Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-05-31
For the Freeman.
Letter from Farmer SanbOrn.

r.
the columns of your department with much
interest, perhaps because ] find it packed
with matter familiar to me by experience.
and Of a kind | deem Of more than trivial
Importance. E. \. Fisk discusses the
question of the proper time to harvest. j
W, N. has been doing little irrigating
and suggests more; worthy advice, and
practice | was brought up in on an eX-
tcnsve scale for New England. There
are thousands of tons of grass in the waters
of Vermont. Further on he says of the
Scotch, "Thay cultivate large areas, they
follow systematic rotation of crops and
feed large amounts" II believe they
have more faith in farming or that they
use moro businesslike methods" Here is
a hint at what New England farming
foods, tools, chemicals, tillage, better ro-
talions, broadening and deepening Of our
farming. This is all coming and will lift
US out Of any despair that we may have
momentarily felt. And Editor Tinkham
suggests step in this direction in larger
areas of corn. This is Just the right start
ing crop for broader tiIlage; crop pro-
ductive, non.eXhaustive, cheaply titled; a
good fitting crop for following products,
and uneXcelled as a butter producer and
fattening food. The world has no tillage
crop its equal.
But what interests me most /, the rare
good sense Of the editorial remarks upon
Mr.. Fisks opposition to some facts set
atloat from our college farm to push their
way finally, or be pushed away according
-, 4 l. -. IL
records Of results" Of the shower Of
writers who have noticed the experiments
publicly, he is almost alone in not thinking
it necessary, and all that is needed to do,
to fly at them as vicious opinions; the
critic, armed with nothing but blank asser-
.ion-thls easy way of upsetting years of
accurate work l have had cause to fire.
quently note, This dogmatc way of do
ing things, think, is peculiar TO our in
dustry; to me it has ceased to be Il surprise
that it is so. or all the arts and sciences
1t is the most complex and its laws least
understood. Having no laws AS yet well
defined, at least in the public mind, every
man becomes "law unto himself" The
attempts of science to aid agriculture have
so far miscarried that every man asserts
his opinion as the highest law, and when
u large number unite upon what is con-
fessedly only an opinion, they defy all
proofs. | must confess that have got
much in that frame of mind, by having
cherished views fairly forced from Il wei.
come tenancy by personal inquiries with
scale and rod, that can accept no ones
opinions or science unless | can know of
his methods of arriving at them. | had
unsuspiciously accepted the German feed.
ing tables rs standard, not perfect, per-
haps, but above wide appeal from, and
fondly cherished the hope and said so,
that they offered n tangible basis for II
more economical system of feeding. But
when after years of patient trials | found
only wido differences and gradually began
to inquire upon what facts they formultt-
ed these tables, and found that to ascertain
the amount Of albuminoids necessary for
the support Of a 1000 pounds steer they
fed several sets all carefully enough, but
not on like foods in unlike amounts but on
unlike foods, they found that with one food
OIL lbs. albuminoids was the albuminoids
of support, and on another that 0.Sl lbs
was that of support nearly. Then they
struck the average, and for one reason and
another sci 90 as the standard. This TO
me seems crude and unscienttic.
Well, the result of research was that
said what friend Tnkham quotes me rs
saying, and il is needless to add that it is
not alone the early hay-makers that are
stirred up. Hence do not wonder that
farmers mistrust even figures. There is
quite general feeling that farming is so
beautifully complex that it is useless TO try
TO get facts OF very wide application.
have been surprised at the constant agree
mcnt in all well planned experiments.
am convinced that when eXperimenters
learn how to lay out and conduct an cX.
pertinent that farmers will he robbed OF
| their power TO hold in contempt the facts
so acquired. In the line of this thought |
can tell your readers how to appear ia
prove early cut hay to be the best lOr
steers even. Simply DO as usual. Change
your steers from palstable early cut hay tc
less palatablc later cut hay. They will eat
5 lbs. less Of the later cut hay; but rs you
will not weigh, you will not know il A.; and
a. YOU will not conduct the trial but for n
week, closing it before the steers get to
eating full ration, you will have salts
factory proof for self and ncighbors that
early cut is best
| Should some one next winter caro- 10 get
at the facts by personal trial, let him shift
| two sets of weighed steers Of like ages and
growing capacity from common but
mixed daily fodder, and put one upon early
cut hay and the other lot upon lstor cat
hav and feed for fifty days, and note in
weight all transactions, Before closing