The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-10-17

A Model Farm.
WHY should farming not be scientific!
Because the manufacturer labOrs in q
scientific way, his profits are greater
and surer than those of the agricultur.
list who has neither machinery nor sys-
tenn; but it is the unreasonable custom
Ut many to sneer at all Innovations, and
to look at all methodic variations upon
old usages as the fanciful and unprofit-
able 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 perceive that careful book-keep-
ing and the adoption of improved meth
DDS and implements 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 he
obtained, and this responsiveness of
the purple glens'' gave a name to
this farm. 1t is Echo Farm-a pretty
and POLITICALLY suggestive name, indeed,
which conjures up visions of loneliness,
and sets one to dreaming of intertwin-
ing vines knitting their plant tendrils
and sweet-scented leaves through the
hospitable porch and open lattice; the
checkered 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 undulations; 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 inhexibly
utilitarian; it keeps all its buildings
in perfect state of repair; it subordi.
mates the picturesque, if it ever recog-
nizes it; it pulls down the old mill be-
cause that venerable is in the way of
the rectangular new dairy; it diverts
the brook from its ferny course into the
most commonplace of earthen pipes;
it tears away the vines that obscure
the light, and it looks upon everything
with pair of the most practical eyes
set in head that weighs, measures,
audits and analyses with chemical ex-
actness. The proprietor of Echo
Farm conducts it as q 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 up
on books, both that purchased and that
produced; and a separate account is
kept of the yield Of each field. Moth
ing is wasted, nothing done by guess
ing, and nothing passes unrecOrded.
The implements are of the latest or
most approved model. Three sets of
4" horse" hay-forks are in use, by
which hay is unloaded at the rate of a
ton in four forkfuls and in four min
utes, including in some instances the
carriage of the hay $50 feet. The 9TH
er machines also embody some novel
labor-saving principles. No manure or
fertilizers are found necessary, except
the 1850 loads made upon the farm,
and a sort of muck, of which there are
several beds.
The history of the farm is interest
ing. A gentleman of education, intelli-
gence and wealth came to Litchfield
some nine years ago in search of a
summer home. He had the most super
fetal knowledge of farming, and enter
tanned no intention of entering that
business. But having purchased sixty
six acres and cleared them, he pur-
chased additional tracts, which became
the nucleus of Echo Farm, whose area
is now about 400 acres. His interest
was enlisted in the raising of choice
stock, and beginning with a herd of
five, he has gradually increased the
number to 100, all the herd being pure
Jerseys, with authentic and valuable
pedigrees. The rocky fields were
cleared, laid out and inclosed by mas
sive 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 rs was built; an addition, 100 feet
by 40, was made the following year;
and in 1875 another addition was made,
of 191 by IS feet. These three build
ings form the three sides of the barn
yard. 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 proprietor's resi-
dence, and the telegraph poles that line
the roadway. A desire for simplicity
and durability in preference to
ornamentation or showiness is visible
everywhere; there is no litter, and
there are no gaps in the fences or walls,
which are from eighteen inches to
tventy-four in thickness, every crevice
being filled like mosaic with a stone
that exactly fits it. Care, thrift and in
genuity have acted like three charms.
When the fields were being 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 in the
foundations of the buildings, in the
fences and in filling ravines, but more
remained, and these were deposited
upon several sterile hillocks of no value,
where masses of swamp grass were laid
over them and covered with a light
dressing of soil. Grass seed was sown
upon the soil, and it took well, soon
transformed the barren heaps to ver-
dant knobs, whose blades are remarka-
bly, hardy. 1t was not so much for the
sake of the land gained that the stones
were thus disposed of, but it was rather
to prevent the formation of nurseries
for weeds, shrubs and bramblcs, which
the heaps would have quickly become
Two and a half acres are planted
with beets, which are the only roots fed
to the cattle, the crop averaging 1000
bushels an acre, and more than 1000
tons of hay are housed year.-W. H.
Rideing, in Harper's Magazine for Octo-
Der.
influence Of Newspapers.
A sCHOOL-TEACHER, who had been
engaged long time in his profession,
70