The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-01-08

We believe there is no single item
| of accounting that can be followed
with more satisfaction upon q farm
than that of keeping a strict account
with the poultry. Whether you have
q few fowls or many, you will take
genuine satisfaction in knowing just
what it costs to keep them, and what
they return you. 1t always pays, too,
from a merely financial point of view
If you have a large flock the account
may show that their feed is pretty
expensive, aud that they are not Civ
| ing you a commensurate return for it,
and so you are led to cut the flock
down until yOu reach the point of
profit; or, with q small flock, you
may see so good a percentage OF profit
that it induces you to gradually ex-
tend your operations in this direction.
! In any event, it will lead you to look
more closely into the details of the
business, to consider even the small
items of expense and income, and
| this will usually be effective in lead
ing to methods of management that
| VIII give still better profits.
Among the first items of farm work
that usually have attention in the
spring is the building or repairing of
fences. Our own plan is to attend to
| this in the fall, so that there
will be no possibility of it's interior
ing with work that has to do directly
with the production OF crops. We do
not intend now, however, to discuss
the best time for doing that work,
but to ask whether so much OF it is
really necessary. About the heaviest
tax we have to pay on our own farms
in the way of an expenditure that
brings nothing back is the labor and
81 II i'm fonna hIIil6inOs
but we have become accustomed to
cutting our farms up into little fields
that is hard to overcome the practice.
We see adjacent fields grown to corn
and WheaG and meadow, with strong
fences between them, as if the owner
WAS afraid that one crop would en-
crOach on the territory of the other.
The theory is, we believe, that he
may want to pasture one of the fields
at a season when there is standing
crop in another, but if he does so
his getting value enough from it to
pay for maintaining the fences.
Then there is the waste land of the
fence row-no small item, and the
fence row is very apt to be a harbor
for weeds, and time is required to
keep them down that ought to be
given to the cultivation of crops.
These things may have all been said
before, but we want to bring them
fresh to your mind just now, so that
before you rebuild those fences you
may stop and ask yourself il they can
not better be wholly dispensed with.
Some day we shall get to the point Of
keeping our cattle up, to the greater
economy both of land and feed, and
then we shall be able to do away with
our fences wholly.
Big corn crops are not the result OF
chance, but of careful forethought
and intelligent work. AS rule, we
believe the big crops are made by the
men who get the seed in early, but 4
the early planting alone will not ac-
cOmplish this result. We must go
further back, and see that the ground |
is ready to be worked early, that it
can be made dry and warm so as to |
safely receive the seed. No advan- |
tage is made by planting so cold and |
damp that the seed will not germi-
nate. Drained land can be plowed |
much earlier than Hand that is not |
drained, but, if not drained, then the
best corn growers begin to prepare |
the land for the crop in the fall, |
breaking up old pastures and clover |
and timothy fields, so that the roots |
of the grasses may be decomposing |
through the winter, and that the |
frosts may aid toward pulverizing |
and preparing the seed-bed. II you |
cannot avail yourself the coming |
spring of either drained land or fall
pIowed sod land, you will be at dis
tinct disadvantage in starting your
crop, and we would earnestly advise |
you to lay your plans so as to remedy |
this before another year. II the corn
crop is we'll started early in the sea-
son it is half made. The early start |
gives opportunity for constant and
thorough cultivation, so that the crop
is pushed forward to point where it
can withstand the drouths that are
so apt to come during the corn grow
ing season; and if in district where
the crop is sometimes caught by the
frost you have pretty nearly the GER
tainty of getting it well ripened up
before any harm can come from that
source. To permit the early cultiva-
ton of corn, perfectly fine, smooth
surface is of the first Importance.
Then the cultivator may be run
through as soon as the stock show
above the ground; but if the field is
rough and cloddy, many of the plants
will be covered up and smothered,
and much harm as good done. The
roller and harrow should be used to
finish off before planting, and the
labor spent with them will be well re-
paid in making the subsequent Guilt
walton easier and more remu erative.
This crop is too important an one
ever to slight, and il our suggestions
here were needed generally our aver
age yield might soon be larglye in
creased. J. r. Z.