The Grange advance., 1873-10-22


Of Husbandry; express themselves
warmly in favor of its principles except
ing its secrecy. In short, there seems
to be general stampede out West in
favor Of the movement, regardless Of
religious predictions or previous po-
litical afiliations-N. Y. Herald
For The Grange Advance.
FARMERS SHOULD READ
MORE.
This is fact that very few will deny,
and yet they do not seem to profit very
much from the advice, and why? l
will tell you brothers few Of the rea-
sons why you do not, yet in so doing I
do not expect to tell you anything new,
but hope to impress upon Your minds
the great Importance Of knowing what
your brothers are doing, and how they
do it, SO that you may profit by their
experiments and experience. am
sorry to say that too many farmers live
as they think, and often say, only for
themselves and their own families, and
have all they can attend to, without
knowing how Farmer A. plants his
potatoes or feeds his cattle" Now i'll
farmer A--has made study of pota.
toes for the last ten years, for instance,
and has tried different kinds on different
soils, his experience is worth something
to you, for it would take you as long
perhaps to try the experiment as
thoroughly as he has done. On the 9TH
er hand if farmer A-has been trying
different methods of feeding stock with
different kinds Of feed, and happens to
have all the conveniences for weighing
the feed given. and occasionally to weigh
the stock, and has taken the pains to
keep an account and gives the results
without charge, it is 1 say of great i'm
portance to you to have the benefit Of
his experiments; for if farmer A-has
discovered by his experiments that he
can save 20 per cent. of the feed, by
some change in the old plan Of feeding
1 say it is worth something to you to
know it, for that 20 per cent. is just as
good to you as 20 per cent. saved in the
cost Of your new reaper or wagon.
Some say "give me the old way and
none Of your new tangled notions;" now
this will not answer, for if we should
adopt this plan, it would bring us back
to the old sickle and wooden plow.
Brothers, the time has come when we
must improve all the opportunities to
learn of the best methods, the best way
to realize the greatest gain from the
least expense and labor. Now I say
farmers should read more ; this is very
true indeed, but do not stop here. You
will learn many things from the writings
of others in reference to their ways of
farming, and their success, but you also
have had good success in some of
your crops, or in stock raising, or in
marketing your crops, OF stock now I
say do not stop until you have put it
on paper and sent it to the Editor of
The GRANGE ADVANCE, or some other
good agricultural paper, and let your
brother farmers profit by your expert
ence as you do by Others Oh, but you
say you are no hand to write, (" or that
you are out Of practice;" yes, know
that is the great trouble with US. Now
let us get our hands in to the habit
again, or if we never did it before let's
commence now. Well but one says II
could not write fit for paper" Well
you can tell how you succeed best in
fattening pork, or how you harvest your
corn with the least work, and how you
take care of your milch COWS; surely you
can do this, and brother farmer will
understand your plain talk as we'll, OF
better, and I dare say put as much con-
fidence in your way Of doing as if he
had read wonderful effort by Profess