Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-08-20
How some Farmers DO.

His name is Dutton, and he used TO keep
school in our district. and when we have
occasionally passed the farm where be
lives, and which he and his lathrr carry
on, and seen the thrifty look of the farm
buildings, the trim fences and heavy crops
of corn and oats, the rowen with such q
growth, and such an air of thrift and
prosperity, we have wanted to stop and
interview him as to his methods, for we
had seen the results.
A few days since we had the chance
and the cherished wish became the actual
reality. The house-a good. plain, sub
stAntial building with slated roof-has IFS
flower garden as well as vegetable patch
snd all are well cared for. The straw.
berry bed-so seldom seen on our farmers
premises-kept them in strawberries three
weeks, and all about the house is sweet
and clean, with no foul stenches to faint
the air and cause typhoid fever or diph.
liberia.
When we came along he (Dutton) was
out beside the road, where there is a clay
bank, and shoveling from it into his dump
cart. We guessed his object, for his land
is mostly sandy, but asked him if he was
at work on the road. He said there was
a pile of manure in the barn cellar which
was leaking a little and needed working
over, and he thought he would use little
clay as abs orient; so he puts in, as it is
forked over, about one-third of its bulk in
clay, and uses ii the next year to manure
in the hill for corn.
OF course the corn field came next in
point of interest, and to this we next paid
attention. He has about six acres in corn
and here he has an experiment station -
of his own, for he is trying Brsdley's and
Bowker's phosphates, and Stockbridge
formula for corn, manure in the hill with
horse manure, with COW manure and clay,
and now there is little difference in the
appearance of the crop in the different
parts, though earlier in the season the
commercial manures took the lead. AS
he remarked, husking time will show the
worth.
On one part of the field, where he had
buckwheat last year, the cut-worms had
destroyed most of the first planting, which,
of course, left this smaller, but here were
two rows which were notably heavier than
the rest of the field. The seed of these
rows he soaked in turpentine as pre-
ventive of cut-worms, which was all the
difference of treatment, and the worms
did not work it much, if any.
lie thinks corn profitable crop to raise,
and considers a crop of corn fodder well
secured as good as so much good hay.
On his potatoes some difference was OBJ
served. One part was MANFRED with
Stockbridge formula in the hill, another
with horse manure, rather coarse and
strawy, and this part was, to all appear
ance, the BEST but the bushel basket viii
give the true report in the fall.
His system.of rotation gives corn Tho
first place on the sod. which is followed
by oats the next year, and after these art
taken off, the ground is plowed and seed
ed in the fall, which gives a pretty sure
catch and good stock
A few years ago he repaired his barns
putting good cellar under the whole
and finds much better results from tn,
manure than before, and this is the testi
mony, without exception, of all we hav,
ever seem who have so improved theil
barns.
About the house were nearly fifty
swarms of bees, and these add TO tn,
pleasure and profit of the farm. From
thirty-four swarms in 1878 he sold abou
twelve hundred pounds of box honey a
from seventeen to twenty cents per pound
This year they are not doing rs well, anC
he expects only about six hundred pounds
from the increased number of swarms
Not all farmers can keep bees profitably
any more than all can carry on all othel
kinds of farming proftably, but for thos'
who can it must be pleasant as we'll as
proiitable and that is just what our cal
was. for we renewed old acquaintance ant
learned something. and came away believ
Ing less than ever that our farmers are 81
entirely ignorant of their business as some
eminent authorities assert.