The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-09-20
TOPICS FOR FARMERS.


J Fowler makes some suggestions on
this point in the Rural Ne,C Yorker, |
which our farm readers may find profit !
able.
Most farmers, he says, waste a great
amount of time and team labor in get
ting out their manure piles. Waste in
this particular involves more loss than
in any other. There is usually only a
limited time available to get out the
seasons manure. What is not got out
within this time is left to waste in the
barn-yard another six or twelve months.
The loss on this is enormous even II
there were no waste of fertilizing ele-
ments. The manure heap is the farm
er's capital. When put on his fields, it
pays him larger interest than any other
investment, sometimes fifty or one hun
dred per cent. or more. When left in
the barn-yard there is no interest, but
with the best of care the principal is
more or less impaired. Let us see how
| the manure is usually got out. The
farmer in the morning sets his hired
man at the work alone, with one team
and one wagon. He will get out eight
to twelve loads per day, according to
the ease of pitching and the distance the
manure has to be drawn. Call it ten
loads, and you have had man and team
employed whole day with very insig-
nifcant results. My way is always to
draw with two wagons-one to be loaded
in the barn-yard while the other is in
the field. One team only is needed,
slipping the bolt from the whiffie-trees,
dropping the tongue, and taking team
and whifiie-trees from one wagon to the
other. 1t takes but a moment of time,
and is much more easily as well as
quickly done, than having two whiffle-
trees and unhitching the traces. 1t is
better than having two teams, as there
is constant emulation between the man
in the field and the man at the heap to
see which shall come out ahead of the
other. Not enough use is made by farm
ers of this spirit of emulation. Farm
work is mostly rather isolated, but it is
better generally for two men to work to-
gether than for one man to work alone.
Some hired men will do very little I'M
less they have company. Rarely will
any one do as much alone as he would if
working with others. This is one ad-
vantage which the large farmer has over
the small one. A single man, working
alone, even if he be the farmer himself,
soon becomes listless and discourageda and
can not work as well as in company.
; In drawing manure, l use no wagon
box; with two or three stout planks for
the bottom, and two wide boards fo1
side pieces, the rigging is complete
Arrived in the field, take off side
board, and with a potato hook pull of
, enough manure for a heap; starting
} the team, another heap is made from the
other side, and then one from each end
making always five, and sometimes siS
or more heaps from the load. l rake of
in heaps because the manure is unloadeC
: so much more rapidly than by pitching
If l had to pitch it over a wagon-box, a
is usually done, should spread as I un
loaded. 1t is in this rapid unloading
4 that much of the saving is made. L
g the distance to draw is short OF the ma
n nure inconvenient to get at, [ sometime
n find it better to have two men to unload
n The manure heaps are spread afterwart
+ while the team is plowing or engaged il
y other work. 1t is material waste t.
a allow horses to be idle while the manur
/ is being spread.
l. The farmer himself should general,
e draw out the load. He knows bette
;. than any one esle where the poOres
o spots are, and where the manure shoul'
e be spread thickest. By raking off i
r heaps, the labor is considerably less thai
e in loading. When drawing, arrang
n it so as to put the manure from the hog
It pen or other spot that is of extr
It strength on the poorest part of the fielc
e You can't tell one hired man in a hur
1T dred how to do this. Many of the1
< would not understand and many NOR
d would not care. Drawing manure is
a. work in which more than any other tn
s. farmer himself should take hand. ]
TO he be a really good farmer he wi
:e hardly be content unless he does.
it By my method, drawing out manu
l. with two wagons, and one or sometime
IN two men in the barn-yard, I can g
to out twenty-five to thirty-fve loads pt
at day. This summer, in drawing manu-
~ on wheat ground, I got out thirty-or
loods in a day and we stopped work
d. six o'clock. But I don't stop drawn
III when the easy pitching ends. Ever
to corner in the paved barn-yard and und'
Ie the sheds is scraped and the scrapin|
10 put on the wagon. The very last loac
ry I got were the richest of all-the co
ra tents of deep pockets were the valuab
Y, portions of the manure have settle
n perhaps for years. So soon as the bar
yard is thoroughly cleaned, it is covere
rk with straw to absorb the liquid dro
de pings of the stock. In this way lary
I'd amount of straw is made into valuab
st. manure. 1 aim to clean the barn-yal
ed twice year-in spring and fall-ar
he each time am particular to have all Il
Lc- manure got out. Doing this is by a
ca odds the most important secret of goo
x farming. Many farmers make lar.
he quantities of manure, but of what ava
ry is it if left for years unused in the
at barn-yards? Those who draw manu-
cy regularly every year, too often lea
to ten to twenty loads of the most valu
he BILE fertilizers while their crops suff
er for the want of them.
IS Grating the Walnut.-A correspon
T. T. dent says: We have in our field, son
ID distance from the house, very fiji
os walnut, the oily nuts of which I fiji
ed beneficial in relieving q severe cough
va va which am subject. Last spring l Sc
~ our little boy for limb of this tree
o hn graft into small Seeding walnut tn
la la stood in our yard. The limb he broug
"a me looked more fit for a crows ne
W; on than grating scion; but I cut three
ba the best scions that / could, sawed
as the top and the one side branch of t
,;s G little bush and set two CRAFTS in t
nd main stock and one in the side branc
no the last one was superfuous. Eve
+b time | passed that way found it NJ
inn essary to let out the sap and tighten t
Of wax. The poor thing seemed deter
ch mined to cry itself to death. Not un
,oL after the pear and apple CRAFTS, set at t
- same time, had made growth of sevel
Id lhcnes; lh ulu lie walnuI gralIs pegin
rs n olo" 2iSno e. VI Sio"!ns' ouO "ilon lf'ii
nd nd ity, and when they shed their leaves
,he M the fall the largest graft measured Fl
~ inches in circumference and over sev
nil feet in length, with a lateral neal