Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-04-10
Retaining a Run Down Farm.

Reclaiming q Run Down Farm.
We have lived on this farm for sew.
eral years. When We came here was
not old enough to do much work and
my father knew very little about farm.
ing. The farm is very rocky and has
many wet places on it. The soil is
rather clayey but quite good; it needs
considerable undertaking, a part of
which we have done.
The farm was all run out, some of the
fields were not worth moving but now
We get a good crop on all the land,
using this rotation: Potatoes or peas
first year, corn or beans second year,
grain third year, and grass and clover
for three years.
Bushes had grown in from 10 to so
feet around every field. We have chop
ped all our wood around the fields and
not cut any from our wood lot yet and
there is still some land left that has
been plowed once but now has trees on
it from 6 to s inches in diameter.
Every time field is plOwed we turn
furrows just as far as we can get; the
practice originally was to leave strip
or feet wide every time next to the
bushes, which soon grew up, and then
the next time it was plOwed another
strip was left. This ground when clear
ed raises as much or more hay than the
ground that it cleared.
We only had one horse so were oblig-
ed to hire all our heavy work done, but
found this did not pay. Last summer
we sold the horse and bought two.
With them we did all our own plowing
and for two of our neighbors. There
was about an acre that We cut the hard
wood growth from two years ago that
we began to clear up. First we moved
it all clean and burned the brush; then
hauled off about 100 tons loose stones
and as hard wood stumps will not rot
readily, we began pulling them with the
horses. On the large ones, some of
which were one foot in diameter, it was
necessary to cut great many roots so
we didn't get them all pulled before the
ground froze.
In the spring we shall finish pulling
the stumps and plow it and SOW it to
oats and peas, which make one of the
best feeds for dairy cows there is.
With oat and pea hay, clover hay and
good corn silage it will be necessary to
feed very little grain to the cows. We
have no silo but intend to build one
soon. We keep eight grade Jersey
cows and make butter, using all the
modern appliances, including sepa-
rator, a butter worker, barrel churn and
Babcock tester. We made 17l7 pounds
butter from six cows in the year 1905.
We are feeding larger and better
grain ration this winter than ever be-
fore. 1t is made up of hominy feed,
gluten feed, and mixed wheat feed,
equal parts by weight, and feeding about
z 1-2 pounds daily to a COW. We sell
all our butter to private customers at 25
cents a pound the whole year. Last
year $50 hens laid 1l45 dozen eggs for
us. They did not do as we'll as they
should. They have good warm house
with scratching sheds. They are fed
mash in the morning and grain noon and
night. / suppose they would do better
if they were supplied with meat, shell
and grit all the time, but the prices are
so high for meat, and it is hard work to
get shell and grit in the winter, so they
only get it part of the time in cold
weather.
About 600 strawberry plants were set
out last spring We are raising them in
double rows, feet apart, with beets
planted between the rows the first sea-
son. II witch grass and other weeds
are to be kept down they must be cul-
tivated or hoed about once a week.
Strawberries are very profitable in a
good season. We also raise quite lot
of currants, having about hundred
bushes, and find they sell we'll. The
bushes have to be powdered with helle-
bore about once week to keep the
worms off.
Our cattle barn is quite warm but
is too dark and has q board floor and
much of the liquid manure is wasted.
A tie-up should have plenty of windows
and tight gutter with covered manure
pits at the end Farmers should save
all their manure aud raise more feed and
buy less, as it would greatly increase
their profits. As long as so much is
wasted there will not be much profit.
have been taking correspondence
course in agriculture from the MasSa-
chusetts agricultural college and have
learned great many things about fer
tilizers, feeds, etc. We have five farm
papers and | read and study them all,
besides many farmers bulletins. The
farmer who is going to get ahead to-day
must read, study and think. He must
have an idea and work for it; though he
may never get it he will come nearer
success than by the old, thoughtless,
slip-shod methods of the past.-E. E.
ROSE.