The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-03-13
Hints for Next Season.

There are some improvements in
practice which many farmers can make,
and we trust they viii excuse, if not
thank, us for offering few suggestions
under this head.
First of all, try to make your family
as comfortable as circumstances will
admit. Do not compel your wife to
come to you for Little money every
time she wants to make a small pur-
chase, and do not say to her as GER
tain penuriOus man said when his wife
requested little change: I'D like to
know what has become of the ten cents
1 let you have last week. Farmers
wives generally work very hard, early
and late, and they deserve liberal pay
for it. as well as a share in your profits.
Hand over to them a liberal allowance
as often as once a quarter, so that they
may enjoy little freedom in expendi
ture, and let it be regular and uniform.
Make the surroundings of your dwell
ing pleasant and attractive by planting
trees and shrubs, and providing a hand
lawn-mower.
Small fruits, as Strawberries, cur
rants, raspberries, and larger fruits, as
early pears and peaches, in liberal sup
ply, are both pleasant and wholesome,
gave largely on butchers bills, and cost
comparatively 1bll6 II you
them well and plant in time.
Save disappointment and chafed
temper by providing good fences where
theY are needed, and do not allow your
own and neighbors' animals to break
through and feast on your young crops.
Keep a good kitchen garden, but Oc-
cupy no more ground than you can
heavily enrich and keep perfectly. clean;
and have it so laid out that you may
cultivate most of it with a horse, at a
small expense compared with hand-hOe-
ing and finger-weeding.
Save manure by not allowing any
thing to waste, and prevent liquid fer
tilitv from running off for want of alb
sorbents or of compost heaps to receive
it. Many farmers who would be sorry
to have fifty dollars in bills stolen
from them allow hundred and fifty
worth dollars of enriching materials to
escape and waste.
Prevent your crops from being de-
voured by the growth of weeds, first by
securing labor enough, or by planting
less in area, so that you may adopt the
cheap mode of killing these intruders
before they reach the surface of the
mellow soil,
Keep the quarters occupied by pigs
clean and pure, and do not allow the
animals which are to afford food for
| YOUR nice and clean table,
to wallow in filth and manure. Pigs
| like cleanliness if only allowed a fair
! chance, and if not driven into the dirt
| by careless owners.
! Keep farm accounts and re-
! cord the area of your fields-find out
what crops and what modes for culti-
waiting them pay best, and do not Oper-
ate in the darkness of guess-work.
Do not throw broken tools or any
kind of rubbish into the public road,
any sooner than you would into your
| front yard; make the highway an Orna-
| ment to your farm, instead of allowing
the roadsides to grow up with thistles,
mulleins, briers, nettles, johnswort, poi
| son-hemlOck, oX-eye, burdock and toad
flax
Plant a few more fruit trees, keeping
up an annual addition to your orchard
or fruit-garden, as the case may re-
| quire, and see that your strawberry bed
and raspberry plantation are timely re-
plenishcd. And when planted out give
them all the cultivation they require,
/ and not allow them to fail in fruit by
neglect.
i Top-dress bearing orchards annually
or biennially, and cultivate young OF
1 newly set OrChaEuS as aSSlQuOuSly as you
would crop of corn, turnips or pota-
toes; any of these three crops being
suitable TO raise among the young trees.
Make a timely register of all fruit trees
when set out, so that when they come
into bearing and the labels are lost you
will know what they are.
Drain all pieces of wet land and such
as have wet subsoil and dry surface,
thus making the soil warmer, more
| readily pulyerized, unlocking its fertil-
| iity, increasing its productiveness, and
| giving all the crops which grow on it a
longer season.
Provide the best and most efficient
tools and implements, especially those
which are much used, and see that they
are cleaned and brushed bright, and
placed under shelter after being used.
If you have young hedges or young
trees which you desire to have grow
rapidly, cut them back in the spring
before the buds swell; but if you wish
to check too rampant a growth in larger
trees, prune after the leaves open.
These sug9 estiOns are but a part OF
such as might be offered, but if all are
well attended to and complied with,
they will produce a satisfactory result
as a whole Country Gentleman.