The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-08
AGRICULTURE.


which you have to sell and on that
which you have to buy. Produce every
thing possible needed for home use
Some one makes the profit off you both
ways il you grow something to sell to
pay for that which you must buy. There
is nothing you can buy as cheaply as
you can grow it if you can grow it at all.
1t may not be necessary to pillow the
land when the time comes around for
the sowing Of your next oat crop. The
very best results may come from a
thorough working with the harrow. 1t
is bad policy to slight work, but it is
wisdom to save yourself all you can, and
be fully abreast with the season at all
times.
You learned much from your expert
ences of the summer, no doubt; but
what about making use of these long
winter eveningsH Not only give due
consideration to the wisdom of others,
as noted in your journals. but make a
study of your own conditions, and see
what improvements can be made. When
you go into the field next spring you will
be ready to put many new thought in
to practice.
Do not spend the winter like hermit.
Be in the club. the Grange, the Alliance,
or whatever it is that your neighbors
hold. If there is no practical result for
you, you will in any event have advant-
age Of the society of your fellows and
the recreation it brings. No man ever
listened yet without learning something.
Build your implement shed large
enough to admit Of partitioning off
room for workshop. In the shed
should every wagon, tool and set of har-
ness be collected out of the dust and
out of the way of the work in the barn,
everything exactly in its place. Have
stove in the shop, and il we'll fitted up
with tools will be an attractive place for
yourself and the boys, and give protita-
bic employment many bad day.
II we SOW rye or clover on the corn
stubs we do three things-get good
feed for fall and early spring, produce
valuable fertilizer. and, lastly, follow
natures plan of keeping the land doing
something, and from losing one of its
most valuable constituents, nitrogen, by
being exposed to the elements, which is
lying bare.
Every member Of the family should
be put into the way of earning a little
spending money of his own. This is a
means of education and of pleasure.
Vegetables for the town market, berries
for private customers or for shipment,
few stands of bees or yard of poultry
each of these would be in line and, by
skillful leading, each child would gain a
love for such work. They must embark
into business, not play.
Why let a field of corn stalks go to
waste any more than field of clover or
timothy? Feeding the standing stalks
is waste. Horses, cattle and sheep will
come through the winter in better con.
dition, with smoother coats and less
liability to constipation or coughs, when
fed good corn fodder than when given
even the best of hay.
There is such thing as taking bite
"biggern you ken chaw.' Too much to
do generally means poor work done.
Hurry and worry come at the expense
of comfort and health usually. Be con-
tent with farm which you can handle,
lest you grow poorer on the larger one
every year. Extensive farming is not
intensive farming by any means.
We generally consider the fodder but
a by product, but it is one of the most
wholesome. nutritious and palatable
provenders the stock can have, and in
this year of low prices for almost every
thing we raise hay brings an average re-
turn; each acre of corn will furnish
enough fodder to save ton OF hay, il
rightly managed. while ton of hay will
sell for enough to pay for saving several
acres of fodder.
Nature covers every bare spot upon
the principle that she abhors vacuum;
if she has nothing else to do she raises
weeds. The waste of nitrogen from the
soil is much greater where the land is
naked. and nature, in her wisdom, keeps
it covered. II the farmer does not wish
weeds, therefore. he would better plant
something else. This is even an argu.
ment for winter pastures of rye or other
herbage
Do not be hoodwinked by those who
would sell you sodium or ammonium
alkali" for fertilizers. 1t is settled that
potash in some available form is abso-
lutely essential to the growth of any
plants; but is just as certain that there
is no vitalizing properties in sodium.
Many farmer has been imposed upon,
and. in his ignorance. knew no differ
ence.
STOCK.
Corn cfallxc q M strau, II, thar or;o;roI