Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-11-01
Farm and Household.
Neihod In Farming.

Among the contributions by the Farmers
Club Of the American Institute Of New York
TO the Farmers Club Fair of Massachusetts,,
is a series of contributions by its members on
agricultural topics. The following is one of
the articles written by Horatio d. Shepard,
in which he relates the substance of n CONVEX
saton which he heard about half a century
since, between two New England farmers,
well known and highly respected in their day.
Farmer Jones' who, by the way, was an in-
teligcnt Scotchman was Intercepted as fol
lows by his friend and neighbor Farmer Da-
Wis, whose object was evidently to obtain,
from n man of practical wisdom, some of the
secrets of his success.
How is it, Neighbor Jones, that you al
ways have things in so much better condition
than ordinary farmersl Your crops are
abundant, you have grain in your grannry,
plenty Of hay in your barn, beef and pork in
your barrels wood in the wood-h house, while
your buildings also are in good repair, and
things generally seem to be easy and smooth,
aud if at any time there are any needful
things to be sold very cheap for cash, you are
sure to have the cash to buy them with. Now
l would like to learn how You manage to ac-
complish so much and apparently with little
effort"
To this Farmer Jones replied 81 can de-
scribe to you some Of my methods, which are
probably different from most of my neigh
bors. In the first place, | keep my manure
better sheltered, so that it is not easily washed
away by the rains nor dried out by the sun.
Moreover, l apply it ON the best land, rather
than scatter it over poor and gravelly hill
sides in other words, / cultivate only as
much land as 1 can keep rich and in good
,n,,l;tinp . no IN r,lpxy
and cultivate an acre of good land than one
that is poor and comparatively worthless l
find that the labor bestowed on the best land
brings the best reward. You will find, if you
look around you, that most of the farmers in
this part of the country spread themselves
over too much inferior soil and the tenden-
CIV of this practice is to keep them poor all
their lives.
again, l do not attempt TO winter too
much stock. Rather than do this prefer to
sell in the fall and buy in the spring. But
what do winter over are well fed and shell
tered and kept in good heart, at whatever
cost l find l can generally buy up lean and
hungry cattle, and other stock. in the carly
spring for very small sum a little Indian
meal, with forage or early grass, and good
nursing, very soon brings them up to the
right point This costs far less than carrying
too much stock through our long winters
Again, l generally manage TO keep some
ready money on hand, or within easy reach
consider this one of the necessary means for
keeping my finances and my general business
in the best condition. Whenever occasion
arises for paying out this ready money set
to work to replace it as soon as 1 can, just as
l would any other necessary implement of
the farm or the household"
Now it seems to me that many of our farm
ers of the present day would find it to their
advantage to take a leaf from the old Scotch
mans sound and successful philosophy of
farming.