Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-03-10

or proluciveness is not so easy. After
settling this, you go TO work with team and
hands, apply your fertilizer, stir the soil,
plant your corn, keep the weeds down, and
at the proper time harvest the crop. Dur
ing this time you have been keeping ac-
counts, with which you have had no small
difficulty. The labor of hands, perhaps,
has had a market value, and that has been
set down as so much. Interest and taxes
have been specified; the labor of team has
had market value, and has been set down
accordingly; but, as you look over the bill,
it strikes you for the first time that that
item may not be correct after all. You
have kept team during the season 1t has
advanced or deprecated in value, and the
cost of keeping has been something, but
just what you arc puzzled to tell. There
fore you are of the opinion that the labor Of
team has been set down too high, or too
low, as the case may be. Last of all, you
come to ask the value of tho fertilizer APP
piled, aud how much was taken up by the
crop, and how much the value of the field
has been enhanced by what remained
and as you look at it, ii appears as much of
a mystery as the source of the Nile, or the
unexplored regions about the poles. IT,
after settling these questions somewhat
unsatisfactory, you are able to come to a
conclusion in the main satisfactory in re-
gard to the cost of that corn, you are met
by still another question, and that is, what
will you get for it? You can get its cash
value; but what OiU you get, is the CUES
ton. or course, if it is fed, much will de-
pend upon future markets, of which moth
ing definite can be known. But how much
beef, or pork, or mutton, or milk and but.
ter, &C., given quantity Of corn will pro-
duco under ordinary circumstances, can
and ought 10 be better understood among
farmers. Until it is, you cannot tell, with
any degree of accuracy, whether il is best
to sell your corn or feed IL.
And right here arises the question, could
not some other crop have been grown upon
that field to better advantage than the one
mentioned. Unfortunately, no one is for
ward to answer this question. So much
depends upon the nature and condition of
the soil, with other existing circumstances,
together with the want Of practical knowl-
edge, that questions of this kind are not at
PiSSShe easily hhu 81 huO Nhplp
catalogue of crops and of animals might be
passed over, and nothing is more apparent
than the want of more practical knowledge
in dealing with them.
Hence, if the coming farmer is to be dis
tingushed above the past or present, he
must have a more practical knowledge of
what he is TO deal with. If, therefore, we
would be instrumental in elevating the
coming farmer, we must put ourselves in
way to give him practical information. To
do this, we must settle such questions as l
have mentioned. Difficult as they are,
they can be mastered. a few years of
careful study will suffice to settle them
specifically, if we set ourselves about it.
We must keep the mind at work, as well
as the hands, upon such experiments as
seem calculated TO develop better knowl-
odge Of general principles. Science, also,
must come 10 the aid of the farmer. Some
have already become very successful
through knowledge of the composition Of
soils, and by good understanding of what
was required to make them productive
have been enabled to apply directly just
the fertilizing elements required to make
them so. The coming farmer, thus fur
nished, will take his place in the intellect
ual scale alongside Of men of other profess
sions-a position reluctantly granted him.