The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1891-11-06
Don't PlOyy ton Much. .

DOn't Flow TOO Much.
All through the United States may be found
farmers by the hundred, living on rundown
farms, attempting to make a living by grow.
Ing corn and wheat, and keeping SO large Q
part OF their land under the plow as to con
tlnualy reduce It's fertility more and more
while the yield Of their crops Is so small as
10 leave them no margin OF profit, and they
are kept continually poor. Now, not only
believe, but know, that there Is a better
way to manage these farms-a way that will
reduce the expense of cultivating them, give
. fair chance to improve the soil, and reduce
the expense of living by making the far m
furnish the family more than 1t now does
Iwish l could impress on the minds Of my
resiers these points, for their observance
would bring relief to many discouraged,
poverty-stricken farmer, and, persevered In,
would In few years place him In circum.
stances Of comfort. Solomon says, 1.-THE
destruction of the poor Is their poverty"
aud this Is fully exemplifed where the
farmer, having gone In debt, tries to get out
by keeping large per cent. of his farm
under the pillow. He undertakes more work
than he can do well with team and help be
has, and cultivates moro land than he can
keep fortified, and as q consequence bis
crops pay no profit.
can see from my upper windows half.
dozen farms managed In this way; not An
acre to cut for hay ON any of them; but .
small per cent. Of them In pasture, and that
over.stocked, so that In case Of drought the
stock must be sold at loss or suffer loss Of
flesh, and often hay must be bought at high
prices for feeding, the latter part of winter
and early spring.
The garden on these farms IL scarcely
worthy of the name. 1t Is pIowed late IN
spring. few vegetables planted and indIf.
ferently cared for, and then 1t is left to grow
up to weeds. and the cultivation of Garden
stocked with weeds In this way Is . kind Of
purgatory. On most of these farms is no
fruit other than what neglected apple
orchard furnishes. What there Is attractive
about farm life under such conditions 1t Is
difficult to see. In fact, there Is nothing. and
these farmers stay on the farm simply be
cause they do not know what else to do
One of the first things to do is 10 put the
larger part Of such farms into grass and
clover This will at once stop the reduction
of fertility which constant cropping is caus
ing, and reduce the expense of cultivation.
1t will enable the owner to fertilIze and thor.
oughly cultivate the reduced area unoer the
pillow, so that the few acres will give prof.
table crops, and as there will be little labor
and expense with the grass land a reasonable
profit may be expected from each acre,
whereas now, after cost of cultivation Is de.
Quoted, there Is no prott at all.
This plan of farming Is hopeful one. for
the land can be continually improved under
1t. while the old way Is impoverishing it. I
have had an excellent Illustration of the TWO
methods of farming on a farm that pass
every day. The former owner lived on 1t for
twelve years, and the present owner has
been OH 1t eight years. The farm contains
land. The first owner rarely plowed more
than ten acres, often not more than seven.
and kept all the balance of the farm In grass
and clover. He kept few good cows and
sold butter. fattened few pigs, raised on
the milk of the cows, and sold quite a guam
tity of hay. His plowed land was all put III
corn except In the years when he wished to
seed some land anew to grass, when be
would grow field Of wheat; all the manure
was put on that field planted In corn. and
with but one small field to glow and cultivate,
the work was always done early and tho.
roughly. l have often known him to have
his corn worked over three times before his
neighbors begun. The butter, hay, poultry
and pork, gave good income and without
being hurried he seldom had to hire days
work. His male calves were sold for veal.
and the heifers raised and occasionally he
nau COW To sell. There was plenty of time
to cultivate garden and small! fruit patch
and the farm was model OF neatness and
when Its owner became too old and infirm
to cultivate 1t longer. 1t sold for one
thouand dollars more than II would II di.
lapidated and run down In soil, buildings and
surroundings.
The picture changes. The man who bought
1t had mania for acres under cultivation, (
and for some years has had from tnirty to
forty acres Of 1t under the plow, and In addi-
ton has often rented from ten to twenty acres
a year, often where be must go from one to
two miles to reach his work For several
years past he has not cut pound of nay ut
home, hut will 60 from three to five mics
away TO cut grass on the halves. and he usu-
ally runs out of hay before March. l have |
never seen pasture on this farm that was
not overstocked, and he has grown fewer |
bushels OF corn on twenty acres than his pre-
decessor did on seven. l need not say more ; |
the picture is true in every particular, an it,
can be found too often.-l Waldo |
f. Brown, In Rural Home.