Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-10-22

g., of the Vermont farmers to come 10
New York to buy superphosphates but,
save all yeur old bones, get them to pieces
the best way you can, and put them on
your land. You may not see great I'M
mediate results, but the substance will be
in the ground. Grass and grain cutiva-
ton will utterly ruin all the lands OF Yer
mont, unless the most strenuous efforts are
made to SUPP ly the waste Of phosphorous'
Another lault.--A farmer bires, say three
hands for eight months in the year, raises
fine crop, and then dismsses at least two
of his hands through the winter. Now |
contend, said Mr.. c., that there can be
good farming when the farmer does not
employ as much help in the winter as he
does in summer. Ordinary manures don't
suffice to keep lands in order. Though |
have no antipathy against frogs, | think
when hear one crea ak on farmers land,
| it proclams in unmistakable tones that
that farmer is neglecting his duty. The
muck ought to be taken from that frog
pond, or mudhole, and carted into your
saucer-shaped barnyards-from 300 TO 500
loads every year. Don't be in hurry
about taking it out of the yard, but top
dress your pastures and your meadows as
you have time We cultivate too much
land everywhere. We ought to extend
our forests. Our woods and our streams
are worth everything, and we ought to al
low the wood to grow upon every foot OF
land that we cannot otherwise use to good
purpose.
Mr.. Greeley expressed himself in strong
terms against pasturing. To my mind,
said he, pasturing is little better than bar
barism. Long pasturing will ruin any
ground. Cattle will gnaw the best places
closely, and leave in the poorest the weeds
and bushes to grow. Even if you NOW
over your pastures every year,as you ought
to do,you remedy the.evil only in PARTLY
cry farmer ought to have from two to ten
acres of sowed corn, or sorghum, with
which to feed his cattle. He ought never
to turn his cattle into his meadows (mow-
ng). If any one says, | have nothing to
feed my cattle with, we say, you ought to
have something. With the machinery we
now have, moving is triaing matter
Almost any farmer might get his hsy at
an expense of a dollar an acre. He ought
to cut two or three tons to the acre. No
man can afford to get hay at the rate OF
one ton to the acre.
Nh. G. spoke of the results of his own
experience in subsoil ploughing and I'M
derdraining. Fifty acres of soil II inches
deep are as good as one hundred acres six
inches deep. Deep ploughing is better
both for dry and wet land.
Farmers do not sufficiently consider the
importance Of making what land they do
possess, productive. If a merchant IN
vests a certain amount of capital in rents
and merchandise, he studies to make it
sufficiently productive to justify the out
lay. If firm expend fifty thousand dol
lars in printing presses, they strive to
print as many papers as possible in order
to make the investment profitable. The
farmers of Vermont do not study the mat
ter SO carefully. They are too much in
clined to invest their surplus earnings in
western land, when in fact there can be no
investment SO good as in the very soil
they cultivate. They are little like the
wild fellow who worked great deal bet
ter for other people than for himself, for
the alleged reason that he was afraid, when
| he worked for himself. he should not get
his pay. Farmers needed to have more
faith in the virtues of manures and ferti-
| lizers.
A few years ago some of the farmers of
| New Hampshire were extolling the excel
lencies of buckwheat; declaring that it
would grow on poor soil--in fact, the
poorer the soil the better the crop. A half
witted fellow oyerhearing this statement,
said he did not believe buckwheat was
such blasted fool as that. Neither, said
Mr.. g., do believe it. You cannot cheat
nature one particle You must return
to the soil as much as you take out.
Mr.. G. spoke Of what he had seen in
Lombardy and Italy of the beneficial eff
fects of irrigation, and he believed that
the time would come, IN this country,
when every stream would be used for this
purpose, to the full extent of its capaci-