The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1904-08-18
INTENSIVE FARMING.

suits to fifteen acres of land can be
adopted with equal success for large
tracts.
DIETRICH says it can be done and he
is now trying to prove it, He has
sold he fifteen acres in Montgomery
County, Pa, where he has achieved a
national fame, and has taken $40 acres
in Chester county, to which he is ap-
plying the same methods. He will
try to demonstrate that he can do on
this large farm what he has accom-
plished in a small way. He has no
doubt Of his success, and if he proves
that the highly intensive methods he
has praoticed for years in raising
crops for dairy purposes can be realized
on large scale, he will have praoti-
cally solved the question of profitable
agriculture i'll the Eastern States.
DIETRICH is clergyman. whose fif-
teen-aore farm has attracted attention
simply because more money is being
made from it than from any other if
teen acres devoted to the dairy in
dustry in the United States. When
the little farm came into his hands,
about twenty years ago. the land was
so worn out that it could not produce
vegetables enough for the kitchen or
hay enough for horse and two cows.
For years now this little place has
produced everything required for the
sustenance of from thirty-two to thir-
ty-tive COWS and two horsse, excepting
such concentrated feed as bran and
cottonseed meal; also, all the vege-
tables needed by the family. Dairy
men usually think they need at least
three to four acres to each head of
live stock, but here is man who
makes each acre support TWO head.
1t may readily be seen that if Det-
rich's methods are cabable of practical
application by large number of
farmers the influence upon production
and profits will be enormous. The
experts of the Agricultural Depart
ment have estimated that a general
application of DIETRICH IS methods would
be worth $40. 600, 900 year to the
dairying interests OF the country.
Farmers have been greatly inter-
ested to learn how he does it. All
the agricultural papers for the past
year have given much attention to his
operations. He has been in great de-
mand as lecturer at farmers insti.
tutes, and his place became so overrun
with visitors that he had to cry a
halt. If he we're paid, he said, to
run his place as model farm it
would be all right, but if it was to be
continued as private enterprise he
must really give more attention to his
own business and less to that of the
general public.
1t is said that the Agricultural De-
partment at Washington expects soon
to devote bulletin to the story of
Mr.. Detrich's little farm, showing
how he has succeeded in increasing its
productivity some four to five-fold per
acre above that OF the average.
His fifteen-acre farm first became
known through two long articles in
The American Agriculturist in 1909.
1t was shown that he had developed
one OF the most intensive systems OF
raising crops to feed to dairy stock
that was known anywhere, and that
the management and feeding of his
herd had reached degree of profci-
ency that was scarcely equaled at any
experiment. station; and all the work
on this remarkable farm is done by
one man and small boy, excepting
for few weeks in the harvest times.
We speak of only one harvest time
when we refer to the work of the
average farmer, but DIETRICH raises
three crops year on his place.
The first thing he did was to find
out exactly what his soil lacked in
the constituents of plant food, and
then to supply the deficiency. To tell
what he did would make long story,
of interest chiefly to farmers and stu
dents Of agr icultural chemistry. l
is sufficient here to say that no scien-
tific experts know how to make soil
more fertile than that which he has
been tilling for years.
When he seeds place to clover in
August the crop in November will be
thick and matted under foot like nap
OF velvet carpet When he raises
corn the crop is often high enough in
six weeks to hide horse. He cuts
three crops OF hay year from each
of his hay fields. His corn, barley,
oats, rye and Canadian field peas are
all raised to be cut green for fodder
or for silage, and each plot of ground
gives three big crops year. These
green crops make splendid feed, are
sweet and full of nutrition, and the
animals ne7er tire of them, for their
food is varied from one crop to an
other.
He has method Of curing his hay