Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-03-23

Every intelligent agriculturist should keep
record Of what occurs on the farm from
day TO day as this is the only way for man
to know whether farming is for him a pay
ing business or not. If he keeps a strict &C.
count of cvery thing as other successful busi-
ness men do, he will 6nd at tho end Of the
year the farm holds him debtor for o great
many things that he has never thought OF.
II is poor economy for mae to try all the
new experiments be may see in agricultural
papers or books, without any other knowl.
edge. 1t may do for scientific farmers to
experiment, but the majority Of farmers
would fail in many Of them at least when we
are sure thing is good we can safely adopt
it.
ECONOMY IN REGARD TO TEAMS AND STOCK.
Many of our teams are from stock that
we are growing on the farm. 1t is very
bad economy to work and keep them IN such
shape that they will not be growing, for il
VIC take proper care of them and use them
rightly they will be growing all the time,
and We get their work for nothing. Some
farmers keep two or three old horses to do
their teaming with, which would remiud us
Of those belonging to a man who gave as a
reason why he did not fat them up, that they
could but just get along as they were, and
If they were fatter he was afraid they would
not get along at all. Some seem to think
that it is not important that their stock gain
any during the winter if they keep them
growing the rest of the year. This being
the case, where do they get their pay for
what they have fed them for five or six
months of the year? Would it not have been
aswell to have knocked them in the head and
sold their fodder? +? 1t is often the case that
good calf six or eight weeks old will sell for
as much or more than many do when year
old. Feed them enough to keep them growing
but not to fatten. No one can afford to keep a
poor class of stock Good stock may cost
more to commence with, but it requires as
much or more to keep an inferior class Of
animals as it does good ones. And because
a man is poor that is no reason why every
thing about him should be of an inferior
quality. Nor can he afford to keep his
young stock out doors all winter with hardly
any protection, thereby checking their growth
and perhaps costing from two to five dollars
more per head for their keeping than if they
were well protected and fed where nothing
would be wasted. This kind of management
we'll illustrates the saying of Solomon, "The
destruction Of the poor is his poverty"
ECONOMY IN REGARD TO MANURE.
Every particle should be saved iu some
way, and he who allows the manure on the
farm to 60 to waste is throwing away his
crops. 1t is wasted about our barns and
houses, in the field and in all sorts of ways
when it is improperly used. The most COM
mon ways by which it is wasted are by evap.
grafton and teaching where it is left exposed
to the weather about the barns and in the
field. All the organic parts of plants that
are obtained from the air, from water and |
from ammonia, constituting more than nine
tenths of their dry weight may be evaporated |
by decay or combustion, While there is a
great amount lost by evaporation, there is
probably more lost by teaching. 1t is often
the case that few dollars worth of phosphate,
ashes or some other fertilizer will answer as
well for a crop as several times their value
in barn.yard manure. Few farmers realize
how much is lost by ncgectng to take proper
care Of their manure. G. L. q.