The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-12-15
FOR THE FARMER.
The Old Yellow Pumpkin.


How dear to the heart is the old yellow
pumpkin
When ORCHARDS are barren of stuffing 70,
When apples pI,lts, and peaches have both beer
And berries of no kind have greeted thu
eyes:
How fohaaly we turn to the fruit of the
The fruit that our children were taught te
despise,
The old yellow pumpkin, the mud-covered
~, pumpkin,
Oh! golden-hued pumpkin, you surely are
You jolly old rascal so recently spurned
We ask your forgiveness for thus having
wronged you,
When from your dear presence we scorn
Come rolling down hill till we meet you
Your bulk is a feast to our fruit hungry
We love you, old pumpkin, so much We
could eat you,
For you are dandy wnen made into pies
Oh! dear yellow pumpkin, the highly-prized
Around which our memory doth lovingly
Irvine,
May we never forget to plant you and hoe
The time; honored pumpkin that grows OIL
the vine.
And may we all ever kindly remember
The friends OF our youth that are passing
And when our Iifc's journey In triumph is
ended,
May {,o we be remembered as sweetly as
A c. sisson in Philadelphia Press.
Plenty of Space for Ponltry.
One of the greatest mistakes of poultry
raisers is to suppose that chickens do not
require much space. A dairy,nan only
keeps enough COWS on his farm that the
land is able to support. If one acre will
support COW, it is not crowding them tc
have as many OH the farm as there are
acres, but if you put 500 hens on one
acre the matter would be quite different
Land is generally cheap enough for poul
trymen to have ample room for theil
poultry, but as rule they are always
too cramped. Not more than fifty tC
seventy-tive hens should be raised to the
acre. A 5OO-chicken farm should contain
at least eight or ten acres exclusive OF
buildings. That is a larger space fol
each bird than most people provide, but i,
is not too liberal an arrangement. as any
one will discover after a few years ex.
'periehce. Farmers calculate their profits
by the acre. If they can clear from SIC
to $50 an acre, they consider themselves
fortunate. and they do not grumble at
acre would supply them with substantial
rewards for thinking themselves well
blessed.
Now, in the case of the chicken raiser
we find that everything is in his favor fol
a comparison with any other class OF
farmers. Suppose fifty hens are raised
to the acre, profit of so cents year or
each bird would make fair farming. He
would be clearing $50 year per acre
which would be more than many farmers
| can clear today in raising either wheat OF
corn. But 50 cents year clear profit
is small indeed for respectable poultry
and dollar a year is not too much t.
place to the credit of the average well
bred fowl. Here we have $50 an acre
and 10 or 2O-acre farm stocked to the
capacity mentioned ought to yield goot
| with most of us is that we expect tt
make as much on three or four acres al
| another farmer can make on 4 1O0-acr,
| farm. That is placing a handicap upo1
poultry raising that is hardly fair On
| acre judiciously cultivated should raise
enough food to keep nifty chickens year
and that is about all we can expect from
| it. Let us go to work and cultivate tn,
| soil for chicken food as Systematically d!
the. farmer cultivates his land for corr
and wheat and then we will realize larg
er profits and a sure income. The bird
will no longer be crowded, and fewe
| diseases will attack them. Both our peck
| ctbooks and poultry will be richer ant
better for expanding the chicken farm Ii
| this way.-Anne G. Webster in American
| Cultivator.