Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-01-03
6te farm.
Success in Farming.

success In this pursuit depends largely
upon the muscular and mental activity of
the representatives of this noble class of
the worlds workers. The time was when
the rich, fresh soil of the older States, back
ed by the grand old forests themselves,
yielded an abundant harvest by force of
muscular effort on the part of the husband
man, in connection with favorable isother
NAL and hygrometrical conditions. To-day,
over vast area, in the aggregate as large
as the largest of the Eastern States, the
surface soil, which has been harrassed be-
yond endurance yields scarce enough to
entitle the product to the name of crop.
Treading in the footsteps of their fathers,
and farming in the time honored way of
their grandfathers before them, the surface
soil has become almost exhausted of many
essential elements of plant food. As may
be inferred, this will. be found to be the
case the most frequently in those commu-
mites where the least number of agricul-
tuIal books and papers are read. AS a
rule, the successful farmer is the reading
one-for it is only this way that he can
keep himself sufficiently posted to keep
up with the times, or to keep abreast of
the. spirit of the age in which we live.)
An agricultural community without pa
pers and books adapted to their varied
interests, is like ship at sea without com com
pass or rudder. We doubt very much
whether farmer in farming community
can afford to let his neighbors do without
at least one agricultural paper; for we find
that our reading community make more
money; have better homes, richer lands,
have attained a better social condition
and are better off in every conceivable
way, than those who do not read books
and papers.
Books and papers beget spirit of pro-
gress.' They are The leaven which infusses
life, vigor and spirit of progress and in.
quiry into every farming community
They go before and lead the way to FAM
ers' clubs and fair associations. We re-
peat, then, that it is our candid belief that
if every farmer would see that his neigh
bors took at least one good agricultural
paper, and were furnished annually with
the State and United States agricultural
reports, even if it required little trouble
on his part-it would result in the best
pecuniary results, and not only to himself
but to the whole neighborhood as the-in-
creased value of the lands and improve
ments in the. neighborhood would be in
direct Fatio:to the amount of intelligence
and enterprise therein. The farmers of to-
day, aswelI as the comingaone, shouldsbe
educated in agricultural science, and then
reduce his knowledge to practice. 1t has
so long been customary to associate men
tai activity with physical inactivity, that
we are apt to think that this must necess-
arily always be So.
Our young men still look with longing
eyes towards our cities; first because their
country homes are in by far too many in
stances, as unattractive as it is possible to
make them; secondly, because of a misun-
derstanding of the real difficulties which
are incident to successful career in our
principal cities This may continue to be
SO for a long time, yet it is to be hoped
that farmers and their families will set a.
bout a through reform in making their
homes more pleasant and attractive; by
encouraging reading, the cultivation of
fruits and flowers, music and sociability,
tree planting for ornament and utility-in
fact, work complete reform in what by
far too many farmers consider unimport-
ant and trivial matters, which nevertheless,
have a powerful influence in shaping, the
future career of their children.
In order to- make farming success, not
only muscle, but brain and heart, must each
take part. Education in the line of some
chosen pursuit is now in order. Happily
farm work now requires a greater range of
mechanical ability than formerly, and we
have reason to believe that many other fac
ulties which have heretofore seemed out
of place on the farm, will soon be called
into requisition in order to enable the far
mer to achieve full measure of success
Successful farming, as we understand it,
implies not only constant pecuniary gain,
but constant increase in the acquisition
and introduction into our system of farm
ing, of newer and better ideas than we
formerly possessed, coupled with an in
creased desire for special knowledge of
our pursuit and a higher perception of
our social relations to each other, and oil
our true standing as representatives of the
the leading occupation of mankind.-Ru-
raj World.
POTASH For PEACH TREEs.-At the
meeting Of the Horticultural Society, Mr..
Shepard alluded to potash as most ex-
eellent fertilizer for peach trees. He had
a peach orchard of about twenty-five acres;
the soil was poor. and MANFRED with pot
ash only. One barrel, costing $50, or fif-
teen cents pound, lasted him, four years.
He dissolved it in water, so that the lye
would be so weak that a potato put in it
would not quite come to the surface, and
then applied two quarts Of this liquid
oloao oround tho trunG averv sDriuo -