The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-11-17
A Tough Problem,


acre farm that is billy, stony and badly in
need Of breaking up2 Not over 1915 could
be expected from the fruit. j thought Of
buying meat, butter, milk, bread, ETC.,
from the nearby town, and am seeking the
very LATEST existence consistent with at
tanning $500. My spare time 1 want to de-
vote to study ofIan unremunerative charac-
ter. III planted with fruit, the problem would
be easy. Poultry and dairy require con-
slant attention.
Perhaps good one-horse farm Is what
seek.
Can some practical farmer tell me how to
do it2 Nv.
This is difficult question to answer
about as difficult as the following:
John Smith asks-"How can l extract
800 net yearly by drawing freight
with my old spawned horse and super
animated cart from Hoop-pole Station
to Podunk Junction? A good steam
railway connects these two places and
competition is sharp"
Here is billy farm, just how billy is
not stated. Perhaps the inclines are 80
steep that you would have to shoe
hen to get her up them. Then the
land is stony; if not too stony, 30 much
the better. This part of the farm at
least has not been washed to the bot
tom lands at lower levels, and these
stones have not been robbed of their
fertility.
Some smallish stones and pebbles, a
part of some potato land, were analysed
by Prof. Roberts, [see "The Fertility
of the Land"1 and it was found that
they contained more potential phos-
phoric acid and potash per ton than did
the fine earth with which they we're
mingled. 1t is probable that the stones
of this farm contain higher per cent
of valuable mineral matter than does
the fine earth which has served to
nourish plants for many years. But
these stones will have to feel the touch
of shot pillow shares" be weathered,
subjected to heat and cold, rain and
air, and the "tooth of time" before
their outer surfaces will give up their
nourishment.
Your predecessors have taken the
cream off this land, if it ever had any,
and sold it at the railway station in q
half bushel, and now it is asked, how
can liberal returns be extracted from
the skinned milk? How shall this oft
squeezed lemon be made to furnish
another and still another glass of good
lemonade with the least expenditure of
labor?
1t is probable that a good deal of
study of an unremunerative character
can be devoted to this problem. We
admit that the question thoroughly APP
peals to us-it is stated so honestly and
in such straightforward manner, and
30 many readers are wondering how
problems similar to this can be solved
aQtioFo nj nrylty hot
careful consideration.
1t is said that if this land were
planted with fruit, the problem would
be easy; but eternal vigilance is the
price of fruit. If it is supposed that in
order to raise fruit pro6tably all you
have to do is to set the trees, then 60
fishing in the Adirondacks, come home
in the fall and put the fruit on the
market in competition with that raised
by Mr.. Hale or Mr.. Powell, it is good
time to study fruit culture before the
trees are set. There is no royal road to
successful agriculture. Squaw farming
is no longer remunerative. The sue
cessful fruit-raisers to whom we have
referred commence the battle on New
Year day and keep it up until Christ
mas; and then are not always success
full. They trim, spray and pray, and
then spray some more, cultivate the
orchards two or five times, SOW cover
crops, fertilize, irrigate and thin and
thin again, and with all this labor
these fruitraisers are successful, while
those who set out trees and leave them
to care for themselves are met in the
markets with fruit which 30 far outsells
their own that they become discouraged
and leave their orchards as food for
caterpillars.
The farm described is not lazy
mans farm; it may not be worth any
thing and perhaps had better be left to
grow hardy weeds until the conditions
of the land have become 80 improved
that forest will spring up naturally
and clothe the shame and nakedness Of
these depleted hillsides.
On the other hand, it may be worth
the expense and effort which will be
required to make the land remunera-
tive. Who can tell? First, do not pur-
chase concentrated products, such as
butter and bread, and pay for them with
crude unconcentrated products. The
profit usually consists in packing all the
brain and skill possible into the
PioouSto Vi ehO iaiih DCiOlC tnOJ ~ W
market Two well kept cows should
bring gross income of 800 yearly.
The refuse of the farm and the skim
med milk, with slight additions of pur-
chased food, will be sufficient for five
porkers. This land, if it is worth farm
ing at all, should yield 200 bushels of po-
tatoes per acre without fertilizers, if it
is properly titled and the foliage of the
plants is protected by three or four
sprayings. If liberal quantity Of fer
tilizers is used, 100 bushels of potatoes
per acre should be added. On piece
of moderately fertile land, which has
been continuously cropped for the last
ten years with oats and potatoes, the
yield of merchantable potatoes with no
fertilizer was 279t bushels per acre,
and they were sold at a little above
sixty cents per bushel. Last year po-
tatoes sold at twenty-five cents per
bushel, and this year they are selling at
sixty cents per bushel In central New
York. What they win sell for next