The Portland daily press., 1878-02-05
AGRICULTURAL.


To know the intrinsic value of ones farm
Is certainly of interest to the owner The
value of thing is not what it will sell for,
but what it will return TO the owner in mon
ey, products, or qualification. If we measure
the value of our land by what it produces we
then take the same measure by which other
productive property-houses, stock, bonds,
ships, and mines-are valued. But if we ac-
cept this measure, what vast difference is
seen to exist in the values of neighboring
farms. In England, fair farming land being
scarce, that being in greater demand by
purchasers than in supply by sellers, brings
all it is worth to the farmer, and that is from
$500 to 1000 per acre. Here the conditions
being exactly the opposite, farming land sells
less than it is actually worth. Being real prop
erty and not subject to destruction by any
thingShort OF cataclasm,t ought to offer the
greatest temptation to an investor of money;
and it would were the owners not so eager TO
sell and change their locality. Being a per-
fectly stable possession, the interest it should
return to the owner could not be expected to
be so high as that from movable property,
liable to destruction. If land returns 5 per
cent. to the owner clear of taxes, it is doing
well: when personal property or money in
business returns to 10 per cent. Then an
acre of land that will produce SIS yearly after
labor and expenses have been repaid is clear
will do better than this. When well cultivated
It will easily return double that amount, and
III we could proceed 10 preventing the growth
OF weeds and the attacks of insects, and could
manure lightly, our land would then return
Interest on a valuation of $500 10 $500 per
acre. II we could raise 100 bushels of corn,
or 80 bushels of wheat, 3 tons of hay, or 1900
bushels of roots per acre, the profit on these
crops would pay interest on value of $500
m G1 nm nd
only possible, but are easily raised if we 60
the right way about it. The rewards offered
by agriculture to her most skillful students
are certainly liberal and enticing enough !;
but we need long apprenticeship before we
can enter her school as competitors for the
prize.
MANURE FOB THE GARDEN.
A good supply of manure for a garden may
be made from the refuse of any household.
A shallow pit may be made, and some chat,
short straw, the contents of worn mattress,
grass, sods, weeds, wooden rags, burned
bones, waste from the kitchen, wood-ashes,
chimney sweepings, scrapings of the road,
earth, saw dust, manure from the poultry
house, old boots and shoes chopped fine,
aud all such matter may be thrown into this
pit, and the waste water from the house,
soap-suds. &C., may be thrown upon them.
In the course of a year large pile may be
gathered, and II COW and few chickens are
kept the waste from these may add largely to
the heap. The heap should be kept built up
squarey and hollow at the top. A bag of
bone dust added to the pile would greatly in
crease its value, and the stock of manure that
would cost at least $40 to purchase could
thus be made. A pile feet square and 3
feet high would richly fertilize good-sized
garden, and help to produce sufficient vege-
tables to supply large family.
SEEDS FOR THE GARDEN.
Now is the time to procure vegetable seeds
for the coming season. Those that have
been saved from last years should be overhaul
ed and examined. If they have been proper
ly put away in dry place in small paper
bags and labeled, nothing further is needed;
but this is rarely done. 1t is possible in
some cases that this may be done, even now,
and mixed lot of all sorts be separated and
Identified before their names are forgotten.
1t is little thing to think of, this saving of
seed, but seeds cost money, and it is very
easy to save few dollars worth, and have
SO much money to spend in fowe ring plants,
roses, geraniums, fuchsias, &C., that one can
not raise at home. Besides, it is by selecting
seed from fine productive plants the best
varieties are grown, and the seed from fine
specimens can always be sold to the seedmen
at good prices, or exchanged for other sorts.
Many women and girls might earn respect
able sum of money every year by giving at
tention to growing seeds of vegetables of the
best sorts.-N. Y. Times.