The Dickinson press., 1891-12-19
THE FARMERS CORNER.
MATTERS OF SPECIAL INTEREST
TO THE FARMER.
Some Valuable Suggestions About
Improving a Farm - Grooming
AOrSe--Salt Fertilizer
--Over-feedinR
Hogs.
How tolmprove a Farm.

Hogs.
How to Improve Farm.
Many OF our farmers spend money
freely in purchase of special manures
1guano, superphosphates, bone dust,
gypsum, etc, and usually find, or
think they do, that they realize pro-
fit by it. do not wish to say one
word to discourage them from con-
tinuance of the practice, but would
advise them to be little more care
full in their experiments and statis-
tics. Ii a farmer applies hundred
dollars worth of special manures,
or any other manures, that drains
his pocket OF the dollars; he should
be able to ascertain that he gets his
money back with a profit of at least
twenty percent to pay for his labor
and risks. He can only ascertain this
by cultivating q measured part of
the same field without manure OF any
kind, giving it the same care and at
tention as the portion manured.
After he shall have done this and
measured or weighed the crops, a lit
tie arithmetic will bring out all the
facts. There should be no guess.
work or hope so alb out it. If a mer-
chant invests a portion of his capital
in any description OF goods he will
know, when these goods are disposed
OF, whether he has gained or lost by
the operation; if the speculation has
been unsuccessful he will seek some
other Investment for his capi-
tai.
Now, brother farmers, allow me here
to be a little critical. You will &C
knowledge that there is no manure
that you can buy that will give such
satisfactory results as the manure in
your own barnyards. Then why do
you not make more OF it, or why do
you not take better care OF what you
do make? have seen some of your
manure heaps beveled out to teath.
er-edge, which edges should have been
shoveled up into a compact heap so
as to expose as small surface as
possible to rain and sunshine. These
remarks will apply as well to your
milking and feeding yards as to the
main manure heap. Collect all the re-
fuse vegetable matter from every nook
and corner OF the farm and incorpor-
ate it with the manure heap, or with
swamp mud, lime and gypsum, form q
compost heap; collect leaves from the
woods, which contain more potash
than many OF the phosphates in the
market. Fork over this compost
heap once or twice in the course OF a
year and top-dress your grass land
with it. Leave strip across the field
not so top-dressed, and if f"book farm
ing" will not satisfy you, you will be-
gin to learn by example"
To do this work will require labor,
and costs money; labor is always
worth money when we'll directed and
properly applied. By pursuing this
course you accomplish two purposes
you improve the appearance of your
farm and enrich it. After saving all
you can, then buy as much fertilizers
as may prove to be profitable by the
tests above named. The introduction
OF so much labor-saving machinery in.
to the farming system is, fear, maxi
ing our farmers little lazy, and they
would rather take q hundred dollars
out of their pockets to buy fertilizers
than do the extra work OF collecting
the material and making compost, as
they consider this out of the regular
routine OF farming. But they may as
well hire labor to do this and secure
the profit to themselves, as to send
their money abroad and give the prof
it to Others. This, too, will keep the
laboring men in your own neighbor-
hood. Laborers ought to be encour-
aged by constant and well paid en-
ployment.
Flowing down red clover is one of
the cheapest and quickest methods of
improving farm land. This plan can
not be too often, nor too strongly
urged on the farming community. I
have tried and seen it tried by others,
often and always with success. The
the best time to do this is when in full
bloom, and the seed about commenc-
ing to form. Not only the green crop
plowed under, but the roots enrich
and mellow the soil, putting it ingood
condition for the reception of any
crop.-Practical Farmer