LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 ■^^^ 
 
 Shelf ..S&B 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
SUCCESS m FARMING. 
 
 A SERIES OF 
 
 PRACTICAL TALKS 
 
 WITH FARMERS, 
 
 ^5 
 
 BY / 
 
 WALDO F, BROWN. 
 
 JIU.:^. ih/ 
 
 7/ 
 
 PUBLISHED BY - .^ ^ 
 
 R. S. THOMPSON, 
 SPRINGFIELD, O. 
 
 j/ 5 ^ '/ 
 
copvRionx, 1881, uy u. s. Thompson. 
 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To my friend, S. H. Ellis, who is not only a success- 
 ful farmer, but whose words and influence have stimu- 
 lated thousands of farmers in their efforts to achieve 
 true success, this book is respectfully dedicated. 
 
PUBLISIIEE'S PREFACE. 
 
 It has given me pleasure *to be able to present this 
 book to the Agriculturists of this countr3^ I have seen 
 the great need of some jn-actieal book suited to practi- 
 cal farmers in our central and western states. 
 
 The majority of the agricultural books that have here- 
 tofore been published, have been designed for the few 
 who already have made the business a matter of scien- 
 tific study, rather than for the man}^ who have been 
 deprived of these advantages. 
 
 In looking aboiit for a man who should write this 
 book, which I intended should be the book for the 
 people, I could think of no person more suited for the 
 task than my friend and co-laborer, Waldo F. Brown. 
 
 He has had a long, practical experience on the farm. 
 Unaided by rich friends or college preparation, he has 
 had to fight his own way through life. He has met the 
 difficulties that beset the farmer, and has learned by ex- 
 perience just what are the needs of his brother farmers 
 and can talk to them in their own way. 
 
 Probably of all the agricultural writers of the country 
 there are none who have a higher reputation for plain, 
 practical writing, than Mr. Brown. 
 
 The manuscript of the book I have carefully read, and 
 in places have added as foot notes, points I thought had 
 been omitted, or on which I disagreed. I send the book 
 out to the world, hoping that it may lead man}'' of our 
 people to not only greater success in farming, but also 
 to greater success in living. 
 
 E. S. Thompson, Publisher. 
 
IIS^TRODUCTIOK. 
 
 For nine years I have been constantly before the 
 |)ublic as a writer, having in that time Avritten more than 
 a thousand articles for the Agricultural Press. The 
 kind reception which luxs been given to these articles, 
 whether appearing over my own name or any of those 
 wit4i which I have at times concealed my identity, such 
 as "Waldo,'' "Odlaw," "Agricola," "Solomon Smith,"' 
 *' Squire Bung," &c., has led me to believe that some of 
 my thoughts and experiences, in more systematic order 
 and in a form better suited for preservation, would be 
 welcomed by many. 
 
 During seven years past I have been much in the field 
 as an agricultural lecturer at fairs and farmers' picnics, 
 and have been gratified by learning from many of those 
 I met, that my articles have often proved helpful to them 
 in overcoming the difficulties that beset the farmers and 
 aiding them to greater success in the management of 
 their farms. All my mature life having been spent 
 upon the farm, and believing as I do that the life of a 
 farmer gives full scope for the liest powers of the best 
 men, I have no higher ambition and ask no greater 
 reward, than to l»e able to help my co-laborers to attain 
 *' Success in Farming." 
 
 Waldo F. Bijown, 
 
 East View Farm, 
 
 Oxford, Ohio. 
 
COyTE:N^TS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE. 
 
 What Constitutes Success on the Farm i 9 
 
 Selection of the Farm ii 12 
 
 Management m 17 
 
 Farm Buildings iv 22 
 
 Fencing ; v 32 
 
 Drainage vi 42 
 
 Fertilization vri 54 
 
 Home-made Manures vii 55 
 
 Green Manuring vii 59 
 
 Commercial Manures vii 62 
 
 Pulverization vii 67 
 
 Rotation of Crops vii 70 
 
 My Own Experience vii 79 
 
 Hired Help viii 82 
 
 Farm Implements ix 87 
 
 Wheat X 93 
 
 Corn XI 110 
 
 Grasses xii 121 
 
 Clover XIII 128 
 
 Potatoes XIV 139 
 
 Sweet Potatoes xiv 144 
 
 Rye on the Farm xv 149 
 
 Special Crops xvi 152 
 
 Fruit .on the Farm xvii 161 
 
 The Vegetable Garden xnn 169 
 
 Stock on the Farm xix 176 
 
 Hogs on the Farm xix 183 
 
 Dairying xix 197 
 
 Sheep Farming xix 205 
 
 Poultry for Profit xix 218 
 
 Timber Growing xx 223 
 
 Country Homos xxi 229 
 
 Woman's Work on the Farm xxi 253 
 
SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES SUCCESS UPON THE 
 FARM. 
 
 That Peter Poverty is a miserable failure as a farmer, 
 requires no argument to show, for a glance reveals it. 
 There is a general appearance of "run-down-ness" about 
 his premises. His buildings, stock and crops, show 
 that the expressive Yankee adjective "shiftless" fits 
 him. Let us be thankful that he is not as "numerous" 
 as formerly, and that his children are not likely to follow 
 his calling. We will pass him by after mentioning his 
 greatest value. He is a splendid example of " how not 
 to do it;' 
 
 Let me next introduce you to Sam Skinsoil. He is an 
 enterprising man with a strong head of steam, and as 
 much business to the square inch as a railroad contrac- 
 tor. He has made money, too, but he has taken the 
 cream oft' from a half score of farms during a third of a 
 century. His plan has ):>een to rent a farm for two or 
 three years, plow every available foot of it, get all he 
 
10 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 could from the soil and return nothing. Or he would 
 buy a farm, cut off all the timber, reduce its fertility^ 
 and then sell and move on. He can be tracked as easily 
 as a hurricane. He, likewise, is not a success, and we 
 can pass on. 
 
 William Wealthy is the next neighbor. He has six 
 hundred acres of land, all in a high state of cultivation, 
 his stock is well bred and well fed, his land productive, 
 and buildings commodious. This begins to look like 
 success, but before j'ou pronounce it such let me give 
 you his history : 
 
 He is sevent}' years old, and although 3-ou can see at 
 a glance that there is no necessity for it, he works harder 
 than an}' day laborer in his emplo}^ Money making 
 has become a passion with him. He has not been a hun- 
 dred miles away in twenty 3'ears. His home is destitute 
 of books, and he takes but one paper and that a violent 
 partizan sheet, the organ of his part}^ Agricultural 
 books and papers he despises. A flower is to him a 
 weed, and he is like Holland's " Old Daniel Gray," who 
 " could see naught but vanity in beauty, and only weak- 
 ness in a fond caress." 
 
 He has become merely an automaton, good only for the 
 money he can make. His wife is working as hard as 
 himself, and has long since given up trying to cultivate 
 flowers, although there was a time when she loved and 
 admired them. They board the farm hands because it 
 is cheaper (?) than to hire men who board themselves. 
 If called upon to write his epitaph, and I wished to tell 
 the truth, it would be something like this: 
 
 " Here lies a man wlio toiled from morn till eve that he might 
 make iiione}', with which to 1)uy more land, on which he might 
 work to make more money to buy more land. As his acres 
 broadened his mind and soul narrowed, and the world was none 
 the better for his having lived." 
 
WHAT COXSTITUTES SUCCESS UPON THE FAKM. 11 
 
 I once heard an impressive sermon on tlie subject of 
 Lot pitcliing his tent towards Sodom. The farmer who 
 has no higher idea of life than to make mone^^ may not 
 like Lot loose his property, but he M'ill loose all that 
 makes life valuable. 
 
 I do not recommend idleness ; the farmer must be a 
 worker; his crops must be good, and the fertility of the 
 farm maintained or increased. He must be a businesf* 
 man, able to give a reason for what he does ; he must 
 read and think and by intelligent forethought make 
 himself master of his farm and business and not become 
 its slave. He should also be public spirited and ready 
 to do his part in advancing the welfare of the community. 
 
 To make a home for the family where they may be 
 happy and contented ; to rear the children to industry 
 and yet teach them that mind and soul, not dollars and 
 cents, give worth to man, and to so manage the farm 
 that it shall supply all their wants constitutes " success 
 in farming." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SELECTION OF THE FARM. 
 
 There are many important matters to be considered 
 in the selection of the farm which is to furnish its owner 
 a livelihood and his family a home. 
 
 First of all the farm must be suited to his means. 
 Nothing more cramps and hinders a farmer than lack of 
 capital or a debt hanging over him. My advice would 
 be to buy a smaller farm which, when paid for, would 
 leave some cash working capital, rather than a larger 
 one which involves the bu^'er heavily in debt. 
 
 The farmer who at the close of the j'car, after having 
 ■sold his crops has cash on hand to meet the expenses 
 of the coming year, works at an immense advantage over 
 the man who must use this mone}' in meeting debts and 
 start empty handed on another year's labor. 
 
 I do not mean to say that a farmer is never, under any 
 circumstances, justified in going into debt, but what I 
 do say is that a farmer who can pay for a farm of one 
 hundred acres and have money enough left to stock and 
 operate it, is unwise to purchase a two hundred acre 
 farm and have for years a debt hanging over him. 
 
 More farmers to-day are being made dissatisfied with 
 their calling, and hindered in their efforts at advance- 
 ment by the burden of debt, than by all other causes 
 combined. 
 
 SIZE OF THE FARM. 
 
 Both large and small farms have their advantages, — 
 and which is more desirable in any particular case must 
 
SELECTIOJ^ OF THE FARM. 13 
 
 be determined by two things: — the farmer's means, and 
 his business capacity. 
 
 A large farm will justify the purchase of more labor- 
 saving machiner}', and enable the farmer to keep this 
 machinery more fully engaged, more help can be per- 
 manently employed and is thus at command when 
 needed in an emergenc}'. 
 
 A large farm furnishes larger scope for business man- 
 agement and executive ability. The farmer is less de- 
 pendent for his profits on his individual labor and more 
 on his capacity to wisely direct the labor of others. The 
 successful manager of a large farm really becomes the 
 executive head of a business establishment. 
 
 A large farm affords greater facilities for diversified 
 farming; for maintaining the fertility of the soil by ro- 
 tation of crops and green manuring, and is adapted to 
 stock raising, which is less laborious than where a large 
 proportion of the income must be derived from the cul- 
 tivation of the soil. 
 
 On a large farm the amount of fencing in proportion 
 to the number of acres can be greatly reduced as larger 
 fields can be used, and thus one heavy item of invest- 
 ment and continued expense be lessened. 
 
 The man on a small farm can largely dispense with 
 hired labor, and thus avoid the trouble connected with 
 managing the labor of others. 
 
 His expenses being comparatively small, his risk of 
 loss from failure of crops or other causes is also smaller. 
 
 The number of acres being small, and every part of it 
 being directly under his own eye, he can more readily 
 secure thorough cultivation — which means larger yield 
 per acre and less cost per bushel. 
 
 ADAPTATION TO PURPOSE DESIRED. 
 
 The farm should be adapted to that particular branch 
 
14 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 of agriculture with which the farmer is most familiar, 
 xind which he intends to follow — but as this will be dis- 
 cussed in another chapter I will not consider it further 
 here. 
 
 CONDITION OF SOIL. 
 
 Although a rich and productive soil is always desira- 
 ble, yet there are circumstances under which a run-down 
 farm may profitably be purchased. 
 
 In considering this matter, the first thing to be looked 
 at is the cause of tne want of fertility. If the farm is a 
 rolling one and the lack arises from washing ; or if the 
 soil is thin and leachy, there are no circumstances which 
 would justify a man in making the purchase. 
 
 There are however many run-down farms the fertility 
 of which can be restored and which can be bought at so 
 low a price that they will prove a better investment 
 than a fertile farm at the price at which it can be 
 obtained. 
 
 If the soil was originally strong and retentive, espec- 
 ially if it were a heavy clay, and the fertility has been 
 exhausted simply by excessive cropping without rotation 
 or manuring, a judicious system of rotation, green ma- 
 nures, the careful saving and applying of all home fer- 
 tilizers with perhaps a reasonable expenditure in com- 
 mercial fertilizers, will fully restore its fertility. 
 
 Of course due caution should be used in so important 
 a matter, but if one is sure that the fertility of the soil 
 can be fully restored, he can often obtain a good farm 
 in this manner at less cost, and will moreover be entitled 
 to be regarded as a public benefactor. 
 
 HEALTHFULNESS. 
 
 A healthy location is important. Many a farmer, 
 attracted by a fertile soil and low price, has settled on 
 the border of a swamp or in some region infected with 
 
SKI.KCTION OF THE FAKM. 15 
 
 malaria, and has had all the energy shaken out of him 
 bv chills and fever, or his profits eaten up b}' doctor's 
 bills and quinine. 
 
 WATER. 
 
 Water supply both for family and stock should be 
 carefully considered. The supply should be wholesome, 
 unfailing and convenient. There are large districts 
 of level lands in many of our States, where in a wet 
 season the wells fill to the surface, and the water becomes 
 contaminated and unwholesome, while in a dry season 
 they fail entirel}'. Careful inquiry on this matter should 
 be made not only of the man from whom j^ou expect to 
 purchase, but also from disinterested parties well ac- 
 quainted with the locality. 
 
 ROADS AND CONVENIENCES TO MARKET 
 
 Are important considerations, and on them both the 
 comfort and profit of the farmer largely depend. 
 
 The farmer on a good free pike, within two or three 
 miles of a railroad station, can with a good team take to 
 market from two hundred to three hundred bushels of 
 grain in a day. If ten miles away, on a hilly mud road 
 it is often a hard day's work to market forty bushels. 
 There will not be a day in the j^ear in which the former 
 cannot go comfortably to postoflice or market, while the 
 latter will, in open winters, be mud-bound for weeks or 
 months. 
 
 SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES. 
 
 Convenience of the farm to these should also be con- 
 sidered, for if distant and difficult to reach, the wife and 
 children will often be deprived of privileges which are 
 of inestimable value. 
 
 COMMUNITY. 
 
 The character of the community should be carefully 
 considered before a man decides to become a member of 
 
16 SUCCESS IN FAUMIKG. 
 
 it. No consideration should induce him to settle in a 
 neighborhood where the Sabbath was disregarded or 
 the inhabitants known to be lawless and immoraL 
 There should al?o be a certain amount of public spirit 
 among the people so that highways will be kept in re- 
 pair and other measures for the public good supported. 
 All these considerations and others which may occur 
 to the reader, should be borne in mind in the " selection, 
 of the farm." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MANAGEMENT. 
 
 Having bought the farm, next comes the question of 
 management; and here is where many fail. It does not 
 necessarily follow because your neighbor has made mon- 
 ey from some specialty in farming that you, on a differ- 
 ent farm, can successfully imitate him. 
 
 My own neighborhood will illustrate this question of 
 adaptation of crops or stock to the farm. One mile east 
 of me there is a tier of farms mainly rich bottom land. 
 The soil on these produces crops of corn with a rotation 
 which once in four or five years brings them into clover. 
 The farmers who have patiently followed producing hogs 
 and corn on these farms have grown rich, and at the 
 same time kept their lands fertile. On either side of 
 these is a tier of broken farms. The drainage from the 
 farms still further back has cut channels to the main 
 stream until at intervals varying from thirty to eighty 
 rods, are deep ravines coming down through the^e farms. 
 This makes them liable to wash, for the land has not 
 only a general slope to the main stream, but a lateral 
 slope towards these ravines. My farm is in the next 
 tier, and is back far enough so as not to be cut by the 
 ravines and is generally IcA^el although with fall enough 
 to drain it. A few miles west of where I live, is a strip 
 of rich black land which was originally swamp but 
 which has been thoroughly drained and improved. All 
 these farms call for different management, and yet many 
 of the farmers Jiave not found it out, but because farmer 
 
18 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 A on the bottom has made money by corn and hogs, 
 farmer B on the farm adjoining has run his ridges in 
 corn until he lias soil scattered all the way to the Gulf 
 of Mexico. 
 
 These bottom farms are the place for hogs and Short- 
 Horn cattle. The farms adjoining them should be 
 stocked with sheep or run as dairy farms with small 
 cattle like the Jerseys. The next tier or two giA^es us 
 our best wheat land, and are well adapted to mixed 
 farming, as corn, grass and potatoes do well on them. 
 Over in the drained swamps is the profitable barley 
 land, and as barley land is also good corn land, here 
 again mixed farming is best. 
 
 These black lands, as well as the bottomswill grow 
 fiiie Early Rose or other early varieties of potatoes ; but 
 Peachblo\YS and other late maturing varieties and sweet 
 potatoes are often a failure on them, while on a stiff cold 
 clay the Peachblow and sweet potato produce — with a 
 little manure — good crops of fine quality. We have also 
 land that produces with certainty good crops of wheat 
 when plowed shallow or prepared by cultivating and 
 pulverizing three inches of the surface without breaking 
 but on which it often fails when deeply plowed. 
 
 Here and there are farms with a warm soil well suited 
 Ko broom corn growing, and because their owners make 
 money on the crop, some one with a cold stiff clay at- 
 tempts to grow it, and with more than double labor pro- 
 duces a half crop of an inferior article. 
 
 I have spoken of these farms to illustrate an impor- 
 tant truth, namely, that success in farming depends 
 largely on intelligence in management, and in adapting 
 our products to the soil and circumstances surrounding 
 us. 
 
 Numbers of farmers fail because they do not put 
 
MANAGEMENT. 19 
 
 thought into their business; they have no settled policj 
 and are not at all certain that the plan they are follow- 
 ing — if indeed they can be said to have a plan — is the 
 best for them. As Peter exhorts Christians to be always 
 ready to give "a reason for the hope in them," so should 
 every farmer be ready to give a reason for the plan ho 
 is following. 
 
 There is nothing so essential on the farm as brains 
 :p.nd good judgment, and the farmer may cultivate and 
 develop these as well as corn or wheat. 
 
 Another very important thing in farm management is 
 to determine how much of the land to plow. There are 
 localities where the plow is the worst enemy of the farm- 
 er. By this I mean that many farmers keep themselves 
 and their lands poor by excessive cropping. The farm- 
 er should keep-ever before him the fact that it is bush- 
 els not acres that gives the profit. 
 
 No man can by farming make anything above a mere 
 living who grows only average crops. Ohio is a good 
 agricultural State, one of the best in the Union, and the 
 crop statistics for the last quarter of a century show, 
 of the two great staples, wheat and corn, an average per 
 acre, of about 12 bushels of the former and 3.3 of 
 the latter. Remember, these are the averages, and of 
 course there are thousands of farmers that fall below 
 this. Is it any wonder that many farmers are poor and 
 in debt growing such crops ? 
 
 In my judgment, there is no one thing that has con- 
 tributed so much to this as the keeping of too large a 
 proportion of the land under the plow, and the lack of 
 an intelligent rotation. The difference in the cost of a 
 bushel of wheat grown on a field averaging ten, and one 
 averaging thirty bushels per acre is surprising, and the 
 same general rule holds good with other crops. 
 
20 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 There are thousands of farmers owning farms varying 
 in size from 100 to 150 acres who are poor and 
 likely to remain so just because they keep two teams 
 and plow sixty or eighty acres a year and do not grow 
 any more grain than they could with one team and half 
 as much land under the plow. The difference in the 
 profits of two farmers, one of whom cultivates what one 
 team can do, and the other on a similar farm of the same 
 size who keeps two teams, will often be greatly in favor 
 of the former. Let us suppose that two farmers try 
 these respective plans for ten years. Number one, who 
 keeps but one team saves three hundred dollars at the 
 start in horses and harness. He would require in the 
 ten years, extra plows, horse-shoeing and harness repair- 
 ing, one hundred dollars more. I think one dollar a 
 week as cheap as a work-horse can be kept, even on a 
 farm, and this would make $104 per year, or $1,040 for 
 ten years. Then there must be a hired hand eight 
 months in the year to drive the team, and he, at $15 a 
 month, will cost $120 per annum more, or $1,200 for the 
 ten years. It is worth $2 per week to board a hand, or, 
 say, $70 for the eight months, making $700 for the ten 
 years. Bringing all these items together, we have 
 $3,340; but supposing the old horses and harness are 
 worth $100, we will call it $3,240 that the farmer with 
 two teams has expended more than the other. 
 
 But, says some critic, has he not had a fair return for 
 this expenditure? 
 
 In most cases, no. 
 
 The land left uuplowed by the farmer with the one 
 team was not unproductive, but was yielding crops of 
 butter, meat, wool, or other animal products, and at the 
 same time storing up fertility for future crops of grain; 
 and when again plowed, would give a largely increased 
 
MANAGEMENT, 21 
 
 yield per acre over the fields which had been continuously 
 cropped. The result would be that with this manage- 
 ment the farm with the one team would sell more in ten 
 years than the other. 
 
 Here are two systems contrasted. All that the farmer 
 has to show for his $3,240 and the labor and worry con- 
 nected with its expenditure, is an exhausted soil. I 
 should expect ten years of the one management to result 
 in a discouraged farmer, whose sons would choose some 
 other calling in life; whose farm and home would pre- 
 sent a thriftless and cheerless appearance, and who him- 
 self would be complaining that farming don't pay, and 
 be talking of selling and "going west." 
 
 With the other management I should look confidently 
 for a happy and contented farmer, on a fertile and thrif- 
 ty farm, with a bright and attractive home, and a fami- 
 ly attached to the calling. 
 
 Success in farming can only be attained where there 
 is a plan carefully chosen, well arranged and faithfully 
 pursued. 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 FARM BUILDINGS. 
 
 Much of the comfort of the farmer and his family, and 
 also of the stock, depends on the buildings found on the 
 farm ; and their arrangement and location is important, 
 both as regards appearances and economy of time and 
 labor. 
 
 Perhaps the first consideration should be, to have 
 them adapted to the farm, its productions, and the means 
 of the farmer. I would alwaj's advise the farmer to 
 build a small, comfortable house or barn, which he could 
 pay for, rather than to run in debt for large and expen- 
 sive buildings. 
 
 Occasionally, a farmer with a small and unproductive 
 farm will put up buildings out of proportion in size and 
 cost to the farm ; or a man with a large body of land 
 will put up one immense barn instead of two or three 
 smaller ones. This I do not think wise for several rea- 
 sons: 1st. It involves muclt loss of time in drawing in 
 the crops. If you are getting in a field of hay or grain 
 with rain threatening, it makes a great difference 
 whether 3'ou have a hundred rods or a mile to go. 2nd. 
 It makes extra work also in drawing out manure, for 
 this will naturally be made at the barn. 3rd. In case 
 of fire the loss will be much greater both on building 
 -and contents. And lastly, when the farmer dies, and 
 the property, according to our excellent American laws 
 is to be divided among the children, it makes a fair 
 division diflTicult. 
 
FARM BUILDINGS. 23 
 
 The finest barn I ever saw was built by a man owning 
 twelve hundred acres of land, and was burned without 
 insurance since I visited it in 1876. Although I ad- 
 mired this barn exceedingly, these objections occurred 
 to me. While I would recommend the best material, 
 and that buildings should be constructed with reference 
 to durability, I have seen so much of the evil of debt in 
 cramping the farmer and causing self denial to himself 
 and family that I would recommend temporary buildings 
 for his stock and crops rather than to see him burdened 
 with debt for expensive ones. 
 
 THE BARN. 
 
 A ver}' cheap barn, and one that will last for many 
 years, can be made by setting locust posts in the ground 
 for the outer walls and spiking or bolting the nail ties 
 to them. The inside rows of posts can stand on stones 
 and there need not be a mortise or tennon about the 
 building. A barn thirtj^ feet wide and of any desired 
 length may be put up in this way, and as everj' board 
 and nail tie in it is a brace, it will be firm and substan- 
 tial. In building in this manner I would always use 
 hard wood for the frame. I would not recommend a 
 board roof under any circumstances, as I have never 
 seen one that gave satisfaction.* 
 
 The farmer who has the means should put up no cheap 
 temporary buildings, but the fact that there are many 
 who dread a burden of debt and badly need barn room 
 leads me to speak of this method. 
 
 In building a barn one should take plenty of time to 
 Btudy his plan, and should make every possible arrange- 
 
 *In some of our timber regions, boards are so much cheaper 
 than shingles, that many will continue to use them. My west- 
 ern experience has convinced me that a board roof made of 
 good boards, well sapped, seasoned, and properly put on, will 
 last many years and give excellent satisfaction. r. s. t. 
 
24 SUCCESS IN B^ARMING. 
 
 ment for saving steps and labor. During a large part 
 of the year the farmer attends to his stock when wearied 
 by field work, and every step saved is important. I be- 
 lieve it is easy to so arrange a barn that fifteen minute's 
 time can be saved each day, and in addition the labor 
 lightened; and this will pay for quite an amount of 
 planning. 
 
 Where a barn is built for cattle feeding, the most 
 convenient arrangement I have ever seen is to have 
 your stables enough lower than the barn floor so 
 that the cattle can eat their hay and fodder directly 
 from the floor. This saves the expense of mangers, and 
 also saves room, for the stables can be made narrower 
 by the space the manger would occupy. It makes the 
 lofts easier of access also as the upper floors can be 
 dropped to correspond with the stable floors; that is, if 
 your cattle stand three feet below the level of the barn 
 floor, the loft floors need be but four feet above instead 
 of seven as would be necessary if the cattle stood on a 
 level with the floor. The stables can be arranged on 
 three sides of the floor, and if the barn is thirty feet 
 wide and the floor twenty, there will be ample room for 
 nineteen head of cattle: seven on each side and five at 
 the end, and it will be the work of a moment to give hay 
 or fodder to all of them. 
 
 Another thing which I have found very convenient is 
 to so arrange the wagon-shed if connected with the barn 
 that as you drive through it the barn floor will be just 
 on a level with the bottom of the bed. This makes it 
 verj' convenient in loading or unloading barrels, or sacks 
 of grain, and where corn which has been cut up is hauled 
 in to be husked in the barn, it will save one hand in 
 unloading, as no one will be needed on the wagon to 
 hand it down. 
 
FAKM BUILWNGS. 25 
 
 The bins for meal and bran, and the cribs for corn 
 should be arranged with reference to savinaf steps, and 
 every detail should be made a matter of study. 
 
 There is a point in which many farmers could make 
 an improvement on the approaches to the barn, and that 
 is by so arranging their fences that they need not pass 
 through the barn-yard to enter the barn. Whei'e this 
 must be done it is almost impossible to do the work 
 without getting the boots smeared with manure, to the 
 great injury of the boots and to the great detriment of 
 the good wife's carpet and floors, and the farmer is likely 
 to advertise his business by an unsavory odor. It is so 
 easy to arrange the barn-yard so that the barn can be 
 entered without passing through it that I wonder every 
 farmer does not do so. Even the barn-yard into which 
 the cows are turned may be made a few feet from the 
 stable door so as to leave a passage which can easily be 
 kept clean, for if the cows can get to the stable door 
 they are sure to stand there and drop their manure and 
 in a wet time tramp it into mud. Instead of having the 
 barn form the fence for one side of the barn-yard, set 
 your fence ten feet from it, have this passage wa}' raised 
 above the level of the barn-yard and well graveled, and 
 you will have no difficulty in keeping it clean and the 
 stock can easily be turned across it into the barn-yard. 
 
 The location of the barn is a matter of considerable 
 importance. It should not be so near the house as to 
 be offensive, nor so far as to make it laborious to travel 
 back and forth. It is a moderate estimate that a farmer 
 and his help will make an average of ten trips a day 
 from house to barn, and if the latter is fifty yards farther 
 away than necessary it involves something more than 
 one hundred miles unnecessary travel each 3'ear. A 
 barn can be located within fifty yards of a house and so 
 
26 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 managed as. to offend neither eye or nose. Another im- 
 portant thing is that a well drained spot if possible be 
 chosen for the barn. I do not mean that it should be 
 built, as I have often seen, on a steep hillside sloping to 
 a brook, so that every rain carries the soluble part of 
 the manure away; but on the other hand, it should not 
 be on low ground into which water from adjoining fields 
 can flow, and the barn-yard especially should be so ar- 
 ranged that the water could neither flow into nor out 
 of it. 
 
 HOG HOUSES, 
 
 One or more pig pens or hog houses are indispensable 
 on farms where swine are kept; they are needed to con- 
 fine breeding animals, and to shut up young pigs at 
 weaning time. I have made quite a study of hog-houses, 
 having built six in the last twenty years, and I have 
 never seen a plan which, for convenience and economy, 
 was better than mine. I build eight feet wide, and 
 twelve, fourteen or sixteen long — one of the latter size 
 being large enough to fatten ten hogs weighing three 
 hundred pounds each, and the smaller one makes com- 
 fortable quarters for two sows with litters. For a foun- 
 dation, locust posts or large boulders may be used, or 
 pillars of stone, or brick masonry. Two sills, eight feet 
 long and six by eight inches square, are placed on the 
 foundation at the ends, and from one of these to the 
 other place joists two by ten inches, and the length your 
 house is to be. Bridge your joists so that the weight will 
 come on all alike, and then lay the floor of inch lumber, 
 double, so as to have no cracks go through. I have 
 tried two-inch stuff for this, afld find that it does not 
 last any better, and costs more, as the lining of the floor 
 may be of cheap lumber, and even if strips four inches 
 wide are used at the cracks, it will answer. After the 
 
FARM BUILDINGS. 
 
 27 
 
 floor is laid, cut your corner-posts of four by four stud- 
 ding — hard wood is best — and place them at the cor- 
 ners. As the roof is only to slope one way, the rear 
 posts need only be four feet high, and the front ones 
 seven, unlesss you want a loft over head, in which case 
 the rear posts should be eight feet high, and the front 
 ones eleven. Spike a two by two inch studding on the 
 top of jour posts at front and rear, for a plate; fit in 
 another for a nail-tie in the front, or two in front and 
 one at the rear, if you want a loft, and let the rear tie 
 and the upper front one be the right hight for the upper 
 
 HOG-HOUSE. 
 
 floor. You will need one or two nail-ties at each end, 
 according to the hight, and your first pair of rafters must 
 Btand flush with the sills and nail-ties. Board it up 
 and down, and as the front and rear boards will be 
 nailed at the bottom to a joist, and the end boards to the 
 sills at the bottom and the rafters at the top, you will 
 find your building firm and substantial when finished, 
 although there is not a mortise or a tenon about it. 
 Two hands can complete such a building in less than 
 two days' work, and one thousand feet of lumber and a 
 
28 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 thousand shingles will be about a fair estimate for a 
 building of this size. It will require a little more lum- 
 ber if it is made high enough for a loft, but this will 
 give storage for a hundred bushels of corn. 
 
 No hog-house is complete without a floored yard of 
 equal size attached to it. The floor of the yard should 
 be a foot or more lower than that of the pen, and may 
 be of cheap lumber, or stone. It is impossible to keep 
 hogs confined on an earth floor without having a por- 
 ridge hole, breeding foul odors ; but with a floor, and a 
 supply of any good absorbent, such as chaff", cornstalks, 
 straw, or sawdust, the pen can be kept comparatively 
 sweet, and a large amount of valuable manure saved. 
 
 It is well to have a movable partition to put in the 
 pens when they are used for brood sows. The boards 
 should be made to slip between pieces nailed \ip and 
 down just far enough apart to receive them, and then 
 fastened down with a pin or key. Where sows are to be 
 kept at farrowing time, there should be no cracks in the 
 partitions. A rack should be made up next to the raf- 
 ters to receive these partition boards when not in use. 
 In pens used for breeding sows, it is a good plan to nail 
 a two by four studding six inches above the floor, to 
 prevent the mother from overlajdng her pigs. This 
 should be nailed so that the four inches would project 
 into the pen. 
 
 OTHER OUTBUILDINGS. 
 
 I have but two suggestions about the privy, one of 
 which is, that it should be protected from observation by 
 vines or trees; and the other, that it should never have 
 a vault under it. A shallow box, raised high enough so 
 that it can never be flooded by surface water, and into 
 which dry earth is thrown often enough to disinfect it, 
 will not only prevent danger of contaminating the well, 
 
FAKM BUILDINGS. 29 
 
 tut abate a nuisance, and furnish several dollars' worth 
 of excellent fertilizer each year. No better disinfectant 
 was ever found than dry earth; and a privy, by its use, 
 may be kept perfectly free from odor. 
 
 Every farm should have a poultry-house, and the ma- 
 nure from two dozen fowls will pay for it in a few years, 
 if it is built economically. It makes little difference in 
 what shape it is built; but there should be a tight floor 
 under the roosts, and it will be a saving of space if this 
 floor slopes so that the manure will roll down on to a 
 narrow floor, or into a box, where it can be easily taken 
 up. The space under this floor can be used for nest 
 boxes. The poultry-house should face the south, and on 
 this side have a large window; but the glass must be 
 protected with a wire screen, or strips of lath, as the 
 hens will break them. Where large, heavy fowls are 
 kept, the roosts should be low, and in no case should 
 the roosts be made one above another, as the fowls will 
 alwa^'s strive for the highest roosts. 
 
 There should be a wood-shed on every farm, and this 
 should be near the house. It may be large or small, but 
 should hold at least a month's stock of wood; and there 
 should be a bin for kindlings; but it is better that it 
 should be large enough to hold a stock for a year. 
 Buildings that must be prominent, should be finished 
 with some regard to appearance, and a little money will 
 be well spent in making the wood-shed neat and tasty. 
 
 Although not strictly to be classed as a farm build- 
 ing, the ice-house should be found on many farms. 
 Where there is an unfailing supplv of very cold water, 
 it can be dispensed with, but where this is wanting, 
 there are months in which first-class butter cannot be 
 made, and milk, fresh meat, and many articles of food, 
 cannot be kept twenty-four hours without the aid of ice. 
 
30 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 A good supply of ice will enable the farmer's wife to 
 make good butter in dog-days, and to save much that 
 would otherwise be lost; besides, ice is indispensable in 
 many forms of sickness. 
 
 There is an idea among most fai'raers that an ice-house 
 must be an expensive building, with double walls, or 
 sunk in the ground. There is no purpose for which a 
 building is needed, where so plain and cheap a structure 
 will answer, as for an ice-house. All that is necessary 
 is, to have a roof, and walls that will keep the sawdust 
 in its place. I have seen at one of the. cheese factories 
 on the Western Reserve in Ohio, an ice-house that would 
 hold one hundred tons, made, roof and all, of cheap, 
 refuse lumber, and that probably did not cost over thirty 
 dollars. All that is necessary' for ice to keep is, that 
 there should be good drainage, to insure which throw in 
 a foot of broken stone, or, if more convenient, wood or 
 old rails will answer, and cover with six inches of saw- 
 dust; that there should be sufficient bulk; that it should 
 be well packed; that there should be at least twelve 
 inches of sawdust at the sides, tightly packed in, and 
 eighteen inches above it, and a roof above, to keep the 
 rain off". The gables need not be boarded up, or, if they 
 are, it is best to have windows open for ventilation. 
 The farmer who can make a pond on his farm, from 
 which to cut ice, or, who is convenient to some good source 
 of supply, can, in addition to furnishing his own family, 
 often make a handsome profit from the sale of ice. In 
 estimating how large to build, j-ou will allow fortj^ 
 cubic feet for a ton. I do not think less than 25 tons of 
 ice will keep through the summer, and the proportionate 
 waste will be much less with a larger bulk. The ice- 
 house should be visited every day, as soon as spring 
 opens; for even before the weather is very warm, during 
 
FARM BUILDINGS. ^ 31 
 
 the winds of March, the ice will shrink and waste to 
 some extent, and if an air-hole is formed, it will waste 
 rapidly. Tramp over the top at every visit, and level 
 the sawdust so as to fill up any holes which are begin- 
 ning to form. 
 
 TOOL-HOUSE. 
 
 A tool-house, which may be a separate building, or a 
 shed attached to the barn or one of the other buildings, 
 is one of the most important out-buildings of the farm. 
 Without it, the plows, harrows, rakes, reapers, etc., etc., 
 will often be left exposed to the weather, and doubtless 
 the loss in a few years to these implements is, on many 
 farms, enough to build a shelter for them. 
 
 INSURANCE, 
 
 When the farmer has provided the necessary build- 
 ings, there is one point more tO be attended to, and that 
 is, to keep' them insured. The rates for isolated farm 
 buildings are always low, and no farmer should take the 
 risk of fire, when it can be so cheaply guarded against. 
 
CHAPTER y. 
 
 FENCING. 
 
 A heavj' item of expense on the farm is, building and 
 ke,eping in repair tlie fences. In most timbered coun- 
 tries, a few 3'ears ago, the fences were nearly all made 
 of rails. On a large majority of farms there is no rail 
 timber left, and something else must take the place of 
 the old Virginia fences as they disappear. 
 
 Hedges have been extensively planted, but there are 
 serious objections to them, and those who have had the 
 most experience with them are the least satisfied. There 
 is but one plant used for this purpose to any great 
 extent, and that is the Osage Orange; and while a 
 good fence can be made of it, it is very seldom 
 that we find one. The plant makes such a vigorous 
 growth, that nothing less than three trimmings a season 
 will keep it in shape, and this work must be done at the 
 busy season of the year, when everything else is pushing. 
 
 If, as some do, we adopt the plan of trimming once a 
 year, in winter, the hedge grows out of shape early in 
 the summer, and soon becomes so tall as to hide the 
 fields from view, and injure the crops, both b}"^ its shade 
 and by drawing moisture and nourishment from the 
 adjoining soil. The division fences of a farm should be 
 moved occasionally, and this is an objection to using 
 hedge for anything but line fences. The fact that not 
 one line of hedge out of a hundred is so cared for as to 
 give satisfaction, and that two or three weeks neg- 
 lect at the growing season, will make it a difficult 
 
FENCING. 33 
 
 and laborious job to get it into good shape, leads 
 me, after an experience in the care of hedges of thirty 
 years, to advise farmers to plant but little of it. The 
 only circumstances under which I would plant hedge, 
 would be to border some permanent pasture away from 
 the road, where I could allow it to grow without trim- 
 ming, after it was thick enough at the bottom to turn 
 stock. On many farms there could be a line of hedge 
 managed in this wa}', so that it would not disfigure the 
 farm, and would afford a good wind-break, and make a 
 cheap and satisfactory fence. 
 
 For general fencing, it seems pretty well settled now, 
 post and board, or post and barbed wire, will be the 
 main dependence. In many sections, a good stock law, 
 well enforced, is being made a substitute for outside 
 fences, and doubtless will become more general as the 
 country becomes more thickly settled. It certainly is 
 greatly cheaper to fence cattle in than to fence them out. 
 
 POST-AND-BOARD FENCES. 
 
 In putting up a fence of this character, it does not pay 
 to do a poor job of work. The posts should be of locust, 
 cedar, or some other durable wood, well set in the ground. 
 
 To prevent heaving by the frost, a deep notch may be 
 cut into each side of the post near the bottom, and a flat 
 stone crowded into it, so that the post cannot be lifted 
 without raising the stones. 
 
 Various plans have been tried for the preservation of 
 posts. I have found that the selection of good posts, of 
 durable timber, is one of the most effectual, and, in the 
 long run, the cheapest. Painting the part of the post 
 that goes into the ground, or for that matter, the whole 
 post, with coal tar, is inexpensive and quite effectual. 
 
 I have tried on Eastview farm the plan of growing the 
 posts where they stand ; that is, I have planted a row of 
 
 2 
 
34 SUCCESS IN FARMING* 
 
 trees where I intend the fence to be, set the right dis- 
 tance apart for fence posts. As soon as large enough, 
 I shall stand against them panels of board fence, secur- 
 ing them at the top with tarred twine, or wire, tied 
 loosely, so as not to injure the trees, and fastened at 
 the bottom with a stake. The trees can thus do duty 
 while growing into valuable timber. 
 
 A fence along the highwa}', in front of the farm, should 
 be neat and attractive, and some expense should be 
 allowed merely for looks. But for other fences, some- 
 thing in looks might be sacrificed to economy and ser- 
 vice. In such cases, I would recommend nailing the 
 boards to both sides of the post; that is, jiail the .boards 
 at one end of the panel to one side of the post, and the 
 boards for the next panel to the other side of the same 
 post. Thus, in a fence running east and west, I would 
 nail the boards of the first panel to the north side of the 
 first post and south side of the second post; the next 
 panel to the north side of the second post and south side 
 ©f the the third post, and so on. The advantages of 
 this plan are that ^-ou save all sawing and fitting of 
 boards — if a board is a little long, it projects that much. 
 The fence is much stronger, as you do not have to nail 
 so close to the ends of the boards, and the nails will 
 therefore hold better. You can also use all your infer- 
 ior poste for the centers of the panels, as you will nail 
 only to one side of that post, and the ends of the boards 
 will not come against it at all. 
 
 In setting the posts for such a fence as this, set first 
 the posts for the ends of the panels in an exact line, 
 then lay a board across from post to post angling, the 
 way it will be when nailed on, and set your mid-panel 
 post by that, as it will not be exactly in a line with the 
 others. For a very cheap fence the mid-panel posts 
 
FENCING. 35 
 
 might be quite small ones sharpened and driven in with 
 a maul or sledge. 
 
 On level ground a three-board fence may be so made 
 as to turn any stock. 
 
 Leave a space of one foot beneath the first board, five 
 inches between that and the second, and ten between the 
 second and third. This will make the fence three feet 
 nine inches high. Next plow a couple of furrows on 
 each side throwing the earth towards the fence, and with 
 the shovel shape it up into a round ridge with the cen- 
 ter immediately under the fence. This ridge should, of 
 course, be immediately seeded down in grass. 
 
 If 3''ou plow nine inches deep, the top of the fence will 
 be four feet six inches above the bottom of the ditch, 
 and cattle with their fore feet in the ditch, and hind feet 
 on the level, could not possibly jump it; while if they 
 came up so as to get their hind feet in the ditch, they 
 would be too close to jump. 
 
 I think it a good plan to have fencing sawed eleven 
 feet long — as then three panels would make exactly two 
 rods, and furnish a convenient land measure — and a 
 sharpened stake is then sufficient for the center of the 
 panel, * 
 
 In ever}^ line of board fence, even when it divides two 
 farms, a movable panel is a convenient thing. To make 
 this, select light, strong boards, and nail them to light 
 uprights, and stay the panel with a brace or two of one 
 by three inch material. Let the top board of the panel 
 be six inches longer than the others, so as to project 
 three inches at each end. Saw down six inches into the 
 top of your posts two cuts -an inch and a quarter apart, 
 and with an augur bore this piece off at the bottom; 
 this makes a slot to receive the projecting end of your 
 top board ; a pair of small stakes can be driven close 
 
36 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 to the posts at each end, to prevent the bottom of the 
 panel from being blown or crowded out. When you 
 wish to pass through, this can easily be lifted out and 
 put back, and yet there is no danger of its being blown 
 down or opened by stock. 
 
 BARBED WIRE, 
 
 This is ver}^ rapidly coming into use, and in the prai- 
 rie sections of the West is taking precedence of 
 all other fencing material. It is certainly cheaper than 
 board, as the wire will practically last forever, and it re- 
 quires fewer posts. I have seen large herds of cattle 
 grazing alongside of a corn field, from which they were 
 separated only by a barbed wire fence, with the posts 
 fifty feet apart. This is wider than I would recom- 
 mend; but a good post every thirty feet, with a stake 
 driven midway to stay the wire, will make a good fence ; 
 and this constitutes a lawful fence in several of the 
 Western States. I think a good cattle fence can be 
 made for less than fifty cents a rod, using three wires. 
 
 One great advantage of barbed wire is, that in level 
 countries it does not occasion snow-drifts, and is not as 
 liable to be blown down as either rails or post and boards. 
 The only disadvantage connected w,ith this fence is, 
 that cattle and horses will sometimes run against the 
 wires, receiving dangerous, or even fatal wounds. I 
 have seen a combined board and wire fence, that seemed 
 less liable to this objection. Two boards are placed at 
 the bottom, and two barbed wires stretched above these. 
 Every fourth post is the full hight, the remaining three 
 being only eighteen inches above the the ground. 
 
 In building a wire fence, the end and corner posts 
 must be well braced by a heavy piece of timber from 
 the top of the end post to the foot of the next one, and 
 the wires must be tightly strained. I do not give fur- 
 
FENCING. 37 
 
 ther particulars here, as the manufacturers of barbed 
 wire usually furnish full instructions to those who pur- 
 chase the wire. 
 
 AN IMPROVED POST-AND-RAIL FENCE. 
 
 Where there is still some good rail timber left, an ex- 
 cellent and durable fence may be make by setting posts 
 ten feet apart, splitting the rails quite thin and flat, and 
 nailing them on to the posts with good, heavy nails. 
 This fence requires fewer posts than a board fence, uses 
 about one-third as many rails as a worm fence, and as 
 the rails are lighter, saves fully three-fourths of the tim- 
 ber, and the rails will last longer than boards. 
 
 POUTABLE FENCE. 
 
 A fence easily set up and taken down is greatly to be 
 desired, and I have given the matter much thought. 
 Four years ago I invented a fence, which I called a Self- 
 supporting Truss Fence. The principle of this fence is, 
 to make one panel support another, by leaning them 
 against each other. The uprights, which take the place 
 of posts, should be of hard wood, two inches square. 
 These uprights are beveled at the top, so as to exactly 
 fit when the bottoms of the panels are three feet apart. 
 The three shore boards, which 3'OU can see at the right 
 of the cut, are nailed to the uprights as the panels are 
 set up, and close the space and support the fence. 
 There is no need of nailing the tops of the uprights to- 
 gether, as these boards hold them to their place per- 
 fectly. I wish I could truthfully say that this fence 
 would never blow down. I had it in use three years be- 
 fore a panel of it did; but a gale finally tipped over 
 some twenty rods of it. An expense of one dollar will, 
 however, fix forty rods of it so that nothing short of a 
 hurricane will blow it down. There are two ways ot 
 doing this : One is to drive a short stake in the ground, 
 
38 
 
 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 flat against the brace boards at the end of the panel, and 
 drive a single nail through it into the upright. These 
 stakes should be high enough to reach to the second 
 board, and the nails should be long enough to go through 
 both stake and board, 
 and hold in the oak 
 upright. These short 
 stakes should be driv- 
 en on opposite sides, 
 alternately. The oth- 
 er way to make it se- 
 cure would be to drive 
 a stake in the ground 
 at every third or 
 fourth panel, in the 
 notch formed at the 
 ends of the panels, 
 and let the stake come 
 up as high as the top 
 of the fence. The 
 fence might stand for 
 years without this 
 precaution, but it will 
 cost so little to attend 
 to it, that I .would 
 advise that it be done. 
 When the tall stakes 
 arc used, it would not 
 be nr'cessary to nail 
 the fence to them. 
 
 While this fence cannot strictly be called a portable 
 one, it can be moved by simply loosening the three short 
 brace-boards, and a given amount of it can h^ taken 
 down and put up in less than half the time required to 
 
FENCING. 39 
 
 move a rail fence of the same length. One great 
 advantage of this fence is, that it can be made un- 
 der cover, in wet weather, and during the winter, 
 while ordinary board fence can only be made when the 
 weather is good and the land dry. In making this 
 fence, you need three strong trestles, made of timber 
 heavy enough so that you can nail on them. After you 
 get one panel made just right, vrith the boards spaced to 
 suit and the ends sQuare, you will always keep it on the 
 trestle for a pattern, and by laying the uprights and 
 boards directly' over those on this panel, you will get 
 your panels right. I do not find five boards necessary, 
 although there are five in the cut; for the fact of the 
 panels leaning makes the base broader, and stock are 
 less likely to jump it than if it stood perpendicularly. 
 A sixteen-foot panel is too long, as it will sag a little in 
 the middle, and I prefer to make them eleven or twelve 
 feet long. If you wish to make it eleven feet, bu}^ part 
 of vour fencing twelve feet, and part fourteen feet long, 
 and then you can cut the top brace-board from the twelve- 
 foot lumber, and the other two from the fourteen. 
 
 That this is a cheap fence is easily seen. If the up- 
 rights are made of two by two inch stuff, it takes but 
 three feet of lumber for them. It will not cost for the 
 labor, more than five cents a panel to make it, and two 
 cents to set it up; while to make a post-and- board fence 
 costs twenty-five cents a panel for labor, and two posts, 
 which, if good locust is used, will cost twenty-five cents 
 each. 
 
 A three-board fence of this kind will turn cattle. A 
 flat stone, or piece of board, can be placed under each of 
 the uprights of this fence, so as to prevent all contact 
 with the earth, and keep them from rotting. I would 
 not do this until the fence was built, as it will be easier 
 
40 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 to put tliem under then than when setting up the panels. 
 I feel confident that if this fence is given a fair trial, it 
 will come largely into use for the division fences of the 
 farm. All the fence except the uprights should be of 
 pine, or light lumber. When made of heavy lumber, it 
 is more liable to sag. 
 
 LESS FENCING. 
 
 There is one important point in connection with the 
 fence question, to which I wish to call especial atten- 
 tion, and that is, that farmers build too much fence. I 
 see no reason why forty, sixty, or eighty acres of the best 
 plow land on the farm should not be thrown into one 
 field, and so managed as to turn no stock on it. I have 
 practiced this for fifteen years on my own farm, and am 
 much pleased with it. I find that a crop of clover al- 
 lowed to grow and develop fully, so as to be cut for hay 
 and seed, or the second growth turned under, helps the 
 land more than when pastured off, and I believe that 
 clay lands are often as much damaged by the tramping 
 of the stock as they are benefitted by the clover. With 
 our modern implements for saving the crops, we need 
 not leave grain on the fields for the stock to glean, and 
 we can make as great a profit, and keep the land up 
 better, by farming our best land without fences. If 
 there is land not well suited for tillage, it can be kept 
 in permanent pasture. If all the farm can be culti- 
 vated, it might have one permanent fence dividing 
 it through the middle; and the self-supporting fence 
 described can be moved to fence off any particular part 
 3'ou wish to pasture. The exercise of thought and judg- 
 ment in the matter of fencing the farm, using the best 
 material where a permanent fence is needed, and dis- 
 pensing with all unnecessary fences, by increasing the 
 size of fields, and using the portable fence where it can 
 
FENCING. 41 
 
 be used to advantage, will enable many farmers to re- 
 duce the expense of fencing their farms at least one-half. 
 
 GATES. 
 
 If I wish to get a pretty close estimate of the charac- 
 ter of a man, I go and look at his gates. If I find them 
 secure, well hung, well fastened and easy to open and 
 easy to shut, moving almost with a touch of the finger, 
 I conclude he is a thrifty, careful man, and is having 
 success in farming. If, on the other hand, I find them 
 hung by one broken hinge, or on a sagging post, so that 
 they have to be dragged around through the mud, and 
 become nearly blockaded with every snow, with latches 
 or hooks out of order — or altogether wanting — and the 
 gate propped up with a pole or rail, I judge that in all 
 his work and all his business, he is as shiftless and 
 careless as he is with his gates, and that his success in 
 farming will be so small that the less business dealings 
 I have with him the more profitable it will be for me. 
 
 From the number of dragging gates one sees in the 
 country, it might be imagined that the hanging of a 
 gate so it will not sag or drag, is one of the unsolved 
 problems of the day ; but, in point of fact, only three 
 things are needed: 
 
 First. Common sense. 
 
 Second. A well built gate. 
 
 Third. A well set post. 
 
 The lack of the first, displayed in many gates and 
 gate posts, is really astonishing. 
 
 The lack of the second is found in gates made »ut of 
 soft lumber, badly braced, and often twice as heavy as 
 need be. 
 
 The lack of the third is seen in poor, spindling gate- 
 posts, which look as if they had gro;^'n in a dry summer, 
 set in the ground so short a distance that every frost 
 
42 SUCCESS IN KARMING. 
 
 throws them out of position, and which, as soon as the 
 ground becomes thoroughly softened with rain, yield to 
 the side draft of the gate. 
 
 Now that bolts are so cheap, a good gate may be 
 made without a mortise. It should be made of hard, 
 lasting Avood, except the slats, which should be no larger 
 than necessary, as lightness is very desirable. At the 
 hinge end, a strip, one by four inches, is put up on each 
 side of the slats, and securely bolted through. The 
 same is done at the latch end, but the uprights may be 
 lighter. Two three inch slats — which need not be more 
 than three-fourths of an inch thick — extend from the 
 bottom of the gate at the hinge end to the top at the 
 latch end, and a bolt put through at each slat, passing 
 through both braces and slat. An extra strip may be 
 put on to each side of the top slat at the hinge end, and 
 the hinge, which should be a long strap one, securely 
 bolted through. A gate thus built may rot down, but 
 will never sag. When finished it should have two good 
 coats of paint, and the lumber of which it is made 
 should be thoroughly primed before the gate is put to- 
 gether. Every gate on the farm should be long enough 
 to allow the reaper to pass through. 
 
 The post on which the gate hangs, should be at least 
 eight inches square. The portion set in the ground 
 may v/ell be left unsquared. Bear in mind that the 
 larger the piece of timber set in the ground, the greater 
 the force required to drag it over, as it exposes a greater 
 surface to the earth. 
 
 Forty inches is the least depth a post, intended to 
 support a heavy gate, should be set in the earth, and 
 four feet is better. A heavy sill, laid at the level of the 
 ground, and exactly fitting between the two gate-posts, 
 will not only make it impossible for pigs to root under 
 
FENCING. 43 
 
 the gate, but will make it almost impossible for the post 
 to get out of perpendicular in that direction — and if 
 set as above directed, it is not liable to lean in any other 
 direction, unless the gate is left open a great deal. 
 
 The fastening of a gate may be either a latch, a hook, 
 or a peg. If the latter, the peg should be fastened to 
 the post by a strap, to prevent it from being lost or car- 
 ried away. When a gate is well built, as above de- 
 scribed, so as never to sag, there» is no reason why it 
 should not be fastened with a latch, that will need only 
 that rtie gate be pushed to. 
 
 The approaches to the gate on both sides should be 
 thoroughly graveled, so as to make a muddy gateway — 
 one of the greatest abominations on the farm — an impos- 
 sibility. The 3'oung man who has, every time he comes 
 to a gate in wet weather, to get out of the wagon, wade 
 through deep mud, carry round one end of a heavy, drag- 
 ging gate, drive the team through, go back, drag the gate 
 to, prop it with a rail, and get back into the wagon with 
 wet feet, boots muddied to the top, and a temper sadly 
 ruffled, must either be deeply attached to the occupation 
 of agriculture, or else sadly lacking in appreciation of 
 <;omfort in life, if he do not begin to look for some occu- 
 pation attended with less hard and disagreeable inci- 
 dents of work. 
 
 But some one objects that it will be an expensive job 
 to set a gate in this manner. Yes, it will cost some- 
 thing; but the time wasted in using such gates as we 
 often see, will amount to much more in a single j^ear 
 than the entire cost of gate, post, labor and graveling. 
 Of course it would be folly to go to this expense for 
 gates in places where they will be used but seldom. In 
 such places a light lift-gate costs but little, and is prefer- 
 able to a poorly hung hinge-gate. 
 
44 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 It should be made like th.e movable panel, before de- 
 scribed, except that the top board need not project, and 
 it should be made of good light lumber, well put together. 
 What would be the hinge-end stands between two stakes, 
 fastened together at the top, the one on the side towards 
 which the gate opens being a little more than its width 
 back of the other, so that the gate will not bind on them 
 when opened. One of the boards of the gate rests on a 
 piece of hard board with a rounded edge, nailed across 
 from one stake to the other. Of course, the bottom 
 board should clear the ground by two or three inches. 
 The latch-end goes in between two stakes. To open this 
 gate, 3'ou will slide it back enough to clear the stakes 
 at the latch-end, and then carry that end around. 
 
 One concluding point : In gates, as in fences, have as 
 few as possible ; for every gate is an extra expense, and 
 even the best occasion, in the course of a year, a great 
 amount of lost time. The intelligent farmer can think 
 over this point and draw his own conclusions. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DRAINAGE. 
 
 It is no part of the plan of the present work to furnish 
 an exhaustive treatise on drainage. Volumes have been 
 written on the subject, and doubtless more will be. The 
 man who has a large farm requiring extensive and syste- 
 matic drainage — in which he expects to spend hundreds 
 or thousands of dollars, will do well to invest a few dol- 
 lars in some of the complete and excellent works on the 
 subject that are now in existence, and secure the assist- 
 ance of a civil engineer. 
 
 The object of this book is to be an aid to the practical 
 farmer in the ordinary work of the farm, and the drain- 
 age of a field, or portion of a field, often becomes an im- 
 portant part of this ordinary work. 
 
 I would tf ish to relieve the average farmer of the idea 
 which is sometimes entertained, that it is hopeless to at- 
 tempt anything in the way of drainage unless he can 
 employ a civil engineer and have it done scientifically. 
 In the great majority of our western farms, the average 
 farmer, with the exercise of an average amount of com- 
 mon sense, can manage the entire matter. 
 
 I shall not in this article say aught concerning stone, 
 or board, or straw, or brush, or any of the other mater- 
 ials that have sometimes been used for drains, for prac- 
 tical experience has narrowed the matter to the use of 
 common round tiles, and we have no space to waste in 
 explaining methods that ought never to be used. 
 
46 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 WHAT ADVANTAGE IS THERE IN DNDERDRAINING ? 
 
 It prevents the drowning out of crops in wet seasons. 
 
 It enables the farmer to work the soil earlier in the 
 epring and sooner after rains. 
 
 It prevents the souring of the soil caused by excessive 
 moisture. 
 
 It lessens the risk of freezing out in winter grain. 
 
 It lessens the risk of surface washing. 
 
 It keeps the ground moist and the crops growing in a 
 dry season. 
 
 It makes the ground warmer. 
 
 It permits a more thorough pulverization of the soil. 
 
 It increases the fertility of the soil. 
 
 To read this list of advantages may at first make one 
 think of the advertisements of some patent medicines 
 which are warranted to cure all and the most dissimilar 
 complaints, but there is not one of the above points but 
 what has been demonstrated practicall}', and can be ex- 
 plained scientifically. 
 
 HOW DRAINAGE 13 BENEFICIAL. 
 
 To comprehend this we must consider as briefly as 
 possible some of the characteristics of the Soil, and the 
 requirements of successful plant growth. 
 
 No soil can produce useful crops when it is perma- 
 nently saturated with water. — Such a soil may grow 
 reeds and rushes, but not crops of wheat or corn. 
 
 The best condition of soil for successful plant growth 
 is found when the particles of the soil are moist, but 
 when there is no standing water between these particles. 
 
 Whatever means will bring about this condition, will 
 accomplish all the results just stated as being accom- 
 plished by underdrainage. 
 
 In wet seasons, if no adequate means are provided for 
 removing the excess of moisture that falls upon the soil. 
 
I>UAINAGE. 47 
 
 it will be continually saturated and the crops will be 
 drowned out. Underdrainage, by furnishing means for 
 the escape of the surplus water prevents this. 
 
 It needs no argument to prove that underdraining en- 
 ables the ground to be worked earlier in the spring and 
 sooner after rains, but farmers should consiHer the ad- 
 vantage connected with this. The success or failure of 
 a crop may often be determined by the time when the 
 ground for them can be prepared. 
 
 Water standing in the soil causes the vegetable mat- 
 ter to undergo what chemistry calls the acetic fermenta- 
 tion, thus rendering the soil sour and unfit for cultiva- 
 tion; of course underdrainage removes this evil by remov-. 
 ing the cause. 
 
 The "freezing out" of winter grain is not occasioned 
 by the excessive cold, but by the formation of ice in the 
 upper part of the soil, which thi'ows out the plant and 
 leaves it to perish. If the soil is underdrained the water 
 passes off through the drains instead of remaining in the 
 surface soil and this injury is avoided. 
 
 If the soil is full of water, that which falls upon it in 
 a rain must flow off over the surface, carrying with it 
 much of the best and finest of the soil, and often doing 
 much damage. — Underdraining leaves the pores of the 
 soil empt}', so that the water falling upon it sinks directly 
 in, to be ultimately carried off by the drains. As an 
 illustration of this may be noted that even steep hill 
 sides in some of the north-eastern counties of Ohio, where 
 the subsoil is gravel, which forms a natural underdrain- 
 age, do not wash at all, while comparatively level fields 
 in sections resting on tough clay or hard pan, are contin- 
 ually being gullied out by the surface watei*. 
 
 All these points are reasonably clear, but we now come 
 to a claim that at first seems paradoxical: — How can 
 
48 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 draining land keep it moist and the crops growing in a 
 dry season ? 
 
 First. By enabling the farmer to thoroughly pulver- 
 ize the soil, and I shall show in discussing pulverization 
 how that fits the soil for drawing up moisture from 
 below. 
 
 Second, By preventing the soil from becoming baked 
 and cloddy. When a soil is saturated with water, and 
 becomes dry simply by evaporation, it hardens and 
 bakes so that it is incapable of receiving moisture either 
 from the air above or the earth below. 
 
 Third. By causing the plants to send their roots 
 deeper into the soil. When a plant begins to grow in 
 the spring in an undraiued soil, the roots will not 
 penetrate into the cold lower soil filled with stagnant 
 water, but run along through the few inches of drier sur- 
 face. When the dry weather comes the sun completely 
 dries this out, and the plant having no other source of 
 si^^ply, perishes. On land that has been underdrained, 
 the soil is left in the condition described as most favor- 
 able for plant growth: moist, but with no standing water 
 between the particles, and the plant sends its roots far 
 and deep. When the sun of summer' dries th6 surface of 
 the ground, the plant has communication With the cool 
 moist soil far below. 
 
 The past season, 1881, has demonstrated the truth of 
 this claim beyond a question. The best crops were grown 
 on the well drained fields. 
 
 Underdrainage makes the ground warmer: 
 
 Fii'st. By admitting the warm air into the soil. As 
 fast as the water is drawn off from below, the warm air 
 follows, penetrating and warming the soil. 
 
 Second. Because a dry soil can be warmed more read- 
 ily than a wet one. 
 
DRAINAGE. 49 
 
 Third. Because evaporation is avoided. Every one 
 who has ever been caught in a shower of rain, and stood 
 with his wet clothes on, knows how the evaporation of 
 the water chills him. Science teaches us that the evap- 
 oration of one pound of water requires four times as 
 much heat as would be required to raise the same amount 
 from the freezing to the boiling point. We see therefore 
 that if the water that falls upon the soil remains until 
 removed by evaporation, all the heat which should be 
 making the soil warm is being wasted in evaporating the 
 water. 
 
 Everybody knows that if a jug of water is wrapped up 
 in a wet flannel, the water in the jug will not get warm 
 as long as the flannel is kept soaked with water. Just 
 so with the soil. It will not get warm as long as the 
 surface is full of water. 
 
 Experiment has demonstrated the truth of theory in 
 this matter. One experimenter made a number of tests 
 in two adjoining fields, one drained, the other undrained. 
 The average temperature of the soil in the field that had 
 been drained was 6^ degrees higher than in the other. 
 Further experiments have fully confirmed these. 
 
 And this adds another to the reasons why drainage 
 enables the earlier cultivation of a field and lengthens the 
 season: the ground becomes warmer so much earlier in 
 the spring and remains warm later in the fall. 
 
 Drainage increases the fertility of the soil in exactly 
 the same way as pulverizing does — b}'' enabling the soil 
 to absorb fertility from the atmosphere. I describe in 
 the article on pulverization the absorptive power of dry 
 earth; but soil saturated with water not only cannot be 
 penetrated by the air, but also is incapable of absorbing 
 any fertility from it. Therefore, thorough drainage adds 
 greatly to the fertility of the soil. 
 
50 
 
 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 WILL IT PAY TO DRAIN. 
 
 This is certainly one of the most important questions 
 connected with the whole subject. No matter how scien- 
 tific the theory or desirable the results — if the cost is 
 greater than the accruing profits, the man who would 
 have success in farming will wisely leave drainage for 
 the amateur who farms for love and not for profit. 
 
 Sometimes, in our western states, land may be found 
 that is utterly worthless, but which would yield unfail- 
 ing crops if thoroughly and systematically drained. Here 
 the reader will sa}^ is certainly a place where drainage 
 will pay. — But wait, perhaps it will cost $50 per acre to 
 reclaim this land, while equally good land can be bought 
 for $15 or $20 per acre, that needs no drainage. In this, 
 as in everything else on the farm, common sense is the 
 necessary guide. 
 
 In many sections an expenditure of from $10 to $20 per 
 acre will accomplish the desired result, and where corn 
 brings 40 cents, and wheat $1 per bushel, the increased 
 yield, even in the favorable years, will far more than pay 
 the interest on the investment, and in exceptionally wet 
 or dry seasons, the drained land will often produce a 
 good crop, while the undrained will produce none — and 
 this single crop more than pay the whole original cost. 
 An excellent illustration of this will be round iu the 
 chapter on wheat. 
 
 HOW DOES THE WATER ENTER THE TILE? 
 
 This question is often asked, and is of some impor- 
 tance, as some persons get the idea that it is necessary 
 to leave spaces between the tiles to admit the water — 
 which spaces admit stones and dirt, and sometimes oc- 
 casion the stoppage of the drain. 
 
 The water enters partly through the spaces between 
 the tiles, which, even when they are laid as closely as 
 
DRAINAGE. 51 
 
 possible, are far more than sufficient for this purpose. 
 The true plan in laying tile is to make the joints fit as 
 closely as possible, and no uneasiness need be expe- 
 rienced lest the water will not find its way in. 
 
 HOW TO DRAIN. 
 
 Before beginning the work of draining, the farmer 
 should decide what he intends to do. There are many 
 farms where nothing more is needed than to put in here 
 and there a short line of tile to bring some low or springy 
 spot into cultivation and the fields into good shape, and 
 here the matter of draining is quite easy. Even on 
 farms where a larger amount of draining is needed, the 
 slope of the land may be such as to give a uniform fall, 
 and to indicate plainly how the drains should be laid 
 out. What I would caution the farmer against who lacks 
 experience in this matter, is making a wrong start where 
 the fall is but slight, and a general system of drains is 
 required. On such a farm it may be necessary to ex- 
 pend a much larger sum than the farmer feels that he 
 can spare at once, and if he begins with one or two hun- 
 dred dollars a work that will require a thousand to com- 
 plete, it is important that the money be spent in putting 
 in main drains, with tile of sufficient size, so that at some 
 future time laterals can be cut and arranged to dis- 
 charge into the mains. It is a good plan always to so 
 lay out the drains that there will be no difficulty in 
 knowing exactly where to dig to tap them; and this is 
 especially important in such cases as the above. Lay 
 out the drains by line if possible, and make a plot of 
 them in your account book, giving land-marks and meas- 
 urements. 
 
 The most important part of your drain is the outlet. 
 Make sure of a good fall, so that the water will flow 
 readily from it, and see that it is protected from stock. 
 
52 SUCCESS IN FAKMING. 
 
 If the shape of the land is such that a strong stream of 
 water is likely to run over the surface in a heavy rain, 
 divide it if possible a few rods above the mouth of the 
 drain, and cause part to flow on each side at a little dis- 
 tance from the drain. Always begin digging a ditch at 
 the lowest point, and see that it is graded properly before 
 beginning to lay the tile, and then begin laying the tile at 
 the upper end, and fill as you go. The grade should be 
 uniform, and the best way to level the bottom of a ditch, 
 particularly if one is inexperienced, is to have the water 
 flowing through it, as this will enable you to detect at 
 once any inequality. There must be no low places in 
 the bottom of the ditch, for if there are, the drain will 
 inevitably fill up. As to depth and distance apart to lay 
 tile, there can no general rule be given, as to answer this 
 question one must understand the soil and circum- 
 stances. Many writers recommend a uniform depth of 
 four feet; but, although drains act in proportion to their 
 depth, there are soils in which it would bo cheaper to 
 lay two drains two feet deep and as many rods apart, 
 than half the number four feet deep and four rods apart. 
 The drains on my farm are none of them over two feet 
 deep, and in some places we struck the limestone at 
 twenty inches, and yet they do good service and drain to 
 a greater distance than we are usually led to believe 
 drains will act. As a proof how far a drain two feet deep 
 will act, I will give a fact in my own experience. There 
 is a neighbor whose farm joins mine, and I own the land 
 both south and west of him. About an acre of liis land 
 in this corner was so wet that for many years no crops 
 could be grown on it, and often in the spring there would 
 be water standing on it, when twenty rods away the land 
 was in good condition to plow. On the south of this, at 
 a distance of forty feet from the line, I put down a lat- 
 
DRAINAGE. 53 
 
 eral drain, and two others at the distance of forty and 
 eighty feet from the first, running them parallel with the 
 line till the}- entered my main drain, the water in which 
 flows to the south-east. At a distance of about sixteen 
 rods from my neighbor's west line is the head of a drain 
 which runs north-west on my north farm. These drains 
 of mine have so thoroughly drained this land of my 
 neighbor's that he now grows good crops on it; and al- 
 though this is a heavy clay soil, these drains show their 
 effect for at least twenty rods. 
 
 SIZE OF TILE 
 
 Is another question which requires the exercise of judg- 
 ment. Where the fall is such as to give a strong cur- 
 rent, a tile of given size will carry much more water than 
 where there is little fall and a sluggish current. The 
 length of the drain must also be taken into account, and 
 if long, it will often be necessary to use a larger tile to- 
 wards the mouth than at the head, to carry the accumu- 
 lation of water. I have found a three-inch tile lai'ge 
 enough for all single lines where the distance was not 
 great, and use larger for main lines into which to run lat- 
 erals. I would not advise the use of tile less than two 
 inches in the clear under any circumstances. 
 
 There is often much unnecessaiy labor in digging a 
 ditch, in digging too wide and thus removing unneces- 
 saiy earth. Buy suitable tools, and be careful to lay out 
 the ditch straight and as narrow as you can work in, and 
 this will be avoided. Do not put in defective tiles. 
 See that each will ring, and reject all that fail to do so. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FERTILIZATION. 
 
 A vital question to the modern farmer is bow to main- 
 tain the fertility of the soil, or, what is still more diffi- 
 cult, restore fertility to soils that have been impover- 
 ished. 
 
 The American farmer, from the fact that land has 
 been cheap and abundant, has been exceedingl}^ prodigal 
 of its fertility. Until quite a recent period, there was so 
 much virgin soil to be cleared, that the farmer, as he 
 found his fields declining in productiveness, had only 
 with ax and torch to conquer from the wilderness another 
 field, rich with the plant food which had slowl}' accumu- 
 lated for ages. And even when the limit was reached in 
 our Central States, the great West, with its countless 
 acres of the richest soil, was waiting to welcome him. 
 Under these conditions, our system of farming grew to 
 be a wasteful one, and for many 3^ears the yield of crops 
 declined on much of the land that had been long under 
 cultivation. 
 
 For some j^ears past, there has been a gradual change 
 for the better in our sj'stem of farming. Farmers are 
 beginning to ask earnestly: "How can we maintain or 
 increase the fertility of our lands?" and many old fields 
 have been brought back to a yield which equals that of 
 the days of their virgin fertility. I think there are farm • 
 ers who honestly believe that the legitimate and inevita- 
 ble result of farming is to exhaust the soil, and that a 
 
HOME-MADK MANURES. 55 
 
 farm, like a piece of macMner}', will wear out and be- 
 come worthless. The problem we are called to solve is, 
 to restore fertility to lands already impoverished, and to 
 so manage our farms as to maintain or increase their 
 productiveness. 
 
 In doing this, we are to make use of: 
 
 Home-made manures; ' 
 
 Green manures; 
 
 Kotation of crops ; 
 
 Pulverization; 
 
 Commercial manures. 
 
 I have arranged these somewhat in the order of their 
 importance and value to the farmer, although it is a 
 little difficult to give each one its relative position. 
 They are all of exceeding importance, and largely de- 
 pendent upon one another, and may all be combined in 
 farm management. The first four certainly cannot well 
 be separated. I have put commercial manures last, be- 
 cause I believe that home resources should be utilized 
 before money is spent to purchase plant food. 
 
 HOME-MADE MANURES. 
 
 How shall we get the most? 
 
 How shall we manage it so as to have it in the best 
 condition? 
 
 How and to what crops shall we apply it? 
 
 Under the system of farming generally practiced, a 
 very large part of the manure is wasted. The barn-yard 
 is not arranged with reference to saving manure. It 
 should, while large enough to accommodate the stock, 
 be small enough so that it could be deeply covered with 
 straw, or the waste of the corn fodder, so as to retain the 
 
56 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 liquid, and should be so shaped that water could neither 
 enter it from the adjoining land, or flow from it. To 
 this barn-yard should be brought all the straw and corn 
 stalks on the farm, and instead of allowing the cattle to 
 tramp over the fields pasturing off the stalks through the 
 winter, they should (when not in the stables) be kept in 
 here from the time grass fails in the fall until turned on 
 pasture in the spring. 
 
 The farmer growing an average of forty or fifty acres 
 of corn and wheat each year, and who has followed the 
 old plan of stacking his straw in the woods, and pastur- 
 ing his stalk fields, will be astonished at the bulk of good 
 manure he can save in a year if this plan is followed. 
 
 I would recommend that the stable floors be made 
 water-tight, and enough bedding used to save all the 
 liquid, and that the manure from the stables be wheeled 
 out and spread eVenly over the barn-yard, so as to be 
 mixed with the coarser material. This barn-yard is to 
 be the farmer's chemical laboratory, where the waste ma- 
 terial of the farm, and that which is oSensive is trans- 
 muted into gold. 
 
 While the barn-yard is the main, it is not the only, 
 source of fertilizers on the farm. Both the poultry- 
 house and priv}"" supply a fertilizer nearly or quite equal 
 in value to the commercial fertilizers for which we pay 
 $30 to $40 per ton. Either of these may be prepared for 
 use so that the}^ will be as pleasant to handle as dust 
 from the road, and make a powerful and valuable ma- 
 nure. I think that the manure from a dozen fowls will 
 amount to a barrel or more a year, and in an experiment 
 I made two years ago on wheat land, one barrel of hen 
 manure, finely pulverized and drilled in with the wheat 
 on an acre, gave as heavy a crop as the adjoining acre 
 with twelve loads of stable manure. The contents of the 
 
HOMK-MADE manu::es. 57 
 
 "box under the privy and the droppings from the hen- 
 roost should be taken up every week and thrown in a 
 bin prepared for the purpose, under cover, and enough 
 dry earth scattered over it to prevent any escape of 
 ammonia, and four weeks before it is wanted for use, it 
 should be moistened with the strongest manure water 
 you can get, so as to cause fermentation. If it is partly 
 decomposed, so that it will not ferment readily, add one- 
 fourth its bulk of wheat bran — which is of itself a cheap 
 and good fertilizer — and a violent fermentation will at 
 once take place. When you wish an active fermentation 
 with manure of any kind, pile it up in a conical heap. 
 As soon as this is thoroughly hot, level it down to six or 
 eight inches deep, scatter a little plaster over it and turn 
 it every day, beating it with the shovel so as to make it 
 fine. In a week or so, sift it through a mason's sieve, 
 and if there is much that will not pass through, mix a 
 little more bran with it, wet up and heat, and go through 
 the same process again. This makes an exceedingly 
 ■valuable manure, especially to use in the garden, or in 
 the hill for melons, and when dry it is oderless. It also 
 feeds through the fertilizer drill as readily as bone meal. 
 What I have said above about stable manure relates 
 mainl3' to quantity. I wish to recommend the thorough 
 fining of manure, that its quality and availability may be 
 improved. We should recollect that manure can onl}^ be 
 assimilated by the plant when soluble, and that decom- 
 position is much more rapid in the compost heap than in 
 the soil. Many farmers object to the labor of turning 
 and handling manure in the barn-yard; but as manure 
 is valuable, not for its bulk, but for the available plant 
 food it contains, I am convinced that by turning and 
 fining we can so reduce the bulk and increase its availa- 
 bility as to more than pay for the labor. Manure, 
 
S8 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 tramped down in the stable or barn-yard is impervious 
 to air, and fermentation is suspended, and vfhen we wish 
 to prepare it for use, we fork it up, so as to admit the air 
 and start fermentation. It is best always to do this af- 
 ter a heavy rain, as moisture is necessary. 
 
 If the manure is wanted for a hot-bed, or we want the 
 quickest fermentation we can get, make the heap conical 
 and six or eight feet high, but it must not be left many 
 days in this shape, or it will fire-fang. The best plan, 
 where a slow decomposition is wanted, is to make the 
 heap four feet high and perfectly flat. In from ten to 
 twenty days this manure may be turned again, and these 
 handlings will reduce its bulk at least one-half — if it was 
 coarse and strawy — and will make it of uniform quality, 
 and quickly available to the plant. 
 
 During many years's experience as a gardener, I have 
 had occasion to test this matter of thoroughly decompos- 
 ing and fining manure, and I believe that a load of good 
 stable manure, so finely pulverized that it could be sifted, 
 applied to a half acre, would produce a heavier growth, 
 particularly of small grain or grass, than four loads of 
 equally good manure, spread on as it is ordinarily ap- 
 plied. 
 
 After considerable observation and experiment with 
 manure, I have come to the conclusion that I get a better 
 return from it when applied at the surface, and that it 
 pays better when applied to wheat than to other field 
 crops. Manured wheat is rarely a failure. Fly, frost, 
 rust, chinch bug, and other enemies soon overcome a 
 wheat plant which already lacks vitality and vigor, but 
 rarely a vigorous one grown on a well manured soil; and 
 this is to be taken into account in estimating the value 
 of manure. Another reason why I like surface manur- 
 ing for wheat is that the young plant may immediately 
 
GREEN MANURING. 59 
 
 feel its benefit and make a good start for winter. When 
 the manure is plowed under deeply, the wheat gets 
 but little benefit from it the first autumn, just when it 
 most needs it. Still another reason for using manure 
 on wheat and as a top dressing is, that it assists us to 
 grow a clover crop at the same time the wheat crop is 
 growing, and this clover crop is a grand pulverizer and 
 fertilizer. There is little difficulty in bringing run-down 
 land to a high state of productiveness if we can get clo- 
 ver to grow on it, and a light dressing of manure at the 
 surface makes a capital seed bed for the clover. The 
 farmer who follows a system of rotation of crops, uses all 
 his manure on wheat, and always sows clover with his 
 wheat, will not need manure on his corn crop, and will 
 rarely if ever fail to be paid for his manure from the 
 first wheat crop. 
 
 GREEN MANURING. 
 
 If asked which I considered the most important to the 
 farmer, stable manure or green manures, I should an- 
 swer, " This ought ye to have done, and not have left the 
 other undone." I should not be willing to farm without 
 either. 
 
 There is this in favor of green manuring, that there is 
 very little labor about it, and we avoid the dirt and dis- 
 agreeable odors which stable manures always have. I 
 have experimented enough with clover to lead me to de- 
 termine that the second growth, plowed under in July, 
 after the first crop has been either cut for hay or pas- 
 tured, is worth to the succeeding wheat crop as much as 
 a dressing of ten loads of manure per acre. The differ- 
 ence in the cost of fertilizing by these two methods is 
 great. Clover seed must be unusuallyhigh if the cost of 
 
60 SUCCESS IN FAKMING. 
 
 seeding is over $1 per acre, while the cost of hauling and 
 spreading ten loads of manure, even if on the farm, 
 would be about three times this, and the actual cost of 
 manure applied to the field, will rarely fall short of $1 
 per load, and often exceed it. One of the fairest tests I 
 ever made of the comparative value of stable manure and 
 clover was on some impoverished land on which I have 
 been experimenting for some j^ears. As I shall devote 
 a short section to this land, I will not give the details 
 here. I recollect a remarkable yield of corn from clover 
 manuring about 1861. I owned a field of cold clay land 
 on which I found it difficult to grow paying crops. Corn 
 rarely made over twentj^-five bushels to the acre; but 
 one year, when wheat was nearly a failure, I had a 
 splendid growth of clover. I did not pasture it in the 
 fall or the following spring, and by the first week in May 
 it was six inches high. I turned it under and had fifty 
 bushels of excellent corn to the acre, which, knowing the 
 quality of the land, was a surprise tome. As I think 
 over my experience with clover as a fertilizer, I can say 
 I have never been disappointed with it. Some fail to 
 get much benefit from it because they pasture it the 
 first season while it is young and tender, or turn on it 
 in spring, and feed it off so short that it never makes 
 growth enough to shade the soil or develop its roots 
 properly. I shall devote a chapter to clover, in which I 
 shall more fully discuss its value and proj^er manage- 
 ment. My practice has been ever since I began farm- 
 ing, and my advice to all is to sow clover with every 
 acre of small grain. It is the cheapest and best fertil- 
 izer in America. 
 
 Another valuable plant for green manuring is rye. It 
 can be grown between two crops of corn, and so costs 
 nothing for rent of land. It will attain its full growth 
 
GREEN MANURING. 61 
 
 80 that it can be plowed under from the first to the 
 twentieth of May, according as the season is early or 
 late. 1 have found the cora crop largely increased the 
 second j^ear after I had plowed in a crops of rye, and its 
 mechanical effects are very marked and beneficial. As 
 I intend to devote one chapter to " Ryfe on the Farm," I 
 will leave it for the present. 
 
 Another crop which is worthy of careful experiment 
 for the purpose of green manuring is corn. A very 
 heavy growth can be made in a few weeks; and when 
 clover fails, the wheat stubble may be plowed and corn 
 sown, which will attain a heavy growth before frost. I 
 have grown twenty tons, green, per acre when sown July 
 23rd. A neighbor two years ago tried this experiment, 
 plowing the crop under as soon as the frost killed it, and 
 was much pleased with the result, the corn on the field 
 next year showing to a row by its rank growth, where 
 the green crop was plowed under. 
 
 Buckwheat makes an exceedingly rapid growth, and 
 has an excellent effect in pulverizing stubborn soils. It 
 has been claimed by experimenters and scientific men 
 that buckwheat, when plowed under, destroj^s insects in 
 the soil. This is a matter worthy of consideration and 
 careful experiment. 
 
 I would recommend the following experiment in green 
 manuring on exhausted land: Seed heavily with rye in 
 autumn; plow this under when in bloom and seed with 
 buckwheat, and as soon as this was large enough plow 
 it down and sow four bushels of corn to the acre and 
 plow the latter under as soon as killed by frost. 
 
 There are millions of acres of land cultivated from 
 year to j^ear that do not yield a cent of profit — many of 
 them at an actual loss — and for which it is impossible 
 to get manure; and if they can be renovated by green 
 
62 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 manuring, it is time farmers knew it. I doubt if one 
 farmer in ten thousand can tell whether it would pay to 
 give a field the treatment I suggest; and yet how easy it 
 would be to experiment with a single acre and settle the 
 question. 
 
 The benefit from green manures seems to be more than 
 the actual plant food they furnish, for their mechanical 
 effect opens the soil to atmospheric influences, and in 
 some way which I cannot explan, the simple shading of the 
 soil enriches it. Harlan, in his book on Farming with 
 Green Manures, alludes to this, and tells of an English 
 farmer who, leaving a door lying on a f:ilIow field for 
 several months, found that for several 3^ears the crops 
 were heavier on that spot, as though some rich manure 
 had been applied. The great benefit of clover is sup- 
 posed to be partlj^ due to the dense shade it gives to the 
 soil. Whatever is the Cause of the increased fertility, 
 whether actual plant food, chemical action of the de- 
 ca3ang plants in the soil, the mechanical eff'ect, shade, or 
 all combined, the fact remains that green manuring of- 
 fers a cheap and satisfactory method of increasing the 
 fertility of the soil, and especially of restoring worn-out 
 lands, and the wise farmer will push his investigations 
 in this direction. 
 
 With all that has been said in favor of green manur- 
 ing, I would not give the impression that the farmer who 
 follows this sj'stem would thereby be justified in allow- 
 ing the manure from the barn-yard and other sources to 
 be wasted; but the best results will come from a combi- 
 nation of the two, using the stable manure with refer- 
 ence to growing a fertilizing crop. 
 
 COMMERCIAL MANURES. 
 
 It is only within a few years that these have been used 
 
COMMERCIAL MANUltES. 63 
 
 to any extent on Western farms, and it is doubtful if 
 one farmer in twenty has used them at all. In most 
 localities they have now gained a foothold, and their sale 
 is rapidly increasing. I wish first to correct a misappre- 
 hension concerning them which I find prevalent among 
 farmers, namely, that they are only stimulants and that 
 their use, while it will produce increased crops for a 
 while, will ultimately impoverish the soil. This is a 
 mistake, for commercial fertilizers furnish plant food, 
 and cause an increase of crops in the same way as stable 
 manure. The error of supposing that they are only 
 stimulants has probably arisen from the fact that they 
 do not, like stable manures, furnish all the necessary ele- 
 ments of plant food. By the continued and exclusive 
 use of a commercial fertilizer containing some particular 
 element of plant food and deficient in others, heavy crops 
 may be gi'own which will ultimately exhaust the soil of 
 those elements wanting in the fertilizer. The remedy 
 for this trouble is to change the fertilizer, selecting one 
 rich in those ingredients which were wanting in the pre- 
 ceding one. 
 
 Commercial manures are not intended to take the place 
 of stable manure, but rather, to supplement it; and the 
 farmer should save and apply all the home-produced ma- 
 nures before spending money for others. Again, I would 
 not advise any farmer to invest largely in commercial 
 manures until he has tested them on his own land, for 
 they are not as uniform and certain in their action as 
 stable manure. 
 
 No farmer should purchase commercial fertilizers with 
 his eyes shut, but should consider carefully: Is this 
 fertilizer the one my soil needs? Is it adapted to the 
 crop I am growing? Is it worth the price charged for it? 
 
 The valuable constituents in all these fertilizers are 
 
64 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 ammonia, phosphoric acid and potash. A convention 
 of agricultural chemists has considered this question, 
 and agreed upon a standard valuation of these articles, 
 so that any farmer knowing the amount of each of these 
 in any given fertilizer, can arrive at a reasonably cor- 
 rect knowledge of its value to him. 
 
 One great advantage of using commercial manures — 
 on soils where they give good results — is, the ease with 
 which they are applied. With a drill with fertilizer at- 
 tachment it does not cost anything to aj^ply the manure, 
 for 3'ou can drill as many acres of wheat a day as you 
 could if not using the fertilizer. At present a fertilizer 
 drill costs about $25 or $30 more than an ordinary one, 
 but a manufacturer of my acquaintance has just patented 
 an improvement which he thinks will enable him to offer 
 a first-class drill with fertilizer attachment at a few dol- 
 lars above the cost of an ordinary drill. This drill will 
 be tested before this book goes to press, and if it proves 
 satisfactory, it will probably be advertised in the last 
 pages of the book. With the rapidly increasing use of 
 bone meal and other commercial fertilizers, and the ex- 
 cellent results from their use in many cases the wise 
 farmer who is purchasing a drill, will get one with fertil- 
 izer attachment, so that he will be prepared to use these 
 fertilizers if he finds them profitable. Poultry manure 
 can be easily prepared as I described in a former chap- 
 ter, so as to be drilled in. I have recently been in cor- 
 respondence with a manufacturer who is getting up a 
 hand mill for grinding bones, who claims that he can 
 furnish a cheap mill with which a man can grind from 
 50 to 100 pounds of bone an hour and with which dcy 
 manure of any kind can be reduced to powder. If this 
 can be done, such a machine will certainly be exceedingly 
 valuable. Bone meal is rich in phosphoric acid which is 
 
COMMERCIAL MANURES. 65 
 
 the element most needed for wheat and is the most last- 
 ing in character, and will benefit the succeeding crop, 
 particularly grass or clover more than the superphos- 
 phates, but the latter are usually more soluble and 
 quicker in their action and will give the wheat a quicker 
 start in the fall, which is an advantage in getting it well 
 rooted for winter. I know there are localities where the 
 wheat crop has been doubled by the use of these fertil- 
 izers, and every dollar expended for them has returned 
 two or three. My advice to every farmer is, to experi- 
 ment with them, and if you cannot get a fertilizer drill 
 use them broadcast and harrowed into a mellow surface. 
 This was the way I first tried bone meal, and I found as 
 good effects fi-om it as when drilled in with the wheat. 
 
 Although bone meal and superphosphates are the prin- 
 cipal commercial fertilizers, there are others which may 
 often be used with profit. In soils in which lime is de- 
 ficient, it can often be used to great advantage. All 
 plants contain it, some of them in large quantities, it 
 being found in straw, ha}^ leaves of fruit trees, peas, tur- 
 nips, etc., and constituting more than one-third of the 
 ash of red clover. 
 
 Lime has other uses besides furnishing the plant what 
 it needs. 
 
 It counteracts sourness in the soil. It aids the decom- 
 position of vegetable and animal matter. It breaks down 
 the mineral particles, and by these means prepares dif- 
 ferent parts of the soil for the use of plants. It is said 
 to exhaust the soil, but it only does it by producing 
 larger crops, as explained elsewhere in connection with 
 other commercial fertilizers, and the remedy is the same. 
 Lime is an alkali and corrects the acidity in soils by 
 uniting with and neutralizing the acids. Lime hastens 
 the rotting of organic matter in the soil, but should never 
 
 3 
 
06 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 be used in the compost heap, as it liberates the ammonia 
 and allows it to escape. Lime varies somewhat in its 
 composition, and as a rule, that which makes the best 
 wall plaster is best for the soil. One other fact in con- 
 nection with the use of lime is, that it has a tendency to 
 sink in the soil, and should always be applied at the 
 surface. 
 
 Salt. — This article is valuable as a fertilizer on some 
 crops and soils. It furnishes some portion of plant food 
 and by chemical action in some soils renders materials 
 already present available. One benefit from its use is 
 that it stiffens the straw by rendering soluble the silica 
 in the soil, and thus enables a crop of small grain to 
 stand and ripen which without it would lodge. It ma}' be 
 sown on wheat in the spring at the rate of three or four 
 bushels to the acre, and is also valuable in the compost 
 heap at the rate of a peck to the cord, as it will hasten 
 decomposition and destroy both weed seeds and insects. 
 Salt for fertilizing purposes may be had at a small cost 
 from packing houses or tanneries, and it is more valuable 
 than the fresh article. 
 
 One other commercial fertilizer is gypsum, or land 
 plaster. It is a constituent of many plants, and is an ex- 
 cellent absorbent of ammonia and useful to sprinkle in 
 stables, poultry houses, privies, etc., where it absorbs the 
 escaping gases, saving them for fertilizers and purifying 
 the air. When used as a fertilizer it should be applied 
 to growing crops and in small quantities, one hundred 
 pounds to the acre being a sufficient dressing. It is best 
 to sow it when the dew is on the grass or. on a damp day 
 so that it will adhere to the leaves. The most notable 
 advantage in plaster is obtained in its use on the clover 
 crop. Sown on this it not only largely increases the crop 
 but increases its value as a fertilizer. An interesting 
 
PULVERIZATION. 67 
 
 statement was made by a farmer at an agricultural meet- 
 ing which I attended, which was, that an application of 
 a mixture of two parts of plaster to one of salt, at the 
 rate of a barrel to eight acres saved his corn. from the 
 cut-worm and largely increased the 3'ield. The corn Was 
 on sod and the cut-worms kept it eaten to the ground 
 before the application and continued to work on a part 
 of the field on which the mixture was not applied, but 
 in twenty-four hours had entirely disappeared from the 
 part treated. 
 
 PULVERIZATION. 
 
 There is an adage that tillage is manure; but it is 
 only of late j^ears that the value and impoi'tance of thor- 
 ough pulverization of the soil has begun to be appre- 
 ciated. 
 
 There are two ways in which pulverization increases 
 the crop: First, by enabling the plant to readily obtain 
 from the soil the material it contains. Second, by actu- 
 ally increasing the amount of plant food in the soil. 
 The latter is the one we have to do with in this chapter, 
 and there are two scientific principles that must be un- 
 derstood before this matter can be made clear. 
 
 Certain solid bodies possess the property of absorbing 
 or taking up great quantities of gases and retaining 
 them. Dry earth possesses this power in a remarkable 
 degree, and the extent of it is in direct proportion to the 
 minuteness of its division. The best possible disinfec- 
 tant is now known to be dry earth, reduced to an im- 
 palpable powder; in this form it completely destroys 
 poisonous odors and gases by absorbing and retaining 
 them in an innocuous form. Earth, in hard lumps, does 
 
68 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 not possess this property in an}^ perceptible degree, and 
 a handful of dust is of more value as a disinfectant than 
 a bushel of clods. 
 
 The next principle is what is called capillar^^ attrac- 
 tion. This is the power that porous bodies have of not 
 only absorbing but of drawing up liquids. It is the 
 principle that causes the oil to rise in the wick of a lamp. 
 The power of porous bodies to thus elevate liquids is ex- 
 actlj'' in proportion to the fineness of the pores. Hang a 
 piece of coarse twine and a piece of very close, fine twine 
 with the end of each dipping into a vessel of water, and 
 it will be found that the water will rise much higher in 
 the latter than in the former. 
 
 A porous soil possesses this power of capillary attrac- 
 tion, and hence can, during a dry season, draw up water 
 from the moist subsoil below, exactly as a wick draws 
 up the oil from the lamp, and its power to thus draw up 
 moisture will be in exact proportion to the number and 
 fineness of the pores it contains. It can be seen in a 
 moment that the more thoroughly the soil is pulverized, 
 the more pores there will be through it and the smaller 
 they will be. A field of large clods will have compara- 
 tively few openings to the subsoil below, and these open- 
 ings so large that they have no power to draw up the 
 lower moisture. A field of finely pulverized soil, on the 
 other hand, will contain myriads of extremely minute 
 pores, that will act like so many pumps. 
 
 Now let us see how these two principles of "Absorp- 
 tion" and "Capillary Attraction" combine to fertilize 
 the well pulverized soil, and make true the statement 
 that " tillage is manure." 
 
 There are two great original sources of fertility, and 
 from these, at some time, all fertility must come — the 
 air above and the soil beneath. Ammonia, and other 
 
PULVERIZATION. 69 
 
 substances essential to plant life, are constantly present 
 in the atmosphere. The proportion is minute, but fully 
 sufficient, if secured, to make rich and productive fields. 
 Now, under the principle first laid down, of the power 
 possessed by finel}^ pulverized earth to absorb and retain 
 gaseous matters, it will be seen that a field, the surface 
 of which is constantly kept finely pulverized, will be as 
 constantly drinking up fertility from this unfailing 
 source, and that tillage will thus be continually increas- 
 ing the amount of plant food in the soil. 
 
 But we consider the other permanent source of fer- 
 tility — the subsoil. In this, decomposition is slowly 
 but surely progressing, and plant food is being set free 
 in an available form; the moisture of the subsoil is con- 
 stantly charged with useful salts. If we can but draw 
 these up within the reach of the crops, we shall again 
 increase the supply of food in the surface soil. 
 
 Thorough pulverization of the soil, by bringing into 
 play the principle of capillary attraction, will draw up 
 this moisture, with its fertilizing salts, and thereby en- 
 rich the surface soil. 
 
 To test this matter, take two boxes, spread in the bot- 
 tom of each a couple of inches of wet earth; then in the 
 one put about three inches of small hard clods, and in the 
 other three inches of finely pulverized, diy, mellow soil. 
 In but a short time, the earth in the latter box will be 
 found moist to the top, while the clods will scarcely be 
 affected. 
 
 Pulverization acts as a fertilizer in yet auother way: 
 Chemical decompositions are constantly taking place in 
 the soil, by reason of which material that has previously 
 been valueless, is made available as plant food. The 
 more finely the soil is pulverized, the more rapidly and 
 thoroughly will these changes take place. 
 
70 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 We find, then, that "tillage is manure," because: 
 
 The finely pulverized soil absorbs valuable elements 
 of fertility from the atmosphere; 
 
 Because it draws up fertilizing material from the sub- 
 soil below; and 
 
 Because it makes available, material already existing 
 in the soil. 
 
 ROTATION OF CROPS. 
 
 This may at first be thought to belong to the matter 
 of cultivation, but a closer examination of the subject 
 will soon demonstrate the fact that rotation, as well as 
 pulverization, is a real method for increasing the fer- 
 tility of the soil, and therefore ma}'' properly be consid- 
 ered under the head of " Fertilization." 
 
 Every farmer knows that if a certain crop is grown 
 year after year on the same field without change, rest, or 
 the addition of fertilizers, that the yield will continually 
 decrease until the soil will at last refuse to produce this 
 crop at all. 
 
 It is also known that if, after a soil has been thus -in- 
 jured, it be allowed to lie idle for one season, a portion 
 of its fertility will return, and the same crop will grow 
 again. From this arose the plan of allowing a field to lie 
 "follow." 
 
 But it has also been found that after a field has been 
 exhausted b}' continuous cultivation of one crop until it 
 will produce that crop no more, a diff"erent crop may be 
 Successfully grown. The reason for this latter fact is 
 very simple and easy to be understood. Each plant 
 draws from the soil certain elements of fertility — ele- 
 ments which, though absolutely essential to plant-life. 
 
Rotation of cuors. 71 
 
 form but a comparatively minute portion of the soil. 
 Continuous cropping with one crop may, therefore, so 
 completely exhaust the soil of those elements necessary 
 for that crop that no more can be grown. But different 
 crops differ in their needs, and after a soil has been ex- 
 hausted of the elements necessary for the growth of 
 some one crop, it may still contain the elements needed 
 by another. This explains why a crop may be grown 
 on a soil that has been exhausted by another; but it 
 does not yet explain how it is that after the second crop 
 has been grown for some years — even without the addi- 
 tion of manures by the farmer — the soil will be found to 
 have regained, in a measure, its capability for produc- 
 ing the first crop. 
 
 The reason is that Nature is continually laboring to 
 restore the ravages produced by the hand of reckless man. 
 Locked in the soil, and especially in the subsoil, are al- 
 most inexhaustible sources of fertilit}^, which, by the 
 forces of chemical decomposition continually going on, 
 are slowly but surely being unlocked and prepared for 
 future use. The rains and dews bring needed elements 
 from the air above, and the absorptive power of the 
 earth is continually gathering them. Thus, even while 
 one crop is growing. Nature is preparing the soil for an- 
 other. Thus we see that rotation is a real though slow 
 process of fertilization. It is, in fact, the method by 
 which the farmer may avail himself of Nature's recuper- 
 ative powers. 
 
 If, in addition to this, the rotation is accompanied by 
 the application of barn-j'ard or commercial manures, 
 and includes every few years a crop like clover, tliat is 
 especially adapted to draw from the air above and the 
 earth beneath, food needed for other plants, we see how 
 rotation can be made one of the most useful means of 
 
72 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 fertilization which the judicious fanner can control. 
 
 What constitutes a good system of rotation? 
 
 This must vary with every locality and every soil. 
 "What would be the best rotation in one place might be 
 totally inapplicable in another. Over a large section of 
 our Western country rotation will usually include corn, 
 wheat, oats, clover and, probably, grass. 
 
 Let us suppose the farmer has a soil well adapted to 
 diversified farming, as in the larger portion of our West- 
 ern land. He can make a good rotation as follows: 
 
 First year, corn; 
 
 Second j'ear, corn ; 
 
 Third year, oats, flax, or spring barley, followed by 
 wheat in the fall ; 
 
 Fourth year, sow clover on the wheat in the spring; 
 harvest the wheat and leave the clover to grow ; 
 
 Fifth 3'ear, either pasture or mow the clover, allowing 
 a good growth to form and ripen in the fall, ready to be 
 plowed under the 
 
 Sixth year, for corn, when the rotation begins again. 
 
 This rotation may be shortened, by seeding down to 
 wheat among the corn, in the fall of the second year, 
 and omitting the crop of flax or spring grain. But, as 
 in some sections of the country wheat on corn land is 
 less certain and less productive than on stubble ground, 
 it is best in such localities, if the spring crops can profit- 
 ably be grown, to include them in the rotation. 
 
 There are some farms specially adapted to wheat- 
 growing, and on which it is the most profitable crop. 
 On such farms, the wise cultivator will of course ar- 
 range his rotation so as to bring in wheat as often in a 
 given number of years as possible, without injury to the 
 soil. The rotation should include but a single crop of 
 corn, which, if in a section where it can be done, should 
 
ROTATION Ol" CUOI'S. 73 
 
 be seeded to wheat in the full, and by the use of barn- 
 yard or commercial fertilizers, the course may consist of 
 four years — one crop of corn, two of wheat and one of 
 clover. 
 
 The rotation can be lengthened by sowing timothy 
 ■with the wheat in the fall, following with clover in the 
 spring, cutting two crops of mixed clover and timothy, 
 pasturing one year, and then breaking for corn again. 
 
 One most excellent farmer of my acquaintance, who 
 has a large ti*act of land specially adapted to' corn, has 
 pursued the following rotation, with the result of 
 largely increasing the productiveness of the land, and 
 at the same time securing heavy crops: Two crops of 
 corn are grown; the second fall the corn is cut up, and 
 the land seeded in wheat; clover is sown on the wheat 
 the next spring and left to grow after harvest. The fol- 
 lowing summer, after the clover has attained a good 
 growth, hogs are turned on and kept on it all summer. 
 In the fall he feeds the hogs on the field, having the corn 
 scatterered in a different place each day, and the cobs 
 and droppings of the pigs are thus spread evenly over 
 the field. The following spring he breaks again for corn, 
 grows two crops and follows with wheat, clover, hogs, as 
 before. 
 
 At what point of the rotation should the manure be 
 applied? 
 
 This is an important question, and one which each 
 farmer must answer for himself by the use of thought, 
 observation and common sense. There is no place where 
 empiricism is more ruinous than on the farm. Farmer 
 A. plows his manure under for corn, and succeeds, and 
 Farmer B., with a totally different soil, very illogically 
 concludes that the same plan will be successful with 
 him. Farmers who would have success in farming. 
 
74 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 must learn to study the reasons for certain actions. 
 
 The opinion of many of our best farmers is, that the 
 best place in the rotation for the application of manure 
 is on the wheat crop, used as a top dressing shortly be- 
 fore seeding. The reasons for this are given in other 
 sections of this chapter. In some cases, as where the 
 soil is naturally rank — as in some of our bottom farms 
 — such application may prove actually injurious, caus- 
 ing the wheat to grow too sappy and succulent, and 
 lodge. In such cases it is often best to use the barn- 
 yard manure as a top dressing to the corn crop, and use 
 bone meal, or super-phosphate, drilled in with the 
 wheat. 
 
 There are cases — in heavy, cold, retentive soils — 
 where the coarse manure may profitably be spread on 
 the field during winter and plowed under for corn. Its 
 mechanical action loosens the soil, while the retentive 
 character of the land prevents undue waste. On light, 
 and especially on leachy soils, the plowing under of 
 coarse manure is undoubtedly a wasteful and unprofita- 
 ble practice. 
 
 Land plaster (gypsum) when attainable at a reason- 
 able price, may almost always be profitably applied to 
 the clover crop. Sown broadcast in the spring, it deep- 
 ens the color, increases the growth, and usually has a 
 marked beneficial effect on the succeeding crop of coi'n. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURE. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of fertilization, I wish to 
 suggest some experiments easily tried, and mention 
 some which I have tried. It is a matter of interest to 
 know what a load of manure is worth on the different^ 
 
EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURE. 75 
 
 crops, and one or more experiments each year in this 
 line will be profitable. Manure, like certain funds once 
 used in Congress, should be placed where it will do the 
 most good. Calling a half cord of rotted, well compost- 
 ed manure a load, apply it to a tenth of an acre of each 
 of the different crops, and then compare with an equal 
 unmanured plot and see what the increase is. It might 
 be well, on such crops as potatoes and corn, to try ap- 
 plying it broadcast and in the hill, making that used in. 
 the hill cover more land. Another experiment, and one 
 especially to be tried with wheat crops, is plowing un- 
 der the manure on one part, and using it as a top dress- 
 ing on an adjoining one. 
 
 The fining of manure is another thing that should be 
 made a matter of experiment. Put a load of manure in 
 the usual condition on a tenth acre, as a top dressing 
 for wheat, and then pulverize as fine as possible an equal 
 amount and apply to just double the amount of land. 
 If you get the manure almost fine enough to screen, I 
 think 3^ou will find a larger yield of wheat from half the 
 amount of manure when finely pulverized. 
 
 Another experiment to show whether it will pay to 
 have sheds for our manure, would be valuable. Take a 
 load of manure from a stable, where it has been allowed 
 to accumulate, and which contains the liquid as well as 
 the solid, and apply it alongside of a plot manured with 
 that from the barn-yard. It is often a question with 
 the farmer who has a ten-acre wheat field to sow, and 
 fifty loads of manure for it, whether it is better to ma- 
 nure one-half and leave the remainder unmanured, or 
 to give a light coating to the whole field. This is a 
 very important matter, and one that should be fully set- 
 tled by repeated experiment. 
 
 Every farmer should know what eflTect bone-meal. 
 
76 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 super-phosphate, and other commercial fertilizers at his 
 command will have upon his soil, and this he cannot 
 know except by actual test. If $3 worth of bone will 
 give $5 to $10 worth of extra wheat on an acre, as without 
 doubt it does on some soils, he can then afford to apply 
 his home supply of manure to less land, and use ground 
 bone on the remainder. 
 
 In estimating the value of manure, we arc to take into 
 consideration: First, the increased yield of the crop to 
 which it is applied. Second, its effect in enabling a crop 
 to resist enemies. Third, the increased earliness of the 
 crop, and its greater value on this account. Fourth, the 
 length of time that the manure will act on crops, either 
 directly or through a fertilizing crop which it enables 
 us to grow. In order to test the first, we should always 
 leave a strip without manure to compare with. The second 
 item is of greater importance than many imagine, for 
 the extra vitality which manure gives will enable a plant 
 to successfully resist what would be fatal to a weak, 
 sickly one. We often see this in a wheat field on im- 
 poverished soil, where one part of the field has been ma- 
 nured. While the unmanured part is winter-killed, or 
 destroyed by the Qy, or eaten up by chinch bug, or 
 blighted by rust, the part manured resists each and all 
 these malign influences, and makes a good crop. The 
 same tbing may be seen in growing potatoes. I have 
 never seen the Colorado beetles injure materially the 
 crop on highly manured land. Wlien tlie season was 
 good and they were well cultivated, the vines would 
 grow right away from the bugs ; but let the soil be poor, or 
 cultivation neglected, and the Colorados soon have the 
 mastery. The advantage of manure in hastening the 
 maturity of crops is of greater importance to the gar- 
 dener than to the farmer, as the prices of his products 
 
EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURE. 77 
 
 arc largely determined by their carliness, two or three 
 days' difference la the maturity of the crop sometimes 
 making a difference of one- half in the price. It would 
 be an interesting experiment, particularly on our strong, 
 clay, limestone soils, to ascertain how long the effects of 
 manure could be noticed on the crops, and thus to 
 be able to give a better idea of the value of manure. 
 This could be easily found out, at least approximately, 
 by growing c-ops on a manured plot, and by the side of 
 it on an unmanured one, and followng it up, weighing 
 the product of each as long as they showed any differ- 
 ence. You would at the same time be finding out the 
 value of your load of manure. These experiments should 
 include nightsoil, poultry manure, land plaster, or any- 
 thing available, which promises to furnish directly or 
 indirectl}^ food for the plant. Tanbart can bo burned, 
 and an ash, rich in phosphoric acid, formed. Sawdust 
 can be carbonized by burning in pits, li e charcoal, and 
 may be exceedingly valuable on some soils. Those living 
 near elevators, where thousands of bushels of corn cobs 
 accumulate, can experiment with them by composting or 
 burning. And if we keep our ej^es open, we shall find in 
 almost any locality waste products which we may utilize. 
 I have been much interested in burning straw or stub- 
 ble on the surface, especially where land is to be pre- 
 pared for wheat. I have experimented to some extent, 
 and am convinced that all straw that can be spared can 
 be used profitably by spreading it on the surface and 
 burning. It should be spread thickly enough so as to 
 burn the soil a little. I shall give an account of some 
 experiments with various manures in a chapter on ex- 
 periments with wheat.* 
 
 *Burning straw spread on the ground is certainly an immense 
 improvement on the custom adopted in some parts of the West 
 
78 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 I tried an interesting experiment with wheat bran as 
 a manure two years ago. I mixed fifty pounds of bran 
 with an equal bulk of rich mould, and wet it with leach- 
 ings from the manure pile. As soon as it had heated, I 
 leveled off the pile and stirred occasionally until the 
 heat had subsided, and in a few weeks it was thoroughl}'' 
 decomposed. I planted a half acre of Peach-blow pota- 
 toes on a poor clay knob, on which corn did not make 
 over fifteen bushels per acre the previous season. I ma- 
 nured alternate rowis with a single handful of this i,n'e- 
 pared bran to the hill, using at the rate of five hundred 
 pounds of the bran to the acre, and as bran cost but $10 
 per ton, the cost, besides the labor, would have been but 
 $2.50 per acre. By the time the potatoes had been 
 planted a month, the rows treated with the bran were 
 six inches taller, and of a better color, and all through 
 the growing season the difference in the rows was plainly 
 discernable. At digging time I took a pair of steel- 
 yards to the field, and would dig down a manured row 
 till I got a basket full and then weigh and empty them, 
 and dig back on the unmanured row. I cannot now re- 
 fer to the record which I made of this experiment; but 
 I remember that several times the manured row gave 
 
 of burning it in the stack, or of thrashing on the bank of a 
 stream and allowing the straw to be floated away. Tiie most 
 valuable constituent of straw is the mineral portion, which, of 
 course, is left in the ash, and when the straw is burned on the 
 surface of the field tiiis is left in a very available form. But all 
 this is secured when the straw is rotted in tlie manure pile, and 
 much nitrogenous matter is also saved that is inevitul)ly lost 
 when the straw is burned. It is therefore chemically certain 
 that a ton of straw has a greater manurial value when rotted in 
 the manure pile, than when burned. And when we consider 
 the incidental value of straw in absorbing and retaining the 
 liquid portion of the manure, I think it will be seen that it must 
 be under very exceptional circumstance, and on farms where 
 the amount of stock kept is very small, when it will pay to burn 
 straw. R. s. T. 
 
MY OWN EXPERIENCE. 79 
 
 double, and in no case less than a half more, while the 
 quality was very superior. The extra potatoes produced 
 in the rows on which the bran mixture was used did not 
 cost eight cents a bushel. 
 
 This question of experimenting with manures- is one 
 of great interest, and every intelligent farmer should do 
 something in this line each year. A record of such ex- 
 periments becomes exceedingly valuable to refer to. 
 
 Farm experiments are valuable in their influence on 
 the man, in making him more accurate and observing 
 and familiar with the m^'sterious works of nature. They 
 are also absolutely necessary to the proper understand- 
 ing of what is best to do on his own farm, as soils and 
 conditions vary to such an extent that the experiments 
 of another, under different conditions, may not be bene- 
 licial to-him. 
 
 MY OWN EXPERIENCE. 
 
 BRINGING UP A RUN-DOWN FIELD. 
 
 As I know farmers like to see theory put to a practi- 
 cal test, I will give an item of my own experience in the 
 matter of restoring lost fertility. In the year 1877, I 
 bou;j;ht at a low price fifty acres of worn land. I had 
 lived adjoining it for nearly thirty years, and had seen 
 every crop grown on it in that time, and, as nearly as I 
 can recollect, it had not once produced over twelve bush- 
 els of wheat or twenty-five of corn to the acre. It had 
 received little or no manure, and when seeded to grass 
 or clover was usually so overstocked as to receive no 
 benefit. Twenty-five acres of it was level enough for 
 good plow land, but was divided diagonally by two wet 
 
80 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 strips which could not be plowed. When I bought it, it 
 was rented for the season, and every available foot of it 
 plowed for corn so I did not get possession till the fall 
 of 1877. The crop on it for that year was like all I had 
 seen before, very poor, the corn making about twenty 
 bushels to the acre, and as the season was a wet one the 
 ground was covered with a heavy growth of foxtail. We 
 sowed seven acres in wheat where the corn had been cut 
 up, and, on accout of the foxtail, got it in badly, and the 
 result was Ijut four and a half bushels to the acre of in- 
 ferior grain, but a good stand of clover. In the spring 
 of 1878 we sowed fifteen acres in oats, and put the re- 
 mainder in corn, potatoes, and beans, but the only 
 encouraging feature of this year was that on the oats 
 and wheat ground we got a good stand of clover and 
 grass. That fall I laid eighty rods of tile and sowed 
 eleven acres of wheat where beans, potatoes and corn 
 had grown. We manured one half of it with barn-yard 
 manure, used a little bone meal, and put it in as well as 
 we could, and our wheat from this field was 241 bushels 
 or about 22 bushels to the acre. We got a fair crop of 
 clover hay on ten acres of the land where the poor wheat 
 and bats had grown; laid fifty rods more of tile in the 
 last wet strip, and in July plowed up twenty one acres 
 for wheat. Eleven acres of this was the same that had 
 yielded the twenty-two bushels of wheat to the acre, and 
 the balance was clover stubble and included the seven 
 acres of land that grew the poor wheat crop in 1877. I 
 should not have plowed the eleven acres but on account 
 of a dry spring we failed to get a stand of clover. We 
 hauled out manure and top-dressed the part of the eleven 
 acres that had not been manured the preceding jear. 
 Our wheat crop was good, averaging over twenty bush- 
 els per acre, but that on the clover stubble was very 
 
MY OWN EXPERIENCE. 81 
 
 much heavier than that on the Avheat stubble where the 
 manure had been applied, and we had a fine stand of 
 clover on the entire field. 
 
 The fifty .acres of land is now divided into two fields. 
 The broken part, which has never-failing springs, is 
 seeded down for permanent pasture, and we have this 
 fall, 1881, sown twenty-five acres of wheat on the level 
 part, and it promises well for a crop. I think I have 
 fully doubled the value of the plow land, and notwith- 
 standing the first crops grown were so poor, the land 
 has paid a fair interest on capital invested. It will thus 
 be seen that in the short space of four years, a piece of 
 land so worn as to be of little value, has, by tileing, ro- 
 tation, a moderate use of manure, commercial fertilizers 
 and clover, been brought to a condition of reasonable 
 fertility, and at the same time has yielded crops that 
 have paid the cost of the improvement. 
 
CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 HIRED HELP. 
 
 With all modern improvements there is still enough 
 work to do on the farm to make the "hired help" prob- 
 lem one not easy to solve. If the farmer determines to 
 do without hired lielp, he is pretty sure to overwort< and 
 neglect many things that are necessary. One man on a 
 farm of any size is not enough, for there are so many 
 jobs to be done around the house and barn, in the gar- 
 den, repairing fences, making errands to town, etc., that 
 the team must stand idle much of the time or these nec- 
 essary things be neglected. The farmer who attempts 
 to do all his farm work and care for his stock, will have 
 no time or heart for anything else. He will be too 
 wearied to read or even to converse when night comes; 
 and life will have little meaning to him. His lot will be 
 harder than that of a day laborer, for in addition to his 
 work he will have the care and responsibility of the farm 
 resting upon him. 
 
 There is still another view of this subject. The world 
 is full of people who can never rise above the condition 
 of laborers, and who are dependent for support upon the 
 labor of their hands, and it is wiser and better than 
 charity, to give employment to such. Every man who 
 gives to another employment at a fair compensation, is 
 a public benefactor, and has a right to make a profit 
 from the labor so employed. 
 
 No one can hope to acquire much property simply by 
 
HIRED HELP. 83 
 
 his own manual labor. It is only as he has the capacity 
 to employ and direct the labor of others that he can ex- 
 pect to realize a competency. 
 
 I believe the Bible clearly teaches the duty of making 
 money. It is taught in the parable of the talents, and 
 when we are exhorted to be "diligent in business," it 
 becomes both a dut}^ and a privilege to use our ability 
 in making money. The more labor we can profitably 
 employ on our farms, then, the better it is for our fami- 
 lies and the community. 
 
 But there is another side to this question, and that 
 is the care and labor which must often come upon the 
 wife from bringing hired help into the house to board, 
 and thus increasing the size of her family. No success in 
 farming, or increase in wealth, will pay the man for 
 working his wife into the grave, or breaking down her 
 health. It is better that the farmer should hire married 
 men who will board themselves, if his wife is not able 
 to do the work; and this can often be done as cheaply 
 as hiring single men, if you can furnish the man a house 
 and garden. 
 
 In an}^ case, I believe that it is best to pay fair wages. 
 I doubt if anything is made in hiring a man by jewing 
 him down to the lowest point. The man who feels that 
 he has been treated badly in the bargain made, will not 
 be likely to work with much enthusiasm. 
 
 While I would advise that a memorandum be made, 
 covering all the points of contract, experience has taught 
 me that it is not wise to make a contract for a given 
 time. I do not want to be obliged to keep a hand that 
 proves dishonest, immoral or inefficient; and I do not 
 want a hand bound to me v/ho is dissatisfied. I think 
 it better to have it so the relation can be severed by 
 either party at any time. I like, however, the plan of a 
 
84 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 bonus in case a hand is trusty and faithful ; but it should 
 be a bonus and not wages which he can claim. 
 
 Suppose that a hand is hired for eight months at $16 
 a month, with a memorandum that either may terminate 
 the engagement on a week's notice. After the bargain 
 is made, you say to him: "If I find you faithful and 
 obliging, I shall pay you ten cents a day extra for every 
 day you work. If I do not find j'^ou so, I shall not keep 
 you; so if you work for me until the eight months are 
 expired, you will get this amount." By doing this, you 
 are giving him a motive to do his best. The extra ten 
 cents a day will amount to quite a sum in the eight 
 months-:— enough to buy a good suit of clothes. 
 
 It is wise to have a frank and full understanding with 
 a work-hand at the start, as to what you expect of him; 
 and what must, and must not, be done. For example, 
 some hands are cruel to horses. It is better to tell a 
 hand at the start that your team is not to be whipped. 
 Some young men think they have a right to go to town 
 every night, and come into the house at midnight, dis- 
 turbing the family, or get back at breakfast-time in the 
 morning, after the chores are done. If you do not choose 
 to permit these things, it should be so understood in the 
 beginning. Where two or more hands are kept on the 
 .farm, there is often trouble and jealousy as to who shall 
 drive the team, or as to what particular work shall be 
 done by each. All these matters should be talked over 
 in the beginning, and put in the memorandum. 
 
 If you expect a farm-hand to do any uncommon work, 
 such as ditching, well-diggina;, or quarrying stone, it 
 should be talked over and fully understood, or else he 
 should have extra pay for it. 
 
 It would be well to say that in haying, or harvest, or 
 occasionally when some job was pressing, you should 
 
HIRED HELP. 85 
 
 want extra hours work, but that you would always make 
 them up by stopping work early on special occasions. 
 The first thing necessary to get along pleasantly with 
 hired help, is a perfect understanding between the par 
 ties, and all that is necessary afterwards is, to keep in 
 mind the " Golden Rule." 
 
 A good emploj^er goes far towards making a good liired 
 hand. 
 
 On a farm where but one team is kept, by keeping a 
 hired hand, the husband can have leisure to do much to 
 relieve the wife. He can draw the water, carjy in the 
 wood, gather the vegetables, and do many things which 
 will save the extra steps which wear out the wife and 
 break her constitution. When extra work is caused by 
 the Irired man, unless good help can be found for the 
 wife, the husband should consider it his duty to help her. 
 
 There is a great advantage in having a hired man on 
 the farm, so that in an emergency you can do extra 
 work. There often comes a week of wet weather, so 
 that the ground cannot be stirred in the growing season. 
 When the weather becomes settled and the land ready 
 to work, everything is pushing. The weeds have started, 
 and every foot of land under cultivation needs imme- 
 diate attention. Perhaps a field of clover or wheat is 
 almost ready to cut. Under such circumstances, a day's 
 work is often worth five dollars, and as others are pushed 
 as well, you may not be able to get help, unless 3'ou have 
 it permanently. 
 
 There is one way of getting along without hired help, 
 and that is b}^ renting a part or all the fields for grain 
 rent. I make a broad distinction between renting the 
 farm and renting the fields. With human nature what 
 it is, it is almost impossible to find a tenant who will 
 keep a farm in good condition if left in sole possession. 
 
86 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 The farmer who remains on his farm and rents out fields, 
 whether for grain or money rent, keeps control of the 
 land, and is on the farm to see that ever^^thing goes 
 right. I like the plan of renting on the thirds, the land- 
 lord furnishing team, tools and seed, and the tenant the 
 laijor. This gives a young man a better chance for a 
 start in life, and as he has an interest in the crop, 
 he will naturally be more energetic and pushing than if 
 hired. The farmer who wishes to try the experiment of 
 renting, does not need to sell otf his teams if he rents in 
 this way, and if he is not pleased with it, can take the 
 farm back under his own management without being 
 obliged to buy teams and implements again. The farmer 
 may not make quite so much money who- manages his 
 farm in this way as if he worked it all himself, but he 
 will enjoy more of life and will be likely to keep his 
 farm in better condition; and if he reserves ten or fif- 
 teen acres of his richest land on which he will do his 
 best to grow heavy crops, he will not be in danger of 
 falling into habits of idleness, and will probably find his 
 profits as great at the end of the 3'ear as when he had 
 the worry and care of the entire farm. 
 
 On a good farm I think an energetic j^OTing man can 
 usually, farming on ihe thirds, make double what he can 
 working by the month, and he will be more independent. 
 Many of our wealthy and successful farmers began life 
 in this way. 
 
 This matter of hired help or renting out our lands, is 
 one of great importance, and one in which the farmer 
 should always counsel with his wife, for her interest and 
 comfort are often more concerned in the matter than his, 
 and I believe that in a majority of cases her judgment 
 would be better. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FARM IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 I doubt whether the young farmers of to-day appreci- 
 ate what progress has been made in agricultural imple- 
 ments. They of course understand how perfect and well 
 adapted to the work are the numberless inventions which 
 make the term "farm drudgery" almost a thing of the 
 past; but they can scarcely realize that only a generation 
 ago it was common for a large farm to be managed with 
 so few implements that twentj^-five dollars would be an 
 extravagant price for the lot. 
 
 Good crops were grown on the virgin soil when a 
 shovel plow and clumsy iron tooth harrow were the only 
 implements used, if we except a ponderous hoe made by 
 the blacksmith, with which the sprouts around the 
 stumps were cut down. Even when inventive genius 
 first turned attention to the wants of the farmer, success 
 was only partial, for the first reapers were clumsy horse- 
 killing aff"airs requiring four horses and two men to do 
 less work less perfectly than the self- raker of to-day does 
 with two horses and one man, not to speak of the self- 
 binder. The first corn-planter hardly foreshadowed 
 those that were to come, and when in ransacking some 
 barn-loft we find one of these old implements hidden 
 awa3% they need to be labeled to enable one who has 
 never seen them to know what they were designed for. 
 
 While with the improvement in agricultural imple- 
 ments more capital is required to manage the farm, bet- 
 
88 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 ter culture for the farm, and I may add for the farmer 
 and his family, is made possible. The life of the farmer 
 need no longer be that unvarying round of drudgery it 
 was a generation ago, for more can now be accomplished 
 in one day than could be then in two, and certainly it is 
 the farmer's own fault if he do not take time to cultivate 
 his mind. 
 
 One thing seems to be settled, and that is, that all the 
 demands of the farmer can be met by the inventive 
 genius of the age, and there is no operation of the farm 
 but what can be done, or at least assisted, by machinery. 
 The prophecy of to-day becomes the reality of to-morrow; 
 the progress of the past generation is more than that of 
 the five thousand j'ears preceding it. The farmer has 
 but to make known a want and it is met. 
 
 I cannot attempt to catalogue the implements in use 
 on the farm ; doubtless there are many which I have 
 never seen, and it is not the design of this article to de- 
 scribe them in detail. I wish simply to give a few prac- 
 tical hints on the matter. 
 
 Although it requires quite an amount of capital to buy 
 farm implements, there is one great saving connected 
 with their use. One man and team can do as much work 
 and do it better, than two men and teams could without 
 them, and, as the extra man and team must be boarded, 
 this goes far to compensate for the cost of the machinery. 
 
 In bujdng farm implements we must keep in mind 
 several qualifications: such as strength, durability, 
 adaptation to our farms and the work we wish to 
 accomplish. Good implements will be found cheapest 
 in the long run and although the reader has noticed 
 that I have advised economy, and held up debt as a 
 monster evil to be shunned, I believe that it would 
 be wise to borrow money if necessary and buy good 
 
FARM IMPLEMENTS. 89 
 
 new implements rather than farm with poor second-hand. 
 
 Be sure you need an implement before you buy it. 
 There are farmers who allow oily tongued agents to ca- 
 jole them into purchasing every new thing that comes 
 along, until they have on hand machinery for which they 
 have no use and which is a disadvantage to them. 
 
 There is a fine field for co-operation in the ownership 
 or use of agricultural machinery. Many implements 
 will answer for two neighboring farmers as well as for 
 one, and b}^ a mutual agreement they may effect quite a 
 saving. In most cases it would be better that each 
 should own a part of the implements, and exchange 
 rather than to have a joint ownership in each implement. 
 For example: if one buys a reaper, the other can buy a 
 wheat drill, horse rake, and corn-planter which will cost 
 a like sum. One can buy the roller, and the other a 
 disc or some other one of the improved harrows. 
 
 Any one of these implements is sufficient for two 
 farmers if they have less than one hundred and fifty 
 acres of land each, and with a fair understanding and 
 agreement, there need not be any trouble in their co- 
 operative use. 
 
 A practical point in which many farmers fail is the 
 care of tools. If expensive implements are left exposed 
 to the weather the loss and deterioration from this cause 
 will be much greater than from use. There should be a 
 place for them, and they stored in it when out of use. 
 It is better usually to build a shed for this purpose, 
 than to to keep them in the barn, but whatever place is 
 assigned them see that they are kept there. I would 
 recommend painting with crude petroleum all the wood 
 of farm implements, it costs but a trifle, and wood work 
 thoroughly saturated with it will be uninjured by ex- 
 posure to the weather, and as all our implements must 
 
90 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 be exposed to some extent this painting will be found 
 profitable. 
 
 One piece of machinery I think many ftirmers might 
 profitably own, is a small thrashing machine. There are 
 now made excellent two-horse thrashers, the cost of 
 which is comparatively small, and with which a farmer 
 can — with the regular help of the farm, and in the bad 
 weather of winter, thrash his own grain. He can thus 
 save the worry, haste and hard work of "thrashing da}"-" 
 — and remove one of the greatest terrors of woman's 
 work upon the farm — feeding an army of thrashermen. 
 When a farm is too small to justify the purchase of a 
 machine, a suitable arrangement could often be made 
 and two or three farmers hold one in partnership. 
 
 The light of the present time shows that co-operation 
 or mutual help, is to be one of the great means for in- 
 creasing the profits of the farm, and relieving the bur- 
 dens connected with farm life. . 
 
 It might seem almost unnecessary work to call the 
 attention of farmers to the importance of having imple- 
 ments and machinery in condition to do their best work, 
 but unfortunately the number of farmers whojnay be 
 daily seen wasting their strength and the strength of 
 their teams and work hands with machines that work 
 hard for lack of a little oil or adjustment, or with tools 
 that need the grindstone, shows the necessity of consid- 
 ering the matter. 
 
 Solomon said: "If the iron be blunt, and he do not 
 whet the edge, tlien must he put to more strength," but 
 some farmers — principally of the class, I suppose, who 
 expect to make their wa}^ through the world by muscu- 
 lar strength rather than by the exercise of thought, seem 
 to prefer " putting to more strength " rather than put 
 the tool or machine in order. 
 
FARM IMPLEMENTS. 91 
 
 No labor pays a larger profit than that expended in 
 putting machinery in order and getting tools sharp. 
 A good grindstone well hung, and set in some place 
 where it will be protected from the weather and can be 
 readily used should be regarded as indispensable on the 
 farm. Axes, hoes, mower knives, scythes, and all cut- 
 ting tools should be kept with keen edges. No man can 
 earn his wages working with a dull tool. Plows should 
 be sharpened whenever they require it, and the time so 
 spent will be time saved. One suggestion here; On 
 farms where it is not thought worth while to keep more 
 than one breaking plow, it will be well to buy the sec- 
 ond before the first is entirely worn o'lt. — Then in pressing 
 seasons the old plow can be called into service while the 
 other is being sent to the shop to be sharpened. 
 
 Mowers, reapers, drills, wagons, fanning mills, cutting 
 boxes, buggies, and even the wheel barrow, one of the 
 most necessary and useful implements on the farm, 
 should never be allowed to suffer from lack of oil. Not 
 only is machine grease cheaper than "elbow grease" 
 but a machine will wear more in a day's work when need- 
 ing oil, than in a week if properly lubricated. Use the 
 best oil; — for most machinery and for buggy and wagon 
 spindles, castor oil is the cheapest and best. Do not buy 
 this of your druggist at -50 cents a pint, a second grade 
 can be purchased wholesale at from .50 to 80 cents a gal- 
 lon which is as good as the best for a lubricant. 
 
 An occasional going over a machine with a wrench, 
 tightening all nuts that h'ave become loose, will add 
 greatly to its longevity. Whenever a piece of machinery 
 begins to rattle, destructive wear is going on with great 
 rapidity. As a rule, the more silently any piece of ma- 
 chinery works the better work it is doing.* 
 
 *This rule is applicable to men as to machinery, b. b. t. 
 
92 
 
 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 When a nut shows a disposition to constantl}^ come 
 loose, a leather washer should be placed under it, and the 
 nut screwed tight home on that, and as a final resort, for 
 a badly fitting nut, or in an emergency, a piece of twine 
 may be wrapped several times around the bolt beyond 
 the nut and tightly tied. 
 
 Implements when about to be put away for the season 
 should be carefully cleaned and overhauled. Don't stand 
 them away with all the dirt of service on them. It is 
 also a good plan before j^ou need any particular imple- 
 ment to go and examine it and see it is all ready. This 
 may save you serious delay and loss in the working 
 season. 
 
 Implements used in the soil, such as plows, hoes, 
 spades, etc., should never be left standing, even for a 
 night, with the soil adhering to them. It rapidly causes 
 them to become rough and rusty — making them difficult 
 to work with or to clean. 
 
 The man who would have success in farming, should 
 take as much pride in the condition of his implements as 
 in the condition of his stock. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 In large areas of our country wheat is the most im- 
 portant crop to the farmer. It is easily stored, with but 
 little risk of damage if he wish to hold it for an advance, 
 and is always in demand and brings the cash in market. 
 It is not as bulky as corn, and as its average price is 
 more than twice as much per bushel, a team will draw 
 to market about four times as many dollars' worth of 
 wheat as of corn in a given time. 
 
 Wheat can be grown successfully on rolling lands 
 which would soon be ruined by washing if kept in corn, 
 and we can grow a clover crop with it to enrich the land. 
 All these considerations make wheat a popular and im- 
 portant crop to the farmer. 
 
 Probabl}' there is no crop which gives as good returns 
 for manure and thorough preparation of the soil as this. 
 There has been great improvement in the preparation of 
 seed bed among the farmers of Ohio during the past few 
 years, and it has resulted in a large increase in the yield 
 per acre. I have examined the statistics of Ohio, as it 
 is one of the best winter wheat States, and I see that for 
 eight 3'ears, beginning with 1858, there was a succession 
 of poor crops and a great falling off in the yield per acre. 
 Then for five years there was a large gain, there being a 
 series of favorable years. From 1872 to 1876 we had a 
 series of unfavorable seasons, the crop of 1876 in Ohio 
 aggregating, in round numbers, but 15,000,000 bushels. 
 
94 tUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 with an average of 10 bushels per acre. In 1877, we 
 
 grew 27,000,000, with an average per acre of nearly 16 
 
 bushels. 1879 gave us 35,000,000, Avith an average per 
 
 acre of 16 bushels. I have referred to these statistics 
 
 simply to illustrate one fact, which is this: A series of 
 
 good years leads to the sowing of g, large acreage of 
 
 wheat, and much is badly put in and on poor land; and 
 
 when an unfavorable year comes, the average yield per 
 
 acre is cut down largely by the crops on these poor, 
 
 badly prepared fields. On the other hand, a series of 
 
 poor crops not only causes a falling off in acreage, but 
 
 leads to a more careful preparation of the soil. There is 
 
 no crop grown on the farm that pays so well for extra 
 
 work as this, and it is encouraging to know there are 
 
 farmers who grow paying crops through bad as well as 
 
 good 3'ears. 
 
 How can we insure uniform and profitable wheat crops? 
 
 There are several points to be attended to, one of the 
 
 most important of which is drainage. If the land can 
 
 be thoroughly under-drained it will be best; but where 
 
 this cannot be done, we must accomplish what we can 
 
 by surface drainage. By plowing properly and opening 
 
 furrows in the right direction, heavy crops may be grown 
 
 on land which would not give a crop worth harvesting 
 
 where this was neglected, hay it down as a rule, that a 
 
 profitable wheat crop cannot be grown on laud where the 
 
 water will stand. Dr. Townshend, in a lecture before 
 
 the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, in 1879, said: 
 
 " I have often liarvested over thirty bushels -of wlicat to the 
 acre on nearly flat clay soils by rounding the lands and opening 
 the furrows. If any one ol)jects to these furrows as a nuisance, 
 I will answer that the greatest of all nuisances is a poor crop." 
 
 He further states : 
 
 " I one year underdrained a part of a field at a cost of ,$22.50 
 per acre, and at harvest it yielded twenty bushels more per 
 acre than the undrained part of the field, and as the crpp 
 
WHEAT. 95 
 
 brought $1.25 per bushel, the extra yield paid all the expense 
 of draining, and left me a little in pocket." 
 
 The next point in growing uniform and profitable 
 wheat crops is 
 
 PREPARATION OP SEED-BED, 
 
 And there is no more important point connected with the 
 crop. The maxim, " Tillage is manure," holds good here 
 if anywhere. The best seed-bed for wheat is one that is 
 compact below and fine and mellow at the surface; and 
 to g-et this, it is essential that we plow early, and culti- 
 vate frequently. I believe it would often be economy to 
 pay five dollars an acre to have a wheat field plowed in 
 July, rather than to have it done for nothing the middle 
 of September. The farmer who has land to break should 
 so arrange his work that everything else could wait if 
 the kind is fit to plow early. After a heavy rain in July 
 or August, it is quite often the case that there will follow 
 a cool, cloudy spell of weather, when everything is favor- 
 able Ibi- plowing. The land being moist and the weather 
 cool, a team can plow twelve, or even fourteen, hours a 
 day easier than they can ten a few days later, when the 
 weather has become hot and the land dry. The wise 
 farmer will improve such an opportunity to the utmost. 
 Another important thing in preparing the seed-bed 
 is to roll as soon as plowed, and I would always advise 
 this unless the season was very wet and we were likely 
 to have heavy rains to settle the land. If a good roller 
 follow the plow each half day, the land can be pulver- 
 ized and packed down as long as there is moisture 
 enough to plow. If it is allowed to dry after plowing 
 and before rolling, it is often weeks before there is rain 
 enough so that it can be put in good condition; but if 
 rolled at once, a light rain will make it fit for seeding. 
 The farmer rarely, if ever, errs by putting too much 
 
96 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 work on his wheat land; and as with most of the imple- 
 ments we use, we can go over a large surface in a day, it 
 is not expensive. I have gone over a wheat field with 
 harrow, roller and plank drag as many as seven times 
 between plowing and seeding time, and been well paid 
 for my labor. I have seen instances where a field was 
 partly plowed and pulverized in Jul}^ and then on ac- 
 count of dry weather the remainder left until September^ 
 and the difierence in favor of the early plowed and pul- 
 verized part was more than ten bushels per acre. 
 
 When the season is such — as is sometimes the case*— 
 that you must i)lo\v late and sow immediately, I would 
 always recommend shallow plowing, for the land will not 
 have time to settle so as to make a solid seed-bed, and 
 you will not be as likely to pulverize eight inches well as 
 you will four. There are two reasons why wheat does 
 not do well on a deep, loose seed-bed: One, that it is 
 likely to be covered too deeply, and the other, that it 
 is more likely to freeze out, partly because the loose earth 
 holds more water, and partly because the roots have not 
 a firm hold in the loose soil. 
 
 Where wheat follows corn, I would not, under any cir- 
 cumstances, break the land up, because the plowing un- 
 der of the corn butts would prevent getting the land 
 packed sufficiently. I have seen many failures of the 
 wheat crop from this cause. If obliged to plow late, by 
 all means remove the clover or weeds from the land be- 
 fore plowing. A heavy growth of either may be plowed 
 under in July, for if you manage the land well they will 
 decay and allow it to settle; but this will not be the case 
 if not plowed until September, and the^' will greatly dam- 
 age, and often ruin, the crop. In my judgment, it would 
 and be better to be a week later in getting the wheat sown 
 have the weeds or clover removed, than to plow them under. 
 
>\HEAT. 97 
 
 1 Iiave never found an implement w hich gave better 
 satisfaction in preparing the land for wheat than the disc 
 harrow. This consists of a number of steel rolling cut- 
 ters, dished a little, so as to turn a small furrow, and set 
 at an angle in the frame. Thej^ cut and pulverize the 
 surface completely; and unless it is very clodd}', if this 
 harrow is passed over the field both ways and followed 
 by the plank drag, it will give a perfect seed-bed. In 
 very cloddy fields the roller should be used once or twice 
 in addition. I do not like the old-fashioned tooth har- 
 row for stirring the surface. The double corn plow, 
 with small shovels, does this well, but the disc harrow 
 does it better and more rapidly. 
 
 DEPTH OF PLANTING. 
 
 Some very careful experiments have been made at the 
 Agricultural College at Lansing, Michigan, concerning 
 the best depth for planting, the result of which I give in 
 the table below. The first column shows the depth the 
 seed was sown; second column the number of days be- 
 fore it came up; third column the proportion of seed 
 that grew: 
 
 Depth. Days. Grew, 
 
 irch 11 days • • .% 
 
 % 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 
 nc'U 12 " ..all 
 
 nches IS " % 
 
 iiches 20 " v% 
 
 nc-hes 21 " % 
 
 nches 22 " % 
 
 nches 23 " .-. K4 
 
 A plant from a seed sown too deep, and which comes 
 up slowly, lacks the vigor and vitality of one planted at 
 the proper depth. The best farmers of the present day 
 recommend a depth of about an inch and a half. 
 
 VARIETIES. 
 
 Something ought to be said about varieties in this ar- 
 ticle, and yet I know that I cannot recommend any par- 
 
 7 
 
98 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 ticwlar variety that would suit all. Varieties often run 
 out and become unprofitable, and the introduction of a 
 new variety often increases the yield five, and sometimes 
 ten, bushels to the acre. The introduction of the Fultz 
 Wheat to Southern Ohio was worth an incalculable sura 
 to our farmers, as it largely increased the yield. It has 
 proved the most profitable wheat grown for the last six 
 years, and is still holding its place. This matter of va- 
 riety is of so much importance that I would recommend 
 all large wheat-growers to experiment with one or two 
 new varieties each year, if they can hear of those which 
 promise well; but I would confine the experiment to a 
 single acre. If it does well, it gives you enough seed for 
 the coming year for quite a breadth, and if poorly, it is 
 surely enough. I never discard a tried variety for a new 
 one until the latter has been well tested. A single bushel 
 of wheat, with expressage from a distance, is often ex- 
 pensive; but if you get a really good variety that your 
 neighbors will want for seed, it will pay you largely. 
 
 EARLY AND LATE SEEDING. 
 
 I have referred to the time of seeding when speaking 
 of the preparation of ground. Some of the most success- 
 ful wheat-growers of my acquaintance sow the last week 
 in August and the first of September, and aside from 
 the fact that there is more danger from the Hessian fly 
 to this early sowing, it is to be commended. The fly, 
 however, rarel}^ injures wheat that is strong and vigor- 
 ous. I should always, if possible, have my land in con- 
 dition to sow by the first of September, and be governed 
 by the weather whether to sow at that time or wait a 
 little. In looking over the record in my diary of my 
 wheat crops for the last seven ^^ears, I find my best crop 
 was sown the first week in September. But while in 
 general I would advise early planting, I would not com- 
 
WHEAT. 99 
 
 mend it at the expense of a well prepared seed-bed. 
 Plant early if 3'ou can plant early and well; but plant 
 late well, rather than early and badly. My heaviest crop 
 of wheat in 1880 — over thirty bushels to the acre — was 
 on a field sown October 8th ; and a neighbor of mine, a 
 few years ago, harvested thirty-eight bushels per acre 
 from a field sown after the middle of October. I do not 
 quote these instances to encourage late seeding but to show 
 that when, for any reason, early sowing is impossible, 
 very good returns may be obtained by observing the 
 rules for such cases in the preceding sections, namely : 
 Remove, by burning or raking, weeds and clover before 
 plowing; plow shallow and* pulverize thoroughly. 
 
 I have for some years sown one bushel or less of 
 seed to the acre, and feel quite sure that with the Fultz 
 variety from three pecks to one bushel will produce all 
 the land can support. When we remember that an av- 
 erage head of wheat contains from thirty' to forty grains, 
 and that every grain that grows must produce one head 
 if anything, and may produce several, it is evident that 
 when we sow a bushel and a half and reap but fifteen, 
 that two-thirds of our seed has been wasted, for even at 
 the smallest number of grains in a head, and but one 
 head to a plant, the yield would be thirty fold. I speak 
 further on this topic under the head of Experiments 
 with Wheat. 
 
 WHEAT ON CORN LAND. 
 
 In all localities where corn is a leading crop, and 
 where, as in Southern Ohio, oats are rarely profitable, it 
 is usually necessary, in order to bring about a proper 
 rotation, to sow wheat on corn land. There are many 
 who consider this a slovenly method of farming, and I 
 confess that, as often practiced, it is both slovenly and 
 unprofitable. I know, however, from long experience 
 
100 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 and from observing others, that as good wheat can be 
 grown on corn land as on stubble, and the expense of 
 preparing the seed-bed will be ordinarily less. Two 
 things are necessary if you expect to grow a good crop : 
 You must keep your corn land free from weeds, and you 
 must cut up the corn. If these two rules are observed, 
 you can prepare an excellent seed-bed at a little expense. 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as saying that a good 
 crop of wheat can never be grown on a corn field that 
 has been allowed to become weedy and grassy, or when 
 sown in standing corn, for occasionally there may be, 
 but more often it will fail. "What I do mean to say is, 
 that a clean corn field, with 'the corn cut off, gives as 
 good a chance for a wheat crop as any seed-bed we can 
 make. Some years since, Mr. L. N. Bonliam, agricultu- 
 ral editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, sowed a field of 
 bottom land in wheat. On a part of it the corn was cut 
 up, and the remainder was drilled in among the standing 
 corn. The result was, fourteen bushels to the acre on 
 that sown in the corn, and twenty-nine bushels to the 
 acre where the corn was cut up. The quality of the land 
 was the same, and in both cases it was well put in. 
 
 As I have already said, I would not, under any cir- 
 cumstances, break corn land. If the corn is tall and 
 heavy, I cut high, and then cut the butts at the ground ; 
 but if the corn is light or short, it may be cut close 
 enough to the ground so that the butts will not interfere 
 with the drilling. If the butts are long, it will pay to 
 take them off, for they will interfere with drilling, and 
 also be in the way if 3^ou wish to glean the ,stub])le. The 
 sulky rake will gather up the larger part of them, and 
 the remainder can be picked up by hand. After the corn 
 is off, I would advise that the land be worked both ways. 
 If you have a harrow that will do the job well, such as 
 
WHEAT. 101 
 
 the disc or spring-tooth, you can get over ten acres a 
 day, and they will, if followed by roller or plank drag, 
 put the land in the best possible condition. The next 
 best implement is the double corn plow with small shov- 
 els, and with this you can get over six or eight acres a 
 day. It may be gone over once with this, and then cross- 
 harrowed with a common harrow, but I would alwaj's 
 use the roller or drag before drilling. It is advisable 
 to plant an early variety of corn where you are intending 
 to seed to wheat. 
 
 . To show what success I have had growing wheat on 
 corn land, I will make a few extracts from my diary: 
 
 " Sept. 22, 1877. Sowed six acres of wheat where corn 
 had been cut up." This field averaged twent^'-six bush- 
 els per acre. 
 
 " Sept. 19, 1878. Sowed four acres of wheat on corn land 
 at home, and six acres on north farm." The first made an 
 average of thirty bushels per acre, and the last twent^'-two. 
 
 *'Oct. 8, 1879. Sowed four acres of wheat where corn 
 was cut up. The corn was very light, as the land is cold 
 and thin. Manured each acre differentlj%" This wheat 
 was not threshed separatel}^ but there were one hundred 
 and seventy-eight shocks, large bind. M3' entire crop of 
 seven hundred shocks, threshed four hundred and sev- 
 enty-two bushels, and this would show ah average of 
 thirty bushels per acre for these four acres. 
 
 " Sept. 24, 1880, Sowed twelve acres of wheat on corn 
 land on home farm." This wheat averaged fifteen bush 
 els to the acre, but it will be remembered the crop cut in 
 1881 was a very light one generally, and this wheat was 
 very much better than ten acres grown on wheat stub- 
 ble. We have sown this fall — 1881 — twelve acres of 
 wheat on corn land, which is looking as well as I could 
 wish. It was sown September 17th. 
 
102 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 I have given these extracts from my diary, to show 
 the dates at which I have been able to sow for several 
 3^ears, and the success I have had. The average for the 
 four years is over twenty-two bushels per acre; and leav- 
 ing out* the last year, which was an exceptionally bad one, 
 the average is over twenty-six bushels. 
 
 The principal objection urged against seeding on corn 
 land is the trouble and expense of cutting up the corn, 
 but as I shall speak of that in the chapter on corn, I 
 will pass it for the present. 
 
 THE COST OF WHEAT-GROWING 
 
 Is an interesting question, and as it is but little trouble, 
 I advise every farmer to keep a debit and credit account 
 with each wheat field. By so doing, he will soon learn that 
 the cost per bushel decreases as the yield per acre in- 
 creases, and I believe that many farmers would thus be 
 led to grow fewer acres and more bushels. 
 
 In keeping an account with my wheat crops, I put 
 down the rent of land at eight per cent on the valuation 
 of the particular field, and allow nothing for taxes, as I 
 consider the rent includes this; I do not include hauling 
 and threshing, for I believe the straw to be worth 
 enough to cover this. When I use manure on the field, 
 I charge the wheat crop with fifty cents per load, for al- 
 though it is worth more, and often costs over $1, a part 
 of this should be charged to succeeding crops. When I 
 use commercial manures, I charge the actual cost to the 
 wheat crop. I charge $1 per day for each man and 
 liorse. For harvesting I charge the usual price per acre 
 for the machine, and actual cost, including board, for 
 }u-l|) employed. I have each field on my farm vnluod, so 
 MS to know at once what rent to charge it. I shall explain 
 this more fully in the chapter on Farm Accounts. I be- 
 gan keeping an account with m}^ wheat crops in 1877, 
 
WHEAT. 103 
 
 and have a detailed account with each crop grown since, 
 60 that I can at a glance tell the cost, profit or loss on 
 the crop. 
 
 To show what it has cost me to grow wheat, I will 
 copy from my book the account with some of my crops. 
 I will begin with a six-acre field, two acres of which was 
 wheat stubble and the rest corn land: 
 
 ACCOUNT WITH SIX-ACRE WHEAT FIELD, 
 
 ''July, 1877. Breaking two acres $3 00 
 
 Working four acres twice with double corn plow 4 00 
 
 Harrowing and rolling , . 6 00 
 
 Cutting and picking off corn butts 5 00 
 
 4^ bushels of seed at $1 4 50 
 
 Drilling 2 40 
 
 June 24, 1878. Harvesting 9 60 
 
 Board of harvest hands 2 50 
 
 Rent of land 36 00 
 
 Total, $73 00 
 
 The crop on this field was one hundred and eighty 
 bushels, and sold for 95 cents per bushel, making $171. 
 Deducting cost of growing, leaves $98, net profit. This 
 makes $16.33-^ net profit per acre, and shows the cost of 
 growing per acre, including rent, to be $12.16f. The 
 profit, after allowing 8 per cent on a valuation of $75 per 
 acre, was nearly 22 per cent. The cost per bushel was 
 40-^ cents. 
 
 In 1878, I sowed eleven acres of wheat on my north 
 farm. This was on the fifty acres of thin land referred 
 to in a former chapter. This land cost me but $20 per 
 acre, but as this field was the best part of it, I have val- 
 ued it at $30 per acre. My account stands as follows : 
 
 " July 31, 1878. Preparing seed-bed $22 00 
 
 Sept. 25. Seed wheat, 10 bushels, 9 50 
 
 Carried forward $31 50 
 
104 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 Amount brought over $31 50 
 
 Drilling 4 00 
 
 Fifty loads of manure at 50 cents 25 00 
 
 One barrel bone meal 6 00 
 
 June 23, 1879, Cutting, at 60 cents per acre 6 60 
 
 Five hands at $1.50 per da^^ 7 50 
 
 l^oard of help 3 00 
 
 Rent of land at 8 per cent on valuation of $30 ... 26 40 
 
 Total $110 00 
 
 ,The fiekl produced 241 bushels, which was sold from 
 the machine for 95 cents, making $228.95. Deducting 
 cost; leaves $118.95 as profit. Cost per bushel a fraction 
 over 45 cents. Profit on value of land, a fraction over 
 36 per cent. 
 
 Ten acres of the same field was sown in wheat in 
 1879, and the account as copied from my book, stands 
 thus: 
 
 " Julv, 1879. Breaking $15 00 
 
 Rolling 3 00 
 
 August 4. Thirty-eight loads manure 19 00 
 
 " 21. Stirring with corn plow 4 00 
 
 " 24. Harrowing and rolling 6 00 
 
 Sept. 8. Nine bushels seed wheat 9 00 
 
 " Eight hundred lbs ground bone 12 00 
 
 Drilling 4 00 
 
 " Rent of land 24 00 
 
 June 16, 1880, Cutting at 60 cents per acre 6 00 
 
 " Four hands, at $2 per day 8 00 
 
 " Board of hands 2 50 
 
 Total, .$112 50 
 
 The crop made an average of fifteen bushels per acre, 
 and sold for $1,05 per bushel from the machine, making 
 $157.50. Deducting cost leaves a profit of $45; cost ot 
 wheat per bushel 75 cents; profit on land 15 per cent. 
 
 Lest some one should criticise these figures where 
 they notice that in 1878 there is but $22.00 charged for 
 
WHEAT. 105 
 
 preparing seed-bed on eleven acres, and $28.00 the fol- 
 lowing 3'ear for ten acres of the same land, I wish to 
 give a word of explanation. In the first named year the 
 field was about half in corn and the balance in sorgo, 
 beans, oats, and potatoes, and required less labor than 
 if it had needed to be* broken up. The next year I 
 allowed $1.50 per acre for breaking, which many will ob- 
 ject to as being too little. In replj^ I answer that we 
 had a fine rain followed by cool, cloudy weather which 
 enabled us to plow two acres a day. I have in all these 
 accounts charged actual cost where it could be ascer- 
 tained, and allowed one dollar a day for each man or 
 three dollars a day for a man and team. When our reg- 
 ular farm hands or myself helped at harvesting, I have 
 charged harvest wages, and I have charged twenty-five 
 cents per meal for each man boarded in harvest. 
 
 VALUE OF STRAW TO THE FARMER. 
 
 The reader will notice that in all m}' estimates ®f the 
 cost of wheat growing, I have stopped when the wheat 
 was in the shock. This is because I believe the straw to 
 be worth to the farmer who knows how to properly man- 
 age it enough to pay for hauling and thrashing the crop. 
 
 The proportion of wheat to straw will vary with differ- 
 ent seasons and varieties of wheat, but as a general rule 
 we shall have about two pounds of straw to one of gi*ain. 
 This would give six tons of straw for one hundred bush- 
 els of wheat. As the machines charge from four to five 
 cents per bushel for thrashing, I think it a fair estimate 
 to call the entire expense ten cents a bushel; I think the 
 hauling to the machine could be done for less than $3, 
 but we will call it that, which would make our six tons 
 of straw cost $13. I am willing to call it $2^0 a ton, and 
 this would allow $2 on each hundred bushels for taking 
 the wheat to market, and with the railroad facilities we 
 
106 SUCCESS IN FAKMING. 
 
 now have this will often cover the cost. It would seem 
 unnecessary to enter into an argument to prove that 
 straw is worth $2.50 per ton to the farmer. Whether we 
 look at it from the scientific standpoint comparing its 
 chemical analysis with that of* hay and fodder, or from 
 the practical side, it is certainly worth much more than 
 this. 
 
 I have no hesitation in saying that if farmers took as 
 good care of their wheat straw as they do of their hay, 
 that it is worth for stock, half as much. I will make 
 the further statement, that fifteen hundred pounds of 
 bright wheat straw fed in connection with 2-10 pounds 
 of wheat hran and 250 pounds of corn moal mixed, will 
 he worth, for horses or cattle, as much or more than one 
 ton of the best hay. Even when straw is stacked in the 
 barn-yard and the cattle allowed to run to it and help 
 themselves, it is worth for food, shelter, and manure 
 more than $2.50 per ton. 
 
 Straw is worth for manure much more than a chemi- 
 cal analysis shows, for it is to most farmers the cheapest 
 and most convenient absorbent they can use, and with- 
 out it on many farms most of the liquid and soluble 
 parts of the animal manure would be lost. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH AVHEAT. 
 
 During the last few years I have tried some experi- 
 ments with wheat, which while not conclusive in their 
 results, have been of great interest. 
 
 In 1877 I sowed two adjoining acres with wheat, using 
 one half bushel of seed on one acre, and one bushel on 
 the other. The land was strong and in good condition, 
 and although the wheat where the half bushel was sown 
 looked quite thin at fii'st, before winter set in it had 
 stooled so that little if any difference could be seen. At 
 ' harvest I had a neighbor to cut it for me, and I told him 
 
WHEAT. 107 
 
 and the binders how the wheat was sown, but did not 
 tell them which aci*e had the light seeding, and not one 
 of them could tell. I shocked the grain, and found fifty- 
 two shocks on one acre and fift^y-one on the other. 
 The two acres thrashed seventy bushels. The next year 
 I sowed six acres using three pecks of seed to the acre, 
 and harvested 180 bushels, an average of 30 bushels to 
 the acre. 
 
 My first experiment with bone meal was in 1878, when 
 I used a single barrel, and as I could not get a fertilizer 
 drill I sowed it broadcast. On either side of it I used 
 stable manure, and through the center left a strip twelve 
 feet wide unmanured. The land was heavy clay and 
 badly worn. The stable manure gave the wheat a 
 good start in the fall so that it covered the ground 
 quite well, but up to the time winter set in I saw no 
 benefit whatever from the bone meal. As soon as spring 
 opened the wheat where the bone was sown grew luxuri- 
 antly and showed a dark green, and the strip left with- 
 out any fertilizers was so poor that it was eas}^ to trace 
 it when standing eighty rods away. At harvest the 
 wheat where the bone was used was nearly as goovd as 
 where heavily manured with stable manure, and was a 
 foot taller than on the unfertilized strip. I did not cut 
 and thrash separately, but estimated that every dollar's 
 worth of bone gave from two to thi-ee dollar's worth of 
 wheat, besides improving the quality. This experiment 
 not only showed that I could use bone meal profitably 
 but that it was best to use with it some quicker-acting 
 manure to give the wheat a start in the fall. 
 
 Superphosphate is quicker in its action, and when the 
 farmer depends on commercial manures I think it would 
 be wise to use half of this and half ground bone, or if he 
 has a ten acre field on which he intends to use fifty loads 
 
108 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 of manure and a half ton of bone meal, it would be wise 
 to scatter the manure over the entire field and put one 
 hundred pounds of bone on an acre, than to put two 
 hundred pounds of the latter on five acres and the ma- 
 nure on the other five. 
 
 In the fall of 1879 I sowed four acres of wheat the 8th 
 of October on a piece of land where we had cut off a very 
 light crop of corn. We had plowed the corn late and 
 then gone through with hoes, so that the land was per- 
 fectly clean, and we had no difficulty in making an ex- 
 cellent seedbed. I divided the piece into four equal 
 strips, and on No. 1, I drilled one barrel of sifted hen 
 manure. On Ko. 2, I put twelve loads of good rotten 
 stable manure. On No. 3, 1 drilled two hundred pounds 
 of bone meal, and on No. 4, 1 drilled two hundred pounds 
 of ammoniated flour of bone, which is quicker in its ac- 
 tion than the ground bone. I left strips ten or twelve 
 feet wide without fertilizer of any kind between these 
 plots. They were not cut separately, but I exam- 
 ined them veiy carefully comparing one with another 
 and with the unmanured strips, and reached these con- 
 clusions: That the entire crop was doubled by the fer- 
 tilizers. That the stable manure gave a little the heav- 
 iest crop. That there was no perceptible difference in 
 the plots where the hen manure and bone meal were used, 
 A comparison with the unmanured strips left no doubt 
 that the stable manure gave more than an extra bushel 
 of wheat for every load used, and that the other fertili- 
 zers gave three to five bushels of increase for each dol- 
 lar's worth used. 
 
 I can give no better advice to wheat growers than 
 that they try some experiments each year. I would 
 suggest that those of which I have spoken be repeated. 
 If you have not a fertilizer drill the commercial manure 
 
WHEAT. 109 
 
 can be applied by hand. Learn what bone meal, night- 
 soil, hen manure, etc., are worth to you on your own soil. 
 Alwa^'s leave an unmanured plot adjoining with which 
 to compare, and if possible cut separately and weigh the 
 product of each. Try also, extra pulverization. After 
 3'ou have your field in what you call good condition, put 
 an extra dollar's worth of work on one acre of it, and see 
 if it does not pay. Try burning straw on a plot in your 
 field, and see what effect it will have on the soil. Plow 
 a plot four inches deep and another eight, and give them 
 the same treatment after, and note the diflference, if any. 
 Plow under the manure on one plot, and top-dress the 
 adjoining one. Harrow thoroughly a strip of wheat 
 through the field in the spring. If you are afraid of in- 
 juring it you need only try a rod wide, but go over it till 
 the surface is thoroughly mellowed, doing it, of course, 
 when tlie land is dry enough to pulverize. All these ex- 
 periments are interesting and valuable. There are man}' 
 questions which cannot be answered for you by another, 
 but a little care in experimenting will enable you to an- 
 swer them for j^ourself for all time.* 
 
 *Mr. Brown is fond of experimenting, and these suggestions 
 — like all he makes, are good. But the farmer should bear in 
 mind that experiments are valuable only for results, and unless 
 a careful record of experiments is kept they will be valueless. 
 I would recommend the progressive farmer to keep a sepa- 
 rate book for experiments rather than to enter them in his 
 diary where they are liable to be lost sight of among other 
 matter. Do not crowd the book. Head a page with the name 
 of the experiment, and then fill in the details as they occur. 
 Make your experiments as conclusive as possible. One exper- 
 iment carried through to a conclusion, is worth a dozen half 
 completed. Many experimenters spend their labor for naught, 
 from lack of care i n particulars. As far as possible, measure and 
 weigh results, and record the measurements. An experiment in 
 which you guess at the amoimt of land and at the quantity of 
 seed and at the i-esults, may be very interesting to you, but no 
 fact of value was ever so determined. The experimental farm- 
 er must cultivate business care and accur^^. k. s. t. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CORN. 
 
 The statistics of Ohio from 1850 to 1880 inclusive, 
 show that the amount of corn ground in the State in 1850 
 was one and a half million acres. 
 
 There has been a steady increase in the acreage, until 
 several times in the last few j^ears it has exceeded three 
 million acres. 
 
 The smallest yield during this time was 1858 — fifty 
 million bushels. In 1872, for the first time, the crop 
 reached one hundred million bushels, and since that 
 time it has but three times fallen below that amount, 
 while in 1878 it reached the highest, one hundred and 
 fourteen million bushels. 
 
 In all this time the average yield per acre for the State 
 has but once exceeded 40 bushels, and the average for 
 the whole time is a little less than 34 bushels to the acre. 
 
 As Ohio is a good corn State, and though not produc- 
 ing quite as large quantities as some of the Western 
 states, yet yields as much to the acre, we can well take 
 these figures as the ordinary results obtained by farmers 
 throughout the Union. 
 
 So much for the actual yield, now let us take a look at 
 the possible yield. 
 
 In 1877, while editing the agricultural department of 
 the Weekly Enquirer, I offered a number of premiums 
 f o r the largest yields of corn on one acre. 
 
 Nineteen sen^p in reports, the land having been 
 
CORN. Ill 
 
 measured and the product weighed by disinterested par- 
 ties, E'or convenience I arrange these reports in tabu- 
 lar form : 
 
 BUSHELS OK 
 ^°^^^^«^- THE ACRE. 
 
 No. 1, McLean county, Illinois, 118 
 
 2, Tipton county, Indiana, 110 
 
 3, Pickaway county, Ohio, 110 
 
 4, Clinton county, " 106 
 
 5, Montgomery county," 105 
 
 6, Sandusky county, " 104 
 
 7, Wayne county, Indiana, 104 
 
 8, Madison county, " 103 
 
 9, Delaware county, " 102 
 
 10, McLean county, Illinois, 101 
 
 11, Belmont county, Ohio, . 100 
 
 12, Blackford county, Indiana, 98 
 
 13, Scott " " 91 
 
 14, Shelby " " 91 
 
 1.5, Decatur " " 88 
 
 16, Shelby " " 88 
 
 17, Coles county, Illinois, 82 
 
 18, Stark county, Ohio, 78 
 
 19, Fairfield county, " 68 
 
 The average yield per acre of these nineteen trials 
 
 was ninety-seven and four-nineteenths bushels. 
 
 WHERE THE PROFIT COMES IN. 
 
 The actual cost of labor in growing an acre of corn 
 cannot well be reduced below $6.50. Add to this $5.00 
 per acre for interest on investment and taxes, makes 
 $11.50, and taking the Ohio average for the past thirty 
 years of 34 bushels per acre, would make the corn cost 31 
 cents a bushel to those who grew average crops. A high 
 •cost, considering the usual market price, and one that 
 leaves but little profit to those who grow but average crops. 
 
 It necessarily follows that those who grow less than 
 average crops lose money at the business. 
 
112 SUCCESS IN FAK5IING, 
 
 The parties who grew the above premium crops re- 
 ported the costs of doing so, which averaged, for labor 
 alone, $8.90 per acre. Adding as before $5.00 per acre 
 for taxes and interest on investment,will leave the cost 
 of their crops $13.90 per acre, which divided b}' the 
 average 3'ield gives a cost of about li^ cents a bushel. 
 
 The conclusion is obvious: — The profit in corn grow- 
 ing comes in the big crops, and that if by increasing the 
 cost for labor one-half, we can double the yield, we have 
 made a very profitable investment. 
 
 In nearly every case the growers of these premium crop* 
 report an extra amount of labor in getting the soil ready. 
 A number reported $1 per acre expended in harrowing, 
 rolling or dragging — an amount sufficient to bring it to 
 a very fine condition of tilth. 
 
 Nearly all of thes« crops were grown on sod land, and 
 without manure. 
 
 SAVING SEED CORN. 
 
 The first necessity for a good corn crop is good seed. 
 The loss sustained by our farmers from lack in this 
 matter is enormous, while the cost of selecting and 
 caring for corn that could be depended on for certain 
 germination is but a mere trifle. While it is true that 
 perhaps three years out of four the farmer can go 
 to his crib and pick out corn that will grow; yet it is 
 also true that sometimes it will not, and heavy loss is 
 the consequence. 
 
 Seed corn should be carefully selected in early au- 
 tumn, and placed where it will be thoroughly dried be- 
 fore hard frost Freezing does not injure well matured 
 and w'ell dried corn, but corn that is immature, 
 or is caught by frost before it is entirelj^ dry is liable to 
 have the germ destroyed. 
 
 It should be stored in a dry, airy place. Man}-^ farm- 
 
CORN. 113 
 
 ers follow the plan of stripping the husk back and hang- 
 ing the corn up in an airy loft. 
 
 Another plan highly recommended is to hang the corn 
 in the smoke-house and allow it to be thoroughly 
 smoked with the meat. Not only is this a good and 
 sure way of keeping it, but it is said the grain becomes 
 so thoroughly impregnated with the smoke that insects 
 will trouble neither the grain nor the young plant. 
 
 But there is more in this matter of selecting seed com 
 than merely to get that which will grow. I like Dr. 
 Sturdevant's idea of " pedigree seed corn " and have no 
 doubt that by a careful and persistent selection of seed, 
 the yield may be very materially increased. All careful 
 experiments in this matter of "breeding" corn show 
 that much can be done. I established a new and valu- 
 able variety of sweet corn from a " sport," but it took 
 five years of careful selection to do it. 
 
 PLANTING AND CULTIVATION. 
 
 The improvements in methods of cultivation in corn 
 have kept pace with other matters of farm management. 
 I remember, when a bo}', that the land was marked off 
 and the crop tended with a single shovel plow. It was 
 dropped by hand and covered with a hoe, and no pains 
 ■were taken to keep the field clear of weeds during the 
 latter part of the season. On the rich, Whitewater bot- 
 toms, whei-e my bo^'hood was spent, the fiold would be- 
 come a wilderness of Spanish needles and cockleburs^ 
 and the first work I can remember was riding the horse 
 that dragged a brush between the rows in order to rattle 
 oflT the needles and burs so that they might not impede 
 the buskers, and the weeds were often so tall, that sitting 
 on the horse I would be covered with the needles. 
 
 The farmer in this latitude should if possible finish 
 breaking his land in April, which will give him abund- 
 
 8 
 
114 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 ant time to get it in good order before planting. 
 Judgment must be exercised in preparing the land. If 
 the spring is dry there is no danger of too much pulveriza- 
 tion, but in a wet spring it will be better to leave the 
 general surface of the field rather rough, and draw a log 
 along the furrow to pulverize enough soil to give the 
 corn a start. The remainder of the field can then be 
 made fine and level before the corn comes up, so that at 
 the first working you can get close to it without cover- 
 ing it. 
 
 Time of Planting. — I like reasonably early planting, 
 and am certain that in most cases it gives better results, 
 but there is no use in planting until the weather and 
 ground gets warm, no matter what the time of year may 
 be! Corn Mill not grow when the ground is still cold 
 fAm the winter frosts, and seed planted before there is 
 sufficient Avarmth to cause it to germinate will rot in the 
 ground, and the farmer will often blame the seed when 
 he should have blamed his lack of knowledge of the sim- 
 ple principle that a certain amount of warmth is neces- 
 sary to cause the corn to germinate. 
 
 Hill or Drill. — This has been a question on which 
 much time has been spent. Both methods have their 
 ardent advocates. I think it is pretty well established 
 that where the land is clean, and the farmer has the 
 right kind of implements for thorough cultivation, and 
 knows how to use them, more can be grown on the acre 
 in drills than in hills, but as it is much more difficult to 
 keep drilled corn clean, I would always advise that where 
 the land is foul, or where the cultivation has to be main- 
 ly left to hired help, the hill plan should be adopted. 
 
 Depth of Planting. — There is an interesting scien- 
 tific fact connected with this — the decaying grain must 
 furnish all the food to the young plant until the leaves 
 
CORN. 116 
 
 reach the surface and expand in the light and air. Con- 
 sequently if too deeply buried, the nutriment in the 
 grain is exhausted before the young plant is able 
 to draw food from "^he soil, and it becomes enfeebled. 
 Careful experiment shows that with the land in good or- 
 der one and one-half inch is about the best depth for 
 covering corn. 
 
 Culture. — If the spring is backward, the nights cold, 
 and the corn inclined to be unthrifty, take the bar plow 
 and run it as close to the row as j'ou can, using a fender 
 or rolling cutter on j^our plow, and turn the soil yro7» 
 the row, running the plow about five inches deep. 
 If your corn is planted as straight as it ought to be this 
 ridge on which the corn is left standing need not be 
 more than five inches wide, and the sun soon warms this 
 and starts the corn into a vigorous growth. I have had 
 frequent opportunity to compare adjoining rows, one 
 plowed as I recommend, and the other worked from the 
 start with a cultivator, and the diff'erence in favor of the 
 barshare plow was very perceptible. In warm, pleasant 
 springs of course working with the cultivator from the 
 start does equally well. 
 
 Within a few years the double barshare plow has been 
 introduced and giA^es good satisfaction. It consists of 
 two light bar plows with one handle each, attached to 
 €ach other by an adjustable wooden bar front and rear. 
 For small corn a rolling cutter is used on each plow, so 
 as to entirely protect the young corn, and in drilled corn 
 where the rows are straight it can be set so that not over 
 three inches of earth is left unstirred; and with well 
 planted hill corn the work can be done almost as 
 eflectually. 
 
 It is often a question how much and how long corn 
 should be cultivated. I am confident that increased 
 
116 SUCCESS IN FAUMIXG. 
 
 cultivation gives an increased yield, and as an extra, 
 bushel per acre will about pay for an extra plowing, 1 
 think it will pay to cultivate oftener and longer than is 
 usually done. An opinion has been prevalent that plow- 
 ing corn after the tassel has begun to show is injuri- 
 ous. It undoubtedly is if the corn has been neglected 
 till the ground has become compact and set with weeds; 
 but the experience of our best farmers has shown that if 
 the cultivation is continuous it may be kept up till late 
 in the season, not only without detriment, but with great 
 advantage to the crop. Mr. L. N. Bonhara, a corn- 
 grower of great experience and success, says he plows 
 his corn till the pollen chokes him, and finds it pays. 
 
 The drought of the past summer (1881) has shown 
 the importance of thorough preparation of the soil and 
 constant cultivation. Wherever corn was planted in 
 lumpy soil, or allowed to become weedj, the crop is well 
 nigh a failure; but on adjoining fields, with no better 
 soil, where pulverization and tillage was thorough, there 
 has been a profitable crop. 
 
 When the corn land is to be seeded in wheat, a double 
 advantage is gained by late culture. In fact, it is both 
 difficult and expensive to properly put in a crop of wheat 
 on corn land where the cultivation has been discontinued 
 early in the season, and the ground become filled with 
 weeds.* 
 
 *Mr. Brown has omitted mention of one implement which 
 many of our best farmers prize very highly in the cultivation of 
 corn, namely, the harrow. Some of our best corn growers be- 
 gin tlieir curtivation by liarrowing the corn just before it comes 
 up, and then again as soon as it is fairly above ground paying 
 no attention to the rows. Altliough it looks as though the har- 
 row was destroying all the corn, yet in a few days every plant 
 will show itself again all the better for the struggle. It is get- 
 ting to be generally conceded that corn cannot l)e cultivated 
 too early, and that often the most valuable cultivation it re- 
 ceives is the first. R. s. T. 
 
CORN. 117 
 
 INSECT ENEMIES. 
 
 Corn is troubled with these less than most other crops 
 but occasionally cut-worms injure it badly, The smok- 
 ing of the seed-corn is said to be a preventive of this. 
 It is also said that the application of salt and land 
 plaster mixed in the proportion of one part of the former 
 to two of the latter, and a pinch applied to each hill 
 will entirel}- stop their ravages. A barrel of the mixture 
 is sufficient for eight acres. 
 
 FERTILIZERS FOR CORN. 
 
 Clover is the cheapest and best fertilizer for this crop, 
 and the farmer who uses all his manure on the wheat 
 crop and sows clover with the wheat, will grow heavier 
 crops of both wheat and corn than if the manure was 
 used on the corn land. A clover sod gives a clean and 
 mellow seed-bed for corn, and it is easier and pleasanter 
 to draw manure over the solid land in July and August, 
 than over the soft miry earth in March or April. 
 
 VALUE OF CORN FODDER. 
 
 In the nineteen corn reports referred to in the begin- 
 ning of this chapter, but one of them allowed anj'thing 
 for the fodder and then onl}^ one dollar an acre, and as 
 managed by a large proportion of western farmers they 
 do not realize this amount from it, and often injure the 
 land by tramping when wet more than all they get is 
 worth. The farmers of the New England states put a 
 very high value on corn fodder, often more than would 
 l)uy a heavy crop of corn at the West. I know that corn 
 fodder in New England is worth more than in the West, 
 for two reasons : Their small varieties of corn make 
 better fodder than our coarser growing kinds and it is 
 much pleasanter to handle, and hay brings a much high- 
 er price with them than with us. 
 
 I know that corn fodder is so valuable with us that it 
 
118 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 is wasteful to leave it in the field, and that a handsome 
 profit above the cost of saving can be made on it. 
 
 What is an average acre of corn fodder worth, and 
 what does it cost? I answer to the first question, it is 
 worth us much as a ton of good hay, and this estimate 
 is based on twenty years' experience in the use of fod- 
 der, and I have during that time fed hay enough to en- 
 able me to compare the two. I have kept from eight to 
 twenty head of horses and cattle each winter, and three- 
 fourths of the time I have not cut a pound of hay a year 
 but depended on corn fodder for work teams, milk cows, 
 and stock cattle. I have been confirmed in this estimate 
 of the value of corn fodder by many farmers of large ex- 
 perience in its use. As to its being palatable to stock 
 and their thriving well on it, I find that it takes the very 
 best hay to equal it. The great objection to it on the 
 part of many farmers is, the amount of waste and the 
 butts in the manure pile. The waste of corn fodder ig 
 less than many suppose. Some ja'ars since I conducted 
 a series of careful experiments to ascertain what the ac- 
 tual waste was. I was at that time milking seven cows 
 and selling butter to a hotel. For several days I weighed 
 the fodder for the cows and after each feed weighed the 
 waste, and I found that they ate just two-thirds of the 
 fodder. I also found that a ton of the fodder would feed 
 a cow three months. We were feeding in addition ten 
 pounds a day of bran and corn meal mixed equal parts, 
 and on this diet they kept up a full flow of milk, and the 
 same ration fed to dr}'' cows soon made them ready for 
 beef. I know that the part of the fodder the cattle eat 
 is worth as much as the same weight of the best hay, or 
 in other words, three tons of fodder is worth as much 
 as two tons of hay. Now let us estimate the cost. I 
 have hired all my corn cut up for years, and it has cost 
 
CORN. 119 
 
 me about $1.25 per acre. The price for some years was 
 five cents for shocks containing 100 hills, but of late 
 years I get 141 hills — or shocks 12 hills square — cut for 
 this, and my hands make over $2 a day at this price; 
 some of my neighbors paid but four cents for shocks of 
 this siz;e. As we usually plant, this would give about 
 twenty shocks to the acre. It costs but little more to 
 get the corn husked from the shock than from the stand- 
 ing corn. I have never paid above eight cents a shock 
 and this includes binding the fodder in bundles. "We 
 use rye straw for this purpose, and unless we are ready 
 to draw"the fodder to the barn or stack the same day, 
 the husker sets the bundles up in shock and ties a band 
 round the top to hold them together. After deducting 
 what it would cost to husk the corn if it was not cut 
 up, less than $3 will cover the entire expense of cut- 
 ting up and securing in barn or stack an acre of corn 
 fodder if let out hy the job, I have spoken of stacking 
 fodder; there is no product of the farm more easily 
 stacked. All that is necessary is to make the stack nar- 
 row so as to keep the middle three or four feet higher 
 than the edges, which gives a good slope to the bundles. 
 It will shed the rain and keep perfectly. I prefer to 
 build rather small stacks containing from sixty to one 
 hundred shocks each, or if a larger one is wanted make 
 it long and narrow so that it can be put up and taken 
 down in sections. "Whatever else may be neglected, 
 shocked corn should be husked and the fodder hauled 
 before winter sets in. "When the ground freezes the fod- 
 der freezes down to the ground, and when a thaw comes 
 the fields are so muddy that it is exceedingly disagree- 
 able to handle the fodder, and if the field has been sown 
 to wheat this crop will be seriously damaged. If the 
 corn is left out till spring the injury to grain and fodder 
 
120 SUCCKS.S IX FAKMING. 
 
 Is often more than the cost of husking. The wise farmer 
 will secure help enough to finish up this work during 
 the pleasant weather. 
 
 There are two ways of managing the waste: One is 
 to clean out the mangers every day and scatter the con- 
 tents over the barn-yard. The cattle soon tramp them 
 into the common mass of straw and manure, and they 
 give no trouble. In four weeks after forking up the ma- 
 nure in the spring in a small barn-^^ard in which I had 
 thrown the butts from twenty acres of heavy corn, it was 
 iine enough to use on the garden. The other and the 
 best wa}'^ is to cut up the fodder and use the waste for 
 bedding. This may be done by cutting it fine in a cut- 
 ter of some kind, or if but little stock is kept it can be 
 cut into six-inch lengths on a block with a cleaver, and 
 even cut this length the waste will make good bedding.* 
 
 I have found corn fodder the best bedding material 
 for hogs confined in pens during winter. It keeps cleaner 
 and lasts much longer than straw, and the hogs need 
 some bulky food and they will eat the blades and part 
 of the husks. 
 
 There is one more point connected with corn, and that 
 is, that when fed entire grain, husk and blade, it fur- 
 nishes a perfect ration, just the right proportion of flesh 
 and fat formers, and this fact stated b}'^ scientific inAcs- 
 tigators is confirmed from the fact that shock corn fed 
 to cattle keeps them in fine condition, and gives a large 
 gain both in flesh and fat. I shall speak of fodder corn 
 in the chapter on "Special Crops." 
 
 *Some persons claim that feeding corn fodder cut up makes 
 the moutlis of the cattle sore. k. s. t. 
 
CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 VALUE OF THE CROP. 
 
 The importance of this crop is often underestimated. 
 Ohio statistics for 1879 show the wheat crop of the State 
 as worth fifty-one million dollars, and the hay crop at 
 only nineteen million; but hay does not represent the 
 entire value of the grass crop, as a large proportion of 
 the grass is pastured and not cut. 
 
 The grass crop, also, when properly used, tends rather 
 to renovate than to wear out land, and the wise farmer, 
 in regions where grass is a successful crop, can greatly 
 increase his profits, diminish his labor and expenses, 
 and improve the fertility of his farm, by keeping a con- 
 siderable portion of his land in grass. 
 
 It is true that in some portions of North-eastern Ohio, 
 where the land has been kept in grass from the earliest 
 settlement of the country, and the products carried off 
 in milk and cheese and meat, the land has suffered dete- 
 rioration as surely as, though more slowly than, under 
 continuous grain cropping; but where grass is made a 
 part of a rotation, it always has a beneficial influence on 
 the land, and where the dairj' business is not exten- 
 sively followed, and the pastures stocked with grown 
 cattle, or especially, sheep, the land may be kept in grass 
 indefinitely without deterioration. 
 
 There are many broken farms in the hilly sections of 
 the countrj', which are cultivated in corn and wheat year 
 
122 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 after year, not only at a loss to the farmer, but the total 
 and irremediable destruction of the farm by washing, 
 which, if seeded down in permanent pasture and stocked 
 with sheep, would maintain their fertility, or even show 
 a gain, and bring their owner a steady income. The 
 best illustration of this I have ever seen is on the high 
 blufl's of the Miami river, near its mouth. On one farm 
 you will see the hills clothed in blue-grass from base 
 to summit, taking on a dense green with the first open 
 weather of spring, and often covered with flocks, making 
 a good living on them by the first of April, and again in 
 November and December. On an adjoining farm, which 
 has been cultivated in. grain, the hills are seamed and 
 gullied until almost valueless. 
 
 In many sections of the country where clover does not 
 succeed well, grass entirely takes its place in a rotation. 
 One great advantage connected with grass as a standard 
 crop, is the light expense and labor. When pastured, 
 the expense of harvesting is naught, and even when cut 
 for hay, the expense is light compared with most other 
 crops. 
 
 VARIETIES TO CHOOSE. 
 
 In this matter the farmer must be governed by hiai 
 locality, nature of soil and purpose he has in view. There 
 are certain varieties of grass which flourish on certain 
 geological formations and will not grow on others. Some 
 are excellent for pasture and of but little value for ha}'; 
 and others again, make the best ha}^ but do not make 
 good permanent pasture. Some varieties will grow on 
 very wet land that could not otherwise be utilized with- 
 out underdraining. Others would winter-kill on such 
 land. 
 
 For permanent pasture we have three excellent grasses, 
 all of which flourish on a larjire area of our Western 
 
GRASSES. 123 
 
 States. These are blue grass, orchard grass and red top. 
 
 Blue Grass belongs especially to a limestone country, 
 does best on dry, rolling lands, and j'et flourishes on 
 many sections of the Western prairies when once it gets 
 a hold. It forms a close, tough sod, that saves hillsides 
 from washing, and will endure during the open weather 
 of winter or earl}-- spring an amount of tramping that 
 would be ruinous to some other varieties. It is sweet 
 and nutritious, making the best of beef and milk, and is 
 relished by stock of all kinds. It starts into vigorous 
 growth with the first open weather of spring, and contin- 
 ues green and fresh late in the fall, and in some sections 
 furnishes good picking all through the winter, when the 
 ground is not covered with snow. 
 
 It does not endure heat and drought well, and in a 
 summer like that of 1881, fails entirely, but it comes 
 forth with wonderful vigor and freshness with the first 
 fall rains. 
 
 It is slow to take hold of the ground, and should never 
 be sown except for permanent pasture. 
 
 For the same reason, in starting a blue grass pasture, 
 the seed should always be sown with some other grass. 
 I prefer to sow with timothy, as this will not shade it too 
 mnch, and about the time the timothy runs out, the blue 
 grass will be ready to occupy the land. 
 
 Be careful to know that you have good, fresh seed, as 
 there is probably no grass seed sold that is more often 
 worthless. Sow late in the fall or early in the winter, 
 using one bushel of seed to the acre, and use as much 
 timothy seed as if you had sown no blue grass, for it 
 will make but little show the first j^ear or two. 
 
 Never sow blue grass with red clover, as it will not 
 succeed. 
 
 It is said that if the seed is scattered over the hard 
 
124 SUCCESS IN KAKMING. 
 
 surface of an old pasture, it will take root and do as well 
 as on mellow ground. Wherever it does once get a foot- 
 hold, it will ultimately crowd out everything else. 
 
 I have tried the plan of getting a set of blue grass by 
 "grafting," which proved successful. I cut sod one and 
 a half or two inches thick, and cut this into pieces two 
 inches square, and on a field that had just been sown to 
 oats dropped these pieces, about two feet and a half 
 apart each way, and stepped on them to press them into 
 the mellow ground. Every piece grew and the grass is 
 spreading from them rapidly. On a large scale, the 
 pieces might be scattered from a wagon with a shovel or 
 manure fork, and pressed into the ground with a roller.* 
 
 Blue grass flourishes well in the shade, and enables us 
 to make profitable wood pastures. Near my farm are 
 several plantations of locust timber, where the trees 
 stand so close it would be difficult to drive between them 
 with a wagon, and yet the land is heavily set in blue 
 grass, and carries nearly as man}' cattle to the acre as 
 land that is fully exposed to the sun. B3' a little care, 
 wood lots may be set in this grass and pay a fair inter- 
 est on capital invested. 
 
 Red Top does well on almost all soils, but will thrive 
 on soil so wet as to be unfit for other purposes. Like 
 blue grass, it bears tramping well, and on rich soil will 
 produce a heavy crop of ver}" fair hay, which though not 
 quite equal to timothy hay, can be produced on land not 
 fitted for thiit crop. For pasture, it is fully as accepta- 
 ble to stock as the average of grasses. 
 
 Red top should be sown on a mellow and level surface, 
 
 *Where for any reason there is difficulty in geting a start of 
 blue grass from the seed, this plan may prove valuable ; but in 
 ordinary cases I should imagine that the labor would cost more 
 than the seed. e. s. t. 
 
GRASSES. 125 
 
 as it is a delicate seed, and will need no covering, as the 
 rains will wash it in sufficiently. It may be sown at the 
 time wheat is put in, and if sown alone, two bushels of 
 seed is none too much; but as, like blue grass, it is per- 
 manent and will spread, it is better to seed with one 
 bushel (fourteen pounds) of red top and six quarts of 
 timoth}'. 
 
 Orchard Grass. — Though coarse, this grass makes 
 good hay and better pasture. Cattle are very fond of it, 
 and chemical analysis shows it to be richer in flesh-pro- 
 ducing elements than timothy, and nearlj'^ as rich in fat- 
 producers. 
 
 It is a good grass to sow in connection with red clover, 
 as it ripens early, prevents the clover from lodging, and 
 makes it easier to cure. It thrives best on a rich, warm 
 soil, and seems specially adapted to creek bottoms. 
 
 Orchard grass may be sown in either fall or spring; 
 should be sown on a well prepared surface and covered 
 lightly. The fertilizer attachment to the wheat drill 
 will sow it evenly and well, if not in use for fertilizers. 
 To prevent the forming of stools, heavy seeding is re- 
 quired, and it will pay to apply two and a half bushels 
 to the acre. 
 
 In seeding down land to permanent pasture, the best 
 results are obtained from a mixture of blue grass, red 
 top and orchard grass. Stock thus gets a variety of 
 food; and on broken lands, which are the kind that 
 should be chosen for tliis purpose, there is usually a 
 large variety of soil, and if one kind fails on any partic 
 ular portion of the field, one of the other varieties will 
 succeed and prevent a barren spot. 
 
 There is much pasture land which 5-ields no profit to 
 the owner, and which loses, rather than gains, fertility, 
 on account of too early pasturing in spring and over 
 
126 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 stocking. A plant continually kept cropped close to the 
 ground, can develop but little root, and the roots are the 
 source not only of a heavy growth, but also of fertility. 
 Better sow a field of rye for early feed than turn stock 
 on pastures before the grass has fairlj^ started. 
 
 Timothy. — For the regular hay crop, no grass has ever 
 been found superior to this. It usually brings a higher 
 price in market than any other. It is not suitable for 
 permanent pasture, as it usually runs out in two or three 
 years; but it makes an excellent part in a rotation, and 
 leaves the land in good order for corn or wheat. 
 
 Timothy is usually sown with wheat or oats, and most 
 drills are now provided with grass seeders. I would sow 
 not less than a peck to the acre. This is rather more 
 than is commonly used, but I am satisfied that a heavier 
 stand of grass can be obtained, and as the statistics 
 show that the average hay crop of Ohio is but one and 
 one-sixth tons, it is evident that something needs to be 
 done in the matter. 
 
 Bone dust is an excellent fertilizer for grass, and it 
 will be well to use about two hundred pounds to the 
 acre in sowing wheat with timoth}^ The occasional ap- 
 plication of the same amount as a top dressing to mead- 
 ows, will doubtless be found beneficial in most localities, 
 and it will pay each farmer to determine by experiment 
 what its effect will be on his farm. 
 
 MAKING HAY. 
 
 The question of the time to cut hay has been debated in 
 granges and farmers' clubs till it has grown monotonous. 
 A few simple principles, however, will settle the gen- 
 ei-alities of the question, and after that each farmer can 
 determine the details for himself. 
 
 Immature plants do not contain as much nutritive mat- 
 ter as those that have nearly arrived at maturity, nor are 
 
GRASSES. 127 
 
 they easy to cure. When the seed is allowed to ripen in 
 the plant, a large portion of the nutritive matter in the 
 plant goes into the seed, and the plant itself remains 
 little more than a mass of woody fiber. 
 
 The time to cut hay, then, would seem to be just after 
 the blossom has fallen and before the seed has ripened. 
 Some persons cut while in bloom. This makes very 
 dusty hay. 
 
 Some claim that a timothy meadow will not run out 
 so soon if not cut until the seed ripens. This is true, 
 but only so because in harvesting a large amount of 
 the seed shatters out, and the ground is practically re- 
 eeeded. This is seeding the ground, however, at the ex- 
 pense of the value of the crop of hay. 
 
 ANNUAL GRASSES. 
 
 Some of these are of considerable importance to the 
 farmer, especially when, from any reason, the meadow8 
 are short, as they can be sown late and usually yield 
 heavy crops of hay — not quite equal in value to timothy, 
 hut ver}"- useful in its place. 
 
 Hungarian grass and German millet are the best 
 known. They should not be sown until the ground i8 
 quite warm, usually the first of June, though in some 
 sections they can be grown successfully when sown in 
 July. Good crops have been grown on land from which 
 a crop of wheat had just been cut. 
 
 Work the ground thoroughl}'' and seed heavily — three 
 or four pecks to the acre — as with thinner seeding the 
 plant will be coarse. Cover with a plank drag, which 
 will press the seed into the earth and insure quick 
 germination, and also leave a smooth surface for the 
 mower to run on. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 ITS VALUE ON THE FARM. 
 
 In estimating the value of a crop of any kind, many- 
 items have to be taken into consideration. These in- 
 clude not onl}'' the money value of the crop after it is 
 produced, but the cost of its production and the eftect 
 upon the soil. To the cost of seed and labor used in 
 growing a crop of wheat or corn must be added a cer- 
 tain amount to cover fertilizing elements that have been 
 taken from the soil, and which must be replaced if the 
 land is to continue productive. 
 
 I estimate the cost of growing and harvesting an acre 
 of corn or wheat at $8. Of course this will vary with 
 varying circumstances, but in most cases this will prob- 
 ably not be too high an estimate. 
 
 There is much more difficulty in determining the value 
 of the fertility taken from the soil by a crop of grain, 
 but I should sa}' that $2 per acre would be about a fair 
 charge. By this I mean that it would cost that much to 
 restore it, either by barn-yard manure or commercial 
 fertilizers. This would allow $12 worth of manure spread 
 over an acre of land once in six years. This would cer- 
 tainly not be any more than sufficient to maintain its 
 fertility under continued cropping with grain, and my 
 estimate of $2 per acre for plant food removed by a crop 
 of grain is therefore certainly not too high. 
 
 This will make the cost of growing an acre of corn or 
 
CLOVER. 129 
 
 •wheat $10. Allowing that twenty bushels an acre, at $1 
 a bushel would be a fair average yield and price for 
 wheat, and fifty bushels an acre and 40 cents a fair av- 
 erage yield and price for corn, the money value of the 
 crop on an acre would be, in either case, $20, allowing a 
 profit of $10 per acre on a crop of grain. 
 
 Now, we will compare this with the profit on an acre 
 of clover. The cost of seed and growing will not exceed 
 $1 per acre. A bushel of seed is sufficient for eight or 
 ten acres of land, and 10 cents per acre will cover the 
 cost of sowing. Preparation of seed-bed costs nothing, 
 for ordinarily it is sown on wheat or oats and covered by 
 the action of frost and rains. Even if we harrow the 
 wheat field to give the clover a better chance, one-half 
 the cost should be charged to the wheat, which will be 
 greatly benefitted by the treatment. 
 
 Next, as to the removal of elements of fertility from 
 the soil : Instead of — as in the case of corn or wheat — 
 having to charge the clover with $2 an acre on this score, 
 we can actually give it a credit of $8 per acre for ele- 
 ments of fertility added to the soil. How this is done 
 will be discussed further on; the fact is sufficient for my 
 present purpose. To prove that this is a reasonable esti- 
 mate, it is sufficient to say that experience has abun- 
 dantly'' demonstrated that a crop of clover will restore to 
 the soil as much fertility as is taken away by four years 
 cropping with grain. Now, as we demonstrated that it 
 would take at least barn-yard manure to the value of $8 
 to do this, then this is the lowest estimate we can place 
 pn the manurial value of this crop. 
 
 Next, as to the market value of ^i crop of clover; for it 
 must be kept in mind that the above estimate of its ma- 
 nurial value is made with the supposition that the crop 
 is pastured or utilized as a meadow. Mr. Colburn, in 
 
 9 
 
130 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 his book on Swine Husbandry, estimates that six tons 
 of green clover can be grown on an acre, and fifteen 
 pounds will make a pound of pork. Valuing the pork at 
 4 cents a pound, would give the value of an acre of clover 
 when pastured at $32. This is undoubtedly an extrav- 
 agant estimate. 
 
 L. N. Bonham, who has made this matter a careful 
 studj'^ for years, estimates the value of an acre of clover, 
 when pastured to cattle or hogs, at $9, and this is prob- 
 ably a fair estimate; and if, instead of pasturing, it is 
 cut twice — once for hay and once for seed — the net value 
 of an acre, after deducting the cost of harvesting, will 
 certainly not be less than this. 
 
 We have now the data from which to reckon the value 
 to the farmer of an ^cre of clover : 
 
 Net market value of crop $ 9 00 
 
 Value of fertilizing elements returned to soil .... 8 00 
 
 Total, $17 00 
 
 Less cost of seed and cultivation 1 00 
 
 Net profit per acre $16 00 
 
 For facility in comparison, I now repeat the estimate 
 on an acre of grain : 
 
 Net market value of crop $20 00 
 
 Less cost of cultivation $8 00 
 
 " fertility removed from soil 2 00— 10 00 
 
 Net profit $10 00 
 
 Which shows $6 more profit on an acre of clover than on 
 an acre of grain. To this might be added that the clover 
 stubble is loose and mellow and free from weeds. 
 
 While of course clover cannot take the place of crops 
 of grain, yet this estimate shows very clearly its value 
 to the farmer, and the important place it occupies among 
 the crops of the farm. 
 
CLOVER. 131 
 
 HOW CLOVER ADDS TO THE FERTILITY 01' THE SOIL. 
 
 Many persons are greatly puzzled to understand how 
 it can be that a crop of clover can be grown, and yield a 
 crop of hay and crop of seed to be carried away, and still 
 add fertility to the soil. A little thought will, I think, 
 make it clear. I have already, in other chapters, alluded 
 to the influence of shade on the soil, in causing the de- 
 posit of nitrogen; and perhaps there is no crop grown 
 on the farm which produces so dense a shade as clover. 
 Its abundant foliage takes in carbonic acid from the at- 
 mosphere, and the large roots penetrate deeply into the 
 subsoil, bringing up and making available the valuable 
 mineral elements needed for our grain crops. 
 
 Clover is rich in valuable ash. A careful analysis of 
 this ash gives the following result: 
 
 Phosphoric acid 7.5 
 
 Sulphuric acid 4.3 
 
 Carbonic acid 18 
 
 Silica 3 
 
 Lime 30 
 
 Magnesia 8.5 
 
 Potash 20 
 
 Soda, chlorine and iron 8.7 
 
 Total, 100.0 
 
 The reader will understand that the above is an aver- 
 age of several different analyses, as different samples 
 will vary according to the soil on which they are grown. 
 The roots are still richer in ash than the tops, and 
 consequently, in the mineral elements needed, and when 
 we find out the proportion of root to top, we shall begin 
 to understand why the clover crop enriches the land, 
 even when cut for hay and for seed. Carefully conducted 
 experiments have shown that the weight of roots is much 
 greater than of tops. Dr Voelcker, of the Royal Society 
 
132 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 of England, selected an average square yard in a field of 
 clover that had been cut twice — once for hay and once 
 for seed — and found that in the first six inches of the 
 soil the clover roots, after being washed and dried, 
 weighed one pound, ten and one-half ounces. This 
 would give, in round numbers, three and one-half tons 
 of clover roots in the first six inches of the soil, and, as 
 fully one-third of the roots lie below this, we can esti- 
 mate over five tons of clover roots in the soil of a single 
 acre. These experiments also showed that the weight of 
 the clover roots doubled between the time the crop was 
 cut for hay and when it was cut for seed. 
 
 It has puzzled many farmers to understand how clover, 
 ■which contains so large a per cent of the same valuable 
 elements which wheat does, could enrich the soil and 
 benefit the wheat crop as tlie}'^ find b}' practical experi- 
 ment that it does. The fact of the large quantity of 
 roots left in the soil, and that the clover gets its nutriment 
 so largely from the atmosphere and the subsoil makes 
 clear what seemed mysterious. 
 
 There may be enough fertilizing elements for hun- 
 dreds of crops, lying in the soil, either out of reach of 
 the roots of plants, or in a form not available ; and clover 
 reaches down and brings them up and renders them 
 available; just as there might be scattered over the 
 ground bones containing enough rich fertilizing mate- 
 rial for several heavy crops of wheat, but which the 
 plants could not use. If these bones are ground to a 
 powder and incorporated with the soil, they would then 
 be availalde to the plants. 
 
 So there are in the subsoil and air almost inexhausti- 
 ble supplies of plant food, but which, like the unground 
 bones, are not available to the ordinary i)lant. The clover 
 seizes these elements and makes them available. 
 
CLOVER. 133 
 
 In the beginning of this article I made an estimate of 
 the fertilizing value of an acre of clover from the prac- 
 tical standpoint Now let us see what the value would be 
 from a chemical standpoint. The value of potash, am- 
 monia and phosphoric acid as contained in commercial 
 fertilizers, is usually estimated to be: 
 
 Ammonia 174^ cents ^ ib. 
 
 Potash 6" " 
 
 Phosphoric acid 6 " " 
 
 From a careful comparison of a number of tables, I 
 estimate that the roots of an acre of good clover will 
 contain: 
 
 Ammonia, 145 ft s. @ 17^ cents, $2.5 37 
 
 Potash, 140 fcs. @ 6 cents, 8 40 
 
 Phosphoric acid, 42 fts. @ 6 cents, 2 52 
 
 $36 29 
 This shows that my estimate from a practical stand- 
 point was not extravagant. It must be borne in mind, 
 however, that a part of this value retained in the roots, 
 must be allowed to replace what was carried off in the tops, 
 and that of course a portion was gathered from the sur- 
 face soil. The real fertilizing profit is in that portion 
 that is drawn from the air and subsoil. 
 
 There is one other benefit of clover, difficult, perhaps, 
 to estimate, but which farmers are not slow to appreciate, 
 and that is its mechanical effect; and this does more 
 than make the land work easily, for it also enables 
 the roots of other plants to traverse the soil and find 
 food, which the}' otherwise would be unable to reach. 
 Clover is also a cleansing crop, by which I mean that it 
 so fully occupies the land that it does not allow any 
 other plants to grow, and the seeds of many troublesome 
 plants will sprout and then be smothered by the dense 
 growth of clover, and perish. 
 
134 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 GETTING A STAND. 
 
 If Jill said above is true of clover — and those who liave 
 had the most experience with it, will testify to these 
 facts — farmers cannot well sow too much of it, and it 
 becomes a matter of moment to know how to insure a 
 stand. I believe that moderatel>' early sowing will gen- 
 erally be found the safest; but localities and seasons 
 vary so that no date can be given. It should be sown 
 early enough so as to be covered by the action of frost, 
 and 3'et not so earl}' as to be in danger of heavy frost 
 after it comes up, as it is sometimes killed. If sown late, 
 after the probability^ of frost is over, it is best to harrow 
 the wheat, as this will give a better seed-bed for the 
 clover, and at the same time be of benefit to the wheat. 
 Many farmers are afraid of injuring the wheat in this 
 way, but I have used a heavy, sharp harrow without 
 injur3% Perhaps it would be better to use the Thomas, 
 or some other slope-tooth harrow, and go over it both 
 ways; but I should use a common tooth harrow if I had 
 no other. It is of such vital importance to the farmer 
 to get a stand of clover, in order that his rotation may 
 not be broken up, that it will be pi*ofitable to take much 
 pains in sowing clover, and I think it will pay to sow 
 early and cross sow a little later, using, of course, but 
 half the seed at each seeding. Oi'dinarily both sowings 
 come up and do well, but if the first sowing should be 
 killed by a late freeze, the second would be likely to do 
 well, and should the weather come on diy and hot, the 
 early seeding would be out of danger. 
 
 When the farmer saves his own seed and sows in the 
 chaff, as is often done, I would always recommend early 
 sowing, as the seed will be slower in germinating, and 
 the hull will also be a protection to the young plant. 
 
 The quantity of seed to the acre must var}^ some- 
 
CLOVER. 135 
 
 what with the soil and condition of seed-bed ; but under 
 favorable circumstances a bushel will seed ten acres 
 well, and this is the amount of seed most commonly 
 sown. I prefer generally to seed heavier, and I notice 
 that those who follow thrashing clovei; seed report the 
 heaviest yield from heavj^ seeding, and some of them 
 recommend ten pounds to the acre. 
 
 SAVING CLOVER SEED. 
 
 I have no hesitotion in advising farmers who can to 
 save their own seed. It is not only economical, but also 
 safe; for man}'' farmers, by buying seed, have introduced 
 troublesome weeds, to the great detriment of their farms. 
 Much seed that is old and worthless, or that is adulter- 
 ated, is put upon the market, and doubtless many farm- 
 ers who fail to get a stand, attribute it to the season, when 
 it is really caused by poor seed. 
 
 Clover seed is usually a profitable crop to grow for 
 sale, as good clover ought to average two bushels of seed 
 to the acre, and double this has often been grown; but 
 even when not grown for sale, the farmer can grow 
 enough for his own use, and sow it in the chaff", and 
 I think that when sown early in this way it is surer than 
 the clean seed. When a crop of seed is wanted, the 
 first crop should be cut early in June; the second will 
 then be read}" the last of August or first of September, 
 which will be known by three-fourths of the heads hav- 
 ing turned brown. It should be left by the reaper in 
 bunches large enough for a good sized fork full. Do 
 not let it stand till too ripe, or try to handle it much, or 
 you will lose much of the seed. It is best to thrash 
 from the field in a dry time, as it is difficult to stack so 
 as to keep out the water, and it is too dusty to be pleas- 
 ant in the barn. The waste will be valuable in the 
 compost heap, or will make jin excellent mulch for 
 
130 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 the wheat or anything to which you wish to apply it. 
 
 CLOVER HAY, 
 
 Is excellent feed, especially for milk cows, but may be 
 greatly injured, either by too much drying or too much 
 wet. If dried too much, the leaves crumble, and the 
 best part of it is wasted; or if left out in the rain, or 
 put in the mow so green as to mould, it is unwholesome 
 and unpalatable. After clover is fairly wilted, it should 
 be cured in small cocks. It may be put in the barn 
 quite green, if you have dry, old hay, or straw, or corn 
 fodder to put between the layers, as they will absorb the 
 moisture. If clover is cut green, it cannot be safely put 
 in the barn with one day's curing without an absorbent. 
 
 VARIETIES OF CLOVER. 
 
 For general purposes, the common red is the best va- 
 riety; but my experience with the Mammoth has been 
 favorable, and I recommend farmers to experiment with 
 it. It makes a larger growth of top and of course of 
 root, and when the crop is grown with reference to its 
 value for manure, it will certainly furnish a greater bulk 
 than the common red. When the season is dry, it makes 
 excellent hay, but in a wet season is apt to grow coarse 
 and wood}^ and so rank as to lodge and be badly injured. 
 I have cut three tons_ of it to the acre, cured, and the 
 hay was equal to any clover. Where a little clover is 
 wanted with timothy, it is best to sow this variety, as it 
 ripens about with that grass. One and a half or two 
 pounds of seed to the acre is enough when sown with 
 timothy, as, if you get on much more than this, it will 
 smother it. 
 
 Alsike clover is a medium variet}-, finer than the com- 
 mon red, with heads half way in size between that and 
 white clover. It makes fine hay, and will cut a fair 
 Bwath, and furnishes, like the white, good bee pasture. 
 
CLOViK. 137 
 
 The seed sells at about 25 cents a pound, Init it is so 
 fine that much less seed than of red clover will sow an 
 acre. White clover is very seldom sown, but 1 think 
 farmers would find it profitable to sow on poor spots 
 where it is diflficult to get a stand of grasses, or on 
 washy places on hillsides, as it is tenacious and seldom 
 killed out when it gets a foothold. 
 
 The reader will notice that I have not recommended 
 plowing under the crop for enriching the land. It may 
 be profitable under some circumstances, but ordinarily 
 it will be worth more for other purposes, and as has been 
 already shown, we get the mechanical effect and a full 
 development of the roots, which are the most valuable 
 part when we utilize the crop both for hay and seed. I 
 would not, under any circumstances, plow under a heav}' 
 growth of clover late in the season on land that was to 
 be sown in wheat. I have known in several instances a 
 total failure of crop from so doing. A moderate growth, 
 especially if plowed under early, is not objectionable; 
 but if a great mass is turned under late in the season, it 
 is impossible to get a proper seed-bed. If I wanted to 
 utilize the entire crop for the benefit of the land, I should 
 rather let it stand all the season, without either cutting 
 or pasturing, and if it was dry enough, so that it could 
 be burned off by the last of August, I should burn it if 
 I intended to soav in wheat, and then mellow three or 
 four inches of the surface and sow the wheat. The 
 largest crop of wheat I have ever heard of being grown in 
 Ohio, and which averaged over sixty bushels to the 
 acre, was where a field of Mammoth clover was burned. 
 I think I should burn this crop also in the spring, if I 
 "were intending to follow with corn. Another way highly 
 recommended, when the entire crop is to be utilized for 
 fertilizing purposes, is to cut the first crop and leave it 
 
138 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 as it falls, allowing the second crop to grow up through it. 
 
 When pastured, clover should not be turned on too 
 early or too heavily stocked, as if too closely cropped we 
 lose the benefit of shade and development of root, and 
 consequentl}' its value as a fertilizer is greatly reduced. 
 
 One other point connected with the pasturing of clover 
 is, that it sometimes causes bloat or hoven in cattle, so 
 as to produce fatal results. Fortunatel}', I have had no 
 experience with it on my farm, but I remember when a 
 boy, my father lost a valuable cow, and I have known 
 cases where a farmer has lost several head in a season. 
 It is not prudent to turn hungry cattle into a clover field 
 the first time in the spring, when the dew is on in the 
 morning. I have talked with many farmers on this 
 subject, and find that I can never hear of a case of 
 bloat when the pasture contains a strip of blue grass or 
 timothy, and as my pastures have always contained other 
 grasses as well as clover, this may be the reason I have 
 escaped it. Another preventive, which many farmers 
 consider infallible, is to have a straw stack in the field, 
 to which the cows can have access. 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 POTATOES. 
 
 While potatoes should find a place on every farm, there 
 are serious drawbacks to growing them largely- as a field 
 crop. The}'^ cannot, like grain, be kept over a ^-ear or 
 more; but must be sold, whether the price gives a profit 
 or not. It is a risky crop, also, more easily affected by 
 drought, and often entirely ruined by continued wet 
 weather; and as potatoes must be wintered in the cellar 
 or in pits, they are far more expensive to handle than 
 grain. 
 
 Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the crop is a 
 profitable one to the farmer who understands its proper 
 management, and who follows growing it persistently, 
 not allowing himself to be frightened into abandoning it 
 by a failure or unprofitable season. It is certainly a safe 
 estimate that two bushels of potatoes can be grown on 
 the same land which would produce one of corn, and at an 
 average price of 40 cents per bushel, the farmer would 
 find them profitable. 
 
 There seems to be a tendency to degeneration in the 
 potato, which results, where a variety is planted for 
 many 3'ears on the same soil, in " running out." But by 
 selection and hybridizing, new and more valuable va- 
 rieties are as constantly being produced, which replace 
 those which have to be abandoned. 
 
 It would be useless for me to give a list of varieties, 
 for not only is their name legion, but each neighborhood 
 
140 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 has its favorites, and the variety tiiat does the best in 
 one locality may not succeed in another. The farmer 
 who would succeed with potatoes, should test some of 
 the newer and more promising varieties each year, and 
 while he is thus " proving all things" should also " hold 
 fast that which is good." A single pound of seed will, 
 if properly managed, pi'oduce a bushel or more, and en- 
 able him to test the quality and grow enough the second 
 year to plant a field. 
 
 The first requisite for growing a profitable potato crop 
 is a rich soil, and as the principal mineral element wanted 
 is potash, and clover not only furnishes it, but also 
 gives just the mechanical condition of soil wanted, a 
 clover sod makes an excellent potato patch. The earlier 
 the variety of potato the richer the land should be, for 
 the less time a plant has in which to gather its food, 
 the more concentrated and readily availal)le that food 
 must be. A variety of potato, which, like the Peach- 
 blow, does not mature till late in the fall, will produce 
 paying crops on poor land, on which an early variety 
 would scarcely produce a crop worth digging. 
 
 I believe in deep planting of the potato, and always 
 use, for laying off potato land, a shovel plow with a long 
 point, which not only makes a deep furrow, but leaves 
 loose earth in the bottom of it. I then step on the seed, 
 pressing it down to the bottom of the furrow, cover with 
 the plow, and before the potatoes come up, cross harrow. 
 This kills the weeds which are starting, and loosens the 
 soil, and if it does not make it sufficiently level and 
 smooth, we put on the roller, for as soon as the potatoes 
 can be seen in the row, we want to work as close to them 
 as possible. 
 
 For early potatoes, I prefer to plow in the fall and ma- 
 nure at the surface, and in the spring work this manure 
 
POTATOES. 141 
 
 into the soil before planting.* The best remedy I have 
 ever found for the Colorado Beetle is a thrifty plant; and 
 I have never had the crop materially injured if the 
 ground was rich, the cultivation thorough, and the sea- 
 son good. If the weather is dry, so as to check the 
 growth, it may be necessary to use Paris green, and I 
 very much prefer to use in water, A single application 
 made in this way, using less than two pounds to the 
 acre, during the dry summer of 1881, saved m}'^ crop, as 
 was proven by the fact that the adjoining rows, left 
 without this application, were entirely ruined. 
 
 I believe that as a rule, farmers use too much seed. 
 One piece with two good ej-es in a hill is sufficient. I be- 
 lieve the best way to save seed is to select each year very 
 carefully, a bushel of "stock seed." They should be 
 fair, large tubers, as near perfect as can be found; from 
 these select tubers grow 3'our seed for the coming year, 
 and from their product again select your " stock seed." 
 
 I have conducted some very careful experiments, 
 which prove that a fine crop of large potatoes can be 
 grown from very small seed, and while I recommend the 
 plan given above for selecting seed, I do not hesitate 
 when potatoes are scarce and high, to plant very small 
 seed. 
 
 My first experiment was in 1857. 1 had grown a very 
 fine crop the previous year, and did not sell till spring, 
 and when marketing in Api'il, I selected one bushel of 
 the most perfect potatoes I could pick out of one hun- 
 dred bushels. I rejected any potato that weighed less 
 than a pound, or that had a blemish or rough place on 
 
 *Our most successful potato-growers are very particular 
 about having the soil as rich as possible, and consider it a crop 
 that not only can scarcely be manured too much, but that tew 
 crops pay better for being manured. k. s. 1. 
 
142 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 it. I then selected a half peck of the meanest little po- 
 tatoes I could find. Not one of them would have weighed 
 an ounce, and whei'e I could I broke off the protuberances 
 from the rough, knobby potatoes. I planted five rows 
 side by side from each kind of seed, gave them the same 
 cultivation, and when I dug them put them in two piles 
 side by side, and called four men who were building a 
 barn near, to examine them, telling them of the selection 
 of the seed, but not which pile grew from the large or 
 small. The three journeymen said they could see no 
 difference in quality or quantity, but the boss carpenter 
 made a careful comparison and decided that the north 
 pile was of the best quality, which I then told him grew 
 from the small seed. 
 
 In the spring of 1860 potatoes were high and I found 
 that 1 had not seed to finish what I wished to plant, and 
 I used as seed some very small potatoes, which I had 
 put in the cellar to cook for the pigs. I planted about 
 half an acre.from this seed. The crop grown from them 
 was an excellent one, both in yield and quality. Some 
 years later I planted a row of Early Rose potatoes from 
 seed so small that it took ten to weigh an ounce, and the 
 adjoining row from good sized seed, and found no differ- 
 ence in the j- ield. 
 
 I consider it important that the seed should be fresh 
 and i)lump. I do not like a shriveled potato for seed; 
 it does not start the plant with vigor; and I think it 
 much better to winter seed potatoes in pits than in 
 the cellar. If the soil is dry, or slopes so as to give 
 good surface drainage, there is no trouble in wintering 
 in pits, and there is much less labor about it than in 
 carrying them into and out of the cellar. Much time 
 can be saved in handling potatoes by assorting as they 
 are dug. Let the men who follow the diggers pick up 
 
POTATOES. 143 
 
 only the merchantable potatoes and pour them into sacks, 
 only one bushel to the sack. When you are ready to 
 haul them to the pit, two men can load or unload a 
 wagon. in less than tcu minutes, and the potatoes will 
 not be so likely to be bruised. I am particular about 
 having but one bushel in a sack, for then they will not 
 need to be tied, and it will not take as long to load and 
 unload as it would to tie and untie the sacks, and they 
 can be handled with much greater ease. 
 
 In pitting potatoes, I prefer to put no straw next to 
 them. If I have a supply of good coarse manure, I cover 
 simply with eighteen inches of mellow earth, and as soon 
 as the ground freezes so as to bear a team, \>\it a foot of 
 manure over them. If I do not use manure, I cover with 
 six or eight ihche of earth and then a coat of straw and 
 eighteen inches of earth over that. I consider this safer 
 than to have the straw next the potatoes, for if the straw 
 gets damp, as it is ^kely to, and the frost reaches it, 
 it is pretty sure to go through it, but is not likely to pene- 
 trate the second covering of earth. 
 
 As there is both labor and risk in wintering potatoes, 
 and it is impossible to know what the price will be in 
 spring, I think it safest to sell in the fall — at least half 
 the crop, if a paying price can be had. I once wintered 
 four hundred bushels of potatoes that I was offered 80 
 cents a bushels for, and in the spring I could not get an 
 offer, and was obliged to feed them to stock. This ex- 
 perience made me cautious and I have never held over all 
 of a crop since.* 
 
 *A plan of growing potatoes much in use in some section- 
 is planting them under straw. The potatoes are planted shals 
 low and a foot of straw spread over the field. Another plan is 
 to simply lay the potatoes on top of the fresnly plowed land 
 and cover with straw as before, though I have less seldom seen 
 this plan successful. The advantages are that the straw keeps 
 
144 SUCCKSS IN FARMING. 
 
 SWEET POTATOES. 
 
 I have found sweet potatoes a uniformly profitable 
 crop. 
 
 Although the usual instructions are to plant on sandy 
 land, I have had the best success on a rather stiff clay^ 
 and can always confidentl}' expect both a good yield 
 and quality, even on thin land, if I have fine rotted ma- 
 nure to give it a moderate dressing. The most success- 
 ful sweet potato-grower of my acquaintance does not 
 break his laud, but ridges it, leaving the land hard un- 
 derneath. I should do this if it was not troublesome to 
 get the land fine and mellow when in this shape; but I 
 prefer to plow shallow — not over four inches — and stir 
 and roll until the soil is perfectly pulverized and the ma- 
 nure thoroughly mixed. I then make small ridges by 
 throwing two furrows together with a one-horse plow» 
 and leave a little strip of earth between the ridges, as we 
 shall want it to dress the plants with when we come ta 
 hoe them. 
 
 Most sweet potato-growers plant in a row on this 
 ridge, and it saves time, for you can get the soil in such, 
 excellent order that you will not need to touch it with a 
 hoe. I am convinced, liowever, from repeated compari- 
 son of hills and drills, that it will pay to make small 
 hills. A hand will make from twelve to fifteen hundred 
 in a da}^, and I find the potatoes are larger and the yield 
 greater in hills than in drills. I make the hills about 
 three feet apart each way, a little more between the rows, 
 
 down the weeds, saves cultivation, and undoubtedly enriches 
 the land. In Southern Illinois where I have tried the plan 
 year after year the straw would always be so fully r(jtted at the 
 end of the 6( ason, that it ^ave no trouble. In the drier atmos- 
 phere of Ohio I find this is not always the case. The plan usu- 
 ally gives a rather smaller crop than when cultivated, but 
 more good potatoes. R. s. t. 
 
SWEET POTATOES. 145 
 
 and a little less in the row, and this gives nearly five 
 thousand hills to the acre, and a pound of merchantable 
 potatoes to the hill makes over eightj^ bushels to the acre. 
 
 We have several objects in view in this shallow plow- 
 ing and small hills: First, they warm through better, 
 and the sweet potato being a tropical plant, cannot flour- 
 ish in a cold soil. The weather is rarely too hot or too 
 dry for this crop. Second, we want the potatoes to grow 
 thick instead of long, and when they reach the hard soil 
 underneath, it checks the lateral growth and gives a bet- 
 ter shaped tuber; and, third, in growing thick instead of 
 long, they crack and loosen the hill, and this keeps it in 
 good condition after the vines have spread so that cul- 
 tivation is impossible. 
 
 I think it pays to keep the vines on half the ground, 
 keeping every other space clear. This gives the hills 
 more sun, and it is much easier to dig the potatoes, and 
 enables you to bury all the vines as you dig. We use 
 the potato hook in digging, and one stroke to a hill will 
 generally do the work. In digging, take two rows at a 
 time, walk on, the vines and draw the hills towards you 
 from each side, and by a little trouble you can bury 
 every leaf. 
 
 KEEPING SWEET POTATOES. 
 
 I have found that if sweet potatoes are mature and 
 thoroughly dried, there is no trouble in keeping them 
 in a dry cellar nearly all winter, but they should be 
 handled as carefully as eggs, for if bruised they are 
 sure to rot. The potatoes which I intend to keep 
 for winter use I spread out singl}^ in the hottest sun- 
 shine for two or tliree days, and then pack in barrels, 
 with dry sawdust between the layers. Immature sweet 
 potatoes are not wholesome, but when thoroughly ripened 
 they are an excellent article of diet. 
 • 10 
 
146 SUCCKSS IN FARMING. 
 
 SPROUTING SWEET POTATOES. ' • 
 
 If 3-011 intend to grow sweet potatoes in any qiiantity-j 
 you should always grow j'our own plants. With even 
 fair success, it will be much cheaper than buying them, 
 but oven if it cost more I would recommend it, as better 
 plants can l)c grown, and then you can take advantage 
 of morning and evening or a damp day to transplant, 
 and the plants will always be fresh. Most of those who 
 grow plants for sale crowd them in the bed until they 
 are spindled and weak; but in growing for 3'ourself you 
 can regard quality rather than quantity, and give them 
 plenty of room. 
 
 It took me ten years to learn to sprout sweet potatoes, 
 during which time I lost a part or all ray seed nearly (-very 
 year. For many years I have been uniformly success- 
 ful, and I believe I can give instructions which will ena- 
 ble the novice to be successful from the start. I think 
 nine times out often when sweet potatoes rot in the bedj 
 it is from an excess of heat, and if you have as much 
 bottom heat as you need, and allow the sun to heat up 
 the bed from above, it is almost certain to result in 
 scalded potatoes. I have never lost the potatoes or failed 
 to get a good sprout since I adopted the plan of covering 
 the bed with straw or corn fodder. This enables me to 
 control the temperature, and also keeps the bed moist, 
 so that it will need no water until the plants begin to 
 come up, when we remove the covering and do not re- 
 place it; but if there is danger of frost, cover the bed 
 with boards. If at any time you find the bed lacks heat, 
 take off the straw at nine or ten o'clock on a bright, 
 sunny day, and sometime between twelve and two, when 
 you find it warmed up, replace it. I make a sweet po- 
 tato bed flat, and put hot manure one foot deep, and two 
 feet wider and longer than my frame which I put oa 
 
SWEET POTATOES. 147 
 
 the manure. If you put the manure in the frame, the 
 outer edges of the bed are. likely to be cold. The ma- 
 nure must be thoroughly shaken up, so as to have no 
 lumps, and must be well packed, but instead of tramp- 
 ing it, take two short pieces of board, and moving one 
 ahead of the other alternately, pass from end to end» 
 springing up and down on the boards. This will pack 
 it evenly. For a frame use inch boards one foot wide. 
 A convenient size for the bed is six by sixteen feet, 
 which will hold, as ordinarily put in, one barrel of pota- 
 toes. There should be four inches of earth between the 
 potatoes and the manure, and three inches above them, 
 and the seed should never be put in the bed until it is 
 about blood heat. Water copiously when the plants are 
 coming up, but it will harden them to withhold water 
 when they are large enough to set out; but the bed should 
 be well soaked a few hours before the plants are drawn. 
 If you do not break the roots of the potatoes in taking 
 up the plants, you will have a second drawing in about 
 two weeks. 
 
 The usual time for putting the seed in the hot bed is 
 the middle of April; but if early potatoes are wanted, a 
 few should be started in March and transplanted into 
 small pots, and these plunged in a fresh bed, by which 
 means some weeks can be gained. Sweet potatoes bear 
 transplanting well, and if the land is in good condition 
 and plants properly set, nearly all will grow. In setting 
 out the plants, puddling is much better than watering, 
 besides being less trouble. In making the puddle use 
 fresh cow dung and enough clayey soil so that ii will 
 adhere to the roots. Stir and thicken until it is of a 
 consistency to coat the roots thickly when dipped into 
 it. Put one plant in a hill; set it deep and crowd the 
 earth so tight at the roots that if you take hold of a leaf 
 
148 SUCCESS IN FARMINO. 
 
 and give a quick jerk, a piece of the leaf will break out 
 instead of the plant coming up by the roots, then with 
 hands on each side of the hill, draw up the mellow earth 
 so as to leave but an inch or so of the plant above gi'ound, 
 and almost every plant will grow. In cultivating, all 
 that is necessary, if you have followed my directions, is 
 to keep down the weeds, for the potatoes, when they 
 grow, will crack the hill and make it loose. 
 
CHAPTER Xy. 
 
 RYE ON THE FARM. 
 
 ITS VALUE AND USES. 
 
 I do not consider rye a profitable ci'op to grow for 
 grain, and iisuall}^ prefer to buy my seed rather than to 
 raise it, and yet as a crop I value it highly. 
 
 It is hard}', useful for a great many purposes, and can 
 l)e grown at but little expense. 
 
 I have already spoken of it as a green manure and of 
 the fact that it can be grown for this purpose between 
 two crops of corn without losing the use of the land a 
 season. The straw brings in our city markets nearly as 
 much as the best timoth}' hay, and the market is never 
 overstocked with it. 
 
 The railroads refuse to carr}^ r3'e straw unless baled, 
 but the farmer who lives near a city so that he can 
 T\'agon it to market will find it a ver}-- profitable crop. 
 
 Rye is of great value for pasture, and stock can be 
 turned on it two weeks before an}- other pasture is ready 
 iind it will furnish a large amount of feed. Sometimes, 
 ■on account of a dry spring, we fail to get a stand of grass 
 or clover, and this is a great disadvantage, as our rota- 
 tion calls for the pasture field of one year for the corn 
 field of the next. Rye helps us out of the difficulty. We 
 can plow the stubble field and seed .with rye and timo- 
 thy, or take the stubble field for corn or wheat, and seed 
 a corn field with rye and timothy for the pasture. The 
 rye will furnish early feed, and the timothy will not be 
 
150 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 damaged hy the tramping, and by the time the rye is too 
 old, will furnish good food. 
 
 Rye is useful in preventing washing. If a gully has 
 started in a pasture, rye can be scattered ou the bottom 
 and sides, and when it starts to grosv it will protect the 
 young grass and hold the soil until a sod forms. 
 
 Rye st^raw makes the best possible material for bind- 
 ing corn fodder. 
 
 Early cut rye straw is an excellent food for horses^ 
 when cut up. It is soft, bright, free from dust, nutri- 
 tious, and makes a good substitute for sheaf oats. 
 
 I have seen a statement of two crops of rye grown in Mas- 
 sachusetts, that produced over four tons of straw to the 
 acre. This was the result of liberal manuring and heavy 
 seeding. 
 
 CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT. 
 
 The cultivation of rye is extremely simple. It should 
 be sown at the same time of year as wheat, but the exact 
 date of planting is of much less importance. It can be 
 sown among corn immediately after the last j)lowing, if 
 the cultivation has been continued late, and left to take 
 care of itself; and I have made a good crop when sown. 
 80 late in the fall that it did not come i p till the ground 
 thawed the following spring. It will grow even though 
 only scattered on the surface of the land and left uncov- 
 ered, though of course it is better to treat it with more 
 care. 
 
 I have seen the statement, though I could not vouch for 
 its truth, that rye scattered broadcast on a tough 
 prairie sod will grow, and so completely root out the 
 prairie grass that the land can be readily j)iowed the 
 following year. Land must be poor, indeed, on which 
 rye will not grow; but of course when grown as a fertil- 
 izing crop, the more barn-yard manure can be applied as 
 
RYE ON THE FAKM. 
 
 151 
 
 a top dressing at seeding, the greater will be the im- 
 provement of the land. When sown for grain, I would 
 sow from three to four pecks to the acre; for straw or 
 pasture, somewhat heavier, and for fertilizer, as much as 
 three or four bushels to the acre. 
 
 I always cut rye when in blossom, which, in my lati- 
 tude, is from the middle to the last of May. The straw 
 is tougher and more pliable if cut then than if the grain 
 is allowed to ripen; and moreover, in using the straw for 
 bands in tying fodder, you will not get the corn field 
 seeded down to rye, which is a great drawback if you 
 sow wheat on j^our corn land. I never could get rye 
 straw thrashed so clean that it would not scatter seed 
 afterward, if the grain had been allowed to ripen. 
 
 If clover is sown with the rye, the early cutting I have 
 recommended gives the clover a long summer in which 
 to develop, and it will make quite a crop to turn under 
 for corn the next year. 
 
 I should expect land to steadily improve, growing a 
 crop of corn and a crop of rye straw alternate years, pro- 
 vided clover was sown with the rye. 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 SPECIAL CROPS. 
 
 There are quite a number of crops, which, though not 
 grown on CA'cr^' farm, are nevertheless in many cases 
 profitable. 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 The same rules laid down for wheat will be applica- 
 ble for barley. 
 
 OATS. 
 
 Like wheat, oats require a compact seed-bed, and on 
 corn land it is best not to plow, but simpl}- to cultivate 
 the soil with some of the improved harrows or pulver- 
 izers, \intil the surface is thoroughly mellow. Even on 
 stul)])le land some of the best crops have been groAvn by 
 simply cultivating with the double corn plow, or harrow- 
 ing and cross harrowing with the Randall Harrow, or 
 some similar implement. The great point is a compact 
 seed-bed Avith a well pulverized surface. 
 
 Sow as early as the ground can be worked. I once 
 sowed in Februarj^ on a piece of flat clay land, and the 
 month following was so excessively wet that the land 
 was like mortar, and the weather then turned cold, snow 
 fell, and thermometer went down to eight degrees above 
 zero, and yet I got a good crop. 
 
 FODDER CORN 
 
 Can be made a crop of much greater value and impor- 
 tance than some farmers are inclined to believe. There 
 should be at least a small patch grown on every farm, so 
 
SPECIAL CROPS. 153 
 
 as to furnish the cows feed in case of a dry spell and 
 consequent short pastures. I believe that an acre of 
 land will produce more food in this crop than in any 
 other that can be grown on it. 
 
 But by fodder corn I do not mean sowed corn, which 
 I consider ver}- poor food for stock. Sowed corn has to 
 he cut while immature, and therefore innutritious, and 
 Is very troublesome to cure. 
 
 Fodder corn, planted as I shall recommend, will de- 
 velop so as to make sweet, nutritious food, and in fa- 
 vorable years will mature small ears, which will greatly 
 add to its value. 
 
 George Waring, in his experience with dairy stock on. 
 Ogden Farm, was so pleased with it that he wrote : 
 
 " Coi'n for grain, never ; 
 Corn for fodder forever ! " 
 
 Fodder corn ma}' be planted quite late. I have grown 
 heavy crops on land from which the early potatoes had 
 teen dug; but June is about the best time. It is most 
 easily planted with a drill-; and with a force-feed wheat 
 drill from two to three rows can be planted at a time. 
 The rows should be three feet apart, so as to admit of 
 cultivation. Do not get it too thick in the rows 
 
 Blount's Prolific is the most profitable variety for fod- 
 der, as it produces several small ears to the stalk and a 
 large quantity of blades. Stowell Evergreen is excel- 
 lent, but any field variety will do. 
 
 As soon as fully grown, and the ears beginning to 
 harden, fodder corn can be cut up and shocked as other 
 <5orn, and when cured can be stacked or hauled into the 
 barn. 
 
 BROOM CORN. 
 
 This crop requires a large amount of labor, but is 
 often very profitable. The man with a small farm will 
 
154 SUCCESS IN FAKMIXG, 
 
 sometimes find employment for winter and largely in- 
 crease his profits by growing this crop and manufac- 
 turing it himself The machinery for manufacturing 
 costs but a few dollars, and the business is easily and 
 quickly learned. 
 
 Broom corn requires a warm, rich soil. The best corn 
 and barley land is suited to it, and it is very important 
 tluit the field be clean, as the plant comes up small and 
 weak and starts rather slowly. 
 
 Be sure to have good seed. I would put it in water, 
 and reject all tliat would not sink, even though it took 
 ten bushels of seed from which to get one. 
 
 Do not plant till the weather is settled and the ground 
 Avarm. I prefer to plant by hand, in rows three feet 
 apart, making a iiill every two feet in the row, with from 
 six to ten stalks in the hill. This gives much more la- 
 bor than drilling, but you save the subsequent labor 
 of thinning, and it is easier to cultivate and "table." 
 
 Cultivation should be thorough, and no weeds be per- 
 mitted to grow. If 3'our land is clean and you have fen- 
 ders to your plow so as to enable 3'ou to get close to it 
 while young, a crop can be grown without hoeing; but 
 it is better to hoe than to allow it to become weedy. 
 
 As soon as it is fully grown it is ready to cut, and the 
 brush will be worth nearly double what it will be if the 
 seed is allowed to ripen. Before cutting, it is " tabled" 
 — by which we mean that t>vo rows are broken about two 
 feet from the ground, so that the stalks fall diagonally 
 across each other and the brush projects into the inter- 
 vening spaces. When the brush is cut it is laid on these 
 " tables," which form an excellent place for it to cure, as 
 the air can circulate through it and the water run off. 
 As soon as possible after cutting, it should be scraped and 
 cured in sheds on racks, as this makes it tough and pliable. 
 
SPECIAL CROPS. 155 
 
 A supply of these racks must be kept on hand, and it 
 therefore does not pay to grow broom corn unless you 
 expect to follow it regularly. These racks should be 
 moveable, so that the sheds can be used for storing fod- 
 der or other purposes, when not in use for the broom 
 corn. 
 
 An average crop is about five hudred pounds of cured 
 brush per acre; but on good land this is sometimes dou- 
 bled. The price fluctuates greatl}'. I have known it to 
 sell for three hundred dollars a ton, and as low as forty; 
 but it usually brings a paying price and can be easily 
 stored and held over when the price is too low. 
 
 NAVY BEANS 
 
 May often be grown at a profit, and leave the ground in 
 excellent condition for wheat. After the bean crop has 
 been harvested, the ground needs only a thorough har- 
 rowing, and will produce as heavy a crop of wheat as 
 can be grown on it. 
 
 The land should be plowed early and worked occa- 
 sionally, to kill the weeds and get it in good condition. 
 I usually plant about the tenth of June, using the wheat 
 drill, stopping enough hoes to" make the rows about two 
 feet apart. From three to four pecks of seed are re- 
 quired for an acre. 
 
 The crop should not be allowed to become weedy, but 
 will need little cultivation, as it will soon so shade the 
 ground that nothing else will grow. The beans usually 
 ripen about the first of September, but sometimes will 
 keep green a ^veek or two later. In this case they may be 
 pulled while the pods are yet green, and cured in the 
 barn, or stacked and cured in the field. To stack it, 
 set up a stake in the ground, sharp at the top. Arrange 
 some sticks of wood around the stake to keep the beans 
 off the ground, or put two long pins through it in oppo- 
 
156 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 48ite directions, about a foot from the ground ; then slide 
 the beans down over the point of the stake till it is full 
 to the top. Unless the weather is exceedingly bad, they 
 will cure perfectly. 
 
 PUMPKINS. 
 
 I have found this a profitable crop for fall feeding. 
 They come in at a time when pasture is usuall}^ short, 
 and are a valuable feed for both cattle and hogs. Fed 
 to cows, the}^ increase the flow of the milk, improve the 
 •qualit^^ and the color of butter. There is a preva- 
 lent opinion that the seeds must be removed in 
 feeding to milk cows, or they will check the flow of 
 milk, and there is considerable evidence to this effect; 
 but in a long experience I have not found this to be the 
 case. 
 
 For hogs the}' are not only highly fattening, but suppl}' 
 the need for variety, enabling them to relish other food 
 better. 
 
 They are usually grown in the corn field, a littlcseed 
 being mixed with the corn in the hopper of planter or 
 <lrill; but I prefer to grow alone, and as, with moderate 
 care, they are wonderfully productive, a very small piece 
 of land may be made to produce all any farmer can use, 
 and the trouble of having them among the corn avoided. 
 By the use of manure in the hill, they can be grown on 
 quite poor land. 
 
 Plant in hills eight feet apart each way, manuring lib- 
 erally in the hill if you wish a heavy crop. Use plenty 
 of seed, as it is cheap and not alwa3's certain. When 
 the plants are thoroughly established, thin to three in a 
 hill, which will be sufficient to cover the land. Do not 
 f)lant till the weather is quite warm and settled, my 
 best crops have been planted the last of May or first of 
 June. 
 
SPECIAL CROPS. 157 
 
 For variety, I prefer the yellow-ribbed, known as the 
 "Yankee Pumpkin," it is more productive than the va- 
 riety usually grown at the West, and the flesh being thin- 
 ner and less firm, cattle can eat them without chopping.* 
 
 ROOT CROPS. 
 
 More of these would be profitable on many farms, and 
 are excellent food for dairy cattle; in fact, for stock of 
 almost every kind. 
 
 Mangolds, or sugar beets, are the best and most pro- 
 lific of all, and do not impart any objectionable flavor to 
 tho milk of cows fed on them. Five hundred bushels to 
 the acre is a moderate yield, and more than double this 
 has been grown. The Yellow Globe Mangold is the best 
 on most soils; but I would advise the beginner to try 
 different varieties and see which suits his particular soil 
 the best. It is well to begin any new crop on a small 
 scale, and increase as you gain experience. 
 
 They require rich land, and give a liberal return foi- 
 liberal manuring. Plow in fall into beds twelve to twenty 
 feet wide, and so arranged that the water will run off. 
 If your manure is coarse, plow it under in fall, but if 
 fine and well rotted, save it and applj^ as a top dressing 
 in the spring. 
 
 As early in the spring as the ground can be worked 
 nicely, mellow your beds and put in the seed in rows two 
 and a half feet apart. Plant just as early as the weather 
 will permit. I always get them planted in March or 
 
 *We are surprised that Mr. Brown, with his Yankee extrac- 
 tion, should have failed to mention one of the great uses of the 
 pumpkin, namely, pumpkin pie. The great problem is, how 
 to keep them, so that this dcHcious article be not restricted to 
 Thanksgiving and Christmas. If a few choice sound pump- 
 kins be laid on a shelf in a dry cellar, safe from frost, and each 
 be turned over every day, they can in many cases be kept for 
 many months. The rotting of the pumpkin is caused by the 
 water in the flesh settling to one side. b. s. t. 
 
158 - SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 April if possible. The frost will not injure them. 
 
 As soon as the plants are large enough, thin to one 
 foot apart in the rows, and if any vacancies are found, 
 fill them by transplanting. This early thinning is im- 
 portant, as the crop will be greatly damaged if not 
 thinned at the proper time. 
 
 Keep the land clean. 
 
 The distances I have recommended will give over sev- 
 enteen thousand plants to the acre, and at an average of 
 two pounds each, would furnish nearly six hundred 
 bushels. 
 
 The crop may be stored in the cellar, or pitted, like po- 
 tatoes. The best time to use them i« the latter part of 
 winter, as they go through a ripening process which im- 
 proves them, and cattle are more in need of a loosening 
 feed at that time. 
 
 TuuNips. — The common flat turnip is the easiest grown 
 of all the root crops, and I have sold single crops for 
 more than the land on which they were grown was worth. 
 I have grown five hundred bushels to the acre, and often 
 two hundred and fifty and tjiree hundred. When the 
 crop can be sold for an^'thing over 20 cents a bushel, it 
 is very profitable, and I have sold them by the car load 
 at 33 cents, and by the wagon load at 60 cents per bushel. 
 The crop can be grown so cheaply that if you get a fair 
 price once in three years and feed to cattle the other 
 years, it will pay to grow them. 
 
 The actual cost of growing and pitting when you get 
 a good yield, will not exceed 5 cents a bushel. 
 
 Many persons fail in growing turnips from lack of a 
 knowledge of the requisites of success. The essentials 
 are that the ground should be moderately rich, well com- 
 pacted, and mellow on the surface, and that the turnips 
 should come up quickly and get the start of the weeds. 
 
SPECIAL CROPS. 159 
 
 It is useless to sow turnips on the surface of a freshly 
 plowed field. The more hard, beating rains it has after 
 plowing the better, but it must be free from weeds. 
 
 It was the practice in New England half a century 
 ago, to plow the turnip land in the spring, fold the sheep 
 on it all summer, and then merely loosen the surface 
 with a harrow sufficient to enable the seed to be covered. 
 This secured— the packing of the land by the tramping 
 of the sheep, its fertilization by their droppings, and 
 also protection from the turnip Ilea, as the oil from the 
 wool destroys them. 
 
 I recently heard of this plan being tried in Ohio: A 
 piece of stubble land was plowed in July, and the sheep 
 turned on it each night till planting time. Part of the 
 land being a little muddy, the sheep avoided it, and lay 
 every night on one side of the field. On that side a heavy 
 croo was grown, while on the side avoided by the sheep 
 the crop was entirely destroyed by the flea. 
 
 I like to plant on a clover sod, from which a crop of 
 clover has been cut. This should be plowed in June, 
 and repeatedlj' rolled and harrowed, for the double pur- 
 pose of getting a compact bed and destroying weeds. If 
 you can also fold sheep on it part of the time, as above 
 suggested, of course so much the better. If the land 
 is poor, it should have, before planting, a light dressing 
 of well fined manure, or about two hundred pounds of 
 superphosphate per acre. 
 
 The best time in this latitude for sowing turnips is 
 the first week in August, but if the weather is favorable, 
 it will do to sow a week earlier or later. In a favorable 
 fall they will bottom if sown the first of September. 
 
 When the time for sowing has come, wait for a rain, 
 and as soon after the rain as the ground can be worked 
 without packing, sow, and cover by drawing a plank 
 
160 SUCCESS IN FARJUXQ. 
 
 over the land. This smoothes the surface, presses the 
 soil against the seed and insures quick germination. If 
 you are planting several acres, a horse can be hitched to 
 each end of a sixteen-foot plank and a quick job made of 
 it. Many persons prefer planting just before a rain, so 
 as to let the rain wash the seed into the soil. This saves 
 the labor of covering, but often loses the crop. The rain 
 forms a crust which prevents the plants from making a 
 thrifty start, and destruction by the fly is often the con- 
 sequence; and if the plants do grow, the weeds get the 
 start with them. When sown as I direct, after a rain, 
 the plants come up thrifty and strong and get the start 
 of the weeds. 
 
 Turnips can be pitted in exactly the same manner as 
 directed for potatoes. 
 
 They form an excellent feed for eattle, but in many 
 cases it is found that when fed to milk cows they im- 
 ]»art a disagreeable flavor to the milk. It is claimed by 
 some that this can be avoided by only feeding them im- 
 mediately after milking. 
 
CHAPTER Xyil. 
 
 FRUIT ON THE FARM. 
 
 THE VALUE OF FRUIT. 
 
 Eveiy farmer can secure from fruit not only enjoj-ment, 
 but health and profit, and it has been a surprise to me 
 that so many of our farms are destitute of this luxury. 
 
 I see man}' farms on which an inventory of the fruit 
 trees would show nothing but a neglected apple orchard 
 — which probably was planted before the owner was born 
 — a few sour cherries, surounded by a wilderness of 
 sprouts, and possibly a few seedling peaches, either in 
 the calf pasture, or allowed to grow in the fence corners, 
 where they will not take up room that could be used for 
 corn and potatoes. 
 
 Not only is an abundant supply of fruit a great luxury, 
 but it forms a cheap and healthful article of diet, and 
 one that can be enjoyed the whole year through, for a 
 constant succession may easily be secured from the time 
 we gather the first strawberries till the last clusters of 
 grapes are eaten, and then we can have the closets stored 
 with canned fruit, and the cellars filled with winter 
 apples. 
 
 The health of our people would be better if more fruit 
 was annually consumed. 
 
 Nor is it a difficult matter. The same care and com- 
 mon sense needed to produce a crop of corn will insure 
 success in the production of a crop of fruit. 
 
 In addition to the apple orchard, there should be a 
 11 
 
162 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 fruit lot on every farm, containing cherries, pears, plums, 
 quinces and peaches. Raspberries, currants arid straw- 
 berries should have their place, and grape vines should 
 cover the outbuildings, or run on trellises along the walks 
 and drives. 
 
 I have on my farm such a plat, containing less than 
 an acre, and for the past five years it has not only sup- 
 plied all the fruit we could use in the family, and al- 
 lowed us to put up each year a liberal amount of canned 
 fruit, but we have also sold an average of over $60 worth 
 of fruit a year. 
 
 A curious fact connected with this last item is that most 
 of this fruit has been sold to farmers who could have 
 bought the trees and set out a fruit lot the same size as 
 mine for less than what they pay me each year. 
 
 FKUIT FOK PKOPIT. 
 
 There is always a market for really fine fruit, and 
 friiit-growing is a business I would recommend to the 
 young man of enterprise, if he is within reach of a good 
 market and will take the pains to make himself ac- 
 quainted with the business. A small amount of land 
 will bring a large income in good seasons, and if it con- 
 tain a general variety of fruit, some will be sure to pro- 
 duce every year. 
 
 Before planting largely, visit and consult with the 
 fruit-growers of your neighborhood. Even farmers who 
 grow little fruit may be able to give you valuable ad- 
 vice on the varieties to plant. It would be folly to plant 
 blackberries extensively where the rust prevailed, or 
 plums where there was black knot, or pears where 
 blight was destructive. 
 
 Were I going into the business, and had ten acres of 
 suitable land to plant, I would set one acre (160 trees) 
 in Early Richmond cherries, one acre (160 trees) in 
 
;!'!il 
 
 !iTr 
 
 FRUIT ON THE FARM. 163 
 
 Shropshire Damson plums, one acre (302 trees) in 
 quinces, one acre in grapes in variet}-, setting the rows 
 north and south, and planting strawberries between. 
 One acre I would reserve for garden and experimenting 
 with new varieties of strawberries, and five acres I would 
 plant in winter apples and in peaches, giving 200 trees 
 of the former and 600 of the latter. I should not attempt 
 to set out all these in one year, nor in two; but should 
 put out each year what I could do well and take care of. 
 My reason for the proportion given is, that I know 
 how these trees succeed in my locality and the prices 
 they command in the markets I have access to. Here 
 peaches bear full}^ half the years, grapes and quinces 
 nine years out of ten, cherries of the varieties named 
 four years out of five, and the Damson plums are reliable 
 bearers, though no other variety can be depended on. 
 Of course, in some other locality all this would be differ- 
 ent ; hence my advice to the beginnei' to carefully study 
 the peculiarities of his own location and market before 
 commencing his orchard. 
 
 LOCATION OP THE ORCHARD. 
 
 A northern or eastern exposure is better than one to 
 the south. Hilly land, unfitted for cultivation^ often 
 makes excellent land for fruit. The best land is a roll- 
 ing clay, with good natural drainage; the worst, for 
 most varieties of fruit, is a rich black loam or alluvial 
 soil. 
 
 Of course, when possible, the orchard should be near 
 the house, both for convenience of the family and pro- 
 tection of the fruit. 
 
 SELECTION OF TREES. 
 
 The first need in tree planting is to get healthj'' young 
 trees, true to name. Be sure and buy of responsible 
 men. I would as soon trust a " three-card-monte" man 
 
164 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 as a fruit tree agent of whom I knew nothing. Thous- 
 ands of dollars are paid out every year for worse thaa 
 'worthless stock, and at prices double what the best 
 stock could have been purchased for from responsible 
 men. And yet those who allow themselves to be thus 
 swindled seem to be shrewd business men in other trans- 
 actions. 
 
 After an experience of twenty-five j-ears, durimg which 
 time I have set out and fruited over a thousand trees, I 
 can fully indorse the following advice, which I copy from 
 the catalogue of an experienced nurseryman: 
 
 PLANT YOUNG TREES. 
 
 They cost less at the nursery, in freight charges, also in 
 handhng and planting. 
 
 They are surer to grow, having more and better roots in 
 proportion to the size of their tops. Large trees lose in moving 
 more of their fibrous roots. 
 
 Having less top and almost perfect roots, the small trees 
 become established sooner, and grow vigorously at once. 
 
 Making most of their growth on the ground where tlaey 
 are to stand, the small trees soon become adapted to the soil 
 and location, and the planter can train them to such shajie as 
 he desires. 
 
 If yon give these young trees good care, you will not lose 
 any time, but will get a handsomer and more valuable orchard. 
 
 AVe find that the most experienced and successful tree 
 planters will not buy large trees, but invariably prefer one- 
 and two-year old trees. 
 
 CHOICE OF VARIETIES. 
 
 I am indebted for the following list to my brother, B, 
 H. Brown, who, as a nurseryman and fruit-grower, has 
 made a careful study of the matter, and has tested every 
 variety named, as well as many which he has discarded. 
 This list is what he would recommend for famil}' use; 
 but the beginner must remember what has already been 
 said about consulting the needs of his own locality. 
 
 Apples. — Early: Early Harvest, Benoni, Red Astra- 
 chan. Fall : Maiden Blush, Porter, Bellmont, Fall Wine, 
 Fall Pippin, Jersey Sweet. Winter: Yellow Bellflower^ 
 
FRUIT ON THE FARM. 165 
 
 Baldwin, Smith Cider, Rambo, White Pippin, Wine Sap, 
 Golden Russet, Ben Davis, Rome Beauty, Rawles Janette, 
 Wagoner. 
 
 Peaches. — Troth's Early, Early Amsden, Crawford's 
 Early, Crawford's Late, Smock, Stump the World, Old 
 Mixon, Switzerland, Oxford Late, Heath Cling, Salway. 
 
 Pears. — Bartlett, Osband's Summer, Sheldon, Tyson, 
 Seckle, Clapp's Favorite, Lawrence. Duchess, Bloodgood. 
 
 Cherries. — Earlv Richmond, May Duke, Early Pur- 
 ple Quigne, Bowman's May, Elton, Black Tartarian, and 
 ■Governor Wood. 
 
 Currants. — White Grape, Red Dutch, Versailes. 
 
 Raspberries. — Black : Gregg, Mammoth Cluster. Red : 
 Turner, Cuthbert. 
 
 Strawberries. — Cumberland Triumph, Sharpless, 
 Crescent Seedling, Charles Downing, Kentucky. 
 
 Blackberries. — Lawton, Kittatinny, Snyder. 
 
 Grapes. — Hartford Prolific, Concord, Martha, Lady, 
 Catawba. 
 
 Plums. — Shropshire Damson-. 
 
 Quince. — Orange. 
 
 The following list is for a large orchard, and gives the 
 number of each variety recommended for an orchard of 
 •one thousand apple. Smith Cider 300, Wine Sap 200, Ben 
 Davis 200, Rome Beauty 100, White Pippin 100, Rawles 
 Janette 100. 
 
 Of one thousand peaches, set Switzerland 200, Old 
 Mixon 150, Stump the World 150, Smock 150, Oxford 
 Late 100, Ward's Late 50, Gudgeon's Late 50, Troth's 
 :Early 50, Salway 50, Heath Cling 50. 
 
 For one hundred pears, plant Bartlett 25, Duchess 20, 
 Beurre Clairgean 15, Clapp's Favorite 10, Flemish 
 Beauty 10, Seckle 5, Tyson 5. 
 
 For one hundred cherries, plant Early Richmond 50, 
 
166 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 Elton 20, Black Tartaiiaii 10, May Duke 10, Govenior 
 Wood 10. 
 
 DISTANCES IN PLANTING, 
 
 Apples may l)e planted thirty three feet apart each 
 way; pears sixteen to twenty feet; peaches and plums 
 sixteen feet; small varieties, of cherries, such as Early 
 Richmond and Morello, sixteen feet; large heart cherries 
 twenty feet; quinces twelve feet. 
 
 In all cases, where the width of planting is less than 
 twenty feet, it is well to leave every fifth space twenty 
 feeit, so as to enable you to drive through with the Wagon 
 to haul in manure and liaul out the fruit. 
 
 Where an apple orchard is to be planted, and you 
 wish to grow peaches at the same time, the, apples may 
 be set thirty-three feet apart each wa}^, and peaches set 
 between, thus — 'the stars representing the apples and the 
 x's the peaches: 
 
 This will give on an acre 120 peach trees and 40 apple 
 trees, and by the time the apples spread so as to need 
 the room, the peaches will be out of the way. In 18.58 I 
 set an orchard of four hundred trees in this way, and was 
 very successful with both peaches and apples. 
 
FRUIT ON THE FARM. 167 
 
 PLANTtNG, CULTURE AND PRUNING. 
 
 In planting, I dig a hole two spades deep, putting the 
 top soil on one side and the subsoil on the other. The 
 width must exceed the greatest spread of the roots. 
 When read}- to set the tree, cut down the sides of the 
 hole so as to fill the bottom with fine and mellow top 
 soil until there is enough to make the tree stand at the 
 proper depth; then fill in the surface soil, which has been 
 laid on one side of the hole for this purpose, carefully 
 sifting it among the roots, so as to leave no cavities, and 
 treading it down firmlj'. When all the surface soil has 
 been put in, top out with the subsoil. 
 
 Cultivation, — For at least three years after planting, 
 cultivate your trees as well as you do your corn. Thous- 
 ands of young fruit trees are ruined every year for lack 
 of cultivation. Do not alloAV your small grain or tall 
 corn to grow among them, but plant beans, pnmpkins, 
 potatoes, or some small variety of sweet corn. Especially 
 avoid small grain, but if you must, plant wheat or oats 
 in your young orchard, mulch heavily around the trees 
 for at least four feet each way from the tree. 
 
 After the trees are grown, all orchards still need cul- 
 tivation to some extent, excepting, perhaps, pears; and 
 some of our most successful growers of this fruit think 
 it is more likely to blight Avhen the ground is cultivated 
 than when kept in grass. 
 
 The apple orchard should be plowed once in every 
 three or four years, but never deep enough to break large 
 roots. Mulching with old straw or coarse manure may 
 take the place of cultivation. 
 
 Quinces and pears I would keep cultivated eveiy year 
 as long as they are kept bearing, but cultivation should 
 be shallow, and I would not attempt to grow any crop 
 among them after the third vear. If three inches of the 
 
168 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 soil is stirrecl, and no weeds and grass allowed to grow, 
 it is all that is necessarj-. 
 
 I think the cultivation can be done best with one 
 horse and a single shovel plow first, and then across 
 with one horse and a double shovel plow. Use a short 
 single-tree and let the chains be wrapped with thick 
 woolen rags. If the trees have branched out low, do not 
 drive too closely to them; l)ut after you have finished 
 pjlowing, take a light mattock and loosen the soil left un- 
 plowed next the trees. It will not be difficult if done 
 soon after a rain, when the ground is soft. 
 
 Pkuning. — This should be attended to while the trees 
 are young. Alwaj-s have a reason for every cut you 
 make. Keep in mind that your object is to produce an 
 open, symetrical top, Avell balanced and open to sun and 
 air, with branches that will not chafe each other. The 
 ideal for the underside of a fruit tree is an inverted um- 
 brella. 
 
 In the latter part of this book will be found a conve- 
 nient table, giving the number of trees or plants in an 
 acre. 
 
CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
 
 A well managed garden of a quarter of an acre casn be 
 made to produce each season what would cost in market 
 a hundred dollars— and besides its money value, will be 
 a great addition to the farmer's table, relieving it of mo- 
 noton}^ and adding to the health of his family. 
 
 In view of these facts, it is strange how man}- farms 
 we see on which there is either no garden at all or else 
 where the garden is badly located, badly arranged and 
 badly cared for; often allowed to grow up to weeds after 
 crops have been gathered till it becomes the worst spot 
 on the farm on which to grow crops requiring clean 
 •culture. 
 
 Every farmer ought to have a garden, and to have one 
 there are certain things absolutely necessary; 
 
 The soil must be warm and easily worked. 
 
 It must be rich. 
 
 It must be well drained. 
 
 It must be free from weeds. 
 
 And in addition to these it certainly ought to be con- 
 venient to the house. 
 
 If the soil is a heavy claj' it will pa}' to draw sand 
 and l)lack loam on to it. If on the other hand 3-ou have 
 to deal with a leachy sand the addition of clay will be a 
 benefit. 
 
 If starting on a new spot, I would spread on a quarter 
 acre ten loads of good manure in the fall and plow under 
 
170 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 and add half as much more as a top dressing in the 
 spring. After this, a light coating of manure should be 
 given every 3'ear. 
 
 The garden spot must he well drained. In chapter 
 six 3'ou will find described the influence of under- 
 draining on land, and for the garden one of the most 
 valuable points is that it enables us to work the soil 
 earlier. In this, earliness is of paramount importance. 
 
 In addition to thorough underdraining, it is well in 
 the fall to plow into beds twelve or sixteen feet wide and 
 open the furrows so as to carry off all surface water. By 
 attention to these two points 3'ou will have your garden 
 ready for planting some weeks earlier in the spring. 
 , To keep a garden free from weeds requires vigilance. 
 Cultivate thorouglily. iStir the soil as soon after a rain 
 as it is in fit condition, and destroy the weeds before 
 they get above the surface. j\«re/- allow a weed to go to 
 seed, and in a few years the labor of cultivation will be 
 reduced one- half 
 
 Protection. — Drainage and fall plowing will assist 
 yon in getting the garden planted early, but something 
 more is sometimes needed. The north and west winds 
 of spring are often cold, and a protection on these two- 
 sides is a great advantage. Either a high tight board 
 fence, or a thick evergreen hedge will accomplish the 
 work , but if you do not care to be at the expense of a 
 fence, or wait for a hedge to grow, a very good and cheap 
 wind-break can be made with corn stalks. Set a row of 
 posts, and three or four feet from the ground nail a 
 cheap board on each side directly opposite each other, , 
 Then set large strong corn stalks between these boards, 
 crowding them tightly between the space. 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND CULTIVATION. 
 
 To economize space, and permit the use of the horse 
 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 171 
 
 or hand plow, plant everything in rows running the full 
 length of the garden. If of any vegetable an entire row 
 would give you too much, you -can plant one half 
 way and finish with something else. 
 
 With a garden laid out in this way, you can with a 
 hand plow — of which there are a great variety in use — 
 stir the whole quarter acre in an hour, while to hoe it 
 would require the greater part of a day. 
 
 For the appearance, and also to enable 3'ou to get as 
 close as possible to the rows with the plow, use a garden 
 line and make your rows as straight as possible. With 
 a narrow shovel on your plow you can mark out your 
 rows easily and rapidl}-, and with the line as a guide can 
 get them straight. 
 
 Planting Axu Rotation. — The planting season in the 
 garden in this latitude begins in February or March 
 and ends with early September. There are many plants 
 which on a well-drained soil will bear a very low temper- 
 ature without injury. I have often planted peas, beets, 
 radishes, spinach, onions and lettuce in February, and 
 had them do well though March was cold and bluster- 
 ing. Occasionally the beets and radishes Avill be killed, 
 but I have known them to escape though the ground was 
 frozen hard enough to bear up a wagon, and I have never 
 known the others injured by cold though the mercury 
 has stood at only eight above zero. 
 
 Vegetables ought to follow each other in rapid succes- 
 sion, and as soon as one is done with, another should 
 take its place. Much of the garden may be made to 
 produce more than one crop a season. For example: 
 Cucumbers for pickles may follow peas, and turnips be 
 sown among the cucumbers. I have grown these crops 
 by the acre in this way and realized a full yield from 
 each. Melons, either water or musk, may be grown on. 
 
172 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 the pea ground by leaving spaces for the hills, or start- 
 ing them in pots and transplanting when the peas are 
 past use. I usually' grow Hubbard squashes on the 
 <iSir\y potato patch, and succeed better with them than 
 "when planted early. In beginning to dig the potatoes I 
 take up hills where I want the squash hills to be and 
 plant the squashes, and by the time the squash vines 
 get fairly to running, the potatoes can all be dug. 
 
 Winter cabbage can follow the early beans, and late 
 "beans occupy the spot where the lettuce and spinach 
 stood. On the onion bed 3'ou can grow radishes, and 
 turnips can follow the sweet corn. Indeed, by a little 
 planning nearly the whole garden spot can be made to 
 grow more than one crop a year, and thus not onl}' the 
 ground be made to pay liberally, but by the constant 
 cultivation secured the growth of weeds will be pre- 
 vented. In order to keep the land thus fully occupied, 
 and so give the weeds no chance it will be well if you 
 have a vacant spot and nothing to plant, to drill it in 
 sweet corn or even field corn to cut up and feed to the cows. 
 
 Keep the fruit garden separate from the vegetable 
 garden, and in it set out currants, raspberries, rhubarb, 
 grapes, etc. These have no place among the vegetables 
 and if placed there will very likely be neglected and 
 weeds be allowed to grow around them to seed the re- 
 mainder of the garden. 
 
 The quarter of an acre of which I have spoken is suf- 
 ficient for vegetables only. When possible, it is well to 
 drain and fertilize an acre or more and thus have the 
 fruit garden and truck patch adjoining the vegetables. 
 
 I would not plant in the fruit garden anything larger 
 than a quince bush, and would have the rows of rasp- 
 berries, currants, etc., eight feet apart, so as to allow of 
 horse cultivation. 
 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 173 
 
 With a plat of this size, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, 
 melons, cucumbers, squashes, and potatoes in quantity 
 can be ffrown. 
 
 ■ VARIETIES OF VEGETABLES. 
 
 These vary so much with locality and fancy that it 
 would be folly to attempt to lay down any positive rule, 
 but I will mention some which I have found superior. 
 
 Peas. — For the earliest plant Tom Thumb, Blue Peter 
 and McLean's Little Gem. The last is the best flavored 
 but the others earlier and very good if cooked when 
 young. They are all dwarfs, needing no supports. At 
 the same time plant Champion of England. This is a 
 tall variety and of the very best flavor. 
 
 This first planting, if made as soon as the land can be 
 worked will, in my latitude, give the first picking from 
 the 20th of May to 1st of June according to the season, 
 and will furnish a succession for about a month. A sec- 
 ond planting early in April, and a third two weeks later 
 will keep up an unbroken succession. 
 
 Many persons prefer to bush tall peas. I do not, and 
 get fair returns and they are grown in large quantities: 
 for market garden in the same way. They fall over 
 when two or three feet high, and then turn up and grow 
 two or three feet more and bear good crops, I find it 
 cheaper to grow two hundred feet of row without bush- 
 ing than one hundred with, and get more than a half 
 crop.* 
 
 Dwarf varieties of peas may be planted in rows 
 
 *I think difference in climate must be taken into the count 
 in this matter. I am quite confident that tall peas in the warm, 
 moist climate of Southern Illinois would not produce any crop 
 at all if grown as Mr. Brown recommends, but would simply 
 mould and rot. Where a man takes a pride in the looks of his 
 garden, I think he will bush all p6as that need it, even in cli- 
 mates where they could be grown without. R. s. T. 
 
174 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 eighteen inches apart. The tall peas, if not bushed, may 
 be planted in double rows two feet apart, so as to sup- 
 port each other. When bushed the rows should l^e four 
 feet apart. 
 
 Lettuce. — Plant Curled Silesia for the earliest, and 
 some time in April plant Prize Head for summer use. 
 This last named is the best I have ever grown. 
 
 Beets. — Early Egyptian for earliest, with Improved 
 Blood Turnip for main crop. All beets do best with 
 early planting. 
 
 Beans. — Black Wax for snaps, they are hardy, prolific 
 tender, of excellent flavor, and perfectl}^ stringless. They 
 may be planted last of April or first of Ma}', and every 
 two weeks thereafter till the first of August, for a suc- 
 cession. The Small Lima — also called Sieva or Butter, 
 are full}- equal to the Large Lima in flavor, are easier to 
 shell, three weeks earlier and twice as productive. 
 Dreer's Improved Lima is large, and the best flavored 
 I have ever seen, but I have found it a sh}' bearer and 
 quite late. It is worthy a place in the garden notwith- 
 standing these faults. 
 
 Tomato. — The finest I have ever grown is the Acme. 
 It is perfect in form, of a beautiful glossy red, and ripens 
 all over and through at the same time. 
 
 Sweet Corn. — I consider the Early Boynton the best 
 extra earl}' variety. It bears very close planting, and 
 has two or more ears to the stalk. Stowell Evergreen 
 has never been superceded for the main crop. It is 
 very productive, of good flavor, and continues in good 
 condition for several weeks. 
 
 Onions. — I prefer the Yellow Globe Danvers for the 
 family garden. White Portugal is best for pickles. 
 Onions can be grown from seed with larger yield and 
 finer quality than from sets. By early planting and 
 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 175 
 
 thorough cultivation three or four bushels can be grown 
 on a square rod. For very early onions, small bulbs 
 may be planted in fall or as early in spring as the 
 Sfround can be worked.* 
 
 *There is one point in garden management Mr. Brown has 
 not mentioned — namely, the importance in planting of press- 
 ing the ground tirmly down on the seed. A good roller will do 
 this, or when planting small amounts in rows, the row may be 
 walked on after covering, putting one foot exactly in front of 
 the other. Of course the amount of pressure will vary with 
 different soils, but where a garden is well drained, and culti- 
 vated and manured as it ought to be, the soil is apt to be very 
 loose. I have found that where the soil was firmly pressed 
 about the seed, that not only did the seed germinate in half the 
 time, but the young plant was stronger and more vigorous. 
 
 B. s. T. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 STOCK ON THE FARM. 
 
 CHOICE OF STOCK. 
 
 In stocking the farm care and judgment must be used, 
 as has been indicated, the character of the farm con- 
 sidered and stock selected that will be adapted to the 
 farm and locality. Whether sheep, or hogs, or cattle 
 shall be the principal stock must be determined in this 
 manner. In some cases all three may be kept; in more 
 instances it will be found profitable to make a specialty 
 of some one, though perhaps a few of the others may be 
 also kept. 
 
 For broken, hill}' farms there is no stock so profitable 
 as the Merino sheep, The}^ can climb over the hillsides 
 and gain a living for themselves and owner on laud that 
 the plow could not turn, and on which no reaper could 
 gather a crop. Where a small number of sheep onl}' are 
 kept, and mutton rather than wool is the object, the 
 larger breeds will be found more ])rofitable. 
 
 On rich bottom or prairie land where corn can be 
 largely grown some of the larger breeds of hogs, such as 
 Poland-Chinas, Chester Whites, Jersey Eeds, will give 
 the best returns for the feed. On other farms where 
 grazing is more followed than corn raising, some of the* 
 smaller, finer-boned breeds will do well. 
 
 In determining the breed of cattle, consider the end in 
 view. If you desire to make a specialty of " gilt-edged " 
 butter, keep Jerseys. If 3^ou desire quantity of milk, 
 
STOCK ON THE FARM. 177 
 
 the Ayrshires or a milking strain of Short-horns crossed 
 on a native will meet your wants. For a " general pur- 
 pose" animal, good for both milk and beef, the Holsteins 
 are rapidly coming into favor. A cross of Short-hoi'n on 
 our native stock, also produces some of our most valua- 
 ble "general purpose" stock.* 
 
 Grades or Thoroughbreds. — I would hardly advise 
 the young farmer in stocking bis farm to begin with 
 thoroughbred stock, unless he intends to go into the 
 business of raising and selling thoroughbreds for breed- 
 ing purposes; and it is not everyone who can success- 
 fully do this. In raising for milk or the butcher, good 
 grades are sometimes even more profitable than thor- 
 oughbreds. 
 
 But I would impress upon the young farmer the impor- 
 tance of using thoroughbred males and continually grad- 
 ing up his stock. It is claimed by many experienced 
 farmers that the offspring of a thoroughbred Short-horn 
 sire on a native cow will bring more money at thrtv; 
 years old than a native will at four, and this makes a 
 male Short-horn very valuable, as he can put his impress 
 on a large amount of stock. 
 
 In grading up, keep in mind your end in view, and 
 aim steadily at that in your selection of crosses, whether 
 you desire increase in size, perfect form, weight of flesh, 
 or milk. Remember that there is a constant danger of 
 deterioration, which can only be avoided by care and 
 
 *It should be borne in mind that in the matter of milk there 
 is almost as much difference in different families of the same 
 breed, as in the different breeds. Some Short-horns are al- 
 most worthless as milkers, giving an inconsiderable amount 
 and poor in quality; while on the other hand I have drank 
 Short-horn milk that I could not tell from Jersey milk, as it 
 equalled it both in richness and flavor. As a general rule, 
 however, the animal best adapted for milk will be least adapted 
 for producing beef, and vice versa. R. s. t. 
 
 12 
 
178 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 vigilance, and that there is abundant encouragement for 
 the careful breeder. 
 
 CARE OF STOCK. 
 
 If asked to give in one sentence full directions for the 
 care of stock, I should say: Make them comfortable. 
 This covers all. For an animal to be comfortable must 
 be well fed, have an abundant supply of pure water, 
 must have shade during the heat of summer and protec- 
 tion from the storms of winter; when stabled they must 
 have good bedding and be kept clean. 
 
 ■WATER FOR STOCK. 
 
 A supply of good water is necessary, both for the com- 
 fort and health of stock. There are many farms on 
 which there are no springs or permanent streams, and 
 on which the supply trom wells is either uncertain or 
 difficult to raise on account of depth. 
 
 On such farms resort may be had to cisterns and ponds. 
 A cistern may be located anywhere that is most conve- 
 nient for watering the stock, and filled with surface wa- 
 ter or the drainage of the soil. Thc}^ should never be 
 dug in a run, or where there is so much fall as to cause 
 the soil to wash, as they will then be liable to be filled 
 with mud. But in any place where there is sufficient 
 fall to enable you to gather into them the water from an 
 acre, there will be no trouble in keeping them filled. 
 
 I have two of these cisterns that have furnished me 
 an unfailing supply for seven years. The first one I 
 filled from the surface and allowed the water to run in 
 when very muddy, but found it soon settled and became 
 as clear as spring water. 
 
 But I have found it is unnecessary to use surface wa- 
 ter. A few rods of ordinary draining tile can be laid, 
 crossing the natural flow of the water diagonally, and en- 
 tering the cistern at a suflflcient depth to be safe from 
 
STOCK ON THE FARM. 179 
 
 frost. If the ground is very level, a couple of furrows 
 may be turned, starting from the cistern and diverging 
 in the form a letter y, to turn the flow of the surface wa- 
 ter over the tile. 
 
 By this arrangement any rain which makes the land 
 too wet to plow, will 1111 the cistern, and the water being 
 clear, it will not deposit mud. From such a cistern the 
 water is easily pumped, as the depth is but small. 
 
 Do not dig over ten feet deep, as it is cheq,per to make 
 them long and shallow. A cistern ten feet deep and the 
 same in diameter will hold about one hundred and fifty 
 barrels, and one of mine of this size has but twice been 
 dry in seven years, though the horses have been wa- 
 tered from it constantly, and in dry seasons several head 
 of stock. 
 
 If a cistern of much greater capacity than this is 
 needed, it is better to dig it oval, as it is difficult tp turn 
 an arch if the width much exceeds ten feet. 
 
 The cost of these cisterns will vary in different locali- 
 ties and soils. Mine cost me $30, but were expensive to 
 dig, as I had to blast through rock half the depth. This, 
 however, saved expense in walling.* 
 
 ■ Ponds often are successful on tough clay soils. They 
 should be located where there is but little fall, to avoid 
 their being filled with wash. They should be dug long 
 and narrow — the length being east and west. All the 
 work of digging, except shaping the sides and ends, can 
 be done with the plow and scraper. 
 
 As soon as the pond is made, a dense row of quick- 
 growing trees should be set out on the south and west, 
 
 *There are some tough clay soils in which a cistern can be 
 dug, the sides sloping somewhat, and the cement applied di- 
 rectly to the clay walls, saving the expense of bricks or stones 
 entirely. In other soils the cistern must not only be walled, 
 but the walls cemented to make them hold water. k. s. x. 
 
180 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 SO as to shade it thoroughly, and it should l)e securely 
 fenced, the fence crossing the pond a few feet from the 
 east end, so as to allow the cattle to drink. This end — 
 which ■will need no shade — should he graded to a gentle 
 slope and the bank be covered with broken stone or clean 
 gravel, this protection extending into the pond as fiir as 
 the cattle are allowed to go, that they cannot l)y their 
 tramping make it muddy.* 
 
 Such a pond would last a lifetime, and furnish an abun- 
 dant supply of good water; but no one of the points 
 mentioned can be neglected. A pond exposed to the 
 sun, and into whicli the cattle are allowed to wade and 
 drop their dung, and hogs to wallow, becomes merely a 
 cesspool of impurities, and will not furnish water Jit for 
 stock of any kind. 
 
 Bad water for stock causes disease among them, and 
 often typhoid fever among those who drink their milk. 
 
 To secure an unfailing supply of good water is often 
 an expensive matter, but costs far less than the trouble 
 and loss in a single dry season, when the cattle have to 
 be driven a mile or more for water, and sometimes suffer 
 severely from neglect. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE CHEAP BEEF. 
 
 I have been led to give considerable attention to this 
 matter from .the fact that I for some years fed cattle at 
 a loss, or very small profit, and have found that this has 
 been the experience of many others. I think if a care- 
 ful account was kept, a majority of those who attempt 
 winter-feeding of cattle lose mone}^ and not one in ten 
 really makes a fair profit. There are several reasons for 
 
 *Therp are many soils in which it is not possible to make a 
 pond hold water. In any case, where the farmer can ati'ord it, 
 a good well, whh an unfailing sujiply, and a wind-pump, by 
 which a reservoir can be kept constantly filled, is one of the 
 greatest comforts ever placed on u farm. k. s. t. 
 
STOCK ON TIIK I Aim. 181 
 
 this. For example, beginning to feed at the wrong sea- 
 son of the year, feeding too heavily at the start, feeding 
 too long, irregular feeding, etc., etc. I am confident 
 that I can give advice which if followed will result 
 in a good profit in ever}' case, unless accident or dis- 
 ease should occasion loss. I have been in correspon 
 -dence for some years with a large cattle-feeder of Illi- 
 nois, whose experience was the same as mine until he 
 -adopted the plan of spring and early summer feeding, 
 since which his profits have been uniformly large. 
 Spring is the season of growth with animals as well as 
 plants. All the conditions are favorable; the weather is 
 pleasant, the grass abundant and succulent; there are 
 no flies to torment the cattle, and the water is pure and 
 abundant. In addition, the long winter on dr}- feed 
 has brought the animal into such a hygienic condi- 
 tion as to enable it to assimilate a large amount of 
 food, and I believe that ordinarily cattle gain more in 
 Ma}' and June than they do in all the rest of the slim- 
 mer, and this often means the year, for the majority of 
 -cattle go on to pasture in the spring lighter than the}' 
 -canie off" of it the preceding autumn. M}' Illinois friend 
 ■claims — and my own experience confirms it — that cattle 
 •can be bought the first of March and marketed in June 
 so as to get as great a gain and advantage in June as if 
 the}' were fed from the time grass failed the previous 
 fall. To get this great gain the cattle must be fed long 
 enough before turning on pasture to begin to gain rap- 
 Idly, and I recommend that light grain feeding 1)8 given 
 tihrough March and stronger feed in April. If you are 
 feeding large cattle — such as will sell as shippers, and 
 these will give the greatest profit — I would keep up the 
 grain feed on pasture till they are sold; but if your cat- 
 tle are two-year old steers, or heifers, or drv Cf)ws, in- 
 
182 SUCCESS IN FAKMIXG. 
 
 tended for a home market, the grain ma^^ be discontin- 
 ued as soon as the pastures are good. There are several 
 advantages in feeding cattle at this season of the year: 
 First, if you buy the cattle they will ordinaril}^ cost less 
 the first of March than in the fall, for by this time they 
 will weigh less, having got what the butchers call the 
 "gross" out of them, and they will be in a better condi- 
 tion to begin to gain at once. I think cattle can usually 
 be bought as low the first of March as in the autumn,, 
 for there are always farmers who tr}'^ to winter more 
 stock than the}^ have feed for, and so must put them on 
 the market; but eA^en if a little more be paid it is really 
 cheaper. Second, by beginning to feed at this season 
 and having 3'our cattle well started when turned on grass, 
 they will be ready for market before grass- fed cattle, and 
 when the demand is greatest of the entire year, and 
 prices usually the highest. A few weeks at this season 
 will often make a dollar a hundred difference in the 
 price. Third, the pastures can be stocked fully twice 
 as heavily if the cattle are to be sold in June as they 
 could if they are to be kept on them all summer, for this 
 is a season of the greatest growth for grass, and by this 
 plan enough profit can be made from the pastures so that 
 you can aftbrd to let them rest tl>e balance of the season, 
 which will insure a growth sufficient to protect the roots 
 and give you earlier pasture the next year. To show 
 what has been done by this management, my Illinois- 
 friend reports that fifty fine steers fed from February 
 17tli to June 22d, made an average gain of four hundred 
 and nineteen pounds each one spring; and a net profit^ 
 after deducting what the corn was worth, of over $17 a 
 head on sixty-four head another spring. I have fed only 
 on a small scale, but have never failed to realize a hand- 
 some profit on cattle managed in this way. 
 
HOGS ON THE FARM, 183 
 
 HORSES AND MULES. 
 
 One question of considerable importance in making a 
 start on the farm is, shall you use mules or horses for 
 farm work? Twelve years' experience in their use leads 
 me to heai'tily recommend mules for several reasons : 
 First, they are much hardier than horses, especially en- 
 during heat better; they are less liable to lameness or 
 disease, and recover much quicker when anything is 
 wrong with them. Second, as a rule, they are better 
 pullers than horses and not so likely to be spoiled by a 
 poor driver. Third, they are much easier kept and quite 
 a saving can be made here, as they require but little 
 grain when not at work. Fourth, the}^ are mucli longer 
 lived and will do several years more labor than horses, 
 
 I think it will pay the larmier well to raise his own 
 mules and horses, for he can do it cheaper than he can 
 buy really good stock, and a poor horse is dear at any 
 price. There are many mules and colts raised every 
 season from unsound mares, and although they may 
 have a fair appearance when j'oung, they break down 
 soon under hard work. The farmer who keeps strong, 
 healthy mares and selects good sires, can be sure of rais- 
 ins: sound and valuable horses. 
 
 HOGS ON THE FARM. 
 
 My experience with hogs dates back some forty years, 
 at which time hog cholera was unknown, and the loco- 
 motive powers of the brute were sufficient to carry him 
 to a distant market. In 1847 I gained my first expe- 
 . rience as a drover, helping drive three hundred and 
 fifty hogs from Union county, Indiana, to Cincinnati, a 
 distance of over fifty miles. We made the trip in a little 
 
184- SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 over fiA'C days, and but one hog gave out on the way. 
 In December of the same year my father drove from Mad- 
 ison county, Indiana, to the same market, a distance 
 of over one hundred miles. The hogs at that day were 
 raised and wintered in the woods, and largely fattened 
 by •' hoggin' oft' the corn," as it was called, by which was 
 meant turning them into the field and allowing them to 
 help themselves. There was scarcely any effort made at 
 that time to improve tlie breed of hogs, and it was hardly 
 desirable to do so, for the chief qualifications w'anted 
 were hardiness and power to transport his carcass to 
 market, and these they possessed. It would have been 
 next to an impossibility to have improved the breed: 
 first, for want of transi)ortation, there being no way to 
 ship improved stock without great trouble and expense; 
 and second, l)ecause the woods were full of boars, many 
 of them "elm peelers" sevei'al years old, who would jump 
 over, root under, or liorc through an}^ fence ever invented. 
 At the time I speak of summer packing was unknown, 
 and nearly all the business of the country was done on 
 credit, and as there was very little market for grain, and 
 then only when it was wagoned over bad roads to a dis- 
 tant city. The hog was the product of the farm that 
 brought the only large amount of cash the farmer ever 
 handled, and so the packing season ushered in an era of 
 universal prosperity, for the farmer paid his bills, and 
 the blacksmith and shoemaker were then able to pay 
 theirs, the country- merchant paid for his goods in Cin- 
 cinnati, enabling the wholesale merchant to pay his 
 New York bills; and so the dying scpieal of the porkei 
 verified the words of the poet : 
 
 " From lowly Avoe springs lordly joy, 
 l^rom lnuiil)l(n' good diviner ; 
 The greater life must aye destroy 
 And drink the minor." 
 
HOGS ON THE FAKM. 185 
 
 I oouUi tell stories of hooj-drivino- that would read like a 
 romance; but as this book deals Avith practical ques- 
 tions of to-day, I pass on to the question of 
 
 SUCCESSFUL nOG-KAISING. 
 
 First, the farm on which hogs are to be made the lead- 
 ing product, must be one well adapted to corn, and this 
 -crop will not thrive on cold, wet land, and the growing 
 ■of it will ruin a rolling, washy soil. Our best corn lands 
 iire, almost without exception, good for wheat, and I 
 would recommend a four-years rotation on a hog farm — 
 two years corn, one year wheat, and one 3 ear clover. 
 This would give a clover field on which to pasture hogs 
 in summer and to feed them in the fall, and this man- 
 agement would keep iip the fertility of the'soil. It is 
 not my purpose to recommend any one breed of hogs 
 iibove all others, neither to enumerate the multiplied 
 breeds now to be found in this country-. Probably nine- 
 tenths of our Western fai-mers will breed Poland-China, 
 Berkshire, or some of their crosses; and either of these 
 breeds is good, and many practical farmers of large ex- 
 perience consider a cross of the two — using a Berkshire 
 male — as the best and most profitable butcher liog in 
 existence. I have tried both breeds pure, and their 
 crosses for several years, and if I were on a corn farm 
 iind making hogs my leading interest, I should alwaj's 
 use Poland-China sows for breeders, but should, when 
 pork was what I wanted, cross with the Berkshire, but 
 would breed my best sows to a Poland-China boar, to 
 raise brood sows. My reasons for this are that the Berk- 
 shire hog is more active, less likely to break down in 
 transportation to market, and certainly not inferior in 
 constitution to the Poland-China. The cross which I 
 recommend gives good size, hardiness, early maturity, 
 and, indeed, about all the desirable qualities of both. 
 
186 srccKss ix farming. 
 
 breeds. I Vivo in the connty where the Poland-China 
 hog originated, and an average of more than one thous- 
 and pigs of this breed are shipped for breeding purposes 
 from ray station every .year, so I have been familinr Math 
 the breed from its origin. Some years ago I examined 
 the Assessor's returns in every county in Ohio, with a 
 view of ascertaining if the hogs in Butler and Warreu 
 counties — where nearly all are either pure or high grade 
 Poland-Chinas — were valued higher per head than in. 
 other parts of the S.tate. I found that in but one county 
 of the State w^as the valuation as high, and that was 
 Lake county, where very few hogs were kept, and fed- 
 largely I presume on milk and small jwtatoes, as dairy- 
 ing and potato-growing are the leading interests of that 
 county. The value per head in the two counties named 
 was more than three times as great as in some counties 
 w here no attempts had been made to improve the hogs. 
 The same year I found that the hogs packed in Cincin- 
 nati — which were largely Poland-China — averaged sixty 
 pounds per head above those packed at Chicago. Look- 
 ing upon the hog as a machine for manufacturing a less- 
 bulk}' and more valuable article out of corn, thus saving 
 expenses of transportation, I should name the following 
 points as desirable: Fiivst, constitution; second, power 
 to assimilate food; third, early maturity. Keeping in 
 mind these points, and taking it for granted that the 
 farmer has good stock, I will begin with 
 
 THE sow AND HER PIGS. 
 
 And first, I would recommend mature mothers. I have 
 little doubt that one of the causes of disease so prevalent 
 among swine is, that the constitution was impaired by 
 the almost universal custom which prevailed for many 
 years, of breeding sows at eight months old. There are 
 many points in favor of mature mothers: Thc}'^ are bet- 
 
HOGS ON THE FARM. 187 
 
 ter milkers, and consequently give the pigs a better and 
 quicker start. They bring forth stronger pigs, and are- 
 able to suckle larger litters than young sows. They are 
 much more certain to save their pigs, especially when 
 bred for early spring farrowing In my own experience 
 for twenty-five j-ears past, during which time I have bred 
 hundreds of sows, I estimate the loss of pigs at farrow- 
 ing time from 3'oung sows, at three to one when I have 
 bred from mature sows. 
 
 There is another point in favor of allowing the sow to 
 mature before subjecting her to the tax of maternity, 
 Avhich is that she will develop much better. I have taken, 
 two sows from the same litter that I could detect no dif- 
 ference in, and bred one to come in at a year old, and 
 kept the other over till the next season without breeding,, 
 and found the latter one hundred and fift}^ pounds the 
 heaviest, and of much the finest form. • 
 
 When 3'oung sows are to be bred I would not couple 
 before January, so that settled, w^arm weather might be 
 expected before the pigs come, and the sows could get 
 some green food. In fact, if the pigs are to be wintered 
 and not fattened until eighteen or twenty months old, I 
 think it best to breed all sows at this date, as the risk 
 of loss is much less than with March pigs. If the 
 farmer is raising pigs to sell for breeders, or intends ta 
 fatten at from, eight to ten months old, it will pay to 
 take the risk of having them come in March. Whea 
 bred always make a record of it, and it is well to enter 
 at the same time the date at which the litter is expected. 
 The period of gestation in swine is one hundred and 
 twelve days, and I have never known them to exceed 
 this more than three or four days, and rarely to fall 
 much below it; but as there are cases on record where 
 young sows have farrowed in from one hundred to one 
 
188 
 
 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 hundred and six days, I would advise that the sows be 
 separated and put Avhere you want them to farrow two 
 weeks ahead of date. I would make the entr}' in this 
 vrny: "Spotted sow, Bess, bred Jan. 9th; look for pigs 
 May 1st." 
 
 I think the practice of allowino- the boar to run with 
 the herd an abominable one, as ho will fret and worry, 
 and is likely to become unmanageable. Keep him in a 
 strong, close pen, and turn the sow to him, and as soon 
 as served remove her. 
 
 PORTABLE HOG-PEN. 
 
 This portable pen, if for large soavs, should be made 
 six by seven feet. The short slope of roof in front is in- 
 tended for glass when it is used for early pigs. The pen 
 is the invention of Mr. L. N. Bonham, of -Oxford, Ohio, 
 who kindly loaned us the cut. We have used these pens 
 on our own farm, and are much pleased with them. By. 
 nailing a board across at each end, allowing it to project 
 far enough for a handle — which should be rounded off 
 like the boards of a gravel-bed — four men can easily 
 cany one of these pens, or it may be loaded on a low 
 sled when ^-ou wish to move it far. 
 
 On farms where hogs are the leading product and 
 
HOGS ON THE FARM. 
 
 189 
 
 March pigs are desired, I believe it to be practica- 
 ble to arrange a breeding house with a stove, and 
 that in the long run it would pay. I saw some 
 years since, on the farm of Mr. Wm. Greer, an old 
 tenant house divided up into pens to accommodate a 
 number of sows, and was assured by him that the plan 
 worked satisfactorily. A house sixteen by twenty feet 
 could be arranged thus: Make four pens five by six 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 : s. : 
 
 
 
 
 feet in size, on each side of a hall four feet wide. The 
 stove should stand in the center, and there would be 
 room for a swill barrel and a few barrels or sacks of meal. 
 I would make the ceiling low, so as to economize heat? 
 and the loft could be used for corn. I would arrange in 
 each of these compartments a guard — such as is de- 
 scribed in the chapter on Buildings — to prevent the sow 
 from overlaying the pigs. Make the floor of the build- 
 ing rather low, and have a door large enough for the sow 
 to enter, open from the outside to each separate pen. 
 When the sows are to farrow later, or when these have 
 been tui-ned out on pasture after the pigs are large 
 enough to follow the sow, I prefer the portable pen. I 
 
190 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 do not believe in hot-house treatment of pigs, and it is 
 not probable that any litter of March pigs would need 
 fire for more than three or four days, often less; but 
 young pigs are verj' delicate at first and easily chilled, 
 and where valuable sows are kept this arrangement 
 jnight be profitable, especially as the partitions could all 
 be made movable, and the building used for other pur- 
 poses eleven months of the year. 
 
 As few farmers will find it profitable to use fire, the 
 next best thing is to make the pen as warm as possible 
 without it, and for this purpose corn fodder is excellent- 
 A single crack, half an inch wide, on the windward side 
 of a hog-house in a blasting March da}', may admit 
 enough cold to chill to death a pig just born, but by set- 
 ting a few bundles of corn fodder against the outside, 
 and securing them in place b}^ putting some rails against 
 them, every breath of wind can be kept out. 
 
 Next to neglect in providing a suitable place for the 
 sow to bring forth her 3^oung, injudicious feeding is the 
 greatest cause of loss. The sow will be shut up where 
 she cannot exercise, perhaps two or three weeks before 
 farrowing, and fed on dry corn, and when she brings 
 forth, the same heavy feed is continued. The result 
 often is that fever ensues, the sow loses her appetite, her 
 milk dries up and the pigs starve to death. Again, the 
 want of exercise and the dr^- , rich food causes constipa- 
 tion, and the sow becomes ravenous and eats up her 
 litter. From the da}^ the sow is shut up give a varied 
 diet : wheat bran, potatoes or some other roots, charcoal, 
 i'otten wood, and grass if possible, or bright clover hay, 
 or corn fodder, and for some days after farrowing, feed 
 lightly and very little corn. I wish to emphasize this 
 last sentence. 
 
 Young pigs need exercise, and thousands die every 
 
HOGS ON THE FARM. 191 
 
 year before the}^ are a month old from being kept in 
 close pens. They get too fat and begin to wheeze or 
 cough, and take the thumps and die. The sow should, 
 if possible, be turned out in a pasture lot and the pigs 
 allowed to follow her by the time they are two weeks 
 old. The secret of a profitable hog is to keep it thrifty 
 find growing from the start, and as soon as you notice 
 the pigs begin to eat corn, provide a pen which the 
 mother cannot enter, and feed soaked corn and slop to 
 them, taking pains to feed only what they will eat clean. 
 If you wish to breed the sows for a second litter, you 
 will be able to wean the pigs much 3'ounger for thus 
 teaching them to eat early. It is quite an expense to 
 keep a large sow a year, and we have found it profitable 
 to breed twice a year. With proper care, there is no 
 trouble in keeping fall pigs thrifty and growing all win- 
 ter, and they may be marketed in spring for pig pork, or 
 pastured and fattened in the fall. September pigs well 
 cared for will give as much profit as spring pigs, and 
 can be in good condition for market and should weigh 
 two hundred pounds by the May following. 
 
 One great cause of unthrifty hogs, and a potent cause 
 of the diseases which have caused such losses to hos:- 
 breeders, is the continual feeding of a concentrated, 
 heating, fat-producing diet ; and to keep a hog in health 
 he requires some bulky food. This fact is what makes 
 clover so valuable to the pork-producer, for clover is worth 
 much more than the weight of pork it will produce, for 
 a hog that has pastured on it through the summer has 
 built up bone and muscle and had his stomach distend- 
 ed, and the system thoroughly prepared for assimilating 
 food, and a very rapid gain when corn-feeding begins. 
 Pasture and green food are of such importance that we 
 would recommend a rye field for early pasturing, unless 
 
192 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 you have early blue grass, and an abundant supply of 
 pumpkins for fall feeding, and have no doubt that the 
 risk of loss by disease would be lessened and the cost of 
 pork reduced a cent or more a pound by this manage- 
 ment. Experiments in the use of clover were made by the 
 editor of the Live Stock Joiirnol with the following re- 
 sult: A litter of six pigs were taken at weaning time and 
 divided into two lots. One was fed on corn-meal and 
 water alone, all they would eat; the other lot on the 
 same mixed with clover cut fine. The lot whose feed 
 was mixed with clover kept a good appetite all the 
 time, while the other lot were frequentlj'^ "oft' their feed.'* 
 At the end of five months those fed on meal alone 
 weighed one hundred and fifty pounds each, and those 
 fed on meal and clover two hundred and ten pounds 
 each. To further test the matter, the same gentleman 
 put up in winter two lots of hogs averaging one hundred 
 and fifty pounds each, and fed corn-meal slop to one lot^ 
 and the same mixed with cut clover hay to the other. 
 The experiment continued one hundred and twenty 
 days, when the lot fed on meal were found to have gained 
 one hundred and ten pounds each, and the other lot one 
 hundred and forty-three pounds each. 
 
 In pasturing clover, it is best not to turn on it until 
 it begins to blossom, for we want a full development of 
 the plant, both for the benefit of the stock and the land. 
 The roots of the clover can never reach down into the 
 subsoil if the top is not allowed to develop. We advise 
 that fattening begin early. Numberless experiments 
 have settled the question that a given amount of food 
 will make double the amount of gain in the mild, pleas- 
 ant weather of autumn than it Avill amid the cold and 
 snow of December. If, as we recommend, you feed on a 
 clover sod, the cattle must be kept out, particularly if 
 
HOGS ON THE FARM. 103 
 
 you feed cut up corn at first. We have known ca.tle 
 killed b}'' eating the cuds of husk which the hogs drop 
 after chewing. We would, during the first few weeks of 
 feeding, try to get the hogs to eat all the bulky food 
 possible, and this will be easy if you do not give too 
 much corn. Keep a suppl}' of salt, and ashes, or char- 
 coal where they can have access to it at all times. Feed 
 on a new spot every day, so as to enrich as much of the 
 field as possible. The best crib to feed from is an old 
 wagon, and one which will last for years can often be 
 bought at a sale for a few dollars. 
 
 Mau}'^ experiments have been made to ascertain how 
 much pork can be made from a bushel of corn. We 
 have before us the results of several of these experiments, 
 showing from nine and three-fourths to twelve pounds. 
 One large lot, fed for fort\--three days, made an average 
 of ten pounds for each bushel of corn, and we are in- 
 clined to believe that it will require good hogs and good 
 weather and the best of care to give this result. With- 
 out all these points the average will be much less. 
 
 An important question is whether to fatten at nine or 
 ten months old. The farmer must determine for him- 
 self which plan to adopt. We believe tluit cheaper 
 pork can be made from the young hog. The risk of dis- 
 ease is of course much reduced, and there is a quicker 
 return for the capital invested. It is easy, with good 
 stock, to make an average weight of two hundred and fifty 
 pounds at nine months, and the same hogs, if kept ten 
 or twelve months longer, would probably not weigh over 
 four hundred pounds. Where pigs are to be fattened at 
 this age, we would recommend that they be allowed to 
 run on grass and fed enough to keep them gaining rap- 
 idly till seven months old, and then shut up and fed all 
 they will eat till ready for market. 
 
 13 
 
194 SUCCESS IN FARMIXG. 
 
 WINTERING HOGS. 
 
 There are a few simple rules in wintering hogs, the 
 observance or neglect of which will make all the difference 
 between a thrifty hog that will gain regularly all winter, 
 and a stunted, enfeebled one that will fall an easy prey to 
 disease. These rules are: First, not too many hogs to- 
 gether. Second, each lot to be composed of hogs as 
 nearly the same size as possible. Third, a dry, Avarm, 
 clean bed. Fourth, some variety in diet, and for fall 
 pigs warm drink. We have often seen on a farm forty 
 or fifty hogs of all sizes, including half dozen sows two 
 or three years old, twenty or thirty spring pigs, and a 
 dozen or more fall pigs. On a sharp, frosty morning, 
 when called up to be fed, these small pigs will come out 
 steaming as though just out of a warm bath, and are 
 almost sure to take cold; besides, they are fought and 
 driven off so that they cannot get half their share of 
 food, and if they live through the winter at all — which is 
 doubtful — they will gain little if any in weight. We 
 like corn fodder for a bed for hogs much better than 
 straw, and find that the}' cat all the blades, thus supply- 
 ing themselves with the bulky food needed. 
 
 When cattle are fed for beef during the winter, and 
 there are stock hogs to follow them, we would advise 
 heavy feeding of the cattle with whole corn, as the hogs 
 will eat all that passes the cattle undigested, and thrive 
 well on it. 
 
 / COOKING FOOD FOR HOGS. 
 
 Will it pay to cook feed for hogs? is a question often 
 asked, and often answered in the negative at a heavy ex- 
 pense for apparatus bought. I advocated it ardently 
 when a much younger man than I am now, and can show 
 stowed away as useless lumber, several double, back-ac- 
 tion patent steamers and cookers. I can say emphati- 
 
HOGS ON THK FARM. 195 
 
 <;ally that 7 never could make it pa}-. Besides, I know 
 of scores of farmers wlio began cooking feed for their 
 hogs with great enthusiasm, and 3'et I do not know 
 of one of them who has kept it up more than a year or 
 two at the farthest. I do not deny that cooked food is 
 l)etter than raw, but I am sure that it is not enough bet- 
 ter to pay for the trouble and expense with the amount 
 of hogs kept on the ordinarj^ farm. Further, we sa}^ that 
 ground food is worth just as much soured as cooked, and 
 there is very little trouble or expense to do this at any sea- 
 son of the year. In the summer you must guard against 
 excessive acidty, and in the winter against freezing; and 
 for either you will need two barrels. A swill barrel in 
 summer that stands for days without empt3'ing, often be- 
 comes as sour as vinegar, but b}' having two barrels, and 
 emptying one every other day, the excess of acidity can 
 be avoided. In the winter, fermentation is slower, and 
 two barrels are needed, so as to give more time. For 
 winter, the barrels must be packed in dry sawdust to 
 prevent freezing, and if not under a roof, there should be 
 a sloping lid, hung with a hinge, to close so as to keep 
 the sawdust dry. Have the box eight inches wider ev- 
 ery way than the barrel. If forty-gallon barrels are used, 
 the box will need to be about five and a half by three 
 and a half feet, and will take, without a lid, about fifty 
 feet of lumber. Set the barrels in the box quite close 
 to each other, and fill around them with dry sawdust, 
 cover the top with two thicknesses of old carpet, and 
 pour into each a tea-kettleful of boiling water each 
 day, and the winter must be severe if any ice forms. 
 Let one barrel sour while you are using from the other, 
 and you need never be wanting warm slop, equal in 
 every respect to that which is cooked. 
 
 There is an opinion prevalent that corn and hog pro- 
 
196 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 duction is exhaustive to the soil. If the rotation ani 
 plan of feeding recommended in this chapter is followed^ 
 it certainly is not. The hog is also a valuable manure- 
 maker if rightly managed. A half score of active young 
 hogs in such a hog-house as is illustrated in the chapter 
 on farm buildings, if furnished in the outside floored 
 pen with all the straw they will work up, will half pay 
 for their feed in manure; and Avhcn there is an old 
 straw stack or a few tons of corn butts to be worked 
 over into manure, a hog will more than pay for his food, 
 
 DISEASICS OF IIOGS. 
 
 I wish I could offer an infallible preventive, or a spe- 
 cific remedy for the epidemic diseases which have occa- 
 sioned such loss to the farmers of the West. Expe- 
 rience proves, however, that with the best of care and 
 under the most careful sanitary regulations, it will oc- 
 casionally break out in so malignant a form as to almost 
 annihilate the hogs of a farm or neighborhood. I have 
 never lost a hog from epidemic disease, and a few years 
 ago prided myself that my own good management was 
 the cause of my exemption. I have seen, however, on 
 the farms of neighbors, where fine breeding stock was 
 kept, and far better sanitary precautions enforced than 
 on my own, entire herds carried off in a few days. In 
 one case this could be traced to the infection being 
 brought b}' hogs from a neighlioring farm that were run- 
 ning at large, contrary to law. The law against stock 
 running at large ought to be rigidly enforced against 
 hogs, and if this is done, one source of danger will be 
 avoided. One cannot too carefully attend to all the 
 points which will help keep his hogs healthy, and if this 
 is done the risk of loss will be greatly reduced. 
 
DAIRYING. 1^ 
 
 DAIRYING. 
 
 In many localities, and especially where a large pro- 
 portion of the land is unsuited to grain, dairying is am 
 important interest. It has also this advantage; that it 
 does not, like grain croping, exhaust the soil, and it 
 gives a regular cash income. It comes in well in a sys- 
 tem of mixed farming, as the cows will consume the 
 <'orn fodder, hay and straw, and furnish manure to ap- 
 ply to tlie wheat fields. Doubtless the most profitable 
 disposition of dairy products is to sell the milk to con- 
 sumers by the quart, l)ut as few farmers can own a milk 
 route I shall not speak of this further. The least 
 troublesome way is to sell to tlie factories, but there are 
 large sections where there are no factories. What I 
 shall say in this chapter, therefore, will apply more di- 
 rectly to the farm dairy where the profits are to come 
 from butter, and my own ex[)erience has been with a 
 ■dairy of this kind. I wish to s-ay in the beginning that 
 there can be nothing made from a butter dairy if a 
 •common article is made and sold at the usual market 
 l^rice; and unless sure you can make an extra good 
 article, and you can get a j'carly contract for it at a 
 remunerative price, j-ou would better let the calves run 
 with your cows and save expense and labor. 
 
 SELECTIOX OF DAIRY STOCK. 
 
 From my own experience in buying cows I would ad- 
 Tise that you bu}'- thrifty 3'oung cows that can be had at 
 a moderate price, rather than to attempt to buy cows 
 that are highly recommended and for which fancy prices 
 are asked. Buy your cows largely with reference to get- 
 ting your money back in beef, if they prove poor milkers 
 or unprofitable for butter; and then if they do not suit 
 yov, keep them but a single season. I know this 1,-5 
 
198 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 contrary to the advice usuall}'^ given* l)ut as I look back 
 over my own experience, I have rarely bought a cow at a 
 high price that has given satisfaction. If up to the 
 standard for milk or butter, she often had some little ac- 
 complishment which her owner forgot to mention, such 
 as an ugly temper, a supreme indillerence to fences, or a 
 too free ^ise of her horns; and often she failed in the 
 first named qualities. During the time I ran. a butter 
 dairy, out of some forty cows that I bought, the best 
 two and the onl}' ones I kept when I quit making butter 
 for sale, cost me $30.00 each. I bought among thia 
 number several cows, the owners of which gave them a 
 great reputation, paying fifty dollars and ui)ward for 
 them; but I failed to make the transaction profitable in 
 any instance. I see by looking at my account book^ 
 that in the summer of 1877 1 sold for $156.00 four cows, 
 which I had milked all summer, and for .$122.00 replaced 
 them with as many that were fresh. I do not wish to 
 be understood as recommending the keeping of poor or 
 ordinary cows, for the difierence in the cost of keeping a 
 cow that will make seven pounds of butter a week for 
 the best six months of the year, and one that will make 
 but four, is small; but at thirty cents a pound there 
 would be over twenty-three dollars in favor of the 
 best cow. I do believe, however, that it will be cheaper 
 and more satisfactory to buy good average cows at 
 moderate prices, hold on to the extra good ones and dis- 
 pose of the others and try again, than to pay extrava- 
 gant prices, and then often be disappointed, I should 
 advise that you breed to a male of a good milking family 
 and raise the heifer calves, and your efforts should be 
 continually to grade up and improve your stock. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER. 
 
 I have said there is no profit in a common or poor arti- 
 
DAIRYING. 199 
 
 cle of butter. Three things are necessary to make a 
 first class article. Good food, cleanliness, and a suita- 
 ble and uniform temperature for the milk. Taking 
 these up in the order named, I recommend mixed 
 grasses for pasture, and the more varieties the better. 
 If you can have blue grass, orchard grass, timothy, red 
 top, and red and white clover in the pasture, it will be 
 better than any one or two of them. As we are subject 
 to drought and consequent short pastures, the dair}^- 
 man should alwa^'s grow some soiling crops to use when 
 needed, and Stowell or mammoth sweet corn is perhaps 
 the best, although Blount's prolific will yield more feed 
 to the acre, and common field corn will answer for 
 winter. I have found nothing to equal bran and corn 
 meal mixed, weight for weight, which will give about 
 two bulks of bran to one of corn meal. 
 
 I like in connection with this to feed a little whole 
 corn, as the cows are exceedingly fond of it and it gives 
 variety. For rough feed I find bright corn-fodder excel- 
 lent, and cheaper than auA' other; and I always feed it 
 as long as it lasts, which, with me, is usually all winter. 
 Clover haj', if bright and sweet, is perhaps better, but 
 not so cheap. I see by reference to my account book, 
 that when I was milking eight cows in winter, I fed per 
 week, three hundred and fifty pounds of the bran and 
 meal mixed, three bushels of small corn, and a half ton 
 of fodder, which was from corn cut up at the ground," 
 and was one third waste. This made, calling the corn 
 fifty-six pounds to the bushel, a daily ration of twent}'- 
 one pounds for each cow; and as corn at that time was 
 25 cents a bushel, and bran $9 a ton, and the fodder did 
 not cost more than $3 a ton ; so the gross cost of keep- 
 ing my cows was small. The corn and bran averaged 
 just nine pounds to a cow, per da}-, costing, allowing a 
 
200 SUCCESS IX FAKMINO. 
 
 little for draA-ing the corn to aud from the mill, 5 cents 
 a day for eacli cow, while the cost of fodder was a little 
 less than 3 cents a day per head. I have found by re- 
 peated experiments that this ration, nine pounds of meal 
 and grain, and tweh'c net of corn fodder or good clover 
 hay, is a full ration for an averaged sized cow, and will 
 keep up a full flow of milk or fatten her if dry. Every 
 dairy-man should lay in his stock of bran in the sum- 
 mer. I have never failed to buy at the lowest figures in 
 July or August. The demand is less then and the 
 Millers want to clean their bins so as to be ready for the 
 new crop of wheat, and there can bo enough saved in 
 buying then to justity borrowing money at a high per 
 cent., if necessary. 
 
 The second point in making good butter, " cleanli- 
 ness," needs no argument. It must begin in the stable 
 aud include the milker and all the vessels used about 
 the milk, and its surroundings. 
 
 The third point, "temperature," is as important as 
 any, for good butter cannot be made in hot weather 
 without this can be controlled. There are two ways; one 
 Ity an unlimited supply of cold spring or well water, 
 and the other l)v ice. I should always prefer the former 
 if it could be had. Whichever way the milk is to be 
 cooled, I advise deep setting. I have practised it for 
 six years, aud could not ])e induced to go back to the 
 old plan of shallow jars. T use cans eight inches in 
 diameter aud twenty inches deep. If we cool with water 
 we sink to the top in a box through which water from a 
 spring flows, or if it must be pumped, we arrange it so 
 as to draw off the water when the milk is partially cool- 
 ed, and then pump a fresh supi)!v. For ice, use a large 
 chest with side doors to slide in the cans, and a slatted 
 floor above on which to lay the ice, through a door in 
 
DAIRYING. 201 
 
 the top. This upper space shoukl be over a foot deep, 
 so that there will be room to set meat, butter, etc. on the 
 cakes of ice. In the liottest weather you will need to 
 set a cake of ice on edge between the cans below as well 
 SLS to have it melting and dripping over the cans from 
 above. Managed in this way I have marketed as solid, 
 fragrant butter in dog-days as in May or October. My 
 first knowledge of the plan of deep setting of milk was 
 gained from a dairy-man at Elgin, Illinois, who kept 
 sixty cows, and sold the milk to a factoiy which did not 
 take the Sunday milking. By putting this milk in deep 
 cans and sinking it in a spring, he kept it sweet all the 
 week, and raided his calves on it. Two articles not 
 usually found in the dairy I would recommend; a test 
 glass and milking tubes. The first is a glass arranged 
 "with a graduated scale, so that by filling it to the top 
 :and setting it away for the cream to raise, you can tell 
 ■exactly the per cent, of cream. The milking tubes I 
 would not use except in case of sore teats or an accident 
 of some kind. A cow will sometimes get a teat cut or 
 badly scratched with briars, so that every time you milk 
 the sore will be opened, and it is almost impossible to 
 heal it. By the use of the tubes you can draw off the 
 milk and the teat soon gets well. I always keep in mj^ 
 stable something to use on the teats at the first sign of 
 cracking. Glycerine is good, and I have recommended 
 It for many years; but I have recentlj' used vaseline 
 :and find it much. better. I believe that if a little of this 
 is applied at the first appearance of roughness, that it 
 will be found a certain preventative, and as there are 
 anany cows that suffer both spring and fall, for weeks, 
 ■with cracked teats so that it is almost impossible to 
 milk them, this remedy should be generally knovvn. 
 Although not connected v/ith dairying, I will say Iiere 
 
202 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 that I have fonml Neatsfoot oil as useful in the hors& 
 stable as vaseline for cows. If the collars are kept cleau 
 and a little of this oil rubbed on them ever}' day, and 
 at the first appearance of galling it is applied to the 
 shoulders or sides of the horses, I think that they 
 will never be disabled from this cause. 
 
 The arrangement of the cow stable is of great im- 
 portance to the dairy-man. First of all it should be so- 
 arranged that you can keep the cows clean, and I have 
 never seen this done except where there was a manure 
 ditch. The floor on which the cows stand should be not 
 more than five and a half feet long; considerably less if 
 the cows are confined in stanchions. The manure ditch 
 should be eight inches deep and not more than thirty 
 inches wide, for you want it so that you can easily step 
 across it. You can keep the cows as clean, easily, b}'' 
 having the floor on which they stand raised eight or ten 
 inches, but the manure will be scattered and the urine 
 flow back, so tiiat you. arc almost certain to soil your 
 boots if managed in this way; but Avith the manure 
 ditch you always know where to step, and Avill rarely 
 carry the odor of the stable away with you. 
 
 This manure ditch should be made water tight, ami 
 I would advise that the sides be made of two inch oak 
 plank not less than a foot wide; fill the bottom with 
 tough clay, pounded in, or if you cannot get clay suit- 
 able, use coarse gravel and then a coat of cement; but 
 on top of the clay or cement la}' a floor of good inch 
 boards. 
 
 I have never found any bedding that suited me as 
 well as sawdust; it keeps the cows clean and takes \\\> 
 the liquid better than any other material. I do not 
 make stalls in the cow stable but allow each cow four 
 feet of space, which I find ample, and make a short par- 
 
DAIRYING. 203 
 
 tition to keep them from tiying to get eacn others feed. 
 Two feet is as far back as it need extend, and then it is 
 not in the way in milking. I have tried several kinds 
 of ties, and prefer the ring and snap to all others. By 
 this I mean that we tie a strong piece of rope around 
 each cows horns, with a ring on the rope, and leave it 
 there permanentl}'. We then have a short roi)e, not 
 over two feet, tied securely in front, with a strong snap 
 on it. The manger is wide enough so that we walk 
 through it in front of the cows in tying or untying 
 them, and it is the work of a moment to fasten or loosen 
 a long row of cattle. If I was keeping a large dairy I 
 would arrange the stable so that I could drive through 
 with a wagon to remove the manure, having the manure 
 ditches far enough apart to let the wagon between them; 
 but where a few cows are kept it can be wheeled out. 
 
 An important factor in the profits of the butter dairy 
 is the skim-milk, and how to make the most from it. 
 If the farmer is raising thoroughbred pigs to sell for 
 breeders, I think he will find it more profitable to feed it 
 to them, as no other food gives so good a start or makes 
 such showy pigs; but by judicious management as good 
 calves can be raised on skim-milk as by letting them 
 suck the cow. To do this it will be necessary to add to 
 the milk enough oil meal or flaxseed to make up the loss 
 of the cream. Caution should be exercised in changing 
 from new to skim-milk, for the calf should always be fed 
 on new milk for a few dajs, or until you can see it begin 
 to grow. Begin by adding to the milk a tablespoonful 
 of the seed, steeped in hot water, or double the amount 
 of the meal, and increase gradually. At five weeks old 
 begin to feed the calf shelled corn, and as soon as it will 
 eat a half pint at a feed you can decrease the flaxseed or 
 meal. If j-ou feed regularly you can make the calf fit 
 
204 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 for veal in this way and grow a healthy, well developed 
 animal. 
 
 I have often found it more profitable to milk a cow for 
 two, and sometimes even three j'ears, without breeding. 
 There are many cows that will, if well fed and kept from 
 breeding, give a profitable flow of milk for a long time, 
 and the milk will be richer the second year after calving 
 than it was the first. This is an important fact to the 
 man who keeps but one cow, as if bred ever}' year she 
 must go dr}' several Aveeks. 
 
 As the proof of the value of a good cow I will close 
 this chapter with a statement of an account which a 
 friend of mine kept with his coVvs for nine years.. But 
 one cow was kept at a time but ho bought and sold so 
 that several ditforent cows are included in the account. 
 The cow M'as charged $2.50 per month for pasture, and 
 market price for ha}', bran and meal consumed. She 
 was credited with milk and butter sold and the market 
 price for milk and butter consumed in the family, the 
 same as if it had been sold. The account kept with 
 this cow for one year is as follows: 
 
 CoAV. Dr, 
 
 Six months pasture at $2.50 per month,.. $15.00. 
 
 Hay, bran, etc., oO.OO. 
 
 Total $45.00. 
 
 Cr. 
 
 Milk sold $20.00. 
 
 Butter sold and used, 48.00. 
 
 F'our quarts of milk used per day, 55.00. 
 
 Total, $I2:}.00. 
 
 Deduct cost of keeping, 45.00. 
 
 Leaves profit $78.00. 
 
SHEKP FARMING. 205 
 
 Three years out of the nine the cow jielded a profit of 
 over $100 after paying for her keeping. It is perhaps 
 needless to add that the cow was well fed and cared for 
 in every respect. 
 
 In 1878 I milked eight cows and s®ld the butter at 28- 
 cents, and my account with the cows stands as follows: 
 Account with dairy. Cr. 
 
 778 pounds of butter sold, $217.84. 
 
 One calf sold, 7.80. 
 
 Milk sold, 10.00. 
 
 Three calves raised, .59.00. 
 
 Profit on cows sold, 16.00, 
 
 Total, $301.64, 
 
 In addition to what was sold a family of nine persons- 
 were supplied with milk, butter and cream, and this, 
 with what milk was fed to the pigs would, I think, pay 
 for the pasturing of the cows. During the winter they 
 consumed about six tons of bran and meal, seventy-five 
 bushels of corn, and twelve tons of corn-fodder; and as 
 the bran cost about $9 per ton and the corn but 25 cents 
 per bushel and fodder but $3 per ton, it will be seen 
 that I had a fair profit. If, however, the prices of food 
 had been doubled, as they sometimes are, I should have 
 made but a small profit at the price received. 
 
 To make a butter dairy profitable will require careful 
 attention to all the details, and it will not do to trust 
 too much to hired help. 
 
 SHEEP FARMING. 
 
 Waldo F. Brown, Sir: — You wish me to write a brief 
 article on Sheep, in such fashion that it shall be the 
 *' best guide to success." I know no better way than to 
 
200 SUCCESS I>f FAltMINC. 
 
 give my own metliotls, which are based on long experience. 
 
 Stephen Powers. 
 
 SOILS ANI> BREEDS. 
 
 All sheep do best on a dry, limestone soil ; but they 
 ■will do well on any soil, provided it is dry. The Merino 
 loves the high hills, and is less tolerant of moisture 
 than the English long-wools. But for any breed of 
 sheep, if the soil is not dry, it should be made so, or else 
 put to other uses, for it is a losing business to attempt 
 to breed sheep on low, damp ground. Every breed of 
 sheep docs well in every climate within the temperate 
 zone, provided the process of acclimation is conducted 
 slowly. The Merino does equally well in the rigorous 
 winter of Vermont and under the torrid sun of the Dar- 
 ling Downs of Australia. The Chiviots of Scotland 
 could doubtless be transported to Brazil and flourish ; 
 but the removal might have to be made by so many 
 short steps as to occupy a century. 
 
 The American Merino, for a general-purpose sheep, 
 probably stands without a peer. The idea that the av- 
 erage full-grown sheep of any one of the improved breeds 
 yields better mutton than the average full-grown sheep 
 of any other, is fallacious. The special superiority of 
 the British long- wools as mutton-producers, is this: 
 They do not yield better mutton than the INIerino at the 
 *o7»e ac/e, but they bring it into market so much earlier. 
 The joung of all animals whose flesh is used for food, are 
 esteemed by the gourmets of great cities far above those 
 of more mature age. A Cotswold or an Improved Ken- 
 tucky will rear a lamb weighing seventy-five or a hun- 
 dred pounds inside of six months, and the flesh of that 
 lamb is worth in the city twice or thrice as much per 
 
SHEEF FARMING. 207 
 
 pound as the flesh ol a 3'earling, because of its tender 
 •age. It is no better eating than the Merino lamb, but is 
 more profitable near a great citj^ simply- because of its 
 precocit}'- The remarks in this paper refer to the 
 American Merino, but thej^ will be equall}' applicable to 
 the English long wools bj' observing the following rule: 
 Whenevei the number of sheep in a flock is given, di- 
 vide by two, wherever the ration per head is given, mul- 
 tiply two. 
 
 CHOICE OF BREEDERS. 
 
 A well wooled ram may be a poor stock-getter. The 
 latter quality will have to be determined by trial. A 
 quality especially desirable is pre-potencj', that is, the 
 jjower to mark his progeny strongly after himself. In 
 selecting a ram whose stock-getting qualities are un- 
 known, the purchaser should observe the following 
 points: A keen, bright, prominent eye ; bright pink skin; 
 thick spermatic cords; arched nose, deeply furrowed be- 
 low the eyes, short, broad head; short, thick, heavy 
 neck ; broad, deep chest ; broad on top of the withers ; 
 straight, strong, wide back; broad loin and rump; thick 
 between stifle joints, large, round barrel, ribs well 
 sprung out; well down in the flanks; short, straight legs, 
 well spread apart, straight from the rump to the ground; 
 profusely covered from a point two inches below the e^'es 
 to the hoofs with a long, dense fleece of buff-colored 
 wool, finely erimped to the end of the fiber and free from 
 gare, (hair), on the neck and hips, of a dark color on the 
 outside which will not bleach in the storms; growing 
 three inches long in a year ; cheek, leg and belty wool 
 {especially the latter) to be of good length and dense; 
 scrotum well covered ; wool around the eyes not obstruct- 
 ing the sight; plenty of smallish folds on the neck, some 
 on the body and across the stifles, one low down on each 
 
208 SUCCESS IN FAKMISG. 
 
 flank, and one shaped like a horseshoe on the rump, the 
 heavier here the better. Most of the above points should 
 be sought for in the ewe; but for a good breeder, she 
 should be especially heavy in the hind-quarters. The 
 "ewe-neck," with the droop just in front of the withers, 
 is to be avoided; it indicates lack of constitution. The 
 first, second, and third points in a good sheep are — con- 
 stitution. 
 
 BREEDING. 
 
 In determining the time of lambing, the owner must 
 consider the size of his flock, the quality and amount of 
 spring feed, etc. A small flock well housed, well fed on 
 bran, roots, clover hay and fodder, and thoroughly looked 
 after, may be lambed to advantage in March, or even 
 earlier. It is imperative that the ewes should have daily 
 as much exercise as they would get in walking, say, two 
 miles, constant access to salt, clear water at least once 
 a day, and enough of the above feed to make a generous 
 flow of milk. If these cannot be guaranteed, lambing 
 had lietter be deferred until grass grows. A ewe fed on hay 
 and corn may be fat and yean a large laml), yet have no 
 milk, and consequently disown it; and then a year's 
 work is lost. Milk must be had at all costs. Never 
 lamb on green rye, but when the lamb is a week old, the 
 ewe may be turned on it with advantage, if other green 
 feed is scarce. Of all cultivated grasses, I like orchard 
 grass best for sheep-pasture; it grows so jearly in the 
 spring and so late in the fall. Not over 150 ewes should 
 be kept in a flock, and each should have at least ten 
 square feet in the shed, with access to a 3'ard or lot by 
 da^^ As long as grass remains dead in the winter, they 
 may run on it with considerable freedom; but as soon 
 as it sprouts in the spring they should not be allowed to 
 graze on it at all until about a week before such time as 
 
SHEEP FARMING. 209 
 
 it will do to turn them out altoo-ether. First let them 
 out a half hour a day, then an hour, and so on. Con- 
 tinue the feed of grain until the grass gets heart. One 
 hundred ewes should have, during lambing, a bushel of 
 "shipstuff" or two bushels of bran; feed in flat-bot- 
 tomed troughs to prevent " hogging." 
 
 During lambing look over the flock ever}' hour. If a 
 ewe goes apart and remains alone but does not bring 
 forth, examine her; thrust in the hand carefull}^ to as- 
 certain if there is not constriction or growing-up of the 
 uterus — a complaint to which the Merino ewe is liable. 
 Take nothing for granted respecting a young lamb until 
 you actually see him suck and know that he gets his 
 milk. But be careful not to interfere with a young ewe 
 until you are certain that she needs help, or has aban- 
 doned her lamb. If she has disowned it i)ut her up with 
 it in a small pen and whip her occasionally; I have 
 known a ewe to stand out a month, and 3-et own it at 
 last. 
 
 MANAGEMENT OP LAMBS. 
 
 They should be docked and castrated before flies get 
 about, and a little fish oil smeared on the tail to keep 
 away such as may be fl^ang around. Keep a roofed 
 trough in the field with salt in it, to teach them to eat 
 from a trough. Wean them eai^y in August; turn the 
 ewes on the driest pasture, and the lambs on the green- 
 est and freshest. But above all, the lambs should not 
 bo put into a field where there are stagnant springs 
 trickling down through the grass. These breed the par- 
 asites which cause "paper-skin" — that many-formed 
 and the most fatal malady which American sheep have 
 to contend with. The dampest and foggiest river-bot- 
 tom, with clear running water to drink, is better than 
 the cleanest and driest hill-pasture, if the latter has no 
 
 u 
 
210 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 water but a drooling spring. After the sheep is a year 
 old, the liability to this disease is substantially passed. 
 Beginning gradually, one hundred lambs will soon eat a 
 bushel of bran a day. If they are late lambs they should 
 have all the bran they will eat, to push them forward 
 rapidl}' for winter. Add a little oats when frost falls, 
 and corn when the snow flies. By New Years feed a 
 bushel a day to one hundred — half bran, and a quarter 
 each of oats and corn. Lambs will winter excellently on 
 this ration and bright corn fodder. When they are first 
 taken up from grass, keep them up abou two da3-s with 
 no coarse feed before them except fodder, (increasing the 
 grain feed while they are being broken in), then let them 
 out an hour or two on some good rowen. Persevere in 
 this about ten da3's, letting them out two or three times 
 on grass meantime; b\' this time the}^ will eat fodder 
 nicel}-; then they may have hay at night and fodder in 
 the morning. If they learn to eat hay first, it is more 
 difficult to break them to eat fodder. They may grow a 
 little gaunt before the}'' come to their fodder; but there 
 is no occasion for concern, they will be all right in two 
 weeks. The same caution applies to them as to ewes re- 
 specting grass after it has sprouted in the spring. Green 
 grass and hay will not splice; the transition must be 
 effected in a very few days, and it is the grain ration 
 which must be depended on to let the sheep down easy 
 from one to the other, either way. 
 
 TAGGING AND WASHING. 
 
 Before they are turned on grass in the spring, all the 
 wool about the vent and hind legs that the dung could 
 touch, should be closely cut away to prevent fouling. 
 This is especially important with breeding ewes; if they 
 are handled carefully it may be done with perfect safety. 
 To neglect this is little less than infamous; the maggots 
 
SHEEP FARMING. 211 
 
 get in and cause untold trouble to the shepherd and 
 miserable suffering to the sheep. Even in the summer, 
 say about weaning time, all the ewe lambs should be 
 tagged carefully, (they are most liable to foul), to pre- 
 vent the lodgment of that abominable pest, the maggot. 
 A lamb attacked by them soon succumbs, and after ihey 
 have had free course for two or three days, it is almost 
 impossible to save its life. As to washing, it is idle to 
 ■cry out against it, so long as manufacturers continue to 
 l)U3^ unwashed wool at a dockage of one-third. No wool- 
 grower can submit to that unless he houses his sheep 
 the year round, thus retaining all the yolk in the fleece. 
 Washing is an evil in ma-ny waj^s, but it is one which 
 must be faced. The only rational course for the farmer 
 is to seek to mitigate it as much as possible by employ- 
 ing careful men, giving his personal attention to every 
 detail, and sternly repressing all cruelty or unnecessary 
 roughness with the sheep. Wash them early on a bright, 
 calm day, and turn them on a clean pasture to dry, 
 where there is no wind; it will not damage them to any 
 considerable extent. 
 
 SHEARING, MARKING, ETC. 
 
 It is legitimate to let the flock run after washing until 
 the yolk flows to the extremity of the fiber again, say 
 two weeks. But it is not legitimate to shear sheep when 
 they are in the least degree moist with dew or rain; the 
 greatest pains must be taken to keep them dry before 
 shearing, else the fleeces will mold. Neither is it legiti- 
 mate to pile the fleeces in a damp room, near the ground, 
 nor to do up dead wool in them. But it is legitimate to 
 put into them the tags sheared ofl" early in the springy 
 after subjecting them to one careful washing in clear, 
 cold water, such as the sheep were washed in. A com- 
 mon grocer's scale should be kept standing near on a 
 
212 SUCCESS IN FAKMINO. 
 
 box, adjusted to a certain weight, (the standard to 
 which the Hock is bred), and every fleece should be 
 thrown on it by the shearer. If it comes up to the 
 standard, well and good; if not, let the sheep (which has 
 been retained meantime by a strap buckled around be- 
 hind its fore-legs and attached to a rope suspended 
 from above), be marked for sale. Even if the fleece is 
 "weight," if the sheep shows failing teeth, let it be 
 condemned, too. Let all sheep beyond middle age be 
 weeded out inexorably, especially if the flock is a large 
 one. After shearing is over, put all these culls in a lot 
 by themselves; give them ever}' advantage of the pas- 
 ture, get them fat if possible, and sell them for what 
 they will fetch. Do not mix* them with good sheep; 
 keep tlie latter separate and demand the highest market 
 price for them ; they Avill find a buyer. Do not be in 
 any hurry about selling wool. Four times out of five it 
 will sell higher in three or six months after shearing 
 than it will at shearing. Borrow what money is needed 
 for immediate use, and let the clip lie in the wool-room 
 until the " bear" movement is passed. 
 
 PASTURAGE, ETC. 
 
 One acre of fair upland pasture ought to support three 
 grown sheep; it is safe to calculate on this basis. Keep 
 the flocks moving about. It is a good rule to move them 
 every week, if possible; at least every two weeks. 
 It is better to keep a large number of sheep in a certain 
 pasture a short time than to keep a small number there 
 a long time. Sheep are fond of change, even if they can 
 do no better than to occupy a field from which another 
 flock has just been taken. They ought to be turned on 
 to grass early enough in the spring to prevent it from 
 growing up too rank. It is sheer waste to let June grass, 
 for instance, or blue grass, go to seed; it should be kept 
 
SIIKEr FARMING. 213 
 
 SO depastured that it will throw up a seed-stalk only 
 here and there, and that only a few inches in height. 
 Sheep will do no gq^d in a field of grass which has gone 
 to seed. They should be taken oft' in the fall early 
 •enough to allow the grass to cover its roots with some 
 matting as a protection in the Avinter. It is better to 
 take them offearh' in autumn and put them back early 
 in the spring than to be late in the fall and late in the 
 spring. About the middle of November, if the flocks 
 l)eg"in to show signs of falling oft', it is well to take a 
 small ration of shelled corn out every da}', and sow it 
 broadcast on a clean short sod. This gives all an equal 
 ■chance and keeps them in good heart until they are 
 read}' to go into winter quarters. 
 
 WINTEU CAKE. 
 
 Sheep ought to be yarded, except for an hour or two 
 each day, when they may 1)e allowed to run on an old 
 sod or in the woods. If nothing better ofl'ers, turn them 
 into a corn stubble; they will take much satisfaction and 
 needed exercise in browsing the stul)S. Their yard must 
 be in a dry place, with a good wind-break on the ex- 
 posed sides, and a shed open on the east or south side, 
 furnished with sets of sliding doors, so that it can be 
 thrown open if desired, or shut uj) tight with the flock 
 inside in a severe storm. A dry flock should have a 
 shed large enough to allow eight or ten square feet per 
 head, and they should not be compelled to occupy even 
 that, except during storms. Sheep desire a variety in 
 their ration, and to this end the sheep-houses on the 
 farm should be clustered as nearl}' together as good ven- 
 tilation will permit, and all the difterent kinds of feed so 
 disposed in stacks or graneries that some of each can be 
 given out to every flock. Fodder should be fed in an 
 open yard — a space sixty feet square Avill suffice for one 
 
214 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 hundred and fifty sheep— so that the stalks may receive 
 the rains of the next summer, and be reduced to the con- 
 dition of manure by fall. It is not well to allow hogs to 
 follow sheep with the view of triturffling the stalks more 
 rapidly; they foul the feeding ground so that sheep will 
 not eat up their feed clean. Hay should be given in the 
 ordinary slatted boxes under cover — as much as they 
 will eat clean and no more, Avhich can be ascertained in 
 a few days by careful observation. A good rotation is: 
 fodder in the morning, corn at noon, hay at night. Stock 
 sheep should be wintered mostly on coarse feed, with 
 only enough grain to keep them in good heart, say half 
 a pound of corn or oats per head per day. It is more 
 profitable to give a little grain than to keep a Hock en- 
 tirely on coarse feed. With straw of any kind a pound 
 a day should be given. The sheep-house should be lit- 
 tered with the orts and cleaned out once a month; if left 
 longer than that the ammonia arising impairs the ani- 
 mals' health, and forces them to stay out in storms Avheu 
 they would otherwise seek shelter. When sheep be- 
 gin to scratch their briskets it is a sure sign the ma- 
 nure ought to be removed. All grain should be fed \i^ 
 flat-bottomed troughs, in a clean yard devoted to this 
 purpose, with the troughs so arranged that the sheep will 
 run in lengthwise of them. The fashion of the ha^'-box 
 does not matter so much as the kind of feed put into it. 
 If the hay is bright and sweet they will stand still and 
 eat it, and not waste it by pulling out their heads and 
 running about. All kinds of grass for sheep-feed ought 
 to be cut when in bloom, or even earlier. 
 
 FEEDING FOK MARKET. 
 
 Sheep intended for feeding, should be in good order 
 when put into winter quarters, and pains must be taken 
 not to allow them to fall off from the start. Whatever 
 
SHEEP FARMING. 215 
 
 grain is given, must be given with the utmost regularity 
 — no change, for instance, from shelled corn to the ear. 
 They should have their grain twice or thrice a day, and 
 at every feed the e3'e of the master himself should watch 
 them carefully; if, after the bulk of the flock have fin- 
 ished, there is still a little grain left, and a few linger 
 and keep on eating, the}' should be driven from the pen 
 with the others, and the pen closed, or the remnant of 
 feed I'emoved. Sheep should not have grain 13'ing bj'' 
 them, like fatting hogs. The fattening process ought to 
 be pushed to completion, so far as the profit is concerned, 
 in five or six weeks. Merinoes will not do the best that 
 is in them until tlie}' are three or four 3'ears old. Some 
 feeders consider it the most profitable waj^ to give only 
 enough grain through the winter to keep the flock in as 
 good condition as the}' were in fall; at the last push 
 them for about three or four weeks; then turn on grass 
 for a month ; wash, shear and sell wool and carcass sep- 
 arate. 
 
 FULL- BLOODS AND GRADES. 
 
 For years I shared in the popular belief that full- 
 bloods are not as hard}' as grades; but I am now satis- 
 fled, and record it as m}- opinion, that if full-blood 
 American Merinoes are taken from a stud-flock near b}-, 
 and graduall}'^ wonted to an open-air life in the summer, 
 they will soon learn to endure it as well as the grades. 
 But if full-bloods are brought from a stud-flock in a dis- 
 tant and different climate, thej^ must become acclimated 
 before an attempt is made to depart from the system of 
 housing to which the}' have been accustomed. 
 
 PAPER-SKIN. 
 
 This one name covers a disease of several forms, all 
 of them caused by i)arasites in ditterent viscera. Only 
 lambs are subject to it to- any extent. All medicining is 
 
216 SUCCESS IX FAKMINO. 
 
 more or less uiisatisfnctorv; the best remedy is, to give 
 once a day a teaspoouful composed of equal parts of tur- 
 pentine and linseed oil. If the parasites are in the 
 stomach and intestines, it is well to g\\c pumpkins, split 
 in halves and laid flat side up in flat-bottomed troughs 
 divided into small compartments. The seeds are thought 
 to be the most efficacious part. Prevention is far more 
 important than cure; and this must be accomplished by 
 generous feeding, keeping the lamb strong and thrifty 
 all summer, until it is taken oft' grass ; keeping it away 
 from foul springs, and away from pastures on which 
 paper-skin sheep have lately' run. The external indica- 
 tions of this disease are a very pale, bloodless, bluish 
 skin, lassitude, and extreme lightness in weight. If the 
 parasites are in the lungs, the animal coughs; if in the 
 kidneys, it urinates frequently. 
 
 FOOT-ROT AND SCALD-FOOT. 
 
 These ailments ought to be kept cai'cfulh' distinct from 
 each other. The first is contagious; the second not. 
 15otli l)egin in the cleft of the hoof — a galled appearance 
 — and for the first two or three weeks not one shepherd 
 in a hundred can distinguish between them. If it is 
 foot-rot it will now begin to spread in the flock, and it 
 will go rapidly frem bad to worse until the foot is sub- 
 stantially destroyed; if it is scald-foot, it may remain 
 stationary for weeks or months, no other sheep taking it, 
 (though in hot weather maggots may get into the feet), 
 (u" it may get well of itself. Scald-foot is nothing to be 
 feared, but, lest it should be the rot, it is well to treat 
 it as such, Si)rinkle finely-powdered blue vitriol in the 
 cleft of the foot, working it well in. If it is the foot-rot, 
 ■well-seated, the vitriol must be applied in a warm solu- 
 tion, setting the foot down in it, all the lurking-places of 
 the disease having been previously laid bare by an un- 
 
SHEEP FARMING. 
 
 217 
 
 sparing use of the knife. Turn the sheep on a dry sod, 
 und repeat in a week. 
 
 GRUB IN THE HEAD. 
 
 When a sheep seems to have vertigo, goes about in a 
 circle, twisting its head around, or makes sudden, erratic 
 dashes, the chances are ten to one that it has grub in 
 the head. Turn it 'on its back, thrust a strong wheat 
 ■straw carefully up the nostril, (it will go up five or six 
 inches), withdraw the straw, suck it full of turpentine, 
 put it up the nostril again and blow out the turpentine. 
 Let the sheep up a minute, then repeat in the other 
 nostril. 
 
 OTHER DISEASES. 
 
 For colic or stretches, caused by a too abrupt change 
 from grass to hay, dose freely with salt. For any kind 
 of vegetable poison, drench a grown sheep with a half 
 pint of whisky,' a younger one with less. For diarrhea 
 give two tablespoonfuls of linseed oil. For maggots, 
 «hear the wool off' close to the skin, and smear on fresh, 
 thin tar until it reaches the skin everywhere. For ticks, 
 give constant access to a box containing three parts salt 
 and two of sulphur, and keep the sheep out of the rain. 
 For scab, dose Avith sulphur and linseed oil. 
 
 These are really about all the diseases which, in the 
 simple and elementary regimen under which sheep-farm- 
 ing is as yet conducted, the American shepherd has to 
 treat. The books are burdened with lists of maladies 
 which trouble the English flock-master, with his more 
 complicated methods and high fed flocks ; but they need 
 not give us much concern at present. 
 
218 scccrss in farming. 
 
 POULTRY FOR PROFIT. 
 
 WRITTEN BY MISS M. BROWN, OXFORD, OHIO, 
 
 All over our country there is a general waking up to 
 the interests of agriculture, and among our best farmers 
 the feeling is growing that success can he reached by 
 careful attention to little things— the developing of the 
 resources within the grasp of every farmer and his wife. 
 
 Every <nie will admit the expediency of keeping fowls 
 on a farm, that his own table may be supplied with 
 fresh eggs and that the butcher's bill may be reduced,, 
 throughout the season. But much more than this may 
 be attained Avith but little outlay, and attended by much 
 pleasure and profit. The old way of getting a lot of 
 hens and two or three cocks of no distinct breed, of 
 letting them look after themselves through the summer 
 and roost in the trees all winter, must b}' abandoned; for 
 during such a winter as that of '81, some farmers who 
 kept a hundred hens, were without eggs for their own 
 use during most of the winter. The age of the hens 
 should be accurately kept, and they should be made to 
 do service in the dinner pot before they have ceased to 
 be profitable for eggs. I find that it is safest, especially 
 with the larger breeds of chickens, never to keep a hen 
 over two 3ears, and new blood should be introduced 
 through the cocks each year. If you want to loose your 
 young chickens with the gaps, and contend with all the 
 diseases chicken flesh is heir to, keep your own cocks 
 from year to year, until the relationship between mother 
 and offspring shall be as intricate as a Chinese puzzle. 
 
 How shall poultry raising be made in-ofitable to the 
 average farmer? is a question worth studying, and I 
 gladly give you my experience, gained by actual practice 
 for a number of years. , 
 
POULTRY FOR I'UOFIT. 219 
 
 In the first place do not try to keep too many hens. 
 From twenty-five to fifty at the most, through the 
 winter, but give this number the proper care and you 
 will be surprised at the handsome profit. 
 
 First, select a suitable place for your chicken house^ 
 well drained, with a southern exposure, and sheltered 
 by buildings on the north and Avest, if possible. 
 Whether 3'ou have this shelter or not, by buildings, 
 plant an evergreen hedge on one or both of these sides; 
 arbor vitse is my choice : Trees two feet high can be had 
 for a few cents each, and if set three or four feet apart^ 
 will soon grow into a dense hedge. My own, set nine 
 years ago, is now twenty feet high, and is a comfort to 
 the chickens every day in the year. This hedge is their 
 " city of refuge." They run to it for protection against 
 wind, rain and snow storms; the}- hide under it by day 
 to escape the hawks; and all through tlie hot months of 
 summer climb among its branches at night to be out of 
 the reach of skunks and weasels. During the terrible 
 heat of the past summer, 1881, this hedge was the chief 
 source of consolation to the 3'oung cliickens. They 
 would crawl under and among the close branches for 
 slielter until on close inspection, sometimes, it looked 
 like a tree bearing chickens for fruit. Plant this hedge 
 by all means; and then build your chicken house 
 within its sheltering protection and you have gone a 
 long way toward making poultrj' raising a success. 
 
 A house fourteen feet long and six wide can accomo- 
 date comfortabl}', fifty chickens through the winter. 
 My own is built against the barn, seven feet high at the 
 back, with a slope of two feet for the roof; half of the 
 front is of glass to let the sunshine in, and this half is 
 always kept supplied with fresh chip-dirt. To look in 
 here some bright winter day would make you believe 
 
220 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 chicken happiness was a cheap tiling-. There is a board 
 three inches high to separate the dusting place and the 
 part over wliich the chickens roost. It is all boarded 
 over the floor with two inch oak planks, so that not even 
 a weasel or mouse can get in when the door is closed. 
 Dry dirt is kept over the floor to absorb the droppings, 
 and during the summer months is scraped into a barrel 
 once every two weeks. Every spring this house is 
 whitewashed, inside and out, and occasionally kerosene 
 oil is applied to the roosts and turned into the cracks. 
 
 I have never found it best in a small chicken house 
 like this to have the la^'ing boxes connected with it, but 
 have a small slide door through into the barn, and there 
 have boxes and kegs arranged in a suitable number. 
 The objection I have to the nests being so close to- 
 gether is that in cold weather, when closely confined, 
 for the lack of other modes of exercise they scratch their 
 nests to pieces, break, and often learn to eat their eggs. 
 During the summer months most of the hens vacate the 
 house at night, but as soon as the weather begins to get 
 rough, can, hy a little coaxing, all be gathered in; and 
 before this time I try to sell ott" and reduce my stock to 
 the number that can be comfortably wintered. When 
 the ground is covered with snow I feed liberally every 
 morning with what is called ship-stuft' — a mixture of 
 bran and shorts- — wet with scalding water and then cool- 
 ed with skim-milk; also feed scraps from the table, occa- 
 sionally sunflower seeds, and cayenne peppers mixed with 
 the bran; and at noon give a light feed of some kind of 
 whole grain. Let the amount be regulated by the 
 weather. Chickens do much better when made to for 
 xigG for themselves, and they destroy a vast amount of 
 weed seed and insects of every description, the Colorado 
 beetle excepted. I always make my hens get down otf 
 
POULTRY FOR PROFIT. 221 
 
 the roosts and come out doors to get their feed, no mat- 
 ter what the weather is. During a snow storm we 
 always clear awa}" the snow for quite a space around 
 the house so they can get at the gravel and come out for 
 fresh air and exercise. An iron kettle holding a couple 
 of gallons of water, is sunk within two inches of the top 
 in earth and is kept full of water. During the summer 
 cobble stones are thrown into the kettle so the little 
 chickens are in no danger of drowning. During very 
 cold weather the water must be hot to melt the ice, and 
 as soon as it cools sufficientl}^ the chickens will gather 
 and drink until the water is lowered several inches, and 
 thus leave space for the next watering. A trough long^ 
 enough for all the chickens to gather around is best for 
 receiving the feed. 
 
 One of the main points in poultry raising is to secure 
 early pullets, and this can be done by a little care and 
 pains. Some time in February or the fore pait of 
 March select the very roundest eggs, gathered on warm 
 days when there is- no danger of their getting chilled, 
 and if possible set three hens at a time and if they 
 should not hatch well give the chicks to two hens. Take 
 extra pains with the nests and do not give the hens over 
 thirteen eggs each. A good body of earth in the bottom 
 of the hatching boxes insures steady warmth, and is 
 always an advantage. Remove a part of one side of the 
 box and have it so arranged that the hen can walk 
 directl}^ on the nest and is not obliged to jump down on 
 the eggs. When the time nears for the eggs to hatch 
 prepare some coops that can be perfectly closed at 
 night, and have a 'little yard about the coop for the 
 chicks and hen to run in through the day. The coops 
 should be located just south of the arbor vitae hedge. 
 Feed the 3'oung chickens with the bran-mash and corn 
 
222 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 bread, but do not give thera clear, raw com raoal dough. 
 
 Plymouth Rock aud other hardy varieties of chickens, 
 with these few simple arrangements will thrive through 
 iiny weather our climate can produce during the early 
 spring months. Pullets hatched in March or the first of 
 April, will mature and begin lajdng in September, and 
 will pay for themselves before Thanksgiving. I have a 
 pullet hatched during the terrible snow storm last 
 spring, that has at this date, November 1st, laid twenty- 
 five eggs, and shows no signs of sitting yet. 
 
 During the hot weather look out for vermin, and 
 grease your sitting hens under the wings with a mix- 
 ture ot lard and kerosene. If you have not many hens 
 condense your broods of little chickens through the hot 
 weather. I had two hens this summer that raised 
 twenty-five each. 
 
 The care of the poultry ought to be given to some 
 member of the family and let an accurate account be 
 kept of all outlay, and also of the amount sold. There 
 is no better way to teach a child strict business habits 
 and to teach it self-help and economy, than by giving it 
 an. interest and share in the profits, 
 
 A small piece of ground planted in sun flowers, 
 Dhoura corn and ca3'enne peppers will go a long way 
 toward feeding the chickens through the winter. The 
 <lemand for poultry and eggs is on the increase, and it 
 is the part of wisdom for the farmer to meet this grow- 
 ing demand and benefit not only himself, but the con- 
 sumer. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 TIMBER GROWING. 
 
 The number of farms on which timber planting should 
 at once be begun is large and constanth' increasing. 
 Even in localities like my own, where less than thirty 
 years ago the question was how to get rid of the timber, 
 and deadening and burning was resorted to for clearing 
 the land, there are now many farms without fire- wood and 
 A'ery few on which there is any rail timber left. On all 
 these farms timber plantations should be started at 
 once; and even on many which still have a supply of 
 timber, it has passed its prime and there should be new 
 plantings made. As a rule, the least valuable lands 
 should be planted in timber; that which is too rolling 
 to cultivate, and even lands which have been reduced in 
 fertility by long cropping, will grow trees well. 
 
 The profits of timber on such land will often exceed 
 many times, all that could have been made from them if 
 cultivated; and when planted in Locust it renews itself 
 sifter being cut, and the second crop grows in two-thirds 
 the time required by the first, and will yield a regular 
 income for several years. I have had ten years experi- 
 ence in growing timbers, but for thirty-one j^ears have 
 lived in sight of several groves of locust, and so what I 
 state in this chapter is fact, and not theory. My ex- 
 perience extends to but three varieties of timber, Locust, 
 Catalpa and Soft Maple, and of these, in all localities 
 where they will thrive, I should expect the greatest 
 
224 -SUCCESS IX FARMIXO. 
 
 profit from the Locust. If fire- wood, or a quick growing' 
 wind-break is the object sought, I would advise the 
 planting of Soft Maple. I cut a half cord of wood last 
 spring trom eighteen trees of Soft Maple occupyin^^. 
 single row fifty feet long, which had been growing nine 
 years; This was at the rate of over twenty-five cords 
 to the acre with the rows one rod apart. I have trees 
 of this timber eighteen yesira old which measure from 
 three and a half to four feet in circumference, and I esti- 
 mate they will make over a half cord each. Near my 
 farm is a plantation of two acres of Locust which was 
 started m 1850, the seed being planted in hills like corn. 
 This was cut oft' and marketed in 1868. and I knoAv that 
 it brought several hundred dollars per acre; but as it 
 has changed hands I have no way of ascertaining how 
 much. In 1879, eleven years after it was cut off clean, 
 the owner began cutting the second crop of posts, and I 
 visited it and made a careful examination of it. When 
 planted in 1850 the trees were four feet apart each way: 
 but they were thinned out and sold for bean poles and 
 stakes, so that at the time it was cut off the trees stood 
 eight feet apart. When I visited it eleven years later, I 
 found that each stump had thrown out from three to 
 seven sprouts, and the largest of these were now large 
 enough for posts and cutting them out was a positive 
 advantage to the remainder, and as the stumps averaged 
 over four of these sprouts I found that over two thous- 
 and posts could be cut and still leave the original num- 
 ber of trees — 680. I have never known these posts to 
 sell for less than 20 cents each, so it will be seen that 
 this land would yield a good income on the second crop 
 of trees after they were eleven years old. For ten j'ears 
 to come from the cuttings and in twenty years from the 
 first cutting, if the straightest and best trees were 
 
TIMBER-GROAVING. 225 
 
 allowed to stand, one to each stump, there would be 680 
 trees that would make several posts each. If allowed 
 to grow until each tree would make ten posts, at 20 cents 
 each they would bring $1,360.00, and the wood from the 
 branches would pay all the expense of cutting and split- 
 ing. There is on this farm from twelve to twenty acres 
 of Locust timber, most of it on hillsides, all of which 
 was planted, and there is growing on the land a heav}'^ 
 crop of blue grass which pays a fair interest on the cost 
 of land and trees. 
 
 When I came to Ohio, in 184:8, there was growing on 
 the farm I moved upon a double row of small Locust 
 trees, twentj^ rods long. I do not know how long they 
 had been planted but I could easily carry one of them, 
 and did dig up and carry on my shoulder several of 
 them to set around the house. In 1867 these trees were 
 cut — there were thirty-three of them — and they aver- 
 aged twelve large posts each and half as many small 
 ones, which were used for fence stakes. Allowing one 
 rod of ground in width, which these trees occupied, 
 there was just one-eighth acre and the trees were scat- 
 tering, less than two to the square rod. The second 
 growth from them is over two hundred trees, tall and 
 straight ; many of them will make three and some four 
 post cuts to the tree, and there have been posts made 
 from this second growth for one or two years past. I 
 have seen a gate post that squared six inches made 
 from a Locust tree that grew from the seed in eight 
 years, and I now have on mj^ farm a ten year old tree 
 that will split and make two posts. I know that in 
 some localities the bores injures the Locust trees, but I 
 think it is usually isolated trees that suffer most, and I 
 have never known a plantation seriously injured. I be- 
 lieve there is no investment that with perfect safety 
 
 15 
 
226 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 offers so large profits as the plantinp^ of Locust timber. 
 There are lands suitable for this purpose which can be 
 bought for $25 to $35 an acre, which, if planted in Locust 
 timber, in ten years would be worth from $300 to $500 
 per acre, and at the same time would be taxed for per- 
 haps less than $50 per acre. There is no danger of 
 overstocking the market, and those who begin planting 
 Locust timber will soon reap a rich reward. 
 
 The seed should be sown in nursery rows, in April or 
 May, and must be prepared by scalding. Put it in a 
 tight vessel and pour water nearly boiling hot over it 
 and let it stand until cool. You then find about one 
 seed in twelve swollen to three times the ordinary size; 
 spread them in the sun till dry enough to handle and 
 then separate these swollen seeds, which, if the quantity 
 is small can be done by hand, or a sieve can be used 
 which will retain the swollen seed and let the remainder 
 pass through. The seed which does not swell must be 
 treated with the hot water repeatedly; each time a larger 
 proportion will swell, and from four to six applications 
 of the hot water will be necessary. Seed prepared in 
 this way will come up as quickly as corn, but if the 
 weather is not suitable for planting it may be kept in a 
 cool place for a week or more. If it must be kept, spread 
 it an inch or so in depth in some vessel, and set on the 
 cellar bottom and cover with a damp cloth. Sow in 
 shallow drills three feet apart, eight to twelve seeds to 
 the foot of drill, and cover an inch deep. Give good 
 culture and they will grow from three to five feet high 
 the first season. Always set out in the plantation atone 
 year old. The growth will be checked less than if al- 
 lowed to stand two years. In planting the trees you 
 want the land thoroughly prepared by plowing and har- 
 rowing; then lay off the rows with the two-horse plow 
 
TIMBER-GROWING. 227 
 
 SO as to have the turrows deep enough for the roots; 
 stretch a line across, or if you prefer cross mark with a 
 small plow. You will need a boy to hold the trees and 
 two men with light shovels to put the earth to the roots. 
 Two men and a boy will plant about an acre a day in 
 this way. The trees will get well established and make 
 quite a growth the first year, but it is best to cut back 
 close to the gi'ound early the next spring, as they will 
 make a strong vigorous growth this season and have 
 straighter trunks. They should be cultivated for two 
 summers after which they will occupy the land so that 
 the weeds will do them no harm. I advise planting 
 four b}^ four feet, as the growth will be straighter when 
 planted close. At about four years after planting cut 
 out every other row. They will be large enough for 
 bean poles and occasionally one will do for a fence stake. 
 A few years later, when large enough for fence stakes or 
 vineyard poles, cut every other one. This will leave 
 the trees eight feet apart each way, or 680 to the acre. 
 After the first row is cut out sow in grass and pasture 
 with sheep or young cattle. 
 
 In growing Soft Maple seedlings, you gather the seed 
 as soon as ripe in the spring, which is about the time 
 strawberries ripen, and sow at once. It will come up as 
 readily as beet seed and grow from three to five feet 
 high the first summer. In setting these in plantations, 
 unless I expected to get sale for a part of them for shade 
 trees, I would put the rows eight feet apart and the trees 
 four, A double row of these planted along the North 
 and "West of exposed fields will afford protection to both 
 crops and cattle, and in prairie countries, it is said that 
 where one-sixth of the land is occupied by wind-breaks 
 the remainder will grow enough more grain to pay for 
 it. Where a wind-break is needed for the buildings, I 
 
228 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 would advise the planting of evergreens. Cedar or Ar- 
 bor Vitai are probably the best. They will be a great 
 comfort during the winds of winter and spring. 
 
 The Catalpa has been largely recommended as a tim- 
 ber tree for some years past, but my own experience with 
 it shows that though it ma^^ be a valuable timber it has 
 qualities which render it inferior to the Locust. I have 
 1)een growing it for four years and I tind it to be of 
 much slower growth than the latter, and veiy much in- 
 clined to branch and grow scraggy, Out of several 
 hundred which 1 have growing not one in twenty are- 
 even passably straight. The seed of Catalpa is light as 
 that of parsnip, and will not come up if sown deeply or 
 on a stiff* clay, and as the young trees, when they are 
 four inches high, can be transplanted as easily as sweet 
 potatoes, I would recommend that the seed be sown in a 
 frame, in prepared soil, and where they can be pro- 
 tected. 
 
 There is one other timber which I have had no ex- 
 perience with, but which would undoubtedly by profit- 
 able to grow, and that is Black Walnut. The seed 
 must be planted in the fall and it is well to plant where 
 thc}^ are to grow, as the trees do not bear transplanting 
 well. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 COUNTRY HOMES. 
 
 BY MRS, J. C. ALDKICH, OF FULTON COUNTY, OHIO. 
 
 As success in farming depends largely upon the ar- 
 rangement and management of the home, certainly a vol- 
 ume on this subject would he ver^- incomplete without a 
 chapter specially devoted to the household. And even a 
 ■chapter seems insufficient for mention of the various 
 topics connected with this department. 
 
 Home, in its widest sense, signifies " all that pertains 
 to a dwelling place." With tliis broad heading for our 
 -chapter, such a throng of subjects crowd to the front 
 and demand the first place in importance, that it is diffi- 
 cult to decide which shall have the preference; but en- 
 deavoring to forget for the moment the jostle and clamor 
 for pre-eminence of hygiene, order, cleanliness, adorn- 
 ment, etc., etc., we will go back of the home for our be- 
 ginning. 
 
 A farmer's possessions may stretch over a vast area 
 of countr3-; his herds may feed on a thousand hills; he 
 may enjo}' the reputation of being a very rich man; yet, 
 the impressions made on his character by his home and 
 its surroundings, will unmistakal)!}' stamp his real worth 
 In society. It is therefore essential that he begins right 
 in life. "We would by no means tarnish the holy senti- 
 ment of love by cold calculations in profit and loss; but 
 would simply suggest that all mingle a little common 
 sense in matters of love. For instance, a man should 
 
230 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 love the woman he is capable of making happy; and a 
 woman should never imagine she loves the man Whose 
 business she despises. 
 
 The young man who decides to be a farmer, should 
 select for his companion a woman ever}- way fitted for a 
 farmer's wife. We do not mean by this a woman of the 
 greatest physical endurance and the least mental ca- 
 pacity; the largest capacity for acquiring wealth and 
 the least desire for spending it on artistic tastes; noth- 
 ing of the kind. But a woman whose heart is tilled with 
 a love for the country, who goes to her home like a queen 
 to her tlirone, proud and happy and independent; one 
 who docs not regard domestic life as degrading drudg- 
 ery, or the occupation of farming as an inferior one. 
 Such a woman would help to build up a home that Avould 
 be a blessing to its inmates and an honor to the farmer's 
 vocation. 
 
 But we have to admit that all farm homes are not 
 models of perfection, even where the husband and wife 
 are united in their love for the business. We see many 
 farmers with large farms living in homes destitute of 
 books, paintings, music, everything in fact, that will not 
 yield an interest in dollars and cents. In most cases of 
 this kind the proprietor has commenced life with limited 
 means, and found economy and retrenchment more easily 
 practiced in and around the house than anywhere else 
 in farming. Certainly, underdraining must be exten- 
 sively done to insure the growth of crops; long lines of 
 fences must be made to protect them, and large liarns 
 must be built to secure them; for the crops of the farm 
 are the money-producing element, and must not be neg- 
 lected. Then the long list of farm implements and ma- 
 chinery necessary for carrying on modern farming must 
 be fdled before any furniture for the house, beyond the 
 
COUNTRV HOMES. ^ 231 
 
 barest necessities can be afforded. B}' the time pros- 
 perit}^ becomes established, the enforcement of rigid fru- 
 gality in everything pertaining to the house has become 
 a habit so fixed in the nature of both husband and wife, 
 that long after the necessity for its practice has ceased, 
 we find them subjecting every proposed improvement to 
 their utilitarian test, and opposing an}^ outlay for beau- 
 tifying their home as a needless expense.* What their 
 poverty once made an excusable economy, their present 
 circumstances render a very censurable parsi mony. Very 
 often the surplus that should be expended in bringing 
 cheer and comfort to the household, is deposited in the 
 bank, awaiting a favorable opportunity' for investing in 
 more land. 
 
 It is a mistaken notion with some, that they must 
 wait until they have grown rich before the}' begin to 
 gather around them the enjoyments of life. 
 
 The little cabin in the clearing may contain all the 
 elements of refined living; the evidences of intelligence 
 and culture sit as gracefull}^ within its neatly white- 
 washed walls as in the mansions of the wealthy; ivies 
 and eglantines cling as lovingly to its rude logs as to 
 the stately columns of opulence; and the fragrance of 
 flowers floats in through its tiny windows as freelj^ as 
 
 *Mrs. Aldrich has opened a truth, a secret to many, that the 
 disregard to taste and beauty in some farm homes is the natu- 
 ral result of long-continued necessary economy. But Ijecause 
 natural, it does not follow that it is right. It is a pitiful thing 
 to see a man and woman give all the strength and vigor of their 
 lives in the effort to secure an "independence," and when they 
 have secured it find they have forgotten how to enjoy it. Yet 
 such a sight is to be found in thousands of farm homes to-day ; 
 and there are thousands and thousands of farmers wlio, liav- 
 ing acquired a "competence," still rise up early and work late, 
 and pinch and deny themselves and their families every lux- 
 ury, when they could not tell what they were saving the monej^ 
 for. R. s. T. 
 
232 . SUCCESS IX F.VRMixa. 
 
 through a platc-2;lass ciisouK'nt. There is such a wealth 
 of material around every country home tor creations of 
 beauty. The scraggy, gnarled sticks may be made into 
 rustic work; tlie stones lying- around in the way, into 
 rockeries, the lichens into brackets and hanging baskets 
 to receive trailing or climbing plants; even a great, ugly 
 stump in the yard may be made a thing of beauty by 
 hollowing out the top, filling Mith earth and planting 
 with trailing vines. There is no need of waiting for the 
 accumulation of riches to make a pleasant home. No 
 matter how humble your beginnings, take to 3'our home 
 all the 1)eauty and happiness within your reach, and by 
 the time you are ready to build the great farm-house 
 that has long been a castle in the air, 3-ou will find so 
 many l)right memories inwoven with your life in the 
 dear little cottage, "so many i)recious things you can 
 never take away," that, with regret you will move, " out 
 of the old house into the new."* ^ 
 
 IN AND AKOUND THE NEW HOUSE, 
 
 The building of a farm house sliould bo the subject of 
 serious consideration. You are not building for a renter 
 who can leave if dissatisfied when the first crop is har- 
 .Tcsted; but 3'ou are making a home for 3'ourselves and 
 
 *The family, also, that has learned, durhigthe days of hard- 
 ship and toil, to make much of every fjleam of beauty, of every 
 <)pi)ortunity for intellectual advancement, of everythini? that 
 ieads to taste, refinement and culture, will find wlien the new 
 home is secured, that they have not in the makint^ lost the 
 faculty for enjoyment, and that they will go into the "new 
 home" and all its improvements as "though tliey had been all 
 their life long accustomed to its enjoyments. I have seen ele- 
 gant countrj^ residences, with all the attractions that money 
 could buy, in which the older members of the family spent 
 tlieir time in the kitchen or back yard, because they "felt more 
 at home tliere." A melanclioly confession that their former 
 home had been all kitchen and bat-kyard, and that they felt ill 
 at ease in a liome of refinement and beauty, because they hai^l 
 never been accustomed to it. ' R. s. t. 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 233 
 
 perhaps j'our children after a'ou ; therefci'e all the wis- 
 dom of the family should be brought to bear upon the 
 "vvork. 
 
 The shape of the house should harmonize with the 
 site it is to occupy, and the grounds about the house 
 must of course bear a relation to the size of the farm. If 
 the farm is large, consecrate a generous piece of land to 
 ornamental purposes. But whatever the shape or size of 
 farm, avoid that orthodox walk, straight, and narrow, 
 li edged in with shrubs, from the gate to the front door; 
 iind avoid that greater abomination, a narrow front yard. 
 Nothing helps a passer-by to form a more correct opin- 
 ion of the inmates than the surroundings of a farm 
 house. A farm with hundreds of broad acres stretching 
 iiway in the distance, laden with the mone^^-yielding grain, 
 -and a little seven-by-nine picketed yard in front is a sad 
 sight. One cannot but fear that the owner is a narrow- 
 «ouled man, with narrow doctrines and narrow ideas of 
 the higher nature's demands. If your farm is too small 
 to devote much ground to merel}' ornamental trees and 
 shrubs, grape arbors, cherry and pear trees, small fruits, 
 ■etc., can occupy space at the sides, and will not harm 
 the roses and lilacs if the}^ are not separated from them 
 by a " paling." But leave the lawn in front of the house 
 smooth and unbroken by trees of any kind. Have a 
 piece of ground to one side, plowed deep, and made rich 
 and mellow for the main flower garden. Beds — not too 
 many of these — may be cut in the lawn, round, oblong, 
 or any fanciful shape, and planted with dutch bulbs. 
 These make a gorgeous display in early spring. The 
 dullest observer will turn to look at a group of these 
 g?y-colored flowers in their emerald setting of velvety 
 grass, and remember them long as a picture of beaut3\ 
 JBetween the rows of bulbs, annuals or geraniums may 
 
234 srcoESs in farming. 
 
 be plantcil, that will keep up a show of fl;iming color until 
 snow falls.* 
 
 Plant plenty of hardy flowering shrubs and perennials '^ 
 these, when once planted, are little trouble, and afford 
 much satisfaction. In making your selection, be care- 
 ful to get a large proportion of fragrant shrubs and 
 plants. The veiy breath of heaven seems wafted to us 
 in the fragrance of flowers. If yon have a fine old forest. 
 tree near the house, spare it — for the love of beauty 
 spare it. You can supply its place with nothing half so 
 grand. 
 
 No special directions can be given for the approaches 
 to the house, as the shape of the ground and the space 
 devoted to the 3'ard must decide this in each individual 
 case. Man}' houses are built so near the road as to pre- 
 clude all possilulity for anything but a straight drive at 
 the side. This is a great mistake; it gives the house 
 too much the semblance of the toll-gate or wayside inn; 
 while a fine drive, sweeping up under over-hanging shade 
 trees, always gives a spacious, villa-like appearance even 
 to an ordinary house. The walks need not not be straight. 
 or rectangular, even in a small yard. An oblong bed irt 
 
 * I confess I am not particularly in favor of the " piece of 
 ground" for a flower garden. It has always seemed to mo that 
 the growing of flowers in a field, like corn, .siioukl be left to the 
 professional flower-grower, and that the flowers al)ont the- 
 home should have a ''fitness" to the place where they are fonnd.. 
 I would as soon thiiflv of taking afl the l)raekets, window-eur- 
 tains, pictures, mottoes, vases, shells, faney work, ete. about 
 the house to one large room, and arrange them artistieally 
 there,- as put my flowers in one large " flower garden." Flow- 
 ers are the outward adornments of the home, as the articles I 
 have named are the inwanl adornments. A small, round bed 
 here, an oval one tliere, some choice flowers under this win- 
 dow, a flowering slirub by that — a little edging of 1)loom, found 
 unexpectedly — would be my ideal. But Mrs. Aldricli's taste 
 is good, and she may have better judgment in this than I. 
 
 K. s. T. 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 235- 
 
 front of the liouse, set with foliage or flowering plants — 
 the path curving to the right and left of this, one going 
 to the front door, and the other passing round to the 
 sitting-room or kitchen, is ver}^ pretty. 
 
 Do not allow the back yard to become a A'ery Tophet 
 for the whole place. Allow no accumulations there not 
 directly connected with the conveniences of the house. 
 The back walks, being matters of convenience, may con- 
 nect directly as possible with the various out-buildings. 
 Let them be built of plank, or some substantial material, 
 and safcl}' above " high water mark ;" this will secure 
 3^ou against "stormy weather" in the house during a 
 muddy time.* 
 
 There are evidences of neglect about some country 
 homes worse, even, than the utter absence of all orna- 
 mentation. Among the most odious of these is the 
 stench from hog-pens, hen-houses, etc., that laden all the 
 atmosphere about the place with their disgusting odors. 
 This is inexcusable. Some attempt to apologize for the 
 negligence by saying that during the hot, busy season 
 they have no time for the necessary purifications. We 
 all understand that cleanliness is the best disinfectant in . 
 
 *Mrs. Aldrich lives in a timber country, and naturally sug- 
 gests plank ; but after a very extensive observation in all sec- 
 tions, I know of no better material to suggest, (travel, even 
 where it can 1)e had, is liable to track into the house ; tan-bark 
 stains the carpets ; flag stones, unlesjTmuch smoother than can 
 usually be obtained, hold water and mud in wet weather, and 
 are always unpleasant to walk on. Brick walks are expensive 
 to lay, and in muddy countries troublesome to keep in order. 
 Get 3 by 3 studdings, hard wood, lay them 2io feet apart from 
 out to out ; set them firmly on stones or brick ; get full inch 
 lumber, 6 or 8 inches wide" and sawed at the mill into 3-foot 
 lengths, and you can easily make a walk that will always be 
 clean and comfortable, and will last for years. In laying your 
 boards, if green, put close together; if seasoned, leave a quar- 
 ter-inch crack; put two 8-penny nails in each end of a board; 
 and. as soon as a board breaks or gets loose, repair it. R. s. T. 
 
236 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 use; but a penny's worth of copperas sprinkled on and 
 around the unclean spot, will effectualh' neutralize its 
 loathsome exhalations, and any one may avail himself 
 of this escape from allowing his place to become a pub- 
 lic nuisance. 
 
 Another is having no means of reaching the house 
 with a team save through the barn-yard, which in such 
 cases is strewn with all kinds of farm implements, from 
 the new self-binding reaper, down through all conditions 
 of dilapidation to the most absolutely worthless trash. 
 After a meandering route over, around and between 
 these, 3'ou are lialted at the kitchen door, where pigs, 
 ducks, etc., mix with their own filth that thrown from 
 the kitchen in the form of slops and refuse of all kinds. 
 Finding here their element, they grunt and waddle 
 about with perfect impunity, evidently considering them- 
 selves part and parcel of the family. Holland saw a 
 great similarity between hogs and human l)eings, but 
 we have no right to cultivate this similarity by such 
 close association, and we have no right to disgust the 
 senses with such loathsome sights and scents about a 
 ■ human dwelling. We would gladly forget such places; 
 but they exist, and instead of turning from them in 
 silence, we should point out their imperfections and en- 
 deavor to bring them up to higher ground. 
 
 The idea that farmery and theii* families have small ca- 
 pacity for enjoying the elegancies of life, and therefore 
 need little, has so long been popular among professional 
 men, that many farmers have come to believe it them- 
 selves; and the habit of being satisfied witli the husks of 
 their labor while some one else receives the kernel, clings 
 to them like mildew to linen, and regarding themselves 
 as a kind of intermediate beings between the animals 
 they feed and the men they vote for, the^^ imagine rude 
 
^ COUNTRY HOMES. 237 
 
 living and coarse manners more in keeping with theii- 
 occupation than the comforts and refinements of a well 
 arranged home. Such need missionaries sent among 
 them to proclaim the gospel of the grange.* 
 
 Turning from these unpleasant phases of country life, 
 we will go back to the pleasant home where all love to 
 loiter under the pleasant shade trees, among the flowers, 
 and shrubs, and beautiful walks. But we go into the 
 house at once. We have a difficult task to perform. 
 Those who have always been making the old home pleas- 
 ant and beautiful, come into the new home with culti- 
 ted tastes and well informed judgment in all matters of 
 furnishing and arrangement; these will need no help of 
 ours; we trust, however, such will be patient, and not 
 consider as useless detail our efforts to help those who 
 have been waiting to move into the "new house" before 
 they commenced a systematic course of furnishing. 
 
 As it is the most common way of building in the coun- 
 try, we will suppose the house is an " upright-with-a- 
 wing" and an "L"' extending back from the wing, (we 
 would suggest that the " L" be rather disproportionate 
 in length, or the proprietor may be required to build an 
 addition for a summer kitchen.) This furnishes conve- 
 nient space for a farm house, and though not as elegant iu 
 
 *It can hardly be thought strange that so many farmers 
 have low opinions of themselves and of their calling when we 
 remember that from time immemorial the farmer has been 
 supplied with literature prepared for him by those who look 
 down upon him. His babies are supplied with story-books 
 which tell of the "rough, ignorant, country boy ;" his boys are 
 fed on wonderful tales of how someone, though only a farmer's 
 boy, had gone to town and become a gentleman, and when 
 he gets to be a man he takes a political paper, edited and man- 
 aged by men who regard the farmers as so many " head" to be 
 brought up to the polls and voted. Any wonder we find many 
 farmers who seem incapable of rising to a due appreciation of 
 their rights and of the dignity of their calling? R. s. t. 
 
238 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 appearance as a square house, it lias the advantage of 
 costing- less for brackets, columns, etc., without which a 
 square house would bean unsightly object. 
 
 With this style of house we usually dispense with the 
 convenience of a hall, but the sitting-room opens on a spa- 
 cious veranda, and all the glory of the front 3^ard is con- 
 tinually'' spread before the family, which we think pleas- 
 anter than having the sitting-room in the rear of the 
 parlor. 
 
 Let the veranda be one very paradise. First impres- 
 sions are most lasting, and while one is waiting here for 
 admission, your home is being photographed in his 
 memory by these beautiful surroundings. How differ- 
 ent the picture will be from that which, if, by the "shut- 
 iip-go-to-the-back-door" look of things at the front, he is 
 compelled to go round to the kitchen to gain admission, 
 ^nd work his way in between wash-tubs and through 
 the steam of boiling clothes, to a darkened sitting-room, 
 destitute of any object to engage his attention. We must 
 enter a protest against this shutting up of the whole 
 front of the house practiced b}"" some. 
 
 Since the advent of screens, no excuse remains for fam- 
 ilies cloistering themselves in this perpetual shadow and 
 gloom. Screens are not expensive luxuries, and cer- 
 tainly for their price, no man would allow himself and 
 family to be tortured through the day with flies, and of 
 evenings be bitten and stung by mosquitoes and all man- 
 ner of moths and beetles that swirl in and swoop down 
 on unprotected victims. Let the house be provided with 
 screens, and throw open the doors and blinds and let in 
 the joy-giving sun-light and the fresh, pure air.* 
 
 * A dark house is seldom a clean house, and never a heal- 
 thy one. Sun-light and air are Nature's disinfectants and 
 tonics. If the light reveals dirt and dust, so much the more 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 239 
 
 Make the front door look so pleasantly inviting that 
 Tisitors will know the^' are expected to enter there. Let 
 ^n ivy arch the door-wa}' with its rich, glossy green, or ~ 
 place a Speciosa Fuchsia on a bracket, and train its long, 
 vine-like branches above the door, and it will gladden 
 j^ou all summer with its masses of drooping buds and 
 blossoms. If your porch is shady, plant the graceful 
 Adlumia; it is the very lace work of all climbers, with 
 its long vines bearing such an abundance of fringy fol- 
 iage and delicate flowers you maj^ festoon the entire 
 veranda. 
 
 Let the furnishing of the sitting-room be such as to 
 sustain the good impressions made by outside appear- 
 ances — tasteful, substantial, and for the use and happi- 
 ness of the family. 
 
 It is useless to attempt to give directions in reference 
 to styles of paper and carpets. The prevailing styles at 
 time of purchasing must be the guide. Now rich, dark 
 colors for both are sought, while a few j^ears ago neutral 
 tints for paper were recommended by good authority, 
 :and a soft, grajj- ground, scattered over with wreaths of 
 roses and delicate flowers, was a lady's ideal of beauty 
 in a carpet. No one need regret having bought when 
 this style prevailed, for it is pretty and always will be. 
 
 The sitting-room carpet should be no flimsy, cheap af- 
 iair, and better a pretty, bright, rag-carpet than an in- 
 grain or brussels, if such a one would cause you to worry 
 about its being spoiled by every-day use. Make this 
 room especially bright and cheery. This is the hearth- 
 stone, the family altar, where all come at evening to gather 
 Test and strens:th and blessing. Let the table be fur- 
 
 Tieed for the light. The farmer is learning that it is ruinous 
 to keep stock in dark stables ; but some have not yet found 
 out that the family is entitled to as much thoughtful care as 
 the stock. R. s. T. 
 
240 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 nished with books and papers and magazines of sterling^ 
 worth, a stereoscope and views, suitable games; in short,, 
 whatever elevates, entertains and develops the mind, 
 should have a place here. Have plenty of easy-chairs — 
 not necessarily expensive ones, but such as will give 
 comfort and ease to the occupant. These may be made 
 of old chairs bottomed with coftee-sacking and covered 
 with pretty red calico. It has been said that red is the 
 glor}' of color. We would have red predominate in the 
 sitting-room. Ever3-thing looks bright and warm in its. 
 glow. Let the table-spread be red, the couch and rug 
 be lighted up with it, and whatever hanging, fancy work, 
 such as an air-castle or a balloon for this room, should 
 be trimmed with red; tidies for the chairs, and mats for 
 the table, should be white, as they require frequent 
 washing, and would be prettier on the red than any 
 color. 
 
 Do not commit the blunder so often noticed, of carry- 
 ing all the family pictures and cheap chromos, in fact, 
 everything in the shape of ornament, to the parlor, leav- 
 ing the rest of the walls to stare at you in naked ugli- 
 ness, while the parlor presents a heterogeneous collec- 
 tion, varied and contrasting as the contents of a Yankee 
 peddler's wagon. 
 
 The famih' pictures are of course dearer to the family 
 than any one else, and should therefore be appropriately 
 grouped in the sitting-room or family sleeping-rooms, 
 where their dear remembered faces Avill beam on those 
 who love them with such tenderness as to make them 
 quite forget the old-fashioned clothes and oddly combed 
 hair, which often prove very amusing to visitors. 
 
 There are some very pretty chromos — they are mostly 
 copies of historic paintings, and through them we may 
 gain some idea of the original — for this reason we gladly 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 241 
 
 give them place in the sittiug-room. The best of these 
 may be taken to the parlor if 3'ou haA'e no oil paintings. 
 or steel engravings. Not many farm-houses are very 
 rich in works of art, but farmers' Avives must make this 
 a part of their religion: to feel satisfied with things 
 within their reach — but reach as far as you can in the 
 way of advancement. 
 
 In buying, do not select the flashy, high-colored, barn- 
 yard scenips so comuKm. Nature furnishes for us better 
 pictures of this kind; but get something good of its class 
 that will bring a lesson with it.* 
 
 Nothing is more perplexing to the housewife in the 
 way of furnishing than the matter of curtains, for style is 
 so vacillating and changeful in this item. If she at- 
 tempts to follow this fickle dame in this, as in many 
 other things, she will be kept on the rack much of the 
 time, besides finding on her hands a greater sup- 
 ply of curtains than her means will warrant in getting. 
 A better way is to decide that "a thing of beauty is a 
 joy forever" — get what she thinks prett}' and be satis- 
 fied with it, no matter what Mrs. Grundy says. This 
 rule of course will not apply to ladies' bonnets; but in 
 the matter of furnishing a farm-house is better than the 
 constant worry about things getting out of style. 
 
 We think for the sitting-room lace is prettier than 
 "cheese-cloth" or cotton flannel. It gives a sweet, airy 
 look to the room. Do not hang your curtains flat against 
 the window, but fasten to a cornice. If ^-ou cannot af- 
 
 '■• I sometimes see farm-houses in which the walls are al- 
 most hidden with a mass of cheap prints, costing little indi- 
 vidUcUly, but enough collectively to pay for one or two really 
 handsome pictures in good frames The overdone mass of 
 cheap prints gives an idea of cheapness ; the one or two bet- 
 ter pictures give an impression of taste and refinement. 
 
 R. s. T. 
 
 16 - 
 
242 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 ford to buy this, make one; make a shelf six inches 
 wide, round the outside corners, and fasten substantially 
 to the top of the casing; tack the curtain to this. Puff 
 lace with cambric (the color to match other fancy arti- 
 cles in the room) and sew on pasteboard the proper 
 length, six inches wide. Tack the lower edge of this to 
 the curtain and shelf Behind this, on the shelf, you 
 may set a dish of tradescantia filled with water, and its 
 glossy leaves drooping down over the lace, is very pretty; 
 or a long piece of Madeira vine may be broken off, the 
 end inserted in a bottle of water, which may be hung un- 
 der the edge of the curtain, and the vine carried up and 
 across the top, and trail down the other side, thus arch- 
 ing the window. Both these plants will keep bright and 
 beautiful as long as you keep up the supply of water — 
 will throw out new roots and grow, not seeming to miss 
 the parent roots,* 
 
 Set apart one room for a library — the one at the end 
 of the wing, usually occupied as a bed-room in this style 
 of house, is convenient. You may not be able to bestow 
 much on its furnishing at first — a book-case, table, chairs, 
 and supply of stationery will do for a beginning; but 
 being set apart, it becomes a sort of altar to the educa- 
 tional advancement of the family, and each member will 
 love to bring to it offerings of books, curiosities, speci- 
 mens of natural histor}^, geology, entomology, etc., and 
 soon it will become a very treasure house, in which all 
 
 * Among the furniture of the sitting-room, in every family 
 where there is any taste for music, I should give the organ a 
 prominent place. Nothing so binds together a family, or 
 makes home so home-like, as music. When brothers', sis- 
 ters, father and mother can gather around the organ and 
 join their voices in t\ e " social joys of song," it forms a won- 
 derful home tie, and awakens in every heart a love for 
 home, K. s. T. 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 243 
 
 are equally interested, and through which a vast im- 
 provement will come to the family. 
 
 The library may have a bay-window, and being con- 
 nected with the sitting-room by double doors, can be 
 easily warmed, and thus fitted to serve the double pur- 
 pose of librarj^ and conservatory on a small scale; and 
 this, too, would realize, in many cases, the wife's dream 
 of years — a place to keep her plants where she could en- 
 joy their fragrance and bloom while winter holds revel 
 without. (Too often the wife's wishes in these little mat- 
 ters are considered unimportant, and she is doomed to 
 await her entrance into the " home not made with hands" 
 to realize her visions of beauty.)* 
 
 As we have no hall, here must be a niche somewhere, 
 either in library or sitting-room, for a hat-rack. 
 
 THE PARLOR 
 
 We deem of secodary importance compared with the 
 sitting-room ; secondary, because a family can get along 
 very nicely without a parlor, while they cannot without 
 a sitting-room. In parlor furnishings there is a greater 
 demand for money and less for ingenuit}' than elsewhere, 
 as home-made articles here seem rather out of place. 
 
 The different pieces of furniture must not war with 
 each other in point of costliness; an expensive table with 
 poor chairs is in bad taste, and other things being good, 
 a shabby carpet may spoil the effect of all. A " parlor- 
 set" is necessary. Variety is pleasing in some places, 
 but indulged too far in the parlor suggests auction sales. 
 
 Let the books and pictures be well chosen, and good 
 as the finances ef the family will warrant. Do not look 
 so much to show in these articles as to intrinsic value. 
 No matter how costly the frame, a daub will only violate 
 
 * There is no place where flowers do so well as in a room 
 adjoining one in which a constant fire is kept. K. s. T. 
 
244 SUCCKSS IN FARMING. 
 
 the cultivated taste that could enjoy an exquisite piece 
 without any frame. Harmon}-, and a quiet, unobtrusive 
 €legance is more satisfying to the refined mind than glare 
 and ostentation. 
 
 THE DINING-ROOM, 
 
 if a separate apartment, needs little more than an ex- 
 tension table and chairs, with convenient connections 
 with china closet, pantry and kitchen. If the dining- 
 room must be in connection with either sitting-room or 
 kitchen, and the latter is large, let it be there, in the 
 winter at least; and doubtless the parties most inter- 
 ested, the farmer's wives, would sa}^ let it remain there 
 still through the summer, and let the cook-stove be 
 moved to a summer kitchen. This is a mooted question, 
 and one on which farmers and their wives more gener 
 ally differ than any other. 
 
 The theory that supply follows demand — for instance, 
 man s needs demanded a thumb, and therefore a thumb 
 grew — may be true in some things, but the masculine 
 patience has never yet seemed to reach the demand for 
 moving stoves, and the A-ery terror that over-shadows 
 him wlien he receives notice that such a task is before 
 him does not indicate very rapid development in that 
 direction. 
 
 We see no way out of the dilemma except that a 
 dining-room be made a permanent fixture in the house 
 in addition to the sitting-room, else the proprietor will 
 probaljly be required to go on moving the stove out 
 every summer, until he completes his allotted three score 
 years and ten. 
 
 The converting of a sitting-room three times a day 
 into a dining-room, and as many tiihcs back to its origi- 
 nal state, implies a great deal of useless work, and labor- 
 saving in the house-work on a farm is important. But 
 
COrXTKY IIOMKS 245 
 
 ■while we would most earnestly advocate doing a way with 
 \innecessary work, do not suppose we think it of little 
 consequence where and how farmers are fed. The good 
 •or ill breeding of a family is more plainly marked at meal- 
 time than any other hour of the day, and we would by 
 310 means under-value the influence of pains taking in 
 the dining-room. We would have the table laid with 
 ■care — with clean linen, shining dishes and cutlery — have 
 the food skillfully cooked and served in different dishes, 
 5ind the different likes of the family properl}' regarded 
 that all might relish their meal. The room clean and 
 sweet and free from flies. There is no reason why a 
 farmer's dinner table should not indicate refinement and 
 ■culture in his family; certainly there is nothing in the 
 vocation that necessarily makes those following it coarse 
 and rude * 
 
 It is the improper management of some farms and 
 farm households that disgust so many persons with the 
 l)usiness. The uncouth manners, disregard of personal 
 iippearence and inattention to intellectual improvements 
 sometimes found among farmers, is accepted as natural 
 •conditions of and inseparably connected with farm life, 
 
 "Those dirty farmers'" that are such a terror to some 
 are no dread to the systematic house-keeper When the 
 great dinner bell "calls them from labor to refresh 
 Tiient," she knows that they will enter the back porch 
 (or a room done oft' in the wood-house for the purpose,) 
 ■where plenty of soft water, wash-basins, soap, towels, 
 ■combs, brush and looking glass, are all conveniently ar- 
 
 *A separate dining-room is an excellent thing when made 
 <;onit"ortiible, but on a chilly day I would rather eat in the 
 kitchen in comfort, than be invited out to a stately dining- 
 room without fire, and shiver over your meal with the impres- 
 sion that your host keeps the room cold for fear her guests 
 ■should linger too long at the table and eat too much. r. s. t. 
 
246 SUCCESS IX FARMING. 
 
 ranged. A long case — not necessarily ornamental — 
 holding slippers for eacli, and dressing-gowns or clean 
 linen ulsters hanging above. Everything necessary for 
 making them tidy is ready for their use, and instead of 
 its being considered a trouble, a man very soon regards 
 it as a luxury to putofThis soiled boots and rest his feet 
 in fresh stockings and slippers, and out of respect for 
 wife and daughters he gladly dons a garment that will 
 make him presentable at table, and feels more self-re- 
 spect for having done so. His example is "a law unto 
 his household," and his men follow it as a matter of 
 course 
 
 THE KITCHEN AND PANTRY 
 
 of the farm-house constitute a very important depart- 
 ment. By too many the kitchen is considered unim- 
 portant. An}' kind of a room with any kind of furnish- 
 ing will do for the kitchen. But the kitchen is the 
 grand laboratory of tlie whole domestic economy of the 
 farm. A man's successful farming depends more on the 
 management of his kitchen than on the acreage of his 
 wheat. Lack of system here is felt in every department 
 of the farm work. If half an hour is lost in the morn- 
 ing on account of inconvenient location of pantr}', cel- 
 lar-way and wood-shed, (or worse, poor wood,) and want 
 of proper utensils for cooking, and there are four men^ 
 that lost time is equivalent to two hours for one man. 
 For one year this makes a sum of sixtv-two and a half 
 days. Allowing $1.25 per day for board and wages, 
 which is a low average for the year, we have an amount 
 that would go fur in supplying conveniences for the 
 kitchen; then multiply this by the years that this waste 
 goes on and all will be convinced that it is better to be- 
 gin right. Not the least thing to be considered in this 
 useless waste, is the j'outh, strength and health ofthe wife. 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 
 
 247 
 
 It is bad economy to do without anything that will 
 expedite or make easier the labors of this department. 
 Be satisfied with nothing but a good stove or range with 
 reservoir, and all the modern contrivances for cooking. 
 A good washing-machine, wringer, nickle-plated smooth- 
 ing-irons and fluter are necessary for the laundry. 
 Have the wood-box so arranged that it can be filled 
 from the wood-shed, which should always be supplied 
 with good wood.* Let the well and cistern be conven- 
 iently near, and on a level with the floor if practicable. 
 The pantry should be large enough to accomodate a 
 cooking table supplied with drawers for spices, rolling- 
 pin, pie-tins, etc. Near this should be kept the flour 
 and sugar boxes, that the baking may be all prepared 
 here, away from the stove and with as few steps as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Let convenience be the ruling thought in all the ar- 
 rangements of the culinary department, and 
 
 LET rUUITY BE TEE LAW. 
 
 No amount of show and pretence in the front part oi 
 the house can conceal bad house-keeping here. Moukly 
 cupboards will send their little messengers on the air 
 to whisper the secret to visitors the moment they enter 
 the house. Sour or decaying vegetables may be out of 
 sight, but their presence is none the less certain when 
 their offensive smells are floating through every room. 
 
 The habit of boiling cabbage and turnips an:l pork, 
 and frying onions and burning the roast and a multi- 
 tude of other scent-distributing practices of the earless 
 
 "This latter is a very convenient arrangement and saves both 
 labor and dirt. The wood-shod must, of course, adjoin the 
 kitchen; a hole is cut through the wall, and the wood-box 
 built in with a portion extending into the wood-shed. A tight 
 lid over the part in the wood-shed prevents cold air from draw- 
 ing through. K. s. T. 
 
248 SUCCESS IX FAKMIXO. 
 
 house-keeper, with the doors leading- to the other rooms 
 Jill open, is perfectly incomptitible with pure air in the 
 house. These scents gather strength by age, and on 
 entering sorae dwellings you are met by a combination 
 of all in one disgusting odor. While the lady meets 
 you with a self-satisfied air perfectly surprising to you. 
 You wonder she is not throwing open the windows and 
 scattering disuifectants. She has, in fact, become so 
 inured tol)reathing this vitiated atmosphere that she is 
 wluilly unconscious of anything wrong. She does not 
 know that her curtains, her carpets — aye, the very walls 
 about her, and her own clothing, are all saturated with 
 and giving of this compound ettluviuni. 
 
 Always have the cook-room well ventilated and the 
 doors closed between that and the rest of the house.* 
 
 "While we are treating of this disagreeable subject of 
 imjjleasant odors, another presents itself more inexcusa- 
 ble, more utterly loathsome and intolerable, than all 
 other: — Personal uncleanliness. 
 
 Some say cleanliness is next to godliness. We think 
 godliness would have a better chance to work on the 
 heart of a clean man that a filthy- one; therefore, we say 
 to the philanthropist — ])uy soaj), and build i)lenty of 
 "bath-houses, and your work for the sins of men will be 
 blessed with a more abundant harvest. 
 
 The praotice of wearing the same underclothing, night 
 
 *The ori;an of smell was given to us partly that we might en- 
 joy the fi'agnincc of flowers, but largely as a i)roteetion. A 
 bad smell is always the sign of impurity, and impurity is the 
 advance guard of disease and death. TIil^ only proper smell 
 al)out home or i)ersoii is no smell at all, and we should keep 
 onr noses trained by pure associations so that they will be ever 
 ready to give Avarning of the impure. Pure air and plenty of 
 it and sunlight and cleanliness are the best disinfectants. If 
 after a day sj)ent in the pure air (jf the fields on entering the 
 house you notice a stale odor hanging to the rooms, be sure 
 there is something unclean thei'c. k. s. t. 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 249 
 
 and day, for two weeks, without giving the bodj- a single 
 ablution in the time, must result in — to use the mildest 
 term — concentrated impurity. The body continually 
 throwing off through the pores the offensive exhalations 
 of the sj'stem, at the rate of a pound a day, is loading 
 the clothing with these fetid odors; and if the^^ are 
 given no chance to escape, by change at night, the ac- 
 c'umulation must be absorbed, exhaled and reabsorbed 
 xintil clothing and person become mutual contaminators, 
 and both an offence in the nostrils of good society. 
 
 The farm home should be the best home; therefore, 
 let every country home be provided with a bath-room, 
 and eveiy child be taught, from baby-hood, that com- 
 mon decency demands personal cleanliness. 
 
 THE SLEEPING ROOMS 
 
 though last mentioned, are not less important m their 
 offices and arrangement than those preceding them. As 
 the arrangement of one will apply to all in the main, we 
 will speak more particularly of the guest chamber. If 
 €conom3' must be exercised in the furnishing, a small 
 amount of money can be made to go farther in appear- 
 ances here, than anywhere else in the home. So many 
 2)retty things are quite inexpensive, and so many con- 
 veniences can be made that cost little more than one's 
 time, that bed-rooms need never be destitute of orna- 
 mental toilet articles and foamy draperies of lace or 
 mull, which are alwaj's lovely in their purit}' if they a7-e 
 -cheap. 
 
 If there is abundant means, of course elegant bed- 
 room sets will take the place of the common articles, and 
 •curtains and lambrequins will supplant the cheap 
 <lraperies; but in either case the most essential thing in 
 furnishing a guest chamber is to provide for every i^os- 
 ^•i6Ze /jee^Z of your guest. 
 
250 SUCCESS IN 1 AKMING. 
 
 Mrs. M. C. Holbridge, of La Salle County, lUiuois, iu 
 anessaj' on the "Duties of Hostess on a Farm," says: 
 
 No matter how poor or how barren of hixury a home maybe^ 
 a woman of taste and energy will manage to provide the neces- 
 sities of a bed chamber. 8he will make a toilet table of a dry 
 goods box and an old sheet. 8he will sell rags and buy a till 
 wash-basin and an old pitcher to go with it. .She will take in 
 washing or make shirts to get means to provide a twenty cent 
 looking-glass, a comb, brush, soap and towels. 
 
 Often a guest is conducted to a room with the single 
 provision for comfort — a bed — softened, however, by the 
 soothing assurance that when they get able they are 
 going to furnish the room nicely. Feeling that the dust 
 and cinders and general moil of travel are clinging ta 
 her garments and person, she must violate her innate 
 sense of propriety by retiring unwashed; and in the 
 morninff, with every nerve tin^lino; at the outraofe, she 
 must don her " other dress," with its soft delicate laces 
 to be soiled by the process, and go down to finish her 
 toilet as best she can at the back door, in presence of 
 the family, taking turns with them in washing, comb- 
 ing, etc. We speak plainly of this matter not that we 
 love the careless ones less but that we love their rank as 
 "country people" more, and labor in all kindness to do 
 them good.* 
 
 ART IN HOUSE-KEEPING, 
 
 There is no department of labor where there is a 
 wider range for the display of artistic taste than in 
 housekeeping. Some regard house-keeping as but a 
 
 *Mrs. Aldrich speaks of the guest chamber, })ut if the boys 
 and girls of country houses are to be brought up so as to ap- 
 preciate the comforts of refined living, the same conveniences 
 should l)e in their rooms. It is a mistake made by some- 
 to imagine that home folks can get along any way. If you 
 want the " home folks " when grown up to feel at ease in the* 
 houses of otliers you need to accustom them to such living at 
 home. K. s. t. 
 
COUNTRY HOMES. 251 
 
 monotonous and continuous round of drudgery^ Such 
 never compreiiend the great possibilities of enjoyment 
 in home life. Their hearts never feel the thrill of rap- 
 ture that comes from giving pleasure to others. If the 
 linen for the ftimily is weekly prepared, the necessary 
 amount of cooking done to gratify the demands of 
 nature, the regular scrubbing performed in a vigorous 
 manner, and all the other hard work that can be con- 
 jured up finished, they think that this is all there is of 
 life. If only we could rub the scales off' such peoples 
 eyes, and get them to realize that God gives us all the 
 bright and beautiful things of creation with the blessed 
 privilege of combining them to make our own paradise! 
 
 If through all the worlds history each couple, as fast 
 as they were paired, had been placed in a garden of 
 Eden, the race would never have arrived at its present 
 state of perfection in the arts and sciences. There 
 would have been no incentive to develop the latent 
 powers of mind, and woman could never have enjoyed 
 her highest honor, that of making a home, for it is 
 reall^' and truly a creation of hers. 
 
 We enter some homes where we feel that an air of 
 elegance prevades eveiything, and wonder how people of 
 their means can afford such extravagance, and begin 
 slj'ly to examine and analyze our surroundings; and 
 very often we find that what at first sight impressed us 
 as the beauties of fairy land, are but the ingenious com- 
 binations and formations of an artistic taste aided by 
 very limited means. And often we enter houses of the 
 wealthy expecting to be blessed with the sight of rare 
 beauty and costly adornings; but, instead, the nerves 
 are kept in a constant quiver by the shocking glare and 
 contrast of colors, and the entire inhai'mony of every ob- 
 ject with its neighbor. 
 
252 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 Ever}' thing in a house — the color of the wall paper, 
 the curtains, the carpets, the arrangement of eveiy arti- 
 -cle from the books on the table to the adjustment of the 
 iurniture — conduce to please or discomfort the inmates. 
 We do not always realize how much little things have 
 to do with our happiness. 
 
 A just conception of the "eternal fitness of things" 
 gives a systematic whole that charms and pleases the 
 beholder. This may be found in the homes of the poor 
 iis well as those of the rich. It consists in the appro- 
 priating and harmonizing of the materials which are 
 strewn around every country home. 
 
 What a blessing to the toiling millions that all the 
 jbeaut}^ and happiness are not shut up in the parlors of 
 the wealthy. 
 
 The tired mother may say that she has not time to 
 study the artistic arrangement of things in reference to 
 shape, color etc. Let her set the little girls at the 
 lighter parts of work and they will very soon learn what 
 <:'olors look prettiest together, when once their minds are 
 directed to the subject. Even a dish of fiuit on the 
 table in the dining room ma}' be arranged to l)e "a thing 
 ■of beauty." A white fringed doily laid on a bright 
 spread, and the fruit dish set on this heaped with shiny 
 golden, red and green apples laid in with studied care 
 in reference to color, combined with other fruits in their 
 season, peaches, pears, and some luscious clusters of 
 grapes, make as nice an ornament as a costly basket of 
 wax fruits. But let the mind once turn to this matter 
 iind harmony will seem to come intuitively. 
 
 A small outlay in ivies adds a grace to windows and 
 arched door-ways as nothing else can. The fragrance 
 •of a heliotrope, a l)unch of sweet violets, or a box of 
 mignonette, gives to a room an ambrosial atmosphere 
 
woman's avork ox the farm. 255 
 
 and charms the senses with their sweet odors. All these 
 and a thousand other little things are but atoms con- 
 sidered apart, but it is their sion that makes up the 
 delightfully' pleasant country- home. 
 
 WOMAN'S WORK ON THE FARM. 
 
 BY A LADY FRIEXD. 
 
 There is scarcely any other occupation where the work 
 of husband and wife run so nearly on the same line as in 
 that of the farmer, and there should be that oneness of 
 purpose that gives perfect harmony. Where such a 
 state of feeling exists, each will be anxious to lighten 
 the burdens of the other. 
 
 As it is the province of the farmer to look after the de- 
 tails of his farm, so should his " help-meet" look well to 
 the ways of her household, eating not the bread of idle- 
 ness. He cultivates the ground, and from its abundant 
 fullness she is provided with the fine wheat and corn, 
 his flocks ard herds supply the meat, his well fed cow^^s 
 the milk, his garden and orchard the vegetaldes and 
 fruits. It is hers to make such use of these luxuries 
 that her table shall be furnished with well cooked food, 
 and the surplus so carefully looked after tliat nothin^y 
 shall be lost or wasted. It is quite an art to gather up 
 the remnants and present them in new form. B}- rem- 
 nants we do not of course mean the bits left upon the 
 plates. The bones from a roast, cracked and boiled, will» 
 with the addition of vegetables and flavoring, make a de- 
 licious soup. The meat that can be trimmed off" after it 
 it has done duty as a roast, maj' be hashed and heated 
 up, with gravy poured over toast, and you have a nice 
 breakfast dish. Remnants of veal or chicken used in 
 
251 SUCCESS IX FAUMING. 
 
 croquetts or salads are frequently more relished than 
 when first prepared for the table. Every housekeeper 
 should study how she can use to the best advantage all 
 the odds and ends, both of provisions and clothing. 
 The waste in some families would make a handsome liv- 
 ing for others. ' 
 
 As woman's domain is the home, her highest aim 
 should be to make it a home in the best sense of the 
 word, the place above all others that husband and chil- 
 di'en will love and cherish. She may not have the" skill 
 or the means to make it a bower of beauty, but by mak- 
 ing the best use of means at her command, she can make 
 it an abode of comfort. Her supervision should be from 
 garret to cellar; order and cleanliness should reign 
 throughout. She must see that each bed is provided 
 with comfortable clothing, and that all the rooms are 
 daily thrown open for the admission of heaven's free air 
 and sweet sunshine. The clothing of the family is an im- 
 portant consideration. Suitable changes for the seasons 
 must be provided, and they must be ready when needed. 
 The diet of the family should be most carefully studied. 
 A pleasing variety arranged for from day to daj^ and 
 such articles selected as are wholesome and best suited 
 to their varied needs. There is no one article so essen- 
 tial to the comfort of a family as good bread, and no 
 housekeeper should be satisfied until she has attained 
 the art of making it. The ability to make good butter 
 is another accomplishment that every farmer's wife 
 should possess, and in these days when so much is writ- 
 ten on the subject, and there are so many opportunities 
 for learning how it is done, there can be no excuse for 
 ignorance in this branch of woman's work. 
 
 Perhaps there might come up the much discussed 
 question, Is it woman's work to milk? In general I 
 
woman's avork ox the farm. 255 
 
 "would say no. Her sphere is the house, and here she 
 <;an find employment for all her time. 
 
 While woman should study" in every way to lighten 
 her burdens, she should try to do everything well. 
 *'Work well done is twice done" is a maxim the truth 
 of which is often verified in our own experience. A sys- 
 tematic arrangement of work, giving the most important 
 <luties the first place on the list, is a great help; and 
 there is perhaps no better way to make our burdens easy 
 to bear that to cultivate a spirit of cheerfulness. The 
 moral influence of such a spirit in the household is of 
 priceless value, and if it entered into our every day 
 duties how much that we now count monotonous drud- 
 gery might become a source of positive pleasure. 
 
 In these days it is possible in most of our farming 
 communities to hire help, and it is mistaken economy 
 for the wife to overtax her strength b}^ trying to do 
 everj'thing herself If means are wanting to pay the 
 added expense of a house-servant, let her try her inge- 
 nuity b}'" devising some wa}^ of increasing the income. 
 The husband might add one or two cows to his herd, 
 the wife enlarge her flock of poultry and give it better 
 care, or cultivate some of the small fruits and sell in the 
 neighboring markets. In this way she may take recrea- 
 tion in the open air and add to her health and good 
 spirits as well as to the contents of her purse. 
 
 Perhaps the most important part of woman's work is 
 training the children. In infancy they are her especial 
 charge; as they develop into restless childhood they 
 must be carefullj'" watched, that evil does not creep in. 
 Employment must be given, and that of a useful kind 
 is usually the most entertaining. A spirit of helpful- 
 ness should be early encouraged. For the present it 
 will doubtless seem easier for the mother to perform the 
 
256 
 
 SUCCBSS IK FARMING. 
 
 prescribed tasks, but in this slie is educating her child, 
 and the benefit to her will come perhaps after many 
 days. No matter how many servants are kept, she 
 should regard it as a religious duty to teach her daugh- 
 ters habits of industry and economy, and to train them 
 in all that pertains to good housewifery. The sons, too, 
 should be taught habits of order and a due consideration 
 for the comforts of others. In this way they will be 
 fitted for making pleasant homes of their own and saved 
 from the trials and disappointments that will come to 
 those who have not been thus fortunate in their train- 
 ing 
 
 From the mother naturally comes the moral and re- 
 fining influences, and her own words and conduct should 
 be so carefully guarded that the children shall learn 
 from her example lessons of purity that shall enoble 
 their characters, refine their manners, and fit them for 
 usefulness. "Then shall her children rise up and call 
 her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." 
 
 NUMBER OF PLANTS TO AN ACRE. 
 
 2 byl .. 
 
 .. 21,780 
 
 5 by 3 ... 
 
 . 2,904 
 
 14 by 14 .... 
 
 222 
 
 2^byl .. 
 
 .. 17,424 
 
 5 by 4 ... 
 
 . 2,178 
 
 15 by 15 .... 
 
 193 
 
 2^ by 2 .. 
 
 ,. 8,712 
 
 6 by 5 ... 
 
 . 1,741 
 
 16 by 16 .... 
 
 170 
 
 3 by2 .. 
 
 .. 7,200 
 
 6 b"yG ... 
 
 . 1,220 
 
 16.'>byl6^... 
 
 160 
 
 .S by 2^ .. 
 
 .. 6,80'8 
 
 6.1 hydh ... 
 
 . 1,031 
 
 n'byn .... 
 
 150 
 
 3 bVs .. 
 
 .. 4,840 
 
 7 by 7 ... 
 
 888 
 
 18 by 18 .... 
 
 134 
 
 4 byl .. 
 
 .. 10,890 
 
 8 by 8 .. 
 
 680 
 
 19 by 19 .... 
 
 120 
 
 4 by2 .. 
 
 .. 5,445 
 
 9 by 9 ... 
 
 537 
 
 20 by 20 .... 
 
 108 
 
 4 byS .. 
 
 .. 3,630 
 
 10 by 10 .. 
 
 436 
 
 25 by 25 .... 
 
 60 
 
 4 by4 . 
 
 .. 2,722 
 
 11 by 11 ... 
 
 360 
 
 30 by 30 .... 
 
 48 
 
 6 byl .. 
 
 .. 8,712 
 
 12 by 12 ... 
 
 302 
 
 33 by 33 .... 
 
 40 
 
 6 by 2 .. 
 
 .. 4,.S56 
 
 13 by 13 ... 
 
 257 
 
 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 i