The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-03-10
FARM J)lij
Edited by John C. Edgar Duval, to whom all
communications for This column should be al
dressed

areASeu.I
To the Agricult ,ral Editor of The Statesman;
Did you ever see compost heap II
Texas? / never until mine was fin
ished today. This is the first III Bur
net county, so far as my observation
extends. / have about four tons o
cou post composed of six-tenths wei
rotted COW lot manure, three-tenthi
wood ashes, and one-tenth green cot
ton seed. / contemplate putting IL Oh
two acres for water melons, one 0l
more shOvels full to each hill and in
corporate with soil. The hills are
eight by eight feet, laid off with II
inch two-horse turning pillow and then
narrowed Off partially filing the fur
rows The soil is light sand. Now
can you suggest to me something else
to go into the compost heap? L want
to produce big melons. Would lime
salt, aud bat deposit be good and how
much of each. / have been expert
menting little with manures on
sandy soils of late and find that it pays
largely, and why farmers don't uti-
LIE more of the manures that are
daily going to waste is strange to me.
We have here in Burnet county II
great deal OF lands that are getting
thin,n to say the least, with the COW,
horse and hog lots Overlooking with
manure, which is being washed away
and the liquids teaching out into the
watering places TO cause fatal diseases
to both animals and people. The
owner of the livery and sale stable at
Marble Falls is wanting some one to
come and get the manure from his
stables free of cost, and yet L expect
he viii have to hire IL carried INTO
the river to get IL ont of the
way. The same is the case
at Burnett, our county seat.
Yet men will strain every point to
buy more land and have il cleared up
to let IL out on the tenant system to
be butchered aud robbed of its virgin
fertility. Then the land owner Will
"cussn the renters and the govern
men5 because he does not have lar
ger dividend. The renter is not to
blame for all the short earnings OF the
farm, neither is the government. If
these landlords would look to the best
interests OF themselves, the renters
and the public generally, and sci Off
their large farms and pastures in small
tracts, letting each family have a.
home; in fact, one that they could
easily cultivate, improve with ma
uures, and adorn with tidy orchards,
gardens and yards-making Two
blades of grass grow where hardly
one grows now.
The land owners with their large
farms and pastures cannot possibly
keep up the fertility of the soil, and it
is only a question of time when the
soil will DO worn out and refuse to re-
spond to the wish of it's owner. The |
financial Is only part of this present |
large ownership of land; it has pa |
iriotic and moral part attached. Those
that own the lands of country own
everything else. When IA
nan and his famiIy-the shiflless or
otherwise renter, Is alienated from his
brother by landed heritage he loses
~ great measure the love and en-
.husissm of citizenship. lie has
morbid disposition to become nomadic
n his life; he wanders from place to |
place, county to county, state to state,
Until his family is raised up in igno-
ance and imbibes cOmmunistic ideas,
in a great upheavel both
n church and state. 1t is only neces-
ary to point to down trodden Ireland
N the one hand with her great exact
ng landed nobility and her oppress-
I'd suffering tenants, where there is
untold misery and suffering, revolt
md bloodshed-on the other hand
Ook at France with her landed peas
.ntry, with all her refinement, polite
less and happiness.
Now we should learn lesson and
axe thought by the forelock and be-
'ome patriotic and enthusiastic
,nough to avert the bitter cup of Ire
and, and eliminate serfdom from our
treat republic. by securing to every
iler of the soil, the ownership of the
oil he tills. Then as nation we will
,e free and happy indeed.
DIoGENEs.
Double Horn, Texas.
| cannot lay claim to any experience
n melon culture or give any hint as
o the best way to produce mammoth
pecimens, beyond limiting the num-
'er on the vine; but on general prin-
iples | advocate the application of
manure to the soil for any crop. The
gained will depend upon
he natural richness or poverty of the I
oil; and If poverty stricken, whether
he manure applied supplies the food
dement's deficient in the soil Some
elds may be rich for some kind of
rop, and very poor for another, but ;
yell prepared compost or even uncom-
'osted stable and lot manure will al
yays be beneficial. The composing
enders the matter more readily avail
BILE for plant food. Cow dung, wood,
sh and cotton seed will make
most valuable manure
nd would not he improved
ut injured by the addition of lime
r salt. Lime is useful when applied
o dry vegetable matter on the land
s it tends to its decomposition and I
enders it soluble and available as
liant food. The application OF lime
hou d depend upon the amount of
lert vegetable matter in the soil. 1t {
hould never be applied to animal ,
lanures except for the purpose of
hecking noxiOus effiuvia.