Norwich bulletin., 1916-09-09

paying proposition for every farmer | to attempt a hundred per cent. in 1 crease in his crops, l am profoundly l convinced that it would be a paying proposition for pretty nearly all the l farmers l know if they would make | a steady effort to increase production | by some degree, per acre, each year. 1 Take the one matter of fertilization. | for example. More rational systems | of fertilization don't necessarily mean l spending more money on commercial fertilizers. They may cften mean ex-
 actly the opposite.
 | Here's this particular weedy year. I There has been so much rain that the ! weeds have been nourished into phe- ! nOmeHal growth, while the same rains l have kept the farmer from fighting l them as he wanted to. As a result all l crops of garden or farm are swamped
 in a riot of Weeds-Though my pota- toes were cultivated and hood seven l times, till blossoms began to show, we | actually had to mow the last rows dug l before we could find them in the for
 est of weeds which had since grown to l three or four or even five feet highi-- ! There are tons and tons of valuable [ humus in those weeds which, if plowed 1 under now, will do the soil almost as 1 much good for next years crops as so
 many tons of ordinarily strawy manure. l A wholly rational system of fertili-
 zatiOn would include the grasping of l this opportunity to get whole lot of
 valuable soil-food into the dirt with
 out having to pay anything for it. l or course a, rational system of fer | tilization includes a good many other i things i-complete saving of all stable and yard manureS, including the liquid portions; utilization of all offal and 1 other waste; protection from the l teaching damage of rains on open piles,
 etc, etc. But, even with the utmost 1 care and economy in such matters, no 1 farmer ever has as much manure as 1 he could use with profit. And this particular season he could supplement some part of his lack by putting his l volunteer growth of weeds where they
 would speedily rot and not only sup-
 ply needed plant-food to the soil but
 also tighten and aerate it.
 We've all heard it said that weeds
 were a blessing to the farmer in that l they caused him to cultivate where, l without them he might neglect es- | sential soil stirring. They can be turned into another blessing by mak- 1 ing them take the place of laboriously applied manure or high priced chemi-
 calls.
 And "rore scientific cultivation." That does not necessarily mean farming according to a book or under
 the supervision of a college professor. Scientific farming means simply
 knowing what you want and why you want it and then adapting the very best available methods to getting it | Tn the largest practicable quantity at the lowest practicable cost of produc- ton.
 There isn't anything about it to | sheer at, if it is properly understood. It is just the wisest possible applica- ton of available means to desirable ! ends.
 It is quite as effectively learned by an intelligent study of ones own soil it's needs and it's capacities, as by boring over text books or reading az
 rlcultural papers or listening to in stitute addresses.
 1t really makes me little ashamed
 to think of a lot of German farmers under the harrow of a Prussianized
 kultur' doing better jobs with poorer
 land than we free and independent and
 usually rather braggart Yanlls
 l THE FARMER.