The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-05-13
Book Farming and Books on Farming
BY j. W. NEWTON.

We do not hear so much about book
farming as formerly, but the spirit of
antagonism to written and printed in
structions, suggestions and advice for
farmers, is by no means extinct. How
many farmers there are who take no
agricultural paper, who read no station
bulletins and attend no farmers insti
tutes. If there should chance to be
any such among the readers of the
WATCHMAN, q word of counsel may
not be out of place. 90 where you will
and you will find that the truly success
ful farmers are those who adapt them
selves to present conditions. The
farmer who does not change his ways
to suit the time in which he lives can
not succeed. Take it in horse-breed-
ing. Why is it that while in many
parts of the East home-bred horses can
scarcely be given away carloads OF
western horses are brought in and sold
for good price? Simply because the
western horses are the right kind and
the eastern horses are the wrong kind
Had the breeders of the East raised
large horses, such as are brought from
the West, they would have sold as well.
So, too, when Vermont farmer keeps
beef COWS for butter he cannot but
fail.
What farmers need is to read farm pa
pers, learn what is called for by the mar
ket and then aim to supply it. But there
are some books on farming, written by
practical men, which should not be
despised. Take two works of this kind
which will illustrate my point. One is
the New Potato Culture by Ebert
S. Carman, editor of the Rural Ne,o
Yorker and originator of some OF the
most valuable potatoes now on the mar
ket. The book is a good illustration of
the way in which good agricultural
book may be written, and also of the
value of books over papers. In the
first place, the book is the outcome of
fifteen years of experiments in potato
culture. The aim Of the writer was to
learn the best ways of growing otatoes
especially how to grow the largest
crops at the lowest cost. Thus the book
is the condensed result of experience,
not theory. Its advantage over paper
is that while papers accumulate so fast
and contain so much that is of mis-
cellaneous character that ii is hard TO
find what you want readily, the book is
easily kept at hand for reference, and
contains condensed information on a
single subject, or on few subjects.
In Mr.. Carman's book you will learn
how he grew potatoes on his expert
ment plot at the rate of over 1000 bush
els to the acre. You will also find an
swers to a multitude of questions about
potato-growing, information which will
enable you to grow this crop in the best
and most profitable manner. Well in
formed men tell us that probably pota-
toes will not soon, if ever, be as cheap
as they now are. Thousands will quit
potato-growing, and it is hoped the
price will go up.
The other book to which l refer is
"The Business Hen-Breeding and
Feeding Poultry for Profit" This book
has been prepared by H. w. Colling
wood. managing editor of the Rural
Ne,D. Yorker. 1t is also book of prac
tical advice and information. Nearly a
score of the best hen farmers in the coun-
try contributed to it's pages. Very few
! Questions will come up in hen culture
which will not be answered by this
book. Now any intelligent farmer can
see the value of such books as these.
They cost seventy-6ve cents each,
but the information which they contain
would be worth many dollars to those
who study them. They tell what to do,
what not to do; they condense the ex-
perience, successes, failures, mistakes
of men who have made the subjects of
which they treat a specially. / have
mentioned these books because they
are an example of what farmers should
own, read and study. The reading
habit is something that is worth much
to every farmer. 1t looks as though
the time was coming, and that soon,
when no man can make money by farm
ing unless he is able to readily get in
formation about his work from papers
and books. l hope to say more as to
this in future numbers of the WATCH
MAN. l forgot to say that the books
mentioned above are published by the
Rural NeD Yorker, corner Chambers
and Pearl streets, New York.