The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-04-28
LAYING OUT TOO MUCH.

The majority OF farmers err IA laying
out too much work to do During the
early spring they strive to see how much
land they can get plowed. In their ca
gerness to get great number acres turn
ed under, they are not at suitable pains
to have the blowing well done. They
also pillow a good deal of the land when
it is altogether too wet to do good work.
Land plowed in this condition will re-
quire vast amount OF labor to insure it
producing even fair crops No amount
of subsequent labor, however, can make
up for the damage done land by plowiDg
it when it was too wet.
Having turned over very large
number of acres of lands there is a hurry
all the year, and still, the work is be
hind. There is hurry in sowing the
small grains, and even then much seed
is sown too late to produce a good crop.
The land is indifferently narrowed, and
quite likely not rolled at all. As nat
ural consequence, the grain is hard to
cut, and if the land was seeded down to
grass it will ever afterward be difficult to
cut and make the crop that grows upon
it. Unless land can be seeded down in
a proper manner, it should not be seed
ed down at all.
Too much land was plowed for corn,
opd aoeordinolxv fbara xrac ,,ra.t = Ia, r.r;,,,,
during the planting season. The seed
was not evenly dropped or evenly COW
cred, and as natural consequences the
corn comes up unevenly and remains
uneven till harvest time, when the ears
are found to be uneven both in size and
in maturity. There was hurry all the
time the crop was tended. There was a
strife between the farmer and the weeds
to see which would keep ahead, and the
weeds fairly won the race. In the fall
there is less corn, and that of poorer quail
ity than if a smaller number of acres had
been planted.
Young farmers especially are apt TO
reckon up the number of acres they can
pillow, plant, cultivate, and harvest, if
there are no drawbacks, and plow ac.
cordingly. Now, there are always draw
backs. In the first place there are rainy
days, and other days when the soil is
too wet to be properly worked. As the
seasons go there will be on an average
one rainy day in a week, or one day in
which cultivating and hoeing cannot be
done. An allowance must be made for
these days. Otherwise all the cultivated
crops cannot be properly cultivated.
Then an allowance must be made for
times when the team will not be in a
condition to work, when the driver will
be sick, when business will call the farm.
er away, when implements will be out
of order, and when accidents of various
kinds will occur. Counting these all up,
it will be found that the estimate made
on the supposition that the days are all
to be fair, the hands and horses are all
to be well, and the implements in good
running order, is altogether too large.
In truth, it must be reduced about one
half.
The great majority of farmers will ac-
knowledge at the last end of the year
that they undertook too much at the
first end. They generally find that they
broke considerable grass sward that
would have produced more bad it been
left in grass. They also find that the
largest crop produced on the farm was
weeds. These grow because an attempt
was made to cultivate more land than
the farmer was able to attend to. The
farmer whose finest crop was weeds last
year should seed down land rather than
break up more e-ChicGyO Weekly Times.
PLUM CULTURE IN OHIO.-M. b. Bate
man, of Painesville, o., Secretary to the
Ohio State Horticultural Society, in
on "Plum Culture in