The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-10-16
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
How TO Succeed.

The Country Gentleman offers its
readers some very pertinent and valuable
suggestions on the all important quos.
ton, how to succeed on the farm. The
farmer who is determined to succeed, it
says, will place on his list of indispensa-
BILE requirements the following opera
tons: /. The erection of sufficient fences
to give possession and control of every
field. 2. Thorough or sufficient under
draining for the use and control of at
least three feet of the soil beneath the
surface. 3. The adoption of such ro-
tation as will give an increase of each
successive kind of crop, and a decrease
and determination to such weeds rs have
obtained possession. 4. Saving all the
manure made on the farm with no waste,
and its application at the best time and
and in the lest manner possible. 5.
Providing tools for a most thorough pull
verization of the soil for all crops. These
five operations lie at the foundation of
good farming. There are MANY other
provisions of much Importance in addi-
ton to these, which should not be over
looked, such as the saving of labor, Sc
lection of seeds, providing the best ami
mails, shelter for tools, shelter for ami
mails, testing commercial fertilizers, and
many other operations which will sug-
gest themselves to the owner while in
the midst of his work.
In providing sufficient fences for the
farm, the Importance must occur to every
one, of laying out the fields so that they
may be easily accessible, and so that the
least amount of fencing material may be
needed; at the same time, where soils
and surfaces vary, to include those of
similar character within the same en-
closure; and it may be best in many
cases to make the fields oblong instead
of square, that the blowing may be done
with less frequent turning at the ends.
In this connection, good farm roads or
lanes will be obviously quite important,
as they must be Travelled many times a
year in bringing in heavy crops, or with
loads of manure to the fields. Some
times few hours work in levcling OBJ
structions, filing ruts or other depres-
siOns, drawing on a few loads of gravel,
embanking, or providing side bitches,
may have all this labor many times re-
paid in single year, in drawing in heavy
loads of hay and grain, or in drawing
out hundreds of loads of manure. The
farmer would do we'll to look over his
domain, and see what improvements he
may make in the disposition of his fields,
or in the finish of his farm roads.
The advantages of thorough under
draining are so well understood that but
little need be said on the subject. We
have put in many miles Of tiles, and in
no instance more than three years were
required to repay the expense in the IN
crease of the crops. A young farmer,
who was in debt for his farm, told us
that he found he could not pay the
mortgage till he borrowed money to
drain it. He is now successful cult
vator, and few of his neighbors equal
him in the heavy return from his
land.
Rotation has one peculiar advantage
it requires no outlay of money! its
only expenditure is in thought. A con.
tinued succession of the same crop may
exhaust field, or give only half the re-
turns from an amount of hard work.
There is no easier way to keep the land
free from weeds as by well -devised
rotation-in which hoed crops are fol-
lowed with sown crops, and sown crops
with grass, and so on indefinitely. Old
pastures or meadows badly infested with
thistles, ox-eyc daisy, milk weeds and
wild carrots, by thoroughly
treated crop of corn or potatoes, a com
pletely pulverized soil to precedc
wheat, and dense growth
of clover, have been elTectually cleared
of these intruders; and in every case
their growth has been greatly reduced.
The value of manure is universally ad-
mitted in some form or another, but the
great ma jority of farmers waste large
portion of the amount which might be
manufactured on their farms. 1t washes
away for the lack of absorbents; the
liquid portions most commonly all es-
cape. Quite frequently the farmer wastes
more than half of what he retains by bad
application. 1t is scattered in Jumps; it
is applied at the wrong time; it is not
broken fine AID well intermiXed with the
soil: and MAJ lose at least three fourthS
of all they might secure first and last by
saving and proper use
After bringing the farm into fine con-
dition by understanding and manurng,
success after all will depend greatly on
the additional requisite of thorough pull
verization of the soil to precede the plant
ing and sowing of crops A complete
intermixture of the ingredients which
compose the soil, instea of leaving all
In crude Jumps, will make vast differ
encc in what grows upon it. ,
Farm and Garden Notes.