Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1886-05-28
farn,grss' Column.
Give fools their ssoiG3 - huases III sir pu
let fortunes bubbles rise ana inii
who sows - field trains Flower.
Or plants a tree. is more THAI. all.
Agricultural Notes.

All mineral manures should O. left
on or very near the surface. They
are never bulky, and to pillow them IN
is to bury them where roots Of crops
will find them so lat as to receive lii
tie benefit therefrom. The decompoSi-
tion of barn yard manure under the
fsrrow gives both warmth and fertility
to the roots. But potash or phos,
pilates buried so deeply are either soon
washed away or become insoluble and
of no value to crops. Especially is
this the case in soils having little
vegetable mold.
It has been thought that the carp
is purely vegetable feeder. This is
to some extent an error. 1t subsists
not only upon the vegetation to be
found in the pond, but also takes IN
sect life as it comes to it in the form
of flies, larva, etc. \ little cracked
grain of any kind boiled and thrown
in is generally eaten. Boiled corn
meal is excellent; boiled potatoes are
good. These things, if SO domesticate,
as we have. said, for carp become per-
fectly tame, swimming up to meals as
regularly as pigs come to tie trough,
If it is desired to feed simply Tor
growth, and not as pets, eli burlap
sack with ordinary ship-stuf, sew ii
up tight, weight and sink it IN the
pound. The soaked feed exudes from
the sack aud is sucked in by the fish
as wanted, 1t is good food and tie
carp thrive on it amazingly.
The farmer is national benefactor
when he makes two blades Of grass
grow where one grew before. This
saying has passed into an aphorlsm.
Butits truth depends on circumstances.
The two blades may be made to cost
so much that either one will be d-arey
than one alone originally was. In that
case neither the world nor the land
owner is benefited by the labor, and /.
capital invested in the improvement
for both would have produced more If /
employed elsewhere. Thus the homely
test Of profit becomes the criterion be
fore which thousands Of examples Of
fancy farming go down. Innumerable +,
instances have occurred where wealthy I
men made farming their hobby and
lavished money like water, bns with
out any direct, pe5cepublo benefit to
the great mass of farmers. 1t IS a .
hard truth to utter, but only as thei
expensive experiments fail can they
help those for whose benefit they were
designed. When the fancy farmer
abandons the business in disgust, what
he has done falls into the haud5 Of
those capable of using it more wisely.
Probably even they will not make II
pay, for money spilled upon the ground
Is as hard to gather again as milk.
The successors of the fancy farmer
will perhaps derive some good from
the experiments that had better been
made. Lucky for them and their
neighbors if the disastrous failure does
not result in poorer farming in the
entire neighborhood.
Perhaps there is nothing which SO
cripples the farmers Of our country as
the want Of cash working capital.
A very large per cent. Of our farmers
are in debt, and every spare dollar
must go to pay interest or reduce in
debtedness. We know this is an evil
more easily pointed ont than remadied,
but we can at least protest against
the practice so common among farmers
of RAINING in debt for more land as
soon as they can see their way ont Of
debt for what they have. The farmer
with a fair working cash capital has
great advantage over the one who is |
always cramped for money. There are
numbers of farms whose capacity would
be doubled by drainage, whose ownas,
instead Of investing their profits sinl
this way, will buy out their neigh5or,
whose farm is in the same condition.
If often happens that the hay or corn
crop is short, and farmer has not
enough to carry his stock through the
winter. If he has money to spare, and
has good judgment to anticipate the
coming rise, be can lay in supplyoft
feed while the price is low, but if he
is cramped for cash, be may be conn
PEELED to sacrifice his stock or defer
purchasing feed until the price has adj /
yanced so that be will lose money. 1
The season of 1881 illustrated this
folly. Throughout the Mississippi +
valley long continued drought cut
short the corn crop, SO that it was
evident to all that prices must be very
high. There was plenty Of old corn
still in the country, which could be
bought at from forty-five to fifty cents
per bushel. Some farmers who had
the money to spare bought years
supply, and were enabled to fatten
their stock and sell at high prices, but
the majority of farmers had no money