The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-07-09
FARM FIELD AND GARDEN.
INTERESTING MATTERS FOR AG-
RICULTURAL READERS.
Uneasy Farmers--How to Form a
Perfect Hedge--To Subdue
Weeds--To. Wool Growers
--About Onions--Hints
to the Farmer.
Uneasy Farmers.

Uneasy Farmers.
No wonder there are many uneasy
farmers, says Geo. A. Stockwell,
Rhode Island, in the American Agri-
culturalist. The times are mending
little, but they have been hard, and
methods and opportunities OF adj
vancement have changed. Those &C.
quainted with the circumstances must
sympathize and even applaud the
farmer in his discomfort, for discomfort
OF the right kind, we'll founded, may
be the stepping stone to something
better. When the farm yields only a
bare living and taxes, then the farmer
is dissatisfied, and he has cause, for
no man OF spirit in this age OF the
world is contented with living. In
this fact is found one clue to the
abandonment OF q large number OF
farms in Maine and Vermont. But it
must be admitted that it is q serious
matter to quarrel with a "dead sure
living, scant as it may be. Discon-
tent leads to restlessness, and to UNI
wise forsaking OF what is in hand.
Every year in some, if not in many,
parts of the east, the "western fever
RACES and claims it's victims. Hasty
mlgrations have been made to some
supposed land of promise in the west,
and the result in many cases was
disastrous.
Standing upon the rolling prairie,
the richest land of this continent,
where the prairie rolled ON to a high
hill, the writer has had pointed out to
him - abandoned farms, and he has
also seen on this prairie land more
poverty, discomfort, discomfort than
can be found in an agricultural area
OF the same extent in New England, or
any part of the east. 1t could not be
worse anywhere. Butt the prairie was
not to blame. 1t was the result of un-
wise emigration. Perhaps the settlers
were deceived; at all events they found
the conditions different, foreign to
their ideas and methods, and disap-
pointed, broken, gave up. This fact
cannot be disputed, namely, that a
living on q New England farm, poor
as it may be is much more than mere
living to the same man on the prairie,
unless he has capital to help him; and
a bare living on the prairie, obtained
from the prairie, is the nearest to
nothing that ever man had to contend
with. The prairie buds and blossoms
like a garden, but not without help
Therefore, let every farmer who can
command a living, scant though it
may be, cling to it, think twice hun
dred times before he abandons it.
How to Form Perfect Hedge.
To have hedge do itsbest, whether
deciduous or evergreen, it should be
pruned twice g. season. The first
pruning should be done before growth
has stopped, the second about the
close of summer, after the length OF
growth has been completed for the
season. On the method Joseph Nee
han writes as follows in Practical
Farmer: A hedge to be perfect must
be broader at the base than at any
other part. Summer pruning. that is,
the first one, is mainly to thicken the
hedge and strengthen the base To do
this, the top and most of the upper
branches are clipped off then, while
the lower ones are touched but little
In an old hedge, and not at ,all in q
young ONE in which the shape
has not been well formed. As
soon as the tops are cut AWAY
the sap flows to those remaining
greatly invigorating them. In old
hedges where shape and business have
already been attained, the whole OF
the hedge anay be trimmed back to
thicken it, but let the severest cutting
be at the6top. For every branch cut
Off half a dozen new ones form so that
in time the hedge becomes SO dense
that bird can hardly fly through it.
After the first cutting there will be
more growth made, and this Us allow
ed to grow ON aslong as it will. When
all growth has stopped, which will be
In September I'm the middle states, the
hedge IS gone over again, and cut clean
into q good shape, which should
neither be too round nor too pointed.
In connection with this it may besaid
here that single trees should be prun-
ed in the same way the hedge is.
Business comes from stopping the
leading shoots before they are done
growing. Pruning in winter acts the
other way, encouraging an extra
strong top growth.
To Subdue Weeds.
One important point in keeping q
farm clear from weeds is to see that