Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-08-17
Mode! Farming.

boNci II HEtiiihE'
A committee appointed by the New
York Farmers Club to visit Beacon
Farm, at Northport, reported as follows,
through its chairman, f. d. Curtis;
In 1868 there were on the place six or
eight COWS, pair of mules, horse or
two, and 80 head of Merino sheep
They made about rs loads of manure.
The 600 acres of arabic land was cut in
to 20 or more small fields, divided from
each other by old hedge rows, full OF
briars and small cedars. Several hun
dred acres were III the old common, that
Welded scant pasturage for two or three
months in summer Much of this com
mon was overgrown with oak bushes,
little cedars and hickory stunts. Now
we find the farm stocked with SO horned
cattle, of superior thoroughbred stock,
so horses, 81 sheep, ~ hogs 300 hens
and 35 ducks, and he buys no hay, no
corn, no oats, no roots. he has Oh
acres in one clover field. The sole out
lay for cattle food, is about $500 for
wheat thorts. Instead OF Is loads of
manure, we estimate his compost piles
for use this spring and summer to con-
tain 1000 loads.
Manure making with this vigorous
farmer is not a theory--an effort and a
wish merely-as it is with thousands.
He makes it. There are the immense
banks of it standing fathom deep IN
the main stock yard, and looming
above the burrows of all the plowed
| fields. His compost pile is not the
winters accumulation thrown into the
yard from stable doors and windows to
be hauled in the field in April and May.
| Manure making composing goes on
/ the year round; no day of winter IS so
| cold but it sees additions to the piles of
fertilizers, no summer morning without
| its round of chores that swell the heap
Everything" he says, "must have a
mother, and manure Is She mother OF all
things" He keeps an OK team, and
has them driven steadily at work the
year round, hauling absorbents and
composing stuff. His task is, five
loads before dinner and five after DIN
ner of leaves from the woodlands,
muck, weeds and salt mud. His calcu-
lation ia that the solid droppings of a
COW or OK amount to something like
ten loads in year, and that ten loads
of muck and leaves should be compost
ed with it. For manure making he
saws four sheep equal a COW, horse
( equal. two COWS, and two hogs equal n
/ COW.
/ Pasture land he does not believe in.
| Young animals and mich cows should
have a small range, and run ii an hour
! or two for exercise But quarter Of a
mile day is all the walk a mich COW
needs. This forcing COW to range
over wide reach of hill and swamp
and moor and wood for the material to
make milk of. is he insists, the crying
sin Of American dairymen. He IS a
thorough believer in cooking for all
/ farm animals in winter, and cutting
green food for them all summer. Be
/ ginning, for instance, with May, he goes
/ through as follows: May, old hay, the
/ last of the stalks and roots, and rye
June, clover and oats. July, sowed
corn and fresh meadow hay. August,
1 sowed corn clover and oats. Septem
/ Der, sowed corn, field corn, soft heads
/ Of cabbage. October and November,
/ turnip tops, carrot tops, corn, beet tops,
and roots. November 10 to May -,
boiled food, corn stalks, hay and roots,
steamed together and sprinkled with
meal and shorts, the rate being about
four tons roots to one Of stalks and
hay. He used Prindle's boiler, large
size, and double steam box.
The stalks and roots are all cut fine,
shoveled into the box, and the steam
let on in about six hours 1t is soft so
that a stick can be pushed through it.
1t is allowed to cool to the temperature
of the blood before it is given to the
animals. His roots, Swedes, mangolds
and carrQsss are grown in the following
manner: Draw burrows say two and q
half feet apart, and fill them with ma
nure then cover with a double furrow
and roll flat, and open enough to receive
the seed: cultivate with horse hoe. On
land not remarkable fertile he gets
tlir.v-fve tons to the acre; allowing