The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-10-26


possibly might succeed in raising crops
but unless | could give the matter d.
rect personal attention should certain
ly fail in raising stock. And he added,
unless you can keep stock-and keep il
well-there is no money in farming.
The prospect was certainly not an en-
couraging one.
There are many people who look
upon stock on farm as necessary
evil, while few go still farther and say
it is not even necessary. They can keep
up the productiveness of the farm by
the use of artificial fertilizers. And |
will admit that such is the case. 1t is
simply question of relative cost and
efficiency and durability.
1t may be said that there is no neces-
sity either for keeping stock or buying
manures-that by summer-following or
blowing under green crops we can keep
up the fertility of the land. And | adj
nit that this also is true. Ii is merely
question of economy. He has to de-
eide whether it is best to summer-fallow
for wheat, or whether il is best
to sow, say barley, and then drill
in wheat after il, with or without n lit
tie help in the shape of guano or super
phosphate. lie has to decide whether
he shall make it into hay and feed it out
to stock and return the manure to the
land.
| believe il is more economical to
feed the clover to stock. One of the
neighbors raised splendid crop of corn
fodder and plowed ii in for manure. !
presume it paid him to do so; but
think the corn fodder might have been
fed to cows in such way that very lit
tie of the fertilizing material in the corn
fodder would have been lost. Ii seems
a pity to plow under so much good
food.
am aware that there are two sides
to this question. | know it is very
easy matter to lose money in feeding
stock. am satisfied also that we can
keep stock and feed it in such way as
to make money and manure by the OPP
Grafton. But we shall not get the full
benefit of the operation unless we give
up the idea of merely excepting up the
fertility of the land" We must aim to
make the land richer-not merely to
keep it from running down or getting
poorer. | have small orchard of
Northern Spy apples. Have aimed to
so manage it that the land is getting
richer every year; and think there are
apples enough on the trees this year to
more than pay for all the manure that
has been applied to the orchard since ii
came into my possession. The land is
kept in grass, and receives light top
dressing of manure nearly every year.
The grass is fed off by sheep and pigs,
which receive more or less extra feed.
The land affords splendid pasture, early
and late, and even during severe
drouth, and | should hardly know how
to get along without it. fl had mere
ly aimed to keep up the fertility of the
land, it would produce grass Just when
we had plenty of it, and apples when
there was good crop everywhere. AS
it is, it produces more or less grass and
apples in unfavorable seasons. The
grass at these times is of great value,
in enabling us to keep our stock grow
ing; and the apples in year like the
present afford twice or three times the
profit per acre as they did last year
when the crop was good everywhere.
By profit, do not mean total receipts,
but what is left after paying for picking,
handling, &c. The profit, last year, on
an ordinary orchard, was very small,
and it will not be much larger this year.
AS it is with apples, so it is with other
crops-the profits come from land that
is rich enough to produce fair crops in
unfavorable seasons.
Assuming, therefore. that there is
profit in making at least portion of
our land rich, the question is, how TO
produce this result with the least cost.
think we can make manure in this
section cheaper than we can buy artifi-
cial fertilizers. AS we 90 east, where
grain is higher, it nay be cheaper to buy
artificial manures; and as we 60 west
where grain is cheaper, there will be a
greater difference in favor of making
manure on the farm. am inclined to
think, however, that here and in New
England and on the Atlantic slope it
will be good economy to buy artificial
fertilizers and to keep stock also.
| need say nothing about dairying as
that branch of the subject is in very
able hands. feel very enthusiastic in
regard to the prospects of sheep hus-
bandry. | think we can afford to keep
more sheep, and what is still more inn
portant, think we can afford to feed
them better. Pasturing sheep on a
piece of clover, or making the clover
into hay and feeding it to sheep and re-
turning the manure, will not practically
make the hand any richer than if we
plowed under the clover--in fact not
quite so rich, because the sheep will re-
move from four TO ten per cent of the
nitrogen i'm the form of wool and NUT
ton, and also small amount of phos-
phoric acid and potash. But if we can
raise Il class of sheep that require and
will nav for n certain Amount of extra
food then we can make our land richer
by feeding out the clover than we can
by blowing il under. And the same is
true of other crops besides clover.
There are farmers in this section who
90 to Buffalo or elsewhere and buy a
carload of common sheen and fat item
on their farms in winter. They feed
more or less grain, bran and oil-cakc in
connection with straw, stalks and hay,
- =: IL 49, 20 :a q T.!