The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-03-24
IMPROVED FARMING.
How Western Land May Be Made to Pro
duce More Than It Ever Did

duce More Than It Ever Did.
The tilling of soil and growing of
erops-that is what one usually char
acterizes as farming; but that term can
scarcely be applied with justice to
much of the work done on our farms
to-day. Farming should mean the per-
feet handling of given portion of
land so that it shall produce a maxi
mum amount of products. cereals,
roots, vegetables, fruits and grasses,
and their secondary products, horses,
cattle, sheep, swine, poultry, eggs, but
ter, cheese and milk. Regarding it in
this light then, can we say that farm
ing, so-called, deserves the name? Is
not great majority of it mere at
tempt at farming-a work begun and
only half finished; profession prac-
ticed but not thoroughly understood; y
pursuit capable of the profitable intro
duction of more brain work into the
mechanism of its ma chinery, and in
short demanding the better education
of those employed in it? Years
ago when the great Western plains
of America lay in undisturbed
repose, the prairie grasses gannu-
ally growing up and falling down,
thus gradually but surely enriching the
&til whence they came, the pioneer
the farmer of his day-came, saw
and settled thereupon. Possessed of
limited means and but crude imple-
ments for cultivating the soil, with no
railroad facilities and few marketing
points, his requirements were of neces-
sity those merely OF himself and family.
Thus no great efforts were needed by
him to secure sufficient returns from
the soil for the maintenance of
himself and children. He merely
'tickled'' the soil, so to speak, scat
tered seed and the fertile earth re-
warded him an hundred fold. This
man was farmer sufficiently well
versed for his day and opportunities,
when manual labor alone was almost
all that the pursuit required. Since
then what a change has come to these
Western farms and to the descendants
of those pioneer farmers? The present
generation inherits, not virgin soil to
cultivate, but farms that have been
hard run and badly worked; legacy
of poverty this to the man who has not
learned more about farming than his
forefathers knew, and worse yet to his
children after him. With the stern ne
cessities of the farmers position of to-
day, surrounded by thousands of men
competing with him in the markets of
the country, middlemen, high freight
rates and consequent low prices for
products, with land no longer rich in
natures store of crop food for the man
ufacture of farm products. farming has
become a most difficult profession.
Men, who, finding themselves in these
circumstances, surrounded by difficult
ties and possessed of unprolifc soil,
content themselves with farming as
their fathers did must fail, or at best
make but hard-earned living for
themselves and families in the sweat of
their brows. Those who would make a
success of farming are of an altogether
different class. They are men whose
headwork precedes their manual labor
in every department of the farm; whose
manual labor is the carrying of science
into practice, and whose practice is
perfect in detail and correct in prin-
ciple. Their farms are farmed in the
proper sense of the word. Crops are
taken from the land, and in their place
something is returned to repair the
loss consequent upon cropping. The
land is thoroughly worked, every inch
of it; the crop is thoroughly removed,
no ten-inch stubble being left behind,
is thoroughly thrcshed, no good grain
finding its way into the chat, and is
thoroughly fed to thoroughbred" I'M
proved stock. In short, the successful
farmer is the thorough farmer, who
understands farming principles and
practically applies them. Such farmers
have not each day to look out upon
slovenly surroundings and miserable,
unthrifty scrub stock, but live COM
fortably themselves because they have
the better feelings of ''thoroughbreds,"
and warmly house and properly feed
their stock because it too has dash of
thoroughbred blood in it, enhancing its
value, and therefore rendering it
worthy Of proper attention. Our farm
ing has improved because our farmers
have improved themselves, to enable
them to cope with deteriorated soil and
deprecated prices for products. By
proper farming the land may be made
to produce more than ever it did, and
by improving the quality of its products
the prices commanded by them will be
greater and more remunerative than
before. Farmers ReUie1U.
"A man named Burdick, who re-
moved from the East to Kansas several