Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-07-30
Philosophy of Fogy Farming,

C1lo tSus MuNu oldNtll was uumluunNt u
Southern gentleman and his wife we're visit
ing friends IN Boston. At the breakfast
table the host asked the lady if she would
take some Of the famous Boston brown bread.
"No, indeed" was the answer, in mingled
horror and indignation. "Would you have
me become an abolitionist, a woman's rights
woman, free lover and an infidel? don't
want to wear bloomers and make speeches
yet awhile" But" said the husband, mo
one wants you to adopt these extreme ideas );
this is a different matter. This brown bread
is really excellent. Do take some" "Nev-
err" said the lady, "at least while have my
senses. These fanatical notions all 90 to-
gether. A man or woman who begins by
eating brown bread, never knows where to
stop till it leads them into all sorts Of lauat-
icism."
The moral of this little story may account
for the conservatism of so many with regard
to improvements in farming. The slow
going, old.fashioned farmer sees clearly that
all these "new.tangled notions" prop erly
Ego together" and must each be supple.
mented by the others to be entirely success.
ful. High manuring, undertaking, soiling.
improved breeds OF cattle, horses, sheep ard
swine, clearing land Of weeds and thorough
culture, generally are each parts of system
known as high farming. Any one of these
adopted separately may, and probably will.
result in loss, as thousands Of farmers have
found to their cost. The average farmer
doubts whether all together can be made to
pay. He knows that he can't or won't adopt
more than one or two Of these essentials to
good farming Very possibly he is right in
believing that all he could or would do in
the way of farm Improvement would not pay
him. 1t requires great deal of thought,
labor, skill and patience, besides money, to
be successful, thorough farmer These
qualities would insure success ia any kind
of business. If "A farmer inventories him self
aud fnds these qualities lacking, what il be
to do but to keep in the old ruts where his
father and grandfather kept before him ?
There at least he knows himself to be safe
BY working hard all his life he can earn
comfortable living, and he is sure not TO lose
much, for the excellent reason that he never
has much to lose. The much.ridiculed con-
servatism Of old-fashioned farmers is founded
in deeper wisdom than We know. Others
might do better in their places, but they do
wisely in keeping in the safe old ruts. For
men without skill, patience or thought to fit
fully adopt one or two Of the essentials to
high farming might very easily result in loss.
What are the elements of high farming
Without doubt high manuring is one of the
most important. But what shall men do
whose farms are oyerrun with weeds and
whose sovenly tillage gives weeds every ad-
vantage2 High manuring with such farm.
ers means only increase Of weeds-not in.
crease of profit. Would thorough culture
and high mauuring combined be profitable
on land cold aud sodden till midsummer
from too much water2 In exceptional sea.
sons they might but in others all the culture
and half the manure would be wasted for
naught Or, on land dry and reasonably
free from weeds can farmer afford to spend
twenty-five to fifty dollars per acre with the
soil too sterile to produce a crop? Obviously
not. To be entirely aud uniformly profit
able, manuring, undertaking and thorough
culture must be combined Each is im
measurably increased by each of the others.
The good farmer needs improved impe
ments, but he cannot proftably use reaper'
and mowers on rough, stony or uneven fields
Often on undrained or sterile farms it may
not pay to buy or use reaper. Some farm
ers last year left their reapers under the
shed, or more likely by the roadside, while
they cut the few patches of grain in theil
winter.killed wheat with an old-fashioned
cradle. A man cannot afford to buy costly
grain harvesters unless there is a fair pros
pect that he will have harvest Soiling il
profitable, undoubtedly, on rich aud high
priced land. But if your fields are too poo
TO yield more than half ton of grass pc
acre, soiling is out Of the question. Yov
can't afford, with high h-priced labor, to Gu
over field for such crop when cattle il
pasture will gather most Of it without ex
pense. Still another question Can farm
ers afford, with high-priced labor, to cut anc
carry green food in summer, and steam foot
in winter, for ordinary or scrubby stock
1t is clear that soiling and high feeding
must go, not only with improved farms, bu
, with improved stock as well. When you
your best tor COW you have right to dc
mand that she shall be one that can do bes
for you in the milk pail or cream pot.
you employ great deal of skill and high
= priced labor in feeding COWS, you must los
} unless you make "gilt edged" and higI
priced butter.
, Reverse the rule and it applies with equi
force. A careless soveny farmer cannC
afford to buy or keep improved stock. Meth,
, his farm nor his methods are adapted to then
J Short'Horns used for generations to generol
4 living, would starve where his scant stoC
don't thrive exactly, but do manage
get living. The purest strains Of Jerse
$ blood would improve his butter in color an
perhaps in quality but only a revolution