Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-01-23
AMONG THE FARMERS.
"sPEED THE PLow."

10 solicited. Address all communications In
tended for this department 70 HENRY d
HAMMOND. Agricultural Editor Oxford Dem
ocrat. Paris, Ne.
A Profitable Enterprise In Maine
A successful Maine farmer is Arthur
b. Briggs of Oxford County. He does
not find it necessary to visit Montana
and take up land in the greatly exploited
Crow reservation in order TO succeed.
This year he had 25 acres of excellent
sweet corn, which Appropriated S75
return to the acre. He keeps Is to 20
brood sows, has good-sized dairy, and
aims TO produce on the farm the greater
part OF the produce fed the stock. He
has q commodious and attractive home.
On the occasion of recent visit of au
editorial representative of The New
England Homestead, Mr.. Briggs describ-
ed his farming operations and did not
omit saying that in the beginning, the
farm was so-called abandoned one.
There are 200 acres in the farm, one
fourth OF which is under cultivation and
the remainder pasture and wood lot.
The place is rather rough and rolling,
and is what is generally termed an 'up-
land" farm. The main crop is sweet
corn, and is marketed at a nearby fac
tory. This year the factory where Mr..
Briggs sold his crop put up 250,0O0 cans.
The field that gave such fine yield of
corn for Mr.. Briggs was new ground
last year. A crop was taken off a year
ago, when 1900 pounds commercial
fertilizer was used to the acre. The
fodder from the 1904 crop was left stand
ing and plowed under last spring with a
snlky plow. The same amount of COM
mercial fertilizer as the first year was
used. Seed was furnished by the can
ming factory, and was what is known as
medium grade.
The planting was done with a one
horse planter, rows 3 l-2 feet apart and
hills 80 inches in the row. The field
was planted with an idea to thinning out
later, but cutworms and crows did this
work SO thoroughly that no hand labor
was required.
Cultivation does not begin until the
corn is large enough to be hoed. Then
a two-horse cultivator is put on to the
field and made to do this work thorough
ly. Men follow with hand hoes and
chop out all the weeds that are missed
by the cultivator. The thoroughness of
horse cultivation is indicated by the fact
that 30 days labor hand hoeing did the
work on % acres, twice over. Follow
ing these methods with the crop, the
corn grew ) 1-2 to feet tall on the
average.
Mr.. Briggs harvested 250 bushels ears
to the acre, which on the basis usually
figured by growers would bring close to
S75 to the acre. The ruling price for
sweet corn in the vicinity was cents a
pound at the factory for cut corn, or S14
Of the farmers, according to Mr.. Briggs
prefer to take the 2 cents per pound
price and carry home the husks and
cobs. As all who are familiar with
sweet corn business know, the operation
Of obtaining the grade of mans corn
is very simple. On arriving at the fac
tory a sample is taken from the load,
weighed, cut, and weighed again. This
gives the percentage of cut corn, and
from this can be figured the amount of
cut corn on any given load. A single
for one field is not sufficient,
but sample is made of each load that
arrives.
USE OF THE FODDER.
The sweet corn fodder is used to some
extent for silage. However, the ten
iency among farmers, according to Mr..
Briggs, is to keep sweet corn fodder out
Of the silo. There seems To be an acid
ity develop from the fermentation when
put into the silo. Mr.. Briggs figures
that it will pay man to plant a special
field for his silo purpose. The manner
in which this is done is to use field
which he wishes to get into grass. A
liberal dressing of barnyard manure is
applied to the plowed land and the corn
drilled in with planter. He then seeds
down with grass Immediately after the
corn is planted, of course, doing NO
cultivation throughout the season.
When the corn has reached the proper
stage, it, together with the grass, is
moved and the whole business run
through the feed cutter into the silo.
The corn and hay are raked up in wind
lOWS duu oiouSut W eho ooiu IL 90 hoy
usually is.
A crop which Mr.. Briggs takes par
ticular delight in growing is potatoes.
This year he harvested 300 bushels
tubers from one acre. This
is not a bad yield, especially when one
that scab and rot worked
havoc among his neighbors' fields this
year. He credits the freedom of his
fields from rot and blight to the liberal
use of Bordeaux applied with four-row
two-horse sprayer.
In good season, four tons excellent
hay is cut to the acre. This is fed out
On the farm. Orcharding, too, is receiv-
ing the attention of Mr.. Briggs. At
present he has 600 trees, among which
ire represented several of the popular
varieties. The Baldwins and Ben Davis
ire preferred. Some good fruit from
The Briggs orchard was on exhibition on
the table at the annual meeting of the
society in Canton this fall.
The orchard is kept in sod. Hay is
cut off each year and fed the stock.
However, barnyard manure is taken
back to the orchard to pay for the hay
taken off. Mr.. Briggs says in fertilizing
he does not get over the entire orchard
only once in two or three years. As far
as he does go, however, he dresses the
trees literally. Four horses are kept to
do the farm work.
From y to Is grade Jersey cattle are
kept. The cream Is collected at the door
for nearby creamery and the skim milk
is fed out on the farm to the calves and
pigs. The cream is paid for according
to the per cent of butter fat it tests,
which gives the Jersey cows good
chance to make up in quality what they
lack in quantity. The feed for the cows
can easily be arranged for with large
silo and the amount of grain that is
grown on the farm. The cows receive
six to eight quarts of mixture of cot
tonseed meal, shorts, bran and mid
dlings. Mr.. Briggs is firm believer in
feeding but twice day and says there is
no more sense in feeding at noon than at
Silage is fed at night and
hay in the morning and night. The
cows are watered twice day, morning
and night. Thus fed, the animals keep
in fine health and continue to furnish a
even flow of milk.
An important source of income on the
farm is swine. The plan is to have suck
ling pigs spring and fall. Occasionally
when the market is a little dull, Mr..
Briggs accumulates 20 to so pigs on the
y a