The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-02-21

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keep farm books with anything like the
accuracy that merchants and man
ufacturers' books are kept. A farmer
can keep cash account; and he can
keep an account with his live stock.
He can keep debt and credit account
with his help, and with those with
whom he does business, and, in a rough
way, which is more than half guess
work, he can keep accounts with his
fields and his crops; but there are so
many indefinite and obscure factors in
all the transactions of the farm that any
clear and demonstrable computations
as to what he has grown, sold, and the
stock in hand, especially that part of
the stock in hand which we may call
unused fertility, is absolutely impossi-
BILE.
If any reader believes TO the contrary
of what we here aver, we should be
very glad to hear from him, and to have
a discussion of the whole matter with
him, or any other man. 1t is only
"on an average" and in the long
rum" that.a man who puts thousand
dollars worth of fertilizer into the
ground with the seed can even guess
whether he has made any profit on that
fertilizer, and if so, how much. If he
has an exceptionally good crop, he can
not tell how much of it is due to the
fertilizer, how much to the quality of
the seed, how much to the weather,
how much to the cultivation; and, if
with exactly the same treatment, he has
very short crop, he cannot, with even
tolerable exactness, calculate how fully
he may be able to retrieve himself on
that field afterwards. Here are some
plain propositions, true or false. Will
some bookkeeping farmer tackle them?
A YOUNG Ohio editor writes us that
he reads the WATCHMAN carefully. He
is very fond of fruit-growing, as well
as of journalism; and he says: MY
ambition, later in life, is to 60 to South
Haven, Mich, in the fruit belt, and run
paper similar to the WATCHMAN. {"
But before that, being Yankee born, he
intends to take, with his wife, car
riage ride through New England. We
hope he will not fail to make us call
by the way. -
WE have given more room than we
like, this week, to Irrational Cattle
Feeding" but we could not we'll divide
the matter otherwise. We think it
will be found increasingly readable.
The information conveyed is certainly
both interesting and important; and it
will be continually more so as we pro-
coed. 1t is desirable to read the dry
portions, if any are thought 30, in Or
der to understand we'll what follows.
Those who will take the pains to.cut out,
and preserve, in scrap.book, the sue
cessive numbers, will in the end find
themselves in possession of most USE
full body of practical and scientific
knowledge. This translation is quite q
job for us, for it is two-score years
since we have had much use for our
French. But we shall not regret that,
If our readers are benefited thereby.
This may possibly be the last year Of
our work as an agricultural editor.
SEVERAL correspondents have in
quired about " Thorley's Food for Cat
tle," and there seems to be strong eff
fort made to sell it in Vermont. Not
knowing much about it, except by read
ing of it in English agricultural publ
cations, we sent note of inquiry to
the able and widely-experienced editor
of the Montreal Journal of Agriculture,
to which he has kindly responded as
follows: Thorley's Food for Cattle
is very generally used in England as a
condiment, but, in my opinion, costs a
great deal more than it is worth. One
hundred and forty dollars ton is rather
high. 1 do not know its composition,
but there is variety of spices, flavor
ing matters, etc. If cattle are off
their feed,' have found the following
mixture helpful
Crushed Linseed [linseed neal, ...... 80 lbs
Corn or barley meal, ..................1 100
Fenugreek,. ......................1
| Tumeric,. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. ..,...l "
| Ginger, ...............'.....
Oeuuldui .-'''.'.'''''' '''''''.''''''''''
Corlander, ,...,.,..,,.... ..,....... III
1856 lbs
This ought not to cost more than
three cents a pound, at the very out
side" Which, it will be seen, is just
one-third what the " Thorley Food " is
sold for in Vermont. All the constitu-