The Portland daily press., 1879-03-10
AGRICULTURAL.
Prepare for Spring

preaching. The days grow longer at rate
tnat Is appreciable from week TO week. As
the sun climbs higher in its daily course we
are reminded that the winter will soon be
gone. It's certainly time now to begin to
close up the operations peculiar to the winter
spring work In earnest.
FINISH THE wooDPILE.
If the years supply Of fuel is not already
cut and hauled, the sooner it is done the bet
ter, before the roads become impossible. 1t
is never good economy to try to burn green
wood, nor does 1t pay to be working at the
woodpie In summer when the field work IS
driving. March Is poor month in which to
cut firewood or timber, but that which is al
ready cut should all be picked up and pre-
pared for its several uses without delay.
Wood cut in early winter seasons is much
better than that which is cut when the sap is
running freely, but dead stuff may be cut out
and worked up into firewood at any time.
There is no haste about housing wood until
IL is partly seasoned, unless it can be riled in
open sheds where there is free circulation
of air. A large open shed, convenient to the
kitchen, and where wood can be cut and split
in stormy weather, is a handy building to
have on farm. Firewood worked up under
such conditions, may cost the owner almost
nothing, as the work may be done when
hands would otherwise be idle. Unless wood
can be cut in such shed, we much prefer to
have the cbopping done at some distance
from the dwelling house. 1t costs practically
no more to house stove wood that was cut
and split ten or twenty rods from the build
iDgs than if 1t lay within two or three rods.
Our plan is TO have the woodpile in the
corner OF the pasture, or in some partly out of
the way place, until it is sufficiently dry to
pile under cover, then fill team wagon and
draw in, making business of it for day or
two. This keeps the uLsightly rubbish which
is always accumulating around farmers
woodpile, where it is neither under foot nor
under the eye. AS highly as we value pile
OF dry seasoned wood convenient to the kitch-
en- stove, we do not like to take the usual ac-
compartment OF weedy, rough-and-tumble
chip or wood yaid at the back door. Clean,
green grass looks far ter than burdocks and
rag weed, even from the back door.
HIRING HELP.
Help should be secured now before the sea-
son Is advanced, and before the best men are
engaged. 1t would be better for both parties
II farmers and hired help would make longer
contracts. Thousands of men work only dur
ing the summer who should hire out by the
year. Absolute idleness is always wasteful,
and II one can earn enough in winter to pay
SSss ~ ~ 40 cCttOA WAL w 1.-Two Itm 1cCcuU6I
to April on what was earned during the grow
ing season. II makes no difference in the end
whether man works through the summer
season for two or three hundred dollars and
In the winter for his board, or whether he
works the whole year for the same sum. If
farmers would hire the whole year through,
at an even rate, we think both parties would
feel quite as we'll conteDted. The habit OF
working BY the year would save this annual
shifting from place 10 place. A man that has
done well this year, ought to be worthy of
hiring for next year, and he should be worth
more the second year on the same farm than
in new place.
1t generally takes one year for man to be
come familiar with all the work to be done on
given farm, and when be has once learned
what is expected or required, he should be
better qualified to fill the place than fresh
hand. There is often too little sympathy be-
tween employers and the employed on farms.
Owners hire for six or eight months, or dur
Ing the summer season, and then let their
help shift as best they may through the win
ter. This tempts the laboror 10 demand al
most exorbitant wages during the busy
months, and thus feeling OF selfishness is
cultivated on both sides. We ought to see
hired men working just as contentedly on the
same farms, year after year, as we see them
working in stores and factories. And 1t
would more often be so If farmers would con-
tive to give work through the whole year.
FENCES.
Dispense with just as many fences as pos
sible, but, where fences are needed, have
good ones. Fencing stuff to be used this
spring should be prepared now, and if drawn
to the place where it is to be used, all the
better. Post holes may be dug, and the
fence tuilt as soon as the frost is out, before
other work is pressing, but if the material
must be hauled through soft fields, the teams
VIII be discouraged and the soil injured. In
digging post holes through soil tolerably
free f.om stones, a post bole digger will be a
great help. We have taken out the dit for
hole thirty inches deep by six inches dame
ter In less than three minutes.
Barbed wire is becoming some what popu-
lar for fences in some localities. They are
excellent where snow would accumulate by
the side OF other fences, yet where wood is
plenty, and farmers have plenty of time for
cutting and preparing it, we are inclined to
give the wooden fence the preference,
Barbed wire costs money, and the money
must be earned somehow before it can be ex-
pended. But let US get along with as few
fences as possible. We need good strong
one around the barn yard, by the side of
cattle lanes and to surround the permanent
pasture. If we propose to afterfeed the now
ing fields, fences will be needed here also,
otherwise they may largely be dispensed
with. AS matter of economy, we are sure
it would often be cheaper to skim over the
mowings with mower and horse rake for the
rowen crop than to let the cattle on. We
are apt to feed mowings too long and thus
sink the principal on which we are depend
ing for next years interest. If times are
hard, and prices for farm crops low, then the
more need of studying how to economic in
the cost OF production. A self imposed tax
may be easier to pay, but it draws just as
hard upon our resources as though levied by
Inc government assessors. Our taxes for
Iences are greater than most of US are aware.
we have taken it for granted that they are
needed, aud SO have failed to investigate the
subject, but If it is true, as shown by the cen
sus, that it takes dollar and seventy-four
cents worth OF fences to keep dollar and
sixty-tive cents worth of animals from eating
up our Two dollars and forty. five cents worth
OF annual crop, or in that proportion, then it
is well to know it.
SEEDS AND FERTILIZERS.
The ground should not be worked till it is
dry enough to crumble, but it is well to be
ready as soon as To at time comes. The cata-
ogues should be studied, and the seeds that
will be needed ordered now before they will
Do wanted ior planting.
1t may be question as to how much fer
tilizer and of what kind to buy, but that
question can better be answered by making
study of the circulars sent out. 1t certainly
ooks now as if those farmers are to be the
most successful in future who best under
tand the theory of fertilization as applied 10
he soil. It must be admitted that there has
been a little excitement on the fertilizer
problem, within the past three years, and if
1oe farmers set better understanding of the
suoJect, much good may come of it. One
ming Is very certain, farmers appear to un.
lerstand the nature of certain chemical ele-
menus much better than formerly, and they
ASK very much sharper questions in conse-
4uence.
FARMERS CLUBS.
Don't close up the series of winter meet.
ngs too early. If the time spent with the
,lub during the winter has been profitable.
Why may not half day be spent proftably
Turing the summer as often as once month?
Why not visi, each others farms during the
hummer, and thus learn from Que and aDoth-
II by observing actual operations in the field
,r In the stable? Much good has come
rom such visiting in localities where the
,ustom has become popular. Now is a good
lime to think of these things, and have
llans laid that thav NON NJ. <