Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-12-02


ativeIy unproductive, and are often nusances.
2 Manmes are the true food of plants, be the
specuatons of theorists what they may. Every
farmer may demonstrate this truth in his prac-
tice We can no more obtain good crops from
poor SOIL than we can obtain good beef from a
lean pasture. Vegetable matters constitute alike
the raw material for beef and for corn The ell
ementary matters of both are materially the
same Every vegetable and every animal sub
stance or whatever has been such, however nau-
seous and offensive, contains food for our farm
crops and the fertility of our SOIL and the profits L
of our husbandry, will depend in a great meas
ure upon the economy with which we husband
this vegetable food, and the judgement with I
which we apply it to our crops. Without good
crops we cannot rear good animals; and with
out animals we cannot have dung to enrich our
grounds Every crop we take from field serves
more or less to exhaust the soil of fertility; and
unless we return to it some equivalent in the
form of manure, it will in time become barren
waste. The farmer who has good soil, should I
take care to keep it good and he who has
poor soil should strive constantly to make it bet
ter, as every advance he makes in improving it, !
increases his productive capital. This preserya-
lion, or increase of fertility, cannot be well Ell
feCted, without due regard too.
3. Alternating CrOps-Few soils will bear
repetition of the same crop for successive years
even with the aid Of dung, without diminuon OF
f product, whether in tiIlage or grass. One rea-
son Of this is, that each kind of crop takes from
5 the soil a specific food, which other kinds do not
take in like quantity. Hence, during an inter-
mission Of four or five years there is ordinarily
restored to the soil the specific food of that kind
whichit is capable OF growing, Cultivated crops
are sometimes grouped, in alternate husbandry,
in three classes, viz. dry crops, embracing all
D the small grains and which are most exhausng ;
I'd, grass crops, embracing timothy, orchard grass
and other perennial varieties, which exhaust less
t but which run out, or sensbly diminish in pro-
d duct, in a few years; and Sd, green crops, com
d prising clover, turnips &c, which puIverize and
ameIiorate the soil, and exhaust least Of all
Where convenient, crop of one Of each Of these
4 classes should follow in succession, the grass
If continuing to occupy the ground while it con-
If tinues to yield good crop OF hay If retained
IS too long 10 grass, the soil becomes too compact,
! and mperyious to the genial influences of heat
8 and air. 1t is particularly recommended, that
y two dry crops should not succeed each other
q. except wheat or rye may follow oats, when the
n after is made falow crop upon an old grass
ley. Although the deterioration under bad
v system of cropping may be slow, and almost i'm
n. precepube, yet both science and experience teach
Iv us that it is inevitable, and fatal to the ultimate
70 hopes of the husbandman, Many of the ole
-, states afford lamentable evidence Of this truth.
he AS subsidiary to the preceding cardinal point:
in good farming, we give tie following which
il although they may appear to many to be hack
ne neyed truisms, are nevertheless so important al
lv to be worth often repeating,
al J.. Keep none but good farm stock, whethe
49, as regards breeds or individuals Sell the wors
~ of your hocks. Like produces like; and thu
"' gain in breeding from the best you have, great,
u counterbalances the extra price that the prime
ls individual will bring in the market, A COW tina
he gives eighteen quarts of milk per day in June
ant costs no more in her keeping than one that give
nj but six quarts; yet the product of the first
he three-fod and the profits four-told those of tn
or latter. The fleece of the Saxon or Merino shee
10 is twice as valuable as that of the common one
T. though the cost of keeping them is equal. AM
"' the same corn that will make 100 lbs. Of por
lul upon ong-legged, lonr-snouted razor-backe
CT hog will put $50 or 200 lbs. upon the frame of
IN, Suffolk Or other improved breed.
ain q Keep your farm stock well. certain
i'd quantity of food must be given TO keep ther
an alive, all beyond this goes to increase growth
=, is converted into meat, or milk or wool and
~ little extra food is in this way profitable muc
~ must be proportlonaby more so, for the NOR
food you thus convert, the greater your return i
d labor, flesh and milk.
i've 3. Cultivate no more land than you can in
ISIS, prove, with reasonable certainty of handsom
hill net profit embracing in the items of eXpenditur
the interest on its value, fences taxes, manur
ess and labor The good farmer, who raises s
A. bushels of corn On one acre of land, clears til
price of so bushels, which at so cents the busl
ell, is $25. The poor farmer, who cultivate
"a" f0ur acres Of corn, and gets 30 bushels on a
acre, barely gets compensated for his labor an
en- expense, We estimate the expense of rasn
hty and harvesting an acre of corn at SIS, or II
boy price of 30 bushels of the grain.
cor a. Buy good implements and tools, thong
they cost more than poor ones, and always kee
ov them in repair for use. A good pillow is draw
with half the team that bad one is, anG dot
NJ I the work twice as well, provided the pIowmc
M knows how to use it. One good blowing is be
IN ter than two bad ones Hence the farmer is SOC
eel compensated for the additional cost of the qoC
itch article. The same remark holds good in rega
it, to other implements and tools of the farm.
row culture, the cultiyator will pay for itself in
season, in the economy of labor; the straw CT
ter will do the like in economizing fodder al
the drill barrow is a subject Of equal econon
F. in root culture.
star 5. We hardly need admonish the reader
ped use none but clean good seed for every mi
knows that he will reap only what he sows