Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-07-31

So little makes me happy, now I'm old;
| Your hand in mile, dear heart, here by the
fire:
The children grown up unto our hearts de-
How little keeps us happy when we're old
What worlds of life, and thought and feelings
keen
What spiritual depths and heights unseen
| All me! between the little then and now
For little things seem mighty when we're young;
Then we rush onward through the changing
| years,
Testing the gamut of all smiles and tears,
! Till mighty things seem little we are old.
Alice Wellington Rollins, an Phttddclpht0 Record.
! The Corn Crop.
Right in the haying, when the farmer
has his hands and his mind full of work,
would seem rather inopportune time
to discuss the corn crop. But every
| farmer has his corn-feld, and this year,
owing to frequent rains which h1ndered
cultivation heretofore, he is compelled
| TO think about his corn and how to get
time to kill the weeds and give the
needed cultivation. In the press Of
work he is obliged to see what he ex
pected would be paying crop, have the
life sucked out of it by weeds. So he
has to think about the corn crop, which
/
any grain crop raised in the country.
To how many farmers has it occurred
that if pains had been taken and fertil
izers OF manure applied, full crop Of
corn might be raised in this country on
half the present acreage? This is not
chimerical or impossible, but a reason
able possibility.
Many years ago farmer in Chautau-
qua County raised a field of corn, one
measured acre Of which yielded over
go bushels of shelled corn. The whole
five acres in the field yielded over so
bushels per acre. There was no guess
work about it. The land and crop were
measured by sworn witnesses and a
prize was obtained from the Agricultu-
raj Society. The land was what Is
known as side-hil, not specially rich or
deep. That crop took no more cultlva
ton after the ground was ready to plant
than if a crop only half as large had
been grown.
The soils of Western New York are
strong, capable of producing any crop
suited to the climate. OF these crops
corn is most capable of indefinite
increase in yield. In fact the
limit to the amount of corn which can
been found. Crops of 100 bushels per
acre or over are frequently reported.
In the South, on heavy soils, with the
long season Of growth, this figure has
been greatly exceeded. DR.. J. w. Par
ker, of Columbia, S. c., some years ago
took premium on crop of 200 bush
els and twelve quarts grown on single
acre of ground.
1t would make a great difference just
now to many farmers If they had only
three acres of corn to cultivate during
1 hor ~ cix Hn
work would be likely to be done and
not left undone as will probably be the
case now in many instances. 1t is DOS
sible that a crop OF 200 bushels per acre
may be grown in Western New York,
though it will be a long time first. But
it is certain that crops OF one-third to
one-half that size can be grown, and
while farmers are looking over the
fence at the weedy cornfelds which
will not yield % bushels per acre, they
should think Of these suggestions.
There is money in the business, pro-
vided the attempt is not made to grow
corn at the rate of 20 bushels per acre
with the customary addition of full
crop of weeds.
The Small Farmer in the Northwest.
Extremes meet" and all through
the wide territory where Eastern cap
italists went in with a rush eight or ten
years ago to coin money by bonanza
farming, there are scattered thousands
of homesteaders who, almost without
capital except few dollars to make
their entries and strong reliance on
their industry and endurance, go out in
hundreds year by year to take hold and
in WAYS little known by outsiders man
age to keep hold, till they can call That
land their own 1t they steer clear Of
the e-per-cent-a-month men, and
have fair seasons to begin with. they
can succeed. Such men, and even some
few women, do it in some such way as
this They hire with some farmer in
the busy seasons of seeding. harvesting
and threshing, at the latter work espe-
cially, earning high wages. But wages
is not the object at the first start In
change for SIX weeks work at seed
time, man acquires just enough to
make his entry at the land Office
and buy boards to fit up shanty
sometimes it is sod shanty). He gets
the use of yoke of oxen to do his
''breaking," beginning in May Or early
in June. Thirty days breaking means
from twenty-five to thirty acres, it these
oxen are in good condition, and the sea-
son is not too dry. There is plenty OF
grass, and if kept at work in the cool OF
the morning and evening, good oxen
can turn an acre day. Then the pio-
neer builds a larger sod shanty for his
oxen, when he has them of his own.
He may then "backset," going an inch
or more below the first breaking. He
may now leave that land for the season,
return the oxen to thir owner, and, ii
wise, try to keep good friends with him
and stay over the fall-say from the first
week of August till nearly the beginning
| of no I'm hot
time there will be wages enough COM
ing TO buy his own oxen, and if he has
managed properly he will get the loan
of plow. and all the seed he wants on
time. Character is the main thing.
Once ones neighbors are satisfied that
he is the right sort, he will have real
friends, and can get his seed in even
without oxen of his own. Changing
again his work for that of the oxen, he
breaks and backsets twenty acres more
the next summer, and arranges for
spending even part of winter on his