The Meeker herald., 1905-01-21
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, ~ 1906 s<k,sI:.:n->.
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Two Ideas Of Farming.

opposite ideas of farming. One is to
farm on the extensive scale. The 9th
er II to farm on the intensive scale.
The western idea of farming is to
own great tracts of land. and this idea
becomes more extensive as one goes
west. Even in Western Canada a
farmer thinks himself poor unless he
owns several sections of land. The
idea is one that had its birth in the
days when land was cheap. 1t has
lived on in spite of the changed con,
dittons. In the day Of cheap land
the great farm was q necessity, as
intensive operations were not pos
sible. Labor was scarce and live
stock abundant, and the animals could
be made to do most Of the gathering
Of the crops, eating them as they
gathered them.
With the increase of population the
interests of the country lie in the
possession of small farms. Reduce
the size OF the farms and young men
will find 1t possible to purchase them.
At present prices 1t Is practically i'm
possible for young man to buy a
farm OF average size. The old proc
esses OF thin farming still remain on
the big farms and are likely to remain
as the price Of land goes up, on ac
count Of the ever-increasing price OF
labor.
In the eastern part of the country
the intensive farming idea is in the
ascendency. As result the farms
are largely owned without mortgages
The intensive idea is making itself
felt to some extent in the West, but 1t
is yet slight, except near the great
cities. where farming takes on the
character more of gardening. Could
we but induce the men that own more
land than they can cultivate to sell
what they have little use for the ben
eft would be threefold: The man that
sold the land would be benefited:
the landless man that purchased 1t
would be benefited; and the general
public would be benefited.
We are coming to the time when
our farmers will realize the fact that
1t Is possible to farm downwards as
we'll as laterally. They will find that
1t Is not necessary to pay taxes on a
thousand acres of land farmed three
inches deep when they can get the
same results from five hundred acres
farmed six inches deep. They will
also find that smaller farms mean a
better social condition of the people.
Hairy vetch.
One of the best cover crops known
is hairy vetch. 1t has, however, been
little used on account of the high
price OF the seed, much OF which had
to be imported from abroad. There
seems no satisfactory reason, however,
why this seed should not be raised
on this side of the water in sufficient
quantities to supply all demands. The
Ontario station imported seed from
Germany, and, sown in the fall, 1t
produced the next year SO bushels OF
seed. Seed produced from this crop
WAS sown side by side with new seed
from Germany and gave a yield OF
3.4 bushels above that of the German
seed. AS the price of seed is five
dollars per bushel. this was a fairly
good return for the acre planted to
vetch. OF course the price can be
reduced by q number Of farmers grow.
ing the seed. but even then the re.
turns will be better than from some
of the cereals.
For sweet potatoes the ground
should be plowed shallow. There
should be hard bottom under the
ridges in which the sweet potato tu-
bers grow, that the tubers may grow
short and stout.