The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-01-01
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD,
Double Cropping.

There are many leaks and losses in farm
ing, but few so large or universal as that of
waste and unoccupied land. Most farmers
are satisfied to have their land worked tor
them three monthe and lie idle the rest of the
year, as if it were tired and needed rest. In
fact some farmers do imagine that land needs
rest, and that it is not good for it to crop too
much. Now, let every man Danish at once
and forever the idea that land needs rest. 1t
wants feeding, but rest never. The most
luxuriant growth in the world is in the trop-
cal regions, where vegetable growth never
ceases, day or night, winter or summer. II
does land no good to lie baking in the sun
Without cultivation, growing nothing except
a small crop of indigenous weeds.
Then, put aside the question of rest, which
is very poetical, but not at all practical or
profitable, let us turn to that of work. How
shall we get the greatest amount of work, the
longest period of growth, from our land? The
longer we can keep it at work the more it
will earn; and the more it earns, the more
we can pay back in manure. The man
whose land earns him $50 per acre can better
afford to pay $40 for manure than the man
whose land earns $25 can spend SIS for such
fertilizers, and in the one case the land will
grow richer while in the other it grows poor
er. Every farmer should so arrange his crops
that he can get full seasons growth from
all his land; and that means from the list of
April to the 1st of November, or seven
months instead of three or four the time
usually required to mature and harvest a
crop. The larger the variety of crops that
can be raised with profit, either for home
consumption or for sale, the easier to select
suitable crops to follow each other and give to
each its full and proper season.
Few crops need the whole season for their
growth, or so much of it that there is time for
nothing else. Where there is not time to
mature second crop, or the land is not in
condition to make it profitable, a crop Of
green manure can be sOwed and ploughed
under with little cost of labor, and no loss of
time to the land. But land should always
be kept in such condition that second
crop will pove profitable, and, whenever pos
sible, pile of well rotted manure should be
kept on hand to give it top dressing and
insure good start to the crop. 1t is better to
harvest second crop, even if doing so neces-
stiles buying manure, But one need buy but
little more manure for two crops than for
one; for most crops make nearly as much as
they withdraw from the soil.
For an early manure crop, peas are best.
They can be sown as soon as the frost is out
of the ground, and Canada peas can be bought
at such rates, by the barrel, as will make the
seed economical. For this purpose they
should be sown considerably thicker than
when they are raised for the peas. Sowed
corn also makes good crop for green ma
nure, and may be sown in the spring, or after
early harvest. In the latter case, it will
often mature enough to be cut for fodder,
and can be used as fodder first, and manure
afterwards.
Buckwheat may also be sown after early
harvest,and if it fails to mature it can be turn
ed under. Winter rye makes one of the best
for M hut n
much time that it can seldom be raised with
out interfering with other crops. Growing
grain can be plowed under easily by dragging
stick or chain just ahead of the furrow. A
chain attached to the whippletreee with con-
siderable slack does the work very effectually.
But it will rarely be necessary to raise a
crop just for the manure it will make. By a
judicious selection of crops and carefully
planning their rotation, two crops can be
matured and gathered in almost every in
stance except where corn or late potatoes
are planted. OF the farm crops usually rails
ed, hay, winter wheat, rye barley, early
spring wheat and oats can be harvested in
time for buckwheat, corn fodder or turnips
After late oats, spring wheat and corn, win
ter wheat or rye may be sown, aud these can
be harvested the next year in time for sec
ond crop, making three crops in two years.
But as winter wheat and rye are the best
crops to seed with, the farmer will usually
SOW his grass seed with them-timothy in the
fall, and clover in the spring. Where plenty
of well rotted manure can be narrowed in,
turnlps are one of the best crops farmer
can raise, and they can be sown as late as the
middle of Aug st. But great care should be
used ia selecting the seed, and when it can
be purchased direct from the grower, it is
safer to do so. Every farmer should get a
seed catalogue. They can be had tor the ask
ing. He will find many suggestions of
value in them, and can thus get fresh seed
direct from the grower. Turnips can be
sown broadcast and covered by light har-
row, or by roller, but better way is to SOW
them in drills: it requires less seed and pro-
duces better crop. With seed soWer
man will sow three or four acres per day, and
cover them at the same time. Where early
potatoes are planted, all the extra work of
the second crop can be saved by planting
every third hill in every third row to squashes
Or pumpkins. When there is market for
squashes, they often prove very profitable
crop, but either squashes or pumpkins are
good food for stock. The potatoes should be
planted as soon as possible, and squashes or
pumpkins not until three or four weeks later
The potatoes can be dug before the squash or
pumpkin vines have run so as to be injured
or be in the way. This will leave the hills
nine feet apart each way, which is the proper
distance, and they will do as well as if no
other crop had been raised.
There are other crops not mentioned in
this article, which former can often raise as
a catch or second crop, with profit. One adj
vantage in keeping the land occupied, aside
from its producing more, is that it keeps it
free from weeds. Where a crop is harvested
In July or August, and the land allowed to
remain till winter, as the weeds which have
started will mature and SOW their seeds;
while if the land is ploughed as soon as the
first crop is taken off, all the weeds are turn
ed under and destroyed before they can 90 to
seed.-Cor. Rural New Yorker.