The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-10-03

fitted just right for them when, as al
most penniless immigrants, they first
set foot upon it. 1t fed and clothed
and housed them. If it had been
then as much of it is now, they would
never have been able to effect a per-
manent settlement. Upon it, after the
early hardships were surmounted, they
grew forehanded, and rude comfort sur
rounded them. But decline was soon
visible; and as tempting fresh lands lay
almost unbounded to the westward, the
rapidly-increasing people have been
running over it almost like a fire, until
they have spanned it from sea to sea
with an almost continuous line of farm
fences. Yet the fences did not keep
in the native fruitfulness. 1t is gone,
or going, and soon there will be no in
ducement for any Vermont farmer to
emigrate; for soon, if not now, he will
be unable to find any farms, at once
cheaper, better and more favorably-
pldCcu JndH IuOoc dIOuuu HILL lo
will have to face the music then,
whether he likes it or not. 1t will be
"root, hog, or die" for every mothers
son of us. Mr.. Douglas rightly says:
"The stock farmer, as a rule, should
grow and gather his own plant food. He
can do it much more cheaply. if he will,
than he can purchase it. He should make
fnV tni,, tn in,
farm products. He has an endless variety
of opportunities, which he should learn to
recognize and improve. Let us consider
some of them. If we purchase ten pounds
of large northern clover seed, and, after
properly preparing the land, SOW it upon an
acre of clay soil, it should produce two tons
of well-dried clover hay. Taking the
market value of the average commercial
fertilizers as our standard of valuation, we
have by this operation harvested $17.52
worth of plant food, as the manurial value
of one ton of clover hay is SS.76 by this
standard. But this is not ALL 1t has been
demonstrated by repeated Investigations
that the roots of crop of clover contain as
much plant food as the harvested crop, and
if so, the plant food represented by the en-
tire crop will obviously be worth $35.04. 1t
is true, that the crop was grown upon the
soil and is not net gain of plant food, but
the habit of growth in the clover plant is
such that it extends its roots very deeply
into the subsoil, far beyond the reach of or
binary crops. These roots have often been
traced to depth of over four feet below
the surface. 1t also gathers a large proper
ton of its sustenance from the atmosphere,
and thus it collects from above, and from
the subsoil below, the feeding ground of all
other farm crops, very large proportion of
those valuable elements of which it is COM
posed and which peculiarly adapt it to
the production of both plant and animal
food, What is true of clover is true of all
farm crops, only in a less degree. All crops
are gatherers of plant food. They create
nothing, but could all of the fertilizng ele-
ments thus gathered on the farms of Cham
plain Valley in time past have been saved
and applied and reapplied during the 100
years of the occupancy of the farms, they
would now rival the deltas of the Nile in
productiveness,'
All this is sound teaching, and it
embodies the substance of successful
farming. Let each reader apply the
test to himself. Can he make living
on his farm and keep it growing better
all the time? If he can, he knows
enough about his business to call him
self farmer. If he cannot, he is yet
an unskilled apprentice. Let us all
test ourselves by this standard and face
the truth as the test gives it to us, like
men. 1t is the first step towards sue