The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-22
How to Farm.

"Why do we farmW asks writer III the
Baltimore american. We farm, he thinks,
first to make living for ourselves and
families; secondly, to furnish food for the
| live stock that works fireplace; and thirdly,
to furnish money to pay taxes, to pay
| wages, and to furnish comforts for our fam
lilies We cannot farm successfully with
out we have all these three objects in view
at the same time, and keep them well in
mind, too We may liken successful
farming to thresbing machine-lt may be
the very best of its kind; yet without the
power to drive it, the men to work 1t, and
the wheat to thresh, it is comparatively
worthless.
So it is in farming. The farmer must
nave this three-fold object in view, and dl-
vide of his farm to suit these requirements.
The most successful farming, therefore, /
mixed farming, and whilst special farming
may pay now and then quite largely, it is but
seldom, and then only in the hands OF man
especially skilled in the business. Corn,
oats, wheat and grass, potatoes, garden veg
etables for the family, pasture for the cat
tie. and, if near a good market, or If the
farmer is skilled in raising and handling
some special crop, it may be followed,
though not to the exclusion of the food
crops.
Some farm writers who have only i'll
theory farmed, and who have never been
called upon to work in the hot sun all day
wedding the long rows of vegetables, or set
ting out cabbage or tomato plants in the
rain. advised the planting of special crops,
basine the proceeds Of what can be raised
upon one acre by what they produce under
exceptional circumstances on few rods OF
ground. Such writings do great harm, and
oftentimes to those very ones least able TO
stand it. In my Judgment, no one should
attempt in any way to misead by writing
an untruthful statement. or in concealing
the evil and praisIng only the good in farm
ing.
The truth is, to farm successfully requires
brains, and more now than ever before.
We should each year experiment with some
crop as to soil, fertilizer used, the cultiva-
ton of the crop and the kind of seed used.
If this was done each year and careful
and accurate account kept, history of the
farm could be obtained which would be of
great value to each farmer. Now, let me
illustrate: Some years ago l put in two
acres in wheat, and, not having manure,
was advise to use bone dust, which did,
at the rate of 400 pounds per acre. 1t was
put in most carefully, and I fully counted
on a splendid crop. The following spring
was exceedingly dry, and the bone did
more harm than good. as the crop was
scarcely worth harvesting. l thought
was cheated, and told the agent so, but as he
was a man in good standing, and stated
positively that the bone was pure, waited
another year and noted results The follow
ing year, and for several years afterward,
that little piece yielded the heaviest
crops of the best hay. The fault lay in my
self, in not putting part bone and part man
ure, as the two combined would have met
any emergency.
Again, on my upland, clay loan 1 find
small quantity of superphosphate-20
pounds per acre-along with half the
quantity of manure, will most invariably
give me d good crop of wheat and
and a good stand of grass, and the
grass will yield well for several years. But
on the Iowlands of black mucky charac-
ter, superphosphate, even in large quaint
ties, with manure or without, has not given
one iota in return for the outlay. / can
only account for this fact that there is some
ingredient lacking, either in the soil or in
the phosphate, which renders it imperative
But l would be very foolish, on this &C
count, to deDounce commercial fertilizers as
useless, as far as their use may be for my
black soils.
The same may be said about the growing
Of all our farm crops For instance, if we
do not use manure in few years we can
most plainly see the lack Of it, not only in
our crops, but in the mechanical condition
of the soil as well, and the plowman will
tell you whilst turning over the furrow,
Your lands want manure"
Straw is said by chemists to be almost
worthless to use as manure, and not TO pay
for the hauling and spreading on the fields
Yet know by my own experience, and the
practical experience of our best and most
successful farmers, that it is worth for this
very purpose at least 81, and some say $40
per ton.
In fact, each farm is a study in itself, and
the farmer must give it his most serious
thought and be guided not by what his
neighbor says, nor by what the agent says
about the sworn statements of his fertiliz-
ers, but by the practical tests from his own
fields.
As farm values are rather low in price,
and the means of transportation have SO
rapidly extended, both by land and water,
and the thousands Of immigrants coming in
upon US, who have never had but bare
living, and have few wants at that-these
are all factors to be taken into account now
IN farming. Therefore, business methods
must be put in practice along with rigid
economy, the producing of food crops in
abundance upon the farm. to feed tho occu-
pants of the farm and his stock, and the
growing only of such market crops as in
the mature judgment of the farmer will
yield sure profit, and at the same time not
depreciate the fertility Of the farm.