The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1911-04-20
FARM BURROWS.
Farmer and s tockrnan.

FARM BURROWS.
Farmer and stockman.
It takes time to do a good job Of
grain cleaning on any tanning mill,
and unless one wishes to spare the
time to do it we'll it makes little diff
ference whether it is done at all.
They all say more brood sows will
farrow this spring than ever before
in the history of the corn belt. If all
have no better luck than some of my
neighbors have been having there'll
he no overproduction.
Cooking feed for herd for pork
ers may pay and it may not. l never
have been able to satisfy myself on
this score, but do know that none
keep faithfully at it. It is chore
that soon grows tiresome, the more
after spring work commences.
When l look into some homes l
think we men should be rather
ashamed of ourselves, because, too
often, we cabbage all the labor-sav-
ing tools for ourselves and let the
women get along in the same way
they did twenty-five years ago. There
airy many labor savers for the house
as we'll as for the field.
For some time l have been plan
ming on building what will be called
when it is done, 'the wash house."
This will be about 12x16 feet in size,
will have chimney and an old
stove in it, so wash water may be
boiled there, and the washer and
wringer will be floor fixtures and ar
ranged so a small gasoline engine
will run both, either together or sep
arately. This ought to make wash
day hitler better than "Blue Mon
day."
One Of my neighbors says this is
going to be another |dry year. He
says he knows it, because there is
going to be great crop Of spring
pigs and so many are sowing so much
high priced grass seed. This COM
bination, he claims, is a sure indica-
ton of dry summer.
The best investment a man can
make is sometimes an expense at the
start. Many times | have heard men
say they didn't like to 60 to the ex-
pense of buying this or that, when,
after they bought and used it, it
proves to be the best investment they
could possibly make. 1t is not alto
gether what thing costs, but what
it does that counts.
can remember when there used
to be at least half a dozen applicants
for the job of road overseer. It paid
ST.. so then and that was considered a
big wage those days. Since then it
is possible to make more than that
by sticking close to the farm, and
now the office seeks the man and not
the man the office, at So day for
the man and So for his team.
Is there permanent road? Many
say there is not, and as some Of these
live within a stones throw of macad-
am turnpikes, l am inclined to be-
lieve there is not. The macadam
road needs constant repairs to keep it
from getting filled with holes, and
no doubt the cost of these repairs
amounts to fully as much as keeping
up dirt grade. When dirt grade is
good it is the best road there is, but
most of our corn-belt dirt will get
muddy and sticky when it becomes
wet. The best way know of to re-
duce road expence is to put in moth
ing but stone or concrete culverts.
|
Quite a few of the farmers in this
vicinity began seeding during the fine
weather in March. Now the snow
and continued freezing weather has
put them on the anxious seat. It is
never a plan to sow oats and barley
before the frogs begin to croak.
Those of us who felt sure that we
would have no 'last snow" this spring
were April fooled all right.
Pulling the disk is hard work for
the horses, but the inventor deserves
a long credit mark. / don't know
how we could prepare seed bed on
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