The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-05-25
WITH GRAIN BILL OUT
FARMING PAYS
Shoe Dealer In Ten Years Develops
One Of the Best Equipped and Best
Titled Farms In Somerset County.

Charles II. Gardner, formerly
shoe dealer in Skowhegan, has made
remarkable success of farming, pri-
marily by eliminating the grain bill.
To be sure he did buy eight bags OF
cottonseed meal last year, but to off,
set that he sold 300 bushels Of seed
oats, at a comfortable margin over
market quotations Throughout the
ten years that he has owned his
place he has uniformly practiced mix
ed farming, and today has one OF the
best equipped and best cultivated
farms in Somerset county.
Mr.. Gardners farm contains 165
acres, 40 Of which can be titled. The
year that he bought it there were
about five acres In hoed crops, and
! 1t cut between thirty-five and forty
tons of hay. Last year he put forty
five tons of hay into the barn. $50
bushels of grain into the crib, 60 tons
of silage into the silo and 1000 BUSH
els of potatoes into the cellar. Twen-
ty tons of hay and the potatoes were
sold, but with these exceptions and
the seed oats above mentioned every
thing else was fed to the stock.
OF course there are a number of
factors behind this remarkable tran
sition, but first and foremost is thor
ough tillage. Mr. Gardner owns
among other good tools a double &C
ton cutaway harrow, that he never
permits to stand idle when there Is
an excuse to use it. He follows a
four or five year rotation, and when
his land finally goes back into grass
after the hoed crops, there is a real
seed bed ready and waiting. Then
while he is trying to raise hay, he
does not undo any of the preceding
good work by pasturing the fields.
His second and third crops of hay
are what a good many farmers would
brag about from new seeded.
The second big factor that strikes
the observer Is the way he handles
the barn manure. Underneath the big
stable there is an unusually spacious
basement containing four hog pens. If
any of the farm made fertility is
wasted, the amount is not large. All
I the straw used in bedding the stock
! is first run through the cutter, and
along with the dressing finds its
way into the hog pens. Then when
spring comes there is something to
load the manure spreader with that
would grow crops on anything eX-
cept fiat rock.
Mr.. Gardner does not carry an un-
usual amount of stock, partly on ac-
count of the farm labor problem. He
finds it more comfortable and salts
factory to keep only what he can
care for alone when necessary, sell
ing any surplus feed that he may
have. At present the live things in
ventory as follows: Six COWS, four
heifers. two oxen, one Jersey bull,
I
one colt. eight hogs and IS hens. The
latter. however, are the especial
charges of the better half of the
household, and if they ever lack for
any good things of life, their appear
ance does not indicate it. On the
| 10Th of May he loaded down the egg
?
AS a partial solution for the labor
problem Mr. Gardner has from time
to time accumulated one of the best
equipments of farm machinery in the
county If not in the State. Not for
| the sake of gratifying any fads either,
but from simple business considera-
tons. In addition to those things
to be found on every modern farm
as matter of course he has: An
eight horse power gas engine, grain
grinder, corn harvester, ensilage cut
ter, grain reaper and binder, manure
spreader and a cream separator.
seventy-fve ton square silo built into
the barn is largely the product of
his own labor, representing a cash
outlay of about sl5.
The thing that Mr.. Gardner depends
/ on to keep the grain bill where it
belongs, is a succotash MIXTURE of
oats, peas and spring wheat. The
grains are harvested when ripe,
threshed and ground. For feeding
the dairy stock he uses two parts
by measure of the succotash mixture
one part corn and cob meal and one
part cotton seed For the pigs there
is the succotash mixture and boiled
potatoes during the growing period
and corn meal at fattening, with skim
milk of course as the main stay. Oats
wheat and corn with a little beef
scrap and green stuff supply most of
the wants of the poultry and feed
for the horses is always on tap.
For the current year Mr. Gardner
will have IA acres in oats four acres
in oats, pease and wheat, four acres
In buckwheat, y acre in spring
wheat four acres in sweet corn, four
acres in yellow corn. Az acres in po-
to4nac ap1 tho rast pf tho meadows