Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-03-24
General Farming and Stock Raising

We have met here to-day "a farm
ers to compare notes and ideas for
our mutual benefit as agriculturalists
and it is only by knowing that the
wise and learned sometimes learn
practical truths Of value from those
of far less attainments, that l have
been persuaded to say a few words,
hoping that may he able to adduce
some idea or truth that will be Of
benefit TO some Of the farmers of our
part Of the country. iowa is almost
exclusively an agricultural State,
(th0ugh we hope soon to see the day
when she may manufacture all that
is needed for her own consumption
at least,) her wealth is almost exclu-
sively derived from her soil-and in
fact, the true wealth, the great saw
ings bank, Of every country is her
soil. Now, are we as individual
farmers doing all that we can to adj
vance the general welfare, and our
own individual fortunes placing
ourselves in a position to enjoy the
comforts and luxuries of life, and the
pleasure of having the means to help
in every good work that comes before
us. AS we look over our country, we
see that God has given us q State
that cannot be excelled by any Of
her sister States, and equaled but by
few, even in this favored land, i'm
richness of soil aud every thing that
goes to make up the real wealth of
country. Yet with all these advan-
tages; richness of soil and a country
prepared to the hand Of the husband
man, ready for the plew, we see
many farms that have only been
opened few years, showing evident
signs Of wear-the mine Of wealth
we had thought almost ineXhausta-
bic beginning to give out-we have
been continually drawing from our
savings bank without depositing
anything. We do not have to look
far or study a great deal to see the
cause. Excessive cropping and poor
tillage taking off and
never putting baCk-constantly rid
ing a free horse without feed or rest,
and even decently currying him
down; can anyone wonder at the
consequence. 1t Is wheat, wheat. 49,
Now, it is an old-and ! fiud it true
--adage, that wheat after wheat DO
man can eat. We are constantly
condensing the best properties of our
soil and Stripping it Off in the shape
of wheat, and having to ship it so
far at such high price, we are not
even getting pay for the labor of
sending to market, let alone the pay
for our soil itself. In some countries
when they have the advantage of
high markets at home, without SO
much freight, and cheap fertilizers
in abundance, it might be different.
Yet, we find, as we cast our eyes over
our country, from it's earliest history
until now, that in all those parts
where they could raise wheat the
Lest, from New England even to
Iowa, that excessive growing of
wheat has impoverished the soil, and
that it has only been by turning to
the grasses, or cheap freight NATURES,
that they have retrieved their losses
and brought their land back to any
thing like its former fertility. Coun-
tries like England, where long
course of protection has made them
good home market and where for
eigh fertilizers can be cheaply got,
could stand it better; still, England's
chief glory is her grasses and fine
stock. think / need say no more
to convince anyone that the MAORI
| ty of our farmers are on the wrong
road to wealth and prosperity. l
any are not convinced, let them cas-,
their eyes over our country. and how
many of the farmers that are max
ing wheat the main object 90 they
see that are badly in debt, their lane
running down; not even their seeC
wheat on hand, but have to buy a.
exorbitant prices, while they hac
TO sell at very low. But, L am asked
how can we help it; we have M
meals to buy stock nor to get fenc
ing, besides we are told that the tame
grasses will not 90 we'll here. | viii
tell you what I think you can do
In the first place, you can just a
| well run in debt for some young
stock and little fencing, as we'll as
| for so much seed wheat and such &
large amount Of machinery to raise
it with that is lying around every
| nook and corner, until it rots down
Your machinery is soon gone, but
your young stock is growing better
all the time. For instance, man
can soon get 40 or so shoats, and il
he will seed 10 or twelve acres to
clover and timothy, buy pine boards
enough to make three board fierce
around il (which is Sufficient to keep
hogs, / will guarantee that he will
S0rc-over the common way OF keep
ing hogs in small yard--in feed and
the amount of pork that he will
make from that number OF hogs in
one year enough TO pay for the fence,
and when he Games TO sell he will
find that he has little left to extend
little more the next year; is paying
Of his debts and making his land
better. He will soon see more stock
around him, and less old rea, ers and
threshing machines rottiDg ia ali
his yards. But, they say, grass will
not grow here. / was once told by
an old man in Illinois, that apple
trees would not grow there (t was
when that State was new; that it
was of no U.s. TO set out apple trees
there, as they would not do anything,
he had tried it aud knew. Now
will tell you how he tried it: lie set
one long row right through the mid
ile of u field and then let the stock
of all kinds run over them, and soon,
as anyone might know, there was
not vestige of tree left; and can
anyone tell me of country that it
would not have been the same way.
Now, it is all just as great mistake
about the tame grasses not doing
well in this Stale. About sixteen
years previous to that, | was through