The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-22
AGRICULTURE.


duced to minimum much is done in
making the farm profitable. A standard
division of the work on any farm should
be the growth of every crop which can
help toward the sustenance of the stock
and the family.
When times are hard and money
scarce the farmer should do just as other
business men have done-curtail opera
tons, and thereby reduce expenses. The
best way to accomplish this is to confine
cultivation to smaller area, and, by so
doing, get larger crop an acre at less
expense.
A settler should make it his first effort
to supply everything needed for the
family sustenance, and then to look
about and see what his neighbors need,
thus finding home market as much as
possible. While these neighbors are
raising staples only, to be shipped away,
he may feed them and make the more
money.
So much is consumed in transporta-
ton. it would be a great saving if all
products could be put into a manufact-
ured state near at home. Moreover, the
producer can have use Of the by-pro-
ducts at nominal cost, and his lands
will suffer less. At least let him manu-
facture as much pork and beef as posi-
BILE on his own hook.
Coarse manure hauled out and spread
in the spring does not greatly benefit
the crop of that year, but it is better
hauled out at any time than left leach
ing in the barnyard Spread it in the
fall if you want an early result from it.
Doctors have too much to do among
the farming population. Let there be
less OF frying everything in grease until
it becomes indigestible; more of the
dainties from the garden, and health
fully cooked products from the poultry
yard. Let there be an end to hurried
gulpings of whatever is before them,
washed down with two or three cups of
coffee and topped off with dyspeptic pie;
and then let there be an end to all drain
age toward the we'll of water from which
they drink.
There is no farmer who can not afford
to use improved methods in his work or
keep good stock. He who thinks differ.
emily is mistaken. He will not deal
with the merchant or mechanic who is
behind the times, and the same rules of
prosperity apply to himself. Do less.
but do it right
If you have been selling off the fer.
tility of your soil do not count all your
porceeds profit. While you make liv.
ing you must at least be making the
farm better, or you are nothing at all
ahead. Even your living must soon
cease.
Crimson clover seeds very abundantly,
and should be cut as soon as the heads
fade, for it skaters bad when fully ripe.
Cure in small cooke or better, under
cover. 1t need not be cleaned if the
seed is for your own sowing, but it must
be used plentifully upon the ground.
With the chat, fifty pounds an acre is
not too much.
: Often through the season we gain or
lose by the promptness with which we
do our work. There is best time in
which to do every stroke of labor on the
farm. Did you get your wheat sown
Immediately after the rains which fol-
lowed the long drouth, while the plant
food was near the surface? A week
meant all the difference between a good
and bad stand for the winter.
Every farmer who has ever had FROST
ed corn knows the Importance of earlier
cutting. When frozen before cutting
the frost expands the stalk and admits
air; and the juices are oxygenated. Fine
weather after that does not overcome
the difficulty, and the short days leave
but little time of sunlight to cure the
corn thoroughly.
Why would there not be saving if
we were to remove many of our fences,
get wider tools, and have one man drive
more horses in tilling the larger fields?
Every dollar day we expend unneces-
sarily places the small farmer at dis
advantage with those who cultivate the
immense level fields of the West. The
railways put all in competition, and we
must consider carefully the cost of pro-
duction.
Sometimes weeds come up when
grasses are sown by themselves, draw
ing out moisture and shading the plants.
Run a mower over the field, setting the
cutter bar high. and these ravagers will
be destroyed to a great extent If the
fence corners are kept clean very little
weed seed will ripen to grow the next
season.