Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-09-17
NJ | S G + l. l. A n Y.
From the New England Farmer.
THE IMPROVEMENT OF LAND.
ny FEEDING oUT ITS PRODUCTS AND GIVING
BACK THE MANURE.
By FREDERICK HoLBROoK.

By FREDERICK HOIBROOk.
1t appears to me that the great aim in farm
ing, here in New England, should be, to devise
and perfect ways for expcnding the various pro-
ducts of the soil upon the farm, so as to get
about as much for them in the growth of stock,
the meats, dairy products, or wool, &c. into
which they have been converted, as though they
had been sold off for money; thus giving back
to the land the manures the crops may make,
increased in quantity, of course by all judicious
modes Of composing with them the various
unemployed or waste vegetables and other sub
stances of the farm which contain the elements
of fertility
The mistake has been, and still is, too conf
mon, of selling off considerable proportion
of the grain crops especially, and converting
them into money. If any surplus were left af
ter paying debts and expenses that has gener-
ally been invested either in the purchase of
more land, or at interest, or in stocks and 9TH
er property outside of farming. The farm thus
not receiving back a sufficient compensation for
the products it has borne, has been undergoing
n gradual waste of fertility, and generally has
not been as profitable to the owner as it would
have been under more generous cultivation.
Indeed, his income, from all sources. is perhaps
less than if he had invested more from year to
year Ill tllc Improvement VI lOOhlilE
highly cultivated farm for dividends, and less
in merely added acres, or in stocks and other
outside property. Cases are not rale of men
who have worked hard, during the best work
ing period of their life, to get enough income
from their farms, over and above expenses, to
make an annual investment of money at inter-
est or in some kinds of stocks, so as to have
something, as they term il, laid up for wet
day, or for old age. But the difficulty is, they
have been exhausting the farm by so doing, and
as life advances and they find themselves less
able to labor on the land, the farm is less pro-
ductive than when they were young, will not
reward labor as formerly, and much hard and
discouraging work must really be done to get a
tocrable return from the investment. They
are not so well situated to live easily and pleas
antly in old age, and, perhaps, their income OF
resources, all told, are not as good as though
larger investments had from time to time been
made in the improvement of the SOIL the farm
growing more and more productive, and requir-
ing less hard labor than formerly, in proportion
to the income derived from it,
There may be instances where it is best to
sell off the products of the farm to consider,
able extent, and purchase town manures and
this course will do, provided enough manure i.
bought to compensate the land for bearing thos,
products. But in by far the generality of casel
the farmer must mostly rely upon the manure
made on his OWE farm.
The hay and coarse fodder are generally most
ly fed out on the farm, but often the principa
part Of the grain is sold off directly for cash.
Now have the impression that in the long run
all things considered, it might be better to feet
out the greater part Of the grain along with tn,
hay and other forage, and let the income of tn,
farm be derived mainly from the stock. Th,
grain fed with the forage adds a peculiar es
aence or strength and activity to the manur,
heap is emphaticaly "the leaven which leaven
the whole lump" and has a very marked inAu
ence in increasing the products of the farm gen
orally. The land will be more productive il
every kind Of crop than if the grain were solt
off, and it only got back the colder and less fer
ti2ing manure made simply from hay ant
coarse forage.
After few years of this kind of feeding, tn
products of the farm will he so much increase,
that considerable more stock can be kept on il
which will, in turn, make more manure for tn
land. These influences will work hack ant
forth one upon the other, so that in fact tn
business will grow more and more profitable
and the income will increase more in proportion
than it will be necessary to increase the invest