Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1917-05-02
What to Plant to Help Your Country


State Commissioner OF Agriculture
E. S. Brigham says:
ESThe president has called attention
to the great shortage of food supplies
and has called upon the farmers of
the United States to omit no step
that will increase the production Of
their land in order that we may have
food enough for ourselves and the
countries with which we are cooper
ating in the prosecution of the war.
The demand is imperative that YER
mont farmers heed this call and adopt
wise plans for this coming season, be-
cause any great increase IN food pro-
luction must be brought about by
farmers who have in their control the
factors of food production: viz, land,
implements, horse power, seeds, fer
tiliZer and knowledge of how to en-
ploy these factors.
vermont is pre-eminently a dairy
and livestock state. In 1916 our live
stock averaged 16 head per farm, in
GLIDING horses, cattle sheep. and
swine There is need that this num-
Der should be increased in the pres
ent emergency and plans should be
made to feed them. 1t has been our
custom to supplement home grown
census year of 1909 80.5 per cent of
our farms purchased feed. The av-
erage grain bill per farm was $3.50
and the total grain bill for the farms
of the state was SAFEST A com
parison of the prices now obtaining
for oats, corn, bran, gluten and cot
ton seed meal with the average prices
of these feeds for 1909 shows that the
price has increased GIG per cent. On
this basis the amount of grain fed in
1909 would cost $290.88 per farm,
with total for the state of ST, $780,
O64. In the present emergency, farms
should be more nearly lf-sustaining
than they have ever been before. This
may be accomplished by increasing
the acreage and quality of the corn
crop, both for silage and grain; by
planning for increased acreages of
clover, hay and by blowing up old
meadows and sowing them to barley
and oats.
''In addition there will probably be
need for all the cash crops we can
grow. The principal ones suited to
the soil and climate of Vermont are
wheat, potatoes and beans.
Paintings of potatoes throughout
the country bid fair to be very large
ly increased. This crop, however, is
very sensitive to climatic conditions
and very susceptible to disease and
the yield will depend upon the grow
ing season. The high cost of seed
and labor will probably make it un-
wise to plant potatoes on land insult
ed to the crop and if any but the best
methods of tillage and care are en-
ployed.
Field beans do well in most sec
tons of Vermont, are a very rich,
concentrated food and any surplus
may be shipped abroad or stored for
q long period. Field beans promise
to be one Of the best cash crops of the
| season.
In order to increase production,
farmers viii need more capital with
which to finance their operations and
more labor to do the work
Our banks should be liberal at
TINS time and grant credit facilities
to al reliable farmers who can make
good use Of increased capital
"The labor situation, especially
I during harvest, VIII probably be very
acute and al possible methods for
saving labor should be used. En-
+ ployers Of labor II various lines Of in
dustry can do great service By re-
leasing from their plants during har-
vest men who have had experience ia
farming. This may be necessary in
order to harvest crops which we do
raise"