Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-12-03

EVERY farm should furnish its own re-
sources for manure; for, although, near
cities, the wise farmer avails himself Of
whatever waste matter he can get tina.
Is convertible into manure, the CROPS
there cultivated are generally of AN e5
hausting nature and fully sufficient tC
carry off the extra fertility SO added.
But only comparatively small number
OF farms are situated near enough to
cities SO that their owners can avail
themselves of this source of increasing
the crops, and, therefore, the great num-
Der a~e obliged to fall back upon the re-
sources Of the farm itself.
1t is an English maxim that ga good
farm is like good joint of meat, that
only requires basting with its own drip
ping" Translated, it means that a good
soil contains within itself all the re-
sources of increased fertility. 1t is true
the joint of meat must have been first
made good: and so must the farm. Man
must feed the animal to get the good
joint; nature originally fed the soil
ready for man.
How many who have opened new
farms on virgin soils have left them as
good as they found them? The history
of al countries answers, Very few. Man
first impoverishes and then, by the most
laboriOus and costly means, refertiliZes
the worn soil. How quickly the farmers
of the West are bringing their lands to
that state when this liberalization will
be the all-important question, the de-
creased and constantly decreasing aver
ages of grain per acre will tell. We do
not mean by this that the time has yet
come in the West when it has become
imperatively necessary that an elaborate
system of making manure and compost
should be followed, although it might
easily be demonstrated that in many
sections such course would be profita-
BILE. Nevertheless, the time has come
when it will pay a heavy interest on the
investment to save carefully and give
back to the soil whatever manure is
made from the feeding of animals, and
this brings US to the point we wished to
make.
The growing of clover and the grasses
lies at the foundation of profitable farm
ing throughout the temperate zone.
These furnish the cheapest food for
stock of every kind, exclusively 80 in
summer, and are the main dependence of
stock animals in winter No crop is so
constant in growth, early and late, under
all kinds of treatment; no other crop is
so well adapted to variety of soils, wet
and dry, heavy or light; none other fur
nishes so great burthen to the soil in
its tops and roots for blowing under, or
the decomposition of which will better
support successive crops of other
growths; none so ameliorates the soil
and renders it capable of furnishing the
best conditions for promoting the best
results from such crops as are grown for
sale.
Again, he who raises plenty of grass
has resources for the feeding Of stock
and for making large quantities of ma
nure. In the summer the manure is
dropped where the animals feed. Plow-
ing under the sward produces large crops
of corn and other grain to be sold or fed
to stock. If fed as it should be it gives
an increased amount Of the richest ma
nure, for it must be remembered that the
value of manure is just in proportion to
the value Of the food consumed by the
animal. If the animal be fed straw only
the manure is but the refuse of straw, as
the animals so fed are but the skeletons
of their types; and the farmer who feeds
his farm from the manure of ill-kept
stock is sure to have soil producing
more straw than grain. High feeding
makes high manuring possible, high ma
nuring makes fat land, and fat land
makes rich farmers.
In this we do not propose to overturn
the generally systems of feed
ing in the West. If we were at present en-
gagged in fattening cattle in Central Indi-
no nf
the great corn zone of the West, we should
follow, in measure, the usual plan of
feeding the cattle in the fields in good
weather, and allowing swine to CLEAN the
droppings Thus scarcely anything is
lost, and, provided the animals are kept
secure from storms, there is no question
ing the economy of the method when
corn is cheap and labor scarce and high.
The question of how to feed every farm
er must decide for himself, and this
every practical, thoughtful man will
naturally do The man who makes grain.
farming his exclusive business with a
view to selling the grain and burning
the straw or feeding it to cattle ALWAYS
ends in impoverishing his farm and ulti-
mately himself; he is drawing constant
ly upon his principal. The first few years
1t is true this must often be done. If
followed up it must ultimately end in
disaster. And yet how many men in the
West think this the perfection of farm
ing!
We might go on and fill pages in show
ing the various resources that might be-
come available on any farm in the max
ing of manure-the inexhaustible beds of
muck everywhere found, peat, the scrap
ings of bitches, ashes, lime and plaster
the Euui0 manure of stuck roalIv