Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-02-26

~ OU; tn0 COWS lie WOTks OH al SEO caOhs
or $500 for the lot, which takes from
$500. the cost of the cows. leaves shrink
age of $500 or the cows. which taken from
$500 received for the butter. leaves $3.50.
besides money made on hogs and calves
from feeding the milk The other believ-
ing it pays TO feed grain and improve the
farm. begins with two quarts of corn
meal per cow, and feeds at that rate
through April. May. June, and July. and
finds he has fed two hun red and forty
four quarts 10 the COW; through August,
September. October, and November. he
feeds four quarts per COW, or four hundred
and lightweight quarts each; through
December and January he feeds six quarts
per COW, or three hundred and siXty-six
quarts each; then in February and March
be feeds eight quarts per COW, or four hun
dred and eighty quarts each, making one
thousand five hundred and seventy-eighl
quarts of corn meal fed each COW, OF forty
nine bushels and ten quarts per COW.
Twenty cows at fifty bushels per COW
amounts to one thousand bushels, meal
which ut sixty cents amounts to 5000
The cows fed in this manner make two
hundred and fifty pounds of butter each.
or five thousand pounds, which at twenty
| five cents per pound amounts to $3.50; ;
take from this the 5000 paid for corn meal
| it leaves $3.50 for the butter, if it is worth
no more than the butter from the cows
that had no grain. | claim that it will
sell and is worth five cents per pound
more, or $3.50 on the lot, 5000 for the but
ter after paying for the feel and the COWS
can be turned for beef readily Mt cost,
making II net gain in favor of feeding the
grain and improving the farm of $3.50, or
he gets Just double what the other man
gets to say nothing of the extra quantity
Of milk, which will pay for the labor Of
drawing the grain home and feeding it, to
say nothing about the saving of fodder
which is no small item, besides the man
who feeds the grain has the satisfaction of
seeing II fine looking stock about hip all
the time, caused by feeding the one thou
sand bushels of meal, which any inlelli-
rent farmer can see at once it is no small
item. Right here is the most important
thing in the ability of the farmers of Yer
mont to improve their farms and make it
pay, viz: The making all the manure pos
sibe on the farm by saving and utilizing
all the means of fertility on the farm. |
| DClIeNc Iuc lal ulelS vi Islc olatlc vi v eI-
mont could double the value of their ma
nure supply by doing just this one thing
But how many of us are there who
do so. or do as well as they know in this
respect. venture to say but very few.
1t has become II fact not disputed by
practical, thinking farmers, that the liquid
manure, if it can all be saved, is nearly
equal to the solid; yet how few there are
of us who try TO save it by using absorb
ents or any other practical means. To
prove this we have only to look about MS
over the highways and byways of Yer
mont, and see the manure piles thrown
cut of doors, without anything to keep ii
from teaching or washing by the snow
that is mixed with ii when it melts by the
water from the caves, that. in many cases
runs upon them from the melting snow
and rain, while the liquid is left to run
through the stable floors, if loose enough !;
if not, auger holes will be made,to dispose
our stable floors. 1t is no wonder that we
Cry hard times. and have them too.
We all know better than this. but the
question that interests the farming com.
munity to-day. is 10 do better; and when
we consider the small outlay that is neces
slry to cover up these manure piles, BY
raising up the barns, if practicahle or, if
not, by manure sheds, which need not be
expensive structures; then use muck, soil
from the roadside or saw dust for absorb
edits apply this manure the best way we
can,-and be aslonished in the results in
crops raised with no increase of stock,
and there will he no need of that in my
case for some time to come. In the past
year paid out for hay and grain $500 OF.
while | paid for commercial fertilizers
$ 1880; summered over some ten or
twelve tons Of hay, and have stock
enough to nearly use up my fodder
Speaking of commercial fertilizers. I
think after we have exhausted the means
of rcnovaling and improving our farms
that ire all about us, that we can raise our
own hay and grain cheaper than to buy
them, and at the same time improve our
farms by using special fertilizers. if we
use the right kinds; and what these kinds
are is IL question for each one of us to
solve for himself by experiment, and there
is no one that will he poorer by trying
such experiments judicously. ! have
experimental with all the fertilizers | ever
II ed, and know that the crops (taken as a
whole) nave been enough better to more
th"h pay 'he cost OF 'he lertlllzers. Plaster
~ "', VI i''ln'lG Oh our SOIL (whlch is
Bradlrv's Wilson's and Crnhor,and
super phosphates and Pacific guano have
pald their cost and something for apply.
lhg them on the first crops and frequently
have seen the benefit of them for three
wears at least; think ash are worth most
(where they work welD TO use where we
wish to seed down and are troubled to get
catch. l hope to hear from Col. Mead
on TINS subject OF commercial fertilizers as
he mas ll"d II large experience and obser-
walton IN Their use, and there is no one
question That interests the farmers more
to-day than this same subject of special OF
commercial fertilizers.
VIII put 1t down as an anxiom that
me farmers OF Vermont cannot continue
to sell butter, beef mutton, pork. potatoes,
wool, oats. etc, without making some
return, more than they will get from what
Is lett without impoverishing their farms
have already written more than | in.
tended and fear more than has been in.
tereStng' but II TINS hastily written article
will but provoke healthy discussion OF
this subject reSultinU in GOOD IN T1S o1l /,