The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-12-23

Never use the land roller when the
ground is damp enough to become
impacted, is good advice, but to the
grain grower, be sure to use 1t when
the ground ia in proper condition, is
equally good.
Generally the best profits from the
farm can be derived by growing a
variety of crops and then feeding
them out to variety of stock on the
farm and marketing. In this way the
risks of failure are lesseued, and its
various products can be used to the
best advantages.
Farmers will spend day at some
convention deDouncing the railways
for charging them three cents for
carrying them a mile in five minutes,
and say not word about the awful
condition of the roads that makes il
cost them 81 to transport load over
mile in an hour.
Theory is good, but practice is bet
ter. 1t is easy to tell how thing
should be done, but the only way to
know how is to go to work and do 1t.
We may read all we can and still
know very little about the care of
stock. We can only gain practical
knowledge by actually caring for
them, aud in so doing we shall learn
the true value of theories. A theory
which may BE all right with one
person when reduced to practice may
prove a flat failure when tried by
another.
A good farmer will never under
take TO till more land than he can
thoroughly cultivate. 1t is the aim
of many farmers to get as many acres
into crops as possible. giving no
attention to the matter of how they
are put in. For instance, one man
will put in so or go acres of wheat,
while his neighbor will put in 80 and
get as many bushels, and perhaps
more. Now, the farmer should bear
in mind that well titled land is con-
stantly improving, while half titled
land is growing poorer 'ery day.
In trip over the country one will
see movers, harvesting machines,
threshing outfits and other expensive
machinery just where it was last in
use, taking the weather as it comes.
This kind of experimenting is ali
done al the purchasers expense.
It improves composts to dig down
and reptile two or three weeks pre-
viOus to applying to land.
A good way to reduce bones for
fertilizing purposes is to break them
into fragments and place into layers
in heap of fermenting manure
fresh manure from the stables, for
example.
A very convenient way to accumu-
late phosphate of potash is to keep q
barrel of lye on hand for the recep-
ton of all the bones about the house
and farm. A supply of the finest fer
tilizing matter can in this way be
always kept on hand. 1t is especially
valuable for garden vegetables.
Every farmer should keep a hahd
aud team at work all the year around
in collecting material for manure,
making compost and hauling the
same to the fields. One Industrious
hand and 81 good team so employed
would do more good on farm in the
course of twelve months than any
two men otherwise engaged.
Painstaking French farmers not
uufrequently select the finest heans
of grain from which they may raise
what may be called mother plants n
sources OF future seed. Generally the
heaviest heads are laid aside for the
purpose.
Want of sufficient shelter on the
farm is a great sOurce of loss in many
directions. Thousands of dollars are
lost annually by allowing wagons,
mowers, plows, etc, to stand exposed
to rain and sun. Similar losses are
entailed for want of sufficient stock
sheds in winter Oftentimes much of
the crop is lost for lack OF a good roof
over il after it is harvested.
The best manure for permanent
pastures is a top dressing of ground
bone. From l 200 10 l 800 pounds an
acre will show permanent effect for
seven or eight years following.
We are inclined to believe that
much OF the so-called winter killing Of
clover is due to the fact that the
clover fields are too closely cropped
by live stock until late in the fail
Hence, the plant is left with hardly
any top or crown to protect the roots
through the winter. We believe if
the clover were left to grow up after
The first of October and all live stock
kept off, there would be less COM
plaint of winter killing.