Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1888-12-08
METHOD in FARMING.

w ny 40 we Iafmf WO farm, hr6t,
TO make q living for ourselves and
families secondly TO farhieR FOOD for
the livestock that Works the place,
and thirdly, TO furnish money to pay
taxes, 70 pay wages, and to furnish
comforts for our families, We can not
farm successfully without we have
all these three objects in view at the
same time, and keep them well in
mind, too. We may lilxen successful
farming to threshing machine-it
may be the very best Of Its kinds yet
without the power to drive It, the men
to work it, and the wheat to thrash, it
is comparatively worthless.
So it is IN farming. The farmer
must have this three-fold object in
view, and divide off his farm to suit
these requirements. The most sue
cessful farming, therefore, is mixed
farming, and whilst special farming
mag pay now and then quite largely,
1t Is but seldom, and then only in tho
hands Of a man especially skilled in
the business. Corn, oats, wheat and
grass, potatoes, garden vegetables (tor
the family, pasture for the cattle,
and, II near 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 writer's who have only in
theory farmed, and who have never
been called upon to work in the hot
sun all day wedding the long rows OF
vegetables, or setting out cabbage or
tomato plants in the rain, advise the
planting Of special crops, basing the
proceeds Of what can be raised upon
one acre by what they produce under
exceptional circumstances on o 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 mislead by writing an
untruthful statement, or in concealing
the evil and praising only the good in
farming.
The truth Is, to farm successfully re-
quires brains, and more now than ever
before. We should each year expert
ment with some crop as to soil, fertil-
izer used, the cultivation OF the crop
and the kind Of seed used. If this was
done each year and careful and ac-
currate account kept, history of the
farm could be obtained which would
be Of great value to each farmer.
Now, let me illustrator. Some years
ego put in two acres in wheat, and,
not having manure, was advised to use
bone dust, which ! did at the rate of
four hundred pounds per acre.
Il 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 hardly worth
harvesting. thought was cheated,
and told the agent so, but as he was
man in good standing, and stated posi-
lively that the bone was pure, waited
another year and noted results. The
following year, and for several years
afterwards, that little piece yielded
the heaviest crops of the best hay.
The fault lay in myself, in not putting
part bone and part manure, as the two
combined would have met any emer-
gency.
Again, on my upland clay loan l
find small quantity of superphos-
phate-two hundred pounds per acre
along with half the quantity of ma
nure, will most invariably give me a
good crop Of wheat and a good stand
of grass, and the grass will yield well
Cor several years. But on the lowlands
OF a black, mucky character, super
phosphate, even in large quantities, with
manure or without, have not give 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 I would be very
foolish on this account to denounce
commercial fertilizers as useless, as
Tar 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 a
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
we'll, and the plowman will tell you
whilst turning over the furrow. "Your
land wants manure"
Straw is said by chemists to be
almost worthless to use as manure, and
not to pay for the hauling and spread
Ing on the fields. Yet / know by my
own experience, and the practical ex-
perience 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 neigh
Dor says, or by what the agent says
about the sworn statements of his fer
filters, but by the practical tests from
bis own fields.
As farm values are rather low in
price, and the means Of transportation
have 30 rapidly extended, both by land
and water, and the thousands Of i'm
migrants 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 farm
Ing. Therefore, business methods
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