The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-12-02
agricultural department.
CONDUCTED BY ALBERT CHAPMAN.
The New Departure in Farming,

S'NsS Nv udput WnCu tuC mtTb VI NEW
England will find it to their profit to
practice more decidedly mixed husband.
ry. They should also endeavor, as far
as possible, to raise such things as will
feed their own families as we'll as others,
Those 10 the vicinity of large towns and
cities may find it advisable to farm spec.
ial crops; and those in the outlying
districts will surely fluid it remunerative
TO raise their own meat, fruit, vegetables,
butter, cheese, poultry, etc, aud also
surplus, which will find ready market,
and enable them to put by a ittle an
nually, for future needs.
But farmer b. asks, chow can | do
this ? | like the idea indeed, | have
always preached upon it, but how to
bring the precept in practice is more than
| can tell"
Let US tell you, friend that this can
be done by cultivating few less acres
than now comprise your ploughing fields.
Take new departure in your farming,
aud make few acres far more produce
tive, instead of cultivating so many. and
receiving so poor return from all.
Choose 40, 90 or 60 acres of your best
meadow-and for grass, and for growing
root crops and cereals, and let the other
hundred or two acres grow into timber
and pasturage. You shake your head,
Farmer b., and probably doubt our state
ment that ar'little farm well.tilled" will
prove far more remunerative than the
two or three hundred acres which you
now pretend to cultivate and you ask.
"How can bring those acres of moving
and plough land up to a high state Of
fertility? Farm help is very scarce /;
wages are high l believe in few years
the hired men will own the farms,-what
shall l do ?"
All, there's the rub. But your chief
resource for bringing up those worn.out
acres lies in feeding what they produce to
your stock and carefully storing up all
the solid and liquid excrement obtained
from them, and in the spring restoring it
to the land. Barn.yard and stable man.
uro are worth far more than all the
manufactured fertilizers of the country.
Raise your calves, raise colts, raise pigs,
feed out your produce and then restore it
In manufactured state to your exhaust
ed fields. You are supposed to be an
intelligent farmer, and Of course you
know that leaf mold, and the decayed
vegetation Of the swamps, added to sods
of grass, obtainabe at every roadside.
will greatly increase your manurial re.
sources. The trees Of your door.yard
offer you fertilizng material which will
revive your fields, while the boys and
swamps upon your farm will give you
hundreds of cart.loads of muck, which
should be hauled into the barn.yard as is
practicable The compost heap has been
well styled the farmers laboratory"
for in it the various kinds of crude fertil.
izers pass through chemical process
which fits them to feed your growing
crops. To it you should add bushels Of
lime, salt ashes, plaster and ground
bones, and fork the whole heap over, at
least once month, so far as to expose
the whole surface to the favorable in
iluences Of the frost. After little ex 4.
perience you will learn just what quaint.
ties Of these various fertlizing mediums
to compost and in this way you can
manufacture hundreds of loads of manure,
far more desirable than all you may buy
at the factories. Salt is more desirable
agent for worn out lands SOW it broad.
cast this season, and kill the myriads of
worms, etc, which have infested your
growing crops. 1t will destroy their
larvae far better than anything else, and
revive the soil Take the newspapers,
Friend b., read learn and digest, and
then become your own chemist, and mix
your eompost-heap scientifically and with
very little expense you can learn how to
reclaim your barren fields Increase
your dairy resources make quantities of
cheese and butter. Fill up your poultry.
house, or build new one, and make it
warm and comfortable for the feathered
focks; feed them with egg.producipg
food; and then fill your purse with the
greenbacks obtained from the sale of all
these things.
But don't attempt too much for mortal
man TO do, Put down the bars. Let the
pine, spruce aud hemlock trees grow up
in the outlying fields, aud if needs be,
plant over the hill sides with seeds of
maple. chestnut and walnut trees. Plant
for posterity-so that your great grand.
children will rise up and call you blessed.
Increase your available resources in every
possible way. Plant fruit trees of all
kinds; also the small fruits raise QUAINT
ties vegetables Your stock will fat.
ten better upon pumpkins, potatoes, cab.
bages, turnips, beets and parsnips, than
upon diet composed of hay and meal.
And above all, don't try to compete with
the growing prairie lands of the
great West. Raise what corn you wish
to feed out, but don't depend upon it for
market purposes. Raise your own rye
and wheat Cultivate large fields Of pc.
tatoes; they are usually a paying crop,
Persist in this course from year to year,
and take our word for it that 10 five years
your bank accountwil show decided i'm.
provement, and while your fields will in.
form your neighbors that intelligence has
entered into their culture, and the new
departure at which, perhaps, they were
inclined to laugh, has proved most prot.
liable investment.
DO you know what one acre has been
made to produce in New England? If
not listen minute, while we sopy from
the records. One acre Of land has been
known to produce As bushels of wheat,
100 bushels Of shelled corn, i've tons of
English hay, and other farm crops in one
season. Now look at your two or three
hundred acres, and calculate their product
oy this one.
Depend upon it friends, the great
amount Of land you cultivate will surely
deplete your purses. Take heed to your
ways, therefore, and commence the new