The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-03-29
WASTE OF FARMING.
Wealth From the Soil Which Has
neen Thrown Away.

wasteful, says - writer in the Prairie
Farmer. Waste has been the rule in
American agriculture. Accumulated
mold of ages OF vegetation Was
offered at Sl.25 per acre. Afterward
it was given away subject to official
fees for perfecting a title. both to
natives and immigrants. With land
free to all there was prodigality OF
fertility and economy OF labor. Thus
in primitive agriculture rotation,
cultivation, diversification were all
sacrificed. and fertility was trans
United into net cash. Because wheat
could be grown without cultivation
on the broken sod and because it was
always cash crop little else was
grown; and because there was so
much Of it and so few farm animals
the straw, which is worth as much in
England as the whole crop is here,
was burned to get rid of it and be-
cause of this repeating of a crop
without cultivation, weeds much
more than loss of fertility reduced
the rate of yield until at last because
of extension OF wheat area beyond
the needs of consumption price was
reduced and profits destroyed. Thus
nature which cannot be trified with
safely has been avenged, and the
wheat grower is muddled in trying
to lay the blame upon the currency,
the tariff or anything rather than his
own uneconomical and wasteful
practice. The same abandon at
tended early efforts in animal indus
try. Unimproved breeds were kept
four years or more on lush grass in
summer, in the lea of haystack in
winter, fattening at one season and
existing at another. iavoring the pro-
duction of fat and lean, in layers to
be sold at low prices 10 unsatistied
consumers The first butter dairies
for instance, Pratt's in New York
required forty pounds Of milk TO
make one pound Of butter. He by
selection and care reduced the re.
quirement almost one half, and now
some Jerseys produce q pound of
butter for thirteen pounds Of milk.
The ''hogging down OF corn in feed
ing cattle and hogs was another
wasteful procedure in primitive farm
ing.
1t was the same with cotton. The
seed was wasted or only used for
manure. Sometimes stock was killed
by being gorged over pile of seed,
but systematic feeding was unknown.
Now $40, 600, 600, more or less rep
resent the oil Of the seed, which was
wasted if applied TO the soil and
almost us much more should be got
from feeding the cake with incidental
foods to constitute suitable ration,
and costing almost nothing In this
way all the valuable elements OF the
seed are returned TO the soil with
additional manurial value Of other
feeding material. Pork, if not beef,
can be produced in the mild climate
OF the South with cotton seed cake,
COW peas and other fall and winter
growing forage plants even cheaper
than the central West.
In wooded sections the first and
largest opportunity for waste was
found in the wantou destruction of
wood and timber, and it was i'm
proved until large areas have become
deserts. In every rural industry
exploitation has been depletion and
destruction. When fax became an
auxiliary or successor 20 wheat q
million of acres went into cultivation
for seed and the straw was thrown
away, though coarse fiber worth 500
per ton had been made Of the straw
as it lies from the mower, while by u
slight change OF method Of culture
and treatment as is done in Europe,
far more valuable fiber can be pro-
duced. Flax growers will say it
cannot be done because they do not
know how and will not learn, but it
has been done and is done success
fully an1 uniformly in other fax
growing countries.
Reduction in price and competition
in production are lowering the
margin of profit more or less al
though not equally or by regular
graduation year by year. The most
careless are pinched fearfully, the
more systematic only feel the tighten
ing pressure OF reduction, while the
most skillful and scientific still find
n reasonable profit in agriculture.
1t is well that these wastes in their
primitive recklessness are 10 longer
possible. The richest soil in the
world never made an increasing yield
or retained II permanent fertility
until higher values OF land and
greater cost OF production compelled
economy and improved methods.
England once made smaller yields
than the United States upon soils
naturally less fertile. Now its
average grain yield is more than
double that OF this country Thus
there are corporations in reduced
profit in agriculture. IT is a spur
| to improvement TO the education OF
| the farmer more potent than any he
has yet felt, and il is all the more
valuable because its rewards 90 to
the energetic and mentally alert,
while the laggards fall behind in the
race and the slothful vegetate.