Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-01-02
Vermont Farms.

HOilldS DdhtT, Vi Ddltoll, ~ dItduN Ont
of the best of Vermont farmers, and is con-
stantly trying to make Improvements. His
place, called West Hill Farm, contains about
seven hundred acres. It's soil is mostly OF
that strong, dark character that supports the
best maple growth, although it drops down
beside pond and there grows cedar, fir and
spruce. In the woodland naples are so
abundant that it is a matter of choice
whether one thousand or two thousand trees
are tapped for sugar making; usually one
thousand two hundred or one thousand five
hundred are used. There is one field of
eighty acres that can all be moved with
machine. 1t is all in good condition eleven
acres in one corner gave this year twenty
two large loads of hay. In another corner
were three and one-fourth acres of wheat
and seven acres of oats, of an even aud
thrifty growth. In this and another field are
ten acres of barley. Wheat and barley are
quite sure crops, aud with the careful prepare.
ton of the soil here given yield heavily. Two
and half to three bushels of barley are
used for seed per acre.
AS the hay crop is very important, the
effort is to seed the grass with a rich mel
low seed.bed The piece of land designed
for improvement is plowed in the fall, and
on this inverted sod oats or barley are raised
without much manure, or potatoes and corn
with manure. In the fall the immense piles
of manure made the previous winter in the
cellar under the stables, or in the Sheds are
drawn out and spread from the cart on the
plowed fields for wheat and barley, with
grass seed to be sown in the spring. Very
few farmers summer the manure piles at the
barn; they are anxious that in all its pro-
cesses of fermentation and decomposition it
may furnish plant food to growing crops.
So with all its rawness, coarseness, and it.
multitude of foul seeds, it is applied to the
land. Not so here. Into one cellar 60 the
droppings of about forty cattle, with con-
slant use of bedding and absorbents. On
this wealth of fertility several hogs are kept
and fed upon the refuse milk of the dairy.
By their roofing and presence they increase
the fertility, fine the manure and prevent
heating. In the manure sheds hogs or calves
are kept through the summer, so that in the
fall it is heavy job to move this fertilizer
TO the fields. The favorable conditions are,
the soil is firm for the team and cart to pass
nver; the weather is cool and favorable for
the team there is plenty of time-no crop
is being delayed, as would often be the case
in spring. the manure is fine, fermented,
l'composed, with no weed seed, and is ready
20 spread broadcast evenly Corn and ia
foes are MANFRED in spring, but are not
leading crops.
This year Mr.. Baker has two acres in
hops; this is the second crop from this yard
An effort has been made to do everything
possible to produce an old-fashoned crop of
a ton per acre, and it has been success.
visited the yard few days before picking.
and can attest to the uniform excellence of
nearly every hill in the whole plot. The
hills are eight by eight feet apart, there are
four thousand poles set, with two or three
vines to each pole. The poles are new, and
from twenty to thirty feet long. They bend
down with their burden. The field is a par
alelogram; the male hops are in the fifth row
from each side, with few by chance scat
tered through the yard. The culture has
been quite perfect and clean.
The specially here is dairying. Tine stock
is all Dutch Cor " IIolstein') ful-bloods and
grades. Thirty head are thoroughbred and
forty head are grades Tbirty-six are COWS
of which sixteen are under four years OF
age, and eight are heifers giving milk their
first season. Yet the cheese made dali,
weighs from sixty to seventy-eight pounds
Cheese was made forty days, so the season
changed considerably and the less succulent
feed showed plainly in the yield. Two
calves sucked cows, yet please notice that
the thirty-four cows left made seventy.
eight pound cheese, or yielded daily seven
hundred and eighty pounds of milk. This
yield, with all the cows and heifers counted
in, is not often equaled.
Mr.. Baker uses No. 4 Roe's cheese vat
and Patrick press. Most of the year he
makes butter, and by painstaking has a
steady market and price above the usual
quotations He uses Enbree's butter worker
and the style of stamping press used to put
up the Philadelphia prints BY putting the
butter in these nicely printed pound blocks
its price is increased five cents a pound
above the same butter in tubs.
The young stock looks very promising
Thirteen calves are raised, and during
cheese making had in addition to grass onl,
five quarts OF whey each. The eight hog,
that share the wastes of the dairy with the
calves are of the White Chester blood, ex.
cept two of Poland China that are Just in
troduced into the pens. Mr.. Baker in his
crops, methods of culture, his Dutch cattle
and well-bred pigs, has endeavored to find
and use the best, This continuous effort
makes visit to his place full of interest and
instruction. u. l.. JAMESON.