The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-03-22
GRASS CULTURE.
THE REAL BASIS OF THE FAR
MER'S PROSPERITY.
It's Value and Importance Intelli-
gently Set Forth---An Interest,"
ing Communication by a Well
Informed Writer and Some
Comments on the Same.


who writes like a man who knows
what he is writing about and means
every word of it. He starts out with
this broad declaration GO More grass
more cattle; more cattle-m more
manure more manure-more grain
more grain-morc money. No grass
no cattle no Cattle-no manure; no
manure-no grain; no grain-no
money"
This is putting it pretty strong, but
it is almost literally true. OF course
the writer does not mean that the
farmer who does not raise grass can
not raise anything else and can make
no money, but he means, and it is
true, that there can be no successful
nor profitable farming in this nor in
any other country where the value OF
grass is not appreciated and where its
cultivation is neglected. He takes
the position that grass is the founda-
ton of successful agriculture. He is
right, and illustrates by calling atten-
ton to the fact that the most prosper
Gus agricultural sections both in this
country and in Europe, the sections
where the farming lands command
the highest prices, are those where
the most attention is given to the cul-
tivation of the grasses.
We have often thought, and think
SO still, that the man who imported
the first cargo of guano into this
country imported what has proved to
be a curse rather than a blessing, be-
cause our farmers have come to depend
SO much on it and other commercial
fertilizers that they have neglected the
home made manures which we're the
things the soil needed, permanent
nourishmcnt instead of mere temporary
stimulation. AS stimulus to start
a crop these commercial fertilizers
render good service, but there is not
the staying qualities in them there is
in the vegetable manures made upon
the farm, which fatten the soil and
give it lasting freshness and vigor. If
onehalf the money spent in the South
on these commercial fertilizers since
the war had been spent in providing
homemade manure supplies the lands
would be incomparably better and our
farmers would have saved vast sums
annually expended for these manu-
factured fertilizers.
TO begin right the grass and clover
field is the place to Start. By intel
ligent and judicious management a
ten or twelve acre field may be made
the Regeneration of hundreds of weak
or almost barren acres. From this
with start, and with rotation of
crops, seeding new fields in grass and
clover from time to time, in time the
whole farm may be made rich and to
bloom like garden.
This might seem like an extravagan,
statement if knechigh clover and one
crop a year was the maximum posi-
bility as it is in the Northern and
Western States, but where clover will
grow five feet tall and three crops q
year may be cut, and it grows SC
dense that moving machine can't
be driven through it the apparent ex
travaganCe vanshes. Some Of the
most fertile lands we have ever seer
in this or any other section were land:
which were brought from condition
of sterility by this method, the gras
and clover seed originally sown being
aided by the judicious use of CONNER
cial fertilizers, supplemented by barr
yard manures. There are other crops
such as peas and peanuts, which play
an important part as fertilizers, o
which the intelligent farmer will avail
himself, because they may, while fur
nishing valuable material for fertili
zers, at the same time be otherwise
profitable, as grass and clover are.
Grass culture means not only richer
lands, but less drudgery, better living
more and better food, more thrift
more comfort, more satisfaction and
contentment on the farm, and more
pleasure in life, the result of more
prosperity and feeling of indepen.
dence which comes with prosperity
1t means lands becoming better and
more productive every year, instead
of poorer and less productive it mean:
getting eventually double from one
acre with less labor than was got from
that same acre with an amount oi
drudgery which received little or nc
compensation it means more reliance
upon the crops sown or planted be-
cause being deeper rooted and better
nourished they have the vigor to better
withstand the effects of drought, anc
tighter hold upon the soil to with
stand the effects of washing rains; i
means, in short, that the farm which
is built on grass has the right kind o
a foundation and is one that the owne
may look upon with pleasure and salts
faction. The farmer that has within
his own fences an unfailing source o
manures to feed his fields, which feet
the cattle that supply him with bee
and milk and butter, to feed the field
that grow the corn which fattens tn
hogs that fill his smoke houses witt
bacon, and make the stock that wor
his farm strong and sleek, that fee'
the sheep that supply him with mutton
to eat and with wool to make tn
wollen garments he needs for himsel
and family, has all the elements c