The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-04-04
New Methods In Farming.

We hear some farmers complain OF
the nprofitableness of farming. We
SEQ some farms-yes, many in localities
remote from cities or large towns-that
look neglected and whose owners seem
discouraged. The reason for this state
OF things is not generally difficult to
discover. A Massachusetts farmer saws
in The American Cultivator: In most
cases the owner has been and still is
going on in the ways of his father, with
no new methods or improved tools and
machinery. OF course there are farms
from which it would be difficult for the
most enterprising man to get living,
but there are many good farms that are
not managed as they ought to be.
If the manufacturer or business man
should conduct his business as many
farmers do theirs, they would most GER
tainly fail. The manufacturer would
fail if he continued to use old wornout
machinery when he could secure the
most approved, and thus successfully
compete with others in the same field of
enterprise. Yet many farmers are con-
tent to plod on year after year with old
methods, old tools, old machinery and
little enterprise. | have seen a man
moving with hand scythe when there
was not over 500 pounds of hay to the
acre, and | have seen grass so stout as
to yield four tons of hay to the acre for
the first crop, and half that amount at
the second crop.
have raised per acre 514 tons of hay
at two crops on my own farm on land
that once did not yield dollars worth
of grass to an acre. 1t is true that in
the first case, when only 500 pounds to
the acre was obtained, the land was not
naturally adapted to gra s, but yet with
proper handling might have easily been
made to yield ton of hay to the acre.
In my own case the land was reclaim
ed meadow when improved methods
had been adopted, the land cleared
ditched, plowed or dug over, sown later
to grass and MANFRED WELL The yield
of hay throughout the country on the
average is quite small, and the same is
equally true with many other crops.
What has helped to make land in Ar
lington worth from $500 to 81, 1000 per
acre for farming purposes except the
improved methods of farming or mar
ket gardening?
1t is almost useless in these days of
sharp competition in every direction
for any one, whatever his calling or
business, to be content with what has
been, but he must be ON the alert for
all improvements and signs of progress
along the lines of his occupation. I'm
less he does this he will most surely
be left in the rear. | hear some one say
that it costs to adopt new methods and
purchase improved implements and ma
chinery. So it does, but no one can af-
ford to let them alone if he means to
continue business. 1t is costly to Sc
cure an abundance of dressing for the
land, and yet every farmer must admit
that it is useless to attempt to carry on
a farm to advantage without it.
What want to impress upon the
mind of every reader is this fact-tbat
the most successful business men are
those who keep up with the times, and
that the same rule applies to farmers
as well as to other classes. 1t is true,
it requires more capital to carry on
farming under improved methods than
under the old, but note the better re-
suits.