The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-09-16
Ghe 9arnler.
From the Country Gentleman.
Experiences With Selling.

agricultural work one always finds some
thing new. No person can justly sit down
and say 81 know it all in regard to farm
work. So that it is not wise to lay down
rules and saw "as have found it thus and
so, thus and SO it must be-" Meanwhile
YOUR neighbor will come and tell you some
thing entirely different from your own con-
illusions, and as you know him to be man
of good sense and as trustworthy as your
self, you begin to perceive, and soon be-
lieve, that what may be one way with you
may be another way with your nelghbor-
under varying circumstance. And those
three words contain the kernel of this hard
nut of farm experiences and their results.
Now, as regards soiling, there are many
VARYING opinions, and as many varying ex-
periences, and do not pretend to do more
than to write how some opinions and some
beliefs, founded upon others experiences,
have differed from my own. 1t is the gen.
eral average which makes laws-jjust as we
NAV have an extraordinary dry season at
one place or time, and very wet one IN
another. but on the whole the rainfall will
be within fraction the past ten years or
the next ten years of what it was ten years
previously; and it so it must be general
AVERAGE results of the farm which fix its
value or usefulness.
This it is with soiling. Selling, however,
is invariably found useful and valuable. L
have not vet found or heard of the farmer
who has grown and fed one or more crops
for soiling his COWS or horses who has not
wear after year enlarged his ventures In that
direction. Indeed, SO universally favorable
have been the results, that hundreds OF
farmers who have begun partial soiling as
an experiment have gradually assumed the
practice of full soiling, and have abandoned
pasturage, excepting SO far as to keep one
shaded and well-watered field or lot under
hoof for the sake of convenience, or field
in rotation, to be in this manner cheaply
and richly MANFRED. Even in Kansas,
where land is cheap and rich, farmers are
growing soiling crops-rye for late fall,
winter and spring use, and mlllet and sor-
ghum for summer and fall use.
After several years practice of soiling, L
find it becoming simpler and easier each
wear. as the arrangements become more per-
feet, and what is more beneficial, the land
grows gradually richer year after year,
growing more feed, and permitting the herd
to be.enlarged until the objective point Of
one cow to the acre is actually within sight.
But just here it might be questioned if
most farmers will not find it to be more
convenient and profitable to stop when they
have reached half way to this point, rather
than to 90 farther and far worse, by being
forced to increase their labor, which is diff
fcult to do for want of the material. What
the farmer can do by his own intelligent
work he cannot always, or often, get done
by the less skillful work of others, and
every farmer knows how much better he
can do thing for himself than get it done
by ever so much showing and instructing,
which in the end takes as much time to be
effective as the doing of it.
Where land is worth 5000 or $500 an
acre and the farm is necessarily small, the
full result of cow to the acre is indispen-
sable to make the most of it; but where it
is half that value begin to see that it may
pay Just as well, and save labor, to grow
more grass and clover and use these than
to grow other crops which require more la
Dor, as oats, oats and peas, barley or the
small early sweet corn, to use in place OF
them. The season does not affect this so
much, for it is dry and the grass is light,
the other crops may be even lighter, and if
the season is good, as this has been, and
the other crops are heavy grass will alse5e
abundant. So that one may then come to
rye for early feed, which lasts until grass
and clover is ready; then grass and clover,
and then corn for fall use, and lastly man
gels or sugar beets for winter with rye hay
from the surplus rye, hay from the surplus
grass, cured surplus corn fodder and plenty
of roots.
The past season | have paid particular
attention to the rye, and find it to be espe-
cially valuable as compared with wheat; the
latter is inferior and comes later. Rye is
earlier, lasts green fully four weeks and is
about as productive of milk and butter when
cut and cured as when green. But this is
when it is cut very early, before the bios
som has dried. | have been feeding rye
hay thus made during the interval between
green rye and green corn, with partial pas
turing, saving the grass for hay, without
any loss of milk or butter; and the butter
is harder and of better quality than that
made from oats and peas cut green, which
tends to make soft butter. An acre of Or
binary rye will yield not quite three tons
of cured hay; and thickly sown rye-three
bushels per acre-makes better fodder and
much better hay than grown from thinner
sowing. Curing in the cock also improves
the hay. l have cut the rye in the morn
ing, raked it and put it into large cocks in
the afternoon, left it there three days, then
hauled it in and stacked it into barracks or
put it into the barn, and thus have the best
Of hay, sweet smelling, and evidently sweet
ly favored, Judging by the ways the COWS
eat it. 1t is cut up and fed with the usual
allowance Of two quarts Of meal
Thirteen acres of rye have fed ID head
from May 9Th to July 9Th, until the first
corn was ready, and has left, besides, IL
tons of hay, which is stored for winter fod-
der. By cutting the rye early something
may be lost in weight, no doubt, but there
is great gain in the quality of the fodder
to offset that, and a very important advan-
tage in getting fodder corn in earlier, and
indeed in time to plant some of it for grain.
From present conditions | have the conf
dence to assure farmer who has land that
will keep but one COW to five or six acres,
that in five years, by soiling, and saving all
the manure, and economizing it well, he can
bring up his farm to condition in which
cow can be kept ON two acres, and this
means doubling his income and leaving
balance to pay for all extra labor needed.
Early Fattening of Animals.