The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-03-06
AGRICULTURE.

Mixed potato seed should not De
| planted, as the habits of each are likely
| to be quite different, and unsatisfactory
results sure to follow. A rich. fertile
soil will grow fair crop from single
eye, but in thin soil the cuttings should
be larger.
The farmer with a silo is Independent
of the weather when it comes to har-
vesting. as nothing need interrupt him;
il once in the silo all danger of imper-
feet curing is past. The land is cleared
earlier, and often vegetation of later
growth may be ripened and added.
The ability of the farmer to transact
his business in busness-like manner
is increased in proportion to the in
creased knowledge of his business de-
tails, and in the same proportion are his
profits increased. Too often is loss a
result of carelessness in keeping &C.
counts of outlay and productions.
A heap of manure left in the barn
yard all summer will waste on the out
side because it gets too much air; with
in, where there are proper conditions
for nitrifcation, the solution of nitrates
will be washed away by the rains. For
this reason, as we'll as for others. a ma
nure heap should be we'll covered.
A diversity of crops is insurance
against total failure, and it renders the
farmer very nearly independent. pro
ducing everything needed for his own
sustenance and enabling him to avoid
the expenditures of the zone man CROP;
and yet, with all this, it is often we'll to
give his especial attention to one money
crop to which his land is best suited,
and with which he has become moet IA
miliar.
Much of the winter killing of clover is
due to the fact that the fields are too
closely cropped by live stock late in the
fall, and there is no top left to protect
the roots. If left to grow up after the
1st of October, there would be less cause
for complaint.
There is no better manure for perma.
nent pastures than a top dressing of
ground bone. From twelve to fifteen
hundred pounds an acre will show per-
menent effects for seven or eight years
following. 1t contains just the nutri-
ment grass needs.
1t is said that painstaking French
farmers frequently select the finest
heads of grain from which to raise what
they call mother plants as sources of flu
ture seed. OF course. the heaviest and
most perfect heads are laid aside for
this purpose.
On large and we'll stocked farm a
hand and team can be employed with
profit the yeaI around in collecting ma
terial for manure, making compost and
hauling the same to the fields. One
industrious hand thus employed would
do more good on farm in twelve
month than any two men otherwise en-
gagged.
Ii from day to day the bones about the
house and farm be thrown into vessel
of I've valuable supply of phosphate of
potash can be accumulated. This will
be the finest Of fertilizing material. and
will be found especially valuable about
the vegetable garden.
While one farmer in some shape gets
in so or 60 acres of wheat his neighbor
will put in half as much and get as many
bushels. There is not only the lesson
of profit in this. but we must remember
that we'll titled land is constantly i'm
proving, while that which is half titled
is growing poorer every day.