Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-04-10
NO FENCES.
BY T.. L. GARDENHIRE.

large amount. The best fencing ma
terial is gone forever, and hedges are
costly, aggressive, and require con-
slant attention to keep them from
covering too much land. If we keep
and feed our stock on our own land,
one-tenth of the fencing will answer
all our purposes.
The interest on the present cost of
our fencing, together with tn the cost
of annual repair, will hire and pay
hands to cut and carry feed to stock
throughout the summer. The profits
come as follows:
1. The land is improved by the rich
covering of grass and clover. 1t is
protected from the hot sun, and the
warm, dry winds that sweep over it
can't evaporate and carry away its
fertility. Keep the land naked a few
years and it is ruined. Indeed, COW
ering the land with clover and other
forage plants, which get so large a
supply of food from the air, never
fails to enrich the land while feeding
heavily from it.
>. The feeding ought to be done I'M
der sheds, from long, wide and deep
trOughs, and much valuable manure
may be saved to enrich the poorer
parts of the farm. The process isself-
sustaining-yOu feed more cattle,
horses and sheep, to make more ma
nure to produce more and better grass
to feed more mules, cattle, horses
and sheep, to make more manure,
and so on to the end. 1t is truly
profit in geometrical progression.
3. Five times the stock can be well
fed from the same land. We have
tried it, and write from a positive
knowledge. BY soiling from five
acres of good land, we have seen thir-
ty head of cattle, mules and horses
fed from the first day of May to the
first day of November, precisely six
months. We deem it safe to say that
twenty other acres would have pro,
duced grain and other forage to have
supplied them bountifully the remain,
der of the year. Thus, seventy-five
acres of land at that rate could feed
ninety head of cattle. Their supply
under such circumstances is bountiful
and regular, and they fatten and grow
in manner never realized by the
old fogy director.
But the directors say the plan is
troublesome. Let us grant it for the
sake of argument. He knows he
can't make money without some
trouble. But it isonlyat roubleabou
details, involving no eXhausting mus
cular labor. Then we keep fivetime'
the stock on the same land, and they
are kept better and more profitably
than the director ever saw it done il
his life. If the keeping of one ami
NAL yields profit of five dollars, thu
keeping Of five yields twenty-five
dollars. Can't we afford a little extra
attention to insure superior excellence
and five times the profit? To raise F;
given amount of stock by sOiling W.
have a hundred acres, worth twenty
dollars per acre. If we raise them il
the present lazy, thriftless manner
we must have five hundred acres
worth ten thousand dollars. Thu
we not only pay out a surplus o
eight thousand dollars and lose tn,
interest to produce the same numbe
of stock, but we are also to pay fabu
lous amounts for fencing this vast do
main.
But the extra trouble is small. |
the soiling lands lay as near the barr
and sheds as possible, it is only lit
tie more trouble to feed from tn
field than to drive to the pasture
Then you loose the manure, pa.
taxes on five times the land, and pa.
for five times the fencing and repair
and your stock never does as well
BY soiling we can feed as well as tn,
bluegrass region, and to do it neeC
not be "lord of all we survey" 4
small, cheap farm is all we need ant
that must continue to improve unit
it reaches the highest state of fertilit.
and value.
Will not some small farmer try thi
on a small scale? If he will, he vii
quit only when he dies. The sheer
of ignorance and presumption abou
"verbosity" and Cranky notions
shall not deter us from uttering tn
truth as it is.
4 Connecticut paper enriches tn
language with "recCntmoSt." !
means the latest.