Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-09
FARM AND GARDEN.
NORTHERNERS FARMING IN THE
E0ITH.


A New Yorker in North Carolina
writes to the Rural NelV Yorker: Il
came here and am doing well. l think
there Is more to be made here now than
in the North or West" Probably
smaller per centage of immigrants set
tied in the South, whether from Europe
or the Northern States, fail than of
those located in any part of the bound
less West. In the best dairy counties
of New York the present winter set in
with sleighing on the seventeenth of
October. To winter a calf six months
old takes two thousand pounds of good
hay, and four Thousand pounds to win
ter COW in a warm stable. Farmers
who conquer the elements by untiring
industry, and not only supply all home
markets with cheese, but exported
eighty-fve million pounds last year,
mostly to England, find many advan-
tages IN our Southern climate. They
are able to raise, in the South, third
more grass, clover, corn, millet and
oats, on an acre in twelve months,
than they could at the North.
Why then is so much Northern hay,
oats and corn taken from a colder to
a warmer climate for consumption?
Because farmers In the South have ex-
perienced 50 little winter that they
have never learned to deal with cold
weather. a good wood house full of
wood is the rule among Northern far
mers and the exception among South
ern farmers. Let winter set in the
18th Of October and continue till April
or May and wood, hay and shelter will
have increased attention. NOrtherners
soon forget their early education in our
warm climate and try to live with little
wood, little hay, little barns and stables
and little comfort not to be out of fash
ion. 1t is not easy to prevent man
living with as small care and labor as
possible. When the English Puritans
first arrived in the Mayfower in the
severe climate of Massachusetts,, it
killed many for the first two or three
winters by the intensity Of the cold
weather.
Emigrating to the cotton States re-
verses this experience, and ought to
give us lessons in farm economy of great
value. Now is the time that we should
haul out and spread great banks of
manure; but many have no such heaps
to haul, mainly because we hare no eX-
tensive meadows to yield hay for stock.
The neglect Of grass makes our system
Of farming exceptionally severe on
titled land. Restitution of the ele-
ments Of crops is not properly provided
for in our every year planting opera
tons. Northern ideas of having much
uplands, hills, mountains, and low IN
tervales and swamps, in grass for pas
lures, meadows and banks of manure
look to the fertilizationOf al cultivated
fields as well as the garden and orchard
When a drove of sheep or a herd OF
cattlefll themselves on rich, low ground
and empty their systems on poor up
land washed by irain, and perhaps by
too much blowing, this stock acts as {
balance wheel in large machinery t
equalize fertility.
Now our farming was very much hk'
large grindstone that is hard on ont
side and soft on the other, so that tn,
hard side is soon protruding twice a
far from the center as the other, dom!
bad work with a wabble. Scienc
alone is able to cure this and other de
fects in agriculture. This teaches on,
how to restore the lacking elements o
crops in any field, at the least possibl
expense. Without this knowledge
farmer may buy the wrong substance
or one not needed to recuperate his sol
and thus expend his money at a los
instead Of a profit. 1t requires yer
little wit to wear out a field by crop
ping; but to renew its fruitfulness a
the least expense, demands learnin
and science