The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-05-23
AGRICULTURE.

he can; but it is better to buy small
rich farm than a large poor one. 1t
requires better farmer to bring up the
large tract to profitable state of cult
walton than it does to make the small
farm pay.
The summer is fairly here. but the
wise gardener will be on the watch for
late frosts after most people think the
danger has passed. A single nights
protection will save valuable crop,
and pay more than hundred fold for
the care. The successful man does not
live by the main chance.
Rapid improvements in the nipple.
ments of tillage of every sort render it
difficult for one to know what is best to
buy. While there is such thing as
spending too much money for tools,
most farmers buy too few. An excep-
ton should be made when it would bur
den man with too great debt. or
when he has not sense enough to take
care of them.
Let the young man who must start
with limited appliance for farming be-
ware of too great diversity of crops
If he devotes himself to one or two
specialties he can probably afford the
needed outfit; and yet the best filled
tool houses are upon the farms of spec
ialty farmers.
One might be great success as a
grain grower, and make a failure
equally as great with small fruits, not
because of lack of industry nor intelli
gence, but because he needed the re-
quisite painstaking talent such work
demands. Having been used to large
areas, he would find it hard to restrict
himself to desirable limits in the newer
occupation.
Ground bone contains. in slowly
available form, the mineral element
which is scarcest in the soil, but to
make this phosphate more available it
is commonly treated with sulphuric
acid This reduces it to fine powder,
though at the same time converting a
large part of it into sulphate of lime, or
common land plaster.
OF course this year you are going to
keep your tools sharp and in good repair
that is, your tools of iron; but what
about considering the highest comfort
and we'll being of your horses? Upon
their physical we'll being depends the
amount and quality of the work they
! can do. Let them be conscientiously
groomed. Let them have water often.
even if you must haul it to fields with
you.
Good laws against noxious weeds are
rarely we'll enforced. The intelligence
and public spirit of all land owners
should be concentrated upon this ques-
ton. and this should be sufficient to
effectually control it. The wild carrot
and the Canada thistle have infested
many farm because of the negligence
of those most interested in their sup
preston.
Other crops may be good for the pur-
pose, but when you get away from the
corn crop and still talk ensilage it is not
wise. One can grow more tons Of actual
nutriment an acre by planting and har-
vesting corn properly and specially for
that purpose, than by growing anything
else which can be put in the silo.
In planting the garden bear in mind
that it is not best to SOW Immediately
either before or after a rain. Rain
packs the soil more or less, and it then
bakes in the sun so that the seed sown
| is almost sure to suffer. Sow on a
| freshly turned soil-one that is light,
loose and moist.
About June or July private gardens
usually are at the height of their pro-
ductiveness-to the detriment Of the
professional market gardener; but the
private garden does not often begin to
yield very early nor continue very late;
it usually runs out by the Let Of August.
The professional should then be in shape
to supply the demand.
Whiskey is sometimes made from po-
tatoes; so is starch, both for the laundry
and for the manufacture of farina.
The dried pulp which remains is also
put to use. Starch factories are nu-
merous and profitable in some regions.
and form an unlimited market for an
easily grown crop. This is one of the
many lines in which the farmer, by CO.
operation, can be both producer and
manufacturer.
If you want to make anything out Of
crop Of onions you must make the soil
extremely fine and rich, and keep it
absolutely free from weeds. Then grow
the large. handsome sorts. and you are
likely to have a paying crop. The
White Victoria is very early, although
not quite SO productive as some others,
but the better price will make up for
the lack in quantity.
HORTICULTURE.