The Van Buren press., 1895-02-09
A SMALL FARMER
Demonstrates the Value Of Mahure-It ls
Worth All IL Costs.


Worth All 1t Costs.
am poor, get along badly enough,
and thinking there might be others
trying to make living on little
place, thirty to thirty-five acres in cul
tivation, with eighty Or ninety acres in
pasture, l wanted to say word about
manure. / have been reading farm pa
pers for seven or eight years. l some
times take seven or eight papers, and
never less than two or three farm pa
pers with them. / read the experiment
station bulletins, and some from other
stations, and letters from different men
on composing and different ways of
improving the land. Now my common
pony farmers, as / call myself and
others of my means, think, because
they can't get the ingredients for MAX
ing compost heap, or that the drop
pings of their stock is scattered little,
that it is more trouble to collect than
it is worth the time.
keep six to eight milch cows with
their calves, one yoke of oxen, and pen
everything at night, and have put up
in 1894 LOO cubic feet of manure.
clean the pen every day, it takes only
| a few minutes each time, and the pen
is clean every night to milk in. My
wife and children do the milking and
clean out generally while they milk in
the morning, or if it is plow time, at
noon while my team rest bit. l do
not know the money value of manure,
| but l do know that any passer by can
tell where the manure was put on and
| where not.
The first year l had only one cow.
In 1891 | put in eight rows of cot
ton in the summer. Some prospectors
were passing by the field, saw
the difference in the eight rows
and cotton on each side, drove around
to the house to ask what caused
the difference. l told them. They
said they had always heard that ma.
nure would cause a crop to burn worse
in time of drought. The eight rows
were taller and had double the cotton
on them than the others did, and in
time of hard drought at that. They
said that they were convinced now
that manure would pay in any country.
worked once several years ago on
farm. The owner had perhaps one
hundred head of stock that lay around
the pens and in the lanes at night. In
February he hitched to scraper. and
the land being moist there was a seam
about or inches deep. He took
Off this layer, dumped in piles and
hauled it out on his corn field and |
know that he made great deal more
corn by 1t, and he said he received more
on the labor of that week than any other
two during the year. l would be glad
to see more manure used, and one
thing more, don't think a man ought
to let cattle and horses in the field te
eat up the grass and stalks, as in this
red land it lies too close and need,
something to make it loose.
l have never used any chemical fertil
izers; don't know anything about
them, but grass, stalks. cotton seet
and droppings from stock have uset
with good results, also pea vines. but
think the cotton seed and pea vine,
ought to be fed to stock and the drop
pings used on the land. / see tons o
manure allowed to go TO waste ever,
year on the farms and ranches in thi
country that should be put on the field
and ii wealthy farmers can make /
pay, why not the poorer. ones also.-
Cor. Farm and Ranch,