Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-09-26
FOREIGN.

Foreign.
LONDON, September 1871 80 p. M.-Liv.
erpool wheat market opens quiet. Floating
cargoes very dull.
A MODEL FARM.
Of Echo EARN, Near Litch-
field, Conn.-AgricultureS cienti6cal-
~ and systematically Pursued.
Why should farming not be scientific?
Because the manufacturer labors in
way, his profits are greater and
surer than those of the agriculturist who
has neither machinery nor system; but
it is the unreasonable custom of many to
sheer at all innovations, and to look
at all methodic variations upon old
usages as the fanciful and improbable
schemes of Missionaries with more money
than common-sense. It is the people
who sneer that are usually most deficient
in the latter quality, however; and had
they little more of it they might per-
ceive that careful bookkeeping and the
adoption of improved methods and i'm
plements are as necessary in farming as
in any other business.
In side hollow of that hill from
which Litchfield first became visible to
us several very distinct echoes can be
obtained, and this responsiveness of the
purple glens" gave a name to this
farm. It is Echo Farms pretty and
POLITICALLY suggestive name, indeed,
which conjures up visions of loveliness,
and sets one to dreaming of INTERVIEWING
vines knitting their plant tendrils and
sweet-scented leaves through the hospit-
able porch and open lattice; the check
cred orchard of fruity abundance; the
garrulous brook that never tires Of its
own monody; the reverberant hills that
appease life's turmoil with their easy
fluctuations; lofty barns messy with
age; and Gathering mills down in the
seclusion of grassy hollows. But, alas!
dear reader, model farming is not idyllic
or Arcadian; it is infexibly utilitarian :;
it keeps all its buildings in a perfect
state of repair; it subordinates the pic
turesque, if it ever recognizes it; it pulls
down the old mill because that venerable
structure is in the way of the rectangular
new dairy; it diverts the brook from it's
ferny course into the most commonplace
of earthen pipes; it tears. away the
vines that obscure the light, and
it looks upon everything with
a pair of the most practical eyes set in
head that weig hs, measures, audits,
and analyses with chemical exactness.
The proprietor of Echo farm conducts
it as mandatory. A record is kept
of the milk and butter produced by each
COW for each day, each month, each year;
all the feed is weighed, and the quantity
entered upon books, both that purchased
and that produced; and a separate &C.
count is kept of the yield of each field.
Nothing is wasted, nothing done by
guessing, and nothing passes unrecorded.
The implements are of the latest or most
approved model. Three sets of horse u
hay-forks are in use, by which hay is
unloaded at the rate of ton in four
forkfuls and in four minutes, including
in some instances the carriage of the hay
$50 feet. The other machines also en-
body some novel labor-saving principles.
No manure or fertilizes are found neces
sary, except the 1900 loads made upon
the farm, and a sort of muck, of which
there are several beds.
The history of the farm is interesting.
A gentleman of education, intelligence,
and wealth came to Litch6eld some nine
years ago in search of a summer home.
He had the most superficial knowledge
of farming, and entertained no intention
of entering that business. But having
purchased sixty-six acres and cleared
them, he purchased additional tracts
which became the nucleus of Echo
Farm, whose area is now about 40(
acres. His interest was enlisted in the
raising of choice stock, and beginning
with herd of five, he has gradually in
creased the number to 100, all the hero
being pure Jerseys, with authentic ano
valuable apedigrees. The rocky fields
were cleared, laid out, and inclosed by
massive stone walls. Old and inadequate
buildings on the consolidated land were
demolished, and new ones of improved
pattern erected. In 1873 barn 66 feet
by Is was built; an addition, 100 feet by
40 was made the following year; and il
1875, addition was made, of 19]
to IS feet. These three buildings form
the three sides of the barnyard. They
are built of pine upon massive granite
foundations about two feet wide, which
are laid in cement. All the woodwork
is painted soft; drab color, even the pro
prietor's residence, and the telegraph
poles that line the roadway. A desire
for simplicity and durability in prefer
ence, to ornamentation or showiness i,
visible everywhere; there is no litter
and there are no gaps in thu
fences OF walls, which are from eighteen
inches to twenty-four in thickness, every
crevice being filled like mosaic with .
stone that exactly fits it. Care, thrift,
and ingenuity have acted like three
charms. When the fields were bein1
cleared, such large quantities of stones
were gathered that some perplexity
arose as to where they should be put
Many hundreds of loads were used il
the foundations of the buildings, in thu
fences, and in filling ravines, but more
remained, and these were deposited upo1
several sterile hillocks of mo value
where masses of swamp grass were laic
over them, and covered with light
dressing of soil. Grass seed was sow1
upon the soil, and it took we'll, soor
Transforming the barren heaps to verdant
knOlls, whose blades are remarkably
hardy. It was not 50 much for the sake
of the land gained that the stones were
thus disposed of, but it was rather t.
prevent the formation of nurseries fol
weeds, shrubs, and brambles, which tn.
heaps would have quickly become. .,.:
Two and half acres are planted with
beets, which: are the only roots. fed *
the, cattle, the crop averaging 1,0O(
bushels an acre, and more than z, O0(
tons of hay are housed, q year.-.W q
R;deing, IN Harper's gds;,se for October
"A TRAVELLER who was following
trail on horseback down tie White PIN
Mountains in Nevada recently, heard ,
rumbling noise above him, and on turn
ing, discovered that a vast volume o.
water, at least ten feet high, was rapidly
approaching him, water spout having
descended in the vicinity. He jumpet
from his animal and climbed one Of tn,
steep banks that rose abruptly on either
side Of the trail, which he did gust il
! time II aava his life. Thu -hOrrA wa