The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-11-11
Large and Small Farms.

Don't be in hurry to go!
Large and Small Farms.
The editor of the Rural World, published
at St. Louis. asks:
"Why cultivate twenty acres of corn
(sometimes forty) in order to raise thou
sand bushels, when by extra preparation
and care GALL things being equaD 1t may be
raised on ten acres? By so doing, ten acres
would be LETT for other purposes. We ven
ture the assertion, that among our farmers
more cultivate too large than too small a
farm For years to come farm hands are
likely to be scarce and labor high. Reader,
are you getting in shape so as to make your
pillow land less or are you also alter the
adjoining forty acres ?" s..r51 .,--.
A. correspondent of the same paper says
onthis subject:
..tSmall farming can he done more scientlh-
cally and Systematically than it is generally
practicable'to have done on large farms !;
and the consequence is. that more is pro-
duced to the acre than is the result of large
farming. .....
o If such is the fact-which is founded on
reason and practical demonstration-small
farming adds to the wealth of our country,
both in excess of products and the actual
worth of real estate which is more thorough
ly and generally improved in small than in
large tracts OF land. 1t is manifest evidence
of growing wealth and prosperity to see the
large farms being divided into small ones,
and making still more new homes; increase
of population, stimulate enterprise, build
up our institutions, and make US a strong
and wealthy State"
UTILIZING WAsTE.-In tue operations of
the farmer, the great secret of his success Is
the facility and cheapness of the manure
heap which is made out of the waste materl-
ais that accumulate or exist about him
This material is always accumuating, and
where agriculture is badly carried on, there
is usually a proportionate neglect of ma
nures. A country is impoverished in its
agriculture, just in proportion as its crops
are removed and tile waste is unsupplied to
the soil now undergoing exhaustion. Hence
country that carries its products to the
city, and where the waste of the city is al
lowed to run into the sea, is in great danger
of being run out.
Like nature herself, the farmer should al
low nothing to run to waste. He must learn
to utilize everything. The ancients when
engaged in mining operations frequently
performed their work very unskillfully, and
it is said that the silver mines that were
wrought in Greece in the days of Xenophen
are now worked over again by making use
Of the waste materials OF that day.
Poor farming only partially uses the waste
materials of the farm; good farming saves
the whole, just as the skillful miner works
out all the gold from the ore
1t is hard finding farmer at the present
day who will allow stream to run through
his barn-yard and carry off bis liquid ma
nure, or who will set fires to his heaps of
straw, or who will allow his chip-yard to ac-
cumulate load after load of refuse matter
These faults of the farmer are rarely to be
seen at the present day, but the great ques-
ton will arise in the minds of most farmers,
how they shall add to their manures, and
how they shall treat them. n
An important rule is to make the manure
heap common receptacle of everything
otherwise useless about the house and barn.
1t is surprising how great an accumuia-
ton of manure attentive farmers can make
by watching every opportunity to save it.
How MUCH How much better is your
farm than it was one year agos How much
better are your Implements How much
more lovely have you made your home by
the planting of trees and shrubs2 How
much have you added to the value of your
property by the planting of orchard trees
and the small fruits2 How much better is
your stock of horses, of sheep, of cattle9
How much OF error have you discovered in
your mode of treatment OF the different crops
you have grown2 How much have you
learned from your neighbors, from your ag-
ricultural papers, from your experience in
relation to your farm operations2 How
much have you done to aid your wife and
daughters in their household duties by fur
nishing them with improved household
utensils and the better location and arrange.
ment of wells, cisterns, walks, wood piles,
cellars and dairy rooms? How much of
kindness and charity have you exercised to-
ward the needy and the helpless? How
much better husband, father, brother, man
are you than you were one year agoa Now
is the time to reflect upon all these things
Prairie Farmer.
GROWTH OF Wool IN THE UNITED STATES
The Rutland county (Vt) Journal says:
"The history of the growth of wool is very
curious. Fifty years ago not pound of fine
wool was grown In the United States, in
Great Britain, or in any other country ex-
espt SPAIN In 1884 a small flock was sent
to the Elector of Saxony as present from
the King of Spain. whence the entire pro-
duct of Saxonv wool, now of such immense
value. In 1860, during the invasion of
Spain by the French, some of the valuable
crown flock were sold to raise money. The
American Consul, Jarvis, at Lisbon. pur-
chased 1,400 head and sent them to this
country. A portion of this pure and un-
mixed Merino flock is still to be found in
Vermont at this time Such was the origin
of the immense flock of fine wool sheep in
the United States at the present tima "a
THE VIRTUES OF BoRAX-The washer
women of Holland and Belgium. so pIover-
bially clean, and who get up their linens so
beautifully white, use refined borax as
washing powder, instead of soda, in the
proportion of large handful of borax
: powder to about ten gallons of boiling
water; they save in soap nearly half. All
the large washing establishments adopt the
same mode. For laces, cambries ETC., an
extra quantity of the powder is used, and
for crlnoilnes (requiring to be made stiff a
strong solution is necessary. Borax being a
2 neutral salt, does not in the slightest degree
1nJure the texture of the linen; its effect is
to soften the hardest water, and therefore il
should be kept on the toilet table To tbo