Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1896-05-30
OF Interest
ITO Farmers,
LEAKAGEs ON THE FARM.

or even one-third, of their cultivated
land, it would concentrate labor and
do away with ma"y Of the evils that
now beset them.
When spring comes every farmer
has an impulse to plant and plant, and
the unmethodical one hurries from one
field to another in order to get as much
land under cultivation as possible be.
fore the season goes by. His manure
is spread thinly as far as it will 90,
and then he trusts to the natural
strength of the soil to bring the rest of
the crop to some sort of maturity.
After the arabic land is used, patches
of half acre or so on rocky hillsides
and in sour bottom lands are brought
under the plow, not because he thinks
they will prove very profitable, but
because it is too bad TO let them lie
fallow.
He has dozen patches of corn, and
as many more of potatoes and turnip;
and is too hurried to outline and leave
paths from one patch to another. In
order to reach his corn he is obliged
to drive across field of potatoes, and
in order to reach his turnips is obliged
to cross both potatoes and corn. When
the late spring rains start the weeds
he is more hurried and unmethOdical
than ever. Some of the patches are
hoed and some are not and still all
the time he is bemoaning his fate in
not having more land II he could
have put in another field of potatoes,
or corn, or something else, he thinks
he would have been satisfied. II his
farming does not prosper it is always
for the same reason his farm is too
small.
The long, hot summer days shrivel
the crops on the hillsides. and many
of them are not even harvested. The
unmanured land does little better
but one way and another, a bit here
and there and bit over yonder, and he
manages to get enough to carry his
family and stock through the winter.
He keeps no account. and does not
know how much farming costs him,
but has a general idea that he is a
shrewd buyer and economical manager.
His main crop seeds are usually pur-
chased at the cheapest place, and he
has an Unsuitable desire to invest in
the novelties alluringly set forth in
each seasons catalogue. He does not
believe in the agricultural papers,
written, as he says, by city men, and
his theories Of farming are time-nar-
rowed ones handed down by his
ancestors. His manure may generally
be seen in long. struggling piles out
side the stable doors where he has
thrown it, and where it will be washed
and weakened by the winter SHOWS and
rains, and his wagons and farm tools
are usually scattered indiscriminately
about the yard subjects TO whatsoever
may descend upon them.
And yet the unmethodical farmers
farm may be good one, and cpnven-
lent to market. If he would concen-
trate his work, and watch the leakages
as zealously as he does the outgo and
the income if he would buy good
seeds, and only plant such land as he
could properly fertilize, he would have
much less cause for dissatisfaction.
The saving in seeds and work in itself
would be a good profit and if he would
follow this up with keen examina-
ton of the other leakages, the tide of
profit and loss would soon flow in
another direction. Buy the best and
use il economically, and only be salts
fed with such results as come from
thorough preparation, is as good motto
for farmers as for Others.
This is no fancy sketch. Every
town in Maryland has such
farmers. and even more plentifully are
they scattered through the South and
Southwest. / have been on farms
where even the farmers themselves
could scarce have told how many
patches of corn and potatoes they had
on their places; but they were satisfied
with their method-or want of method,
and it would have been useless TO try
to convince them that one-half the cost
of cultivation could have been saved
by concentrating in one or two big
fields. After all, ''too much bother"
is about as popular motto as one can
frame.
The Iowa experiment station is
testing the government cure for hog
cholera.
Pasture is cheap food for swine
and should be provided whenever prac-
ticable.
Sheep dress about one-halt of their
live weight, the remainder being pelt
and offal.
1t requires more careful feeding to
fatten a growing animal than it does a
matured one.
The best and strongest chicks come
from two-year old hens mated with a
good strong chockerel.
Highest Of all in Leavening Pc