Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1872-07-20
Improved Farming and Farm Houses,

In the older portions of Texas, especial.
ly it is full time that more attention should
be given to the Improvement of farms and
farm houses. The abolition of slavery
has brought about new era and makes
many new arrangements very desirable if
not necessary.
With regard to farms, or plantations, as
they were generally called in the cotton
region, they should be smaller and cultiva-
ted with more care. They should oil be
inclosed, where it is possible, both the cul-
tivated and pasture lands Each mans
stock can then be kept by themsclves-a
much better kind can be raised-and few
er quarrcls will occur about them. Dallas
and the counties around it are now getting
two old and too thickly settled for stock
ranges. A different plan must be pursued.
Enclosed pastures and better stock must
take the place of open ranges and gener-
al intermixture of inferior qualities. Then
milk, butter and cheese, with general good
living, will follow. The crops should be
varied, and in this section of the State, we
insist that more attention should be paid
to the raising of grain Of all sorts than to
cotton. Our belief is that ultimately
grain and stock country will become rich
er than cotton one. Here in Northern
Texas we can raise every kind of grain in
abundance. But the farmer should not
conf n n b;ueolf IN ono Lind IF rroin Ho
should cultivate all kinds. When one
kind fails, there may be an abundance of
another. The wheat may be magnificent
when tho corn will faI short. So of rye,
barley, oats, etc. The farmers should
plant and sow o little Of everything, for
nothing will come amiss. Then, too, the re
should be q change Of crops on the same
land. One piece of land should not be
sown with wheat or planted with corn,
year after year, until the peculiar quail
ties of the soil, needed for the production
of certain kind of grain, are exhausted, |
as they will be on the surface in the rich
est lands that exist. This must not be |
forgotten. Farming requires information
and the exercise of good common sense as
well as other occupations in order to be
proftably conducted.
AS to farm houses, they should be built
not only in reference TO comfort and health |
but to a saving of labor. The old way of
having kitchens, separated from the dwell
ling houses, and sometimes quite dis
tance from them must be abandoned.
There is now much difficulty in obtaining
reliable household servants, and many of |
the very best of our people have to rely up
on their own labors for cooking and wash
ing and general house work. The houses
same roof, and wells and cisterns must be
constructed to be under cover, also and rs
convenient as possible. Then all expos
IRE to cold or heat may be avoided and a
great deal of labor and time saved. All
these things must be attended to now, and
the sooner the better. The dwelling hous-
es, too should have cellars, wherever the
soil will admit of them, for they will be
found exceedingly useful for keeping many
things cool in the summer and warm in
the winter.
Great attention should be given to gar.
dens and orcharLs, and the raising of veg
etables and fruits of all kinds. Farmers
must not only live, but live well, and have
every comfort about them, as they can
have easily in this favored portion of
Gods footstool. Ifthey do not become the
most prosperous and happy people in the
world, it will be their own fault, provided
they are left free and Independent of out
side oppression.
We have written these things TO show
that we know something about farming
and farm houses as well as Greeley, tho
We never expect TO become the President
even of county Agricultural Society,
much less TO be sent for by the people of
Wisconsin, to teach them how to raise cot