The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-02-14
FIVE MORE THINGS TO PLAN FOR.

In last weeks Progressive Farmer we consider
ed five things that every farmer should plan for
now. There are five more, as we said, which
also demand attention. Let us see what these are:
1. Let us plan now to grow what we need to
eat. I am confident that the reader will agree
with me that the farmer is buying entirely too
many things that he ought to raise at home. How
is the farm orchard? Too many times neglected.
On too many farms there are no farm orchards.
Why not prepare for one nowg There is scarcely
a farmer but that can find a small area that
will grow fruit of various kinds. Let us look to
the future in this respect then. A few apple
trees, a few peach trees, a few pear trees, a few
plum trees: all of these as a rule flourish in the
mountains, on the sand or the clay soil, you can
find some varieties that will do. There is scarcely
a neighborheod in the State but that has some
varieties of one or more of these fruits that are
doing well. Then ought we not to provide as
well for the small fruitsg There is the straw
berry bed, the currants, the blackberries, the
raspberries. etc. A few bushels of each of these
in the garden will bring delight and nice fruit for
every member of the family.
And then the garden: while most of us have
one, some of us do not. The well-regulated farm
has a good garden. My idea is that the garden
should be long and narrow, and everything plant
ed in rows. When this is done the one-horse
pillow can be used to take the place of the spade.
The one-horse cultivator can do practically all
of the cultivating, and thus do away with the
hoe, and all of the stopping over and hand pulling
of weeds. I think that with the orchards and the
berries and these comforts the boys and girls
will stay on the farm.
And then, too, we ought to raise all of our
meats. No one will disagree with me, [ am sure,
in saying that all the pork needed on the farm
can be readily grown there, and a suffciency as
well for shipment. We also ought to have a few
sheep and have lamb and mutton once in awhile.
The wool will pay for the trouble and the cost.
And then I think, too. our State needs more
cattle: more cattle as a money industry; more
cattle as the leading industry; more cattle for
the good of the farm and for the good of the
State. And we ought to have an occasional
yearling to kill for the food it brings and for
the change in meat it brings to the children and
to the family.
2. To diversity our farming and have several
sources for our money supply. If we grow simply
cotton, or simply tobacco, or some other special
crop, we are on dangerous ground all the time,
but if we diversity our crops, and have several
lines of work ON the farm, then we need never fear
stock spectators or the trusts or any other
octopus. And besides this, we can so utilize our
labor that we can keep them busy the year round,
and thereby have a better class of laborers, and
really a more economical expenditure.
3. Let us plan to farm more intensively. 1t is
neither too late or too early to begin an inten-
sive system of farming, whether we are farming
in a small way or in an extensive way. Intensive
farming means deep, thorough blowing. and it
means thorough cultivation; it means utilizing the
ground the whole year round. Intensive farming
means that in those places where we can, cow-peas