The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-07-25

! DCol DlOhboDiO VI oi S"iiJ
dessert apples. Large orchards of them
are being planted in Virginia and Ken
lucky, and the large and beautiful ripe
! fruit is now seen on the stands of our
great cities early in June. This va
riety is a dwarf grower and comes into
profitable bearing as early as currant
bush. 1t may be planted quite close
say in rows twenty-five feet apart and
twelve feet in the rows. We fire.
quently gather half a bushel from trees
three years planted, and not over six or
seven feet high. They require garden
culture and rich soil.
"BRAIN AND MUSCLE" Mr.. Doug
las sixth article in the Rutland Herald
speaks for this combination, in aid of
| Vermont agriculture, with his usual
common sense directness and practical
ity. He protests against the exhaustive
sale of hay and other crops from the
farm as a fruitful source of soil injury,
and says that in estimating the value of
these for home consumption our farm
ers overlook their manural value when
consumed at home. Many of these
farmers purchase artificial fertilizers,
and Mr.. Douglas gives the figures to
prove that the plant-food sold away
from the farm in ton of clover hay,
] 1INn, g -, hot
of the fertilizers, is equal to SS.76, or
SIG for timothy. Mr.. Douglas is too
moderate in this, for the scale of valu-
alton used on fertilizers demonstrates
them TO be actually worth from ten to
twenty-five per cent less than the sell
ing price. But besides this, if we sell
off grain and clover and choice hay, we
shall surely have either to feed our
stock poorly on cheaper feed, and lose
in their growth and profit, besides see
ing our farms run down under such
destructive course of farming. 1t would
seem that a blind man could see this;
but the mentally blind seem too desti-
tute of all sorts of perception, when it
comes to farming. 1t is a painful thing
that so large proportion of our New
England farms are run by men who
don't know and don't want to know
how to make farming pay. Not half
of our New England farmers ever read
a word about their own business. Even
if given an agricultural paper, they
won't read it; while too many of those
who do, when an economical streak
breaks out in them, will cut off the
agricultural paper first. Mr.. Douglas
sums up his article thus, and what he
says is well worth reading:
:" In the selection and adaptation of
food rations, there is wide field for
improvement in our general farm prac-
tice. We can not only increase the
amount and value of our stock products,
by better adaptation of our food to
the wants of the animals, but we can
also greatly increase the value of our
manures by judicious selection of the
stock food consumed. We should feed
for specific object, and adapt the food
of our stock to the object sought. The
grain ration of the dairy cow should
differ from that of the beef creature,
the food of growing stock from that of
mature animals, etc. If we have two
tons of corn meal, and exchange one
for ton of bran, and thoroughly mix
it with the balance, we shall thus pro-
vide ration for dairy or growing stock
much superior to the clear meal, and
by this exchange also we shall add to
the value of the manure produced.
The manurial value of ton of bran is
! Sl325, while that of corn meal is but
S6.32, thus gaining S6.93 in the value
of our plant-food by the exchange. If
we exchange ton of corn for a ton of
cotton-seed meal, the gain in the value
of fertilizing material will be much
greater. A ton of the former is worth
but S6.32 for fertilizing purposes, while
the latter is worth 5000 per ton for
the same purpose. BY this exchange
we gain Sl9.97 in the value of manurial
product. The profits thus received, by
the exchange of a ton of oats for the
same amount of cotton-seed meal, are
but slightly less. A ton of oats is worth
S7.62 for purposes of fertilization,
which would give us by the exchange
proposed S1S.67 as a reward for our
enterprise"
VALUE is RELATIvE.-Mr. Douglas
makes some sound remarks on this
point, as follows:
"Values, in farm practice, as in most
other business affairs, are merely rela-
tive terms. A. may confidently assert
that it pays to purchase grain at the
market price, to feed farm stock, while
b. may be just as confident that it does
not, and both be right from their re-
spective stand-points, and both be wrong
from the standpoint of their neighbol
c., who has provided himself with al
the necessary appliances for home pro
duction. The scientific helps which the
farmer can call to his aid at the presen
time are much more abundan mt and re
liable than ever before. We are no
compelled to trust to indiv idual ties
timony in these matters. Many of thu