Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-12-30
PlOW.Farming.

The farmer who devotes his time prin.
cipally to the pillow, that is breaking up
the land, raising grain, and other titled
annual crops, such as require the con.
slant use of the plow, harrow and hoe
will die poor particularly if he
pursues this system steadily through
long series of years. There is no system
so laborlous as plow-farmng. There is
no other returns so small profit
Diversified farming is more interesting,
more educating, refining, and more prof
table, pecuniarily, than the drudgery
of plow-f farming. Variety IN agriculture
as in every other department Of life. is
more interesting because less laborlous
and monotonous.
In order to keep the farm up to its
highest productive capacity, as small an
area should be in crops requiring the
constant use of the pillow and harrow as
is compatible with the greatest yield per
acre and the allotted time to be devoted
to the care of each crop. There should
never be such an extent of any one crop
as would trespass upon the time neces-
sary to devote 10 others equally impor-
tant in their season. Flowing too much
land is the rock on which many indus
trlous farmers are stranded. Other inn
portant work on the farm has to be neg
lected, the labor becomes excessive, and
the burthens of the farmer and his
family are simply an oppression which
even a gall.y-slave should not be sub
jected 10. 1t is this mistaken practice
which wears the life out of many farmers,
bringing on premature age, disgusting
his sons, making a slave of his wife, and
the whole life on the farm mere ex-
lstence without rest, recreation or Ell. oy-
ment To grow rich, TO make money, is
the declared object of these unnatural
sacrifices; and yet no man ever grew
rlch by such course, while it has im-
poverished thousands and left them
with exhausted lands, and rude, CONF
fortress homes.
Where framework is q steady drag
with the effort to cultivate more acres
than the force under the control of the
farmer can accomplish in season, and
perform with thoroughness, the land is
never made to do its best, and the re-
turns are generally far from profitable,
And when everything is staked on
single crop, failure is sure to be disas
trously often.
A well-ordered farm and system of
farming contemplates variety and diver
siGed crops. Some will surely give good
returns for the seasons labor, and a
steady income may be counted upon
with much certainty. If the farm is
largely seeded in tame grasses, the land
will always remain productive when
placed uni the pillow. Cattle, sheep
and hogs should be part of the money
crop, and good orchards should contrib
ute TO the farmers income. His fowls
are neglected, as Il rule, and their profit
merely nominal. The dairy product is
half lost from q lack of knowledge in its
management, and want of proper ar
rangements for preserving milk and
cream and manufacturing the best quail
ity of butter. No insignificant sum is
expended annually for sweets, largely
consisting of inferior molasses, and adul-
terated unwholesome syrups, while
scores of gallons of the purest and most
wholesome 90 to waste on every farm
for want of bees to gather and store it.
The hard life and scanty remuneration
of the farmer, so generally complained
of, are largely attributable to the lack of
ability to develop the full capacity of
the farm. There are numerous branches
in farming, all of which require Il de-
gree Of special training to pursue with
profit
And again, few farmers have a we'll
defined system, that they pursue steadily,
without permitting their plan to be
changed by disappointment and partial
failures. A well-matured plan of diver
sitied farming, pursued steadily and in
telIigently for ten years, will never fail
of achieving an average success which
Will satisfy reas unable expectations.