The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1859-11-09
STAR OF THE NORTH,
aarienltnral Department.
FEEDING THE GBAIN UPON TIE FARM.

AGRICULTURAL ColuitiH, eHoNiiiS tho aufahtaSe
of keeping more cattle on the farm, and
feeding the grain to them, whereby more
and richer manure is made, instead of SELL
ing the grain from the farm, causing the
coil TO lose the richest sustenance. MIR.
Frederick Holbrook, a practical and success
full farmer, continues the subject in the
NeW England Farmer. The grain which he
recommends TO be fed is of course, such
as corn, rye, buckwheat, &c. The true sys-
tenn of bringing the soil to the highest de-
gree of fertility is by keeping more well
fed cattle, and increasing the amount OF
rich manure. More live stock, and of
good kind, is what our farmers want.-Sua-
bury Gazette.
Mr.. Holbrook says Tho hay and coarse
fodder are generally fed out on the farm,
but often the principal part of the grain is
sold of directly for cash. Now have the
impression that in the long run, all things
considered, it might be better TO feed out
the greater par; of the grain along with the
hay and other forage, and let the income
of the farm be derived mainly from the
stock. The grain fed with the forage adds
peculiar essence or strength and activity
10 the manure heap, Is emphatcally "the
leaven which leavens the whole lump, "and
has very marked influence in increasing
the products of the farm generally. The
land will be more productive in every kind
of crop than if the grain were sold of, and
il only got back the colder and less iertiliz-
ing manure made simply from hay and
coarse forage.
After few years of this kind of feeding
the products of the farm will be 30 much
increased that considerable more stock can
be,kept on it, which will, in turn, make
more manure for the land. These influences
will work back and forth one upon the
other, SO that in fact the business will grow
more and more profitable, and the income
will increase more in proportion than it
will be necessary TO increase the investment
There are hardly any limits 10 the produc-
tive capacity of our farms, if we only study
out ways of expending our crops juGicious.
ly, and making the most of the manures
they will return to the soil. Sections OF
country may be pointed out in Europe, not
naturally more favored for soil and climate
than our own, where the land has been cul-
tivated for hundreds of years, and is now
more productive than at any former period,
and far more so, acre for acre, than the very
best virgin soils and lands of our own coun-
try. Another thing deserving particular
consideration, land that is in high cutiva.
ton, and is judiciously cropped, can be
kept at high mark of fertility with ease,
as compared with making exhausted land
fertile. The very luxuriance of the crops
gives back large mass Of roots and stems
10 the soil. Especially is this the case when
grass sward has been allowed TO form; so
that in breaking the sod for new rotation
of crops, we can turn under many tons per
acre of matter fertilizing TO the land, con-
tanned in the roots and stems of the swar6
Then TOO, land in high condition is much
less injuriously affected by unfavorable pc
cularites of the season, as to drouth or
moisture, cold or heat, than if it were in
poor tilth, and indeed in good degree in
dependent of these peculiarities. In any
season it will pay larger profit in proper
ton TO what has been expended 10 obtain
the crop, than can be derived from exhaust.
ed land.
In feeding out the gran corps pretty freely
on the farm, there will be some years when
the growth of stock, the meats, the wool
the dairy products, &C., into which tie
grain has been converted, will sell high
enough TO pay considerably more per bushel
for the grain than it would have brought
had 1t been sold off the farm; other years
the grain may perhaps bring greater i'm
mediate income If sold off but taking one
year with another, and considering the slea-
dy improvement OF the farm, where the
crops are expended upon it, there will be
more profit in feeding out the grain than in
selling it off. In period, say of twelve or
twenty years, | am inclined 10 think that
seventy-fve cents per bushel realised for
corn, for instance, fed out on the farm, and
the manure returned to the land, is as good
as one dollar per bushel realised by sending
it off to market for cash, and the farm rob-
bed OF an equivalent in manure for the COL
thus sold.
Take, for instance, the whole amount or
number Of bushels of grain of any kind
produced on an acre Of land, or on the farm,
and place it in a pile together. 1t makes
only small heap, even though the yield
per acre be a very large one. Yet that heap,
small as it is, contains large per cent. of
the very essence of the fertility of the soil
that produced it, and has taxed the land far
more than if it had only produced the stalk
and leaf of the plant, or in other words, a
forage crop Of any kind. This grain, fed
out with the hay and other crops, adds
wonderfully to the activity and fertising
power of the farm yard manure, and great
ly quckens the soil to renewed efforts at
production. Then, again, by feeding out
the grain with the forage crops and thus
making manure abounding in gases and
salts, you may compost much larger pro-
portions of muck, rurf, the rich soils wash.
ed into hallow places, or other materials
gathered up about the farm to swell the
manure heap, and have them all decompos-
ed and sweetened and prepared TO become
the food of plants, than you could properly
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