The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-05-09
AGRICULTURE.

After the selection OF seed potatoes,
the main point is to keep them at as
low temperature as possible without
danger from frost. This is best attained
by keeping them in out OF door pits which
| are dry. In the more northern climate,
after the covering of the pit has frozen
over, it is not apt to thaw out again all
winter.
Birds either prey upon animals, con-
sumo the seeds of noxious weeds or de-
your pestiferous insects. Any great
reduction in the number of these useful
creatures is sure to produce injury to
farming interests. The farmer should
at least study the habits of birds, that
he may know which of them to protect
The enormous increase in the number
of field mice in certain parts of Europe
has been owing to the shooting of their
natural enemies, the owls and the
hawks, by game keepers. The farmers
of our great Western States have made
havoc among the crows, only to see the
cutworm multiply by legions.
The day for doing as ones father did
before him is past. The farmer of each
succeeding generation has need to be a
better farmer than we're those who pre-
coded him. We must be guided by
business principles, and not by custom.
One should have no hide bound princi-
pies on either business or politics.
When seed is planted and crop is
raised it seems that something is COM
ing from nothing, for from a few pounds
are produced tons, but for the formation
of every substance there must be sup
piled an amount of matter equal in
weight to the substance formed. The
growing crop gathers all its bulk from
the air and soil. 1t eats and fattens like
the growing boy.
Forty years ago II per cent of our
people were in the cities and towns;
now over 40 per cent. are there and the
proportion is constantly increasing. Ger
tainly, this means larger opportunity
for those who till the farms. The more
sumers of the product of the soil.
1t seems impossible for the clumsy
cutworm to crawl up little hill. 1t
has been reported as successful way
to outwit them to cultivate the corn
about the time it comes through the
ground, leaving a row of corn on a little
ridge. We are not sure but that it
would take as much work to do this as
to replant a little corn.
Valleys, ravines, steep declivities or
rocky and broken surfaces might often
be given over to growth of trees, and
serve an aesthetic as we'll as an economic
purpose. If land had been reduced
to barrenness. or the soil badly washed,
the fertility is best and most easily re.
stored by covering of trees, which re-
store vegetable soil.
Upon the farm the cost of division
fences is often as great as that of the
buildings, and the annual cost of repairs
is greater; moreover, their life is not
half so long. All this is an argument
for movable fences. that we may shift
them at will. and often divide our fields
as we wish, which we cannot do with
those which are permanent.
II your surroundings are not all they
should be upon the farm, do your best
to improve them. II you are not quite
as forehandel as you would like to be,
try to make your neighbors think 30 by
keeping everything trim and ship-shape
This effort. if rightly directed, will do
much to make you 30.