St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1867-09-13
THE CALIFORNIAN.
farm, Garden and 1itfllfn.
enforcement of Exhausted Lana

cIety for promoting agriculture ''''' 'N'
,ba nrinc;nol feature of interest was the
reading of a paper by Prof. Booth, CIV
mo his experience in improving worn
ont land. The farm upon which the I'M
movements were made is in Lower Mer-
ion, Montgomery county, a locality which
is not naturally productive, but owes much
OF It's present fertility to the liberal use
Of manure, combined with milk and but
ter dairy farming. A summary OF froi'
Booths statement is as follows; a farm
of some sixty acres having fallen INTO my
hands in the year 1860, | determined to
make it pay an interest on the cost until
some other disposal might be made of ii
in the future. Upon calculating the
cost of buying and hauling stable manure
from the city or vicinity, five Or ten
miles, found it would be cheaper TO
buy and haul a so-callcd superphosphatc.
|. therefore, determined to attempt i'm
proving my miserably poor farm by the
latter alone, trusting to increasing the
stock with the increasing produce, so as
to render it at least Independent of the
purchased manure.
The table below will present all the
necessary facts in relation TO the farm
from its briery poverty in 1861 to It's
plethoric falling down of wheat and clio
yer in the late rains of 1867. 1t con
tain- about 60 acres, Of which only AZ
lave been in cultivation The gross
sales OF everything that could be scraped,
10y industry, in 1861, was S2l9,3G,
showing the poverty Of the farm. The
rotation system, common in our vicinity,
was followed, viz. l. Corn. 2 Oats, po-
latocs, turnips, etc. 3. Wheat 4 and ),
OF !, } and G. Clover and timothy. OF
course we used the little stable manure
made at first as judiciouS y as we could,
but two or three cows, fed from poor
land, only covered all acre or so with a
delicate gauzc OF manure Thi, was sub
sequently improved, as increased produc-
ton and of better quality increased our
stock, 50 that in the spring Of 1867 the
Sin acres in corn and potatoes. locked
jet black, leaving the ground scarcely Wis
ible.
The starting point OF the improvement,
II mann source TO this moment, is phoS-
phate Of lime The composition of the
phosphate used was about 20 per cent
phosphoric acid, of which ) to $ per cent
were soluble in water, and to , per
cent potential ammonia
The quantity | aimed to get into the
soil las been about half a ton per acre.
trusting to the Immediate action OF the
soluble phosphoric acid and tie gradual
development OF the insoluble, by Cultiva-
ton, during many years, but designing
10 add little of the same manure in each
subsequent rotation, The best method
OF using the phosphate, according TO my
experience, Is to harrow in some four or
five hundred pounds. sown broadcast up
on lie land, when plowed for corn, and
to put two or three hundred pounds more
in the hills, together with a little wood
:,eh. Then two or three hundred pounds
more should 90 on the root crop of the
next year, after blowing for wheat, in
the fall Of the same year. | have thus
put 1000 TO 100 pounds on every
acre, as il came in the order of rota-
ton
My conclusions as to the best method
of improving farms, at a distance from
cities. which are. or which should be,
the great sources of fertility, is this: To
improve the soil by the liberal use of
phosphate introduced into the usual rota-
ton system, and then keep as much stock
a. the farm can possibly be made TO
bear. The phoSphatcs commence the
fertility, the stock sustains it. The pro-
duce of stock may vary according to tine
proximity 10 market-milk, butter,
cheese, or raising stock for sale.
The advantage of the butter produce
IS that nothing Of mineral value Is sold
Oft and removed from the land, except
the trifiug amount i'll wheat flour, and
III the flesh and bones of the hog. For
this reason | have had butter dairy
for several years, with the exception of
One year, when a milk dairy was tried.
The following table of the gross sales
Of produce OF all kinds in successive
years will show the influence of phospha-
les alone to improve farming land:
''roe- value C,st of feed Net profit No Of
Of -'c-. and seed on sal =. cows kept
l>tl. ~ So. 40 90. 2l79 S6......2
lsG-,. 30 p ...... 400 ...... l95gs4
1868, 1919 it. 5si 6l...... sl2Ss
1-t4, 1919 a. Ia ..... SO 4a5
1N65, 1853 0S zee. "a ill.,. llqs37 u
LEO, l+i- % .... +lo IL. l,og, BIB
At the present time, June, 1867. there
are fifteen cows and one bull From
thirteen milking cows we have obtained,
during June, an average OF some IS to
~ pounds OF butter per week, which is
an average of .! pounds per COW per
week. The grass on which these cows
have fed has been almost exclusively nro-