The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-01-03
Make n Map of Your Farm.

System ia the soul of success. Order
is said TO be heavens first law; but
there can be no order without system,
and 30 surely there can be no long con-
tinued success in farming without sys-
tenn and order. The first thing essential
to the establishment of system on any
farm is to lay it out in fields. Upon
this operation far more depends than
the great majority of farmers have any
idea. Aside from the looks of farm
being spoiled by badly arranged fields,
an almost incredible increase of labor is
often entailed upon the farmer and his
hands by fences wrongly placed. s. We
know of no better plan to secure con-
venient and economical laying out of a
farm than to make a map of it, putting
down every natural feature in its proper
place, and then marking off the fields
according to some settled plan of ro-
tation of crops, and laying down roads
so as to occupy the. shortest possible
route to and from the fields. }aof-
Nothing will so much conduce to the
adoption of a system of working the
farm as well prepared map, hung
where the farmer can see it every day.
It will be sure to set him to thinking
and planning how best to pitch his crops
and how best to work to save work.
And once the farmer adopts a system of
farming, he starts on the road to success.
1t matters not that the system is not the
best that could be devised, SO long as it
is system it is infinitely to be prefer
red to the haphazard practice of many
farmers. We therefore advise every
one who owns farm to make at once,
or have made, a map of it and hang it
up where he can see it every day. And
having made it, study it.
Noah Webster ON Potato Culture.
Noah Webster's worldwide fame does
not rest ON what he knew of farming,
but The following-letter, dated New
York, April %, 1897 and, addressed to
Robert r. Livingston, President of
the "New-York Agricultural Society, y
shows that he was careful observer of
something else than aUords. He writes:
You know my love of the first and
best occupation of man-dgr'icutture-
and how anxious / am to see this most
usesul business improved among my
fellow citizens. In my present situa-
ton have no opportunity to make ex-
periments ON a large scale; but some
observations made the last year, ON the
growth of potatoes, may possibly be
worth. the notice of the Agricultural
Society. From single experiment,
am led to the following results:
l. The seed potatoes should be those
of full growth.
2. Cutting produce more than whole
potatoes.
3. The English white grow to per-
lection in shorter time, and upon a
poorer soil than the red. The difference
is essential. They are, therefore, best
for early potatoes.
4. Potatoes will not come to perfec-
ton without the sun. Therefore moth
ing so preiudicial as to plant them too
thick, especially upon rich soil.
5. The cuttings in drills, where the
land is light, will answer well at nine
inches distance This seems to be a
good distance for the Whites. But in
rich land, especially, if the potatoes be
the red kind, the stalks of which grows
to large size, the distance should be
not less than from II to Is inches.
If these observations contain anything
not generally known, you are at liberty
to lay them before the Society. If not,
the communication Won will please to
suppress.