Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-02-11

Tread before the Farmers Meeting at
Randolph
trust shall not be charged with ego
tism if in the commencement l speak OF
the OPPORTUNITIES have had to know the
truth of the suggestions l may make, and
the weight to which my opinions are en-
titled, for | claim no positive knowledge
upon the subject of agriculture but that
derived from actual personal experiment
and observation, not claiming to teach In
regard to the sciences as applied to that
subject apart from experimental knowl-
edge | have been farmer all my life.
| was born in Williamstown on one OF the
most elevated farms in the State, near the
old homestead of Hon. Elijah Paine. and
attending district school and labOriDg on
the farm until fifteen years of age, and
from that time until | was twenty-five
laboring on the farm in summer, and
teaching district school in winter then
removed to farm in the same town, one
mile and half west from the village, on
Il less elevation, and cultivated that thirty
years From that removed to small
farm in the village which l have cultivated
eight years and up to the present time.
That the farms in Orange county are not
rs we'll cultivated as they were before the
war l think every farmer sees and IS
ready to acknowledge. Several causes
have combined to produce this state of
things, the most prominent OF which is
the scarcity and high price of labor. With
the price of many of the products of our
farms but very little higher than they were
then, and labor and the expense of living
nearly double, is it surprising then that
many farmers are compelled to reduce
their working force? And another and
more alarming reason Is the growing
desire of our young men to leave the farm
for the store, the workshop, or the far
West How are we to find remedy for
these evils, for the soil of good old Orange
county will produce only in payment for
good, liberal, judicious cultivation? In
part offset to the scarcity of hired lab0rers
on the farm, comes in the improved ma
chinery introduced since the war, which
very materially lessons the amount of
labor required to produce and secure a
crop The balance of the remedy | think
should be found in reducing the size of
our farms, or the area of our cultivated
land, and turning our attention to dairying
or the keeping of some kind of stock.
Let us cultivate no more land than we
can cultivute well. Let us seek to econo-
mize in everything that serves to enrich
our lands, and so apply our fertilizers as to
derive the greatest possible amount of
benefit from them. Many of us lose by
exposure nearly or quite One-half the value
of our barn manure. 1t is either thrown
from the stable windows out under the
caves of the barn, to be drenched by the
water falling from the roof, or lies scat
tered over the ward to be dried in the sun
and leached by the rains and SHOWS. We
do not think our house ashes as valuable
after teaching as before; then why allow
our manures to 90 through that process
which nearly destroys the value of our
ashes? In travelling through this county
what proportion of the farm barns are SO
arranged as to afford shelter for the ma
nures dropped in and about them? [ think
| may safely say not one in ten, although
most of the barns built within q few years
are constructed with view to more econ
omy in that direction. Those who use
their old barns built by their fathers when
the necessity of manure was not felt and
realized as at this day, can with little ex-
pense erect temporary sheds which will
answer as protection from evaporation
and drainage.
There is still another material loss of the
value of manure by decomposition. 1t is a
point not yet decided by practical farmers
whether manures shall be applied to the
land in q green or decomposed state. But
on two questions, or two parts of thi-
question, there seems to be but little disa-
greement. One is that it is far better to
apply manure in its green state than to
allow it to remain exposed to the sun and
storms, while as we expose it it is rafting
The other is that if applied in that state,
it should in some way be covered under
meath the soil. Those farmers who hold
that manure should be thoroughly decom-
posed before it is applied, should see to ii
that they do not lose a large share of its
value by heating. What practical farmer
is there who, on removing his heap of horse
manure, has not found considerable pro-
portion of it so burned that it is very little
better than chaff? Then how shall we
remedy this evil? The best remedy | have
ever found is to keep my hog or hogs upon
it and if they do not work it sufficiently
scatter a little dry corn among the manure
as it is thrown out, and my word for it
they will do the work. The stirring and
exposing of it to the air ard then com.
pressing it together by the hogs travelling
upon it seems practically to effect the
object desired.
There is another branch of this subject
which relates to the best method of apply
ing manure to the soil. Upon this 0ues
ton there are various opinions among
practical farmers. Writers on this subject
who have had no practical knowledge, al
most universally advocate blowing manure
under, and | am OF the opinion that on a
large majority of our tillagc land farm:
can be kept in higher state of cultivation
by blowing under barn manure than BY
applying it on the surface; still my expe
rience cOnvinces me that there are excep
items to this rule. | said in the beginning
that had cultivated three different farm.
during my life, and that they were differ
emily elevated, and | now say, although
in the same town, there is great difference
in soil, and that different crops could be
successfully cultivated on them While
corn is one of the most profitable crops OF
my farm near the village, it would not pa,
on the first farm | cultivated: and Will,
wheat was profitable crop on the first, ii
is so uncertain on the last that have giver
up trying to cultivate it. Different soil
require that manure shonld be differentl,
applied. On cold and wet lands, I thinl
manure should be left near the surface
while on dry and warm soils Irecomment
that manure be covered, though not to
great depth.
The idea that the same manner of apply
ing manure, and that the same crops are t,
be raised on all lands indiscriminately
without regard to soil and climate, is YER
erroneous and causes serious loss ON til,
part of the cultivator of the SOIL H,
should first study the nature Of the soil b,
cultivates. ard then apply manure ant
crops adapted to his farm. Experience
teaches that there is great variety of sol
in Orange county, as well as climate. II
the town where live there is difference
of at least two weeks between the highes
cultivated farms and those on the stream
in the sprinp and think the three farm,