American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-02-03
How 10 Enrich Dairy Farms.

. SEVERAL plans by which to enrich
dairy farms suggest themselves. First
BY artificial manures, such as bone-dust
and nitrate Of soda. In some circum,
stances these manures might be used with
/ profit. Where genuine bone-dust can be
obtained for $25 per ton, and nitrate of
soda for 81 to cents per pound, we
/ should not hesitate to use them extensive
/ ly, at the rate say of 500 pounds of the
former and 200 pounds of the latter
/ to the acre On many fields such an APP
/ plication would double the grass crop at
once.
/ Second. Keep larger stock Of cows,
and buy more or less bran and grain to
+ supplement the homegrown feed. This
would increase the quantity and quality
of the manure and speedily augment the
/ productivGness of the farm.
Third. When any portion of the farm
is low and wet, drain it. Such land almost
/ invariably contains large amount of
latent plant-food. Draining, by removing
/ the stagnant water and letting in the air,
renders this plant-fOod available, and fire.
quently makes this low land the most
productive and profitable portion of the
farm. And the increased grass so OBJ
tanned enables us to keep more stock and
make more manure.
Fourth. Many dairy farms are so stu
ated that little labor will enable us to
irrigate several acres of grass land. Many
people have an idea that irrigation is only
useful during dry, hot weather On the
contrary, it is of more benefit early in
the spring than at any other time. And
if this fact was generally known, thou
sands of small streams which now use
lessly run down our hillsides when the
snow melts in the spring, would he
damned up and caused to flow in thin
sheet over acres of the adjoining grass
land. We have in mind an instance
where eight acres of land were SO irri-
gated at a merely nominal expense and
the produce of the land much more than
doubled. This increased produce enabled
the farmer TO keep more stock and make
more manure without increasing the size
of the farm.
Fifth. When there is bed of muck on
or near the farm it can generally be used
to great advantage, either applied alone
or compOsted with manure or ashes and
lime. Many Of our mucks contain, when
air-dried, more than twice as much nitro
gen as the best barn yard manure
Sixth. We must develop the latent
plant-food in the soil by tillage, by plow-
ing, cultivating, and otherwise exposing
the soil to the action of the atmosphere.
We are aware that many dairymen are
opposed TO breaking up their old pastures,
and we certainly would not recommend
any dairyman who has one of these rich
old pastures TO pillow it. But are there
not portions Of the farm-used for mead
ows, etc.-wherc good summer-fallow,
or a thoroughly cultivated corn crop,
would do good BY cleaning the land and
developing the latent plant-foods What
the dairyman wants is more food and
more manure. Judicious tillage on a
portion Of his land will certainly give
him more food, and If none Of it is sold,
its consumption will give him more ma
nure. On a diary-farm of one hundred
acres twenty-five acres might be left in
permanent pasture, and the remaining
seventy-five acres might be brought more
or less under the plow-say fifteen acres
Of corn, fifteen acres Of oats, seeded with
clover and timothy, fifteen acres ofclover,
mown twice, fifteen acres clover and tim
oihy, and fifteen acres Of timothy for hay
or pasture The next year break up and
plant corn again. II this is too
much corn. part Of the field might
be soWn with peas, and after the peas
were harvested the land might he plowod
twice, thoroughly cultivated. and got into
hne condition, and then seeded with tim
othy in september There can be no
doubt that far greater amount Of produce
may be missed IN this way than by keep
ing the land wholly in grass. Tie corn
stalks and straw with - portiDn Of clover
nay and little Erain would form a much
more economical winter feed than hay /