Year: 1876




Farmer, left widow at the head of large
family and in charge Of farm, in Franklin,
Mass, inquiries as to the expediency of plow-
ing in rye aud other green crops for the rem
ovation Ofa worn out moving, having to
hire the help and the team for the work.


In his reply, the editor, Mr.. Cheever, says
among other things.


In this case We have no means of knowing
whether the inquirer has good or poor land,
whether her children are young or nearly
grown, whether they are girls or boys, nor
whether she has capital to expend upon the
land or not, all of which are important ques-
tions and having direct bearing upon the
case. If the family is made up partly Of
healthy, ambitious boys who are soon to take
hold aud make the farm yield generous re-
turns for their toll 4; if the land is naturally
good, and capital enough can be commanded
to work the farm economically, then it may
pay TO work over such worn out land and
keep it from growing up to wool or brush,
But that there is much prospect of realizing
an immediate return for the capital expended
in raisin G green crops to be plowed in by
hired teams, we do not believe.


In the vicinity from which you write, hay
and other forage crops are as dear as in any
place in New England with which we are
familiar, and the farmers find it to their
advantage to use up all their fodder at the
barn instead Of blowing 1t under in the field.
In this way they expect to obtain profit
from its feeding value, aud still have nearly
or quito as much value left in the maoure as
if the whole had been plowed under in the
field, and to us this seems much the better
way We raise rye every year for feeding
stock, and sometimes for the grain and straw,
finding it profitable crop when grown upon
fertile land.


We do not believe in growing crops on
land that is not fertile. The labor expenses
are all out of proportion to the crops grown.
1t costs no more to plow field for a large
than for small crop. The difficulty in this
case seems to be, not so much to know tUhat
to SOW or iohea to SOW it, as whether to SOW
at all. We like farming better than any
other business we ever knew anything about
aud we like to assist others whenever it is in
our power to do 50, either by giving advice,
or by showing what others have done, but
there are some cases where it seems almost
impossible to offer advice that will be at all
satisfactory.


We believe it will prove true, as a rule,
that ordinary worn out lands in New Eng
land will not pay for working, if one must
depend wholly upon hired labor and hired
teams. Shaving reduced the cost Of laborto
the lowest possible point, we would next see
if there is not some way in which fertilizers
can bc applied in sufficient quantity to pro.
duce paying crop, one that would pay for
the blowing, seed, fertilizers, etc., and thus
change the experiment from one of expen 80
to one of profit.


If that rye grows well the coming spring,
our advice would be to utilize it in some
other way than by turning it in, and then
replace its value by purchased fertilizers
1t has always seemed to us like slow and
an expensive process to bring up the fertility
Of a field by turning in successive crops OF
green stuff, as rye, buckwheat, clover, etc
We like to fl the soil with vegetable matter
to increase its fertility, but prefer to do so
by producing crops so large that the roots
and stubble will do this without adding the tops
also. 1t would seem far better, and certainly
more pro ftable, if, by growing ten tons of
green matter on an acre, including roots and
tops, four tons could be left in the soil in
the form OF roots and stubble after removing
six tous of tops, than if the whole crop only
weighed four tons. We never liked this
system of manuring land by plOwiug in the
crops grown. 1t does not seem exactly a
business.like way of farming. 1t is toe
roundabout, and puts the results too far of
from the means. We want to turn our cap
ital often, but don't like to turn it just fol
the sake of turning, without yielding any
increase. A small crop of rye turned in
will increase the fertility Of the soil, bu
unless it increases that fertility more thar
the cost of producing it, we can see no prof.
in the operation.