Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-05-08

en- of national prosperity. out as a mat
ter of fact they aren't able to do much
more than pick up crumbs that fall
from the grooming" table.
The efforts Of the Agricultural De
partment, with its highly trained and
low -salaried scientists here In Wash
out the country, its explorers search
ing the world over for grains and
fruits and plants useful to the Amer
lean farmers and the American people.
are ably seconded by state experiment
stations. by agricultural colleges, and
by all sorts of associations of persons
and capital. especially by the great
railroad systems which traverse the
agricultural states south and west. the
"grangers," as they are known In Wall
street parlance.
What Railroads Are Doing.
The work the railroads are doing to
promote agricultural prosperity, and.
therefore, national prosperity, is one of
the most striking tendencies of the
age, about which the public has never
been as fully informed as it ought to
be. There is neither charity nor phil
anthropy, of course. in what the rail-
roads are doing 1t is a matter of hard
business with them, an effort to in
crease earnings by increasing traffic,
but that doesn't alter the fact that the
public is benefited. There is almost
no limit to the things the railroads
have done to increase the prosperity of
farmers along their lines and of their
own prosperity. They have imported
breeding stock to improve the quality
of beef and pork and mutton, have i'm
ported and distributed seeds specially
adapted to the sections they serve. con-
Quoted experiment farms to test ferti-
lizers and cultural methods, and have
run demonstration trains with expert
lecturers aboard through every state
of the Union. coaxing and begging the
farmer to put money in his purse by
following newer and better methods.
All this may seem pretty far-fetched
as a reason why we should spend S625
for ten acres of land, covered with
second growth timber and scrub brush.
which cannot be brought under Guilt
walton for several years. and which
probably never will pay interest on the
investment so long as l spend six days
a week at my desk in Washington.
Bearing on Sunny Knoll.
But. In fact. it has very intimate re-
lation to our affairs. 1t has convinced
me that agriculture, in any of its nu-
merous phases. offers to the man of
limited means the safest and surest In
vestment he can make. and the most
| satisfactory and Independent life work
he can undertake. With the country
| Increasing in population as no other
country ever did, with all the unset
tied areas of this and other countries
about taken up, land upon which food
can be grown is not going to decrease
much in value; 1t can't burn up or fly
away or be stolen. And with all that
is being done to make the path of the
farmer easy and lucrative. the man of
sound body and average brains who
can't make a good living from the soil
isn't entitled to make living any
where
So. we at Sunny Knoll decided that
next winter and the winter after that
and for several winters beyond we can
manage to keep warm without a heat
ing plant. We decided, also, that we
can forego taking out partitions and
building open fireplaces with ornate
had planned to do. Taking on this adj
ditIonal ten acres of land will set us
back financially more than the s625
| the land will cost. If it ever Is going
have money for its improvement. Title
| is to pass Monday or Tuesday and I'll
have Lee Gusts and another man at
work there before the end of the week
Slow Improvement Is Planned.
Three acres. we have decided, are to
be left in woods, to furnish fuel and
| fence posts for all time to come The
seven other acres are to be cleared as
rapidly we can afford to clear them.
On two acres there are no trees of any
consequence and the brush Is so small
that it will be easily grubbed out.
These two acres may be ready to pillow
this fall. certainly by next spring The
rema ming five acres are to be treated
to very slow process of development
The first thing will be TO cut off all
timber fit for fence posts or cord wood
III keep enough of the posts to fence
! in the tract and sell the rest and all
the cord wood except enough for our
own use for next winter. There will
he enough posts and wood to sell |
figure, to pay for the posts and wood l
keep and for clearing the two acres
which need only grubbing. This will
save us from digging into our sadly
depleted working. capital except for
wire and labor for fencing the ten
| acres, which ] want done soon as pos
! sible. For the present I'll put up only
two strands of barbed wire, adding
two more strands when I can better af-
ford it.
The five acres from which the tim
Der is to be cut I'll have cleared of
brush gradually and as it is cleared
I'll have grass seed sOWn. In fact
there is enough grass now in places
where the trees and brush are thin to
afford considerable pasture. I'll have
to build an inside fence to cut off the
! two acres which are to be cleared for
blowing, but the rest of the ten acres
woods and all, will be used for pa sture
until such time as the Stumps have rot
| ted or / can see a profit in having them
| pulled.
Capt. Russell says few goats and
| a drove of hogs turned into the woods
and on that brush land would be profit
| able and that the goats would clear out
| a lot Of the brush. 1t sounds like
good scheme, but in order to do it
would have to put width of hog fence
under the barbed wire, and the cost
| of this would be considerable.
Figuring on Dairy Farm.
We don't need the additional ten
acres for the purposes of our chicken
venture 1t is not adapted now, and
could not be adapted without a great
deal of expense. to the purposes of
general farming or truck gardening. A
part of it might we'll be utilized for the
such fruits as grow on trees. This
would, in time, make James canning
and preserving business independent of
outside sources of supply, and 1T is a
proposition very worthy Of careful con-
sideration.
But the thing that makes the strong
est appeal to me Is that the additional
| land will make practical dairying OPP
erations on small commercial scale
I know that the path of the dafryman
Is beset with many obstacles and pit
falls, but 1t is the branch of husbandry
that appeals most to me. and l would
1 s.I