Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-03-08
Enrn LnnkS.

Tho impression is still rife that
farming don't pay" Farmers boys
think so, and farms are left to be car
ried on by rheumatic labor or to pass
into other hands at lower prices. Farm
labor is yearly becoming more scarce
and unsatisfactory. Old. deserted
farms are multiplying, fields once fair
ly fertile are turned to grazing or
growing pines and birches. On farms
where large stocks OF cattle were kept,
within the memory of the writer, now
there are only one or two COWS and n
horse. The average price for such
farms fifty years ago was soto $50 per
acre: now it is only Sl5 to 500. build
ings included We would like to emu
merate some of the causes that have
caused this depreciation of country real
estate-yi2, u long series of Farm
Leaks"
As manure and its right application
is the base of all successful farming it
is IA leak to allow the winters accumu-
lation (hOrsc manure especially to lay
in II big heap and fire fang. sending off
all its ammonia in the air. 1t is Il leak to
| pitch out the manure against the SIDE
of the barn, TO be bleached and burned
by the early spring sun and rain when
it should be housed in n barn cellar.
1t is leak not to use absorbents in the
cattle stables to catch and hold the
/ liquid manure. the most valuable am
monical and heterogeneous part but to
let it run through the cracks of the
floor. never to be reached again. 1t is
| Il leak to let the cattle lay in the open
| barnvard i'm summer, causing the ma
nure TO be nearly worthless. 1t is a
| leak to suffer manure to be wasted in
any form and buy commercial fertliZ-
ers, because they are more easily APP
piled. 1t is a leak TO overstock pas
lures 10 gain few dollars from stock
taken in. giving poor satisfaction, half
starving the farmers own stock and
feeding the pastures so close as to eX.
haust the soil and bring up an newt
able growth of lamb poison, pitch
pines, or something worse. 1t is n
monstrous leak to Craze the moving
fields and rob the grass roots of their
natural protection from drought and
]
ted aftermeath will annually create
for the grass corp. 1t is n leak to
spread winter manure oh the snow to
be leached into the hollows and starve
the hills. losing the nitrogen by expos
ure to the elements. 1t is leak to
plOw manure in deep on sod ground
I for corn where the roots cannot reach
it as thev seldom run more than -four
inches deep and spread out on the
surface 1t is leak not to plow two
or three inches deeper on subtle ground
to gradually deepen the soil and make
1t last longer for grass 1t IS leak to
attempt TO harrow manure in deep on
the surface of sod land, or to pillow it or
| harrow it in at all. on wet land that is
not drained. 1t is leak to rake corn
stubs off stubbe and haul them into the
road instead of into the hog yard to
rot, and make manure OF the best quail.
ity 1t is II leak to sell hay at the barn
for $l5 ton when ton of hay takes
over SIC worth of chemicals ont Of. the
SOL Gf chemists make no mistake in
trying to tell the truth). II is leak
for the farmer to team wood every win
ter for lumber spectators at going
wages, and run all the manure off the
farm into the highway. which is worse
than selling hay. Lastly it is leak to
hand-hOe crops. when they can be
horse-hoed by the horse hoes of the
present day equally rs we'll. if not bet
ter. at onG-eighth of the expense. -
NelU England Farmer.