The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-09-10
Editorial NOtings.


The hay crop has been remarkably
good all over New England, and what
is more remarkable, this has been the
case for three successive years. This
year is perhaps the best of the three,
for in Vermont, at least, and by report
also in Maine and the other states, the
quality is best throughout, having been
cut in the right time and housed bright
and dry. There was but very little of
the crop that got even a sprinkle on it,
and none that was seriously injured.
The market will find it green and bright,
and the stock will find it fragrant, pala-
table and nutritious. The barns are
literally full to overlooking.
THERE is good deal said about
"ring politics" in national and state
affairs, but this is not an evil absent
even from the small politics of towns
and school districts. A pure heart and
earnest desire for the public good, ex-
Guiding all selfish interests, is far too
rare public virtue. Farmers should be
exempt from this, and one of them
says wisely in an exchange: DO not
let the few men who are in the ring
(and there is ring, either large or
small, in every party in every town.
nominate all the men, but think and
act for yourselves and the general
good of all; then there will be no cause
of complaint that the farmer is not
properly recognized. The farmers
wrongs whatever they may be, must
be righted by the farmer himself"
SECRETARY GILBERT of the Maine
Board of Agriculture is very earnest
in regard to the unjust taxation of
farms, compared with other property.
The unjust taxation of farms, he main
tains, "amounts to an outrage too
glazing to be endured" All farm prop
erty is visible, and none escapes the as
SCISSORS lists. In country towns and
rural districts the assessors valuation
of farm real estate is listed at its high
est bearable figures. Mr.. Gilbert fur
Their says that I" in the farming towns the
valuation lists aggregate more than the
property valued will cash for, while in
the cities and in all circles aside from
the farms no one will pretend to deny
that the list is far short of full value.
So far as municipal expenses are con-
cerned, it matters not how high the
valuation, provided it is evenly placed.
But it is not so with state and county
taxes where the rural town is pitted
against the city and its half-hidden
values"
BLOOD will tell; and this fact applies
no less to swine than to other live stock.
A prominent farmer says that on one &C.
casion he selected three sows at four
months of age. One was a common
SOW, and the other two were blooded
and registered. They were all given
precisely the same care until they were
seven months old. At that time the
grade weighed $50 pounds and the other
two averaged 200 pounds each. The
grade probably ate just as much as
either of the others. The difference in
blood made wide difference in the cost
per pound of making pork. Yet it must
ha nh 10 n m n ora ii;
among blooded stock, and not unfre-
quently, under ordinary treatment, such
as the majority of farmers give, scrub
stock will do quite as well as that which
is thoroughbred.
GA CONSTANT READER" asks I" if
he can do any better with a few barrels
of bones than to burn them, pound
them, and mix with ashes, wet them,
and after they soften, apply to the soil?"
Burnt bones can not be softened by the
action of moist ashes. The burning
takes out all the animal matter and
that is the only part which lye will
oOApOh' AhOiO 10 uO advantage,
fore, in wetting the mixture and it
should also be borne in mind that
burned bone and ashes do not make
complete fertilizer, as they lack the
nitrogen element. To make a complete
fertilizer, they should have mixed with
them some heterogeneous substance, such
as nitrate of soda, sulphate of am
monia, dried blood, or cotton-seed meal.
But as rich stable manure has an ex-
cess of nitrogen, perhaps the handiest
way to use the ashes and bone would
be to mix them with such manure, at
the rate of half bushel to cart load
An easier way is to SOW the mixture
after the manure has been spread on
the land. If only a part of dunged