The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-01-28
Farm, Garden and Household.
SpeciaIties in Farming.

There are generally two or more sides
to most questions concerning the mosI
common affairs OF life. IT there were not'
the course Of daily experience would run
smoothly enough There would lnueeo
he no question AS to the proper I'M tnihg 10
do or the proper way to do 1t. =" heh IL
comes tO the more important mallers oi
life as the economy of this or that dlspo-
s;tinn If time or labor or energy, the ques-
tion often becomes one of great practical
;r',,ortance to the individual at least, upon
" lom the responsibility of decision rests.
This is the case. it seems to us, IN laying
cut the work OF the farm. Shall it be con-
reptrated or ditfusivep
1t seems to us that We, as a body of far
rners. are too Scatte4tnQ, that is, we aim
at doing too many things and spread our
energies over too much ground, instead Of
concentrating our thoughts, our skill and
our means upon some special line of effort,
SOME particular crop or some leading
branch OF farming Go round through
our quiet and beautiful rural districts, and
study the character and inclinations OF the
iarming population, and you viii find IN a
vast number of instances that the farmer
wants 10 own the next farm. There IS
h9nkrrino for more land rather than de-
sire b. cultivate the home farm well, and
bring il 10 the highest state of productive
ness But this, although we regard it as
u some respects An unfortunate trait in
the New England character, is not exactly
lhe fault t. which we allude You will
md generally that the farmer makes his
to do a little OF everything,
instead OF making speciality Of anything.
He will have little patch of corn, an
trre or two Ot potatoes, few roots, per-
h4ps two OF three cows and a horse, all OF
which is very well in its way, but you will
discover no central leading idea. no one
crGn. no one branch OF farming that seems
10 excite the mind and thought to special
activity, no one product on which to rely
tor the money income OF the farm, and so
yOu will find at the end of the year, that
both ends viii hardly meet, or if they do,
there will be nothing to spare,
Now we are not inclined to advocate the
cultivation of one crop or another, to the
exclusion of all others, but to insist upon
the adoption OF some line Of effort as
speciality whether it be the culture of fruit,
The culture OF corn or grass, the breeding
of stock. the keeping OF sheep OF poultry.
We would leave the particular object Of
pursuit to be governed by circumstances,
such as the location and character OF the
farm. We would study its special fitness
for Que thing or another Some farms are
admirably adapted to the raising OF fruit.
Some have a warm southern exposure,
with light, warm soil, adapted to the
grape. where VINEYARDS would return q
profitable yield. Some have facilities for
the raising OF cranberries, and it is pity
not TO take advantage OF them. Some are
well adapted to the raising OF
poultry, retired and free from disturbance
some are specially suited to grass, and the
raising of stock would seem to be lead
ing pursuit, and so on The idea is to
study and take advantage of the peculiar
capacities OF each farm, and of ten farms
taken at random, scarcely any two would
present the same characteristics.
Let US present one or two illustrations.
We know a practical cultivator who has
about three-quarters of an acre of Concord
grapes, tie raises poultry too, but grapes
and small fruit are his special hobby Last
year from this vineyard of less than an
acre, which he tended himself, he sold very
nearly eighteen hundred dollars worth of
grapes. But if he had frittered away his
time on forty different crops, and now and
then run into town with a dozen eggs, OF
a peck OF turnips, or a bushel OF pease,
or = few ears of green corn, or string of
onions. or box OF butter or few other
little lots of garden truck, is it to be sup
posed that he would have realized seven
teen OF eighteen hundred dollars on less
than an acre of vineyard?
Again we KNOW man in the Connecti-
cut Valley who bought his place, built a
large tobacco shed and made some other
improvements, and paid for the whole by
the single crop of tobacco the first year.
But he gave his attention to it, and didn't
try to cultivate much corn or many pota-
toes
Again we have a friend in Plymouth
County, who began to reclaim one of the
hardest looking bush swamps that we ever
saw, and set out cranberries, now four
Years ago. The cost per acre OF cutting
the bushes, grubbing up the roots, pairing
the surface and sanding and setting out
the vines exceeded four hundred dollars
Last year was the third of the experiment.,
we believe, and the first crop of any ex-
tent, and on about an acre the crop yield
ed between seven and eight hundred dol
lars net income. This year the plantation
promised far better than last but we are
not informed Of the result
These are only few of the instances.
There are very many others which we can
not present here.
We would not put all the eggs into one
basket by cntivating single crop, but
we would select some one as a leading
speciality and give particular attention to
that as the money crop Of the farm. Make
that more prominent than others, and in
the long run we believe it would pay bet
ter than to scatter our work too much
LPloughman.