Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-11-17
FARMING WITHOUT STOCK.
An Ohio Man Is Doing 1t with Great Sue
cess.

An Ohio Man Is Doing 1t with Great Sue
cess.
1t may seem strange to some that
good special crop farmer can do
without stock except single COW to
furnish milk and cream for family use
and horses sufficient to do the re-
Quired team work in Flowing, Guilt
waiting and marketing. This is what
Theodore b. Terry of Hudson, O.. a
well-known potato grower is said to
DO. lie makes sDecialty of his
crop and keeps his land rich by apply
ing al the horse and COW manure he
can make to his clover, and using the
clover he cannot iced as green manure.
1t should be remembered, however,
that Mr. Terry farmed with the reg
ulatiOn amount Of stock number of
years before he began the potato
speciality system. In that time his
soil was constantly growing richer
He also owns a muck bed on one cor
ner of his small farm, and this has
materially aided him in maintaining
fertility. He has also used in expert
mentS considerable amounts of min
eral manures. These with clover
will. we tkink, keep land fertile in
definitely. The air supplied both nj
trogen ana carbon to the clover plant
If the mineral elements, lime and
potash. are supplied by clover. and
the plant thus grown is returned to
the soil, it must continue to increase
in fertility. Mr. Terry's plan alter
mates potatoes and wheat with clover
every third or fourth year. These
crops he sells, but the gain from the
clover returned to the soil more than
offsets what these crops sold from the
farm take from it.
We cannot help thinking that with
enough stock Of the best kind to eat
all the clover he can grow M. Terrv's
profits would be greater than under
his present system. II he had stock
so poor that the manure pile was the
only profit got from keeping it he
might we'll object to change Let
ting clover lie and rot on the land
before blowing it saves an enormous
amount Of labor, but it loses to the
farmer what the Judicious feeding OF
the best stock might produce The
clover which Mr., Terry plows under
as manure would form the basis for
keeping perhaps eight or ten good
COWS of some Of the best milk and
butter breeds. No one would think
OF feeding mich cows on hay alone
A ratio Of corn silage with some pur-
chased grain will be required to pro-
duce the best milk results, but who
will believe that this purchased grain
and homegrown slage if thus fed
will not be more than repaid? With
poor stock it will be different.
The fault we find with Mr. Terry's
plan is that it is one that cannot be
universally adopted. He is no doubt
a practical farmer, for his own condi-
tiOns; but his example cannot be
safely followed by large proportion
of the farmers of the country. If it
were, the increase OF potato product
would bring prices so low that nobody
could make money. A system of
mixed farming, feeding as much as
possible OF the products of the farm
TO the best stock, preserves fertility
equally we'll. and it is a system that
cannot be adopted too widely. The
kind Of stock kept will vary with
differing conditions, but whatever it
be it should be the best that the
farmer can get, and his constant
effort should be by judicious feeding
and breeding to improve it. Here
again is another advantage Of keep
ing stock rather than farming with
out 1T. The stock grower gets part
of his gains by skill and capital put
into the breeding of the best. The
grower of special crops however skill
full has to get his gains with greater
manual labor than does the other. If
this be not an evil, it is strange that
there should be so general a desire to
avoid the sweat of the brow as
nearly everywhere prevails.
The example of Mr. Terry should,
however, set farmers to thinking,
even though they do not initiate it
in all respects. ,There are millions
OF worthless scrub animals of all
kinds which eat their heads off sew
eral times year, and are constant
drain on the farmers pocket The
sooner they are gotten rid of the bet
ter. Begin with few. but have
these of the best. though only a
single individual be the starter of the
new flock or herd. There is nothing
which more rapidly adds to farmers
gains than stock when it is Judi
ciously cared for and bred To do
without this gain in order to give ex-
elusive attention to some one
speciality does not seem to US an eX-
ample to be generally commended to
farmers American Cuitiyator.