The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-09-09
Agriculture.

A large yield is preferable to
large acreage, always. In the in
decision which possesses many
wheat growers there Is certainly
one thing they'can do-let them use
their highest intelligence in the
preparation and fertilization of the
ground for next crop. Whatever
the price of wheat, the farmer need
by no means do his labor for moth
ing. 1t is the extra effort and man.
agement which bring the profit in
all times. Average effort brings an
average living to the average farm
err. The difference in the cost Of
growing a good crop and poor one
is very slight; the difference in the
final result is often the wide one be-
tween profit and loss.
For those who desire to decrease
the wheat acreage perhaps barley
would be a good crop. Clay land is
best, but it requires a stronger
ground than wheat. With equally
good soil and cultivation it should
yield more bushels an acre than does
the other cereal.
The things most needed are i'm
proved methods and lessened cost of
transportation. There are too
many people in the world short on
the necessaries of life to give. room
for the serious promulgatiOn of the
theory of overproduction.
Potatoes in the wild state grow in
damp, cool soil on the uplands Of
South America; mulchirg them pro-
vides them with much the same
conditions of growth. Very fire.
quently, therefore, they make a
large crop if planted in the usual
way, and, after two or three Guilt
vations while quite small, are COW
cred with straw or something free
from weed seeds.
There is no question but that If
we rotate our crops and keep one
fourth of our land in clover and
grass we shall soon be able to raise
more on the three.fourths than we
have heretofore. done upon the
whole of it. We have, very little
virgin soil remaining.
The question of rural mail deliv-
cry and the uplift of social life up
on the farm can not have their final
answer until after the solving of the
problem of good roads. The future
of American agriculture bears al
most wholly upon them, and it be-
hOoves the American farmer to sill
down ana study the question. Up
on this, too, seems almost to depend
the keeping of the generation now
growing up on the farms. The
whole discussion of this revolution
in country life has been discussed
hitherto only in desultory and in
determinate way, promising moth
ing, Good roads will transform the
farm, and the tiller of the plains
and hills should stand shoulder tC
shoulder with the wheelmen in the
struggle for something better. AL
investment in money will be re.
Curned tenfold.
Our chance for profit is in those
crops we have been accustomed tC
grow, for we know best how to cul.
tivate and handle them. Any great
change tends to loss rather than
profit, and is unwise. In year o.
hard times merchant would be
foolish to drop his line, with which
he is familiar, and take up the buy.
ing and selling of groceries; yet the
danger to the farmer in all financial
panics and times of depression lies
in the change from one crop to an
other, imagining better prices await
him. Depressions do not last long
and are always followed by years Of
great prosperity.
Damp cellars are under many
houses, breeding miasma and sick,
ness. Moist air is heavier, and
readily finds the cellars. In sucl
cellars place chloride of lime, anC
on some of it pour hydrochloriC
J acid. A dense smoke will rise iron
this, and it will pour from the win
dows as if the house were on fire
Wherever this smoke penetrates il
will kill every germ and make the
air as healthful as is possible to be
and slowly Stacking lime will con-
/, tinually absorb moisture.
Sheen