Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-10-06

4 Miuuie virginia.. ~. .5U
-" Piedmont. SO 40
- SU The Valley .... 95. .45
:" NBlue Ridge........... 73. 33
| acknowledgements. U.J0
Average yield for the State;,7Qs:7o.
This is little below the general average
for the United States, as given by the IDe-
partment at Washington-viz., 80.01 per
cent. - s,
81 20
Middle Virginia. 77.00
Piedmont. ........... 6.0O
/ The Valley......... 92'14
Blue Ridge......... 6S- S3
| Appalachia. g. 65
Average condition for the State, 81.14.
Farm Stock.-'.The condition is reported
very good-in figures. 99.7S. But hog
cholera is raging in many localities, on
many farms sweeping off the entire stock.
There seems to be no reliable remedy for
this dreadful disease. Is there any pre-
ventive? believe that if the general
health of the hogs can be kept good they
| will not be so apt to take infection. re-
commend the free use of ashes, salt, and
charcoal. given regularly. Charred corn
cobs are excellent. One of the editors of
The Hog, published at Chicago, himself an
eminent hog-raiser, and the most sensible
talker on the subject I ever met, told me
that he used burnt (charred) cobs in large
quantities, and l have been trying them
freely. They are easily prepared. Make
small fire and put ON the cObs, have
water at hand, and when the pile has burnt
sufficiently. pour on water and extinguish
the fire. Give the hogs as many of the cobs
as they will eat, which will be good many,
as nature indicates the necessity for them
as an antacid, aud, perhaps, they act
med icinally in other ways.
If any hogs are diseased quarantine them
at once. Give clean. dry bedding.
Preparation for nert years. Crop.-''Fifty
per cent, of the fallowing was reported as
done on September 1st. Considering the
unfortunate result of the years work in
many sections, and low pricee of produce,
this showing is favorable. Some CORES
pondents thought that full crop of wheat
and winter oats would be sowed. This is
as it should be, if only the land is good and
well prepared, and hope and urge that
along with the grain goodly proportion of
grass-seed be sowed, either in the fall or
in the coming spring, as may seem most
| expedent.
GRAss-THE Alternate SYSTEM.
s'More than ever before is this subject ex-
citing public attention. Grass and all the
dependent branches of fhusbandry-the rear
ing and fattening of cattle, dairying-both
private and cooperative, as by the way of
| creameries, in which may be made butter
and cheese of much better quality, at least
more uniform in quality than can be done
generally by individual effort; and making
cheese, an enterprise almost untried in Vir-
ginia. The stringency of the times has al
most forced upon us the consideration of
new departure in some direction or other.
GFahe prices of1ur leading staples have for
some years been tending downwards, until
at last they have become so low as to give
but little profit, while the average yield has
been, in general, declining under the severe
system of cropping practiced in Virginia
from the earliest days of the colony. Such
an endless round of ploughing, planting,
and harvesting as our lands have been sub
jected to, with very little rest and little or
no return in the shape of manure, inevitably
results in exhaustion and now, in these lat
ter days, the clear light of public intelli-
gence is being concentrated in these facts,
and anxious enquiries made as to the best
way of stopping the old drain upon the fee-
tility of the lands, and trying to restore to
them their original productiveness, and to
do this while getting some return-getting
a living out of the land"
The Commissioner continues by giving
counsel drawn from the experience of the
past and advocates grass culture both for
restoration of lands and direct and incl
dental profit. The question of labor is also
referred to at this point.
''But the "incidental profits" referred to
how shall we secure them? The subject
is a large one, but the scope of the present
Recommendation is confined to the lines in
dicated in the beginning of this little ar
ticle-grass and the interests dependent up
on it. In growing grass and managing it
judiciously, we improve the land, and mean
while should increase our profits at a much
less expenditure of labor than by an exclu-
sively arabic system of farming, such as
that which has been pursued in the greater
part of our State We have, in certain Sec
lions, examples of the alternate" system
or grass alternating with other crops, and
the beneficial effects are apparent, not only
in the vast Improvement of the lands and
the greater yield per acre when they are
cropped in grain, but in the immense
economy of labor. There is something in
the system which seems to teach the lesson
that Virginians most need to learn, viz: to
accomplish the work of the farm with fewer
rock upon which farming in Eastern Vir-
ginia has split, the one which should have
beacon light upon it.
| Is it SO plain that everybody sees it? 1
expect to be blamed for repeating truisms,
truths that everyone knows" and yet
there is no point that more needs insisting
on. The average Virginia farmer spends
too much labor for the results he gets"
| Bnt where grass comes into the rotation,
| we see whole communities prosperous, in
stead of having to look for the exceptional
| ly thrifty farmer among the mass of those
who are the reverse of prosperous. In the
counties of Loudoun and Fauquier for in
stance, and the graz ing districts of the val
ley and southwest we find the people easy
in their circumstances and contented. We
find that lands bring good price and are
caught up readily when put upon the mar
ket; and we find that two laborers on farm
will do about as much work as four are set
to do in Eastern Virginia.
| Is this latter advantage due to the more
bracing climate? Not entirely, by any
means. Or is the work easier because the
lands are cleaner, less infested with foul
weeds? There is something in this, but 1
believe the system pursued in the pastoral
counties tends to cleanse the lands. Are
the lands naturally richer than those of the
eastern portions of the State? Not always,
although they are in general. But they have
not been as wastefully cultivated; grass has
not been as persistently and Systematically
''killed."
Reference is made TO the alternate system
as it has been practiced which should be
abandoned, and gives the following coun-
sci.
"What is here recommended is an alter
nation of crops on very different system
from that referred to, a complete reversal