Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-01-07

we-that we. I say, may-Let that pass,
however, doubtless it does teach lesson,
but it's of no consequence.
Agricultural.
REFUSE OF THE FARM.
One of the greatest and most serious
leaks in farming is to be found In the
neglect to save and enconomize what might
be called the refuse of the farm. Few
farmers have any realizing sense of the
value of substances like leaves, weeds, road
scrapings and other similar things when
properly worked up into manure. We Of
ten see carloads of rank growths along the
sides OF the road thatan hours work would
gather, neglected and allowed to stand and
die where they grow. How glad the pigs
would be to pick over such mass of green
vegetable matter.
The leaves that accumulate in such
masses in the woods and along the walls
are utterly neglected in many cases, though
they would serve the double purpose of
furnishing warm bedding and making
vast quantity OF manure. Some farmers
excuse themselves or find an excuse for
this neglect by saying that the leaves serve
as mulch for the trees of the forest, and
that it would be robbing Peter to pay
Paul. That may be true to some extent,
but the loss Of thick coating of leaves,
now and then. would scarcely make any
I
trees, and that it is not really the reason
that they should give, because it will be
found, in nine cases out of ten, that far
mer who neglects to gather and save the
leaves also neglects to get out muck, neg
lects to get weeds, and other vegetable
unto his pig pen, neglects to clean out
ponds and streams that are full of mud and
rich with organic deposits, neglects to
compost and work over manures, and fails
! to thrive at farming. The real reason is
! that Of laziness, or the unwillingness to
! employ sufficient amount of labor, or to
direct that labor with constant Watchful
! ness and skill.
| Now, there is no business under the sun
where the profits depend SO exclusively
upon labor as in farming. To refuse to
/ hire an abundance of labor, or to neglect
! to direct and supervise it SO as to get the
greatest possible returns for it, is simply
! to ignore the first great law Of farming
/ that the profits depend on the labor. If 3
! farmer has no time to save the infinite va
riety OF refuse on the farm, and to manage
it so as to turn it to the greatest advantage,
| it shows that he is short of help. A man
may hire and claim that he cannot get
enough to pay his help, but if SO he is no
farmer, for labor properly and skilfully di-
rected, will pay, and pay abundantly. If
! he is not going to look after his help and
keep up to the work, he had better be
without ii Of course; but labor handled
with ordinary skill is the prime source of
al the profits and the success of farm
ing.
Labor as such never yet diminished any
mau's profit on the contrary, it is the
root and spring OF all profit. Labor, I'M
wisely directed and unskillfully managed,
is indeed great consumer of the farmers
prosperity. But labor, wisely directed,
can. from the nature of things, result in
nothing else but profit. The great secret
of European success in farming is much
labor on mparatively little land. With
us it is the reverse. We put little labor
on s. great deal Of land, and this is the
secret of our small profits as compared
with English farming.
In farming, as in some other pursuits, 1t
is the little things that tell on the final
result, and neglect of little things often
amounts to tbs difference between success
and failure. One farmer saves everything
that can act as an absorbent and mixes it
carefully with his manure; a4other does
not. One lays out his work so as to
economic time and labor another fails to
do it. One turns everything to account !;
another let's everything slide. One sue
ceeds and makes farming pay and another
finds there is no profit in farming. Now
the difference is very much in the men,
One would make any business pay, and
the OtQ0r WOulO make h OF ana
of anything which he undertook.
II ~ the refuse of the farm will assist
and improve grass land to wonderful ex-
tent. An application Of peat muck to
light land is worth almost as much as
coating of manure. And few farmers are
so situated as not to have an abundant
supply of this on their own farms. Few
| farmers are so situated as not to have an
abundant supply Of leaves or leaf mould
I no
| for winter use if it is not wanted for i'm
mediate use in the barnyard or in the barn
cellar. A day spent in hauling leaves, or
two or three days, will be we'll spent
They Will increase the supplies of manure.
and the manure heap is, or ought Il. be,
the farmers bank. It is theEsavings bank,
and the deposits are not limited to five
the more he can take out. The more he
can take out and put upon his land, the
greater crops can he raise.
There is much valuable material around
! the walls of the cultivated fields, the head
lands left in careless blowing, that is worth
digging, even with considerable labor, and
carting either to the pig pen, or to use in
filling up the holes where large rocks or
! bOulders have been dug out and removed.
Cleaning up around the walls gives the
farm heater and tidier appearance, to
say nothing Of the crops that can be made
to grow along them.
But of all the sources Of waste no one
can excel the 2oss we sustain in not work
ing up all the cefuse of every kind into a
fertilizing manure. Let every farmer store
up a large supply of leaves, dry muck OF
loan, to be used through the winter as an
absorbent Of liquids behind the CATTLE It
will add amazingly to the size and value of
the manure heap. Now is the time to Sc
cure it. Soon it will be too late.
There are numerous sources of waste
upon every farm, but discussion of them
would not be in place in this connection.
We began with the intention of calling
attention to the importance of saving the
hope that every farmer will look about and
see if there are not some sources of fertili-
ty that he can save.-Ploughnaa7a.