Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-09-26
COUNTS AND DISCOUNTS
Common Sense in the Every. Day Ocoupa-
tfOnS Of the Farm.

SOONIS ANU OI0OOONb ~
Common Sense in the Everyday Ocoupar
lions OF the Farm.
When farmers are persistently urged
to do this or that, and the advice fails
to take" it might be well to look the
matter over and see whether the ad-
visers or the advises are most at fault
For instance. deep blowing Qike root
growing) is ''fad" brought over from
cool, damp. clayey England. and run
for a great deal more than our farmers
believe it to be worth. The influence
of theoretical talkaupon unpractically
trained men, even of great intelligence,
was strongly shown in a notable failure
on clay farm in Rhode Island, where
wonders were to be wrought by deep
blowing and undertaking. The oc-
cupant was all right as to the latter, but
bitterly disappointed in the results OF
the former. He might have known
BETTER" / have heard it remarked
many times. Possibly; but he never
could know so well as after
trial of it; and since that most
of the theorists have stopped
talking of deep blowing. The truth
is. the nature of the crops most
raised in America, and the character
of the most of our arabic soils, require
only moderate depth of tillage-one
that will keep the roots Of the crop in
the warm upper stratum OF earth,
within reach of the manure, the air,
the sun and the light and the feeting
rains of our American summers. The
average American farmer is no great
reader-it were better otherwise-but
he is not wanting in observation or
common sense. He finds that it Is
possible to get maximum crops of corn
and cotton with very shallow blowing,
if other conditions are all right. He
finds that little deeper blowing is
enough for small grains and potatoes.
But, more than all, he has found with
the average American teams and
plows, the average capital OF the
American farmer, and the shortness OF
time lin the North) for getting laud
ready for the crop, that deep blowing.
however, theoretically good, is gen.
orally impracticable. Yet it may be
that we shall, in time, somewhat in
crease the average depth of our fur
rows.
Take another illustration: No one
more than l has emphasized the
wickedness of wasting liquid manure.
/ have preached it long enough and
hard enough to make not a few prac.
teal converts; yet some of these have
gone back on the theory and given up
the practice, because it didn't pay. "
The truth has been that it did not pay
as well as was hoped for under the
conditions as they commonly exist.
But the conditions can be changed.
and will be, with the increase OF
knowledge and capital Director Col
lier, of the New York Experiment Sta
ton, proposes to make this matter a
leading subject of experiment; and l
believe his persistence and his prac-
teal turn of mind will enable him to
teach US all the best way to save the
liquid excavations of our animals, and
to make their use profitable. My own
experience favors the use of abundant
absorbent material in a cemented cell
lar, and the incorporation of the liquid
and solid manure into one mass
with these absorbents by the use Of
swine But, unquestionably. the query
will arise on many large cattle farms:
Whence are all these absorb
ents to Gomez" and Twill We have
time to handle and apply all this extra
material?n and will not the cost ex-
coed the valued" 1 have sometimes
thought the cheapest way, after all,
would be to run the urine into tanks,
evaporate it. the same as maple sugar
is made, during the winter, have the
dry result analysed, and the necessary
addition of other fine fertilizing ma
terial made, to assure a complete and
well-balanced fertilizer. which can be
cheaply transported and applied. In
this way the heavy hauling is evaded.
no wild seeds sown. and fine fertiliz-
er that can be drilled in with the seed
is supplied. But perhaps this would
not pay. Any way, we must save all
the manure. liquid and solid. and use
it to its fullest advantage if we want
farming to pay as it should. 7.
Tribune.