Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1870-02-04
arul, 6ardeu & stoasellOld.
From the New York Tribune.
WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING.
Good and Bad Husbandry.
BY noRAcE aREELEr

may firmly believe that the soil should be
thoroughly broken up and pulverized TO a
depth of 6heen TO thirty inches, according to
the crop but, if all the team he can muster
is yoke Of thin, light steers, or a span Of
old, spawned horses, which have not even a
speaking acquaintance with grain, what shall
he do? So be may heartily wish he bad q
thousand loads Of barn-yard manure, and
know how to make good use ofeveFy ounce
of it; but, if be has it not, and is not able to
buy it, he can't always afford to iorbear SOW
ing and planting, and so, because he cannot
secure great crops, do without any crops at
all. If be does the best he can, what better
can he do?
Again Many farmers have fields that must
await the pleasure Of Nature to fit them for
thorough cultivation Here is a feld-some-
times whole farm-which, If partially d.
vested Of the primitive forest, is still thickly
dotted witk obstinate stumps and filed with
green, tenacious, roots, which could only be
removed at heavy, perhaps ruinous cost.
A rich man might order them all dug out in
a month, and see his order fully obeyed; but,
except to clear spot for garden or under
very peculiar circumstances, It would not pay;
and poor man cannot afford to incur heavy
expense merely for appearance sake, or to
make theatrical display Of energy. Ii the
great majority Of cases, he who farms Tor a
living can afford to pull green stumps, but
must put his newly cleared land into grass at
the earliest day, NOV the smoother and pas
ture the rougher portion of it, and wait for
rain aud drouth, heat and frost, to rot his
stumps until they can easily be pulled or burn
ed out as they stand.
So with regard to process detest, known
as Pasturing. / do firmly believe that the
time is at hand when nearly al the food Of
cattle will, in our Eastern and Middle States,
be cut and fed to tbem-that We cant afford
much longer, even if we can at present, to let
them roam at will over hill and dale, through
meadow and forest, biting off the better plants
and letting the worse go to seed; often poach.
ing up the soft, wet soil. especially in Spring,
SO that their hoofs destroy as much as they
eat nipping and often killing in their infan.
cy the finest trees, such as the Sugar Maple,
and leaving only such as Hemlock, Red Oak,
Beech, &c, to attain maturity. Our race
generally emerged from sayageism and squal
or into industry. comfort and thrift, through
the PASTORAL condition-the herding, tanning,
rearing aud training of animals being that
department Of husbandry to which barbarians
are mostly easily attracted hence, we cling
to Pasturing long after the reason for it has
vanished. The radical, incurable vice of Pas.
turing-thAt Of devouring the better plants
and leaving the worse to form aad diffuse
seed-caH never be wholly obviated and |
deem it safe to estimate that almost any farm
viii carry twice as much stock if their food
be mainly cut and fed to them as It viii if
they are required to pick it up where and as
It grows or grew. I am sure that the gener-
al adoption Of Soiling instead of Pasturing
will add immensely to the annual product, to
the wealth, and to the population, Of our old.
er States. And yet, know right well that
many farms are now so rough and otherwise
so unsuited to Soiling as to preclude its adop-
NAN- f1NAIS AoA uiat8g years 70 come.
Let me indicate what | mean by Good
Farming, through an illustration drawn from
the Great West:
All over the settled portions of the Valley
of the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri
there are large and small herds of cattle. that
are provided with little or no shelter. The
lea OF fence or stack, the partial protection
of young and leafess wood, they may chance
to enjoy: but that it is a ruinous waste to leave
them aprey to biting frosts aad piercing north
westers, their owners seem not to compre.
heud. Many farmers far above want viii. this
Winter feed out fields of Corn aud stacks of
Hay to herds Of cattle that will not be one
pound heavier on the lst Of May next Than
they were,on the lst Of December Iast-wbo
will have required that fodder merely to pre-
serve their vitality and escape freezing to
death. It has maiaIy been employed as fuel
rather than as uourishment, and has served
not to put on flesh, but to keep out frost.
Now l am familiar with the excuses for this
waste, but they do not satisfy me. The poor
est pioneer might have built for his one COW
rude shelter Of stakes and poles. and straw
or prairie grass it he had realized its impor-
lance, simply in the light Of economy He
who has many cattle is rarely without both
straw and timber and might shelter his stock
abundantly if he only would Nay: he could
not have neglected or omitted /. if he had
clearly understood that bis cattle must some.
how be supplied with beat, and that he can
far cheaper warm them from without than
from within
The broad, general, unquestianable truths
on which l insist on behalf of Good Farmiba
are these: and do not admit that they are
subject to exception:
/. 1t is very rarely impraetieable 10 grow
good crops, if You are willing to work for
them. Hyour land is too poor to grow Wheat
or Corn, and you are not yet able toenrichi il.
SOW Rye or Buckwheat; if you cannot coax it
to grow good crop Of anything, let it alone;
and, ifyon cannot run away from IL, work
out by the day or month for your more fortu.
nate neighbor. The time and means souan-
deTed IN trying to grow crops where only half
or quarter crops can be made constitute the
heaviest item on the wrong side Of our far.
mers' balauce-sheet; taxing them more than
their National, State, and local Governments
together DO.
II. Good crops rarely fail to yield profit
to the grower. know there are exceptions,
but they are very few. Keep your eye on the
farmer who almost uniformly has great Grass.
good Wheat, heavy Corn, &c, and. unless he
drinks, or has some other bad habit. yoo will
hnd him growing rich. am confident ,bs,
white blaekbirds are nearly as abundant as
farmers VINO have become poor while usually
growing good crops.
III Inc tairest single test Of Good Farm.
ing Is increasing prodnctiveness Of the soil.
That iarm which averaged twenty bushels of
Gram to the acre twenty years ago, twenty
hFe bushels ten years ago, and viii measure
mn Hhs~F-. L.. a.