Connecticut western news., 1881-09-21
A STATE FARM.
How the Massachusetts State Farm is Managed and the Crops it Raises,

How the Massachusetts State Farm
 is Managed and the Crops it
 Raises.
 The 240-acre farm connected with the State primary school at Monson, says the Springfield Republican, is a very interesting spot for any one familiar with farm matters. It is unlike many other farms in that it has large re- sources, home market, and plenty of light help. There are over 400 children here, two-thirds of whom are boys and the average age is nine years. The larger ones milk, hoe and weed, and under in- structors help good deal in the house. hold. The garden so often neglected on common farms is we'll kept here and it's varieties are quite attractive because so neat. George Fl. Fisherdick, the farm manager for several years and un- der the three last superintsndents, Is 8 large, level-headed man, who says but little, but acts the more. He knows the farm and it's capacities probably bet 1 ter than the excellent agent, aud his ex- perience with crops and stocks would be fortune to an amateur farmer. He may be little too conservative for this push ing age, but after all it is good quality in any business to "look before you leap."
 Farmer Flsherdick is generally sure when he starts, and the farm manager here has to start considerable. Here are 97 head of cattle, 70 swine and 6 horses to look after at present. The cattle are chiefly COWS and heifers, for milk is one of the great wants of this children's home. They milk about 50 COWS here, and every mess of milk, both night and morning, has been weighed and credited to each COW for years. The result is that they weed out the poor COWS and retain the best milk CTS. The Ayrshire breed is preferred for several good reasons. The Ayrshires are of medium size, hardy, keep easily, and are often good and perpetual milk CTS. Besides, the milk is pro bably of superior quality, for domestic uses and growing children. Bread and milk is the children's chief supper, and in ad- dition to what is now raised on the farm, 100 quarts of milk day comes from dairy adjoining for which is paid three cents quart. Some heifer calves are raised here that do credit to the insti- tuition, and eventually they will raise the standard of milch COWS outside.
 There are 70 acres of moving this year, and the first crop weighed 1533 tons-within half ton of last years tonnage. The rowen crop is quite as promising as usual. There are nine acres of potatoes, five acres of corn fod- der, three and one-half acres of man. golds, one and one-half acres of sweet corn, one and one-quarter acres of car rots, and other garden crops in profu- sion. We learned that the carrots here were sown in mid-June, that the man. golds were sown the 10th of June, after removing 8 crop of green rye; that 1000 bushels of mangolds were taken last year from 70 rods of land, and that winter beets were sown as late as the 18th of June. Onions do we'll on the garden soil, and they are we'll adapted to the help. We noticed thai the tomato plants were allowed seven feet distance, and the newly-set strawberries three and one-haf feet, which is said to be none too much space for either. The pota- toes raised are Early Rose and Burbank varieties, and we were told that the bugs had been more troublesome than usual. Paris green in water is the remedy here. MT. Fisherdick does all the sowing of seeds, and gave us his usual formula for grass per acre: He mixes twelve quarts of herds grass and eight quarts of red-top, for fall sowing, and in the spring of the year adds six pounds of clover.
 The farm, which was originally very poor and stony, is fast becoming fertile and smooth, and is said to hold and show the effect of manure better than some alluvial lands. It certainly enjoys the annual luxury of about 1,400 ox-cart loads of home made fertilizers, and has every advantage of labor and capital it needs. On all the farms connected with public institutions there should be more or less of experiment for the pur- pose of establishing principles. The trouble with our agriculture is tha+ there is very little that is established and sure. A man who plants field and treats it all alike, is like musician who sings 8 hymn with one mouotonous bawl. Any body can teach something, and every. body should observe and learn. Thoughts have nutrition h them as we'll as pork and potatoes. A simple experi- ment that common laborer can make, if carefully noted, may confirm fact and so feed hundreds of hungry bodies. We repeat it, there should be more oi experiment. at all the State farms for the public good.