The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1861-05-17
agricultural,
From the ". Y. Tribune.
Facts for Farm ers.
Plant Corn - Sow Grain Make Food
Pieuty.


We have already urged the fact upon farm.
ers that great crop of grain will be needed
this year for home cOnsumption-thatag gath
ering army must be fed-that the number oi
men usually employed in the production OF
food is likely to be materially lessened which
will render II imperative upon those who are
left TO till the earth, to leave no land idle
that can be cultivated we don't mean bare
ly planted, or sown, and left to grow crop
of weeds, but cultivated, fertilized, and
made to add to the great store OF next Au-
tumn, when it will be wanted to feed great
body of men in the service Of their country,
or who il least have been, and have not been
producing grain and roots, and meat, for
their own sustinancc through the Winter.
Now is the time to prepare for this want.
Now Is the time to sow oats, to plant pota-
toes. to prepare for great crop OF Indian
corn not merely great number OF acres,
but great surplus of gain Of this most sure
Of oil food producing plants. =,
Later than corn, another most valuable
food crop can be planted, which is both pro-
ductiye and profta BILE. This is the common
white bean, which grows very well upon
land too poor to produce good corn. They
should bc planted with a drilling machine
in the furrow Of q subsoil plow, and be cul-
tivated with horse-hoe, to make the crop
profitable. -,
Next in order comes buckwheat. which
can be sown AS late as the Goth of June,
though il is safer to sow IL ten days earlier.
II there is any spare land left from the other
crops, do not neglect to put it in buckwheat,
and don't forget that the crop, when ripe,
can be safely stored in stacks, and will keep
as well, or better, than any other grain
We mention this because we have known
farmers To guage their sewing by their abili-
ty TO cut and fresh at once, having the inn
preston that the crop could not be kept in
the straw. =,
Millet is another late crop that should
not be neglected. Ii is very much grown
at the West as hay crop, under the name
of Hungarian grass, and several other hum
bug names, one Of which is Japanese
wheat under which name most persistent
efforts are made to swindle farmers with some
of the varieties Of millet-a good and useful
grain, for some purposes, and profitable to
grow under some circumstances, but not
valuable enough for farmers to afford to DO
swindled with high price for the seed.
Beside increasing the grain and grass crops
TO the greatest possible extent, do not neg
lect the root crop. Plants, beets, carrots,
parsnips, rutabagas, turnips - everything
that will help to produce u greater abun-
dance Of butter, cheese. pork, beef, mutton.
In all probability all will bc wanted, at re-
munerating prices, in all the quantity that
the deminished help OF farmers can possibly
produce.
A late number Of The Homestead has n
good article upon this subject Of increasing
the crops, particularly directed to Connecti-
cut farmers, which says:
Civil war is upon us, and 1t deyolves
new duties upon farmers, rs well US upon all
other classes in the community. True the
country is full of breadstuils, and provisions
Of all kinds are unusually abundant and
cheap. But who is wise enough to tell
what proportions this war shall assume. and
how long the struggle will continue? 1t is
a war Of the people, of Anglo-Saxon people
resolute. dogged, persistent to the last de-
gree. Multitudcs of men will be drawn
from the pursuits of peace to the tented
field. Large armies win have 10 DO fed and
clothed. Immense numbers Of horses will
be needed for them. Almost everything
that the farm produces will be in brisk de-
mand. Hay, oats, corn, wheat, flour, pork,
beef, butter, cheese will be likely to advance
in price if the war is prolonged beyond the
present summer. II is among the contin-
sencies, that we are Just entering upon n
conflict more bloody and prolonged than that
which gave birth TO the nation. Ii is the
part of patriotism as well as Of private in-
terest to keep the country full Of provisions.
Grain, especially. should be produced
TO the full capacity of the farm, and the Ia
Der employed. For grain, unlike roots and
vegetables, and fruits, can easily be kept
over year without any loss in value and
price. Now is the time of oat-sowing. II
a larger breadth cannot be given to the
oat crop. at least little more manure may
be sown with the seeds, and the product be
increased. II stable manure Is exhausted,
ruano. poudrctte, and superphosphate ART
still ON hand, and these, when genuine, arc
pretty certain 10 return their cost in grain
with profit on the labor"
That is excellent advice. If labor is scarce
a great breadth cannot be planted, but what
Us can be made more productive.
"A little moro manure and labor bcstow'
ed upon the same fields VIC now cultivate
will give US a full supply Of corn for oul
own population. This crop is generally
helped by concentrated fertilizers, dropped
in the hill with the seed. Farmers who
have tried this are confident that il can be
increased twenty bushels to the acre by thi,
process. While we spread the yard manure
and compost, and plow in as usual, we car
drop guano, supsrphosphate, bone dust and