Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1895-12-06

will tell you the best book ON any
of these subjects.
Formerly in making iron, it was the
custom to let a man guess the guam
tity of ore of each, kind necessary
to produce certain kind Of steel
He often made costly failures.
Carnagie employs expert chemists,
there is no guess work, and few
failures, The banks figure their
profits ON H of one per cent. small
profits, but sure. The furniture
manufacturer, who sell bedstead,
of oak, with carved headboard, Grated
complete F. o. B. for one dollar,
knows to one half a cent the cost of
every operation. He makes 10 cents
on each one and it is a certain profit.
Farmers are behind in these matters,
they do not know the cost of what
they produce. If you do not know
just the quantity of hay or oats,
horse or COW needs and feed an an
imal pounds per day more than
necessary, you make it cost you the
profit you should get. You measure
your milk by quantity and not by
quality, and you do not know which
COW it is profitable to keep and which
one is costing more than she pro-
duces. Farmers must look at the
small things as do the bankers and
the manufactures. They must know
the exact cost of production and
how to produce most economically
in order to compete successfully
with those who measure these mat
ters.
Prof. Geo. T Powell, of the Penn
sylvania State College was then
introduced. He spoke of the won
derful development in the west and
south, and the adaptability of the
land in those sections to produce
certain products. In the east our
agricultural industries are undergo
ing a trial, and it is because in those
sections the land produces of certain
kinds more cheaply than ours, $50
when he returned from there he re-
allied that certain kinds of farming
are better adapted to cheap lands
such as grain growing and stock
raising, and that he must abandon
those branches on the high priced
land in the east. Minnesota is one
vast wheat field, and the ability to
raise grain and cattle so cheaply i'll
the west and south has affected the
price here. So we must change our
lines and become somewhat Of spCCi-
alists. Dairying is on different
basis from what it was. Butter
making must be studied specially,
and not carried ON in the same way
as formerly to be profitable. We
must not estimate gross results, but
net results from each animal. We
must have COWS that produce or
thousand pounds of milk per year
and that will make not one hundred
and fifty but three hundred pounds
of butter in the same time. On cheap
lands they may keep cheap cows but
on high priced land it cannot be af-
forded. When you sell COW how
do you know her value? Is it by any
test you have made of her qualities
as a milk or butter producer, or do
you sell and buy by guess if so it is
not a business way.
Then, too, we have an advantage
over the western states. Minnesota
is an empire of wheat with no
trees. In the east we can grow all
kinds of fruit, the land here is good
for that purpose. What are the re-
quirements for fruit culture, and
what the cost and profit? Every
ton of hay takes s. worth of plant
food from the soil. A ton of wheat 81.
Two hundred dollars worth of butter
takes 25cents worth, fruit takes
practically nothing. Our orchards
in this state are mostly old orchards
they should be cut down when you
have to used a 20 foot ladder to
gather fruit the trees are no good,
First put the land in clover, cut two
crops so that the ground may become
full of clover roots, then put on corn
then trees. Plow the ground deep,
plow several times throwing the
burrows one way until you have a
deep outfurrow, then plow back,
and strike out with burrows 80 feet
each way. Never plant out trees in
small holes. They want thorough
and deeply broken ground. Be
tween the rows of apples you may
plant plum, peach, apricots, and
small fruits. In this way, you may
make one acre produce $500. The