The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-09-21
AGRICULTURAL.
Two and Two Are Four.


ment for poor man to try. Two and
two always and every time make four,
and it is no use to act as though they |
were not. For instance: About this
time of year you will see farmers out
in their potato fields with hoes digging |
potatoes. Perhaps it is man alone;
it may be man and one or two child |
rem; it may be farmer and his hired |
man, and q small boy, but you will be |
apt to see him there several days, dig |
ging and picking, digging and picking
day after day. Now men generally do
not plant potatoes for fun, and certainly |
they do not dig them by hand for fun.
l can remember when we used to plant |
the old California potato and throw out
of every hill great heap of huge po-
toes. That was almost fun. But now
a-days with third of the yields (or
less) of those we had in those days,
there is certainly no profit in spending
day after day digging out potatoes by
hand. You cannot make money by 30
doing any more than you can add one
and Two and get four. If you are going
to make money in potato growing, you
must have the horses in the potato
field digging out your potatoes as fast
as they can walk. There are cheap
diggers, and two, three, and even more
,,oinhharc Ainnar tnnnthar
But if you do not have digger, use a
common pillow. 1t is best TO have a
careful driver, and little practice will
show where to drive and how to hold.
If there is no driver, go ahead and do
the best you can, anything rather than
to spend day after day digging out po-
tatoes with hoe. The way is to take
say six rows more or less at time;
pillow the first, then drive around TO the
sixth and go back, then pillow the sec
ond, then the fifth, and so on. Then
the burrows will be laid three one way,
and three the other, and few potatoes
will get covered up. Then stop plow-
ing and pick up all in sight. Plow as
many more as you think best, and then
get out the harrow, spike or spring
tooth but not cutaway. l do not
know how an Acme would work. Go
over the ground with harrow, pick; if
you think it will pay, go over again and
you will find that you have come very
near killing two birds with one stone
your potatoes are dug and your land is
plowed and narrowed The very next
day after you are done with the pota-
toes you can SOW some winter rye on
the ground, and then instead of its ly
ing there for weeds to 60 to seed on, it
will be growing crop which will do
for the COWS TO eat late in the fall or
next spring, or you can pillow it under
for green manure, THUS you will find
that two and two make four every time.
Take another thing, do you never
sometimes suspect that you are grow
ing too much grass? Could you not
make some kind of change, turn
some of your mowings into pasture,
grow corn near the barn, fill one or two
silos, and thus make more money than
you do now? Think it over, and see if
you cannot get out of the way you have
been in for so many years. Again,
what kind of stock are you keeping?
Perhaps it is needless for me to write
anything about this, but / know there
are men yet living in the State of YER
mont who are trying TO make living
by keeping common, poor, old-fashion-
ed, scrub stock. There is no excuse
for it. 1t "don't never pay nohow."
If you haven't found it out yet you will
before long. Maybe you are 30 fixed
that you cannot make good use of a
dairy. Then suppose you try growing
beef stock. Beef is looking up a little;
nobody of course knows how it will be
in the course of two or three years, but
there is one thing about it, beef cannot
be grown in Cuba or Porto Rico or the
Philippines, nor can sheep or horses.
But whatever kind of stock one keeps
it should be the best, should not be
scrub, be it cows, steers, horses, sheep
or chickens.
Take this last named; flock of good
White Wyandottes will have about
twice as much meat on them at three
or six months as the common fowls,
and they will ordinarily lay many more
eggs, to say nothing of the satisfaction
one gets from having such nice looking
fowls about the place. They are just
beauties, pure white, plump, handsome
shape, and if you can get them before
anybody else, you will put yourself in
the way of making a little by selling
eggs for setting, or better, selling trios
of pure blooded fowls. But you want
to have them where people can see