St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-06-14
Ole Ga1edunia1t.
Prepared for the CaledOnian by ARTHUR F. STONE.
WHERE FARMING PAYS.
The stock Farm of L. B. Harris at Lyn-

of Lyndon Centre and extends for over
$50 acres, partly alongside Miller's
Run, just above its intersection with
the Passumpsic river, but mostly on
the foot hills to the west of the mead
Ows. 1t is the old Fletcher place and
was settled about century ago by
Joel Fletcher whose son Joel was for
some years prominent business man
in St. Johnsbury. 1t next passed into
the hands of Charles Sanborn. After
his death il was sold to the present
owner The farm was well kept up
under it's first two owners and Mr..
Harris has followed suit and increased
it's prOductiveness seven fold in the
six years that it has been in his posses
sion.
Mr.. Harris is Sutton boy whose
experiences have been more varied
than some Vermont boys who have
stayed on the farm. He served very
creditably in the 4th Vermont regi-
ment in the war, entering the service
when he was only IA and One-half
years old. He spent the last year of
his army life in Andersonville. Later
he was a government surveyor in the
far West, and previous to coming to
Lyndon he was in the telephone bust
ness in New York. He is a practical
farmer and believes in running his
farm to pay and making "two blades
of grass grow where only one grew"
In this lie has been successful and has
today the largest stock of pure bred
cattle east of Indiana.
The soil of the farm is remarkably
well adapted to bOuntiful harvests and
no phosphates or fertilizers, aside from
manure, are ever used. The soil is
like the famous blue grass region of
Kentucky, having beneath strata of
limestone. The harvest last fall yield
ed 394 tons of hay, IL, 900 bushels of
turnips and 1900 bushels of carrots.
Six acres were sOwn to peas, six and
One-half to corn, % to wheat and 90 to
oats. The oats were raised at an act
ual cost of II cents n bushel, the corn
at 35 cents and the turnips less than
four cents a bushel. Mr.. Harris firmly
believes that any Vermont farmer can
raise his fodder cheaper than he can
buy it and cites these figures to prove
his statement. Nearly all the product
of the farm was consumed by the
stock. His sugar orchard of 1900 trees
is being cleared of all dead timber and
also all worthless trees to give room
and sunlight for the growing sugar
trees. Thus the flow of sap is materi-
4 IL Il
sugar improved. Besides this orchard
of 100 acres there are two other or
chards containing 800 trees each.
The garden of seven acres is devoted
mainly to experimental uses and Il text
book of botany is used in many ways.
The largest kernels of grain are plant
ed and their seed saved for seed-time
the next season. This year Mr.. Har-
ris is experimenting on wheat, barley
and oats, and hopes under cultivation to
produce larger kernels than in the
field. 1t is the old scientific principle
of the survival of the fittest put into
practical nse. In another part of the
garden is a bed of shallOts, a French
onion, of which some of the seed was
imported from France last wintar
Great care is taken to raise pure seeds
fUr the farm, and some of the seedmen
get their supplies from here.
But to come to- the stock farm. The
place is particularly noted for it's pure
bred cattle, many of whose pedigrees
can be traced back over 100 years.
Besides cattle there are raised on the
farm horses, sheep, pigs and hens and
all, with the exception of some of the
horses, are thoroughbred animals
Some of the cattle were imported by
the owner of this farm from Great
Britain and by frequently adding lit
tie imported stock to the different
kinds it is found that just as good cat
tie can be raised here as can be bought
in this country or England. The cat
tie and sheep are annually exhibited
at the county, state, New England and
New York fairs and last year they
brought in S996.50 in cash premiums,
beside gold and silver medals.
The stock farm was started six years
ago with the importation from England
of nine Hereford cattle, seven cows
and two bulls. Since then three other
cows have been imported to keep up
the breeding lines. The increase in |
the herd, except the bulls, have been |
kept on the farm, until now the herd
numbers 81 head. One of the imported |
cows was a winner at the Royal Agri- |
cultural show and sired by Lord Will |
ton who brought $4,000 at auction.
In this herd is also an own cousin to a |
prize COW owned by Her Majesty, |
Queen Victoria, and another for which |
Mr.. Harris offered the owner $3.50. |
The market for these cattle is in the |
far West where pure bred bulls are in
great demand on the ranches. For
such purposes the Herefords are par
ticularly desirable as they are large
and stOcky, and do not require a grain
ration to fatten on. A COW recently
sent to market dressed 99S pounds and
had lived entirely on hay and straw.
A still more remarkable case was that
of a twO-year- old heifer that weighed
1910 pounds. Readers of this article
will recall the annual exhibition of
these HerefOrds at the fair and the at
tractive appearance of their large red
bodies and white faces.
Another fancy breed of cattle is the
better known as the
black-polled or "blacks" Nine of
these cows and one bull were imported
from Scotland and three more have
since been added. The herd of 50
"blacks" is led by RubicOn who is a
very fashiOnably- bred bull and winner
of the first prize at all of the four fairs
where he was exhibited last fall.
The herd of DevOns consists of about
% handsome cattle that were purchas-
ed of George Davis of Windsor They
are considered to be very valuable
strain.
Mr.. Harris is a member of the Shrop-
shire societies of England and the