The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-02-28
Foresight in Farming.

Every farmer should have a memoran-
dunn book in his pocket, in which should
be jotted down certain items of labor,
whenever he may think about them.
Then, when he may be hesitating as to
what he or his employees can do ad-
vantage Jusly during some pleasant day,
the record of items will not fail to rem
der him valuable aid. The farmer who
does not take such thought for the fu-
ture and plan operations for weeks and
months, and sometimes for years ahead,
will always be grumbling that his work
is behind its appropriate season. Let
me illustrate by experiences from real
life.
A near neighbor was always at the
tail end of the revolving seasons. Dur
ing winter he would go several times
with two horses and sleigh more than
FIVE miles to the grocery store to make
q few purchases; and perhaps he would
take two or three bagfuls of grain to
mill. But in spring, when the wheel
ing became about as heavy as possible,
he could be seen dragging heavy load
of grain to mill to be ground for feed.
Well, when the sleighing was excellent
his grain was not threshed. By being
behind, he sustained losses in several
ways. Rats and mice destroyed bushels
of his grain. His domestic animals
suffered and grew poor for lack of the
food and comfort which they should
have received from the straw. If his
grain had been threshed at the proper
time team would have been able to
draw fifty bushels, when the sleighing
was fine, with less fatigue than they
could haul ten bushels over muddy
roads
Another neighbor had commenced
plowing, but soon learned that the old
stub of a plow-point could not be made
to enter the hard places in his field, so
he hurried off to get a new one. During
the winter he had been to the city sew
eral times, when he could have pur-
chased the share, and thus saved half a
day, and ninety-five cents for his fare
ON the cars. Two weeks after his grass
was fit to cut he took out his machine,
but before he could start it he was
obliged to 60 to the city to procure a
new knife for the cutter-bar, which re-
quired another half day and ninety five
cents, besides other losses. By being
ga day behind" he failed to get his hay
ready for the barn in time to avoid
damage incident. to a drenching rain.
Rain continued, and the weather con-
tinued lowering and uufavorable, until
his crop of hay was rendered almost
worthless for fodder. II he had not
been behindhand that one day, which
was spent in fitting up his mower, every
pound of hay could have been secured
in prime condition. That loss in the
value of his hay by being damaged by a
long rain amounted to more than forty
dollars.
When the vernal seedtime had almost
passed neighbor Tardy woke up to a
sense of the propriety of sowing millet
on a few acres. So he started for the
city to purchase seed. But, Just before
it was received at his station, q long
period of wet weather set in, which rem
dered it necessary to defer sowing until
the latter part of May. Sowing late,
immediately after long period of wet
weather, which was succeeded bv a
drought, was the cause of a light crop.
The reader can perceive, at a glance,
how much one day in the winter would
have facilitated the farming operations
of that laggard farmer, ard how many
dollars would have been gained by way
of larger crop, il the seed had been
purchased and been ready for the soil as
soon as the ground was prepared.
stake time by the hair" said Kossuth.
Forecast with care" say we alt; re-
membering that the best returns are to
those who keep little in advance of the
most appropriate period to plow, SOW,
cultivate and mow.-S. f. F., in the
N. y. Tribune.