Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-09-23

chief dependence being upon the con-
tents of the silos.
Even in the semi-arid sections Of
the eastern slopes of the Rocky Noun
tains the silo system should be sue
cess. Experiments have shown that
a mixture of Indian corn and Kaffir
corn makes very fine grade of en-
silage. Kafiir corn will grow in the
drgest weather that Is met in that
part of the country and the Indian
corn almost invariably gets good
start after ii is planted, the danger to
it being lack of moisture after the
plant has attained a fair growth and
when the corn is forming on the cobs.
Corn is cut for ensilage at the glazing
period before it is ripe and a crop of
corn injured by drought, as has been
the case this year, would make. ex-
ceedingly good ensilage if cut at the
right time. This would have paid
the farmers of the Southwest better
in the present season than letting the
corn stand longer in the field on the
off chance of maturing part of it as
ripened grain. ---zi
Better cattle can be raised on small
farms than on large ranches. The
open ranch was suited only to cattle
that We're capable of covering great
deal of ground in a day. and this mad.
it practically impossible to raise thu
best class of beef cattle without feed
ing them quite heavily to supplement
, the wild grasses which they found on
the open range. 1t pays the cattle
farmer best to finish his stock at
home, but the cattle herded on open
ranges have to be shipped to the corn
country in order to have the neces
sary weight put on before they are
sent to the packing houses. A farmer
with anywhere from one hundred
and sixty acres to a thousand acres
of land can turn out five times as
many cattle in proportion to acreage
as would ever be produced on the old
fashioned ranches and his chance to
lose by disease or accident, including
the depredatiens of wild animals, are
much less.
This problem of supplying cattle for
meat purposes is attracting much at
teHtion. and the day when chilled beef
! will be imported from Argentina
! seems at hand, but there is no reason
why we should have to draw supplies
of food from other countries for many
years to come. Texas boasts that it
| can feed the whole United States, and
| this is undoubtedly true, but Texas
| can only do so by cutting up its vast
| territory into comparatively small
| farms that can be worked to the best
| advantage.
| The cost of living has risen all over
North America and an estimate made
+, i'll Canada recently places the increase
| in that country within the past twelve
years at SO per cent. II will, there's
| fore, be found that our present posi-
| ton is not peculiar to us alone. The
| reason fer the advanced cost Of liv-
| ing in Canada is perhaps that the cost
+! of most food products there was abb.
normally low for many years and that
| the rural population has been at
| tracted to the cities and towns within
! the last few years by the great in
crease in Canada's manufacturing en-
terprises and consequent demand for
| labor in such centres. Canada has.
| therefore, been put in a position very
| similar to ourselves. AS long as the
majority of the people prefer to live
in cities and towns and refuse to till
i the soil the most of living will con-
tinue to advance and those who are
wise enough to go back to the soil or
stay on the farms where they were
j born viii reap a profit that will grow
greater year by year. There is Moth
ing new under the sun and similar
conditions affected ancient Rome in
! the IaU 1f no yxrha tho
whole world seemed obsessed with the
craze for living in one city.-New
| York Commercial