The Tupelo journal., 1908-01-31
ON FARM MANAGEMENT.
How Good Fences Help to Make I
Good Farm.

Show us a farm without fences, and
we will show you a farm that is not
being allowed to do it's best. Good
farming can not be done without
fences. The kind of farm management
that keeps the soil in good condition
or that puts it in good condition when
it has been put out of condition re-
quires fences to hold stock.
Stock raising on the farm without
fences is not to be thought Of. The
matter is brought up at this time BE-
cause for a while labor can be spared
now from other farm work for fenre
building. Those who have been going
on year after year with poor fences,
or none, as is seen so often in a large
part of the south, will exclaim that it
would break them up to inclose their
land in good fences and to use cross
fences in a way that will be suggest
ed; but the reply is that good fencing
is a good investment, and that the
fencing can be done gradually, a little
at a time.
Those who have aimed to have good
pastures, really good ones, have no
ticed more than once that, because
the sod becomes too dense for produc-
ing good ~pasturage or because weeds
crowd out the grasses, breaking up
the sod has frequently improved it.
Every farmer of any experience in
the matter also knows that sod land
will raise big crops of corn. The roots
of the pasture land has the soil so
full of humus that a rank feeder. such
as corn is, will make a big crop. By
turning under the pasture and grow
ing a cultivated crop, one gets rid of
all the weeds. If there are any para
sites that would prey on sheep in the
pasture the cultivation of the land
would kill them. Cultivating land that
has been used for pasture will also
diminish the number of Texas fever
ticks, if it does not kill them out en-
tirely.
Changing land from one plowed crop
to another disposes of many plant
diseases and insects or worms
that would prey ON the crop if the
same kind of crop were raised from
year to year. S%upplanting one crop
with another also help the soil, since
various crops feed at different depths
in the soil and may use the various
elements of fertility in different pro-
portions. 1t will not always be prac-
teal to change land from pasture to
plowed crops, but where it is practi-
cal it is, after a time, gainful. While
the pasture plants have been filling
the soil with vegetable matter, the
stock grazing there have scattered
much manure over the ground very
evenly; and this n and the veg
etable matter in the soil together sup
ply that humus that will. enable the
land when used for plowed crops to
absorb rain quickly. to retain the wa
ter for thee rop till droughty periods
come, to supply nitrogen for the crop,
and to convert other plant food that
is in the soil into forms that the crop
can use. Without fences, a piece of
land can not be used for these differ
ent purposes with any great degree
of success.
If land is to be used for nothing but
pasture, better results will be got if
the pasture is not all in one field.
There will be times when sick and
well stock should be separated, or
when young and old stock should be
separated, or whe nsheep with lambs
should be kept separated from the
hogs. 1t is also true that more stock
can be carried on forty acres of pas
ture if the pasture is fenced into at
least two fields. The pasture will yield
more foo if it has a little rest occa.-
sionally. When the pasture plants are
nipped quite close to the ground, the
pasture will suffer, because the u
will beat right down on to the very
crown of the plants and bake the soil
around the roots till the grass will
have a hard time to grow. Too much
tramping yer the land Injuries the
roots of the grass. But if the stock is
kept off a part of the pasture for a
short time the pasturage will shoot up
with surprising rapidity.
onn M >~I