News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-08-30
FARM AND GARDEN.


owner of poor farm must make up his
mind to be a poor man for some time I'M
til he can gradually improve the soil.
If he has some money to eXpend upon
the land the work of recovery will he
more rapid than if he has to wait for the
slow process of gradual Improvement.
The most profitable and the surest way
to expend the money IS for manure, as
this is to poor land what food is to
starving man. But there is way Tor
good manager to improve his land and
make a profit at the start If he has the
needed money. This is to buy as many
COWS as he can afford and to purchase
whatever food may be required to feed
the cows above what the farm will at
ford. If he can dispose OF the milk at
three cents a quart he can pay his way
and buy everything. If he has good
butter COWS and knows how to make
really good butter and can lind some
private customer who will pay him forty
or fifty cents a pound-and there are
many who will do this for choice artl-
cIe-he is on the way to get rich and
make his farm rich, too. The manure
made by the COWS should be put out
literally acre by acre and the land seeded
to clover or planted to sweet corn for tod
der. Twenty loads per acre OF manure
will produce a good crop, and with ten
cows, if there is a bed OF swamp muck
on the farm which should be dug and
mixed with the manure, ten acres may
be well MANFRED at this rate every year.
In two years the twenty acres thus I'M
proved will keep the ten cows. BY gong
on in this way and rearing the helter
calves on the SKINNED milk, and by de-
voting the whole attention and labor to
this course, and persevering and working
hard for five years, the herd will have
increased to thirty cows, and fifty acres
of land will feed them with the help OF
a few tons of bran or niddlings and corn
meal. Then the neck of the difficulty
will have been broken and the way out
will be aightfOrward. 1t will pay
then to keep two hired men or boys on
the fifty acres, and grow fodder crops,
and by cutting and feeding them to aim
at feeding one COW to every acre, which
is possible thing to do.
SAVE THE BEST FOR SEED. corn,
peas, beans, and all kinds of garden and
field vegetables there is always more or
less opportunity for selecting superior
specimens for seed. and those who avail
themselves of them usually have ''better
luck" than those who make no effort III
the way of careful selections.
This principle of careful selection OF
seed should not stop in the vegetable
garden, but may with profit be extended
to the grain field and forest. In every
grain field variations in growth and pro-
ductiveness occur, and the farmer who
has eyes educated to see such things
will be sure to find them. Taking grain
for seed from a bin in which the entire
crop has been stored may answer very
well, but it is not the way to make pro-
gress or improve variety. The best
and cleanest plot. whether it be large or
small should be taken for seed, and kept
separate from the main crop. This rule
applies to all kinds of grain, and if every
farmer would practice it we would heal
less of deterioration or the running out
of varieties.
THIsTLEs. F. D. Curtis writes
! to the New York Tribune that he has
"tried all kinds of experiments i'll kill
! ing ali kinds of Canada thistles. Seed
| ing heavily with clover and moving il
is one of the best. The poorest way tC
kill them and the best way to spreaC
| them, is to put the land III hOed crops
Every little broken joint makes a new
thistle and starts new bed. Hence the
| less they are disturbed the better, unless
the ground is plowed so frequently tina
they cannot grow at all, and this extr.
labor is so out of joint with ones incli
nation that it is seldom done"
The Use OF GREEN MANURE
heavy crop of clover may be very use
! fully plOwed in for wheat, but it would
pay better far to make hay, which will
| two tons per acre would be equivalen
to $25 or $50 per acre. Twenty-Five dol
lars per acre would purchase half toI
of the best artificial complete manure
| which would be sufficient rightly APP
! piled to give 40 yl>r-cl.o19 of wheat or 10i
| bushels of corn per acre. The follow
| ing plan might be suggested for crol
| of wheat seeded with timothy grass
| The clover is cut and made into hay a
! once $50 pOunGs of the complete ma
nure, with 100 pounds of plaster, i
spread on the clover stubble. This vii
bring Il heavy growth of aftermath
| This is plowed i'll about the first weel
| in September. The ground is then har
rowed once n week up to the Goth 0
September, when $50 pounds more o
| the fertilizer is spread broadcast, har
rowed in, and the wheat drilled and thu
grass sown. In the spring another 25l
pounds of the fertilizer may he applied
All this will cost less than the clover ha,
will bring, and the land will receiv
greater benefit.
| A COOP IDEA For BoYs.-J. G.. W.
| Webster, Mass, writes "Last yea
there We're i'll New England a numbe
tf clubs formed and prizes offered t,
! boys for the best crop of corn, potatoes
and the like. In one or two cases tn
prizes were awarded by the Farmers
Club of the neighborkOod; in others III
! dividual farmers furnished the prizes.
see by a Southern exchange that clul
! has been formed this season in Webste
Parish, La, of boys not over fourteen
years old. The object is to Compel
with one another in the cultivation 0
one acre of corn each. The boy VIII
produces the largest crop of corn on hi
acre is to receive five bushels of cor
from each of the other members of til
club. Each boy cultivates to suit him
self and is permitted to use whateve
fertilizer he pleases. Now, [ like thes
clubs. know the ones reported upol
last season gave some excellent result
and the influence on the boys was goo
one. [ believe if our agricultural SC
societies and farmers clubs would OF
ganize these clubs for boys each season
offering a sufficient prize to stimulat
the lads to extra exertion, the benefit o
the community would be immense. I
a word they would be making enterpris
ing and intelligent young farmers out {
boys, who otherwise might never incIin
to farm at all. "
A Romantic Affair.
A writer in the st. Louis Post tel
the following curious story:
In the audience at Uhrig's Cave I'll