Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-04-18
ers allow the whole space to be occupied
by the plants. York World.
INCREASING THE YIELD.

INCREASING THE YIELD.
When income does not pas expenses,
means must be resorted TO whereby cost
can be reduced; otherwise farmers will
soon be driven off their farms. Present
average yield of crops in our whole
country can be easily increased one third
with little additional cost of production.
by more thorough and intelligent prac-
tiCe. To this end land must be enriched
to support fell crops; must be clean from
all foul weeds and grasses; must be
drained of surplus moisture by underdrains
If not naturally drained; pulveriZation Of
soil must be thorough, for seeding and
for after-cultivation, TO keep surface mel
low and to destroy all weeds adapt crops
to soil; seed to grass and clover, to lie in
sod two years out Of five. No intelligent
farmer will attempt 10 raise winter
wheat on strictly muck soil, but will
rather plant corn, potatoes, turnips or
onions-the latter being especially
adapted. Neither will Indian corn be
planted on heavy soil, for, however rich
in plant food, this land will not produce
corn at a profit; but at the same time
there is no better soil for wheat, peas or
hay. Corn finds its natural adaptation
of soil in a sandy gravel or loan of any
base; soil that will remain loose and
friable. The best class of grain lands
are not, as a rule, profitable grazing
lands, though stock-raising and feeding
should be made Il branch by mixed hus-.
bandry (the true system of improved
farming), together with a rotation of
crops and seeding with clover frequently: :
this adds manure to restore fertility Of
soil.
No soil is so exclusively adapted to
grain growing that frequent seeding to
clover and other forage crops, TO be fed
on the farm, will not be found most
profitable. Lands Of the above character
are not we'll adapted to dairying, though
many modern teachers of improved farm
ing claim that the dairy may, by use of
silage, be proftabiy connected with
grain farming on our best arabic lands,
but it has not been heretofore made a de-
sirable branch of mixed husbandry.t
Dairying is best adapted to lands not
we'll suited to grain-moist, springy land,
where water Is everywhere convenient,
and where the pasture carries a verdure
of green in the dryeSt season, has much
advantage over the farm without living
springs and where water is obtained only
at great expense. Another fact is, bad
crop returns are not due so often as some
suppose ID exhausted fertility, but many
times result from poor cultivation. A
perfect filming of the soil, and extirpation
of all noxious weeds, will do much to re-
store productiveness to the rundown"
farm. All lands based on firm of tenax
cious suDsoil can be greatly improved by
deeper blowing; a few inches of subsoil
turned up in autumn, where the pulver-
ling effect of winter frosts may act upon
it, will wonderfully improve the land.
Raising clover to pillow under is means
of improving land in general; il cannot
be relied upon for perfect fertility, yet is
great renOvator of the worn down lands.
The growing of clover or other forage
crops for feeding on the farm, also the
purchase of grain for feeding, with care
in saving manure, is the most reliable
source of fertility. Commercial fertiliz-
ers may be used to increase crops, but
not to restore exhausted fertility -Nelo
York Tribune.