The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-02
AGRICULTURE.

The farmers of the drouth stricken
West should take unusual care in pro-
curing their seed corn the coming
spring. Many may take from the little
on hand, and plant only to find that it
will not grow. Every grain should be
tested, even OF that which they buy, for
even seedsmen will in many cases take
advantage of their needs.
When the ground is too much frozen
to pillow it is just right for hauling out
manure, and you may find hundreds of
loads lying around which would add
hundreds of dollars to the value of your
farm. The pasture is always a good
place to put it, if no other place needs
it more. Put it on the highest ground.
The planning, making and repairing
of public roads should be in the hands
of competent civil engineer, one who
will make contractors toe the mark.
Why not enlarge the duties of our coun-
ty surveyors, or make a new officer for
this purpose? We waste too much
money. and get too poor roads. There
is cheaper and better way.
See benefits only those "who keep
up with the procession 1t has injured
the majority OF farmers, perhaps, simply
because the minority follow its teach
ings and the rest do not. The slow, in
accurate, old-fashioned ways will not do
any more. and they who pursue them
are left in the lurch, and science has
done it.
We eat that we may live; so do plants.
1t follows that they must be supplied
with the food they demand, or they will
not thrive. 1t will not do for whole
county to buy fertilizers at random, all
using the same. for the soils are already
different in their possessions, and he who
raises wheat will need different food
from him who raises cabbage, or peas, or
buckwheat.
What is the sense of putting the prof
itless field again to the pillow? We see
fields every day which could be turned
into meadows or pastures with great
promise, which now return nothing but
loss. Give them to the stock; to rest
and recuperation.
Some Of the experiment stations GER
tainly give out things not in accordance
with old notions. The Maryland station
says that the greater the quantity of
seed potatoes planted the greater will be
the yield; that the larger the piece the
larger and earlier will be the yield.
Within 35 years the cost of transpor
tation of grain from Chicago to Europe
has decreased from 33 to Is cents; the
rate from New York to Liverpool from
q to cents. In 1870 beef cattle cost
S4S head to England, while now we can
ship them for 1915.
There should be remedy somewhere;
much of our seed wheat is wasted when
we SOW one and one-fourth bushels to
the acre and get in return but 10 or 20.
Experiments show that grain of wheat
produces forty fold, Every pound
should bring 40.
Short rotation Of crops and clean TIL
lage practically do away with the old
weed problem. The clover. for instance,
is so heavy the first year that it hardly
gets foothold, and then we do not wait
until it runs out and the pests in, but
turn it right over and put in crop.
Farmers, how quick you are to notice
the tidiness displayed about village
lot. or the reverse. Do not forget that
when the townsman drives out into the
country ways he notices the same things
about your dooryard. and both you and
your farm are in the balance. Fix up
little. these DAYS of winter leisure.