The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-07-21
FARM, FIELD AND GARDEN.
USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT
FARMING MATTERS.

For Restoring Exhausted Fertllity--
The Coming Hog--Help the
Small Dairyman--care OF
Calvlng CoWs--Num-
ber OF Eggs.
For Restoring Exhausted Fertll-
ity.
/ It does not always follow that be-
cause q farm is poor" it was once
rich, and is simply run down." It
may never have been good, and to
get into fertile condition it might be
necessary, as Peter Henderson once
sarcastically remarked, to spread a
good soil over it half a foot thick.
But when the land has really been
exhausted by continuous cropping
| without restoring the elements with
drawn from the soil, the fertility may
be restored to it in various ways. A
! flock OF sheep, pastured oil over it,,
| would soon work transformation.
But in many cases the best reliance
would probably be upon green ma
nuring
! When q farmer is obliged, from
economical reasons, to purchase a
rundown" farm, henaturally desires
to improve it in the quickest possible
way consistent with his means. Both
sheep and manure, it may be, are be-
yond his means. But he can grow a
crop OF green manure in q few weeks,
and then, by turning it under, enrich
his land with as much fertilizing mat
ter as will equal eight or ten tons of
manure.
II, for example, he plows the land in
October and soWs rye, he may turn it
under in May or June and plant corn.
This will be ready to turn under early
in August, and, with the help OF a
chain looped from the plow-beam to
| the land side end of the inner whiff1e-
tree, may be buried under the soil.
This will furnish ten or twelve tons
more ofvaluable matter This, again,
may be followed with rye, and with
clover in the spring. After the clover
las been cut for hay and the second
crop plowed in, the land will, if not
too severely impoverished, be in fair
condition to begin cropping for
harVest.
Buckwheat is frequently used as
first crop and is very economical for
this purpose, as the seed costs but
little. It may be sown in May and
turned under and sowed againin July,
and this, when plowed under in the
fall, may be followed byrye. A dress
ing OF lime on the ground after the
second crop is sowed will aid in de-
composing the green matter turned
under, and also greatly help the
| growth Of the rye.
The use OF clover for green manuring
is very earnestly recommended but
before it can be grown to advantage
the soil must be in pretty good CON
dition. Clover is especially desirable
4 as a means Of maintaining the fertil-
ity of the soil after it has been
! brought into good 'heart" by other
/. means. One Of the most intelligent
! TURNER'S in New York State for years
practiced this system. He sowed the
!. distant fields on his farm, to which it
was not convenient to haul manure,
with clover along with wheat. The
| following year he took off a crop OF
| hay, dressed literally with plaster,
/ and the next year pastured the field,
then plowed it under again and sowed
with wheat. Under this system, fol-
lowed for fifty years by his father and
himself, they were. able to grow a crop
| OF thlrty-five or forty bushels Of wheat
to the acre one year, get q good crop
OF hay the next, pasture the third
year, and SOW to wheat again the
| fourth year.
The Coming Hog
II. G. Dawson, OF Iowa, is of the
opinion that the future hog must be a
rustler, one that has the get up and
90 to him, an animal OF fine proper
lions, with extra top-line, broad, deep
hams, clean cut, smooth underline,
free from habbiness OF jowl or belly,
with deep bacon sides, the deepness
extending we'll back to flank and for
ward to shoulder, not uneven, and
deep in center, having finecut head,
smooth and broad between the eyes,
jaw broad and tapering well and even
to muzzle, eyes clear and prominent,
with ears standing we'll out from the
head, breaking evenly and smooth to-
wards the point, but would even pre-
fer a standing up ear to q drop or
flop ear; as a drop or flop ear, fabby
jowl and underline, in my experience
are not rustlers, and are more inclin-
ed to disease from their nature OF
slothfulness, and these bad points are
generally found together. The bone
should not be too large, but Of fine and
strong texture, firm, standing erect on
their pins, tapering wellfrom arm and
thigh down to feet. Some people have
an idea that the size is the most
desirable in the the selection OF a hog,
and that large bones, no matter how
badly shaped is the hog for them;
claiming that large hogs must have
extraordinary large bones; while q
good bone is desirable, if well shaped,
\ a small bone ia more To NV notion