The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-05-04

/ tlry co. r1ise such CROP tHcn Youil boar
1r iHa slow 900 .unoroos process
uta 10 Unrlci u.iN uE 'vdna and
/ 'hat - 0or.. uo'lru tAU .tWorwas
rog'r Or ei. ot fN. -.lru.t ~ t0
n.' 'rf uw tuuol nw .INrr a-
, A-4- ~..,O with the horse will reach
! thriving manufacturing village, from al
most any farm in New England. or an hour
on the cars will take him to some large
| city, where he will find customers waiting
to buy, pay for and cat up anything he may
| have to sell, and the more perishablc the
article the more ready they are to buy, if
it is good. This n general rule.
| Therefore, we can grow greater
variety of produce for market than it would
| have been profitable to raise then, and VIC
can find profit in all. Or, at any rate,
VIC have not call our eggs in one basket"
lfpotatocs fail TO be profitable, cabbages
will make it up if early peas suffer from
the drouth n crop of turnips will pay. And
this | consider the great advantage of our
own cold, rocky, sandy New England; that
there is scarcely farm an hundred acres
but has such variety of soil that the far
mcr may select his locality for each crop
that he desires to cultivate, and have the
soil that is best for it, and have also ready
market for all, from strawberries to Hub
ounces | know some men have done
well at especial crops" and few have
grown rich thereby, but is equally true
that many others have impoverished their
farms and pockets, too, in attempting the
same thing. The successful ones haye
also special faculty, as well as especial
crop" or else they have a special soil, just
suited to that thing. Some localities are
peculiarly adapted to certain crops. The
Connecticut river valley farmers go in
for tobacco and time has been when many
made money in tobacco growing a few do
now, but it is getting more like lottery
every year. More blanks than prizes. On
Cape Cod man is scarcely thought far
mer, or thinks himself one, unless he has
an acre or more of cranberry bog. Other
crops prevail in other localities. But how
would it be if they were to change locali-
ties. Put the Berkshire farmers
to g.owing cranberres, and set straw
berries in Aroostook county, and plant hops
or tobacco in Cape Cod sand. If a man is
satisfied that himself or his location is pecu-
liarly adapted to a certain purpose, let him
make a specially, and he may succeed if he
is not scared out of it by failing the first
halfdozen times.
Such men will not be decided by anything
| may say. They are bound to win at last.
But speaking to the farmers of New Eng
land as a class, to which such men are eX-
ceptions, / say my advice is, extend, your
business by growing greater varieties of
produce, and try any branch of farming that
you have not good reason for thinking I'M
profitable. Make something on your cows,
keep few sheep, raise Il few pigs and fat
ten few plant an orchard and take good
care of it, set bed ofasparagus and anoth-
&C. L; IL.
of vegetables as you can find time for and
don't save all your manure tor corn and po-
ratoes and buy or 90 without the rest, then
you can find work at all seasons of the
year and have little money coming in at
all seasons. If you think, for any reason
that corn will be the best crop for Il GER
tain piece of land, | say plant it. But do
not go on year after year thinking that you
have no manure for an onion patch,
or a turnip field, or for any other crop that
you would like to raise just because if you
use it so you will be obliged to plant less
corn and potatoes. That is M idea.
must take exceptions to the statement that
'the corn crop has been n failure but once
in New England since this century came in
Perhaps it has not been an entire failure
throughout Now England; hut will any tar
mer deny that with almost every individual
once in ten years, (and think oftener) the
corn has not been worth enough to pay for
harvesting, excepting the slower? The grain
is an entire failure, though the fodder may
help make up the loss. What care / if my
crop is to be failure once in ten years,
whether it fails with every one else at the
same time, or whether we take it by turns ?
| believe if an account were kept with ev-
cry corn field in New England as faithfully
as were those on which commented, that
nine tenths of them would show no profit,
but positive loss. Perhaps the system of
cultivation is at fault, but the fact exists.
My correspondent continues ''The sod,
to get good return in hay, must be often
turned under. viii you refuse to seed
with corn, because You cannot figure
profit?' Certainly not, if the grass seed
follows better after corn than after any
other crop, and should do so, if | figured II
loss, and charge that loss to the future hay
crops. Il make a speciality of milk my
needs are hay and meal what course more
certain to obtain those needs at the cheap
est rates than to raise them myself" You
need clothing, boots and shoes. Would
you kill calves and cattle and keep sheep to
procure the raw materials for supplying
those needs ut the cheapest rates? Is it not
ms simple to sell load of onions or squash
es and buy load of meal, as it is to sell
pig and buy pair of boots, or calf and
buy coat? always allowing that you can
raise the onions so that the exchange will
make n balance in your favor. A friend of
mine, and good farmer, used to say he
could raise ten bushels of turnips as easy
as he could one of corn and the turnips
were as sure to sell for fifty cents bushel
as corn was for dollar; therefore he sold
his turnips and bought meal cheaper than
he could grow it. Before | forget it, let
me express gentle doubt of your state
ment of the necessity of often turning the
sod. have seen grass fields kept in good
order many years by top-dressng, and old
fields, where the grass was really run out,
much improved in the same way. Wheth-
cr the ultimate result was injurious to the
productive powers of the land or not, my
experience will not enable me to decide,
but have no reas On to think so, other than
the opinion which You attribute to Maine
farmers
/ suggested that "one-half the value
of the manure, rather than one third, should
be charged to the corn crop" because the |
manure was narrowed in, instead of plowed |
in. ] have been taught that manure har-
rowed in was better for corn, but not rs
good Tor the land. As you say, SIN esti-
mating the worth of the manure, the make |
up and character of the soil, whether leachy |
or retentve, has much to do about the val |
ne" This is very true, and so, also. has |
the character of the manure, whether CON
tanning considerable quantities of those vo-
lathe elements which cause rapid growth at |
first, but soon lose their strength in the |
soil, or not. Whether well-rotted compost |
fit to become plant food Immediately, or |
like some have seen put on, no. likely to |
be of any value to anything unless to some |
rank growing, coarse feeding crop or, more |