Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-03-19
FOUR BIG LEAKS.


i'd, increase in land values in all sec
tons of the country where an animal
husbandry or agricultural type of
farming is being carried on there is
urgent ground for inquiring into the
causes which make SO many farms, ap-
parently favorably located, yield their
owners SO relatively small profit.
While this may be due in extreme
cases to conditions which the owner
cannot eradicate, 1t is more than likely
that Improvement is possible and that
one or more of the following leaks are
in large measure responsible for the
unsatisfactory condition of things
namely, grain selling crop system
with little or no rotation which is
slowly but surely sapping the fertility
of the soil, a gouging in on the very
principle on which the filler of the soil
is carrying on his business; second,
careless and slipshod method of han
ding the roughage, particularly the
straw and corn fodder which are raised
on the farm, in the latter case meaning
a loss Of from 10 to 20 per cent Of the
nutritiye value of the corn plant;
third, a wasteful handling of the
homemade fertilizers which accumu-
late on the farm, one-half of the value
Of which in many cases is lost through
piling up Of the manure for months at
a time and a leeching of much of the
fertility which it contains into feed
lots or barnyards where it is of alb
solutely no benefit; fourth. system
in vogue in the management of many
dairy herds which permits the keep
ing of many individuals which not
only don't pay their board when it
comes down to dollars and cents, but
for the privilege of milking and caring
for which the owner may be paying
out in cash all the way from so cents
to 81 or So year. 1t would be well
for every farmer who would have his
farm do the best possible for him
bring him the largest return-and who
wold do the best possible for his
farm (which means the same thing in
the long rum to sort of make an in
ventory of his methods along the four
points mentioned and see if there is
any one of them in which he can do
better than he has done. If he would
pick up Oh the first point, he must quit
the grain selling skin game that he
has been perpetrating upon his faith
full acres and go into stock raising or
dairying. To improve on point No. q
he should, if possible install a silo for
the more economical handling of his
corn crop, but if not this at least any
method but that which permits the
leaves of the standing corn to be slit
to tatters in the winter winds. While
with the straw, it should not only be
secured in better shape, but much
larger per cent of 1t than is should be
converted into manure through use as
bedding in stable and feed lots. A big
leak can be stopped under heading No.
by the purchase of manure spread
er with which to scatter the farm fer
tilizers as fast as they accumulate.
The difficulty under point No. 4 can
be remedied effectively with trif1e of
pains and a Babcock tester. Carrying
out some of the suggestions made
means the expenditure of time and
money, but even in this the only Ques-
ton that is of real importance is wheth-
er 1t pays to succeed, which is hardly
debatable. The landowner may do
fairly well and be Indifferent on some
Of the points mentioned. but where he
falls down on all Of them he is GER
tainly bucking a decidedly uphill prop
osition