The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-12-21
Cecil Farmers Club.

last with the following members
present: Prest., A. ]. Kitchener;
cor. sec., M. C. Reeder; Geo. Gift
ford, J. 81. Maxwell, Jos. T. Grove,
Cecil E. Ewing, Alfred Kirk, Ell
wood Balderstoon, M. L. Thomp-
son, J. P. Wilson and r. X. Rawl-
ings. The following honorary
members and visitors were also in
attendance: Lloyd Balderston, G.
L. Thompson, Thos. Fassitt, Revs.
Bowman and d. E. Shaw.
Communications were read re-
lating to the Md. State Horticul-
tural society in Baltimore Dec. 20
| 81, and the Farmers Institute to
be held in Rising Sun Jan. 1926.
On the call for experiments AL
fred Kirk reported he was spread
ing lime on plowed ground and
would report result later.
Elwood Balderston stated that he
intended keeping an individual
record of all his COWS and commence
ing Jan. LIST would weigh each
cows milk twice day one day
each week and test the milk once a
month. Mr.. Balderston intends
keeping this record for the full
year and will then be able to deter
mine exactly which cows are pay
ing and which are not for dairy
purposes.
Considerable discussion was in
dulged in regarding the best meth
DDS to keep hens laying during the
winter.
Lloyd Balderston was trying
green bone feed but was not pre-.
pared to state result.
1t was the opinion of most of the
members that the time the chick
was Matched and when it COM
menced to lay was the first essential
to secure steady winter laying.
Chicks should be Matched early and
commenced to lay before winter sets
in and then properly fed to obtain
a good supply of eggs throughout
the season.
Mr.. Wilson had found meat meal
a good thing to produce laying and
it also kept the young chicks
healthy. Pratt's poultry food was
also recommended, and plenty Of
warm water during the cold wealth
err was considered a good thing.
The host when called upon for
his essay gave the following:
Gentlemen Of the Cecil Farmers Ctub.
1t gives me pleasure to entertain you once more
In my humble home.
1t appears to me that the eastern farmer has
found some crops that he can compete with the
western farmer. We cannot compete with him in
raising wheat on account of the vast territory
they have and cheap land without any improve
ment except small stable tor the team, and one
man with one pair of horses can prepare and put
in one hundred and sixty acres of wheat without
fertilizers and cut it with the binder, thresh it
out of the field and haul it to the elevator at a
very small cost,
We can compete with them, for when we SOW
ground for hay, which is our most profitable crop,
and we can raise and handle it much cheaper
than the western farmer We are closer to the
markets and our shipping stations much nearer,
we having four or five miles at the frtherest to
railroad that will take hay to three of the very
best hay markets, which is an advantage over the
western farmer. After harvest we have the sod
for pasture which is worth the expense ofharvest-
| ing and marketing the hay.
By raising wheat and allowing the wheat crop
to pay all labor and fertilizer bill, our hay crop is
about clear profit, and we cannot be too careful in
preparing our ground for wheat and grass, making
fine but solid bed for your seed. In having the
top soil fine the young timothy will have better
chance to stand the heavy fall showers and frost,
and having it solid it is not as liable to be thrown
out by the frost in winter.
Now the COW. We can compete with the west
ern farmer. She is not like the steer. for she
cannot stand the cold or wet weather. She has
to have good warm and dry stable to be of profit
to her owner, and the western farmer cannot have
his hundreds and thousands of COWS as he can
have the steers.
1t is impossible to over stock the market with
the COW. AS the city is growing so is the butter
and milk market and as there is no chance for
syndicate or trust on account of the limited num-
Der of cows that a farmer can handle; every year
farm labor is getting scarcer and think the time
is not far of when we will get twice as much for
the production of the COW as we do now. We can
only keep about one COW to every five acres of
land and not to interfere with our regular routine
of farming, for if we pasture our sod in the fall
too close we are robbing our hay crop the next
year; meadow will not turn out as much pasture
after harvest as 1t will before.
But the most profitable animal on the farm
today is the hog. He will thrive in the pen which
can be BULL very cheap. Take the SOW which is
worth ten dollars in the month of November and
it is not uncommon for her to give birth to ten
pigs twice before the next November. And the
standing price for pigs when four weeks old is
two dollars apiece, which would be forty dollars,
and the SOW will gain enough to pay for all she
has eaten So why has the hog had such small
place on our farm, for he will thrive as well on
clover sod as a steer, and think that would
not be saying too much if I would say one acre
would pasture ten shoats, and If they would be
worth five dollars head how much more profit
could We get out of an acre of land than the hog
will turn in Now it is impossible for us to feed
cattle at profit, and we do not have to sell our
corn for twenty cents per bushel, and at the
present price of pork think it is worth sixty
cents to feed to hogs five would keep a more
strict account and keep posted in the markets we
can find little more than living in farming.
Much favorable comment was
given on the essay and the mem
bers agreed with the host that
mixed farming was the best for this
section, that specializing was too
uncertain for fine returns and that