Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-03-16
AGRICULTURAL.
Devoted to the Interests of Farmers
and Stockmen.
To Make Pork Cheaply.

| In q late number 1t was stated that
, any person or community that i'm
ported from abroad what they could
, protitably produce at home failed OF
a, true economy. This was illustrated by
showing that most of the hams, bacon
end lard consumed on this coast is
!, bought at the east, and that by pro-
ducing them at home 81 ,0OO 600 could
be saved. The question arises Can
we make pork at a profit? Many
farmers say no, but we say yes, and
shall now show by the experience OF
practical men how it has been done.
The writer lately met on the ears, Col.
Geei, of the Waldo hills, and started
this topic with him. He happened to
be the right man and gave this ex-
perience. In 1881 he had field of
having plowed it only as we'll as he
would to fallow for wheat crop, con-
cluded to experiment by planting
potatoes. They were put in hills four
feet apart and five bushels to the acre.
This was only half as much seed as is
usually planted, but he wished to pillow
both ways, and did 80 twice, with a
result of one hundred bushels of pota-
toes OF the very best quality to the
acre. This fourteen acres was dry hill
land and had been continually sowed
in grain since 1853 for twenty-three
years. The land had been consider
ably worn by this excessive cropping,
and he was satisfied with the result.
The seed cost him not over 81 so an
acre, counting it at a high price all
the cultivation did not cost over three
cents a bushel, and he housed twelve
hundred bushels at a cost of four cents
a bushel for digging, hauling and max
ing cellars for them. He counted the
entire cost at not over ten cents q
bushel for the potatoes thus housed.
1t happened to be a good year for
tubers, and though he sold to the
neighbors for 25 and so cents bushel
he found market for near 400 bush
els at $l.25, 80 his entire crop averaged
him 80 cents a bushel. Bet he fat
tened sixty head of hogs on them,
using a tank to cook them in, sailing
a little, and mixing two bushels of oats
with each boiling of twenty bushels OF
potatoes. He found his hogs ready to
butcher when they had been fed ten
bushels of roots and two bushels OF
oats each. They weighed on an aver
age 23O pounds apiece, and that was
what they cost him, adding the time
spent in cooking the food and feeding
them.
His estimate of the cost OF potatoes
was bushels of seed per acre $35
Labor of planting, IL days ...... Ii
Digging 400 bushels at &c ..... Sc
Six days with team cultivating 80. IL
Hoeing same ................. IL
Total cost Observation-Disclosures. $50
Value OF crop, ................ TOO
Profit, $40 an acre ........ $3.50
He actually fattened sixty hogs at a
cost OF not over 800, counting the
time and money he was out. Potatoes
were in extra demand that year, and
counting those fed at what the others
averaged, 80 cents bushel, he would
still have made his pork cheaply; but
he reasons that as he can raise pota-
toes in this way any year to fatten his
pork on, the rest can do so and can
make pork as cheaply as they can
make it anywhere. The meat was
see that it lacked any quality pos
sessed by that which is fed on grain.
AS the potatoes were dug late he
did not SOW wheat that fall but put in
oats the following spring and saved it
in the sheaf. 1t was as fine crop as
he ever raised, very tall and heavy, an
extra crop. The next year he raised
thirty bushels of wheat TO the acre on
the oat stubble. and he has followed
the same plan more or less extensively
every year with similar results, one
being that after summer fallow in
potatoes he can grow two crops of
grain, and better crops by far than on
n bare fallow-Portland Oregonian
A Minorca pullet laid her first egg
when ten weeks and one day old.
Cabbage brought from Germany now
completes with the American product.
In the agricultural districts of Rus
sia the women do two thirds of the
field work
Feed your fowls a variety of food.
There is as much loss by overlooking
as by starving them.
| Feeding broken oil cake to fowls
twice week will promote laying when
other food gives poor results.
American onions are being largely
supplanted in our home markets by a
foreign'grown article-largely Sicilian
or Italian.
Cut up the refuse and small pota-
toes for the fowls. They mood some
green food and will repay the extra
trouble in eggs.
| Remove every worthless fruit tree.
Hundreds of apple trees are now stand
ing ON farms which are only incum-
brances they furnish breeding places
for the tent caterpillar and other pests,
and their fruit, which comes in sea
sons of plenty, is hardly worth the
gathering.
There are many methods recon-
mended for preserving eggs for great
length of time. All of these methods