The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-06
AGRICULTURE.

Many field is often doubled in value
by draining; it can be worked earlier in
! the spring and later in the autumn, and
sooner after rain. 1t gets warm sooner,
and the seed sprouts earlier, more even
ly and with more certainty. 1t makes
soil dryer in wet weather and wetter in
dry weather, and makes farming profta-
BILE where other means fail.
Grasses, stover or their equivalents
are the foundation of farming. If no
grasses, there can be no live stock; if no
live stock no manure; if no manure, no
productive soil; if no productive soil, of
course there is no outlook but failure
and abandoned farms.
In times Of depression it is the large
crop which pays, and that only. Make
the land richer, cultivate better and
cultivate more bushels than ever before
an acre, and you may eventually snap
your fingers at low prices. By lessening
the cost of production bushel it natur-
ally follows that there will be larger
profit margin.
The farmer who grows several kinds of
crops is less apt to feel the effect of
glutted market than he who confines
himself to single staple. One cure for
over production is variety of crops.
However plentiful the harvests may be,
there will be scarcity of some product,
and there is never such thing as an
actual over production of food.
There is no longer question about
dry fodder as feed paying, although a
silo is better. Cut it up properly, at
such times and in such quantities as
your wants may require; or, if you have
the means, put it up in the form of en-
slage. Good results will certainly fol-
low either course. In any event. it is
criminal to waste the fodder-any of it.
We hardly appreciate what robbers
weeds are; they eat up SO much. plant
food, and drink SO much water in dry
time, and yet they can be kept down so
cheaply with mower and smoothing
harrow and weeder, as rule, if we but
use our brains to good advantage in the
way of management.
One trouble with many hard working
farmers is that they undertake too much.
Drop off one or two or three things iu
which there is no profit when half done,
and put all the time on other crops and
make them pay grandly. The success
full man in the future will find that he
can not afford to undertake any more
than he can do we'll.
There is just the right moment when
any special stroke should be taken with
any crop. After the shower the potato
field demands the stirring which. if put
off until week later, will cause it to
yield $50 or 800 less than your neigh
boris on no better soil. 1t were even
better to hire the wheat and the meadow
cut than to neglect the potato field.
often.
The reports here given from time to
time from the experiment stations will
prove of the most value only when your
own experiments verify the suggestions
given. Then the tiller knows just how
it is done himself, knows the adaptable
ity of his own land, and can thereafter
venture confidently.
To attain permanent success in wheat
culture we must have we'll drained
fertile soil; use rotation of crops, with
stable manure in abundance or green
manure with fertilizers; early and
thorough preparation of the seed bed; a
hardy, prolific variety of wheat. suited
to soil and climate, deposited evenly
and literally; and seed sound and plump,
free from impurities.