The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-05-15
Agriculture.

If starting with moderate means,
a farmer must often buy where and
what he can; but it is better to buy
a small rich farm than a large poor
one. 1t requires better farmer to
bring up the large tract to profita-
BILE state of cultivation 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 sin
gle nights protection will save a
valuable crop, and pay more than a
hundred fold for the care. The sue
cessful man does not live by the
main chance.
Rapid improvements in the imple-
ments of tillage of every sort render
it difficult for one to know what it is
best to buy. While there is such a
thing as spending too much money
for tools, most farmers buy too few.
An exception should be made when
it would burden a 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
beware of too great a 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 speciality farmers.
One might be a great success as a
grain grower, and make a failure
equally as great with small fruits,
not because of lack of industry nor
intelligence, but because he needed
the requisite 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 sulphu-
rio acid. This reduces it to a fine
powder, though at the same time
converting large part of it into
sulphate of lime, or common land
plaster.
OF course, this spring you are GO
ing to keep your tools sharp and in
good repair-that is, your tools OF
iron; bat what about considering
the highest comfort and we'll being
of your horses? Upon their physical
well being depends the amount and
quality of the work they can do
Let ID em be conscientiously
groomed. Let them have water
often, even if you must haul it to the
fields with you.
Good laws against noXious weeds
are rarely well enforced. The intel
ligence and public spirit of all land
owners should be concentrated upon
this question, and this should be
sufficient to effectually control it
The wild carrot and the Canada
thistle have infested many a farm
because of the negligence of those
most interested in their suppression
Other crops may be good for the
purpose, but when you get away
from the corn crop and still talk en-.
sllage, it is not wise. One can grow
more tons of actual nutriment al
| dOlC Wy eAANt AAot NStAAiSo NOA l.
properly, and specially for that pur.
pose, 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 i'm.
mediately either before or after 3
rain. Rain packs the soil more OIL
less, and it then bakes in the sun sc
that the seed sown is almost sure tC
suffer. Sow on freshly turned sol
-one that is light, loose and moist.
About June or July private gar.
dens usually are at the height Of
their productiveness-to the detri
ment of the professional market
gardener; but the private garden
does not often begin to yield very
early nor continue very late; it usu.
ally runs out by the lst of August
The professional should then be in
shape to supply the demand.
! Whisky is sometimes made frorr
potatoes; so is starch, both for the