The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-09-29
FOR THE FARMER.
The OLD Farm.

The OLD Farm.
when memory pictures the scenes of my
youth,
And tn" farm where my childhood was
spent,
The phantom of happy and innocent days.
Like il balm to my spirit is lent;
There comes to my senses il SOlacing dream
OF the orchards sweet budding perfume,
And l hear soothing strains in the trees
overhead,
"ris the hum of the bees 'mong the bloom.
1.-The curtain is lifted which separates me
From the hills OF the charms long ago:
l stroll once again DER pastures aid fields
And run i'll the woods to and fro.
| lie in the mcadow-the sweet scented
grass
Vies with Arabys choicest perfume
Above me the apple trees reach the blue
sky,
And the bees rolick free in the bloom.
In the Maytime of life, when the spirit is
O how near is the heaven of rest.
1t leth just over the wall by the tree
Where the summer kist apples are best
And there in the Springtine, with promise
The whitc-s,rrtcd tren lends perfume
TO tempt the, *ouhg bees with the nectar
That's concealed iii it's lifcgivihg bloom.'
Eugene SecOr
Improvement of Swine on the Farm.
This class of stock can be improved
more rapidly than any other Oh the farm.
Three steps are necessary to accomplish
this most rapidly. These are selection,
feeding and purchase. Every farm herd
san be improved in part or in all Of these
ways. Purchase dldiie amounts to little
without the others, nor can selection and
feed do it ALL Where the custom is to
feed corn almost exclusively as the grain
r;tion the hogs are sure in time to lack
i'll bone. Their bones gradually become
smaller with each succeeding generation.
Selection cannot wholly overcome this.
Some farmers try to overcome it by pur-
chase, but this is not wholly satisfactory
and fails to Il great eNteilt. We have
long since found that the best way to
secure an abundance Of bone is to grow
it. There are good reasons for this-the
animals are more thrifty; again, we can
not get satisfactory weights without
plenty of bone. In the matter of selec-
ticn the best should be retained. Th,
best in this case means those showing
most thrift and that have made the most
rapid growth. Rapid growth is the, most
important characteristic to- establish in Il
herd, and this cannot he done by selling
tllOSt SIONliS 1itSt anu letIAuIuS III.
slower growers. When the farmer has
good stock to start with it is only neces-
sary to buy males to introduce new blood.
The SOW can always be selected on the
farm. In fact this is Il better place to
do it than on some other mans farm. In
our own case we would not expect to
purchase Il class of sows as satisfactory
as what we now have. that we have
worked for years to develop. We arc
not in favor Of the, practice of cleaning
up the farm of all home grown stock
every few years and purchasing entirely
new. This is not the most satisfactory
way to secure improvement, however, il
may be the best practice for some mel
that make practice of letting their hog
stock run out as it is termed. Run out
is the result of bad feeding. selection
and too close breeding. The running out
system of management is not profitable
The building up of q herd should yield al
increasing profit The cost of males t(
improve farm herd should not deter tho
farmer from making the purchase
National Stockman and Farmer.