounds and worthless stalks.
H. C. M.
NUMBER 13
4
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