Cbe Hiorarp of thr antoersitp of Jftortb Carolina From the Library of The Revs. •Robert "Brent is it? Everybody knows whose fault it is. Everybody knows it is the fault of the farmers rfc themselves, and nobody else, that their power is greater and their influence less than the least of all others. (v) VI INTRODUCTION. There can be no doubt that all this is changing; it slowly, none the less surely; and ever faster and faster as ground is gained. Among the agencies accomplishing this result none is greater than the agricultural press ; nay, none so great. That some of the scientific workers of the National Department of Agriculture have contributed important work to the most recent and valued advances in agricultural science need scarcely be said, for it is universally recognized. That the Grange and Farmers' Alliance have done a great work and have a great future cannot be doubted. That the Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations may be in the future, what they certainly have not been in the past, is greatly to be desired and much to be hoped for. That clubs, societies and associations — local, State and National — are exerting a powerful influence in behalf of the general advancement, is certain. The importance of the book here presented is, that it is designed to help to make our Southern farmers reading, thinking men, who shall be capable of comprehending and maintain- ing all their rights ; to enable them to practice the greatest economy of production, so that all nations may be fed and clothed more cheaply, while the gains of the producers may be at the same time so enlarged as to enable the rural population at large to cultivate the aesthetic in their work and in their homes, and to enjoy the elegance of culture, refinement, and, finally, that degree of repose which is both becoming and necessary to the evening of a successful and honorable career. This book is one of the agencies contributing to the grand result of education and co-opera- tion among farmers, and as such I earnestly commend it to my fellow-farmers. Moreover, at this day, without a knowledge of correct scientific principles on which to ground the most economical farm practice, a livelihood cannot be had from the farm. In so far as this work contributes to that result, its value will not be easily overestimated. Prolixity is nowhere to be commended ; in an introduction it is indefensible. Let us con- clude by urging once more upon the consideration of farmers : Education , Organization, Co- operation, ROBERT BEVERLY. <£&t ""\ • -'JHJ&& ""s :>* to '''"£> OR many years it has been our earnest desire to place within the reach of the farmers throughout our beautiful Southland an ideal farmer's book, one that -would be helpful and suggestive, and one that would benefit every member of the household. Some five or six years ago we began to get together the material for the preparation of such a work. It has gradually gone on, until now we offer you in this volume the fruits of our efforts, and we leave you, kind reader, to judge of the success of our efforts. Having been raised on a farm, we spent our boyhood days in following the plow and the reaper, feeding the stock, and ever} r thing else that went to make up the round of the farmer's life. We frequently look back with longing eyes to the green and golden fields that were the delight of our earlier years. While working on the farm and realizing the difficulties and disadvantages that farmers and farmers' sons had to labor under, we determined at the earliest opportunity to lay before the world, for the benefit of the rising generation, such information in a permanent form as would lighten the burdens and increase the prosperity of the farmers. Despite the pleasant recollections of the past, and in spite of the glowing words of poets, we know full well that the farmer's life is not a bed of roses ; but tho one point that we wish to impress and insist on is, that it is easily within the reach of every farmer to very materially improve his present surroundings; that ir is within his reach to make his farm and home more attractive, and instead of young men and young women being early tolled off to the cities and business centres, for love of pleasure or gain, they may find in their own homes the very highest sense of satisfaction and pleasure. One of the things that used to make us sick — yes, real sick, and in fact we have not by any means gotten over the feeling yet — was to go to a farm-house where everything was at "sixes and sevens," where the work was carried on in a slip-shod and half-hearted manner, and where it was a constant struggle to make "buckle and tongue '' meet. We know that disasters come to the best-managed places ; we know that there are many days of cloud and gloom as well as sunshine; but we do not know (and we have had an opportunity to look into a good many different kinds) of any business or work that will afford the sense of solid satisfaction that may be found in a well-regulated farmer's life. One of the old poets more than two thousand years ago longed for a small piece of land with a wood by its side, and how many sorrowing hearts and aching heads have throughout all the ages longed for these same pleasant surround- ings. Have you ever spent an hour listening to the old-time farmers telling what a grand time it was to make money " before the war," when Western grain and Western beef were things unknown, and when labor could be controlled and managed so as to produce the most profit- able results? How they dwell upon the pleasant things of the past, forgetting entirely the disadvantages of those times. The fact of the business is, there has been much more money made in this country by farming since the war than there ever was in double the period before the war. This is true, both of the South and the North. Larger and better crops have been made than ever before, and the multiplication of agricultural societies, or farmers' clubs and organizations, of various kinds, have a tendency to elevate the standard of farming and the farmer's life. For a long time our fathers moved along in the ruts that were made by their fathers, and every- thing in the shape of an agricultural paper or an agricultural book was looked upon as an inno- vation, and men who took any interest in such things were regarded as fanciful and theoreti- cal; but that time is rapidly passing away, as it is being demonstrated that the more intelli- (vii) viii PUBLISHER'S ANNOUNCEMENT. gent and better educated the farmer, the more successfully he pursues his calling. His friends and neighbors realize that by the successful manipulation of the soil he is able to reap from two to three times as much as would be made under the same conditions by others who were more careless or indifferent. Now the object of this book is to help men in preparing them- selves to be the very best farmers that the "world ever saw. We offer in this the most original, instructive and attractive book that was ever issued in this country. We have endeavored to blend the useful with the beautiful, and we think that a close examination of the Prospectus, or the book, "will convince you that we have met with marked success. The life of the average farmer is too cold and sterile. Crops, crops, rain, rain, and drought, fill up by far, to too great an extent, the sum of their existence. To culti- vate crops successfully is of course a very, very important matter, but these things should not be allowed to entirely absorb the whole of the farmer's life. By an intelligent study of the best means and methods, by seeking to plant and cultivate the most desirable and profitable crops, results may be accomplished that are truly wonderful, and at the same time leave the farmer an hour occasionally for recreation, for a change from the laborious care that seems to weigh so many down, from day to day and year to year. There is another class that this book is especially designed to benefit, and that is, THE FARMERS' WIVES. How often have we been saddened by the statement that there is a larger per cent of farmers' wives committed to the insane asylum than any other class of people. Instead of allowing their lives to become one unvarying round of making and mending, washing and cooking, milking and churning, they ought to have a little chance to get away, occasionally, from such monotonous things as are likely to encrust their lives, and lead them to a life of careless and indifferent nonentity. We say this work is especially designed to help them — to show them the advances that have beeu made in the various lines of work that occupy the attention of the thrifty farmer's wife, and, instead of wearing out their lives and rusting out their brains, they may, by a little intelligent oversight, greatly reduce the cares and responsi- bilities that rest upon them, and he able once and a while to get out and see the world beyond the horizon, which to many is simply the length and breadth of their own homestead. The aim of this work is to lift the noble calling of agriculture into a higher sphere ; it is to implant new ideas in the minds of the promoters of agriculture, and help to dispense with the narrow-minded policies and theories, and place the farmer before the world in the true and proper place which he should occupy. In the preparation of this work we have been greatly encouraged by the hope of large sales, yet that is not the highest motive we have in view in the preparation of " Profitable Farming in the Southern States." Three to four times as much matter as the book contains has been excluded from its contents, matter, too, which we got from the very best sources, and yet threw it out because we wish this book to contain only the cream. While much of it was good and useful in its way, we did not propose to cumber the pages of this grand work with anything but what might be considered the very best in its line. Large sums have in many instances been paid for a single contribution in order to round up the book and to get for it the very information that has been the most inaccessible here- tofore. In justice to ourselves we feel inclined to say aword in regard to the illustrations which have been selected and reproduced from original drawings \rith. the greatest possible care, and a hasty glance at them will at once convince the most skeptical that they are illustrations that do illustrate, and at the same time beaut ifyihe pages of the book, and add new value and interest to the excellence of the text that accompanies them. We propose to make this the standard book for the farmer, to make it the brightest and best that ever has been issued or that it will be even possible for many years to procure. Not so much attention has been paid to theories and fancies as to solid facts and useful experiments. With these thoughts and feelings we send this book forth on its mission for good, hoping and believing that it will help to bring about a new era in the agricultural interest of our country, that it will add brightness and eunshine to many a home, and that it will bring new thoughts and aspirations into many a life. In conclusion, it is our pleasant duty to acknowledge our indebtedness to all of those per- sons who have assisted in the preparation of this volume and whose names will be found elsewhere in this book. THE PUBLISHERS. CHAPTER I. — Agricultural Organizations. History of the Pendleton's Farmers Society — Berkeshire County Agricultural Society — First dawning — National Society for Agriculture — Agricultural clerkship — Protect me and let me alone — The voice of the Granger — Patrons of husbandry — The Wheelmen — Farmers' Alliance — Farmers' League — Secretary of Agriculture 17 CHAPTER IL— Agricultural Implements. Plows— Primitive Egyptian and Assyrian plows— Plows with mould board — Thomas Jefferson's plow— Hezekiah Harris's plow — Daniel Webster's plow — Electric and steam plows — Gang plows — Wheel plows — Harrows— Primitive hand — Primitive log— Harrow teeth— Rotary har- row— Spring-tooth harrow— Disk harrow — Planters — Drills — Seeders — Dibbler— Jethro Tull — E. Spooner — Checkrow planter — Primitive seeder — Modern drill — Cultivators— Primitive culti- vators — Reapers — Binders — Mowers — Grain cradles — Harvesters— Threshers— Reaper and thresher— Head cutter — Steam harvester 39 CHAPTER III.- -Classification of Soils. Difference in adaptation — Description— Composition — Exhaustion of— Mixed farming— Texture of — Physical properties and characteristics— Absorbent and retentive powers of — Light soils — Heavy soils — Sandy soils — Clay soils— Sandy loam— Clay loam SC CHAPTER IV.— Manures and their Application. 'Deposit l)y overflow — Elements of plant food — Organic elements — Inorganic elements— Proposi- tions concerning plant food — Time and method of applying manures and fertilizers — Barn-yard manure — Making manure — Compost heap — How to save manure at home — Value of liquid ma- nure — Composting — Wood ashes — Clover as a fertilizer — Pea fallow — Humus in the soil— Peter Henderson on manures— Composting home manure with commercial fertilizers — Barn-yard manure — Poultry manure — Necessity for change — Fish guano 94 CHAPTER V.— Mineral Fertilizers. Linn' — Prof. Puryear on — Limestone and Lime— Quicklime upon land — Lime in crops — Gypsum or plaster — How and when applied — Useful to prevent escape of ammonia — In stables, &c. — Marl— Clay marl— Green sand marl— Commercial fertilizers— Necessity for— Judgment in ap- plying — Salt— Application of the subject 88 CHAPTER VI. — Preparation and Cultivation of the Soil. fertility largely dependent on proper cultivation— Why we cultivate— Preparation of Soil— Porosity of soil— Cultivating wet soil — Shading the soil — Burning rubbish — Use the cultivator more — Mulching and cultivating — Views on tillage — Subsoiling — Other tillage operations— Trench plowing— Points of merit in plowing— Harrowing— Rolling the soil — How deep to cultivate — Hand hoeing — Use of steam power 106 (ix) CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII.-Drainage. Plans of drainage — Mr. Parks, the English agricultural engineer — What lands require draining — Everglades of Florida — Lake Okeechobee— Holland — Tile draining — Determining the outlet- Locating the main drains and tributaries — Depth of drains — Size and kind of tile for drainage — Rules for drainage — Stone drains — Plank or board drains— The terrace system 120 CHAPTER VIII.— What Crops to Raise. A judicious choice essential — Choice modified by demand— Principle should be regarded — Choice of crops modified by character of the soil — Relative cost in production — Rotation of crops — Theories relative to the necessity of rotation of crops — Some crops do not require rotation — Nature generally follows a course of rotation — Schemes of rotation — Diversified husbandry . . 137 CHAPTER IX— Grasses and Forage Plants. General distribution of — Natural and cultivated — Timothy or herds grass — Green meadow grass — June grass — Common spear grass — Kentucky blue grass— Blue grass or wire grass — Bermuda gras3 — Wire grass — Crab grass — Hungarian grass or Hungarian millet — Common millet — Culti- vation — Time of cutting and method of curing clover — Cultivating clover seed — Clover as a fer- tilizer — The cow or field pea — Sowing grass seed — Time of cutting and method of curing hay — Hay caps— Storage of hay — Aftermath or rowen— Cultivating grass seed — Fall grazing of mow- ing lands — Rolling mowing lands and pastures — Manuring mowing lands 152 CHAPTER X.— Cereals. Corn — Varieties of — Selection of seed — Preparation of seed — Soil for corn and its preparation — Planting — Hill and drill planting — Cultivation — Hilling or level cultivation— Wheat — Varie- ties — Preparation of soil — Fertilizing of soil — Selection of seed — Time of sowing — Quantity per acre— Sowing — After culture — Harvesting— Threshing — Diseases— Smut — Rust— Oats — Cultiva- tion — Harvesting — Diseases 177" CHAPTER XI. — Roots and Esculent Tubers and Peanuts. Potatoes — Varieties — Culture— Selecting and cutting potatoes for planting — Cultivation— Potato bug or Colorado beetle — Sweet potatoes — Varieties — James G. Tinsley on sweet potatoes — Har- vesting — Storing — Mangel wurzels — Peanuts — Varieties— Location— Soil — Cultivation— Har- vesting — Marketing — Turnips — Cultivation— Harvesting — Storing 207 CHAPTER XII.— Silos and Silage. History of Silage — Development in America — M. Auguste Goffart, Burtin, France, the inventor — Dr. Bailey on silage — Value of silage— The old and the new silo— The location of a silo— Kinds of silage— Fodder corn — Clover — Millet — Peas — Sorghum— How to plant— Tillage— When to house — Cutting and filling the silo — Keeping and feeding silage 23-t CHAPTER XIII.— Tobacco. How to grow and cure— Flues and flue curing— Selection of seed — Varieties for specific types — Varieties suited for the various types — Hybridizing— Preparation of plant beds— Mulching and covering — A standing plant bed — Present status of the various leaf types in the markets — Selec- tion of soil, &c— Fertilizers for tobacco— Planting— Cultivating— Pruning and topping— Cut worms and bud worms — Worming and suckering— Ripening— Cutting and housing— Sun cured — Curing sweet fillers with flues— To cure mahogany color— Shipping tobacco— Curing bright yellow tobacco— The new method of curing — The science of curing yellow tobacco — Ripening of tobacco— Changes induced by flue curing— Ordering— Shipping — Packing— New method of harvesting the leaves by stripping from the stalks — Snow's modern tobacco barn and stick — History of Burley tobacco— Cultivation of Burley tobacco— Cigar tobacco — Tobacco— Historical and commercial— Resume — To tobacco planters — To seedmen and dealers — Varieties recom- mended 245 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XIV — Cotton. History of the cotton plant— Cotton planting at the South— The cultivation of cotton— Cotton planting — Cotton hoeing — First working of cotton — Haling cotton— Shipping cotton — I.intless cotton — Large crops of cotton — New Varieties of cotton — Hon. F. C. Furman on intensive farming 300 CHAPTER XV.— Orchards and Truits fob THE .Southern States. Growth of fruits in Maryland, Virginia, and further south— General observations— Acclimation— The apple — Location and soil— rianting — Cultivation — Manuring and mulching — Pruning — Grafting— Grafting wax — Varieties — The pear— Soil and situation— Cultivation — Manures and management — Varieties — The peach — Propagation — Varieties — The quince — Varieties — Soils — Culture and manures — The cherry — Propagation and cultivation — The fig — The Russian apri- cot — Injurious insects — The apple-tree borer — The tent caterpillar — The codling moth — The peach-tree borer — Thecirculio -. 332 CHAPTER XVI.— Grapes and Wine Making. Yintlculturc — How to obtain best results— Food elements for the grape vine — Ashes and bones for grapes — Varieties of grape — Vine training— Grape rot remedy — Pruning the vine— Planting and manuring — Propagation — Unfermcnted wine 344 CHAPTER XVII.— Garden Culture. The farmer's garden — Melioration of garden soils — Market gardening — Peter Henderson on — The possibilities of an acre — Gardening in Virginia — Management of hot beds— Lima beans for market and seed — Economical way of raising Irish potatoes — Valuable properties of the tomato — The cultivation of tomatoes— Asparagus — A new method of watermelon cul ure — Cucumbers on trellises— Wintering cabbage — Vitality of seeds — Onion culture— Nutritive value — Can we grow onions from the seed? — Rich laud for onions— Saving farm and garden seeds — The flower garden — Floriculture and its pleasures — How to grow beans— Planting toma- toes — Celery raising — Strawberries — Another view of strawberry planting — Drought — Guard against droughts — Dew — Counteracting drought 353 CHAPTER XVIII.— Live Stock on the Farm. The agricultural horse — The stable — Simple suggestions for the management of injuries and dis- eases — Cattle on the farm — Diseases of cattle— Sheep — Swine— Mule raising — Milch cows and milking — Managing milk — Temperature for churning — Keeping milk sweet — Ration for milk — Untainted butter — Tests of dairy cows— Raising calves — Calves and young cattle— Stall feed- ing—Cattle sheds — Enclosures— Wool and sheep against tobacco in Virginia — Sheep husbandry — Remedy for sheep-killing dogs— In praise of mutton — How to make sheep raising profitable — Testimony for sheep — The raising and fattening of hogs— Scalding vat for pigs — A trough for salting meat— Pork raising at the South 397 CHAPTER XIX.— Poultry. Southern poultry raising— Eggs and chickens— Poultry notes— Facts and figures about the poultry business — Poultry for the ordinary family — Fattening fowls — Poultry house conveniences — Care of young chickens — Keeping vermin out of poultry houses — Hen and chicken rules — Let them scratch — How to clean pou'.try houses — Incubator chickens for market — Laying in winter — Care of turkeys — Young turkeys — Guineas on the farm — Breeding geese— Ducks— Duck pens and yard — Ducks as profitable as chickens — Pekin ducks — Grain for poultry — How to prevent chicken cholera . * . . 446 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX.— Practical Suggestions. Farm roads — Fences, to what extent essential — Removing fences — Rail fences — Post and rail fence- Preserving fence posts — Post and board fence — Hedges— Portable fences — Wire fences — Wastes and wants of the farm— Lack of economy in labor — Slovenly management — Doing work over- nicely— Use of poor tools— Borrowing tools — Lack of care of farm implements— Repairing tools — Insufficient help— Poor teams— Inferior stock — Inconvenience of buildings — Better knowledge of farming and less drudgery — Improved farm implements — More capital — Choice of farms — Advantages of large farms — Advantages of small farms— Model farms— Farm buildings — What necessary — Repairing and Painting — The farm house — Influence of dwelling upon character— Plans for farm houses — The barn— Location— Stables — Light in stables — Venti- lation — Floors — Box stalls, etc. — A good platform for farmers — Feeding oil-cake — Cultivate the willow — The time to cut timber — A rat-proof corn crib — When and how to sell crops — The markets — The coin weevil — Tidiness on the farm — Common sense farming — Farming as a profitable business — What constitutes good farming — Lessening the cost of production — Farmers' rights — Stand-still farmers — Progressive agriculture — The progressive farmer— Farm- work in winter — Fiain management — Our surplus lands — Prosperity approaching — Skill in farming — Pernicious weeds — Weeds and weeding 464 CHAPTER XXI. — Southern Immigration. Population Worth and South — Difference in occupation — Roman Agriculturist— Address of Hon. W. C. Rives — War between the States — Adaptability of the South to support population — Dis- satisfaction of Northern and Western farmers — Sale of land desirable — Southern minerals — Necessity for governments to control immigration 555 CHAPTER XXII. — Agricultural Education. The destructive and reconstructive period — Necessity for education in successful farming — School of agriculture opposed by college professors — Many obstacles to be overcome — Course of study — Sophomore class— Manual work undesirable — Practical demonstrations necessary — Junior year — The plant a factory — Lectures necessary — Live stock — Senior year S63 CHAPTER XXIII.— Valuable Hints. Trickery in horse dealing — Bearing reins — Burr bits — Blindness hid — Roach back — Gray hairs dyed — Pretense to cure spavin — Doses of medicine to hide defects — The whip in the stable — The i nvigorating comb — Spring halt — Heaves — Whistlers — Wavers — Farcey — Dummies — Age — Teeth — Our cooks — The farm and country school 573 CHAPTER XXIV.— The Farm and Fireside. Hot one content — Good appetite necessary — Farmer's life a hard one — Many misfortunes — Comforts of farm life — Nothing to do in town — Monotony of town life — Liberty of children — Mothers' cares — Country best place for children— Modern man of Uz— The Virginia farmer 587 ..cr^^fe Sunday Afternoon ox the Farm. (Frond* piece.) Head Piece, PAG Tail Piece, The Robber, " After Your Corn, Sir, " Family Cares, Happy Days, I've Found An Egg, One of the Perilsof City Life, Primitive Egyptian P.ow. No. 1, Primitive Egyptian Plow. No. 2, Primitive Egyptian Plow. No. 3, Assyrian Plow, ... U. S. Patent, A. D. 1797, Side Hill, A. D , 1831, Rolling Land Slide, 1843, Jointer, 1S84, Wheel Plow, 1SS4, Gang Plow, 1884, Steam Plow, 18S4, . • • ■ ,. Primitive Hand-Harrow, . Primitive Log, Types of Harrow Teeth, Rotary Harrow, 1S59, Spring Tooth Harrow, 18G9, Crushing Harrow, Primitive Hand Planting, The Disk Harrow, ...-■'■ Dibbler, No. 1, Dibbler, No. 2, Modern Hand Planter, U. S. Patent Planter, A. D. 1825 U. S. Patent Hand Planter, 185fi, U. S. Patent Foot Planter, 1856 U. S. Patent Planter, 1876, Check Row Planter, 1SS3, Primitive Egyptian Seeder, Assyrian Seeder, B. C. 504, Italian Seeder, A. D. 1605, Grain Drill, 1S74, Grain Drill, 1SS4, Primitive Crotched Stick Cultivator, Primitive Roman Cultivator, Primitive Egyptian Cultivator, . . .• Primitive English Cultivator, Hilling Cultivator, 1830, e 4 4 IS 20 22 24 27 28 29 33 30 30 31 31 32 32 32 33 33 34 35 35 36 36 36 37 37 37 37 38 38 3S 39 39 39 40 40 40 41 41 42 42 42 42 43 (xiii) Straddle Row Cultivator, pack 43 Primitive Hand Scythe 44 English Mower, A. D., 1790, 44 Slotted Guard Finger and Mower, A. D. 1S33, . 44 Spokeless Wheel Mower, A. D. 1S57, 45 Front Cut Two-Wheeled Mower, A. D. 1858, . . 45 Front Cut One-Wheeled Mower, 1858, 45 Front Center Cut Mower, 1S03, 46 Front Cut Two-Wheeled Mower, 1880, 46 Egyptian Sickle, 46 Front Cut Two-Wheeled Mower, 1884, 46 Colonial Sickle, 46 Grain Cradle, 46 Switch Reel Rake, 1804, 47 Harvester Hand Rake, 1S55, 47 Harvester Self Rake, 1856, 47 Reaper and Thresher, A. D. 1836 48 Old Time Horse Threshing, 49 U. S. Patent Steam Thresher, 1883 49 Head Cutter ar.d Side Deliverer, 50 Steam Harvester, 51 Hand Flail, ...-■• 51 Clearing Off the Wood Lot 52 Happy Lambs, 64 The Wrong and the Right Way to Farm, ... 56 See that Mouse, 58 Rural Happiness, 60 Cattle Ranch, 65 Solid Comfort, 68 Compost Heap, 72 Dinner is Ready, 79 Young Farmers, 85 Menhaden Fisherman, 87 Primitive Cooking, 89 Even-Tide, 91 Hot-Water Reservoir and Warming Oven, 1875, 92 Three Friends on the Farm, 94 Portable Range, A. D. 1875, 96 Happy Boyhood, 97 Gasoline Vapor Stove, A. D. 1878, 99 After the Crops are Gathered 101 Gas Cooking Stove, A. D. 18S0, 103 Disk Cultivator, 1880, 106 Good Morning, 107 Spring Cultivator, 1884 110 Missed Them, Ill Plowing, 113 XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. Eiding Cultivator, 1884 page 116 Primitive Hand Broom, 118 TJ. S. Patent Hand Broom, A. D., 1852, . . .US IT. S. Patent Sweeper, A. D. 1852, 118 U. B. Patent Hand Broom, A. D. 1852, .... 119 Drainage, 120 Leveling Instruments, 121 Round Tiles, Collar, Joints, &c., 123 Ain't They Sweet? 125 Nothing in Town to Compare with It, 127 Better Quit and Move to Town, 129 No Good for a Farmer, 131 Tea on the Lawn, 133 Tail Piece, 136 Consider Well, 140 Enemy of the Farm Yard, 144 Have Some Dinner, Sir, 148 Sweetheart and Wife, 151 Flopover, 153 Spring Tooth Pake, 153 Dumping Sulky Rake, 154 Draft Dumping Rake, A. D. 1S50, 155 Self-Dumping Rake, A. D. 1852 156 Draft Dumping Rake, A. D., 1866, 156 Spring Tooth Dumping Rake, A. D. 1856, ... 157 Spring Tooth Dumping Rake, A. D. 1856, ... 157 Draft Dumping Rake, A. D. 1859, 15S Drag Dumping Rake, A. D. 1866, 159 Primitive Hand Fork, 160 Harpoon Horse Fork, A. D. 1867 161 Tilting Horse Fork, A. D. 1870, 101 Crapple Horse Fork, A. D. 1880, 102 Harpoon Horse Fork, A. D. 1881, 103 Hand Fork, A. D. 1882, 164 Harpoon Horse Fork, A. D. 1884, 165 Hand Tedder, 166 Patent Tedder, 1861, , 167 Patent Tedder, A. D., 1862, 16S Rake and Tedder, A. D. 1865, 169 Rake and Tedder, A. D. 1SC7, 170 Rake and Tedder, A. D. 1870, 171 Patent Tedder, A. D. 1883, 173 Hay Elevator and Carrier, 174 Com Stalk, 178 Ear of Corn, 178 Primitive Winnowing, Egypt, 1500 B. C 179 Primitive Winnowing, Rome, B. C. 100, .... 179 English Fanning Mill, A. D. 1775, 180 U. S. Patent Fanning Mill, A. D. 1829, .... 181 U. S. Patent Fanning Mill, A. D. 1879, .... 182 Cockle Machine, A. D. 1884 183 A Good Homc-Made Marker, 184 Primitive Corn Husker, 1S6 Primitive Hominy Mortar, 187 Primitive Corn Sheller, 189 Device for Shocking Corn. Fig. 1, 191 Device for Shocking Corn. Fig. 2 191 U. S. Patent Corn Husker, A. D. 1837, . . PAGE 192 Permanent Corn Crib, 193 Roots of Corn Plant, 195 U. 8. Patent Corn Husker, A. D. 1883, 196 A Fine Harvest 197 Sowing Broadcast and Drill 199 So Tired, 201 Ruth, the Gleaner 203 Tail Piece, 206 Potato Planter, 212 The Son in the City, the Father on the Farm, . 214 Potato Digger, 217 After Work is Over, 219 The Turnip, .222 The Ruta Bagas, 223 The Mangel-wurzel, 2-0 The District School-House, 230 Tail Piece, 233 The Silo of M. Augusta Goffart, 235 The Ensilage Cutter, 241 A Filled Silo being Emptied by Vertical Slicing, 243 Major R. L. Ragland, 214 Flue Curing, 247 Stove for Flues, 248 Fig. No. 1, 251 No. 2, 251 No. 3, 251 No. 4 251 No. 5 252 No. 6, . 252 No. 7, 252 No. 8, 252 Sowing Plant Bed, 254 Canvas for a Plant Bed, 255 Hilling, 263 Dropping the Plants, 204 Bennis Tobacco Transplanter, 265 Hilling and Topping, 266 Worming and Suckering, 268 Cutting and Sticking, 269 Housing, 271 Common Sense Barn, 274 Stripping and Tieing 276 Packing and Prizing 277 Ready for Harvesting, 278 Snow's Modern Tobacco Farm, 279 Snow's Patent Stick, 2S0 Snow's Tobacco Basket, 281 Housing in Snow's New Tobacco Barn, .... 282 Rear View of Snow's Barn 283 The First Smoke, 286 Down in the Meadow, 289 At the Club, ... 292 Curing Shed, 294 A Model Tobacco Barn, 295 My First Pipe, 298 Using the Teacher's Pipe, 801 Fig Fig. Fig Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. ILLUSTRATIONS. xv Tobacco Plant PAGE 304 Figuring up the Profits, 305 Cotton Planter, A. D. 1870, . 307 Cotton Planter, A. I). 1883, 30S Cotton Planting, 309 Cotton Hoeing, 310 Baling Cotton 312 Cotton Shipping, 313 Cottofa Gathering, 314 An Aute-Bellurn Planter, 317 Hindoo Foot Roller, 320 Hindoo Churka Gin, 321 Chinese Cotton Cleaner, 323 Hand Pulling 324 Baw Gin, A. D. 1794, 326 Roller Gin, A. D. 1881, 327 Cotton Whipper, A. D. 1SS2, 330 The Home of the Farmer of To-Day, 331 The Right Way, 333 Springtime in the New Orchard, 334 The Wrong Way, 335 Cuttings, 335 Whip Tongue Grafting, 336 Cleft Graft, , . . . 336 Saddle Graft, 337 Budding Illustrated, 339 Young Shoot, 339 Preserving Fruit with Mama, 340 The Cultivated Blackberry, 342 Propagation by Layering, 34G What a Treat, 347 Treating the Children to Grapes, 350 Tail Piece, 352 The Farmer's Vacation, 355 No Love Like a Mother's, 356 Happy Young Ones, 360 English Sparrows 362 Hot Beds Showing Method of Ventilation. . . 365 Forms of Beans, 3C6 Shelling Beans for Dinner, 367 Weighing the Baby, 370 Various Forms of Onions 371 At the Shoemaker's, 373 Preparing for Grand Sport, 375 Here Comes the Watermelon, 377 Beautiful Roses, 379 The Flower Girl, 380 Mother's Recreation, 382 Hiding from Mother, 384 The Orphans, 386 The Young Artist, 388 Evening Walk, 390 In the City Garret, 392 Old Way of Salting Stock, 397 Patent Salt Feeder, 398 The Racer, 399 The Trotter, 400 The Draft Horse page 401 The Roadster, 402 The Old Style of ((rooming, 403 Patent Grooming, 403 Devon Bull, 404 Short Horn Bull> 405 Holstein Bull, 406 The Ayrshire Cow, 407 The Jersey Cow 408 Polled Angus Cow, 409 The Southdown, 411 TheCotswold 411 The Merino, 411 The Berkshire, 412 The Chester White, 413 The Poland China, 414 A Friend in Need, 417 Patent Vacuum Milker, A. D. 1868, 418 U. S. Patent Vacuum Milker, A. D. 1S83, . . . 419 Primitive Scythian Churn, 420 Primitive Grecian Churn, 421 A Fashionable Drink for City People, 422 Vibrating Churn, A. D 1808, 424 Dutch Mode of Churning 424 Working Body Churn, A. D. 1872 425 U. S. Patent Rotary Churn, 425 Modern Barn, . 426 Nothing Like This at the South, 428 Curiosity, 430 Look Out, Sir, 432 Dangerous Neighbors for Sheep 435 In Distress, 436 Heed the Advice of the Wise, 438 Lost, ...■•• 440 Primitive Scalding 441 Catching and Suspending, A. D. 1881, ...... 442 U. S. Patent Scalding, A. D. 1882, ' 443 Happy Home, 444 "Shall We Raise Him or Not?" 445 Poultry 446 The Plymouth Rock 447 Brown Leghorns, 447 White Leghorns, 447 The Game, 448 Light Bramah, 448 The Farmer Feedeth Them All, 450 Houses and Lots for Poultry 452 The First Brood 453 Feeding the Doves, 454 Taking Liberties, 456 Looking for the Hawk, 45S American Turkey, 459 "Ain't They Pretty?" 461 The Gobbler and the Lady from the House, . . 463 "I Love Grandma," 464 Tail Piece, 465 Primitive Leveler for Roads, 466 XVI ILLUSTRATIONS. Carrying Scraper page 467 Sulky Scraper, A. D. 1831, 467 Wheel Scraper, A. D. 1S30, 4C8 Dry Scraper, A. D. 1850, 468 Self-Loading Cart, A. D. 1S50, 469 Farm Fences. Fig. No. 1, 469 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 2, 469 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 3 469 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 4, 469 Self-Loading Cart, A. D. IS67 470 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 5, 470 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 6, 470 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 7, 470 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 8, 470 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 9, 471 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 10 471 Farm Fence. Fig. No, 11, 471 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 12, \ . 471 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 13, 471 Farm Fence. Fig. No. 14, 471 Revolving Scraper, A. D. 187S 472 After a Long Chase, 473 Wire Fences with Tree Posts, 475 Self-Loading Cart, A. D. 1881, 476 Two Kinds of Teachers and Their Schools, . . 478 Why Gates Sag, 479 A Good Farm Gate, 480 Various Forms of Gates, 4S2 The Sportsman and His Son, 4S3 Preparing a Good Dinner, . 485 At the Blacksmith's, 487 Road Builder, A. D. 18S3, 488 Wheel Scraper, A. D. 1S84, 489 The Evening Drink, 490 A Faithful Friend, 491 Primitive Log Bridge, 492 Singing Lessons at Home, 494 Lattice Bridge, 495 A Gallant Escort, 496 A Little Mischief, 498 A Watchful Nurse, 500 Conquered, . . i 501 Aboriginal Dwelling, 502 First Step Towards Comfort 503 Emigrant Cabin, 504 Captive Liberated, 505 Modern Villa, 506 Afraid of Calves, 508 Giving the Young Ones a Show, 509 " Keep Him Away ! Keep Him Away I" . . . 510 Poor Kitty, 511 Having Lots of Fun 512 His Future Master, 513 Give Us Good Roads, 515 Recreation for City People, 516 "O, Mister, Open "the Gate, will Yer?" . ... 518 Embryo Seamen, PAGE 520 Recreation for Country Folks. 521 "Won't You Give Him a Piece?" 523 Distressed, 525 Well Trained, 527 Careful Builder, 529 Farmer's Daughter, 631 Out in the Storm 533 Which Shall I Keep, 535 Lessons in Music, 536 Educated Bears, 537 So Near and Yet So Far, 542 Words of Wisdom, 547 These for a Cent, 531 Ho ! for America ! 556 The Old Folks Left Behind, 558 Decides to Go South, 559 A Satisfied Emigrant (10 years after moving), . 560 There Was where I Was Born, 562 Colonial Washing Machine, 5C3 Hand Washing, . 564 Boiler Washer, A. D. 1874, 564 Oscillating Rubber, A. D. 1882, 565 Vertical Rubber, A. D. 1SS3, 565 Hand Wringer, .566 U. S. Patent Wringer, A. D. 1S47, 566 Adjustable Roller, A. D. 1855, 567 Roller Wringer, A. D, 1862, 567 Adjustable Roller, A. D. 1872, 568 Adjustable Roller, A. D. 1872 56S Roller, A. D. 1S77, 569 Flat Irons, 569 Sadiron, 570 Smoothing Iron, A. D. 1873, 570 Ironing Machine, A. D. 1S7S, 571 Ironing Machine, A. D. 1S79, 571 Ironing Machine, A. D. 1SS1, 571 Tail Piece, 572 " Father, I Am Tired of Farming ! " 574 Our Pet, 576 Asleep, 577 Too Much for Grandpa, 579 Teacher and Scholar , 581 The Old Mare 587 Everybody Dissatisfied, According to Horace, . 5SS Yellow Jackets' Nest, 590 Mule with the Staggers, 592 Paddling in the Branch, 593 " Now, Throw a Rock ! " 594 Stumped Toes, .595 Possum Hunt, 596 "Now, Just Look at Them 1" 598 Colt to Break, 600 Tail Piece 601 Women and Calf, 602 Profitable par/ryr^ 117 tt?e Souttyen? States. CHAPTER I. &.gricutttti?al (Oronnixntions. BY COLONEL THOMAS WHITEHEAD, COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE ~ OF VIRGINIA. jAN EARLY learned the power of organization and combined effort. We read that the original language of all people was con- founded to break up an organization for a great enterprise. We have historic evidence of secret organizations as well as public societies for the advancement of trades, arts, and occupations. From Europe many of these came with the colonists of the various States, and established the nucleus of those now flour- ishing in all the trades unions of the various cities. Organiza- tions among the agricultural population of the United States are of modern date, and secret agricultural orders of still later date, starting with the Grangers about 1869-70. The first Agricultural Society was organized at Philadelphia — the date is not known. In 1815, the "Pendleton Farmers' Society" was formed in Pendleton, South Carolina, with James C. Griffin as president. General Thomas Pinckney was an honorary mem- ber, and Thomas Pinckney, Jr., was a resident member. Among the honorary members were John C. Calhoun, General Daniel Huger, Hon. Will. Lowndes, and many other distinguished names. The resident active members were many of the most prominent men of that day. On June 6, 1818, the South Carolina Agricul- tural Society organized, with General William B. Davie, president; Colonel Frank K. Huger, Colonel John Taylor, Colonel John I. Chappell, and Colonel Wade Hampton, vice-presidents. Without doubt this was the beginning of Southern agricultural organizations. Fairs, which are closely connected with agricultural organizations, bringing together the agriculturalists to talk of their hopes and fears, and suggest relief from burdens and protection against imposition, furnish an attractive place for con- sultation and discussion. Elkanah Watson, of Massachusetts, is credited with the inauguration of the first agricultural fair for a county in this country, in 1810; and from this move the Berkshire County Agricultural Societ} 7 (a fair) was chartered by the State of Massachusetts in 1811. From the old agricultural journals we a (17) AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 19 learn that from 1819 to 1822 there was a boom in agricultural societies in Virginia, and a writer in the "Fanners' Register," in 1833, says "they 'all ran the same course," and in "a few years ceased to bo heard of." He expresses the opinion that hut one (at Fredericksburg) is in existence at the time ho writes. In 1834 a letter in the same journal argues the necessity of legislative action for the benefit and protection of agriculture, and urging united action on the part of agricultu- rists to demand of their law-makers such legislation and such aid as was being accorded to "education and internal improvements." So we find in all the old agricultural literature the same complaints, in different forms, of a disregard of the rights and privileges of the cultivators of the soil by the law-makers of the Federal and State governments. Continual allusions to favors, advantages, and privileges accorded to other interests and industries, and the general legislative FIRST DAWNING. neglect of agriculture. There seemed to be dawning upon many of the agricul- tural writers of that day in the different States (and they were able men — many of them giants in the forum) that the organizations they had formed, their State and county societies, and from which they had hoped to attain all needful aid and necessary protection, were inoperative and defective; that they lacked some elements to make them continuous and some to give them direct influence. Out of this state of affairs doubtless grew the State Boards of Agriculture and State departments. There was a necessity felt by the agriculturalists for putting them in closer connection with their State governments, and especially with their legisla- tures. This subject was agitated as early as 1830 in some of the States. There was not a well-defined plan of what they wanted, nor a direct demand on the legislatures until long afterwards, and the success of the farmers in their demand for recognition occurred at different times in the different States, "which accounts for the very different styles of State boards and the diversity of their officials and their work. Up to 1841 all the States had been working on the same line,_ and were increasing the county, district, and State agricultural societies and fairs, and in that feeble shape mobilized the agricultural army of the United States, but it was badly armed and poorly provisioned. On December 15, 1841, in the Capitol at Washington, was held a meeting for the purpose of organizing a grand National Society of Agriculture. Such is the record of the meeting made by the editor of "The Southern Planter," of Richmond, Va. Its officers were: Hon. James M. Garnett, of Virginia, president; John S. Skinner, corresponding secretary; John F. Callan, recording secretary; Edward Dyer, treasurer. NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR AGRICULTURE. The vice-presidents were one selected from each State and Territory, and the board of control elected were Levi Woodbury, Elisha Whittlesey, Alexander Hunter, John A. Smith, and W. I. Stone, and ex-officio the vice-presidents of Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Edmund Ruffin was chosen vice-president for Virginia. They adopted a constitution in in advance of the ideas common at that day. Certain it is that this was the cul- mination of the voluntary organization movement to be supported by private funds. This movement was discussed, opposed, and sometimes denounced. It (20) After your Corn, Sir. AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 21 was accused of being a political interest, etc. Nevertheless, agriculture was coming through the crysalis state, for shortly after this the. farmers of Virginia having secured a Board of Agriculture without appropriations from tho legisla- ture, afterwards compelled it to grant an appropriation to pay the expenses of the board, and immediately after the meeting in Washington city they went to work in Virginia. There was a general movement all over tho country. The North was in advance of the South; still the South Atlantic States were taking hold of the movement. A Farmers' Assembly had been organized; which meet- ing, like a convention of the people, was asserting the rights of the farmers in the old colonial form of petition to the law-makers. During this period we find in the agricultural journals of tho North, and of Maryland and Virginia, a discus- sion of the value and necessity of agricultural departments and boards, created by the legislatures, and sustained by appropriations, and often a criticism of the Federal provision for agriculture. The "Agricultural Clerkship," under the Com- AGRICUXTURAL CLERKSHIP missioner of Patents, was the subject of ridicule by many agricultural writers North and South. Professor Mapes' speech, published in the " Working Farmer," a Northern journal, brought forth a reply denouncing this sentence of Professor Mapes: "We are the only nation Avhose government is without a department devoted to agriculture. The farmers have a right to and should claim the appoint- ment of a Secretary of Agriculture, bearing equal rank with the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, &c, and who should be a Cabinet officer, and whose department should be so organized as to render every new truth discovered in agriculture the common property of all. We should no longer be put off with a clerk subordinate to a Bureau officer, and located in an obscure corner of the Patent office." This was in 1857, and we see that agriculture was slowly advan- cing; and now, thirty years after that speech — with a great sectional Avar begun and ended, the sections at peace, earth-works plowed down and obliterated — the " obscure corner of the Patent office" no longer holds the " Clerk of Agriculture." Professor Mapes was a prophet; the demand was in due time made by the farmers, and Ave have a " Secretary of Agriculture" bearing even rank with the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury," &c. The critic of Professor Mapes (L. B. Mercer, Esq.,) proclaimed the unconstitutionality of the Avhole agricultural move. The prayer that Mr. Mercer uses in concluding his article shoAvs that there Avas a wide-spread idea among the farmers that the government Avas not protecting them and their industry; that the Secretary of the Treasury looked to and protected capital and finance, manufactures and mines ; that the Secretaries of War and of the Navy protected the soldiers and sailors, but that agriculture (composing six- tenths of the voters and tax-payers of the countiw) had no friend at the Cabinet court to speak directly in its interest when questions of taxation, revenue, tariff, finance, and currency came up for discussion and settlement; and, therefore, the farmers said: " Give us a Secretary." Mr. Mercer's prayer was, to " Protect me PROTECT ME AND LET ME ALONE. and let me alone." That Avas an admirable platform for the farmer; but that prayer had been so long disregarded in the construction of tariffs and the regula- 6 gi AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 23 tion of the currency, that agricultural organizations had been forming, and formed for years, to secure the " protection" — not "expecting to he let alone." Now we have also Boards of Agriculture and a Commissioner of Agriculture in nearly every State and Territory, but it has taken years of continuous organization to secure this position. There was a terrible interregnum of about five years. Southern agriculture was without organization — the sound of the drum and the roar of the cannon had hushed the voice of the orators of the societies and tho fairs; the improvement of land was forgotten, compost heaps had given place to nitre beds, and the exhausting production of corn, oats, wheat, rye, hay, and sorghum, year after year on the same fields, and the reduction of stock, chiefly of horses and teams, made the agriculture of the South during that period simply a process which ground out of the earth all its fertilizing elements, and left it when peace came as exhausted as its owners. In a short time there was an effort all over the South to gather itself together agriculturally, so to speak. Attempts were made to revive the old societies and the State fairs and county organizations, but many of the grand old farmers were gone, and more were broken-hearted and poor, without money, labor, teams or stock, left only broad acres fast covering them- selves in a mourning garb of broom-sedge and old-field pines. Immigrants were coming in from the Northern States and foreign countries, bringing some capital and introducing their systems of agriculture, and urging agricultural organiza- tion. It was seen that however poor or unsalable the land, it still bore the brunt of taxation and its cultivation, the burden of aiding, protecting, and insuring manufactures and transportation, and that even banking got its advantages at the cost of the consumer of dutiable goods, while the tobacco States bore a double tax, accompanied with a restriction on the marketing of their main product. This state of affairs started the farmers again on the outlook for protection and co= THE VOICE OF THE GRANGER. operation by organization. The voice of the " Granger" was heard in the land, and about 1870 the Patrons of Husbandry invaded the Southern States. Some quotations from an editorial in the " Southern Planter," of July, 1874. will give a pretty fair view of how the new organization was viewed in the South by those who sympathized with the farmers, but were not identified with the order of Patrons of Husbandry. The editor says, " The rapid progress which the society of Patrons of Husbandry is making in Virginia, is indicative of a feeling among our farmers that a change of some kind is necessary. We do not belong to that class of over-sanguine individuals Avho are always expecting impossibilities of every new thing; but we are confident that the Grangers are going to work great and permanent good in this State. Our farmers being brought together in inti- mate personal relations, will be of great mutual benefit to each other, imparting and receiving information and inspiring a spirit of emulation which can be pro- ductive of good only. We do not consider this movement a war upon other trades and professions. Whatever antagonism may exhibit itself must grow out of the legitimate protection it seeks to give to the interests of the producing classes. We do not wish to deprive any one of the legitimate profits of trade, but when we see nearly one-fourth of a crop absorbed by commission, storage, insurance, and such like charges we are very apt to think there is something beyond legitimate profits 24 PROFITABLE FARMING. someAvhere. We see frequent hints that this is a political movement, which is usually persistently denied by those connected with the order. Now it appears to us that while the objects are not truly political, the results must be so. We need great reforms which can only be effected through legislatures, and whatever a majority of the people desire can be so accomplished. Upon the contrary, how- ever, this order does not proscribe any class, but simply leaves the individual members to choose between candidates (and they will give preference to those) whose principles and views coincide with their own." So full an extract from this article is given, because it is from an influential agricultural journal of long standing and great influence, and because with little alteration, it voices the sentiments of the farmers and planters of the South to-day as fully and truly as it did then Happy Days. At a later day the same author wrote, " We think that the social brotherhood of the Grange will do away with the last particle of prejudice, and enable Northern and Southern men and women to mingle and fraternize freely, without doing vio- lence to, or stirring up afresh those unkind feelings that ought to have been buried long ago. If the Grange accomplishes this, if it bridges the gulf that for years prevented free and unrestrained social intercourse between the people of both sec- tions, it will have accomplished that which will entitle its originators to the thanks' of every true lover of the country in either section." The order of Patrons of AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 25 Husbandry has done a great •work, and to some extent it is scattered over the whole country. It still has a national organization and some State organizations, and while it has lost the political influence it at first had in the State and Federal legislatures, still its social influence and Avork did great good — its organizations made a direct impress on the agriculture of the country, and was indirectly the means of relieving agriculture of many burdens. To it more than to all other influ- ences is due the success accomplished by the war against the adulterations of the products of agriculture by fraudulent manufacturers. This war has been carried on by the Grangers, mainly into all the legislatures and into Congress, and laws have been enacted in the interest of farmers, giving them the assurance that their pro- ducts shall not be forced into unfair competition with fraudulent imitations. This was the first secret agricultural organization or society. It had its forms and ceremonies, constitution and by-laws; its regularly elected officers ; its stated meetings; its lectures and business officers. To some extent it appears to have failed to give the farmers of the country, but particularly of the South, all they wanted. Politically the order exerted more influence in elections in Congress than in the various legislatures. The evidence of this is that shortly after the revival of the Granges, and the organization of the "Wheel Men" in the West, and of the Alliances in the South, the Secretary of Agriculture and appropriation to the State experiment stations Avere secured. Doubtless growing out of the history of the Patrons of Husbandry, their success in many things, the acceptability of their secret order and ritual, their effect in the elections in the West and North, as well as their failure to secure many matters of relief .regarded attainable by close organization, produced the other secret agricultural societies. The exact and minute history of the various secret organizations before the apjDearance of the greatest and most powerful agricultural organization ever known, "The Farmers' Alliance," is not correctly known. The organization known as "The Wheel" was very strong in Tennessee, and existed in the South- Avest. The Farmers' Alliance started in Texas, and its groAvth in the South has been so rapid and its membership composed of such a class that it has not only created an excitement hitherto unknoAvn in southern agricultural circles, but the movement has put neAv life and vigor in the Granges, and that order has started to conquer new fields and gain neAV victories. The press of the country exhibits facts from eA'ery section, shoAving that in many places the Grangers are growing as fast as the Alliances, and that there is a disposition in the Eastern and Western States to consolidate the strength and efforts of these peculiar organizations into one great national agricultural union, called the Farmers' League, Avhose influence shall be industrial, financial, and political. The NeAV York "Press" gives this vieAV of the moA^e: "The compact union of the farmers of the country makes it certain that they ha\ T e the indepen- dence, tenacity of purpose and integrity to stand together. We shall watch the 'Farmers' League' Avith the interest that it challenges, as the latest, greatest, and possibly the most formidable force in American politics." The following is the prospectus of the Farmers' League: farmers' league. "The idea of leaguing together all agricultural organizations, so that under the name of the Farmers' League the farmers can co-operate politically without 26 PROFITABLE FARMING. interfering with existing orders meets with great favor. Full particulars of the plan of work will be furnished free to all who apply (with stamp) to the national secretary, Herbert Mysick, Springfield, Mass. Any farmer may become a life member on the payment of fifty cents ; five or more may form a town league ; five or more towns a county league, and three or more counties a State league." Such is the present state of agricultural organizations in the country. Let us sum up Avhat they have accomplished and what are their future prospects. This is the era of aggregation of means, organization of forces, and combination of methods. Money as capital; employees as labor; power as corporations; science as laboratories, and intellect as boards and directories, are producing tenfold the results of individual or isolated use of these means in former years. The time has come when loss or financial ruin awaits the farmer or planter who does not use all the means, all the skill, all the economy, all the scientific and practical system required by manufacturers, bankers, and merchants. The necessity for this has been fully disclosed by the concerted action of these organizations, and the best means of accomplishing by increased information and practical experi- mentation the best results has in many sections been put in operation. In those States which have well organized boards of agriculture, there has been an improve- ment in the lands, stock, and farming implements, and farmers' institutes opera- ting under State boards have informed, instructed and encouraged the agriculturist, equaling the highest expectations of their advocates. These State organizations, boards, commissioners, farmers' institutes, agri- cultural schools, experiment stations State and Federal, departments of chemistry, pomology, etomology, and geology are the result of continued agricultural agitation through the organizations of farmers. The success of their agitations in securing a Secretary of Agriculture can hardly at present be appreciated. Beyond doubt it will prove the most valuable acquisition to the efforts of the farmers for equal rights, protection and aid. At present, and for some years, it will be hampered by party politics, and the influence and power of the department may not be seen and felt in their proper force for some time. But a representative at the meeting of the Cabinet, in full sympathy Avith agriculture, acquainted with all its needs, understanding its past oppressions, feeling its burdens, will understand how to prevent -the encroachment of capital, manufactures and trade, in their applica- tions for legislation through the Secretary representing their interest. It can readily be seen how different might have been the various tariff, revenue, finance, commerce and navigation bills, if an able representative of agriculture had been at the Cabinet meetings at which they were discussed, as Avell as how influential and potent would be the report of a Cabinet officer on the Congress and the coun- try, setting forth the rights and privileges of agriculture. It must be apparent to the most casual observer and the most careless reader that the agriculturists of the whole country have awakened to the fact that trade, manufactures, and finance have been fostered, protected, and advantaged by legislators, and that the same might have been true of agriculture had it from the foundation of the government been conceded its equal place in the government, and the same direct recognition in Federal and State legislation. The continued agitation by agricultural associa- tions has discovered this, and the continued organization of farmers and land owners has accomplished something, and will secure the rest in the end. This is an agitation, a movement, a revelation, if you please, that will not down; that (27) "I've Found an Egg." 28 PROFITABLE FARMING. will not be quieted short of equal rights, equal privileges — the greatest good to the greatest number — equal benefits for equal burdens. There has been for nearly a century an agricultural cloud, no larger than a man's hand, rising in this coun- try, and it has grown, rising and falling, now sighing like a zephyr, then howling like a storm, and now it has filled the land v/ith granges, alliances, clubs, and associations, numbering millions of the bone and sinew, wealth and influence of the country, apparently about to crystalize into a league that will reach every primary, every polling place, every legislative body. How, does not fully appear, but wise men, statesmen and patriots, will see the wisdom as well as the necessity of giving this great industry, this basis of all industries, this foundation of all the wealth and power of the country, full recognition, its proper place in govern- ment, and its full share in the benefits of legislation by appropriations from the taxes it contributes to the treasuries, State and Federal. , . ( V ./ . i ,'.-V'.i V ; ., . |: ■ ,; ', 'i ';' ,:'[,;; ' ; - ,^; f :: ,^1(1,;', ' , ^[h; ■ ^ ^ji il'i^y ; ; \j]W\ .,,■',„ ' [l( ,1'J 'CjlM^-^-^i'l One of the Perils of City Life. The agriculture of this great country covers and includes every product neces- sary for the food and clothing of man. In a few years it will be able to clothe the world with its products. Let our statesmen, our politicians, heed the counsel of the old men to Rehoboam, King of Judah, when the people said to him, "Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter." CHAPTER II. Agricultural 3mp(cment$« BY ASIIT0N STARKE, TRESIDENT VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL SOCIETY. VOLUME of no mean size could easily be filled with a history of that most important of all the farming tools — the plow. Many theories and notions have been advanced as to its beginning and original structure. Some say that tillage or culture of the soil is supposed to have been first practiced in imitation of the effects produced by the sand and mud left by the inundation of rivers. These take place more or less in every country, and their effects on vegetation, which sponta- neously springs up out of the deposited sand and mud, excited the attention of the countrymen. This hypothesis seems supported by the tradi- tions and natural circumstances of Egypt: overflowed by a river, civilized from time immemorial, and called the granary of the surrounding country, being so abundant in corn. Some antiquarians hold that the primeval implement used in cultivating the soil was of a pick kind; a medal of greatest antiquity, dug up at Syracuse, con- tained an impression of such an instrument, and its progress, until it became a plow, has been recognized -=; in a cameo on which a pick-like plow is drawn by two ~ serpents. It is also seen on a medal from the village of Enna, in Sicily, in a figure as found on an antique tomb; in an Etruscan plow, copied from a fragment in the Roman College at Rome. What seems to confirm these conjectures is that the image of Osiris is sculp- Primitive Egyptian row, no. 1. tured with a similar plow in each hand, and a barrow suspended by a cord over the left shoulder. This plow was perhaps used in war as well as in agriculture, and seems to have been of that kind with which the Israelites fought the Philis- tines. Another writer says, that on an ancient monument in Asia Minor was seen an illustration of the original plow, which consisted of the natural crook of the branch of a tree. It is also held that the first "plow" might be said to have been a "spade," for the work of the plow to-day is nothing more than that done with a spade — namely, turning up the earth. In the limited space in a volume of this kind, while our effort will be to show the progress of invention with the plow up to the splendid improvement of this day, which has done so much to lighten labor and promote agriculture, it would be useless to attempt to enter into a description of all the plows that are known to have been used among the many different ancient and modern people of the (29) 30 PROFITABLE FARMING. §&*» world. It will, perhaps, be a matter of surprise to many a reader that plows sup- ported by two wheels, some of them quite like the modern sulky plow, in princi- ple, were constructed by the Greeks over two thousand years ago. In the plows alluded to as found upon the ancient monument in Asia Minor, we possibly have the first plow as drawn by an animal. It was a natural growth. Here we have as to-day the "beam," the "stand- ard," the handle, the "brace bolt;" altogether, we might say, the skeleton of a real plow. Egyptian monuments dating back more than three thousand years before the time of our Saviour present to us plows quite as rude. The Roman jlow shows a change in construction in that the handle was constructed so that the plowman could press down upon the imple- ment. A plow used by Cincinnatus and Cato shows, perhaps, the first plow where real mechanical genius seems to have entered into the manufacture of the same. In this plow was the metal share, and the sole primitive Egyptian how, no. 2. of this plow had teeth set up m it, so that while it did not turn the soil as does the mould-board of to-day, these teeth served to har- row or break the clods, somewhat, as the plow broke the soil. Years before these Roman plows, however, during the pre-historic iron age, plows had been con- structed with metal shares. The Assyrians, long before the Christian era, used _ =a ==r^=- __^»^ plows substantially like those which may be seen in use at this time in sections of Spain and Italy. Such, also, is the case in Egypt and China, and other sec- tions. The caschrom is a sort of plow still to be found in some portions of the Hebrides and the Isle of Sk} r , British Isles, that has come down from time immemo- rial. It was made of a single piece of wood, with a metal point, in which point we seem to catch a glimpse of what is known to-day as the "patent," reversible point, as this point was evidently made with a socket, and could be put on one side up as well as the other. The East Indians now use a plow that has not been materially changed for thousands of years. It is made from three natural crooks, for handle, beam and bottom, with a bit of iron strapped on the point of the latter to protect it, and to open the ground. In England, plows having their beams supported upon wheels have been favorites from the earliest times. A description of one used during the reign of William the Conqueror, in the eleventh century, is as follows: "It was drawn by four oxen, and fastened to them by ropes made of twisted willows, and sometimes by the skin of Avhales. A coulter or sword, fastened to the beam, and in front of the plow, is here seen for the first time, and a wheel is placed in front to regulate ■ depth. In Wales, as in Britain, the custom was to fasten the plows to the tails of the oxen or horses, and Assyrian piow. compel the poor beast to thus drag them through the ground. An act of the Irish legislature, passed in 1634, forbade this cruel custom." Primitive Egyptian Plow, No. 3. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 31 much neglected U. S. Patent, A. P. 1797. From the third until the eleventh century agriculture seems to have been From the war-like nature of the countries and other circum- stances, people depended more upon their flocks and herds for support. In Britain, just after the eleventh century, the plow had but one stilt or handle; this plow had a wheel in front to steady it. Up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, the idea of constructing a plow with a mould- board to turn over the soil after it had been broken, does not seem to have occurred to the makers or users of these implements; their whole object being simply to break or tear up, aud we can imagine what a time they must have had with grass and weeds before the crops matured. The Norman plow had two wheels, and in their light soils was generally drawn by one or two oxen. The forms of plows used by the Greeks and Romans seem to have spread all over Europe, and underwent no change until the sixteenth century, when they began to be improved by the Dutch and Flemish. A plow known as the " Rotherham Plow," introduced from Holland, was first constructed and patented by Joseph Foljambe, in 1720. The bottom was made of wood, the wearing parts covered Avith heavy sheet-iron; the point of conical shape and thicker plate. On the end of the beam was a clevis to pull by, quite similar to those in general use to-day. Altogether, this plow was well pro- portioned, and James Small, who labored many years to improve it, left a plow which is used to this day. In 1785, Mr. Robert Ransom obtained a patent for plow-shares of cast iron, and in 1803 improved them by a mode of " chilling" or case hardening. The Scotch plow, as nearly all of the foreign plows have been since 1810, is made exclusively of iron — the beam generally from six to nine feet long, the handles from seven to ten feet long — the mould-boards of different shapes; for sandy soils, concave on the face; for clay soils, convex. All of them unhandy and heavy; and it may be said in a word, that the United States of America stands to-day far in the lead of all nations in producing a superior implement in every respect. Thomas Jefferson was one of the earliest Americans to labor towards the perfection and simplifying of the plow. He gives his ideas in his journal of 1788, and in about 1793 he put The next American after took the work of improving bold, of Burlington, New first cast-iron plow in this patent were signed by John Newbold spent upwards of perfecting and introducing cloned the business in des- his theory into practice. Mr. Jefferson who under- the plow, was Charles New- Jersey, who invented the country, and whose letters- Adams in June, 1797. Mr. thirty thousand dollars in his plow, and then aban- pair, as the planters, for idea that "cast iron poisoned Side Hill, A. D. 1831. some remarkable reason, imbibed the ludicrous the land, injured its fertility, and promoted the growth of rocks." The next plow invented was by Hezekiah Harris, February 24, 1804. The next was to John Deaver, of Maryland, June 12, 1804. A patent was granted to David Peacock, of New Jersey, April 1, 1807, whom Newbold sued for infringement and recovered $1,500 damages. If, when there 32 PROFITABLE FARMING. existed only three patents on plows, there was granted by the Patent Office letters- patent that so conflicted with another, what must be the real worth of patents to-day on plows, when the very latest has not departed really from the under- lying principles of the first, yea, the primeval plow, and the letters-patent issued are up in the thousands ? In 1836, Mr. Daniel Webster invented a plow for working twelve or fourteen inches deep, and cutting a furrow twenty-four inches wide. This plow. is still in existence, and was inspected by thousands at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. A plow made of all wood with metal point ; the mould-board cut out of a section of a "winding tree," and two or three strips of iron nailed to its face to prevent wear, was exhibited at the Virginia Exposition in 1888, and is the property of Mr. Ashton Starke, Richmond, Virginia. It was dug up in one of the upper counties of Virginia. Mr. Webster's plow was of fearful pro- portions. He, with some six or eight assistants, used to hold this plow, and his own words were: "When I have hold of the handles of my big plow in such a field, with a pair of cattle to pull it through (they must have been huge cattle), and hear the roots crack and see the stumps go under the furrows out of sight, and observe the clean mellowed surface of the plowed land, I feel more enthu- siasm over my achievement, than comes from my encounters in public life in Washington." Rolling Land-Side, 1843. Plows have been made and wood, as stated, and of of the far South, especially, experimented with at great will "scour" or turn the and is to-day, largely used — but of late years, chilled boards have been resorted of their economy in cost. Jointer, 1884. with mould-boards of iron glass. In the sticky lands wood and glass have been cost to get something that soil. Steel has also been, looking to the same end; or case hardened mould- to most largely on account The effort is to get some metal that will admit of a high polish, and this is greatly promoted in the chilled- faced moulds, from the fact that the grain of the metal is changed from a long fibre, to a sectional or cross-grain, it might be termed. Of course, these moulds are necessarily more brittle. To-day the name of the different makes of plows is legion. Electricity and steam have been brought into play, but it cannot be said with any great degree of success. The great cost and the requirement that the land shall be comparatively level, prevents them as yet from coming into general use. Wheel or sulky plows, as has been said, may be classed among the primeval plows, wneei pi ow , i884. and not until the past two years have they been brought to that state of per- As labor becomes more intelli- fection which seems to suit them to general use AGEICULTURA L IM PLEMENTS. 33 gent they will bo more largely used. That they decrease draft, enabling the same team to do more work both by reason of faster travel and cutting a wider furrow each time, has been certainly proven. All of the leading chilled plows of to-day may be said to be of the same pattern so far as general construction goes. That some are made of better material by reason of recent improvements in case hard- ening, steel-working, etc., is true. It is equally true that some turn better furrows and draw easier and at the same time are less liable to choke in weedy or trashy land. Yet the principles are the same. The choking of a plow is due to: First, the construction of the standard piece, and secondly, the rela- tion of the mould-board to the standard. Richmond, Virginia, I think, may claim that her plow manufacturers Gang Plow. ism. have given much thought to this feature and perhaps turn out the only plows in the country that are positive departures from the stereot}^ped standard. The late Mr. P. H. Starke invented a plow which is largely used in the south- ern section of this country, which has a very tall receding standard, arranged with a ratchett for raising and lowering the beam. The idea in this plow is to get the beam high enough from the land and far enough back from the front or cut- ting edge of the plow, to prevent the accumulation of trash or weeds. Mr. Watt, on the other hand, constructed and invented a plow in which the beam was bolted to the side of the standard by a cuff, and underneath the beam is cast to the Steam Plow, 1881. standard piece a throat piece, the idea being to turn off the weeds, &c. As these patent rights have now expired, and they being the only positive departures in my knowledge, I mention them. 5 34 PROFITABLE FARMING. A plow to run well at the least expense of labor should he so adjusted mat the landside will neither leave its impression upon the bottom or the side of the furrow; it should just slide along easily enough on each, as to gently touch all along. Large numbers of plowmen prefer to have wheels under the front end of the beam of the plow. I fancy most often the wheel is used at the expense of draft. The plow is set say to run very deep, and is then prized out by the pressure of the wheel on the unbroken land ahead, and so there is created unnecessary draft. This and the proper sword or rolling cutter for special work, the set of the same, and the use of the jointer (all attachments to plows), are seldom used with intelligence. Wheel plows, with which the operator walks, seem to be coming into favor just now, in preference to the sulky or riding plows. Thus far we have only been describing turn plows, the parents of the great family of hill-side ploAvs, sub-soil plows, trench-plows, new-ground plows, railroad plows, and a host of others. Nor can we hope to go into a treatise on all of these different classes of plows. Just one word on the subject of trench-plowing. I believe that this mode of plowing is the only sensible thing to be done with lands that have been long years in cultivation. Trench-plowing is running a small plow in the furrow of a large one. The idea is just to bring up a little fresh earth every season so that the unexhausted properties of the earth may be given the fertilizer or manure to work upon, and thus the depth of soil be increased all the time. Soil that has been worked year after year and exhausted, cannot, by the use of fertilizers, be put in a healthy state without the assistance of new soil to properly utilize it. Up to 1888, there had been granted by the U. S. Patent Office 6,686 patents on plows. HARROWS. After the plow follows the harrow; the harrow is mentioned three times in the Bible. First, in the book of Job, "Will he (the Unicorn) harrow valleys after thee"; II. Chronicles, XX., 3: "He cut them with saws and with harrows of iron"; in 2d Samuel, "He put them under saws and under harrows of iron. " As I have said that the plow is really " the spade drawn by horses," so the harrow is many rakes fastened together and worked in the same manner. The first trace we find of harrowing was done by men employed, who followed the plow with instruments they called "hacks" — a kind of hoe, hollow in the blade — and with these the "hackers" broke the clods made by the plow. Next following, perhaps, came the bush-harrow, which was made of the brush of a tree — most often the hawthorn, perhaps. One of the methods was to tie with a cord of raw hide or bark the trunk or brush limb of a tree to the animal's tail. This was abolished by an act of Parlia- ment in the year 1664. Then we find that the spiked limbs of trees are bound together, the spurs of the Primitive Hand limbs being the substitute for the teeth of the harrow, and these to-day are used in the north of Europe. It was not long when the people conceived the idea AGRICULTUKA L IMPLEMENTS. 35 Primitive Log. of driving spikes into boards, and here we have the harrow just as it has boon used for all the years, differing only in the matter of the shape of the frames which holds the" spikes or teeth. Every fanner to-day knows of the "square harrow," "V harrow," "X, or cross harrow," and such like, made of timbers fastened together, through which are drawn the teeth. Next, perhaps, came the idea of attaching two or more of these different shapes together, sometimes allow- ing them to drag along independent of each other, then again having them hinged together, the object being to so construct the harrow as a whole that it would adapt itself to the unevenness of the land. At first the teeth were all drawn through the timbers perpendicularly, buit after a while it was seen that in some cases, and for cer- tain different kinds of work, these entered the ground too severely, and then the teeth in some harrows were drawn in slanting, so that they would not tear- up the ground so much ; and following this harrows - were made with the teeth put on against the side of the timbers, with devices such that pulling the har- row from one side the teeth stand perpendicular, while drawing it from the other side they assume a slanting position — thus adapt- ing the one tool to the two styles of work. Rotary harrows — those so made that the resistance against the earth as they are drawn along give them a turning- motion as they move forward — have also been made. The spiked cylinder har- rows are among the late inventions. Of the most popular and latest inventions in the harrow class to-day may be classed the following: The spring-tooth harrow, an implement of exceptional merit, is made of a wood or metal frame, to which is attached flat steel teeth about two inches wide, and when ready for work stands on the ground and attached to the frame like the letter C, not turned up so much at the bottom, but cut off and dipped so as to enter the ground. These harrows do fine Avork and recommend themselves to every farmer. Many different styles of them are made by different manufacturers, and in many cases they take the place ■, of the plow, doing the two operations of plowing and harrowing at the same time. Few farmers can afford to be without one such harrow. A class of harrows made after an old harrow called "Share's colter har- row" may be mentioned here. It has blades of steel about four inches in Avidth, curved someA\ T hat and set on edge, being attached to a frame sometimes of iron and again of avoocI. These act as so many knives that slice the earth, at the same time turning a slight furrow by their peculiar shape. For lighter lands and surface harrowing, as dis- tinct from fallow or heavy harroAA'ing, they perform well, and for putting in grass seed and the like are very popular. Next to be mentioned is the disc har- row, another excellent tool for certain classes of work. These consist of a series of steel discs, similar in shape to a table plate, that is convexed on one side and concaA^e on the other. These discs are strung on tAVO axles, usually two sizes Types of Harrow-teeth. 36 'PROFITABLE FARMING. with four discs to each axle, or six discs, as the land and the team may he suited. The gangs of discs are so arranged that by the use of a lever these two axles ma}' be thrown in a straight line, that is one simply continuing the length of the other, or the two ]Taay be thrown and set to an acute angle. By reason of the plates or discs being concave the more nearly at right an- gles the one gang is set with the other the greater the little fur tow is made by each separ- ate disc,. Since this har- has gone farther and by cutting out V-shaped sections out of the beforetime solid discs they have made what is called a "cut-away" disc harrow. Another has fluted or corru- V ^-VT==w. .— gated the periphery of the^. %«-^_ 3 "*% ^.._ 1 _ _^~. ~ r^ discs, all striving to cut the j*fe=-^_ land as fine as possible as the 'harrow passes over. To these latter harrows seed boxes are some times attached, which sow the seed at the same time the land is being harrowed and the seed covered. This is also true of the spring- tooth harrow which is fre- quently mounted on wheels and the driving gear for the seed box is taken from the revolving wheels. Rotary Harrow, 1859. row has made its appearance invention Spring-Tooth Harrow, 1869. It is harrowing average Crushing Harrow. born clod nor has it strength to find its way around it. and the plumpest grains the land must be thoroughly pulverized to be remarked that seems to give the farmer little concern, when indeed there is nothing in which so much economy of labor can be practiced and no work which will conduce more decidedly to the health and in- crease of his crops as good and sufficient harrowing. The ten- der germ from the seed cannot tunnel its way through the stub- To make the best yield I have seen land AfJTUCULTUKAL IMPLEMENTS. 37 on which wheat was sown and yielded say six to eight bushels, which hand but a single harrowing, which, if it had had six to eight harrowings, each time mat mg it The Disc Harrow. finer, without any other help would havo yielded one-third to one-half more in all probability. The United States Patent Office has granted 1,478 patents on harrows. PLANTERS, DRILLS, SEEDERS. It is very difficult to determine how seeding was first done;. Nature of course gave object lessons in the fall and spring. The people saw the seed that fell to the ground during the later days of the years sprout _.. v and the germs thereof spring up in the spring-time, and the sowing with careless hand by old Mother Nature suggested the more methodical drilling and dropping by man. We are told that the Egyptians sowed broadcast in the valley of the Nile after the overflow had subsided, and flocks of sheep and goats =i,j were driven over the i. seeds to pressthem into | the earth. The same crude implements men- tioned among the plows such as a crooked stick or a stag's horn, soon, if not at the same time, were brought into use for the purpose of opening furrows or making holes into which to drop the seed. The first trace that we find of a seeding machine is a sort of drill used by the Assyrians B. C. 680. The Chinese and Italians both claim to have used drill- ing machines for thousands of years. A _ work on agriculture published in Venice, 1764, gives a description of a seeder claiming that such description had been copied from a work published in Bologna, 1605. It appears that " it was mounted on two wheels, the axle passing through the seed-box, in the bottom of which was a series of holes opening in an equal number of metal tubes or funnels, through which the seed was conducted to the Dibbler, No. 1. ground. The front of the tubes at their lower ends were shaped somewhat like plowshares and were designed to make small furrows into which the seed dropped." So then in this description we have the implement which has been handled by thousands of mechanics, adding and recon- structing this or that for convenience or economy sake, and which is known to-day as the grain drill. Unnecessary it is to go into the many different patterns and models we find recorded since this early machine. Primitive Hand-Planting. Dibbler, No. 2. 38 PROFITABLE FARMING. Jethro Tull published a work entitled "Horse-hoeing Husbandry" in 1731. His theory was "that grain or seed should not be sowed broad-cast, but should be planted in rows or drills so as to admit of hoeing by horse-power with proper implements." His first machine was constructed so as to sow wheat or turnips, three rows at a time. It consisted of two seed boxes with colter attached to each and following each other; behind them followed a harrow to cover the seed. His object in having two separate deposits of seed at different depths, was that they might not sprout at the same time, and so perhaps escape the ravages of the fly. He invented a turnip drill, also horse-hoes and cultivators; in fact, he was the father of the system of horse cultivating. Spent a fortune in his endeavors and died poor. Seeding may be classified as "drilling, broad- casting" and dropping. Drilling is where the seed are poured along in continuous rows. Broad-cast- ing is scattering over the surface, as thrown out by the hand. Dropping is where a certain number of grains are dropped at stated places. "Check row- ing" is where a certain number of grains are dropped so that there will be equal space between the "hills" in the rows, and between the rows themselves. In " Croker's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences," published in London in 1765, is found "drill, or drill-box," a new name given to an instrument for sowing land in the new method of horse-hoeing husbandry (introduced by Tull). It plants the corn in rows, makes the channels, sows the seeds in them, and covers them with earth when sown; and all this at the same time and AVith great expe- dition. It measures, ; or rather numbers, - out the seed which it received from the . hopper, and is for this purpose an arti- ficial hand; but it much more equally than can Modern Hand-Planter, U. S. Patent Planter, A. D. 1825, U. S. Patent Hand Planter, 1856. delivers out the seed be done by the natural hand. In America the first patent granted by the Uni- ted States for a seeder was to E. Spooner, of Ver- mont, January 25, 1799. Between this time and 1836, when the Patent Office was burned with all the models, records, &c, we have no means of describing the inventions that may ha^ve occurred. It was between 1836 and 1840 when fresh stimulus seems to have been given the invention and use of practical seeders. According to "Allen's Digest," J. Hatch, of Great Bend, Pa., patented August 17, 1835, a machine for sowing plaster, lime, and ashes broadcast, January 9, 1838, it was reissued, evi- dently then with the purpose of becoming a grain-seeder also. There had been AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 39 issued by the United States Patent Office up to 1888, 1,440 patents on seeders and 2,497 on planters; so that it would be almost an endless task to attempt to describe any considerable number of the whole, and we will at once come to notice some of the different styles of planters and seeders in use to-day. Some of tbe machines made to do tbe work in a broadcast fashion are the following: The Cahoon sower is familiar to every well-posted farmer as the oldest, perhaps, of that class of seeders that is car- ried on the person and operated by hand. It throws the seed out, in front of the man walking, in a funnel shape, spreading as they leave the machine. Another type of the same kind is what is known as the " South Bend," the "Philadelphia," &c. These, carried by a strap over the shoulder and turned by a crank, instead of throw- ing the seed in a funnel shape, ^•spread them out in front of the operator in a sheet- j? like way. What is known as the " Shrock" hand-sower "f7 has a hopper, &c, quite similar to the last above men- fey tioned, but it is operated by a bow drawn to and fro, U. 8. Patent Koot-Plouter. 1806. V. S. Patent Planter, 1876. which moves the agitator and whirl that throws out the seed. There is another hand sower called the "Wad- dill," which has a tin hopper arranged to revolve on the top of a wood staff. The lower end of the staff rests in a belt around the waist, while the hopper sits above the head of the operator. This hopper is made to revolve by a crank turned, and the seed come clown through the bottom of the hopper and are thrown out. Such sowers as the " South Bend" and " Philadelphia," named above, have been of late arranged on a larger scale, and intended to set in the back of a vehicle and to be drawn by a chain moved by a sproc- ket fixed on to the wheel of the vehicle. These machines broadcast well, and are great labor and time-savers. The remain- ing broadcast sowers and seeders (and here we may say that machines which simply deposit the seed are usually termed sowers, and those that deposit and also cover them, seeders) are of many patterns. There is the long box carried on a Chcck Row plaDtcr - 1883 - wheelbarrow; some have a long rod that is made to slide to and fro, others a chain, a rope, &c, over openings in the bottom of the box through which the seed fall on a board, or some arrangement by which the seed will be scattered. A great many of the harrows or cultivators of to-day have such seeders fixed to them as "attach- ments." Next Ave come to the grain drill. The most popular of the modes of drop'- ping the seed to-day in drills seems to be the use of fluted seed rollers, which can be opened or closed to determine the quantity of seed to be planted. Another pattern, quite popular, is that in which two smooth rollers, one of metal, the other 40 PROFITABLE FARMING. of rubber, running close to each other, and feed down between them the grains. These drills are all provided with " land measures" — that is, a device made with a dial — on which is indicated the distance traveled, so as to determine the amount sown on an acre. Some of the drills are provided with wheels that travel rail Primitive Egypt-un Seeder. behind the spouts through which the seed fall, and serve to cover the seed by pressing the earth upon them ; others have-harrow attachments for the same purpose. Nearly all of the drills are so made that a fertilizer attachment can be used on them. There are many different kinds of these attachments. Some feed down the fertilizer by means of fluted rollers, others by means of what may be termed fingers, that revolve and push the fertilizer through openings. In all of them these Openings can be made large or small by a "shut-off or "gate" to determine quantity. The latest thing, perhaps, is a glass dial that is made to revolve and carry out the fertilizer, and superiority is claimed for it, because the acid in the fertilizer does not effect the glass, as it does corrode and rust out where metal is used. The one desirable feature in a fertilizer attach- ment is to have it so arranged and constructed that wet or sticky material will not "bridge over" or clog up the openings. One feature which seems to have escaped the attention of manufacturers of drills is, that the seed feeders may plant peas as well as wheat, the same corrugated wheels that accommodate wheat, oats, &c, will not serve for peas on account of their being cracked by the small flutes. It would seem Assyrian seeder, b.c. 504. that larger flutes might be used on the same drills for peas as the pea crop has gotten to be one of importance in later years. Drills are classified as "pinhoe" and "spring." The pinhoe is that in which wooden pins are used as "break-pins," that is, when the hoe strikes an obstacle, a small wooden pin, which is easily replaced, is broken and allows the hoe to fall back unhurt; in the other class, a steel or rubber spring is compressed and permits the hoe to pass over the obstacle without damage and then come back to its proper position. The droppers — that is, machines which drop cer- tain numbers of grains at stated distances apar1>— are varied. One class has a slide which is made to move in and out; in this slide is a hole, and the size of this hole determines the number of grains; when the hole in the slide passes over a corresponding hole in the bottom of the hopper the grains fall through. This slide is made to move in and out by certain gearing; some by an "eccentric," others by knobs on a wheel, by cog-gearing, &c. Another class of droppers have a wheel, in the face or periphery of which are made openings which catch the seed, carry them over, and drop them. The largest and perhaps the most desirable class Italian Feeder, A. D. 1G05. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEM ENTS. 41 is that in which we find plates arranged with a series of holes that move around, and as the opening in this plate passes over the opening in the bottom of the hopper the grains fall throu* ~r~ ft'),,,., Grain Drill, 1874. These planters will "drill" as well as drop, and as these plates are movable and provided with various numbers and sizes of holes any seed can beplan- ~~ — ted with them any distance apart. All of the present check-row plan- ters use this style of plate for drop- ping. All of these planters are pro- vided with a tooth or shovel, which opens the furrow in which the grain is dropped, and a wheel or drag-bar, which pulls the dirt over and upon the seed planted. So have most of them fertilizer attachments as well as drill. Cotton planters (usually one-horse) are made very much on the principle of the one-horse corn- planters, except instead of holes through which the grain is dropped, a long slot is considered the best style; in this slot, or long hole, fingers are made to vibrate to and fro pushing the cotton seed through. This has been found neces- sary on account of the tendency of the cotton seed to stick together and bridge over the opening. I think it it can be truthfully said that the best mode of planting corn, is to plant it as does the check-row planter, so that the cultivator, of which we shall pres- ently speak, can be run through both ways in the field, and thus save any amount of hoe and other work. Grain Drill, 1884. CULTIVATORS. " History furnishes no account of a time when man was destitute of the hoe and the plow. In their beginning they were all of Avood; the original hoe was a forked limb. The hoe was the progenitor of the cultivating machine." " Ancient Roman writers recommended hoeing and weeding the corn and fallowing the ground." Cultivators are the implements which are used to work the crop after it has sprung up. It is really an improved harrow having a number of teeth in a frame, but, unlike the harrow, the teeth of which are intended simply to tear the ground or break the clods, the teeth of the cultivators are made to do more the work of a little plow; that is, to turn little furrows as the occasion may demand. Some of the disc and other harrows of more recent invention can also be made to turn little furrows and are used for the purpose of cultivating. 42 PROFITABLE FARMING. Primitive Crotched Stick Cultivator. Jethro Tull, of England, is the author of horse-hoeing husbandry, and intro- duced his system in 1701 of cultivating plants by machinery. In 1731, he published a book on this subject, which rendered the invention of the cultivator possible. Wilkie, of Scotland, is the inventor of the cultiva- tor. He invented in 1820 the plurality of shares, the expanding frame, and the castor-wheel. The first patent granted by the United States for cultivators was to Bordon, in 1830. The first wheel cultivator patent was issued in 1846. Single and double "shovel plows" may also be classed as cultivators, for the wheel cultivator of to-day is nothing more than two double-shovel plows hung to an axle on wheels. Cultivators in the United States are classed as ordi- nary, wheeled, rotary, straddle-row, parallel, disc, -. .. — walking, riding and expanding. There have been 2,254 patents granted on cultivators by the United States up to 1888. Perhaps the primitive cultivator was a crotched stick, the longer limb serving as a handle by which the two or more prongs which had grown at near right angles to the same, were drawn by the opera- tor through the ground. Then we have an illus- tration Of the Egyptian implement, Which Consisted Primitive Roman Cultivator. of a frame made from a natural growth in a V shape, in which frame were set teeth; by the point of the V was the implement drawn by one person, while stand- ing up from each of the rear ends of the prongs were upright sticks and these were held by the operator. Quite similar was the Roman and old English tools As indicated by the number of patents granted, not to notice the multitude that have been rejected by the Patent Office, invention has been wide-awake in constructing cultivators, and it is not at all necessary primitive Egyptian cultivator. to attempt anything like even an allusion to the many different styles of this all important implement to the farmer. To-day the most popular cultivators, per- haps, are the one-horse implements that usually con- sist of a steel or iron frame made so that the two outer beams can be expanded. To these beams are bolted little standards, and to the foot of each one of these standards may be attached teeth or shovels of various widths and fashions. The very narrow shov- els or blades being used where little furrows are re- quired, and wider blades for larger furrows. Then Primitive English cultivator, winged blades are attached for the purpose of hilling; double winged blades for opening furrows; scrape-blades for shaving the top of the ground, and so on. What may be termed the advanced cultivator of the day is the wheel imple- AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 43 ments in this class. The wheel-walking cultivator is the one with which the ■operator walks behind the tool, while with the riding cultivator he may ride or walk at his option. These tools are drawn by two horses, and as be- fore stated consists of two double-shovel plows hung to an axle. The team straddles the row, and one shovel plow is made to run along each side of the row, thus a row is finished up at one trip. The wheels: run along between the rows, and the most im- proved of these cultivators are so arranged that the wheels may be closed in or widened out so as to adapt them to various widths between rows. These like the one-horse cultivators have the different sizes and shapes of attachments for various kinds of work. Hilling Cultivator, 1830. Straddle.Row Cultivator, 1884. There is no questioning the fact that great economy of labor may be enjoyed in the use of the wheel cultivators, and it is reasonable to say that unless some- thing else is brought out of superior merit they must become the almost universal implement of the kind in use. REAPERS AND BINDERS. A beautiful allusion is made to the harvest season in the olden times in the Farm Implement News" in its January (1886) number — to which publication we are indebted for much of the data here given in regard to all different implements — in these words: '"Harvest was a season of toil and anxiety, and its close among most nations was celebrated by general rejoicings, games, and rustic fetes marked the final ingathering of the sheaves. The husbandmen ceased their labors, and 44 PROFITABLE FARMING. threw off their cares in rounds of uproarious jollification. In the old simple days of England the Harvest Home or close of the season, was such a scene as Horace's friends might have expected to see on his Sabine farm, or Theocritus might have described in his Idyls; and possibly such scenes were presented in those ancient times. The last sheaves were brought home in the hock-cart surmounted by a sheaf formed and dressed to represent a female figure — presumably the Goddess of Ceres — or by pretty girls of the reaping band fan- tastically attired and crowned with flowers. A pipe and tabor led the procession, while the reapers danced around, shouting and singing appropriate songs like the following: 'Harvest home, harvest home, We have plowed, we have sowed ; We have reaped, we have mowed ; We have brought home every load — Hip, hip, hip, harvest home,' &c. " Those merry days have passed. Our age is hard and practical." But why should it be ? Why can't we find time and occasion for some of these pastimes — to make life the pleasanter and our tasks brighter ? Primitive Hand Scythe. What a volume cerning the implements might be written con- that have been invented to reap and to mow. Everywhere we find pictures of old Father Time with a primitive scythe in hand; and this scythe, or as it was first spelled "sithe," is our begin- ning with harvesting machinery. The first patent granted for a reaping machine Avas obtained in England by Joseph Boyce, July 4, 1799, and the first patent granted by the United States for cutting grain and grass, bears the date of May 17, Hawkins, of New Jersey. English Mower, A. D. 1799. 1803, to Richard French and J. T It is a fact that tire reaper, hand-raker, and self-raker were invented by the British, but the real progress and practical develop- ments have been due to American genius and progress. The next invention showing marked im- provements was that of William Manning, of New Jersey, patented May 3, 1831. Among Slotted Guard Finger and Mower, A. D. 1833. the earliest patdlteeS ill this lilie AVaS Cyi'US H. McCormick, of Virginia, June 21, 1834, although his machines Averc largely made up from features gathered from other iiwentions and combined together in one machine. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 45 Reapers were first made requiring one man to drive and another to pull off with a hand-rake the cut straw. Then the various self-rakers came in. The same writer, alhided to in the beginning of this article, says: "That in 1860, the Walter A. Wood self-rake reaper was made literally for the wide world. He has achieved great celebrity, and his system of machinery is known wherever grain is cut." The reaper of to-day is the result of a congregation of steady improve- ments in one part and another, until to no single manufacturer can he ascribed the credit of ottering a reaper of sufficient individuality to set it apart as distinct. But it would seem that the reaper is a thing of the past, and is hereafter to be ex- ceptionally Used, having had to step aside to make room for the "Harvester." The term "harvester" applies to that class of reapers which carry binders — manual and automatic hinders; it has been applied to not only these, but also to strippers, headers, and combined harvesters nii/1 threshers Spokeless Wheel Mower, A. D. 1867, The machine of the Gauls is said to have had knives or "sections" sharpened on their sides, somewhat similar to the scythes or blades of reapers to-day, and this long bar of "sections" being fixed to a kind of cart-body on two wheels. The blade, for instance, being the back edge of the bot- tom of the cart-body, and there being what may be termed one shaft to the cart, the vehi- cle was- pushed backward, and, as the blades were pushed and caught against the stalk, the, heads were dragged off into the cart. When a sufficient amount Avas caught, it was carried Front Cut Two-wheeled Mower, A. D. 1858. off an( j emptie( }. This old machine is really the "header" of to-day, except that the blade or scythe is now made to move and cut between teeth or guards. Samuel Lane, of Hallowell, Maine, August 8, 1828, obtained a patent for a combined harvester and thresher; but this machine never seems to have come into any use. Subsequentlv, many patents were granted; but C. W. and W. W. Marsh, of De Kalb county, Illinois, August 17, 1858, may be termed the pioneers with the harvester and binder of to-day. It is said that if the , same old machine as used in 1858 was seen standing in the field to-day, one familiar with such a machine would wonder whether it was a "Wood," "McCormick," "Deer- ing," Samuelson," or "Hornsby," and why the binder was not in place. After many struggles, in the fall of 1863, Steward and Marsh begun fifty machines, but completed only twenty-six. These gave fair satisfaction and the balance were improved somewhat, completed, and marketed in 1865. As the years rolled on, hand-binders gave way to automatic binding, and out of the body of the old Marsh harvester sprang the various harvesters and binders now in use. John E. Heath, of Warren, Ohio, was the first on record to attempt to. bind Front Cut One-wheeled Mower, 1858. 46 PROFITABLE FARMING. grain by machinery. His was a twine or cord binder, and his patents dated July 22, 1850. C. A. McPhitridge, St. Louis, Missouri, seems to have been the first to bind with wire (patent November 18, 1856). S.D.Locke, Janesville,0., claims to have been the first man to build an automatic binder as a4 separate and ..distinct ma- chine for at- Front Center Cut Mower, 1863. tach me 11 1 to a Front Cut Two-wheeled Mower, 1880. harvester, and the Walter A. Wood Company were the first to build and put regu- larly upon the market successful automatic wire-binding machines. In 1880, just as wire binders had seemingly gotten into position to "take the world," the twine binder took a fresh hold, and to-day is the one machine. All of the present machines use the Appleby binder, except the Walter A. Wood's; on this is used the Holmes binder. Both are excellent devices and do grand work A number of efforts have been made to con- struct a successful plat- form or " low-down " binder, but with little success so far. The i Wood's single apron I harvester appears to be the only thing like a Egyptian sickle. departure from the school of harvesters, all the rest using these aprons.. Nearly all of the different harvesters are provided with "transports" or trucks on which the machine can be drawn end-ways and so pass through an ordinary farm gate. Many of the machines also have bundle-carrier attachments, by the _J means of which seve- ral bundles after being tied are held in a re- ceiver and then dump- ed in piles for shoek- Colonial Sickle. illg. The following from the " Inter-Ocean " tells of steam harvesting and threshing in the West: "The immense thrashing machine now coining into general use in Front Cut Two-wheeled Mower, 1884. Grain Cradle. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 47 U California would be of little service in States where rain falls during summer, for they are reaper and thresher all in one. The wheat-field stands white for the har- vest." This machine cuts its swath of the snap- ping dry grain, sweeps it up into a cylinder, and empties out the good wheat H through the sepa- rator into bags, which a man on the side of the ma- Switch Reel Rake, 1884. cllilie Opposite the Harvester Hand Rake, 1855. sickle sews up leisurely as he rides along in his little canopied room. When three bags are filled with the firm, plump kernels, the small platform upon which the bag sewer has placed the wheat tips over of its own intelligent will, apparently, and a man comes along with load to cart off to the mill, velous feat on a ranch where the early birds who wished cut and thresh a bag of into flour at sunrise, and by 8 o'clock. It takes machine, and the small ence in life is a tale of one away with a neighbor's The greatest harvest- a wagon and makes up his It was, therefore, no mar- there was a grist-mill for to surprise the master, to wheat at daylight, grind it have it baked in the kitchen eighteen mules to draw the boy's most exciting experi- time when the mules ran machine. ing machine ever made, perhaps, is that success- Harvester, seif.Rake, 1856. fully operated j n Tulare county, Cal. Mr. Berry, the inventor, has lived in the said county for a dozen years. He farms 4,000 acres of wheat. His great machine is propelled and worked by a steam traction engine. It cuts a swath of 40 feet wide. The ground wheels of the machine are four feet face and six feet diameter. He says that he averaged cutting about ninety-two acres per day, and did cut in two days 230 acres. There have been issued by the United States Patent Office: 22 patents on bean harvesters. 44 patents on clover harvesters. 286 patents on corn harvesters. 104 patents on cotton harvesters. 36 patents on hemp and flax harvesters. 1,610 patents on harvester cutters and mowers. 1,170 patents on mowers (separate). 1,398 patents on reapers. 44 patents on combined reapers and threshers. 697 patents on harvester binders. THRESHERS. In Isaiah XXVIII, 27-28, Ave read : "For fitches (peas) are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon a cummin (a 48 PROFITABLE FARMING. seed plant something like caraway) ; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horse- men." Cattle were generally used by the ancients to tread out the grain spread upon the floor "(thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn)," and also to draw the "charatz" of the Egyptians and the "moreg" of the Hebrews over the grain laid on the floor. The former having been made of a flat board, rough under the bottom, and dragged over the grain to rub out the kernels. The Keaper and Thresher, A. D. 1S36. latter was more like a sled, between the runners of which were spiked cylinders which revolved upon the grain as it was drawn around. The flail has been used for threshing from time immemorial. The Japanese are said to have used a stripping machine for all time. It may be described as a long comb set upon a bench, through the teeth of which the straw was drawn by hand and the heads pulled off ready for the thresher. Michael Menzies, of Scotland, is said to have been the first inventor of the power threshing machine. It was a contrivance to draw a large number of flails by power; the power being obtained from a water wheel. The type of modern threshers was invented by another Scotchman, Andrew Meikle, in 1786. All of the early threshers were built in the barns and the grain was brought to them. It seems as if the Pitts Brothers (Hiram A. and John A.) of Winthrop, Maine, were the first American inventors who were thoroughly successful with 50 PROFITABLE FARMING. threshers and whose inventions went into general use and have continued down to our time, although various improvements have been made since in the details of this type of threshers. It is a fact that they have followed the principles cov- ered by the original patent all the way down to the present. February 5, 1836, E. Briggs and C. G. Carpenter patented a traveling machine which could be used with or without a grain-cutting attachment. It ran on four wheels like a wagon and depended upon the traction of the two hind wheels for power. in i . ^M^sm&$miAk^wiu ■li" ' ...III"" '" ' .wiiii ' *''-jnr~ Head Cutter and Side Deliverer. Mr. H. M. Smith, Sr., of Richmond, Va., at the head of the oldest agricultural implement manufactory in the country, I believe, describes in the " Farm Imple- ment News " the old threshers used by the Scotch and English settlers, "consisting mainly of a shaft about twenty-four inches in diameter, standing seven or eight feet high, Avith four levers (sometimes eight) morticed into it, about two and one- half feet from the ground. Then eight arms were morticed into it at the top, on which a wooden wheel was constructed and morticed on its upper face for wooden cogs, which worked into a sort of wallower constructed of Avood, having two heads Avith rounds in them, forming a sort of trundle or lantern-shaped pinion, AA'hich gave motion to the wooden shaft on which it was built. This shaft extended oA'er the horses' heads into the main barn, Avhere another AA r ooden wheel Avas built upon the arms morticed upon the same shaft. This Avheel, which consisted of segments with Avooden cogs morticed in, drove another pinion constructed on another AA'ooden shaft, on Avhich Avas another Avooden Avheel made like the other, and geared into a AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 51 pinion on the threshing drum. The drum was made as follows: Its ends or heads were of wood connected by six or eight parallel bars of like material, but shod with iron, the whole forming a series of beaters that whipped the wheat out as it was fed to this drum through rollers which were geared together so as to force the Avheat up to the beaters at a speed proportioned to that of the other machinery. These drums were usually four feet long, three and one-half to four feet in diameter, and run at a speed of 300 to 400 revolutions per minute." ■ ''['■'•■• :: : : ^iMMi^.-:'h- H:; : y:' : m Steam Harvester. Some of the James River farmers have the old houses in which these machines were used still standing. To-day among the family of threshers, are two great classes, the " Vibrators" and the " Endless Apron" or Pitts machines; the former is now the most popular BKI^!, t0 have completely dis- of the two and may be said placed the latter. Printed circulars from are so generally distributed farmer is somewhat ac- "^ ent patterns of threshers, impossible thing to describe that a reader could get an construction, and it is hoped may be here given to dis- features in this class of In Great Britain and threshing machines are Hand FlaiL j the various manufacturers nowadays that the average quainted with the differ- III It certainly would be an IP any number of them so ; intelligent idea of their that sufficient illustrations play the different special machinery. on the continent of Europe quite differently construc- ted from those used in this country, because here the straw is valuable and the machines are made to damage it as little as possible. The improved threshers 52 PROFITABLE FARMING. of to-day appear large and cumbersome and their first cost is heavy, yet when the amount of work they will do, and the saving of labor and teams is taken into account, they have reached a high state of perfection. It may be said literally that all of the grain is saved and in the best possible condition. "'%^p Clearing off the Wood Lot. Elevators are made as attachments to threshers, and serve to carry the straw after it leaves the drum and shaker up to the stack. Bagger attachments are also used' Avhich measure out the grain and deliver it into the bags. One can hardly go amiss to-day in purchasing any one of the leading threshers; they all do their work in a first-class manner. In writing this chapter I have drawn most largely from the articles of Mr. C. W. Marsh, editor of the "Farming Implement News," who has expended great labor in gathering data and giving the same to the public in a most readable shape. CHAPTER III. Classification of Soils. God bless the farm — the dear old farm — God bless its every rood, Where willing hearts and sturdy arms Can earn an honest livelihood; Can from the generous fertile soil Win back a recompense for toil. .OIL, in the common and appropriate sense, is the upper stratum of the earth — the mold, dirt, or the compound substance which furnishes nutriment to plants, and is particularly adapted to support and nourish them. Soil is mostly produced by the dis- integration of the various kinds of rock, which also modifies its quality and value. In other words, it is rotted rock; the subsoil is rotting rock; it lies or rests on the underlying rock, is more hard and compact than the soil, of different color, and is less moved by the plow and of less value in cultivation, yet when raised and stirred by cultivation in gradual thin layers, adds to the depth of the soil and its capacity for retaining moisture. In talking of soils, a general nomenclature should be adhered to in preference to local terms; otherwise, men in different districts will often fail to understand what particular kind of soil is alluded to. The most common classifications of soil is based on their composition, and the names applied to them take after their pre- dominant ingredient. Thus where sand, clay, lime, or organic matter predomi- nates in a soil, it is sandy, clayey, calcareous, or vegetable, as the case may be. A mixture of sand and clay is called loam. If it is needful to be more specific, loams, etc., are designated by the predominance in them of either sand, clay or lime — as sand loams, clay loams, etc. Soils are also popularly designated from their texture as light or heavy, porous or impervious; from their relations to heat and moisture as wet or dry, cold or warm; and from their measure of fertility as rich or poor, fertile or infertile, etc. Again, the class of crops has led to clays being spoken of as wheat and bean soils, and friable soils as barley and turnip land. DIFFERENCE IN ADAPTATION, COMPOSITION, &C. All farmers will agree in believing that the first subject, and by all odds the most important factor of success in farming, is a fertile soil — this must ever be, other things being equal, the fundamental element of success. While in Europe a few years ago on an extended tour in Great Britain and the continent, the writer observed that although the lands in all these regions had been cultivated probably for five hundred years, wherever the soil was naturally fertile there were found good farm buildings, good fences, horses, wagons and harness — everything (53) < X CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 55 to indicate prosperity. On the other hand, wherever a poor sterile soil predomi- nated, there were found farm buildings, fences, and cattle that indicated poverty. As well may a stage-coach attempt to compete with a locomotive, as a farmer owning poor and sterile land, with the owner of a rich fertile soil, if they sell their products in the same market. It is a delusive belief that manuring or tillage — no matter how good — will ever bring a poor, thin soil into permanent fertility, unless the application of manure is yearly continued; for no ordinary amount of manuring or cultivation will maintain the fertility of any soil over two years, as it will then either have been taken up by the crops growing on it, or else have been washed down below the_ depth to which the roots penetrate. It requires some extent of practical experience to know what is a good soil. The writer well remembers a blunder he and his partner made in their early experience in this matter. They (bred as horticulturists, partly in Europe and partly here,) on their first purchase of land for market-garden purposes in Hudson county, New Jersey, which borders on New York city, made a mistake in their selection, and no amount of the highest culture, although that is now thirty years ago, has ever been able to bring the soil into what would be termed even second-rate condition. The error made was in selecting a soil apparently good, but which was underlaid by a stratum of clay ten inches below the surface, and to-day, with all the drain- ing and subsoiling and every known means of eulture, it is impossible to raise crops as good as those half a mile away, where the subsoil is of porous sand. This is mentioned to show the importance of selecting, whenever practicable, a suitable soil for all operations, whether for the farm or the garden; for had it not been by an accident of circumstance, that the above lands became valuable from their proximity to the city, the unfortunate purchase would have ruined the writer and his partner. Experience with adhesive soils overlying clay, indicate success with oats, rye, barley, turnips, cabbage, dc.^ but for mangels, carrots, parsnips, or other deep- rooted crops, the lighter soil is preferable. Such crops as wheat, barley, oats, &c., do better in Europe on ridge lands, in consequence of their wetter climate and less sunshine than we have here. A level soil here, however, of equal fertility, (if the water passes off freely) is generally best for most of our crops, or for general farm purposes — as we have more heat, sunshine, and droughts. A heavy land with a clay subsoil will retain its fertility much longer than any other soil. But it would depend altogether on what purpose the land was used for. If for permanent grass, there is no land that will retain manure so long as stiff soils with clayey subsoils. We have known it to be kept forty years without being plowed, by applying an occasional top dressing of either barn-yard manure or a compost made of loam and lime. "Composition of the soil is one of the conditions on which its fertility depends. On this composition depends its supply of plant food. Fertility does not altogether depend on the quantity of organic matter present in the soil. There are some alluvial soils nearly destitute of organic matter, and yet of almost inexhaustible fertility; and there are peaty soils which are rich in organic matter, yet very barren. The organic matter of the soil, however, is of great value. It is constantly yielding by its decay matter, which nourishes the organic parts of the plant; and it is setting free, little by little, the earthy matters of its own ashes. It is also by its decay, inducing chemical changes which tend to set free other matters held in combination in the particles of the soil. It renders clay soil more (56) The Wrong and the Richt Way to Farm. CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 57 friable, and sandy soils more retentive of substances in solution; and tbese are certainly groat uses." "The mineral matter of the soil is of equal importance. All naturally fertile soils contain a notable quantity of each of the different mineral substances which have been named, which are indeed essential to fertility, for a soil destitute of any one of them is more or less barren; fertility being limited by the minimum of any one necessary ingredient, even though the maximum of the others be present." "However fertile a soil may be, not more perhaps than one per cent, of its substance is, at any moment, in a fit condition for nourishing our crops. The bulk of it is unavailable to the plant at any one time, and is only slowly liberated by the addition of air, of moisture, of heat, and of manure. It is on the rale at which this liberation of plant food takes place that the natural fertility of the soil may be said in a great measure to depend." A soil may contain abundance of phosphoric acid, potash, magnesia, etc, and yet be barren, if these exist in the soil only as apatite, feldspar, and serpentine, because these minerals do not yield their elements to the solvent agencies of the soil or plant rapidly enough to furnish the required amount of plant food. Nit- rates and ammonia salts, which are the natural sources of nitrogen to crops, never need be present in the soil in more than the minutest proportion. It is only requisite that they be gathered or generated there as rapidly as crops require them. "The process of nitrification, whereby inert or unassimilable nitrogen existing in the soil is converted into nitric acid, thus becomes one of the utmost agricul- tural importance." "On the other hand, the nutritive substances which are yielded naturally by the soil, may be in a state so soluble as to be very liable to waste before they can be taken up by the growing plants." "Every-day experience proves that soils differ greatly in these respects. Nearly all the materials which go to make up the structure of the earth's crust are such as to afford, by their decomposition, a soil fit for the support of vegetable life; but all rock formations do not furnish equal amount of these materials, and while all soils have considerable power of retaining in their pores even the most soluble substances, some part with them too readily, and others retain them too firmly, or only part with them when exposed to various preparatory processes. These differences are the result of geological formation, as well as of chemical composition." EXHAUSTION OF SOILS. The following views on this subject are well worth the consideration of all farmers. They are from the pen of a distinguished agriculturist, who knows how to shoAV up the misdoings of improvident and careless farmers, who allow the exhaustion of their soils and the gradual reduction of all their crops by with- holding what their fields should as regularly receive as they are exhausted by taking away of their crops. "This subject in past time received much attention, and was brought promptly before the farmers of this and other countries. Discussions, with valuable infor- mation, were elicited and published ; but adoption of efficient and practical means for the preservation and improvement of wasting soils has been slow and inade- 58 PROFITABLE FARMING. quate. 'But the progressive spirit is now at work,' and the lethargy on this subject that has prevailed since the late war has been to considerable extent dis- sipated and removed. " In the older and more thickly populated countries of Europe, where the soil had become barren and sterile from long-continued cropping, the attention of "See that Mouse!" farmers was directed to the fact by scientists, especially those conversant with chemistry, that something must be done to prevent the country from becoming a barren wilderness like ancient Palestine, which at one time was exceedingly pro- ductive. But it was not until about the beginning of this century that the farmer became awakened to this fact, and that any great advance was made to rectify this evil, which took the shape of a more systematic cultivation of the soil by better tillage, drainage, and rotation of crops. The expectations of the farmers were satisfied for a time, as this system utilized a large quantity of plant food that was lying latent in the soil; but after a few years they were again abruptly CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 5tt aroused from this mythical dream hy the fact that their lands were again becom- ing exhausted, showing that this better system of tillage did not prevent the depletion of the soil, but only made' available the remainder of the plant food that was lying dormant in the soil. This failure necessitated further investiga- tion, in order to discover what was lacking. The agricultural chemistry then came into play, which consisted in analyzing the soil and the plants to find out what was really wanting. The result was the discovery that phosphoric acid, potash, and ammonia were the plant food found lacking, and that they were the chief constituents necessary for the successful propagation of all plants. This theory is still recognized to be quite correct, and no soil, however fertile, contains inexhaustible supplies of these three essential constituents. With these facts staring the farmer in the face, he had either to let his land become barren and sterile, or get a supply of these ingredients, in some shape or other, to take the place of the waste going on. "A new departure was then adopted in the shape of mixed farming; that is, keeping a certain number of stock, principally dairy stock, to utilize all the rougher produce of the farm, and have it converted into manure and put back into the land. This was to be the great cure-all for the prevailing evil, and, indeed, is considered by some of our farmers, of this young country, as being all that is requisite not only to keep up, but also to restore, the fertility of the hardly used soil, and this is one of the myths that is very hard to eradicate from the minds of our farmers in this country. Observation, so far as their experience permits, seems to verify this conclusion, for in many cases where this method is fairly well carried out, the land becomes much more productive than it was when the grain crops were taken off continuous^ ; and altogether we are pleased to admit this fact as far as it goes, yet we may rest assured history will repeat itself, and we have only to look up the records of some of the older countries to find that, with the most careful system of mixed farming, where nothing is sold off but milk, butter, and cheese, as the case may be, along with some beef, the soil gradually becomes depleted of plant food, and although it may take a much longer time to accomplish this end as compared with raising and selling of grain, yet the fact remains the same — exhaustion is just as surely and steadily going on. "What says Ville? 'In the past the following was made an axiom for good farming: We must have plenty of hay, pasture, cattle and manure. But I assert that this proposition is an agricultural and economical heresy.' 'The farmer who uses nothing but farm-yard manure produced on the farm, exhausts his land. AVhence comes the manure but from the soil? and if any thing is sold, we are selling away part of the manure; or, in other Avords, part of the plant food taken from the soil. "As a fact, farm-yard manure does not make up for the loss of the phosphoric acid, lime, potash and nitrogeneous matter which it had to submit to through the carrying away of part, at any rate, of the crops grown on it. Where meat is sold the loss is less than in the case of grain, but there is a loss which in due time will be felt to be a serious one. I repeat, then, that the axiom which has hitherto been made the foundation and paladium of agricultural science, is nothing more than an expedient. I have said that farming founded on the use of the manure made on the farm alone is, economically speaking, against common sense. But, if, besides the profit, we increase from the first year the crop of straw, is it not CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 61 evident that, instead of growing meat in order to have grain, there is a manifest advantage in reversing the recognized order of things and commencing to grow grain in order to gain the earliest advantage? in fact we can get grain first and manure afterwards. "I repeat, then, that the soil can not do otherwise than exhaust itself unless we bring in from outside a large amount of fertilizing material, which for nine- tenths of the farmers in this country must be in the shape of chemical fertilizers, and the solution of this question, imposed on us by the force of circumstances, seems to be that it is only by the judicious use of well compounded fertilizers that we can maintain the fertility of our soil, and these substances required to make chemical fertilizers exist in the mineral kingdom, which appear to us to be especially reserved to repair the depredations of the past and of the present, and to guard us against the effect of such disasters in the future. It is therefore not correct to say that, with farm-yard manure made on the farm alone, and nothing but the manure, we have everything required; it is, however, true to say that in order to obtain large crops, there is only one method at our command, and that is to have recourse to chemical manures in preference to all others; with their aid we can govern the requirements of the farm instead of being governed by them." [Note — The author of the above excellent article, it seems to us, has put too much stress on chemical fertilizers. He does not even mention or put estimate on any farm manures except that of the barn-yard. Has not the farmer other resources to aid in returning plant food to his fields ? He says nothing of the compost-heap, the sweepings of yards, night soil, scrapings, rotted leaves, wood-pile mold and that from fence corners, the kitchen and out-houses — which every provident farmer would secure to lessen the amount which would have to be spent for fertilizers not produced on the farm.] TEXTURE, PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SOILS. "Soils differ greatly, not only in chemical constitution, but also in physical characteristics ; and, in our estimation of them, we must be guided by their climatic and physical relations no less than by the results of chemical analysis. It is comparatively easy to adapt the plant or crop to the nature of the soil when once we know what mineral ingredients are required by the one and afforded by the other; but it demands close observation and a more diligent application of means to bring the physical or mechanical qualities of the soil into the state most con- ducive to the growth of its natural products. The necessary influence of mechani- cal operations here becomes obvious, for the circumstances of air, moisture and warmth, which are essential to the development of the changes which occur in the process of germination, are but slightly influenced by the chemical properties of the soil, being all dependent upon its mechanical condition. All this influence is not confined to the first stage of vegetation, for at no period of growth or matu- rity can the plants avail themselves of the full amount of food unless the state of the soil admits of the free passage of air and water and favors the extension of the roots in all directions. " In respect to textures, the soil may vary from coarse pebbles or loose sand to the finest and most tenacious clay. In general, however, those soils are best adapted for agriculture which consistof mixtures of sand with a moderate quantity of G2 PROFITABLE FARMING. clay and a little vegetable matter. "When sand or other coarse material predominates the soil is light and easy to till, and ■will grow all the crops suitable to the district; but it is deficient in the power of retaining water and the soluble and volatile parts of manure. "When clay is in excess, the soil is heavy to till, and will prob- ably grow fewer crops; it is too retentive of water, and is not easily warmed, does not admit of access of air, and consecpiently does not facilitate those chemical changes in the soil and manure placed in it which are necessary to prepare proper food for plants. "Clay lands, whether in the dry or wet state, are the most difficult to work; sandy soils and those containing much organic matter being the easiest. When land is worked in a wet state we have not only to overcome the cohesiveness of the particles among themselves, but at the same time, their attachment or adhesion also to the agricultural implements employed. (Land should never be worked in a wet condition.) In a wet climate, therefore, the working clays for tillage will be fewer than in a dry one, and proportionately more so on clay soils than on light soils. Less work can also be done in a day with the same power on clay and heavy soils than on sandy or light ones. On clay lands a pair of horses can seldom do the tillage of sixty acres per annnm, but on light soils a pair of horses may undertake the work of eighty acres and upwards, except under very laborious rotations of cropping. "The terms light and heavy, as commonly applied to soils, do not refer to their actual weight, but to their tenacity and the degree of resistance they will offer to the plow or other implements. Sandy soils are in the farmers' sense of the word the lightest of all soils, because they are easiest to work, while in actual weight they are the heaviest soils known. Clay, also, which we call a heavy soil, because stiff and unyielding to the plow, is comparatively a light soil in actual weight. Peat soils are light in both senses of the word, having little actual weight, and being loose and porous." ABSORBENT AND RETENTIVE POWERS OF SOILS. "If there were no other difference than that of texture, that which contained the greatest amount of finely divided matter would possess an advantage over soils with coarser parts. One cause of this superiority consists in the greater absorptive and retentive powers Avhich finely divided matter possesses — due mainly, in all probability, to the immensely greater quantity of internal super- flees in a given bulk or weight of the more finely divided soil. The ammonia floating in the atmosphere is continually being washed into soils in solution with rain water. Clay, oxide of iron, and the organic matter contained in the soils, perform the important function of absorption. This property of clay may be one of the circumstances which renders clay soils better for wheat than sandy soils; but, although clay contains a larger proportion of this absorbed substance than sands or loams, it cannot be doubted that these must receive from rains the same amount of fertilizing matter as the clay, only they have less ability for retaining it, or at least for storing it up. The soil, however, is not a mere seive through which any matter in solution can pass freely. It has a power of retain- ing, as in a filter, many saline and other substances that may be present in the Avater permeating it. The experiments of May, Yoelker, and others have shown CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 63 that when surface water charged with the products of vegetable decay are brought into contact with argillaceous sediment, they part to some extent with their potash, ammonia, silica, phosphoric acid and organic matter, which remain in combination with the soil; while, under ordinary conditions at least, neither nitrates, soda, lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, nor chlorine are retained. The phosphates are probably retained in combination with alumina or peroxide of iron, and the silica and organic matters also enter moi*e or less insoluble combi- nations. It follows from these reactions that drainage-waters, especially from clay soils in a good state of pulverization, are found to carry off nitrates, sul- phates, chlorides, or carbonates of soda, lime, and magnesia. In light and sandy soils the power of retaining nutritive substances is less than in the case of heavier soils, or than soils having much vegetable matter. Were it not for this power, the soluble substances in the soil, whether naturally or applied in manures, would often be speedily washed out of it, and tillage and drainage would more rapidly impoverish the land than they do by allowing its soluble constituents to be carried off by water. "The power of soils to absorb and retain moisture is in direct ratio not only to the quantity of organic matter in the soil, but also to the fineness of the par- ticles of the soil — hence, it becomes important, in a practical point of view, to secure a proper degree of fineness in the particles of a soil if it is to withstand drought. During dry weather, plants require a soil which is both absorptive and retentive, and that soil which is capable of seizing atmospheric moisture, and holding it when the atmosphere is heated, is one of the best constituted soils; but ' stiff clays which take up the greatest quantity of water Avhen it is poured upon them in a fluid form, are not the soils which absorb most moisture from the atmosphere in dry weather; they cake and present only a small surface to the air, and the vegetation on them is generally burnt up almost as readily as on sands. The soils that are most efficient in supplying the plant with water by atmospheric absorption, are those in which there is a due mixture of sand, finely divided clay and carbonate of lime, with some animal or vegetable matter, and which are so loose or light as to be fully permeable to the atmosphere. With respect to this quality, carbonate of lime and vegetable matter are of great use in soils; they give absorbent power to the soil without likewise giving it tenacity; sand which also destroys tenacity, on the contrary, gives it little absorbant poAver.' In accordance, then, Avith these observations, Ave find that the materials Avhich are most influential in soils may be arranged in the following order, Avhen their relations to moisture are considered: organic matter, marls, loams, and sands." CHAPTER IV. Manures anft their ^Vpjilicatlon, BY J. W. FITZ, HORTICULTURIST. LANTS require food on which to subsist, it being just as essential to their sustenance as with animals. They also require a variety of nutrition for their proper nourishment and growth, which can no more be secured without it than a perfect animal growth when subsisting constantly on one element. It is also equally true that different plants require differ- ent proportionate elements in their food, just as different species of animals require different kinds of nutriment, and they will dwarf and starve unless that nourishment is furn- ished them. When farmers learn to feed their crops with the same care and consideration that they feed their .animals, they will be more successful in their business, and find that farming pays well for the labor bestowed. Although some soils contain all the requisite elements of plant-food in the proper proportions for certain kinds of crops, and will produce them for a long time without any apparent impoverishing, others contain certain necessary substances of nutrition in smaller quantities, which must be furnished in fertili- zers of some kind in order to produce a healthy and luxuriant growth. These elements that are needed in the soil to supply the suitable plant food may be contained in the proper proportion in vegetable manures — plowed into the soil in a green state — stable-manure, lime, wood-ashes, guano, or any of the other sub- stances used for fertilizing purposes. It depends upon the farmer to ascertain what is needed and to supply the requisite demand; certain it is. that all cultivated soils, hoAvever, rich, will in time become impoverished with constant cropping, unless a portion of the elements extracted from the soil by the growth of these crops be returned in the form of fertilizers of some kind; it may be by a deposit of rich mud or sediment drained to impoverishment from other soils by inunda- tion, as is the case with the valley of the Nile and banks of the Ganges, or it may be by other agencies; it makes no difference how the supply comes, the principle remains the same, which is, that soils producing constantly must be supplied with nutriment from some source. The Nile and Ganges rivers have continued by their overflow to furnish for more than 3,000 years all the fertilizing elements requisite to produce crops constantly during that period. When soils remain in their natural state, or are used only for pastures, but little change is perceptible in their character. Changes, however, are constantly going on both in their texture and capacity for production, although so gradual as to be perceptible only (64) n > > n s (65) 66 PROFITABLE FARMING. after a long period. Soils constantly cropped are the ones to become exhausted soonest. The decay of vegetable matter upon the surface of lands, the fertilizing properties washed down by the rains and melting snows from the steep declivities of hills and mountains, the mineral elements contained in the soil and rocks, that are rendered soluble through the agencies of the atmosphere, water, heat and cold, all these, though silent and gradual in their working, affect the productiveness of soils in a remarkable degree. The washing of the fertilizing properties from the mountains and hills is one great reason why the valleys contain usually the most productive soils. The food of plants is derived from two sources, viz., the soil and atmosphere. The elements obtained from these two sources, though greatly varying in propor- tionate quantities, are equally essential, as far as the plant growth is concerned, and no excess in the amount furnished from one source can make up or counter- balance the deficiency in the quantity furnished from the other, both being equally necessary. ELEMENTS OF PLANT FOOD. The elements of plant food necessary to produce plant growth are called organic and inorganic elements, and, in a general sense, embrace every material which, if added to the soil, will tend to increase its fertility. Organic elements embrace animal and vegetable substances which have a certain proportion of nitrogen; inorganic elements comprise those that are purely mineral or earthy, and which generally contain no nitrogen. The organic elements, to be in the proper proportion, should be about ninety-five per cent., the inorganic the remain- ing five per cent. By burning a plant the organic elements will be converted into gases, while the inorganic elements remain in the form of ashes, called in analysis the ash of plants; thus the organic element, or the ninety-five pounds out of every one hundred pounds of the dried plant that is burned, and which is derived mainly from the air, disappears, while the inorganic, or the five pounds out of every one hundred pounds that are left behind in the form of ashes, are obtained from the soil. Different plants differ somewhat in the proportion of the organic and inorganic elements contained in them. The tobacco plant, for instance, having a larger proportion of ash than many others, but, on the average, every plant that grows will have about ninety-five percent, of organic matter and five per cent, of inorganic matter, the organic matter being furnished by the air, the inorganic by the soil. This, in the main, is the unchangeable law of nature. Since the atmospheric elements are found present in the soil, in a greater or less degree, according to its' texture and degree of porosity, it has been estimated that about one-half of the material furnished to plants is derived from the earth. It was formerly believed that plants depended for their nutrition upon the organic matter (or what is called humus) in the soil. This humus theory was set aside by chemistry, which proved that certain soils were extremely fertile with but two or three per cent, of humus in their composition, while certain other soils were sterile with from twenty to forty per cent, of humus contained in them. After- ward it was advocated by even the noted Liebig that plants for nutrition required only the application of the mineral elements. This theory was met by the nitro- gen theory, between which two (the mineral and nitrogen theories) a long contest ensued, until it was discovered that in some respects both theories were right, and MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 67 in others that both were wrong. Then followed the theory that iii order to ascer- tain the wants of plants and provide! them with proper nutriment, we had only to analyze the soil and determine its wants, also the structure! and composition of plants, and by supplying the soil with the elements necessary to certain plants, and in which it was deficient, a perfect supply of nutriment would thus be fur- nished the plant. Although this theory seemed to approximate nearer the truth than cither of the preceding ones, still it had its objections, and its advocates were disappointed in not meeting with that success in its practicable application that had been anticipated; for it was soon found that the acids of the chemist in analysis would take from the sample of soil certain elements which the plant could never find and approximate, owing to its being in such a state that ren- dered it impossible to extract it from the soil. For instance, the analysis of the soil might prove an abundant supply of phosphoric acid contained within it, but it might not be in such a solvent state as is necessary for the tender roots to derive nourishment from it; hence, the plant would just as surely starve for the want of that phosphoric acid as though the soil contained none. In other words, the analysis determined the constituents of the soil, but not its mechanical condition, upon which so much depends in successful agriculture. Besides these objections, different samples of soil taken from different portions of the same field might vary greatly in their composition; hence, an analysis of soil from one portion of a field might not apply to other portions. The following important propositions concerning plant food, agricultu- rally considered, are given by Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, of Massachusetts, an authority that will be a sure guaranty of their reliability and true value to the farmer : 1. The soil contains plant food. 2. The plant removes this plant food from the soil. 3. Analyses of plants will show the character and quantity of the plant food removed from the land. 4. A supply of the elements removed by the plants from the soil in such a way that they can be appropriated by the plants, will produce plant growth under proper conditions. 5. Plants remove varying quantities of plant food from the soil, according to their species, their manner of growth, and the proportions and quantities of plant food present in the soil. 6. The constituents of plants furnished from the atmosphere being beyond our control, in studying plant growth and food supply, Ave can limit ourselves to the earth alone, and study the air supply only as modified by our control over the elements supplied to our land. 7. The soil contains the elements of plant growth in varying proportions and conditions; some elements far in excess of the needs of our plant, other elements in quantities sufficient only to support a scant growth. 8. The plant food in the land must, to be of service to the crop, be in a soluble state, or in a state capable of being taken up by the rootlets of our plants. 9. When the elements of plant food, in the form of chemicals or dung, are added to our soil, there is a chemical action taking place between them and the soil constituents, in the presence of moisture. 108) Solid Comfort. MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 09 10. The soil has the power of decomposing most of the chemicals which are applied, and has a retaining power on their compounds, varying with the character of the element. 11. As a rule, phosphoric acid is firmly held hy the soil and is not subject to loss through drainage, and has a limited dlffusibility; potash is strongly retained, but has a greater diffusibility; nitrogen in its various forms is less strongly retained, and has a ready diffusibility. 12. In proportion to the presence of and diffusion of these fertile elements in our soil, other conditions being favorable, will be the amount of our crop. 14. Waste of fertility in our land arises from drainage, and the changing of soluble plant food into unsoluble forms. 14. Plants require different proportions of plant food and different combina- tions at different periods of their growth. 15. The presence of certain elements in excess has an influence on the growth and composition of the plant. 10. The seed has an influence, in itself, in determining the ci'op, an influence apart from the presence of a full supply of food, or the climatic features of the season. TIME AND METHOD OF APPLYING MANURES AND FERTILIZERS. We cannot do better than give the following by Prof. B. Puryear, Richmond, Va., on this subject: We believe that farmers are constantly sustaining heavy losses from the bad management of fertilizing material. Our domestic manures, the excre- ments of animals, are frequently exposed month after month to the action of sun and rain ; no processes, either mechanical or chemical, are taken to prevent the escape of ammonia, or the carryihgoff in solution of the soluble constituents of the manure. In the construction of farm-yards, care should be taken that the roofs of the build- ings turn the water from, and not into, the farm-yard. Then, if the farm-yard be level, or slightly basin-shaped, there will seldom be an overflow of water. When, however, this does occur, it may be made, by easy contrivance, to flow into a water- tight tank, which should always contain absorbents in abundance. The contents of the tank may be hauled off, at suitable intervals, to the field, or thrown back upon the manure pile, as circumstances may suggest. Thus nothing is lost; the saving accomplished will soon repay the trouble and expense incurred. The blackish water which has percolated through a manure pile, and flows off upon the surface, is charged, to saturation, with the soluble constituents of the manure. When we recall the fact that no solid, as a solid, can get into the circu- lation, so that all solids, to be available, must first be dissolved by water, we see at once that in this waste of liquid manure, Ave are losing all those constituents that make manure valuable. In saving animal manure, the admixture with it of vegetable matter and earth is always advisable. The fertilizing material is thus absorbed and retained, and the vegetation rots more thoi - oughly and promptly from its contact with animal mat- ter. The sprinkling of gypsum (calcium sulphate) over manure heaps, and in the stalls of horses and cattle, is also advisable. The escape of the gas (ammonia) which is but little more than half as heavy as the atmosphere, and therefore is liable to rise into the air, is prevented by the formation of the sulphate of ammonia, which is solid, and therefore cannot escape in this Avay. 70 PROFITABLE FARMING. We believe, however, that animals' excrements should be hauled off as promptly as possible to the field, and turned under. Then all the chemical changes take place in the soil, which holds and assimilates the products of chemi- cal action. We will give a single illustration of this remark: Ammonia, the form in which plants obtain their nitrogen chiefly — it being a compound of nitro- gen and hydrogen — is always a product of the decomposition of putrescent manures. When formed in the soil, ammonia can never escape; its wonderfully absorbability by water is the explanation. Water absorbs seven hundred times its volume of the gas, so that as fast as the gas is formed, the' moisture of the soil absorbs and holds it for the use of growing vegetation. We believe that, as a general rule, the best method of applying manure is to broadcast it. Tbe argument that manure should be applied just where it is most accessible by the roots, is, in the main, fallacious; in the case of plants, as Irish potatoes, which must make very quickly, and whose roots do not ramify exten- sively through the soil, it may be best, particularly if the supply of manure is scant, to put it where it is most accessible, and most ready for immediate use. But for wheat, corn, tobacco, and for all plants where we can fertilize heavily, broadcasting is the proper method. Let us see : Tobacco, say, is cultivated in the hill ; the plants are success- fully set and are growing rapidly ; the prospect for a large crop is highly flatter- ing; everything that the plant needs is about and among its roots, and with favorable seasons the growth is rapid; but let a little drought come — how quickly the plants show that they cannot contend with the situation ; the prospect so flat- tering awhile ago vanishes at once — why is this so? Plants, like animals, accom- modate themselves to their environment. The plants, when set, found everything necessary for rapid growth abundantly about their roots; why should the roots spread out and strike down in quest of food, when without doing so they can get it abundantly? Like fast young men, like riotous livers, they have abundance at present, and reck not the day of coming trial. When, therefore, the crop is pinched by a little drought, it gives way at once; the roots are superficial, and confined also to smaller area; water does not fall to dissolve the fertilizer freely, and the plants not having made provision for getting supplies from a larger area and from greater depths, succumb at once. They have been pampered, and are unprepared to make a vigorous effort for life. On the other hand, if the same amount of fertilizing material had been applied broadcast, and so had become thoroughly intermixed with, and assimilated, by the soil, the growth would have been more gradual, more healthful, and better sustained ; the plants would have had to root for their food, and would have rooted more extensively and more deeply; they would have had more and stronger means of obtaining food, and that, too, from depths and localities unvisited, in the former case, by their roots. AVhat we have said about tobacco applies with equal force to corn, wheat, cotton, and other staple crops. Again, the inadvisabihty of applying manure in the drill or hill may be illus- trated in another way. If the supply is inadequate for the full demand of the plant, the result, even with good .seasons, may be disastrous, for another reason. Let us again take tobacco to illustrate our point: the plants grow off promptly and rapidly, they are vigorous and strong; they feed upon, and consume rapidly, the food placed immediately about their roots; but when this supply gives out, as is MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 71 not unfrequently the case, before the maturity of the plant, then the plant is well nigh helpless; with an artificial supply of food placed right at hand, it has neg- lected to send out many roots, or any very deeply; this artificial supply failing, the plant is unprepared to get food from the soil at large. At best, at the very best, its growth must bo checked while it is endeavoring to accommodate itself to the new situation. The easy and abundant source from which it has been draw- ing its food is exhausted; what now shall it do? It will either fail to meet the emergency, or at best, must bo checked and injured in its growth and develop- ment, Avhile it is seeking to change its tactics, and adjust itself to altered condi- tions. We believe, also, that it is best to apply manures, whether putrescent or com- mercial, for spring or summer crops, in the preceding fall; let it have time for per- fect assimilation by the soil, for the completion of the chemical changes that will occur upon its admixture with the soil. Some fear that it will get out into the air; that it will be dissolved by the rains and carried away to the creeks and rivers. Not so; the earth is not con- structed in so bungling a way; Ave may not so impeach the wisdom of the Supreme Architect; it is only when rains are excessive, and are more than sufficient to saturate the soil, that any runs off; but the rain that runs off is the surface rain that has not percolated through the soil, and therefore carries off but very slightly the soluble constituents of the soil; it has not struck through the soil; it has had no chance to dissolve, except to a small extent, the soluble constituents of the soil, for, confined to the surface, it has come in contact with them only to a very slight extent. Besides, who knows but that the soil, by a law of its own, unknown to existing science, may have the power of holding with special grip and tenacity, whatever is necessary to its own constitution? Such is the belief, at least, of a farmer who was talking Avith me a few days ago — a man of large experience and successful practice, distinguished by the accuracy of his observations, and the general correctness of his inductions. BARN-YARD MANURE. The chief value of barn-yard manure, an exchange says very truly, lies in the manner in AA r hich it is saved. If allowed to be drenched and AA'ashed by rain, its soluble portions are Avashed aAvay, and these contain about all there is of value in any fertilizer. If, on the other hand, moist manure is thrown into a pile and alloAA r ed to heat, its valuable constituents are volatilized, and pass immediately into that vast storehouse of fertility, the air. Hence, under the action of water and strong fermentation the valuable constituents of manure may be dissipated until so little remains as to be practically AA r orthless. In the feeding of animals in the fields or in pasturage this fertility is not lost. The soluble portions are washed out, and descend into the soil, and are held for future use. The practical saving of manure of yards and stables therefore becomes a matter of importance. Two means are constant and simple; the prevention of fermentation in heaps, and the Avashing of the soluble portions out of the yards. The first may be pre- vented by spreading Avhere it may be tramped under the feet of animals and the second by forming the yard dishing and AA T ith a clay bottom that will hold the liquid. 72 PROFITABLE FARMING. MAKING MANURE. Clean the stables every morning or when necessary, and throw on the heap; always keep it well together, with a flat and broad top; it will soon commence to rot, and by the time there are eight or ten loads accumulated, take a day and haul to some suitable place for manufacture. As the manure is hauled keep it well together, and not less than three feet deep; keep the top always flat or a little concave, as in this way the valuable quality is better retained. When manure is heaped conically or spread carelessly far around, and remains so for any length of time, its value then would only be about equal to straw. Tbe heap should be regulated in depth according to quantity. By hauling a day at intervals in winter the yard may be clear stock out to pasture. work of spring is past, over, mixing it thor- finished square or ob- nearly perpendicular through, and not less the deeper it is the about level, with six which will prove val- C'ompost Heap. )y the time of turning When the pressing turn the manure heap oughly. It should be long, with straight and sides, well packed all than four feet deep, as better; finish the top or eight inches of soil, uable in saving the good qualities of the manure. When application time comes there will be found a rich heap of manure, black and greasy. This plan is practiced by all the best farmers of England, who obtain such heavy crops of roots followed by heavy and luxuriant spring grains and grass. HOW TO SAVE MANURE AT HOME. A correspondent of the "Planters' Journal" says: I have an old mule and a dump cart, and hire an old darkey every year whose only labor is to haul manure and stuff to make it. I never stop him to be sent to town for mail, nor to chop cotton, nor to pick cotton even. Every day that old man hauls with his mule, and if ever I have a spare hand from the crop, I send him to help in the same business. Leaves and pine straAV to fill my stalls, and put under my cow sheds, and the same mixed with rich garden and wood-pile litter, dirt from the fence corners, cinders, ashes, yard sweepings and garbage is added to my compost pile, with sometimes a little lye to decompose the contents thoroughly, and strong soap suds from the wash tub poured on. This makes the finest and richest of all manure heaps; and whilst it costs least of all, being built up almost entirely by house servants in cleaning about yard and garden, it will often prove equal to one-third its weight in Peruvian guano. The hog-pen where I am fattening my hogs is a source of the best of all manures. My old carter throws in a load of litter every day or two, filling the pen a foot deep by the time the hogs are killed. I find this the most durable in its effect of all the manures I have ever used. I do not know how many tons of all sorts of manure I get every year. I think, with all the hauling back and forth, I get three cartloads on an average every day available for use, counting, of course, all the help I put in the winter and spring. This would give 900 cart loads, equal certainly to 300 tons, and Avorth, at my calculation, $1,500 at least. And all this is, as I may safely say, the yield from one man and his cart, with only such help MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 73 as I can throw in conveniently. T use my manure liberally as I go, sometimes putting 200 cart loads to an acre, often 100, and when such a liberal dressing is plowed in, that land will be rich for several years and work easy and does not bake nor suffer from drought so readily. I consider the increased yield in one year from the manure saved tin* year pre- vious, pays liberally the cost of saving and applying it, and leaves the increased yield every subsequent year as net profits equal to 75 per centum. I find also that on land well improved by my home-made manure, a very small application subsequently of commercial manures makes a more wonderful yield than a thousand pounds would do on land that has not had my home com- post on it. The richer my lands are with home-made manure, the better it pays me to use guano on the same land. I have had such success in the practice of my plan that I want to see every plantation doing the same way, or a better way. The secret of my success is, that I make manure-saving a special business, and never put it aside to do anything else. On my farm, in the fence corners and in the Avood and branch bottoms, scrapings are obtained in the shape of dead and dirty leaves, rich dirt, &c, that are very valuable. I am saving daily and converting it, and it pays well. The same is on every plantation in Georgia. Let us not ignore the fertility that lies at our own doors and reach out to buy ruinously from abroad. VALUE OF LIQUID MANURE. In regard to the value of liquid excrement, the Boston "Journal of Chemistry" says : How strangely we overlook the value of the liquid excrement of our animals. A cow under ordinary feeding furnishes in a year 20,000 pounds of solid excre- ment, and about 8,000 of liquid. The comparative money value of the two is but slightly in favor of the solid. The statement has been verified as truth over and over again. The urine of the herbivorous animals holds nearly all the secretions of the body which are capable of producing rich nitrogeneous compound, so essen- tial as forcing or leaf forming agents in the growth of plants. The solid holds the phosphoric acid, the lime and magnesia, which go to seeds principally, but its liquid, holding nitrogen, potash and soda, is needed in forming the stalks and leaves. The two forms of plant nutriment should never be separated or allowed to be wasted by neglect. The farmer who saves all the urine of the animals doubles his manural resourses and it will require a large expenditure of commercial fertilizers to make good this loss. If the farmer cannot do anything else he can at least sprinkle land plaster in the gutter behind the cows and in the horse stables every day, and save a part of the value that goes to waste in the urine. Besides, the plaster will make a sweet smelling stable, and that will do his animals considerable good. COMPOSTING. It will always pay to have a compost heap, especially where there is stock. In preparing a place for one it is proper to place boards at the bottom. A high and dry spot should be selected for the purpose. The object in view is to rapidly decompose the substances in the pile, and decomposition cannot go on to any extent under water. The heap should be five or six feet high, in order that the 74 PROFITABLE FARMING. rains which fall upon it may not leach it and carry off its valuable properties. A layer of muck, or good loam a foot thick, may be placed at the bottom. Upon this an equal layer of stable manure. Then leaves, corn-stalks, straw, and similar substances may be thrown on and mixed with the manure. Another layer of muck may be used, followed by leaves and similar substances and covered with manure. The muck may be employed quite freely — two loads of muck to one of stable manure being a fair proportion. To each load of material twenty-five pounds of plaster should be added. Some farmers mix ashes in the compost heap, but we consider them more valuable to use alone as a special fertilizer. Others throw in old boots and shoes, soapsuds, brine, sawdust, kitchen slops and all such refuse. From these materials a considerable quantity of plant food may be obtained, and, if properly used, they may be made to help very much in the process of decom- position. The addition of two hundred pounds of good superphosphate of lime to each cord of the other materials, if well mixed with the whole mass, will prove of immense benefit. This material most farmers would be obliged to purchase. Those who can obtain it without paying excessive rates for transportation will probably be gainers by using it. Finely ground bone is also a very good addition to a compost heap, and, if the superphosphate cannot well be obtained, this may take its place. Of course the top of a compost heap should be covered with muck or loam. In a few days, if the weather is Avarm, fermentation will set in. This will gradually increase to a certain point and then slowly die away. Some farm- ers attempt to control this fermentation by the use of water, which they apply liberally if they think the pile is getting too hot. Others consider water an injury and rely upon the plaster to keep the contents of the heap uninjured. In itself this fermentation is a great advantage. The only danger is that it will proceed too rapidly and cause the loss of some of the most valuable elements. If this takes place, it will be indicated by the escape of vapor which has a strong pun- gent odor similar to hartshorn. If this odor is not apparent the heap is suffering no loss; but when it does appear ammonia begins to escape, and the value of the material will be rapidly reduced if the fermentation is not at once retarded. There are two ways of checking this evil — the application of water, or still better, a covering of plaster and a final light coating of dry earth. Some guard against too rapid fermentation by making the compost heap in October, and relying upon the cold weather to retard decomposition. When this is done, the heap should be shoveled over once or twice in the spring. When any other system is followed, it is always a good plan to throw over the heap before it is used. Sometimes freshly slacked lime is used in compost heaps, but the practice is not to be recom- mended. It will hasten decomposition and get the heap in condition to use much sooner than it otherwise could be, but it involves the loss of too much nitrogen to make it profitable. The time required for the proper composting of manures will vary greatly with the nature and qualities of the materials which are used, the way in which they are handled, and the degree of exposure to cold and rain to which they are subjected. The progress should not be hastened by lime and the materials should not be used until it is thoroughly broken up and separated into its elements. From six months to one year is usually required, though Mr. Waring claims that by the proper use of liquid manure, soapsuds, slops and similar material (with MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 75 which a tank is filled when the heap is begun and from which it is pumped over the mass once or twice a week and through which it filters back into the tank), a heap can be reduced to fine condition in a single month. We think, however, a longer process is more desirable. WOOD ASHES. Ashes should be carefully saved; they should hold an important place among the mineral resources of the farms in those sections in which wood is used for fuel. They furnish large quantities of potash in an easily available condition, act quickly, energetically and with a considerable degree of permanence. They should be saved carefully, and kept dry until they are used. Ashes from hard woods are much better than those from soft species, though these are valuable. Leached ashes on some soils give good results, but for general use they are inferior to those which remain in their natural condition. Leaching removes much of the potash together with a part of the phosphoric acid and lime, but enough of the latter remains to make them very useful to crops in which potash in large quan- tities is not an essential ingredient. Coal ashes are of but little value for fertilizing purposes, but are said to be useful in small quantities around pear trees, and they sometimes improve the mechanical condition of heavy soils. CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. A correspondent of the "Country Gentleman" writes: In May, 1869, Dr. Voelcker, in a lecture before the Ro}^al Agricultural Society of England, said: I have frequently been struck with the remarkably luxuriant appearance of wheat after a heavy crop of clover has been removed from the land. I at first doubted it; but at last I was obliged to confess that it invariably follows when you get a good crop of clover, that you also get a good crop of wheat. An enormous amount of nitrogenous organic matter is left in the land after the removal of the clover crop, and this gradually decays and furnishes ammonia. Also that I have come to the conclusion that the very best preparation, the very best manure, if I may say so, is a good crop of clover. Now, at first, nothing seems more contradictory than to say that you can remove a very large quantity of both mineral and organic plant food from the soil, and yet make it more pro- ductive, as in the case of clover. Nevertheless it is a fact that the larger the amount of mineral matter you remove in a crop of clover, and the larger the amount of nitrogen which is carried off in clover hay, the richer the land becomes. This is a chemical anomaly which Dr. Voelcker had been investi- gating ten years, and only during the previous season had he been able explain it. Then he found that in a chemical point of view, clover is the most exhausting crop you can grow, while in a practical point of view it is the most restorative crop, and the best preparation for wheat you can possibly grow. The amount of nitrogen and of mineral matter secured by one year's growth of clover, is several times as much as is needed for a crop of wheat. A vast amount of mineral matter is brought within the reach of the Avheat crop by growing clover. By means of its long roots clover penetrates a large mass of soil; it gathers up the phosphoric acid and the potash, which are reached by its long, deep roots, and when the land is plowed the roots are left in the surface soil, and decaying, they 76 PROFITABLE FARMING. furnish the mineral substances most needed by the wheat plant. Without the help of clover roots, a large portion of these substances must remain in a locked- up condition, in which they are not available for the growing wheat. The accumu- lation of nitrogen in the soil by growing clover is also very large. The clover plants take the nitrogen from the atmosphere, and manufacture it into their own substance, which, on decomposition of the clover roots and leaves, produces abundance of ammonia. In reality, the growing of clover is equivalent, to great extent, to manuring with Peruvian guano; and there is a larger amount of nitro- gen accumulated in the surface soil than in the heaviest application of guano any farmer would think of making. Dr. Voelcker also shows, as the result of frequent and thorough examinations, that when clover is pastured there is much less plant food accumulated in the surface soil than when it is cut for hay, and that there is less when clover is cut twice for hay, than when cut once and allowed to go to seed. The reason for this is that there is much less growth, especially of roots, Avhere clover is pastured; as to the second, that a large amount of clover leaves drop and enrich the soil when clover goes to seed. Now, Messrs. Johnston and Geddes have been two of the best practical farmers in the country; and Dr. Voelcker, though one of the best agricultural chemists of the day, has, at least in great part, been brought to his present views, as against his previous scientific opinions, by the very beneficial effects secured by farmers in growing clover. Hence we find science and practical experience agreeing in regard to the remarkable fertilizing effects and results secured by raising clover. And it must now be apparent to every intelligent reader, that the three most important constituents of crops, to-wit, nitrogen, potash, and the phosphates, can be obtained much easier and cheaper by growing clover than in any other way — hence it is claimed that, at least on grain farms, where a rotation of crops and frequent seeding to clover can be practiced, there is no need of the very heavy and expensive manuring which was formerly recommended. Still, it may not be best to go to the other extreme, and depend altogether on clover; the best course is to make all the barn-yard manure that can be secured, by feeding all suitable crops on the farm, and then grow clover enough, with the help of this manure, to make the land rich. PEA FALLOW. The experience of farmers with artificial fertilizers since the war ought to be sufficient to open their eyes to the folly of such a system of farming, and clearly show the necessity of adopting a different one — a system that .will obviate the outlay of so large an amount of money, and will, while it yields a good return in crops, give "permanent" improvement to the land. Any expenditure of money and labor on the farm that does not give a corresponding increase to the fertility of the soil is bad farming. Any investment of money in the growing crop, be the return ever so large, is unwise and impolitic if it does not give to the land a proportionate "increased capability" to yield large succeeding crops. The mer- chant whose capital does not increase in proportion with his annual amount of sales, will conclude he is doing a losing business. Land is the capital of the farmer, and to do a safe business he must see an evident improvement, or increase, in the productiveness of his hind each succeeding year, and thus his capital will MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 77 show such an annual augmentation as will stimulate and encourage labor and make farming remunerative. We make the following suggestion of a system (and for it we do not claim origi- nality), which, if persistently carried forward for a number of consecutive years, we know from experience and an extensive observation, will give the most satisfac- tory results. For the crop of cotton lay off two lots, or fields, each containing the number of acres the planter has the ability to cultivate each alternate year. In the month of June sow one lot, or field, in black peas for the next year's crop; one bushel per acre broadcast is sufficient. As soon as the first crop matures sufficiently to allow it, gather enough of the pea for the next year's sowing, then fallow in the vines deep, being careful to cover them up well. During early winter sow over the fallow as large a quantity of lime as can be afforded. Cotton will bear a large application of lime and be all the better for it. If any artificial fertilizer be used, let it be applied to the pea crop, thereby increasing the volume of the fallow, which will add proportionately and alike to the increase of the crop and the fertility of the soil. In the cultivation of the corn crop, let the corn beds be made five feet wide and with a small turn plow, in the month of June, make a single lap in the water furrow — or midway between the corn rows — open this with a trowel hoe and sow the black peas, covering lightly. As soon as the first ripen, gather for the next year's sowing, and then cover up the vines well with a turn plow. After the corn is gathered, during the winter or early spring, cut down the corn stalks and lay them along in the furrow made by the plow in covering the vines, and finish the corn bed on them. Before planting, lime (ten to twenty bushels an acre) should be sowed over the land. Let the same field be thus cultivated for several consecutive years, until it will bring clover well, or wheat that will pay for the cultivation. In five years the crop of corn will probably reach eight or ten barrels per acre, and the land will be capable of growing profitably any crops desired, and will be correspondingly increased in value. If it be preferred, the peas may be sown broadcast in the corn in June and fallowed in as soon as the corn can be cut clown and the lime sown as before. To make a permanent improvement of our soil in this piney country, lime must be applied in sufficient quantity to make the soil calcareous. This is the basis of all improvement. Since the close of the war many thousands of dollars have been expended in artificial fertilizers, and can any planter sjiow any increase in the productiveness of his cotton lots thereby at all commensurate with this large expenditure? By no means. But if the same amount of money had been used in pea fallows and lime these same cotton-fields would now be growing two and three bales of cotton per acre, with corn, wheat, and all other crops increased in the same ratio; and, instead of groaning under the present existing poverty and depression, farmers would be a prosperous, independent and happy people, and all branches of trade be equally flourishing. This is a simple, economical, and positively sure svstem of improvement. 78 PROFITABLE FARMING. HUMUS IX THE SOIL. Samuel A. Cook, of Milledgeville, Georgia, says: This important adjunct to successful farming and gardening must be contained in the soil or else failure of crops. Humus is a pulverulent brown substance formed by the action of air on solid animal or vegetable matter, without which the soil becomes compact, and in an unsuitable condition for the growth of plants. Farmers, generally, are not aware how much of this important material lies loose about the farm, that could be given the soil to the great benefit of the crops : Humus or vegetable mould, as ought to be known, is simply vegetable matter that has become decomposed in the soil. All vegetable matter contains a small percentage of mineral or inorganic matter known as ash, a small percentage also of nitrogen; and however dry it may have become through the influence of air and sun, contains a certain proportion of water. The ash and water being deducted, the remainder is denominated "organic matter" of vegetation. For instance, one hundred pounds of wheat straw, that has been exposed to the sun and air until it has become perfectly cured as hay, still contains fourteen pounds of water, (hygroscopic water, this is termed). This fourteen pounds of water can be extracted from the straw only by exposing it to a temperature of 212 degrees — a degree of heat far above what the sun can give in this climate. Deducting this fourteen pounds from one hundred leaves eighty-six pounds of perfectly dry straw; and if this eighty-six pounds of straw is burned it will be converted into five and a half pounds of ashes, the visible remainder, the other eighty and a half pounds having gone into the atmosphere as so much smoke. This eighty and a half pounds is the organic matter of the one hundred pounds of straw which, when decomposed in the soil, constitutes humus. This organic part is composed of the four atmospheric elements — carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. Now, if this eighty and a half pounds of organic or vegetable matter is decomposed through heat, but protected from the air, it would assume the form of charcoal — losing about fifty per cent, of its weight. We see that humus and charcoal are the same substances, in a little different form. This charcoal — again exposed to heat in the forge of the blacksmith, with a current of oxygen from the bellows — is again decomposed and forced into the atmosphere, with its small proportion of mineral matter left as ashes on the hearth. As humus or charcoal, the solid and tangible part of vegetable matter is carbon. Now, just as nitrogen is available only as it becomes converted into ammonia, so also carbon is of little avail until it has become converted into carbonic acid, so far as plant food is concerned. We know very well that neither humus nor char- coal is taken up by the roots of plants in their unmatured state, but is useful and essential in the soil as a storehouse of carbonic acid. Humus or vegetable mould in the soil renders the soil more porous, prevents it from baking or crusting, and enables the air to enter, more freely than it would in soil composed only of mineral or earthy matter. Humus, also, is a great absorb- ent of moisture — catching it up and holding it after a rain much longer, and in much greater quantity, than ordinary earthy matter can; and, again, as the soil dries off it has a greater capacity for bringing back the water of the subsoil below it- — aiding capillary attraction. Humus is also credited with the power of strain- ing out from water any ammoniacal matter that may have become dissolved in (79) Dinner is Ready. 80 PROFITABLE FARMING. it, and thus prevent its escape into the subsoil where it would be out of the reach of the lateral roots of plants. Humus from some form of vegetable matter is much richer in certain elements than that from other forms. Wheat and pine straw, for instance, are very much inferior to the vine of clover, vetch, pea and other leguminous plants. These latter are five to seven times richer in nitrogen than the straw of any of the small grain; and all this nitrogen is secured to the soil when the matter is turned under at the proper stage. Our common rag weed is also superior to the straw of grain in this respect. This is the chief rea- son why the leguminous plants are esteemed as the most suitable for providing vegetable matter. Wherever vegetable matter is covered up by the soil, whatever nitrogen is in it by decomposition is yielded up to and absorbed by the soil. Cai - bonic acid and ammonia are the two requisites for a luxuriant growth of stalk or weed; and both must be obtained chiefly through the soil, and to a great extent through the influence of humus. Soils that are persistently devoted to hoed crops in our climate, with its long summers and scorching sun, are more rapidly exhausted of their humus than the soils of the North where the summer is shorter and where a more rational system of culture is practiced. A great loss of humus follows the turning up of soil and exposing it afresh to the scorching rays of the sun, from June to September; and a wise system of farming will guard against turning up in the summer any more than possibly can be avoided. It can be justified only where the object is to plant a quick growing crop that will soon shade the land and ultimately be given to the land. Our field pea is about the only plant that is adapted to this purpose for summer planting. With good cultivation, a crop of peas can be made even when planted in July; but how many of the plants have we that we can successfully plant in mid summer ? Very few farmers, as yet, have found that the pea has any great value as a money crop, as it is an expensive crop to market, and it is valued chiefly as a manurial or fallow crop — holding the position here that clover does in the North. As fallow crops it is not probable that Ave will ever find two plants more suitable for general use than the clover and the pea. While other plants may be resorted to casually, for the purpose of supplying humus to the soil, these two will be the common reliance for that purpose for a long time to come. It may be said that we have not entered on their use yet for this purpose, com- paring the present use Avith what we will make of them in the future, when Ave come to farm more scientifically than Ave do iioav. We can only apply vegetable matter economically by groAving it in the soil. We cannot haul vegetable matter on and apply it to soil as Ave Avould manure — that is, in the bounds of a reasonable economy. If Ave had an unlimited amount of barn-yard manure, and facilities for applying it in unlimited quantity, of course there Avould be no need for grow- ing any vegetable crop to supply humus. But until that condition of affairs (abun- dance of manure) exists on a farm, we Avill have to obtain our vegetable matter from planting special crops for the purpose, or by a judicious use of the sponta- neous growth that results from leaving the land unploAved for a Avhile. In thou- sands of instances, on our Southern soils, it is practicable to maintain a sufficiency of humus in the soil by simply alloAving every part of the farm to come into the rotation of small grain once in every three or four years; and after the grain is cut off in May or June, letting the land groAV up in rag Aveeds and other sponta- neous growth, and leaving it undisturbed until spring — rotating small grain with MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 81 corn or cotton or other summer growing crops. Such soils as are well set with this valuable renovating weed are very easily kept up to a high standard of fertility, with hardly any expense at all. The heretofore common practice of pas- turing stubble land, in all kinds of weather, has had a great deal to do with its impoverishment. Generally crab grass or other edible plants come along spon- taneously with the weeds, and the farmer could not or did not resist the tempta- tion to turn his stock in on it — deeming it an extra crop and thus prevented any accumulation of vegetable matter to the soil. By winter such fields were pretty well deprived of all covering, and lay exposed to the sun and to washing rains; and instead of being benefited by the small grain crop the land was actually injured. A small grain crop should almost invariably lead to the improvement of the land on which it was grown. The first concern of a farmer should be not so much to bring up any worn out soil to a medium state of fertility as to keep his good soil, that pays him to cultivate, up to a certain standard. If he can do both, well and good; but it is much easier to make rich land richer than it is to make poor land rich. If a farmer has an acre of land that produces 500 pounds of lint cotton or fifty bushels of oats now, his aim should be to keep it up to that condition as long as he cultivates it. It may not be that such land will require an annual application to effect this. It may be that manure applied every other year, and a bountiful supply of humus every three or four years, will accomplish the object more economically than annual applications would. It is a matter that every farmer will have to settle for himself, as he is the only person who knows the condition of the land and what it needs to keep it up. As remarked, while spontaneous growth may be utilized to a considerable extent in keeping land sup- plied with humus, still our principal reliance no doubt in the years to come will be clover and field peas. While both of them are leguminous plants, there is a very great difference between them in respect to hardiness. One is perfectly hardy, withstanding the severest weather of winter uninjured, while the other is tender and can barely withstand the slightest frost of winter or autumn. The hardy clover can be sown in the South late in the fall or early winter, and then again in early spring. The pea can be sown from the middle of April to the middle of August. Sowings at the latter date are not likely to produce peas, but a fall crop of vines may be had if the weather is fairly seasonable. The value of clover, as a producer of humus, is greatly enhanced from the fact that it may be grown in connection with another crop. We can sow it along with small grain in October and November, or we can sow it on the small grain in early spring and it will take possession of the land after the grain is cut off. When soAvn with grain in the late fall, it comes up promptly but grows very slowly through the winter — almost dormant in fact — and does not diminish the yield of grain appreciable. The grain stubble acts as a mulch in the summer and the clover grows very rapidly and soon shades the land. In October or November after plowing in the oats or other grain, twenty pounds of mammoth red clover seed should be broadcasted per acre ; the seed requires no covering. If the seed are known to be perfectly good and the land very rich, ten pounds of seed will suffice, but generallv twenty is better. Where the sowing has been deferred until spring the grain should be harrowed and the clover sown immediately afterwards. Wherever practicable, the clover should be started in the fall, however. On rich land the first growth of clover should be converted into hay, the second growth coming 6 82 PROFITABLE FARMING. on very promptly to shade the land, and will yield a bountiful supply of vegetable matter for turning under in the spring. Our old-time practice of sowing peas in the corn middles is one that should be kept up. By having the rows as close together as the nature of the soil will permit of, a very liberal supply of vegetable matter may be secured without any very great reduction in the yield of the corn, and after doing this we should see to it that the soil is not pastured to death by permitting stock to run on it in all kinds of weather. Where sugar cane (or sorghum) is grown to any extent, it will pay to haul out the bagasse or refuse and apply in furrows and list upon, if practicable, sprink- ling it with lime before covering. While it is desirable to save every particle of vegetable matter that can be secured at a reasonable cost, I do not believe that one farmer in twenty will find the hauling of pine straw on the land to be a profitable method of applying vegetable matter. In some special cases, and in small ways, it may be very profitably hauled on and applied as a mulch for Irish potatoes, especially on clay lands; but as a source of humus on an extended scale, its use will be found neither practicable or economical. * * *• A great deal has been said of late in our agricultural papers about the unprofita- bleness of farming in the South, and the question as to whether there is any pay to be gotten out of it nowadays has been warmly discussed by many intelligent farmers. From the evidence presented, it is clear that while a few farmers here and there are managing to make it pay, yet the great mass of farmers are making but little headway; most of them, perhaps, losing mone}^. The chief reason, of course, for this condition of affairs is that the soil they cultivate is too poor to produce profitable crops, and this poverty is owing to the almost complete exhaustion of the humus from it. We should proceed diligently to restore it. That eminent horticulturist, Peter Henderson, in an essay on manures and their application, presents many valuable suggestions and views, and although intended for horticulturists, they apply generally as well to agriculturists. We append the main points as being especially valuable. The subject of manures is one of the greatest importance to every operator in the soil, whether farmer, market-gardener, florist, or such as cultivate only for their own use, for under few conditions can crops be long grown without the use of fertilizers. Although I have already given general instructions about fertili- zers in all my works on gardening, yet I find from the number of inquiries received from even such as have my works, that the matter has not been there treated sufficiently in detail to meet the wants of the varied conditions under which the necessity for the use of fertilizers arises. The comparative value of manures must be regulated by the costs. If rotted stable manure, whether from horses or cows, can be delivered on the ground at three dollars per ton, it is about as valuable for fertilizing purposes as Peruvian guano at sixty-five dollars per ton or pure bone-dust at forty dollars per ton. It is better than either of these or any other concentrated fertilizer, from the fact of its mechanical action on the land; that is, its effect from its light porous nature in aerating and pulverizing the soil. Guano, bone-dust, or other fine commercial fertilizers act only as such without in any way assisting to improve what may be called the physical condition of the soil. MANURES AND THEIE APPLICATION. 83 All experienced cultivators know thai the first year that land is broken up from sod, if proper culture has been given by thorough plowing and harrowing (provided the land has been drained artificially or naturally so as to be free from water and relieved from "sourness"), the land is in better condition for any crop than land that has boon continuously cropped without a rest. The market-gardeners in the vicinity of Now York arc now so well convinced of this, that when twenty acres arc under cultivation at least five acres arc continually kept in grain, clover or grass to be broken up successively every second or third year so as to get the land in the condition that nothing else but rotted, pulverized soil will accomplish. IThis is done in cases where land is as valuable as five hundred dollars per acre, experience having proved that with one-quarter of the land resting under grass more profit can be got than if the whole wore under culture. When the rotation, by placing a portion of the land under grass cannot be done, then it is absolutely necessary to use stable manure, at least to some extent, if the best results are to be desired for continuous cropping of the soil. Where concentrated fertilizers only are used, they will not continue to give satisfactory results after the grass roots or other organic matter has passed from the soil — all of which will be entirely gone by the third or fourth year after breaking up. I have long held the opinion that the idea of lands having been permanently exhausted by tobacco or other crops is a fallacy. What gives rise to this belief, I think, is the fact that when lands are first broken up from the forest or meadow lands, for three or four years the organic matter in the soil, the roots of grasses, leaves, etc., not only serves to feed the crops but it keeps the soil in a better -state of pulverization, or what might be called aerated condition, than when in the course of cropping for a few years, it has passed away. Stable manure best sup- plies this want, but on farm lands away from towns it is not often that enough can be obtained to have any appreciable effect on the soil, and hence artificial fer- tilizers are resorted to, which often fail, not from any fault in themselves but from the fact that exerting little mechanical influence on the land, it becomes compact or sodden, the air cannot get to the roots, and hence failure or partial failure of crop. Thus we see that to have the best results from commercial fertilizers it is of great importance to have the land "rested" by a crop of grain or grass every three or four years. The best known fertilizers of commerce are Peruvian guano and bone-dust, though there are numbers of others, such as fish guano, diy-blood fertilizer, blood and bone fertilizer, with the various brands of super-phosphates, all of more or less value for fertilizing purposes. It is useless to go over the list, and Ave will confine ourselves to the relative merits of pure Peruvian guano and pure bone- dust. Guano, at $65 per ton, we consider relatively equal in value to bone-dust at $40 per ton, for in the lower-priced article we find we ha" e to increase the quantity to produce the same result. Whatever kind of concentrated fertilizer is used we find it well repays the labor to prepare it in the following manner before it is used on the land : To every bushel of guano or bone-dust add three bushels of either leaf-mold (from the woods), well pulverized dry muck, sweepings from a paved street, stable manure so rotted as to be like pulverized muck, or if neither of these can be obtained, any loamy soil will do; but in every case the material to mix the fer- 84 PROFITABLE FARMING. tilizers with must be fairly dry and never in a condition of mud — the meaning of the operation being that the material used is to act as a temporary absorbent for the fertilizer. The compost must be thoroughly mixed, and if guano is used, it being sometimes lumpy, it must be broken up to dust before being mixed with the absorbent. The main object of this operation Is for the better separation and division of the fertilizer, so that when applied to the soil it can be more readily distributed. Our experiments have repeatedly shown that this method of using concentrated fertilizers materially increases their value, probably twenty-five per cent. The mixing should be done a few months previous to spring, and it should, after being mixed, be packed away in barrels and be kept in some dry shed or cellar until wanted for use. Thus mixed, it is particularly beneficial on lawns or other grass lands. The quantity of concentrated fertilizer to be used is often perplexing to beginners. We give the following as the best rules we know, all derived from our own experience in growing fruits, flowers, and vegetables: Taking guano as a basis, we would recommend for all vegetable or fruit crops, if earliness and good quality are desired, the use of not less than 1,200 pounds per acre (an acre contains 4,840 square yards, and cultivated for private use any one can easily estimate from this the" quantity they require for any area), mixed with two tons of either of the materials before mentioned Of bone-dust about one ton per acre should be used mixed with three tons of soil or other materials named. BARN-YARD MANURE. Farm manures, as a general rule, may be regarded as containing all the essen- tial elements of plant food, hence, are complete fertilizers. In this respect they differ from commercial fertilizers, any one of which contains but a portion of the requisite elements appropriated by plants in their growth. Animal excrement was formerly almost the only reliance of the farmer for replenishing his lands, he depending mainly for the supply upon what was furnished by the barn-yard, ' the pig-sty, and the sheep-fold; and even these manures were usually lessened in value by being left until wanted for use, where their most valuable fertilizing ele- ments would be leached out by the rains and evaporated by the sun. The improve- ments in the system of agriculture during the last half or quarter of a century, while they bring new aids to the farmer by the use of concentrated fertilizers of various kinds, have furnished nothing that has caused this old time-honored fer- tilizer to be less valued, or less useful; but since the old source of supply is not at present sufficient for the demands of the soil in crops produced, these furnish important and valuable substitutes, or rather are supplementary aids to that which our forefathers depended upon principally. Though there has been a great improvement within a few years with regard to preventing the waste of stable manure among farmers generally still there is a great loss in this respect on many farms, which a little pains taking and care would prevent. The soil needs all the manure that can be made upon the farm, both liquid and solids, which, if saved and applied will result in larger crops, and consequently larger profits; hence, a Avaste of anything that can increase the productiveness of the farm is a loss in money to the farmer. Among the fifty important theses published by Liebig as axioms of his theory, he says: In the 'productions of the field, through the har- MANURES ANL> THEIR APPLICATION. 85 vests, a great quantity of. the elements of the soil which have become elements of the plants is taken away and removed from the soil; before the sowing, the soil is richer than after the harvest — the composition of the soil is changed after the harvest. The lost fertility is again restored by means of manures (stable manures), excrement of man and animals. POTJLTUY MANURE This valuable fertilizer, and any farmer who has been accustomed to neglect his flock of hens, caring little or nothing for their products or the care they received, would be surprised at the quantity and quality of the guano thev manu- facture when properly fed, and which might be utilized by being saved from their Young Farmfr^. roosting place. The droppings of the poultry should be secured from under their roosts every few days and mixed with earth, or with a compost, as they are very soluble. It is a good plan to scatter a little sand over the floor of the hen-house every day or two, which has a tendency to keep the place clean. When applied to the soil, it should be harrowed in lightly, since the excrement of fowls contains both the fceces and urine combined ; it is peculiarly rich in the fertilizing elements, and is considered, in this respect, next in value to night soil. Poultry should always be provided with warm quarters for roosting, and we hope no farmer is so far behind the times in this respect, or so inhuman as to adhere to the old and ■86 PROFITABLE FARMING. "barbarous custom of forcing hens to roost in trees, and take care of themselves on the scanty pittance they are able to glean from the barn-yard. This is the richest, most concentrated and most active of all farm manures. The food of fowls is principally seeds and insects, all of which are rich with fertilizing matter. The urine is evacuated with the excrement, combining the solid and liquid in a profitable manner. When dry, hen manure is worth about as much as Peruvian guano, which costs from seventy to one hundred dollars per ton. Unless kept perfectly dry it is rapidly wasted. Probably the best method of preserving is to keep loose dry soil on the floor in the hen-house, upon which the droppings will fall. Spade or fork this over occasionally, and it soon becomes as rich, as a fertilizer, as the clear manure. Care must be taken in applying this variety of manure, since there is danger in using too much. It is a very strong article and comparatively little goes a good ways. It may be scattered quite sparingly, if applied dry. A better method is to take, say half a bushel of the manure as it comes from the coop, put into a tight barrel (an old pork barrel does well), and then fill the barrel with water. Stir it occasionally, and next evening it will be ready for use. A common sprink- ling pot may be used. For gardens this is decidely the best farm manure that can be found. . NECESSITY FOR CHANGE. The caterer of plant food finds that plants, like animals, are fond of a variety. Barn-yard manure is the staple fertilizer, and, like bread in the economy, makes the best steady diet. But this manure is better when made up or composted of the excrements of different animals. Let a farmer feed a piece of land with the droppings of the sheep alone, or cows alone, for a series of years, and he will find that the effect is not so great after a time, and that a little horse manure put for a change upon the same land will work wonders. Night soil is one of the most efficient fertilizers, and has been much used by market gardeners near our cities, yielding in its first applications immense crops, but after a time it loses its mag- ical influence; and a market gardener once said to us that he was so well convinced of the necessity of a change in plant food, even where night soil was used, which he considered the best for growth of vegetables, that once in the course of six or eight years he would prefer a dressing of muck or rotted sods, or leaf mould, or even good loam, to any pure nitrogenous manure. A compost made of nitrogenous manure, salt, lime, ashes, bone-dust, refuse vegetables, and refuse of almost every nature, will make a fertilizer of which plants will not soon tire. FISH GUANO, ETC. Fish have long furnished manure for agricultural purposes to this and other countries, and will probably continue to be one of the chief resources of supply for the future, since it is richer in phosphoric acid and nitrogen, two valuable elements of plant food. The aboriginies of our country were acquainted with its value as a fertilizer, and wore accustomed to place one or two fish in a hill when planting their maize, burying them with seed, that their decomposition might enrich the soil by the time the seed had Avell started in growth. Tins practice, as well as that of plowing them into the soil, of course involves much waste, as the slight cover- MANURES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 87 ing of earth would not l>c sufficient to retain the gases produced by the decompo- sition. Various species of small fish are used for this purpose, the menhaden being used the most extensively in this country. The best and only propermode of using them for a fertilizer is to first compost them with dry earth or muck. This should be done by making a compost of alternate layers of fish and earth, one above the other, to the desired height, and ooveringthe pile at the top with three or four feet of soil. The pile should have about a foot of earth at the bottom, upon which a layer of fish should be spread from four to five inches deep; upon this a layer of earth about a foot deep, followed by another layer of fish, and so on till the pile is complete, the top to be covered with a foot of soil. As the fish decomposes, the soil acts as an absorbent and deodorizer, which is so effectual that no annoyance will be occasion- ed by the escape of any effluvia offensive to the most fastidious olfactories. In a few weeks, if the Aveather be warm, the pile can be shoveled over and thoroughly mixed with the earth. It may be applied at any time to the soil, but should not be left exposed to the storms, as the rains will leach out its valu- able properties; when not intended for im- mediate use, it should, therefore, be kept under a shed or cover of some kind. Upon the Atlantic coast, the menhaden fish are used principally for this purpose being very abundant and furnish a large portion of our fish guanos. The fish are usually first subjected to a process that ex- tracts a great portion of the oil, and the pomace is then dried and ground, ready for use. The flesh of fish, like that of all do- mestic animals, contains about fifteen per cent, of nitrogen, and a fish guano that con- tains the largest amount of nitrogen is, of course, the most valuable. When an undue amount of heat is applied in extracting the oil from the fish, the guano is injured for agricultural purposes in a proportionate de- gree. Prof. Goessmann says: Nobody familiar with the nature of a good fish guano considers it less efficient for agricultural purposes than any other animal refuse matter of a corresponding percentage of phosphoric acid' and nitrogen. In fact, all true guanos, the Peruvian not excepted, owe their most valuable con- stituents, in a controlling degree, directly or indirectly to the fish. Menhaden Fisherman, CHAPTER V. Sfllincral fertilizers BY J. W. FITZ. IME is a most important fertilizer. On this subject Prof. Puryear, of Richmond, Va., says: Lime and the compounds of lime have in all ages largely attracted the attention of the tillers of the soil, and opinion as to their value and action has been various and discordant. Lime in the form of its carbonate, a compound of carbonic acid and lime, constitutes about one-seventh of the rocky crust of the globe. If it be really valuable, therefore, its value and its great abundance make it a matter of the highest interest to the farmer. It will be our object in this article to show the functions of lime in vegetable growth, and to explain why in some cases it satisfies, and in others disap- points, the hopes of the husbandman. (I) Lime is a constituent of the ash of all plants. The amount of lime in the ash of plants varies with the plant, being small in the ash of the cereals, but . quite large in the ash of the grasses and of the wood of trees. The amount in the ash of hay is 22 per cent.; in tobacco 37 per cent. Now, the substances that con- stitute the ash of plants being solid, come, and come of necessity, from the soil. They do not exist, and cannot exist, in the atmosphere. The same substances : but in very different proportions, make up the ash of all plants. It may be well to mention them. They are potash, soda, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, silica, chlorine, sulphuric and phosphoric acids. In some plants, then, notably tobacco, the amount of lime in their ash is more than a third of the entire ash, made ivp, as it is, of nine constituents. Lime, then, being a part of the ash of all plants, and of many a very large part, is an essential constituent of all fertile soils. (II) Lime possesses caustic or disorganizing properties. If we wrap up a lump of lime in a neAvspaper, or in a piece of cloth, we Avill find in a short time on unwrap- ping it, that the cloth or paper will not hold together; it falls into pieces; it is rotten, as we say. So in tanning, the hair is easily rubbed from hides that have been duly steeped in a solution of lime. In agriculture we make use of this property of lime in hastening the decom- position of vegetable matter. When a heavy sod is turned under, or a heavy crop of peas, the application of lime is always indicated. It may perform both the func- tions we have attributed to it, that is, it may both act as plant food itself, and also rot the vegetable matter, which is valuable only as it rots. When both these objects are accomplished, the good effects of the application of lime will be strikingly conspicuous. The farmer will be exultant in the result and enthusiastic in his (88) MINERAL FERTILIZERS. 89 praise. The final issue, however, may abate the ardor of his zeal; perhaps may turn his praise into malediction. Let us see. Encouraged by the good results, he continues the application. The natural deficiency of the soil in lime is satis- fied — is more than satisfied. Hence the lime will cease to supply a want, and one of the good effects produced by the first application will therefore vanish. But more. Lime has done so well that he thinks its continued application all that is neces- sary to his continued success. Perhaps he cultivates his land every year, removes the crops closely, allows no rest or recuperation in a crop of grass. Dazed hy suc- cess, he now falls into a damaging conclusion. Again, let us see. There is no thick sod, no matted vines, to be turned under, as he plows his land for wheat or corn. Still he puts on the lime, but the soil now has lime enough, and there is but little vegetable matter to be decomposed by the action of the lime. The two prime conditions, under which the lime acted so well, are now both ab- sent; of course the good results do not appear, and the man is mad — mad with the lime, in- stead of being mad with himself for not having read the instructive pages of "Profitable Farming." Indeed, there are cases, as might be in- ferred from the fore- going remarks, when the application of lime is positively injurious. primitive cooking. When the soil has lime enough, and there is very little vegetable matter to be decomposed, the application of lime is contra-indicated. Lime, in such a case, would cause the too rapid decomposition of the small amount of organic matter in the soil, using it up before the crop is fully matured. Again, we may say in this connection, that the natural guanos or the excrements of our domestic animals is always injurious. If we take a piece of muriate of ammonia, a compound of muriatic acid and ammonia, and triturate it in a mortar with a little caustic lime, the pungent odor at once perceived indicates the escape of that most valuable gas, ammonia. What has happened? The lime has combined with the acid, and ammonia is set free as a gas, which being but little more than half as heavy as the air rises and escapes. Now, the excrements of animals contain salts of ammonia, and lime mixed with them sets free in the same Avay the gas, ammonia, which gives to these fertilizers their chief value. (Ill) Lime sometimes performs another important function. It corrects the acidity of soils, just as we use it to correct the acidity of the stomach. In the language of chemistry, acids and alkalis are antipodal in their effects and relations. When an acid combines with a base, a new compound is formed, mixing of lime with the 90 PROFITABLE FARMING. which has, as a general statement, none of the properties of either of its constit- uents. When lime — an alkali — combines with an acid, a neutral salt is formed, having the properties neither of the acid nor of lime. Now soils are frequently sour from the presence of vegetable acids. Soils permanently wet are always sour, because the water excludes the atmosphere and so prevents the complete decomposition of the vegetable matter. Vegetable acids, under such circum- stances, are formed out of the elements of the organic matter, which undergoes only partial decomposition in consequence of the exclusion by water of atmospheric oxygen. These acids are injurious to the crops we generally cultivate. The only permanent remedy is thorough drainage, by which Ave get rid of the excess of water, and as the soil shrinks and cracks-, air finds access, the organic matter is completely decomposed, and so these acids are no longer formed. When a marsh is drained, therefore, the atmosphere itself would correct the acidity of the soil, but not at once. W T e wish to get the benefit the first year of the expense incurred in draining. The application of lime will surely accomplish this result, combining with and neutralizing the free acids as it sinks through the soil, and, at the same time, decomposing the large amount of vegetable matter which has been so long accumulating in such localities. LIMESTONE AND LIME. The following article, from the "American Agriculturist," is the best on this subject that, in the author's opinion, can be written: Limestone, in agriculture, is the rock ground into powder. Lime is the same burned in a kiln. Limestone is a most widely distributed mineral, one of its purest forms being known as marble, and is found almost all over the United States, of various qualities and degrees of purity. It is a carbonate of lime; that is, lime combined with carbonic acid. If a fragment of limestone is placed in a glass of water and a little strong acid is added, the carbonic acid is set free, and we see it pass off as bubbles rising through the water. Limestone is so slightly dissolved by water that it is tasteless. It takes one thousand six hundred parts of water to dissolve one part of limestone. Water in which there is much carbonic acid dissolves a considerable amount of carbonate of lime. If a small piece of limestone be kept at a strong red heat for some hours it will be only half as heavy as the original stone. What has it lost in the burn- ing? If tested with acid, as before, no bubbles of gas will be given off. The heat has driven out all the carbonic acid; it is no longer a carbonate of lime, but simply lime (an oxide of the metal calcium or calic oxide, as the chemist have it). Limestone burned in kilns produces lime often called quicklime. If a lump of freshly burned lime have water gradually put upon it, it soon becomes hot, and in a little while it swells up, cracks and falls into a very white powder; though much water has been added, the powder is quite dry. The water has united with the lime, making a solid caustic or slacked lime. Lime exposed takes up moisture from the air, and we have air-slacked lime. Slacked lime, with enough water, forms whitewash or "milk of lime." On standing, the greater part of the lime will settle, leaving clear lime-water — a saturated solution of lime; that is, the water has taken up all it can dissolve, for at ordinary temperature it requires sev- eral hundred parts of water to dissolve one part of quicklime. < z (91} 92 PROFITABLE FARMING. If clear lime water be placed in a glass and with a straw or pipe-stem the breath be forced into it, the lime water will soon become cloudy and then milky. Set the glass aside and a fine white powder will settle at the bottom leaving the water clear above. The breath contains carbonic acid, this when forced into the lime water, unites with the lime, forming carbonate, the same as unburned lime- stone which, being little soluble, separates as a white powder. If we continue to breathe into the lime water after it has become milky, it will soon become perfectly clear as at the start. The continued breathing supplies more carbonic acid than is needed to convert the lime into an insoluble carbonate. The excess of carbonic acid in the water re-dissolves the carbonate. Heating this solution drives off the carbonic acid and the carbonate of lime will be deposited again. Carbonic acid is always present in the atmosphere, and when slacked lime is long exposed, it takes up this acid and slowly becomes carbonate of lime. QUICKLIME UPON LAND. The reason we use quicklime upon land is that all cultivated plants contain lime in their ashes, and it is considered necessary to their proper growth. But soils generally contain enough lime for the use of the plants, and we apply it for its action upon the other constit- uents of the soil, and acids in converting them into forms in which they can be taken up by the plants, espe- cially in liberating pot- ash from its combina- tions. The effect of lime upon the mechanical condition of the soil is an important feature. Upon heavy clay soils its effect is most mark- ed ; the particles lose leading ground. Hot Water Reservoir and Warming Oven, 1875. their adhesiveness and allow air. and water to enter. These are the effects that follow the use of lime. In view of the claims made for unburned limestone, it is an important question how far it can produce the above effects. The unburned limestone will' supply the demands of the plant for lime; that it may slowly neutralize organic acids and help the mechanical texture of the soil, seems very probable. But that it will perform one of the most important offices, the decomposition of organic matter in the soil and convert that into plant food, seems improbable, because the ability of lime to do this depends in a great measure upon its avidity for carbonic acid, while limestone, being already a carbonate, has no need of more. That limestone cannot produce all the effects of lime is shown by the well-known fact that soils underlaid by limestone.. MINERAL FERTILIZERS. U3 and naturally containing a large proportion of finely divided carbonate of lime, are as much benefited by the use of quicklime as are soils deficient in limestone. In addition to the preceding remarks on lime and its uses, which will doubt- less be appreciated, as lime is an important factor in the successful treatment of all soils, we will give some valuable opinions and views by John A. Read, author of " Farming for Profit." Although the use of lime is considered by many .armers and by some agri- cultural writers as the very foundation of successful farm business, it is by others believed to be useless, if not actually injurious. We do not think it is as valu- able as it has many times been called, but believe it may, in many sections, be very useful. As far as the feeding of plants is concerned, we consider its appli- cation of not much use — certainly so on all soils of granite or of limestone forma- tion. Only a very small quantity of lime is used by plants, and enough to supply their wants can be found in almost any soil. But it often proves a great aid to the farmer by hastening the decay of vegetable matter which is already in the land, but in a condition in Avhich it is unavailable for plant food. It thus fur- nishes nitrogen, and by breaking up and fining the coarser particles of soil, libe- rates the mineral elements which crops require. Upon soils which contain too much acid and produce sorrel and other weeds better than they do corn and wheat, lime is especially useful, as it corrects the acidity and fits the land for the produc- tion of useful plants. The idea which many have that lime exhausts the soil is not supported either by theory or practice. When properly applied, lime will work such changes in the soil as will make the fertilizing elements immediately available, but will not allow their escape in air. The crops will be larger, and large crops to Avhich no real plant food has been applied always means exhaustion to the soil. But in such cases the exhaustion is caused by the crops, of which the farmer has the full benefit. Lime should always be sown upon the surface, never plowed in. It sinks in the soil and should be only slightly covered, or not covered at all. We strongly favor using small quantities at frequent intervals. Ten bushels per acre oh ordi- nary soils is enough to begin Avith. If the effect is favorable, the same or a larger application can be made in tAvo or three years. Upon soils Avhich are badly worn and contain but little organic matter, lime should be used quite sparingly, if at all, while on land containing large quantities of organic matter it can be applied more freely. Shell lime is considered the best, but in many sections cannot be obtained except at great cost for transportation. When stone lime is used, the purest kind should be obtained. It should be slacked with salt Avater before being applied, except in those cases in Avhich it is used merely to decompose organic matter in the soil. For this purpose it may be applied Avithout slacking. LIME IN CROPS. Limestone soils are far more fertile and lasting than sandy or freestone lands. The reason is, that all crops require more or less of lime, while sand is of very little use for crop food. Besides, all limestone, which is the base rock in limestone lands, always contains seA r eral other original elements in addition to lime, such as manganese, sulphur, magnesia, soda, &c, Avhich are continually disintegrating and, by percolation, reneAving the dirt aboA r e the rocks AA r ith these elements. (94) Three Friends on the Farm. MINERAL FERTILIZERS. 95 There is comparatively little of any one element taken from the soil in the pro- duction of Our crops. Professor Caldwell, before the Elmira Farmers' Club of New York, gives the amount of lime required for some of the most common staples, as follows: The total quantity of lime. taken up from the soil of an acre by an average corn crop of fifty bushels of sixty pounds to the bushel, and 0,000 pounds of stover, would not exceed twenty-live pounds. A good crop of clover, 5,000 pounds of hay in two cuts, would require about 120 pounds of lime. A crop of wheat of twenty- five bushels, with 2.">(>0 pounds of straw, would not require more than ten pounds. A fair crop of potatoes, 9,000 pounds or 150 bushels at 00 pounds to the bushel, would not need more than three pounds. A crop of 20,000 pounds of beets only seven pounds, and of 3,000 pounds of timothy hay about thirty-four pounds of lime. When Ave look a little further into the matter, and see how small a propor- tion of the lime is actually exported from the farm in the crops ordinarily sold, and how large a proportion goes back to the soil from which it came in the manure, the little need of taking pains to supply lime to plants for food will become still more plainly apparent. On any well managed farm the hay is all eaten by the stock so that none of the lime in that part of the produce of the farm is exported ; what little is retained by the young growing animals for the production of bone substance is more than made good by the lime in the water which the animals drink ; in cases where a careful comparison has been made between the composition of the manure of a mixed herd of cattle more lime has been found in the total manure than in the total fodder supplied and this excess could have been derived from no other source than the water. (This must apply to limestone regions). The lime in the clover and timothy is not then lost to the farm if the manure is cared for in any ordinary manner; the same is true of wheat and other straws, of the corn- stalks and the roots. But in the acre's yield of Indian corn, taking the grain alone, there is only about tw r o pounds of lime and in wheat but little more than one pound. In the other cereal grains Ave should have similar insignificant quantities of lime and if the potatoes are sold off the farm as is often the case to the large extent of only three pounds. At these rates of demand it would take a long time to make much impression on the reserve supply of lime in the soil when such reserves amount to from 1,600 to 2,000 pounds. GYPSUM OR PLASTER. The following by Professor B. Puryear, LL. D., gives us a very clear idea of this question : There is another compound of lime, to which we will briefly invite atten- tion, to-wit: Gypsum. This is the sulphate of lime. It contains 46 per cent, of sul- phuric acid in combination with 33 per cent, of lime, and besides 21 per cent, of water existing as the water of crystallization. An ocular demonstration of the value of gypsum as a fertilizer is said to have been made many years ago by a farmer writing with his cane in his freshly sown wheat-field, in large letters, the words: " See the effects of gypsum," filling up with gypsum the little trenches formed in making the letters and then leveling them off. In the spring the passer-by saw from the road the wheat spelling, "See the effects of gypsum," and attracting attention in consequence of being conspicuously taller there than else- where. 96 PKOFITABLE FARMING. How and when gypsum is valuable are matters of diverse and conflicting opinion. The action of gypsum is the pons asinorum of scientific agriculture. Some things, however, which will not admit of dispute, may be said. (1) Both the constituents of gypsum, sulphuric acid and lime, are found in the ash of all plants, and the ash of plants comes only from the soil. Now, if a soil should be deficient in both these constituents, the application of gypsum, supplying two wants, would produce excellent results and elicit the warm support and hearty praise of the farmer. But another farmer using it on land, which needed neither sulphuric acid nor lime, would fail to see any benefit and condemn it as a fertilizer. Here are two opinions, both right and both wrong. The first farmer thinks it good for his land, and so it is, so long as the natural deficiency of his soil in sulphu- ric acid and lime is not fully satisfied ; but of course it is but little worth when this con- dition is attained, or has never existed. The sec- ond erroneously infers because it is not remu- nerative on his lands, it is worthless on all lands. (2) The most marked effects of gypsum are seen when it is applied to the grasses and for a reason which has already been hinted at. The heaviest demand of the grasses upon the soil is for lime, and gypsum meets this demand. Gypsum applied to a crop needing lime but little would not produce such obvious effects from the simple fact that the crop can get sufficient lime from the unhelped soil. The only safe way to determine the agricultural value of gypsum is to use it on alternating strips of land planted or sowed in different crops, and noting, in each case, the comparative effects. It is very cheap, and experiments conducted in this way would soon tell the farmer when and where to use it. (3) But, no doubt, the chief effects of gypsum are due to a cause yet to be mentioned. We send our ships, at least we used to do it, thousands of miles, doubling Cape Horn, to the western coast of South America, for guano, and farmers found it profitable to buy it at from $60 to $90 per ton. Now, guano is so valuable chiefly for the ammonia it contains. But the ammonia which these guanos contain is ammonia in combination, and mixed besides with other mate- rial worth little or nothing. Why is ammonia so valuable to plants? Because it is the source of their nitrogen. It is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. The supply of the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen of plants is abundant. The carbonic acid gas and aqueous vapor of the atmosphere furnish these three elements to an unlimited extent. But the supply of nitrogen is scant and preca- Portable Range, A. D. 1875. Happy Boyhood 98 PROFITABLE FARMING. rious; at least, it is somewhat obscure. Again, the compounds of plants that contain nitrogen, the nitrogenous compounds briefly, are the only parts which are capable of assimilation, and conversion into the vital tissues of animals. Wheat, for instance, contains woody fibre, starch, sugar, gum and gluten. All these compounds except gluten are hydro-carbons, that is, they are made up of carbon and the elements of water; but gluten contains nitrogen in addition, and is identical in composition with the nerves and muscles of animals. Brought to the liquid state by the solvent action of the secretions employed in digestion, the gluten streams with the vital current through our tissues, which pick it out to repair their constant waste, and assimilate it as a part of their own substance. The gluten that we eat in wheat then and in all other vegetable forms reappears in the body as nerves and muscles. Not so, however, with the fibre, starch, sugar, gum, the hydro-carbons. They do not remain in the body; they do not become a part of the body. They are only burnt off, maintaining animal heat, and escape back into the atmosphere from the lungs and skin as carbonic acid and water. The value then of ammonia is indicated by the fact that it is the source of the nitrogen of plants, and by the further fact that plants must have nitrogen to form the only compound they contain that is capable of conversion into the vital tissues of the animal. Hence the high price of all fertilizers containing the salts of ammonia. Now, ammonia is always forming as the result of the decomposition of all organic substances that contain nitrogen. Being much lighter than air, its tendency is to rise, and frequently it does rise, and mingle with the general atmos- phere. It is endowed, however, with a wonderful property which largely coun- teracts this tendency. Water absorbs 700 times its volume of ammonia. When we see a quart of hartshorn or aqua amnionic, we have, if the water be saturated, nearly two hundred gallons of the gas, ammonia, imprisoned in a quart bottle. People talk a great deal about ammonia, but mortal eye has never seen it. We can make the invisible gas, ammonia, and learn its properties by experiment, but we cannot see it. People talk flippantly about ammonia, and would maintain that they had often seen and handled it. Not so; they have only seen and handled its salts, as the solids, the sulphate, the nitrate and the muriate of ammonia. When ammonia is liberated in the soil as the result of the decomposition of vegetable matter, or of putrescent manures, it is not so liable, as many think, to rise by its levity and lose itself in the atmosphere. Nature 'does not so bungle her work. The water of the soil absorbs it and so arrests its escape, and when this water enters the plant, the ammonia goes with it. But ammonia does escape, and sometimes to a wasteful extent, from our horse stalls and manure piles, and also from the dry soil. Now, as ammonia is a matter of so much importance to the farmer, whether he considers its scant and precarious source of supply, or its necessary presence in the soil for furnishing to plants the nitrogen required for the formation of their most important compound, it is obvious that any device which will catch and hold all the ammonia that is formed on his field or farm pen will be greatly welcomed. Such a device, cheap and simple, is gypsum. Let us see. Go into your stable on a warm spring morning. The pungent odor that greets your nose is due to ammonia. But a test better than your nose will show that ammonia is rising and escaping. A feather dipped in muriatic acid will be wreathed with a thick white smoke, the fumes of muriate of ammonia. If, how- ever, the stalls or manure piles be constantly sprinkled with gypsum, neither of MINERAL FERTILIZERS. S9 these tests will ever indicate the presence of ammonia in the atmosphere of your stable or over your manure pile. Why? Because the sulphate of Lime is decom- posed by the ammonia, the sulphuric acid leaving the lime and combining with the ammonia, funning sulphate of ammonia, which being a solid cannot rise and escape into the atmosphere. We say, then, that sulphate of lime fixes ammonia, the most costly of fertil- izing constituents, and in doing this presents to plants in the form of soluble sul- phate of ammonia, the purest and most valuable plant food. When sown upon grass, sulphate of lime, or gypsum, will arrest and fix the ammonia likely to es- cape from the top dress- ing of manure now dry, or from vegetable mat- ter slowdy but constant- ly decomposing in the soil, and at the same time furnish lime so much demanded by the grasses, to say nothing of the sulphuric acid, needed but not so large- ly as lime, in the now soluble form of sulphate of ammonia. The application of this subject in other di- rections might be easily Gasoline Vapor Stove - a - d - 1878 - shown but the article has already grown beyond our expectation, and hence we must here close without additional remarks. MARL. Marl is soil containing clay, carbonate of lime, sand, and sometimes sulphate and phosphate of lime, differing in its composition in different localities, some containing more or less of these ingredients than others. It is often applied to lands to increase their fertility, the lime it contains being the most essential ele- ment. When it is found in the proximity of, or lying under sandy or peaty soils, its application in large quantities is attended with the best effects. It is adapted to all soils that have not already a sufficient supply of lime. It is especially adapted to grass and clover. The clay marl produces the best effect on light, sandy soils, and the sandy marl on clay and heavy soils. It is better to be well exposed to the sun and air before applying it to any kind of soil. The green sand marl, of which there are extensive beds in New Jersey and in Virginia, contains a large amount of potash, besides lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, silica, and various other substances, and is a valuable fertilizer. It has long been a staple manure in those States, and in many localities is easily excavated. It seems espe- cially adapted to the use of vegetation as plant food, its application having a speedy effect. The result of its use is seen in a remarkable degree in the improve- 100 PROFITABLE FARMING. ment of the light, sandy soils of Eastern New Jersey, where large tracts of sandy and almost worthless lands have been transformed into a garden. It must be applied in large quantities, often several tons to the acre, in order to obtain the best results, and then furnishes potash and other fertilizing properties with a con- siderable degree of permanency. COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. The question often asked by the farmer is, Do commercial fertilizers pay ? In other words, is the amount expended in artificial fertilizers realized in benefit to the crops ? In answering this question, many considerations must of necessity be taken into account. They may be very beneficial and well repay the expendi- ture involved in increasing the quantity and often the quality of the crops, or they may result in a serious loss to the farmer, with an injury to the soil, much depend- ing upon the kind and quantity used and the manner of using. In the use of all fertilizers, the needs of the soil and requirements of the crop to be produced must be taken into account; it must also be properly applied. If a farmer expends large sums of money for phosphoric acid and applies it to the soil, when nitrogen is what that soil needs in producing the desired crop, disappointment will be the result; or, if he supplies to a soil nitrogen when phosphoric acid is the element needed, the result will be no more satisfactory than the former; or, as is often the case, if too small a quantity of the proper kind be applied to produce any change in the productive capacity of the land, or if an unwarranted amount of certain kinds be used and in a short time it exhausts certain elements of the soil, with other undesirable results — in either of these cases the fault would not be with the fertilizer itself, but with the lack of skill in the one who selected and applied it. Soils widely differ in their capacity for supplying crops with plant food, and cor- respondingly in their demands for aid from fertilizers; some soils will, conse- quently, give the best results with one kind of fertilizer, and others with another kind, while others still will not respond to any application whatever until the con- ditions are changed, which can only be effected b} r suitable drainage, irrigation, the use of lime, or proper tillage. In order to attain the highest results in agriculture, as with everything else, we must make use of the right materials in the right place; and if artificial fer- tilizers are thus used, they cannot bring results otherwise than satisfactory, pro- viding the season and other circumstances be favorable. The world-renowned experiments at Rothamsted, England, by Mr. Lawes, embracing a period of over forty years, besides those from other noted scientific agriculturists covering a more limited space of time — all prove conclusively that artificial fertilizers, when rightly used, will prove the most potent aids in agriculture, and that, the only means of determining what a soil needs is to study it by careful observation and experiment. In making this statement favorable to artificial fertilizers, we do not wish to be understood as recommending them as substituting entirely the various farm manures that the farmer has recourse to in improving his lands and crops; we do not recommend them as supplanting, but supplementing the farm manure. We think it would be a very poor policy indeed for any farmer to allow the farm manure to go to waste, and expend money for commercial fertilizers. We believe in using all the available wastes of the farm possible for manure (the MINERAL FERTILIZERS. 101 for him to ■ compost heap, cesspool, privy vault, ashes, old. bones, and everything that can add to that best of all fertilizers, stable manure,) to aid in furnishing plant food to crops. It would be poor economy for a farmer to neglect to gather his own crops and buy of his neighbor, and it would be equally poor economy neglect to make use of his farm manure, and buy commercial manures to take their place. The poor farm management in the one case would be equal to that of the other. We simply advise that the farmer use the artificial fertilizers to supplement or help out, as it were, the farm manure, as most farms require more ma- nure than the farm furnishes for keeping them up in their best condition in soil, and giving the best results in crops. It is thought by many of our leading agricul- turists that a liberal supply of barn-yard manure increases the effect of the commercial fertili- zers, and vice versa, when the two are used together. There are cases where half- dressing has produced good ef- fect and but little profit, while a full dressing would have produced a paving crop. A plant must be well fed to do its best. We may feed a cow a little more than she needs for mere existence, and get a fair quantity of milk, with- out being enough to furnish profit on the value of the food consum- ed and the labor; a little more food may increase the yield to a degree which shall amply remu- nerate.' It is just so with feed- ing the plant. The man who After the CRors are Gathered. starves his field is as unwise as the man who starves his cow. Enough food for a cow is proper; more than enough is waste. Enough food for the plant, in the dung or fertilizer, should be used, but no more. It takes an observant man to strike the happy mean of plant feeding — the giving of an ample but neither a too great nor too small supply for profit. First get the land to its maximum condition of fertility; then calculate the amount of plant food removed by the last crop, and apply that amount to the field in order to grow the next crop. This is a practical and useful direction which every farmer ought to educate himself to apply. 102 PROFITABLE FARMING. Much has already been said upon the importance of the subject of manures, but too much cannot be said upon a subject which is the very bed-rock of agri- culture. The more it is investigated the more important it becomes. SALT. In Great Britain the use of salt as a fertilizer is extensive, while in this coun- try some prejudice exists. This is due in part to the incomplete trial, and the erroneous idea that it kills every green thing it touches. Its benefits may be summarized : 1. It keeps land cool and moist, being more of an absorbent than fertilizer proper. 2. It neutralizes drouth. 3. It exterminates all soil vermin. 4. It is said to prevent potato rot. 5. It glazes and stiffens straw, preventing crinkling and rust. 6. It keeps the soil in such condition that the berry of all kinds of grain fills plumply, regardless of hot, dry weather. Experimenters differ as to quantity necessary to secure the above results. From one to six bushels per acre, applied when the grain is a few inches high, each spring for three years, and then seed to grass, are recommended. Eight bushels to the acre have been used profitably, but on the majority of soils one- half that quantity is probably sufficient, and one-eighth better than none at all. On grass and on all the grains there is no shadow of doubt but that a liberal top- dressing of salt is highly valuable. A mixture of one part of salt to four of wood ashes, applied a handful to the hill, will make corn thrive and keep away crows, squirrels, and pests of the soil generally. APPLICATION OF THE SUBJECT. All successful farmers must learn, first, from the appearance of the crop to judge what the soil needs; and second, to learn the cheapest and most direct way to supply that want. If the crop has a pale green color, bordering on yellow, it lacks ammonia. To supply this, use liberally of composted stable or barn-yard manure. In the usual method of saving manure, the ammonia — the most valuable part of the manure — is lost. The supply of ammonia may be increased by a liberal use of land-plaster, either as a top dressing or harrowed in with a fall crop. Plaster contains no nitrogen, but by sulphuric acid; but this acid prefers ammonia to lime, and when the ammonia in the air or in the rain water comes in contact with gypsum, the acid leaves the lime and goes over to the ammonia, forming a salt that is not volatile, and will not go back again into the air with the first hot sunshine, and yet is soluble in water for the use of the crop. AVhatever increases the proportion of vegetable matter in the soil, increases the supply of ammonia. When vegetables rot,- the oxygen and hydrogen chiefly return to the form of water, the nitrogen escapes as ammonia, and the carbon is slowly converted into a carbonic acid; but, if there is not a free exposm - e to the air and sunshine, only a portion of the carbon is thus consumed — the residue MINERAL FERTILIZERS. lo remaining as vegetable mould in the form of small particles of carbon, giving a dark color to the earth with which they arc mixed. This, like uncombined carbon everywhere, is a good absorbent of ammonia, and when made mellow and porous, the air penetrating the soil leaves its ammonia with the carbon to enrich growing crops. In this manner clover and other green crops plowed under enrich the soil by adding to its carbon, and thus increasing its power. to absorb and retain ammonia. The stock of ammonia in the air is public property, and that farmer gets the largest share of it who sets the best trap to catch it. Plowing and pul- verizing the earth has its chief end in making the soil a good absorbent of gases and moisture. If the crops have a good color, but the straw is soft and liable to fall, then be assured that your soil lacks alkalies — a defect that is best remedied by a free use of fresh slacked lime, wood ashes, or German potash. In some of our prairie soils this is a primitive defect, and can not be remedied but by supplying alkalies from abroad, but in most of our western soils, if the straw and stalks be returned to the fields, either in the crude state or as composted ma- _ nure, this defect will sel- dom appear. It will be!; well, however, to econo-' mize all the lime and wood ashes that can be conveniently obtained Gas Cooking Stove, A. D. 1880. They improve the mechanical condition of the soil, render it more easily pul- verized and prevent a tendency, in clay soils, to bake. If the crop shows a good color and grows strong and vigorous, but disap- points you in yield of grain, then know that your soil is deficient in phosphates. This is one of the most common defects in our rich western loams. The remedy is in the use of bone-meal, the mineral phosphates, the waste of slaughter houses, or imported guano. There is scarcely a farm in this country that would not be- greatly improved in its grain yield by a judicious use of bone-meal. Our cities that consume the bread and meat of our farms are great sinks in which are buried the phosphates of our soil, while no means are left of reproducing it from the earth. But farm crops do not depend altogether on the supply of "ant food in the soil, nor even on the available form of that food. What may be called the mechan- ical condition of the soil has much to do in securing the farmer a liberal return for his labor. By this is meant the loose, porous condition of the earth that admits of free circulation of the air through it. To secure this requires that the soil should never be saturated with water for any Considerable length of time. 104 PROFITABLE FARMING. Soils resting on a compact clay subsoil, however rich they may he in the elements of plant food, or however fine and loose they may be in the dry season of the year, yet during the early spring months, when crops should be getting a good start, these soils should be saturated with water at a few inches below the surface, which prevents the penetration of the roots, and the evaporation of which keeps the soil cold, and retards the early starting of crops. To secure the best condition for vegetable growth requires that the soil be moist, but if there is more water than can be held by the capillary attraction of the particles of which the soil is composed, the redun- dant moisture will fill the pores and completely exclude the air from the soil. A few plants will grow with their roots in the soil saturated Avith water, but our cul- tivated crops demand that their roots have free access to the air. Without this they turn pale and ultimately die. The remedy for this condition is found in thorough underdraining. Rain water should not be permitted to run from the surface of the soil if it can be prevented. It carries away tbe finer particles of the earth and all the soluble organic matter. If it be leached through three feet of clay loam, into the tile, it carries nothing away. The purchase of fertilizers should be the last resort of the farmer ; the resort for increased acreage and increased crops over what can be produced by the manure of the farm. If the dung of the farm will go over thoroughly but five acres, let the farmer ask himself whether increasing the field cultivated to ten acres will not diminish the cost of production and give more crop to be sold from the farm. If an affirmative reply comes, then seek fertilizers to add to your manure, thinly spread over ten acres, or to use by itself on the extra acreage. If the latter course be pursued, then there is an additional value gained — the knowledge of just what the fertilizer bought is doing for this year of use, and whether it will pay for its use. If the home product ^s insufficient, commercial fertilizers must be purchased. All experience indicates that the efficacy of fertilizers seems more manifest with their continuous application. One year's application may fail to show a marked .effect, either on account of the season or the crop, and yet produce a marked influence on the crop of the following year. The farmer who should try a yearly dressing of fertilizers on a small plot, and continue it for three years even, would be educated to the point of largely using fertilizers on his farm at the end of this period. Then, again, a fertilizer will occasionally produce a large crop the first year, and apparently fail the second year; yet the next year, if continued, the results will be so noteworthy as to satisfy him that one year's small return was due to other causes than lack of virtue in plant food purchased. [Note. — The cuts of stoves in this chapter are intended to illustrate the growth in their mechanical construction.] CHATTER Vf. preparation ano Cultloatton of lite Soil. BY. J. W. FITZ. REPARATION of the soil is a leading and important part of husbandry, and thorough cultivation cannot be accomplished without the aid of well-broken and well-harrowed fields. The land having been properly prepared by plowing, and suffi- ciently manured, and the crop planted with regard to the capacity of the soil, the most important matter to the farmer is thorough culture, or keeping the earth fine and mellow in the field and among the plants. Stirring the soil can scarcely be repeated too often during the earlier periods of growth, or until there is danger of injury to the roots or to the tops of plants by the cultivator. The ground may be too wet, but never too dry for stirring; because the more frequently it is broken up, fined and aerated, the more moisture will the soil absorb from the atmosphere. This is an operation that should be performed after every rain sufficient to cause incrustation or baking, which would prevent a free admission of air into the soil. The most obvious benefit of stirring the soil is the destruction of the weeds; for no crop can become remunerative if crowded by weeds, which deprive it of air, light and moisture, and even a large part of the fertility of the soil, intended for the benefit of the crops. A war of extermination should be waged against all weeds, although at times they become a necessary evil to the farmer, who only cultivates the soil between the rows. Breaking the lumps gives free scope to the finer roots to secure all the available nutriment within the extent of their ramifications, as these finer roots are not capable of penetrating large clods, and thus may be debarred from reaching a large part of the food contained in the soil. Thorough and frequent culture of the soil admits air to the rootlets of the growing plant ; it increases the capillary attraction of the soil, by which its humidity is rendered more uniform; by presenting a larger number of points of radiation, the deposit of dew, so beneficial in dry weather, is augmented ; the temperature of the soil is increased by the freer admission of warm rain and air, and by the chemi- cal processes thereby facilitated ; and finally the fertility of the soil is augmented through the ammonia, nitric acid, etc., which are introduced with the air. The plow, horse-hoe, and cultivator are to be used, whenever available; but the hand- hoe must always be relied on for the finer and more careful work in the garden and truck-patch, and in field culture in the latter stages of crops; and, in all cases, late in the season, only superficial stirring is advisable, as the roots in late culture should not be broken or disturbed. (105) 106 PROFITABLE FARMING. When plants are grown in a crowded state, darkness and want of air elongate the stems and leaves at the expense of the roots and of a general healthy condi- tion. The operations of thinning and hand-weeding are performed in connection with hoeing, in garden culture, to admit a free circulation of air around the remaining plants; in field culture, thinning is done by hand alone or by hand and hoe. Thinning also permits the influence of the sun on all plants, and thereby aids in developing the proper form, bulk, and other qualities. WHY DO AVE CULTIVATE THE SOIL? Were the above question put squarely to the mass of farmers, doubtless nine- tenths of them would answer in substance, "To keep down weeds and grass and give the crop a chance to grow"; and many of them Avould not think of assigning ,-.__ any other reason. But is this the only reason why we cultivate and pulverize the soil? By no means. There are various other considera- tions just as necessary to be taken into the account as the above, t bough the de- struction of weeds and grass is of course essential. Let us glance briefly at some of the reasons for and advan- tages of pulverising the soil. Cultivation of the sur- face soil serves the purpose of putting it in a condition wsk cultivator, 1880. for drawing u]» and retain- ing the moisture of the subsoil, and thus prevents it from becoming dry and parched to a great depth during the heat of summer. Were the depth of dry surface soil to go on increasing with each additional day of sunshine, it would soon be parched to a depth below the roots of plants, and all vegetation would die. A well pulverized soil attracts moisture both from above and beloAV, and thus serves to keep the soil about the roots of plants in a condition the most favorable to aid the growth and development of the plant. Cultivation increases the comminution of the soil, and thereby enables it the better to attract and retain the ammonia, carbonic and nitric acid of the atmos- phere — all acknowledged to be most powerful and essential fertilizers. Thus it is that thorough cultivation supersedes to a great extent the use of manures, and the finer and more pulverine the soil the greater its capacity for taking in the fertilising elements of the atmosphere. Therefore, in seasons when farmers have not the means of purchasing the usual supply of commercial fertilizers, they may by good and careful culture, abstract from Heaven's rich dowry, the boundless atmosphere, the very elements for which they have heretofore paid the merchants good round sums. " GOOD MORNING." (107) 108 PROFITABLE FARMING. ' Cultivation increases the temperature of the soil in the spring by admitting the warm air into it, and thus accelerating the growth of the plant. For this reason, early and careful spring working is a mattter of the first importance. Stirring the soil gives free scope for the roots of plants to spread out in search of food. A hard, compact soil dwarfs the growth of plants by preventing the free action of their numerous feeders. A loose soil permits the rains and dews, which, as well as the air, contain fer- tilizing gases, to penetrate readily and supply the rootlets Avith the food and nour- ishment they need It also intercepts radiation from the subsoil, thereby preventing the land from being dried to too great a depth. When land is worked after a rain it is well known that the surface dries rapidly, but it is the surface only. Two or three inches of loose surface soil, interposed between the subsoil and the air, keeps the former cool and moist, just as a 'layer of saw-dust keeps a block of ice from melting on a hot day. It will be seen, then, that there are more reasons for the cultivation of crops than the commonly received one of keeping down weeds and grass. It will be readily understood, too, that the benefits to be derived from cutlivation increase in proportion to the "thoroughness" of the work. Thorough cultivation pays just as poor cultivation does not pay. This fact is evident, and based upon sound philosophical principles. Cannot the reader discover food for reflection ? PREPARATION OF SOIL. The proper preparation of the soil to fit it for a crop involves a variety of processes, the most important of which are the loosening of the soil by plowing or digging, and the comminution or pulverizing of it to allow the roots easily to run through it and to take up their nutriment from it. Subsoil plowing is a most necessary operation whenever the subsoil is heavy and retentive. Vegetables and fruits, as much as the grain crops, require deep working of the soil. A moderately heavy soil that has been underdrained and subsoiled, and then carefully worked, is capable of producing the heaviest crops. A deep, rich soil is wonderfully favorable to a bank account. All the processes in the preparation of a piece of land for a crop require good tools, and in their purchase the aim should be to get the best. A good tool will quickly pay for itself, but a poor one is very expensive. A man must be well off who can afford to use poor tools. While a good plow will do better work than a poor one, it also enables the team to do more of it. Tools and implements should not only be of the best kinds, but they should be carefully kept in order, and be keen and bright, and be stored in a proper place, where they can always be found when wanted, without running across lots to find them where they were thrown when last used. POROSITY OF THE SOIL. B. W. Jones, of Surry county, Virginia, says: Proper mechanical condition of the soil is a matter of the highest importance in farming. More than half the labor expended on some soils is in consequence of a close adhesive quality that makes them soft and sticky when wet, or hard like brick when dry. Of all the conditions that render a soil easy to till, porosity is the first and most necessary. PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL 100 A porous, open soil will not on]}' bo easy to cultivate, but, other things equal, highly productive. Porous land is quickly rid of any excess of water that may occur, can bo worked to much better advantage in every respect, responds- readily to manure, costs less to cultivate, and is more productive one season with another than adhe- sive soil. Some lands are naturally porous, others have to be made so. Small gravel, loose sand, decaying vegetable matter, are generally the most accessible materials for making a field porous. Stiff land would be benefited one hundred per cent, by a top-dressing of loose sand, and two hundred per cent. [were the layer made two inches deep. Improving the mechanical state of soils is equivalent, for the time being, to fertilizing them. It causes them to be better worked, and better work insures better crops. Porosity, openness, is what all tenacious soils most need. Loose sand and small broken shells from a river shore, crushed rock and crushed brick, saw- dust, rotten wood and bark, and the like, ai*e fit materials for making soils porous. Plenty of vegetable matter alone will do it, but this is constantly decaying and has to be renewed yearly, while sand, etc., once supplied, will remain. Clayey, tenacious land would generally be the most productive of any, did it possess the one indispensable quality of porosity. Flat, clayey land will hold all the manure you put upon it. Sandy and rolling ground will not. Make the clay land open by giving it a sufficient application of sand or crushed rock, that is, give it porosity, and one acre of it is worth two or three of the sandy soil. The mechanical state of the farm is about the first subject for a farmer to consider and provide for. Labor is the one great item of expense. Make the soil porous, and you lighten labor and save money. It makes work easy and saves wear and tear. CULTIVATING WET SOIL. A late spring followed by continued heavy rains, gives farmers much trouble. It has been a question as to whether Ave should plow or let the grass and weeds grow undisturbed until the soil should get into proper condition for work. I have always found serious damage done to crops by cultivating when the land is out of condition, unless the rain continues. This fact we cannot always determine, as it belongs to the future. If the rains cease after such work, the crop and the land are both damaged. When I am driven to the extremity of choice between entire loss of my crop and possible hope of a partial recovery I go into it, when ordi- narily I would know I was doing harm. Many farmers think they are driven to the necessity of plowing their land wet, and their crops and land show very plainly the evil results of having been worked while wet. Others who wait only a day or two longer have the satisfac- tion of seeing their fields and crops in fine condition. I advocate early cultivation so as to give the plants a good start, but delay always if the land is wet, unless I am satisfied that a rain will immediately follow. SHADING THE SOIL. Few people, in the opinion of Prof. J. P. Stelle, of the Mobile (Ala.) "Register," fully understand every secret connected with improving a soil by growing certain crops upon it, as clover, peas, buckwheat and the like. A writer for the Philadel- 110 PROFITABLE FARMING. phia "Farm and Garden" says the improvement of the soil by clover has been ascribed to the great mass of roots left in the ground after removing the crop ; but clover does more, it shades the soil. We are all familiar with the fact that a loose board left on the ground for a period of time darkens the soil, invites earth worms, and enriches the location occupied by it. Darkness is an essential matter in the process, and as but little moisture is evaporated, and retention of such made easy by capillary attraction, we can easily divine the cause of the change. The darkness and protection from the sun's ra} r s afforded by the board are favorable conditions toward the promotion of humus; and although not a pound of manure or other fertilizer may be present, the elements of the soil themselves are converted into plant food, and of a quality better suited for appropriation than can be effected in any other manner. It is this fact, also, which prompts our farmers to prefer barn-yard manure to commercial fertilizers, for it not only adds to the soil its own richness, but, during the pro- c e s s of decom- position, when placed on the soil causes humus to form quickly; while fertilizers must first act and react chemically on the minerals of the soil to do the same thing. Every advantage of giving shade or darkness, be it but little, i s in favor of the ma- nure ; and when spread over a large surface this is no inconsiderable quantity. Most scientists base their estimates of the fertilizing material left by clover on the value of the accumulated humus in the soil ; and while we are not prepared to dispute the claim that the roots are quite a considerable mass, yet the shading of the soil by the crop has more to do with the increased fertility than may be supposed. We do not believe we would be far out of the way to make the claim that if any farmer will cover a rod of ground with boards and leave them therefor a Avhile, on removing them the soil underneath will be found quite fertile, even if previously barren. This at once gives an insight into the problem of how clover renovates soils and a few experiments by some of our friends, by way of testing the matter, will be found not only interesting, but valuable. BURNING- RUBBISH. The burning of stubble, corn-stalks and weeds is the greatest folly, and yet we see it recommended by some writers. To say that the ashes of vegetable Spring Cultivator, 1884. "MISSED THEM. : (Ill) 112 PROFITABLE FARMING. growth is as valuable as the decayed remains, is to ignore altogether vegetable moulds, which is the most valuable of all manures from its quantity and quality combined; for by burning, all but the mineral elements are lost. But by burning stubbles, &c, the whole vegetable mould is not only lost, but the fire drives out of the soil all rich elements that are already there, leaving the surface hard and use- less as a brick-kiln. For forty } r ears I have never allowed anything to be burned on my lands. The bushes and briars are put thinly on the poor points, so as to stop the washes and allow weeds and grass to grow through them and thus restoi'e the soil. The stubble is turned under and corn-stalks cut in two with the hoe and plowed in also, so that nothing is lost. Thus, while some of my neighbors' farms have gone to ruin, mine has ever increased in fertility and value. While I recom- mend summer plowing where wheat or other grain will hold the soil in winter, I would not have the soil plowed in £he fall without some cover on rolling lands to save them from winter washing. USE THE CULTIVATOR MORE. There is no implement known to agriculture, the use of which is more gene- rally beneficial than the cultivator. It is greatly superior to the plow in the cultivation of corn and other crops, for the reason that it completely stirs and pulverizes the surface, and does not throw the land into ridges, nor cut and mangle the roots of the growing crop. It is more effective in the destruction of weeds and grass than any other implement. The great object in cultivating land is to keep it loose and pulverine, so .that showers and dews may be readily absorbed into the soil. A loose soil will retain moisture near the surface, just where it is most needed; and it gives free passage for the rootlets of the plants which are the life of the crop. Again, if the surface is kept stirred, no matter to how small a depth, grass cannot grow. Plowing deeply while the crop is growing, besides the direct injury inflicted on the crop, does not serve more effectually to keep the sur- face loose than a shallow stirring with the cultivator, and is far more laborious to the team. It is necessary at the beginning of the year to break land deeply, because it has become settled and packed by the tramping of the harvesters and stock, and the effect of the continued rains of winter, but one thorough and deep breaking ought and will suffice for the season. Deep plowing should not be attempted while the crop is growing. The sloven custom of planting a crop and breaking the land afterwards should fall before the onward march of enlightened ideas. The light, handy, one-horse cultivator is just the thing for all sorts of crops, running near to the rows, pulverizing the whole surface, and leaving the land as level as a lawn. It is really a pleasure to follow after it, and feel that not a step is lost. As it becomes better known, it will become more generally appreciated. MULCHING AND CULTIVATION. Experience has shown that mulching the ground not only adds to its fertility by the decay of the mulch itself, but it also retains a large amount from the air. All have observed that the soil covered with mulch keeps more porous and friable than when left exposed to the sun and drying winds. Earth-worms contribute toward fertility by their holes, through which the air easily penetrates, imparting PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 113 fertility, which the soil absorbs. A piece of ground, a part of which had been in strawberries and mulched with salt hay for three years, showed a great advan- tage from the mulch. When plowed, this mulched part broke up very finely, while the other part was very lumpy. It was all planted the same day with corn, which came up- in five days' on tins mulched portion, and was about two weeks coming up on the rest, and much of it failed to come up at all. The after-culture was alike, yet there was vigorous much more growth on the part which had been mulched. Soils not only have the power o f absorbing ammonia from the air, but also from water that holds it in solution; by retaining the water so enriched, mulch adds to the fer- tility of the soil. Besides the advantages already mentioned, it is an easy way to keep clear of weeds. The hay from the salt niarshes is excel- lent for this purpose; but when it is expensive or inconvenient to procure, other material will be found serviceable. Frequent stirring of the surface serves the pur- pose of a mulch, by break- ing up the clods, and more freely admitting the air. In India, very fair crops of wheat are grown on poor soils, chiefly enrich- ed by the absorption of the nitrogen in ammonia from the air; these poor soils are stirred by the rude plows of the natives, on an average, about twenty times to each plowing. crop. Sometimes thirty plowings are used, and never less than ten, to prepare for a crop. The value of tillage is thus well demonstrated. Most interesting experiments have been made in Massachusetts and New York, to determine the difference of the evaporation from both sand}' and clayey soils when stirred to the depth of four inches, and when undisturbed. The soils 114 PROFITABLE FARMING. stirred by tillage, acting as a mulch, evaporated much less than those unfilled. It would be an interesting experiment, also, to determine the difference of evapo- ration from a soil mulched, and an equal space beside it untilled. In the labora- tory of the chemist at the experimental stations, fertilizers are treated "with powerful acids to determine their value; but in the soil, nature's laboratory, air and water are the great decomposing agencies to prepare food for plants. By mulching and tillage we facilitate their operations, helping both to penetrate the earth and follow the ramifications of roots with greater ease. VIEWS OX TILLAGE. Good husbandry gives to every soil its proper tilth. The stiffest and poorest soils require the greatest amount of tillage. Light soils, however, are rarely over- cultivated. As Tull, in his philosophy of tillage, has pointed out, much plowing and pulverizing of a naturally light soil will not make it more loose and open, but have the 'contrary effect, making its natural porousness less and its density greater. It is possible, of course, to have a soil too loose, for it must have a certain tendency to retain moisture and support plants; but too great looseness is a rare fault, and one not without its remed}^. By harrowing the land while it is still damp, and by heavy rolling as it becomes drier, the necessary degree of firmness may always be obtained. In dry weather clay soils are brought to the finest tilth with the least labor by harrowing immediately after plowing or cultivating, and accompanying this operation, when necessary, with the use of the roller. In a similar season, light dry soils must be sown and finished up as quickly as possible after plowing. In a wet season, the best tilth is obtained by harrowing when the soil is in the stage "twixt wet and dry." The mechanical condition of a good seed-bed should be regulated more by the kind of crop to be grown than by the character of the soil. We know the impor- tance of a solid bottom and a fine surface for barley. Nor will wheat and oats grow in a very loose subsoil, though a fine top is of less consequence, to wheat at least. Root crops, on the other hand, require a seed-bed which is neither firm or loose, but fine and deep. Grasses and clovers flourish best on a firm hard soil with a fine surface. SUBSOILING AND OTHER PLOWING AND TILLAGE OPERATIONS. These operations tend to loosen the hard earth and ameliorate the soil so as to facilitate the spreading and progress of the roots of plants, so as to enable them to reach and secure the food supply with greater facility, including moisture. The subsoil plow is especially useful to loosen the hard earth below the reach of the ordinary plow, to cause the escape of water from the surface; to promote the cir- culation of air; afford a more extended range for the gathering of plant food, and securing of crops against drought bv enabling the roots to penetrate the regions of moisture. The subsoil plow merely stirs and opens the subsoil; it does not turn a fur- row. A common plow goes before, throwing out a large open furrow-slice of the active soil; the subsoil plow follows, entering to a depth of six or eight inches PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. U5 below the bottom of the surface furrow; and the next furrow of active soil is thrown over the last opened furrow of the suhsoiler. Trench or deep plowing is advantageous to such lands as are of the same nature to a considerable depth. For those lower parts of the soil, which havo become filled with manure, which the rains have carried down below the surface, are thus thrown up, to contribute to the nourishment of crops. Deep plow- ing is also useful on thin lands, where the upper layer is too clayey and compact and rests upon a bed of sand or limestone. By deep plowing, the sand or lime is mixed with the clay above, rendering it more fertile than it could be made by any other means. There are, however, cases in which, from the defective composition of the subsoil, or other causes, it does more harm than good. Good effects can be obtained from trench plowing when the chemical composition of the lower soil is such as to supply in increased quantity the essential constituents of plant growth. Where the subsoil is inferior, the deepening of the soil must be made a grad- ual operation and a very small quantity of the raw material brought to the surface at a time. The subsoiler effects this object much better than the trench plow, as in the former case the subsoil is opened up and exposed to the weathering action of the atmosphere without bringing it abruptly to the surface. In plowing we break up the ground into furrow-slices, turning them over in such a manner that a new surface is presented to the atmosphere. This or some other mode of loosening and turning up the under parts of soils is necessary to fit them for the reception of the seed and the growth of the crops. The object of plowing being to expose the up-turned soil to the atmosphere and to create the greatest quantity of mould the furrow-slices can produce, it follows that the furrow-slice which shows the greatest surface will answer these ends most effectually. In the case of a square-cut furrow-slice this is found to result when it is laid at an angle of forty-five degrees ; and to this end its width must be to its depth as about ten to seven. If the furrow-slices are rugged, open and broken, and if, being cut of various depths, they are laid at different heights, the work is inferior. A uniform depth of tilth cannot then be provided by the harrow, and the seed will be unequally buried. On lea ground the furrow is usually eight to ten inches in breadth by five to seven in depth. The medium depth of good plowing is six or seven inches. Shallower plowing is often inevitable on thin soils, while on deep land the stubble furrow may be ten inches or more in depth. The points of merit in plowing are, (1) a straight furrow of uniform width and depth; (2) a clean cut slice, both on its land side and floor; (3) a well laid furrow-slice, having regard to compactness and form; (4) a complete burial of the grass or stubble turned in; (5) a uniformly ploAved ridge; (6) a finish showing an open furrow with a clean narrow bottom, the last furrow-slice being equal in width and length with the others. Many calculations have been made to prove the waste of time consequent upon short furrows. Under average circumstances a pair of- horses will plow an acre of grass land in a clay of nine hours. On turnip land of the same quality rather more than an acre will be plowed a day, and on stubble land one and one-quarter acres. A considerable difference will, of course, be found in the work accom- plished by different horses and men, even on the same land. With a furrow nine 11G PROFITABLE FARMING. inches wide, exactly eleven miles are traveled in plowing an acre. A quarter of the day or more is generally used in turning at the head-lands. The cultivator merely stirs the soil, and does not turn it over like the plow; but it can work to an equal depth. It is especially useful in a spring fallow after autumn plowing, as the winter-weathered tilth is thereby retained on the surface, and the moisture of the soil is less than when the land is spring plowed — a point of the first importance, especially in turnip cultivation. It is also much used in preparing light land just cleared of roots for being sown with spring grain and seeds, as it furnishes a line mould and keeps the manure near the surface. Fitted with broad points, and worked at a shallower depth, the cultivator is the most effective implement in use for stubble cleaning after harvest. The substitution, when possible, of the cultivator for the plow is attended with a considerable saving, both of time and labor. Cultivators are adapted for either two or four horses, though the same imple- ment which can be worked with ease by two horses on a light soil or at a shallow depth, will often require three or four horses on very stiff land, or where deeper working has to be practiced. If the nature of the soil admits of it, however, two horses in a light cultivator will do more than half the work of four yoked to a larger implement, as they stop more freely and Avith greater ease to themselves. On light land a two-horse cultivator should work five acres of fallow to a depth of about six inches, and four acres to a less depth on land where roots have been fed off; on stiff land, or working to a greater depth, a three or four horse culti- vator would do about six acres in a day. Harrowing (1) pulverizes the soil to a depth of two or three inches and reduces to fineness the surface clods and lumps that are left after plowing, culti- . vating or digging; (2) it shakes out and separates Riding cultivator, 1884. the winter sown wheat in spring and break up the weathered pan upon the surface. The usual direction of harrowing after seed is. sown is first along the furrows, then across and finally along again. The quantity of land harrowed a day depends in a measure on the kind of harrowing as well as on the kind of harrow used and on the nature of the soil. A two-horse set of ordinary harrows covers usually a width of seven and one-half feet. That is equal to ten nine inch furrows with the plow; so that if the teams traveled at the same pace, a pair of horses ought to harrow as much land in one day as they could plow in ten. But horses, as a rule, travel a good deal faster, and consequently further when harrowing than when plowing. It follows, therefore, that if a plow, traveling at the rate of eleven miles a day, with a nine-inch furrow, turns over exactly one acre of land, a set of har- rows covering ten times the width of a nine-inch furrow, and traveling one-fourth to one-third faster than the plow, must get over twelve or thirteen acres a day ; that is, when giving one turn of the harrow, or a single time, as it is called. With PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 117 double turn, only half that quantity of land would be covered a day. These are average quantities on average land. ROLLING THE SOIL. Rolling (1) breaks those clods or lumps which have resisted the action of the harrow; (2) it presses down surface stones, etc., so as to be out of the way of the scythe or reaping machine; (3) it gives a greater degree of compactness to soil which is too light and friable, making it firmer around the roots of plants, and at the same time a less favorable breeding-ground for many kinds of insects, while the smoother surface presents fewer points of evaporation; (4) it presses down and makes Arm the ground about newly sown seeds; and sometimes (5) when very small seeds are to to be sown, it is well to roll the ground first, so as to level it thoroughly, and facilitate a more equal distribution of the seed than could otherwise take place; (G) it is used to press into the ground the roots of those plants sown in the preceding autumn which have been raised or detached by frost. A spring rolling on a field of winter grain will often, by firming the soil about its roots, save the crop; and it is equally beneficial in a similar way on grass lands. On light soils the loosening effects of frequent freezing and thawing are more or less avoided by an autumn rolling. Grass lands cannot be too heavily rolled; and on all light lands under tillage the use of the roller is indispensable for closing the pores and preventing the evaporation of moisture. Using the same power in each case, more land will be rolled in the same time on grass than on a wheat seed-bed; and more on a wheat seed-bed than on rough fallow land. A light one-horse roller, covering about six feet in width, will get over twelve to thirteen acres on grass land, ten acres on wheat seed-bed, and eight or nine acres on fallow land in a working day of ten hours. A two-horse roller should get over twelve to fifteen acres on grass, ten or twelve acres on wheat seed- bed, and ten acres on fallow. HOW DEEP TO CULTIVATE. This of course depends upon the depth and texture of the soil, and uj>on its condition and the nature and habit of the crop to be grown, &c. Wet lands should not be plowed deeply until they have been thoroughly drained. Alluvial soils and deep clay loams, where the surface and subsoils do not materially differ, can scarcely be tilled too deep. Thin soils, however, should not for present profit be plowed below the layer of mould; but their ultimate fer- tility and capacity may be greatly increased by subsoiling and heavy manuring for a series of years. It takes twice as much manure to fertilize when it is plowed to a depth of ten inches, as when it is plowed five inches; and the converse is equally true, that by plowing only five inches the soil will be exhausted much quicker than when the plowing is ten inches. But whether it involves the neces- sity of additional manure or not, a tillage depth of six to ten inches is vastly pre- ferable to a less depth. Von Thaer estimated that each inch of mould between six and ten inches increased the value of the soil eight per cent. The importance of deep tillage may be inferred from the great depth to which the roots of some plants will penetrate the soil, when conditions favor thei; doing so. A deep soil is as beneficial for the supply of moisture during dry v ather ; 118 PROFITABLE FARMING. as to give room for the roots of plants to extend themselves. Further, the deeper the stratum not only renders the sod less subject to drought, but it makes a better retainer of heat, and furnishes a better medium for the action of all the agents engaged in promoting the vigorous growth of plants. Some crops require the additional moisture attending deep tillage, and yet their cultivation should be quite shallow, their roots running near the surface, whilst others are intermediate; and yet, others do best with the deepest preparation for the accommodation of their large penetrating roots. So that judgment should be exercised, and the preparation made to suit the require- ments of the different plants. HAND-HOEING. The use of the hoe is indispensable for many crops. Hoes of every kind, and for different pur- it poses, s h o u 1 d I? be kept in good order. No farm- er or gardener can afford to and bad work is the Ipsa^ --•■■- - Primitive Hand-Broom. use dull hoes, as more labor result. This operation is mostly proceeded with while the crop is growing, and it fulfills two important objects. First, it extirpates weeds and keeps the land clean ; and, second- ly, it stirs, loosens, v - s Patent u «» d - Broom . A - D - i**- and pulverizes the surface soil. The extirpa- tion of weeds is, of course, indispensable to good cultivation. But the second principle of hoeing is, if possible, still more important. Deep and continuous hoeing is wonderfully effective in pro- moting the growth of plants. It prevents the soil reverting to its natural solidity, admits air and water, and by breaking and sub-dividing it, causes it to retain moisture and to present innu- u. s. ratei.tr sweeper, a. d. 1852. merable surfaces and fresh particles to the young roots. The effect is visible in the faster growth of the plants every time the earth is stirred about them. Hoeing, hoAvever, can only be practiced in the case of crops in drills or hills. Broadcast work is thus incompatible with thorough cultivation, even in the case of grain crops. If horse-hoeing is intended among the grain crops, the drilling PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 1 1 9 Drilling is squally HKllS jpen- should correspond with the horse-hoe to bo used, sable to all hand-hoeing. Modern improved modes of corn culture, especially in the Southern States, do not require much hoe work, especially where the field is worked both ways with the cultivator or plow. Only the most rampant weeds are chopped out to aid good cultivation. For the garden, good and suitable hoes are indispensable; and they should be kept in good order and out of the weather to avoid rust and loose helves. USE OF STEAM POWER. In many cases tillage by the wealthy farmer may, in part at least, be advan- tageously performed by steam power. It (1) gives cheaper, deeper, and more efficient tillage than horse power; it (2) enables the work to be done with rapidity and at the best season; it (3) enables land to be more quickly and effectually cleaned and kept free from weeds ; it (4) promotes good drainage by rendering tena- cious soils more friable and porous; and it (5) not only effects a considerable diminution in the num- ber of horses, but, by relieving them of their heaviest work, enables you to keep those Avhich are , still necessary at less expense. i Of the two main systems of cultivation by 'steam, the double-engine system necessarily in- volves the largest outlay to begin with; but where the farm is large enough to afford a reasonable amount of work for the tackle, it will cultivate at a less cost per acre than the single-engine tackle. The use of steam power in agriculture, in this country, is yet in its infancy. Doubtless as it is improved and simplified, and the cost reduced, our farmers who may have the means will find it much to their interest to employ this motive power on large farms. With the improvements which doubtless will be made, both in machinery and in its practical use, immense advantages will, in the near future, be attained. U. S. Patent Hand-Broom, A. D. 1852. CHAPTER VII. ^Drainage* BY J. W. FITZ. RAINAGE, or the removal of the surplus water from the soil by artificial means, maybe accomplished by the use of open ditches, covered trenches, plank or stone drains, tiles, etc.; the best and most popular method being tile draining. r^Hyir 'EkIS Perhaps no part of farm husbandry pays a larger per cent, of profit on the money invested than the proper and judicious drainage, where the conditions are such that the lands will be benefited by this system, since it not only removes stagnant water from the lands, but relieves them of their excess of moisture, rendering them productive, 'and more healthful to both vegeta- ble and animal life. It also deepens the soil, makes it more friable, and by drawing the water from the surface, not only adapts it to earlier cultivation in the spring, thereby insuring an earlier and more abundant crop, and also prepares it to be worked advantage- ously in the autumn, but the surface rain-water, being warmer than the soil, such drainage increases the temperature of the soil as it sinks downward. Mr. Parks, the English Agricultural Engineer, found by making simultaneous observations on a drained portion of a field, that from a mean of thirty-five obser- vations, during the spring and early summer, the drained soil, at seven inches depth, was ten degrees warmer than the undrained, at the same depth. The highest temperature of the undrained soil was forty- seven degrees, while that of the drained went up to sixty-six degrees at seven inches, and forty-eight degrees at thirty-one inches under a thunder storm. A wet soil can never be properly pulverized, hence cannot be well tilled; it is always cold; and as drainage renders the land warmer, the roots of the plants will never go below the water-line, always Drainage, striking deeper in under-drained soils, which explains the fact, often surprisingly manifest, why lands well under-drained should endure the evil effects of a drouth better than those not drained at all. This mystery is solved when we con- sider that roots in such soils strike much deeper than in lands not drained, that they are constantly in moist soils, however dry the surface may be; besides such lands are more porous and permeable to the dews and showers. Under-draining often prevents surface washing, by allowing the water to percolate through the (120) DEAINAG] 121 soil and thus whatever fertilizing matter it contains is retained. It renders winter killing of crops less liable and preserves a more uniform degree of moisture in the soil, since it not only causes its saturation with water to be impossible, but keeps it in a such a porous and pulverized condition, that in times of drouth it, absorbs moisture from the air and never becomes baked and bard, thus the evil effects of extreme wet and dry seasons are avoidable. Much land otherwise almost worthless for cultivation has become by this means very valuable. Lands well under-drained can also be used with safety in hauling loads and are less liable to injury from the treading of cattle, etc. Thornton, an eminent English authority, sums up the benefits of drainage as follows: An earlier seed-time and harvest, better crops, a healthier live stock, and an improved style of husbandry, are the usual and well-known sequence of judiciously conducted drainage operations. In short, the most experienced and skillful agriculturists now declare with one consent, that good drainage is an indispensable preliminary to good cultivation. In England and Scotland the improvement of the lands by drainage has long been practiced, and it is by no means a modern improvement, though it has com- paratively but recently been reduced to a system based on scientific principles. The Romans were careful to keep their arable lands dry by means of open trenches, and there are some indications of their having used covered drains for the same purpose. WHAT LANDS REQUIRE DRAINING. All lands containing an excess of water are greatly benefited by draining, and these are usually heavy, tenacious clays — those soils having a hard clayey subsoil that will not admit of the water passing through them, and peatty or swampy Leveling Instruments. lands. A large proportion of the lands in cultivation are sufficiently drained by nature. No land with a subsoil so porous as never to retain a surplus of water requires an extensive drainage. Sometimes a farm that requires no thorough drainage may be benefited by a partial one; for instance, many farms contain small swamps or swales, so located in a field as to greatly hinder cultivation and retard the growth of crops. These have probably been formed by the water that has passed through the porous soil, meeting with an obstruction in the form of an impervious stratum. This stratum may be horizontal, or nearly so, and the water may follow it to the surface of a lower level, and thus the swale is formed — a permanent- nuisance in an otherwise valuable tract of land. In such cases a partial drainage of the lands will entirely remedy this evil. In the United States the average amount of rainfall is about three inches per month, and frequently an inch of rain (which is equal to a little more than three hundred and sixty hogsheads of water,) falls upon an acre of land in a single shower. The question arises: "What becomes of all this water? It must either be disposed of by sink- 122 PROFITABLE FARMING. ing into the soil, by evaporation, or it remains upon the surface. Moist land con- duces to good cultivation, but not wet lands ; therefore, if the soil or subsoil is of such a nature that the water does not percolate through it readily and leave it in a good condition drainage is the only remedy for the evil. When the land is very level, admitting of no surface draining and the soil retentive and clayey, drainage will be required for any improvement in the conditions. Swamps and peat-beds frequently occur in a hilly country. Sometimes their origin is in numerous springs from adjoining hills; when this is the case, often a ditch dug around the entire outer edge of it, where it meets the ascending land, will cut off the water supply, and generally remedy the evil; but open ditches are very objectionable for many reasons, and tiles are preferred. It is stated that Mr. John Johnson, of Geneva, New York, who was the first farmer to use tiles for drainage in this country, once drained a quagmire so that it produced eighty bushels of corn per acre, and in that case the cost of draining was paid by the increase of one crop. The draining of lakes and marshes requires great capital and engineering skill, and is sure to become a very important branch of agricul- tural improvement in our Southern and Western States. The reclaiming of the everglades of Florida by draining Lake Okeechobee sufficiently to prevent its overflow, is an instance of what may be accomplished by this means. This may be clone by a canal ten miles long, connecting Lake Okee- chobee with the headwaters of the Caloosahatchie river, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the month of which is twenty-three and a half feet lower than the lake. It is the overflow of the lake which causes the everglades to be submerged in water, the lake having no natural outlet, while the everglades are surrounded by a limestone ridge, which acts as a dam to the water, and after the overflow of the lake, it can only be reduced by evaporation, which, being so slow a process, keeps the ground almost constantly under water. Should the above drainage not prove sufficient to prevent the overflow, and render the lands reclaimed suited to agricultural purposes, another canal to the eastward, cut to the St. Lucie river, twelve miles long, which will carry the water into the Atlantic ocean, will remedy the evil, the mouth of the St. Lucie river being twenty-five feet lower than the basin of Lake Okeechobee. In Holland, steam-pumps, windmills and tide-gates are used extensively in drainage, the great Haarlemer-meer being not only drained but is kept so by steam power. Prof. Pendleton states that much of the hilly land in some of the best farming portions of the Southern States has become impov- erished by unskillful culture and by continual washings of soil and fertilizing materials, which have been swept into the valleys that are now so saturated with water as to be unfit for tillage, and in this way many valuable lands have been lost to cultivation and rendered unhealthy by engendering malarial fevers, etc. By a judicious system of drainage these lands may become among the most productive, as well as profitable, of any in that section of the country. Professor Cleveland, of Chicago, says: The necessity of drainage is not to be determined upon the quantity of water that falls or flows upon the surface, nor upon the power of the sun to carry it off by evaporation, but upon the character of the sub- soil. If that is of sand or gravel, the water will pass off below by natural drain- age; but if the subsoil is clay or other impervious substances, the water is checked in its downward course, and remains stagnant or bursts out upon the surface in the form of springs. Most of the prairie lands are of the latter character, and DRAINAGE. 123 ■wherever such subsoil exists the land will not only bo improved by tile drainage, but it may be said that such drainage is absolutely essential to its proper devel- opment and culture. To question the necessity of the process is Jitlle less absurd than it would be to ask whether it would be improved by plowing, instead of of making hills for corn in the prairie grass with a hoe or spade. All lands require drainage which at any season contain too much water; that is, which hold at any time of the year more moisture than is good for the crops, and causes them to suffer, either by freezing out in winter or having their roots in water -during the growing season. Drainage has been appropriately denned as the art of rendering land not only so free from moisture that no superfluous water shall remain on it, but that no water shall remain long enough to injure or retard the healthy growth of such plants as are required for the sustenance of man or beast. There are some plants, such as rice and cranberries, which require a wet soil, but- most of those which are useful to man are drowned by being overflowed for a short time, and are injured by any stagnant water about their roots. We would recommend that in all cases of drainage it be well done, as the most careful Round Tiies, collar, joints, &o. an d permanent work of this kind will he the cheapest in the end, and the best paying in return for the capital invested, while work of this kind carelessly and indifferently performed will prove very expensive eventually, as it will probably fail to accomplish the end sought, and will have to be done over in a short time to be of any practical benefit. The best method is to establish a plan for complete system of drainage on the farm, and when this is once done the work can be accomplished from time to time as opportunity affords, with but little -or no interruption to the regular routine of farm labor. It can often be accom- plished in those seasons when there is little else to do upon the farm; hence at less expense than otherwise. There is no part of farm labor where previous cal- culations and careful systematic work pays better than in under-draining. Many farmers have little to occupy them during the late autumn and winter months, and could devote the time to such work with no interruption to the other farm vrork, and with less expense. TILE DRAINING. This is the best method of draining known, being the most effectual and satis- factory in all respects. No person should undertake the task of draining with the expectation of success without first fully informing himself with respect to all the important details, as it is awork which requires much scientific skill and careful planning in order to reach the best results. And, as we have previously recom- mended, we would advise that the plan be a complete one of the farm, which plan can gradually be carried out from time to time as the farmer feels able to accom- plish, either in expense of money or labor. DETERMINING THE OUTLET. One of the most important steps in drainage is to decide upon a place, or the places of outlet. This must, of course, be enough lower than any portion of the 124 PROFITABLE FARMING. lands that are to be drained by it, to admit of sufficient fall for the passage of water from the heads of the most distant tributaries; yet it must at the same time be high enough above the level of whatever it empties into to prevent the danger of its being overflowed, and the drainage water dammed back in the pipes. In all cases where the .inequalities of the surface are not sufficient to render it obvious that every field on the farm that it is desirable to drain, can be drained into the mains without difficulty, the most important point to be determined is the lowest level at which the outlet can be located so as to secure a free and con- stant overflow. For instance, the level of every other point must be high enough above the outlet to secure a grade in the tiles of at least two and one-half to three- inches per one hundred feet, though from six to twelve inches is better, if practi- cable. Some writers claim that they have known drainage to prove a complete- success where the grade is from one to one and one-half inches per one hundred feet, but we should fear to risk the cost and labor of constructing drains on that principle. The grades should be sufficient to carry off any silt, sand, or other obstructions that may get into the pipes. On very level farms (the prairies, for instance), it may often be difficult to secure the necessary grade, without bringing the upper portions of the drains too near the surface. It is better, therefore, to have the levels all taken before the work is begun (which can be clone at slight expense and labor) than to incur the cost of correcting, afterwards, the mistakes that may be made at the commencement. We, therefore, advise that the services of a competent civil engineer be secured, and that these levels be taken on cross- lines about fifty feet apart, and marked on a map of the farm, or land to be drained ; and when this is done, there is a map for guidance marked in fifty feet squares, where the relative height of each square is marked at the intersection of these lines, so that, having the lines. for drains previously marked, when the farmer digs his drains for laying the tiles, he knows precisely the depth he must go at each point to give a uniform fall, and thus the saving of labor and the avoiding of mistakes will well repay the slight expense required to secure this knowledge. By this means the farmer can have a map to refer to, showing the exact location and depth of every main and side-drain on the premises; and he can go on from year to year doing as much or as little amount of labor as lie chooses, but always working: with the assurance that he is on the correct principle and knows what he is about, and that he is working out one definite plan. This plan will afterwards enable him to find, without any difficulty, anv point he may wish to obtain access to for repairs, etc. In England there is an accredited profession of farm engineering, regulated and encouraged by the English agricultural laws. It would be a great aid to the agricultural interests of this country if the farmers of every State could'have the benefit of just such competent assistance, based upon accurate mathematical knowledge and experience. The members of this profession in England are required to pass a severe and critical examination, proving themselves to be- thoroughly competent, both theoretically and practically, for the position before admission. LOCATING THE MAIN DRAINS AND TRIBUTARIES. Having determined where the outlet will be, which, as has been previously stated, is a very important question to decide, the next step will be to locate the^ (125) 126 PROFITABLE FARMING. main drains, and this can be properly accomplished only by taking into consid- eration the surface of the land. If the surface is uneven or undulating the main, receiving drains should be carried along the lowest part of the land, in the hol- lows, while the branches or parallel drains running in the line of the greatest ascent of the ground flow into them often at nearly right angles. Where the land is nearly level, and a falL is obtained only by increasing the depth of the drains at the lower ends, the tiles may run in any direction convenient. The conforma- tion of the land may often be such that a single field may require several distinct sets of drains, lying at different angles, suited to the various slopes of the surface; but in all cases where slopes occur the pipes should be laid directly up and down the slope, so that the water once entering at the joints of the tiles will not run out again at the other joints, but will follow the course of the pipes to the end. In an irregular field, where the slopes are in different directions, of course it will be impossible to have the drains run directly up and down the slope, and at the same time parallel to each other, which would be the most economical. In varying from parallel directions, there is danger of getting the pipes too far apart and making the drainage incomplete, or of crowding them so near together as to be quite expensive; hence there must be the exercise of careful judgment in laying out the system of drains in order to arrange the slope correctly, and yet accomplish the desired end in drainage without incurring unnecessary expense. "When part of the field is flat and other portions have a considerable slope, the best authorities advise placing a receiving drain near the bottom of the slopes and giving the level ground an independent set of drains. The surface of of the ground, convenience of outlet and character of the soil, all have to be taken into account, consequently the plan of no two fields will scarcely ever be the same. The roots of trees and shrubs sometimes obstruct drains, therefore it is well in laying out their course to avoid them as far as practicable. When a drain must of necessity pass near trees, the use of coal-tar is sometimes found to be beneficial in excluding the roots. Mixing coal-tar and sawdust to the consistency of mortar and placing a layer in the bottom of the trench at such places, and then laying the drain-pipe upon it, all trouble from roots will be obviated. Some writers recommend that soft and porous tiles (though not as durable) be used at such places as are liable to trouble from roots, with the joints laid in cement, the hard tiles being ordinarily used for drains, as they are more durable. All tiles having small holes, called "pin-holes," should be carefully avoided and all aquatic trees near the line of the drain should be killed before the drain is laid. Mr. W. I. Chamberlin, of Summit county, Ohio, gives the following statement relative to the wandering nature of roots and their tendency to stop drains: The roots of aquatic or water-loving trees, like the willow and some kinds of elm, seem to have almost no limit to their growth, either horizontally or ver- tically; and they seem to go in search of moisture or richness as if by instinct, and to know just where to find it. I have traced the roots of a smallish elm some twenty-five feet horizontally and six feet vertically, to their feeding place, in a grave in an old cemetery; and I have, in plowing, traced the roots of a large elm one hundred feet horizontally, by measurement. These roots will enter even a pin-hole in tiles, if they can find running water. Mr. H. B. Camp, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, told me a few days since, that he once helped to take up an obstructed (127) 128 PROFITABLE FARMING. drain, whose joints were laid in cement, I think he said. At all events, a willow root had entered at a pin-hole not larger than a small darning-needle, and spread into a fibrous mass and packed the tile full of roots for several feet — the only con- nection with the upper world and their lungs (the tree-leaves) being this small thread-like root that entered at the pin-hole. It is better to cut such trees down when they are near a damp drain, and see that they are dead. Prof. Townshend, of the Columbus (Ohio) Agricultural College, exhibited in one of his lectures recently a dark, stiff, fibrous, sponge-like, solid cylinder, some three feet long and three inches in diameter. When the class had done guessing, he gave its history. It was the willow root core of his cellar drain. Knowing the nature of these roots, he cut the willow down before he laid the drain, and burned the stump all he could; but, in spite of that, its roots stopped his cellar drain at a depth of five to six feet. When a main drain has parallel drains flowing into it on both sides, these openings into the main drain should not be exactly opposite each other. The evil effects of such a plan are at once perceptible. Some prefer to have two main drains parallel to each other, each to receive the subordinate drains from its side only. If these main drains are located as far apart as the other tiles in the field, but little additional expense will be incurred by having two instead of one, as these receiving drains, besides taking the waters from the others, also perform the same office as the other drains for the lands through which they pass. One of the best English authorities on this subject says: Much of the success of drain- ing depends on the skillful planning of these main drains, and in making them large enough to discharge the greatest flow of water to which they are exposed. Very long main drains are to be avoided. In the whole process of draining, says an experienced engineer, there is nothing more important than permanent and substantial work at the outlet. It is a place where obstructions are most liable to occur, being most exposed to the effects of frost, where reptiles, cattle, and mischievous boys often do great damage, unless it is sufficiently protected. The earth everywhere else is a protection to the tiles. It is, therefore, well to have as few outlets as possible, and these should be secured by a heavy framework of timber or stone, and an iron grating or heavy wire netting, fine enough to prevent the entrance of reptiles or other animals. One outlet to an area of from ten to fifteen acres is usually considered a good arrangement. A uniform grade is very desirable; for, if any portion of the main be lower than the outlet, there will of course be a permanent stoppage, as the water will stand there until there is a deposit of mud, and will not be forced out by the action of the water. All curves and angles should be avoided, if possible, as they are the places where obstructions will be liable to occur. DEPTH OF DRAINS. The best English authorities advise that the drains should not be less than four feet deep, and that even a greater depth may be desirable — it depends mainly upon the subsoil ; but they are often made very serviceable at a less depth. Some- times a seam of gravel or other porous material charged with water, may be found underlying a considerable portion of the ground at a greater depth than DRAINAGE. 129 four feet, and this may render it necessary to dig the drain sufficiently deep to reach that seam. When such or similar cases occur, it is desirable to have the drains quite deep, as they will perform more efficient service in draining the whole area under which this strata extends, than shallow ones placed nearer together. It has been proved by experiment that drains three feet deep, at forty feet apart, are not so effective as those five feet and fifty feet apart. The depth necessary to lay the tiles will depend much upon the character of the soil and subsoil. As a general rule it will cost as much to dig the fourth foot as tbe other three, and if the conditions are such that the benefits arising from the greater depth will more than counter-balance the increased expense, it will be advisable to increase to the fourth and even the fifth foot in depth. The farmer must take into consideration the various conditions of soil, and be his own judge in this respect. Many writers advocate three feet, and some even two and a half feet, as sufficient for all practical purposes in most soils; but we prefer, as a general rule, that the depth be four feet. Professor Shattuck expresses the following opinion in the "Drainage Journal": They must be deep enough to be out of the way of frost; they must give sufficient room for the roots- of plants above the water-table, because of the evil effects of .-»■«-*-'" stagnant water and the in- ""-SET trusion of roots; deep enough to prevent evaporation of the water arising in the soil from the force of attraction, or at least to reduce it to a small amount. Experiments show that capillary attraction operates with considerable power at eighteen inches. They have also shown that water coming from a thirty- inch drain is two or three degrees colder than that taken from a depth Of four "Better quit and move to town." feet, and that this is a little cooler than that from a greater depth. We must draw the conclusion that evaporation has considerable effect at thirty inches. Four feet, then, seems to be the standard minimum depth; it cannot always be had, but better go deeper than not so deep, when possible. The above statement is mainly in reference to the requirements of the crop to be grown. I admit that depth and distance between drains should bear a rela- tion to each other; that the character of the soil and subsoil is an important factor in the question. I give the above as a general guide. There is a feeling with many that thirty inches, or three feet in depth, is sufficient. I know that drains at those depths will do good service, but I believe that one at four feet will, as a rule, do better. Theory indicates this, and practice confirms it. Of two drains at different depths, the deeper one acts first, and with far more effect; but the greater expense is objected to, though without sufficient reason in many cases, it seems to me. The tiles cost the same in either case, and, from my standpoint, the additional labor of the deeper one is of little account to the gen- 9 130 PROFITABLE FARMING. eral farmer. I venture to say that the majority of Western and Southern farmers are unemployed one-half of the time during three or more months of the year, and at that season when the work of drainage could go on with the least interrup- tion to farm culture. The labor of the farmer is an important part of his capital, and with proper management will not grow less with use. The improvement of the farm by drainage should be a part of the regular work of each season; when thus carried out it is not the burden that many make it in order that the work of years may be put into one. In case of so-called partial drainage, the depth of four feet is even more strongly recommended, as such is usually made with large-sized tiles, and it should be, with the view of making in the future the drains' main, or of a system, at least, of getting the greatest benefit from them. SIZE AND KIND OF TILE FOR DRAINAGE, ETC. In the selection of tile for the mains as well as the tributaries, it is important that they be of sufficient size to take the water as fast as the soil can furnish it in heavy rains. The mains had better be too large than too small, as economy here will prove poor economy in the end. It is often surprising to see how soon, in a shower, the water will percolate through the soil, be collected by the laterals, and reach the mains, and how perfectly the system of drainage works when every- thing is constructed properly. Considerable expense may be saved by having the upper portions of the mains smaller, and the size increased as the surface from which it receives the water is increased. It is estimated that a three-inch main will answer a good purpose until it has received the water from the laterals of two acres, then add a four-inch to receive the Avater until four acres are drained, a five up to six acres, and so on. The rule to find how many acres a given main will drain, by squaring its diameter, thus, a 3-inch main will drain 9 acres; a 4-inch, 16 acres; a 5-inch, 25 acres, etc., may do very well for some purposes, like a limited range of sizes of tiles, and variations in grade; but, to make allowance for variable and heavy rain storms, this would give too many acres for the size of main. Mr. Chamberlin, of Ohio, gives, we think, a better and safer rule to follow, in Avhat Ave subjoin: For sizes from 3 to 6 inches, and grades less than three feet to the 100, square the diameter and divide by 4. Thus — A 3-inch main will drain 2 acres. A 4-inch main "will drain 4 acres. A 5-inch main Avill drain 6 acres. A 6-inch main Avill drain 9 acres. For heavier grades it may do to divide by 3. Thus — A 3-inch main "will drain 3 acres. A 4-inch main will drain 5 acres. A 5-inch main Avill drain 8 acres. A 0-inch main will drain 12 acres. But it must be borne in mind that the steeper the grade the greater the danger of surface wash, Avhich often causes great loss of manure and even of soil itself. As to the proper size of tiles for use, it is difficult to give a rule that will apply to all cases, so many considerations having to be taken into account; but, DRAINAGE. 131 as we have previously stated, it is safer to have the mains and laterals larger than necessary, rather than too small. For this reason we should feel more inclined to follow Mr. Chamberlin's rule than the one previously given, and commonly applied, but which will not meet the requirements of all cases. A two-inch pipe tile is largely used for laterals. By using such small tiles they can be placed nearer together than more remote larger ones, at no greater expense, hence better drainage can be secured at the same expense, by their use.^ Among the various kinds of tile manufactured and in use, the round tile seems to be most in favor. In many sections tiles round inside and octagonal externally are quite popular, while others still prefer the sole tile and other varie- ties. Cylindrical pipes with collars are considered the best by English authorities;, these collars being simply short pieces of pipe just wide enough in* diameter to admit freely the smaller pipes that form the drain; hence, in use, one of these collars is so placed as to receive and hold the end of each tube where they join, keeping them in position to form a con- tinuous canal for the free passage of water, and guarding against the entrance of mud, sand, vermin and other obstruc- tions. These joints, which are frequent, also admit the water furnished by the soil. It may seem almost impossible that lands could be drained by the water entering only at these joints in the tiles thus laid, but it is proven to be a fact; water will find its way to such places in the drains and make them the permanent places for reach- ing eventually the mains, and it is surprising to see how soon after a raini commences these mains will begin to discharge their contents received from the laterals, and often to their fullest capacity. Hard-burnt tiles should be selected for the purpose; those having any defect whatever should be discarded. They should be carefully examined before being laid, and whenever there is found one with a lump of unslacked lime in the tile, or lime pebbles, or any small hole, it should not be used. To determine whether there is unslacked lime in the tile, immerse it in water and allow it to remain until thoroughly soaked through; if it contains lime it will break. The breakage of such a tile when placed and covered by the soil might make an obstruction that would cause days of labor and expense to find and repair. Waring advises that each tile be examined by a stroke by a hammer, and every one be rejected that does not give a clear metallic ring. Mr. Chamberlain, previously referred to, recommends the glazed tiles as most desirable, and describes them as follows: They are made of fire-clay or second quality potter's clay, like that used for sewer- " No good for a Farmer.' 132 PROFITABLE FARMING. pipes, burnt hard and glazed. They are about as smooth and dark colored as a "little brown-jug," and seem likely to be as durable. They are the only kind I shall use hereafter. I think tiles made of ordinary brick-clay are liable to soften and crumble and decay, certainly if exposed to frost. After the first job of draining I did, I had a few of these red brick tiles left; they lay on the ground through one of our changeable winters, and the combined action of moisture and frost crumbled most of them to pieces, and, unless burnt very hard, indeed I should fear the same result in time even when laid below the frost, for Ave have noticed that in a mass of brick even buried in the ground, all the soft ones will crumble in time even without the action of frost. But with, the hard glazed tiles I now use, with their clear metalic ring and their glazed surface inside and out, impervious to water, crumbling and dissolution seem impossible. I have tested them very thoroughly in moisture and frost two winters in small heaps above ground, and I do not see but that they are likely to last as long as a broken bit of a glazed jug, or some of the broken tiles or bricks of ancient cities, unearthed after centuries of oblivion. STONE DRAINS. Stone drains come next to tile in value for drainage purposes, but are more expensive in the end than tiles, even where there is a supply of stone upon the farm to be disposed of. The labor of making a stone drain is much greater than that of laying tiles, and the process a slow one, while they are very apt to fill up with sand and mud or other obstructions, and do not discharge the water as readily as tile drains. With great care they can be made serviceable for years, and it may sometimes prove a good way to dispose of the surplus on the farm where tiles are not easily procurable ; but, as a general rule, we would advise that the tiles be used by all means, and the work well done with a view to permanency. Mr. Waring says, that providing the stones were delivered free of cost on the hank of a ditch, the stone drain would be more expensive than tile, and that where plenty of stones are on the ground for making the drain, it will be easier and cheaper to cart them off and put them by the side of the road, or dig a wide deep ditch and throw them into it to dispose of them and use tile, rather than to utilize the stones for drainage purposes, he having tried both methods. Dr. Loring, Commissioner of Agriculture, states that he has both tile and stone drains on his farm; that the .tile drains were laid in 1857 and the stone drains in 1861, and that there is not a stone drain open to-day, while there is not a tile drain that is obstructed — all being in good order. Farmers who have had practical experience with both stone and tiles almost invariably prefer tiles. The labor of getting together and selecting suitable stones for the purpose involves much time and expense, while with the greatest care they cannot be made as close and free from obstructions or as serviceable as tiles, and the current is never strong enough in them to remove obstruction as it does in tile drains. The labor and expense of digging the trench for stone is also much greater than the former; hence tiles are not only better for the purpose, but cheaper. Where the soil is very wet, a complete system of drainage could not well be established by the use of stone drains; but where a partial drainage only is required, and the farmer may be so circumstanced that he cannot well procure tiles, stone may be ' TEA ON THE LAWN. (133) 134 PROFITABLE FARMING. utilized for the purpose. There are various methods of making stone drains. Formerly drains were often made by digging a trench about three or four feet deep and then filling it to "within twelve to fifteen inches of the surface with stones, covering the whole Avith flat stones to keep out the earth before filling in the soil, thus furnishing a means for the water to escape by working its way between the stones; but this method is rarely employed at present. Another method is to put small stones in the bottom of the trench to the depth of four to five inches ; line one side of the trench with flat stones, and by placing long flat stones on the opposite side on the pebbles or small stones forming the bottom of the drain, and leaning the top of them against the top of the stones forming the lining, an oj:>ening or throat will be formed, through which the water will find a passage; the top will, of course, be covered with flat stones, followed by coarse gravel before covering with soil, in order to prevent the earth falling or washing in between the stones and obstructing the passage. Some care will be necessary in making any stone drain to fill up all the little openings with smaller stones, as far as possible, as the earth will be very liable to wash in and obstruct the water if this is not done. The best form of a stone drain is to make the sides of the ditch slanting and place the stones at the sides for a lining, so as to form an acute angle at the bottom in the shape of a letter V, and cover the top with flat stones, the opening thus formed to be triangular. Special attention should be given in filling up the trench above in such a manner that the sand cannot find its way into it. It is also important that the water have as much fall as practicable, which will facilitate the drainage. As we have previously stated, such drains are much more expensive, owing to the labor and expense of constructing, and also less effective than tile, but are the best substitute for tile drains that are known. In all kinds of drains a free outlet should be furnished for the water to escape. Open ditches, closed at the end with standing water in them, are not a very effectual means of draining lands — the water should always have some means of escape by a proper outlet. PLANK OR BOARD DRAINS, &C. Planks or heavy boards are sometimes used for making drains, and if properly laid will last many years, esj)ecially where they are kept constantly wet; but we would not recommend them for this purpose ; since the labor and cost of draining is so great, more durable material should be used. The same could be said about turf drains with respect to their durability. They are constructed by making the sides of the trench very slanting and fitting in a piece of turf for a covering of sufficient size to go within a few inches of the bottom of the drain, without settling into it. This forms a drain that is not at all durable, being very liable to fill up by the falling in of the turf covering or caving in at the sides. Brush and rails used in the construction of drains have so long been disused that they become among the obsolete things and scarcely require comment here. They were first made use of in the progressive steps towards the improvement in drainage, from the open ditches, which are such a nuisance on the farm and have long since given place, among our best farmers, to the more complete and perfect system of tile drainage. Open ditches for draining are very objectionable, since they are so liable to cave in at the sides and fill up with the mud that is washed into them, and by the DRAINAGE. 135 treading of cattle over them, that they prove only a temporary means of drain- age. They also require considerable land, as teams cannot l>o driven near their sides, in plowing and harrowing, while with the use of tiles no land whatever is rendered useless. In crossing them with teams, bridges are required, causing considerable trouble and expense in constructing, or subjecting the farmer to great inconvenience with- out them. Besides these objections, open ditches with standing water are unhealthy, and are often the cause of disease in those sections where used. The digging of such trenches is also attended with considerable labor and expense. The soil removed from them, however, is often valuable for mixing with manure, and when dried, for bedding for stables and hog pens, since it contains more or less of the fertilizing properties, and forms a good compost with both the liquid and solid substances from these sources. Furrow draining, which consists in cultivating the land in ridges or furrows, by plowing in such a manner as to leave open furrows for drainage purposes between the ridges of earth, and planting on the top of each ridge, was formerly practiced in England and other portions of Europe to a considerable extent, but has generally been superseded for the most part by under-draining. THE TERRACE SYSTEM. R. J. Redding, director of the Georgia Experiment Station, says the terrace system is an improvement on the old system of hillside ditching. The essence of the system is to prevent, as far as possible, the surface rain water running off, and •causing it to sink with the soil. This is done by marking out lines of perfect level by means of a suitable terracing level, which is nothing more than an inexpensive form of the engineer's level, costing from $5 to $10. The first line of level is traced on the highest point of the field. The next is located three feet (as a gen- eral rule) lower, perpendicularly; it may be twenty, forty or sixty feet distant, horizontally, from the first — according to the degree of inclination of the surface of the land. Successive lines of level are then run until the lowest part of the field is reached. It is indispensable that these lines be absolutely level, regardless of the direction that may be indicated by the instrument. It will be understood at once that the lines will vary in horizontal distance from each other, and will Tarely be parallel. Having marked the lines of level, a bed of earth is thrown up along the line with a good plow, two furrows from above and two from below the line. Hand-hoes are used to build up low places so as to make all parts of the bed equally strong and on a level. Some farmers sow grass (orchard grass) along the terrace; others plant a row of sorghum — the object being to bind the soil together by means of the roots. After the terraces have been prepared, the arable land between must always be plowed on a level. If to be broken broadcast, a reversible or hillside plow should be used, running back and forth on the furrow, last run alwa} r s turning the soil down hill. This tends to widen the inclination of the surface. If a crop is to be planted in rows — corn or cotton for instance — commence "laying off" on one side of the space enclosed between two terraces and continue until the middle is reached at the narrowest point; then commence laying off from the other side, until the rows meet at the narrowest point; then run one furrow above and one below, alternat- 136 PROFITABLE FARMING. ing until all the spaces are laid off. This plan will cause every individual row to be practically level. If a heavy rain occurs the surface water, which would otherwise seek the line of greatest descent, is forced to spread out and fioAv gently and slowly — in a broad sheet — carrying very little soil and causing no washes. The terraces will generally catch the floating trash and surface soil, and will gradually become higher and stronger. For one or two years some attention, and occasionally slight changes in the terraces, Avill be required as may be indicated by the action of water during heavy rains. Every break in a terrace should be promptly and effectively mended. If the work be well done at first and proper attention be given afterwards, the terraces will become so strong and well established that the heaviest rainfall will make but little impression. CHATTER VTTT. What Crops to fJaise. BY J. W. FIT/. LINT'S "American Farmer" says: Farming is constantly becoming more of a mercantile business than formerly. lit the earlier clays it was the custom for farmers to raise every- thing for home use, even the clothing worn by the family, and scarcely a farmer was known who did not produce his yearly crop of flax and wool for this purpose. The old maxim was, that farmers should sell and not buy. At present this idea is in a great measure ignored, and although it is customary for farmers to raise what is used on the farm, as far as prac- ticable, there is a tendency towards the opinion that division of labor, or specialties, are as applicable to farming as to other kinds of business. That the shoemaker should endeavor to make clothes, hats, and bonnets for his family would be thought absurd; and that the tailor should attempt to make the shoes, furniture, etc., for his household would be considered, to say the least, very poor economy when, by working at his trade, he could earn many times as much as those articles would cost, and the purchased goods would be in every way superior to any that he could manufacture. That the farmer should endeavor to cultivate everything consumed, or in demand upon his farm, without regard to the expense attending it, the nature of his soil, the relative market value compared with other crops, the demands of the market, and other considerations would also be very poor policy, since the real profits, or the attainment of the largest possible excess of receipts over expenditures, is the aim of the farmer as well as those engaged in other departments of business. A JUDICIOUS CHOICE OF CROPS ESSENTIAL. There are few things that have so important a bearing upon the success or fail- ure of the farmer's business as the choice of crops to be produced. Of course his suc- cess also depends upon many other considerations in connection with this one great essential, such as the manner of cultivation, judicious management, and other things too numerous to mention, which, if ignored, would fail of giving success, even with the most desirable choice of crops that might be made; but where all other conditions are favorable, a judicious choice is one of the first essentials to success, and a failure or error here will inevitably lead to disastrous results — such results as no amount of labor and care, or skill in culture, can to any great extent ameliorate. (137) 138 PROFITABLE FARMING. CHOICE OF CEOPS MODIFIED BY DEMAND. It will be generally conceded that the choice of crops is to the farmer what ' the selection of goods is to the merchant. The selection of goods is to the mer- chant a consideration of the first importance in his success, and his study must be to learn the wants of his customers and meet their demands, both in kind and quality of goods with which to replenish his stock continually. If he fails to do this, he soon looses custom, for no one would think of buying things he may hap- pen to have on hand, simply to accommodate him, when they were not what was wanted; and if he did not have the goods they desired, his customers would go elsewhere for them, and other merchants would gain the trade he had lost. One of the great principles of mercantile business everywhere recognized is to meet the demands of the trade, and if this be ignored, failure of success must inevitably follow. This same principle is equally applicable to the agricultural pursuits, since the farmer as well as the merchant depends upon the sales he makes for the profits of his business, the only difference being that the merchant purchases his goods for sale and the farmer produces his from the soil by skill and labor in cul- tivation. If the merchant requires skill and judgment in determining the wants of his customers and in selecting his goods with a view to meet those wants, so does the farmer require an equal amount of skill and judgment to meet the demands for the class of products he is to supply. And if in the mercantile business, there is constantly a demand for something new, the old going out of fashion to give place for the new, so in farming, is there no permanency in the demand for certain pro- ducts. What is most in demand now, may not be required by the markets a few years hence. New varieties of fruits and other products are being constantly introduced, some of which find a more ready market than those formerly cultivated, and it is the farmer's business to learn what kinds of products and the varieties of these that are most in demand, and will consequently bring the highest price, and cultivate these. In many instances the varieties most popular with the purchasers may not seem any better to the farmer than the old; but since it is but right that the consumer who pays his money for the products shall be the one to decide which he will buy, the farmer Avill find it to his interest to cultivate the kind desired. In other words, the farmer, as well as the merchant, must keep up with the times and the demands of the age in which he lives in order to be successful. The farmer, then, as a general rule, must keep himself informed with respect to the state of the markets at which he is to dispose of his crops, and raise such as are in demand there. PEINCIPLE SHOULD BE REGARDED. There are, however, exceptions to the above rule governing the choice of crops. We cannot recommend it only as far as it does not involve a violation of moral principle. Popular demand should always be subservient to that, and no truly honest man would sacrifice principle for the profits that may be the result. We have a profound respects and admiration for an old New England farmer, who, in time of general scarcity of apples, being offered a high price for those of his well-bearing orchards, for the purpose of manufacturing cider-brandy, replied WHAT CROPS To RAISE. 139 " No, though I want the money, I'll let 'em rut upon the ground hefore I'll sell 'erri for such a purpose." If all farmers were equally true to principle with respect to the disposal of their products, there would be less perversion of the good and useful, and what the Creator designed for man's sustenance, into evil, and that element that destroys annually morally, mentally and physically, so many of the human race. He who administers to an evil habit or depraved taste aids in debasing his fellow-man, and is himself debased by the act. To all farmers we would say, in the cultivation and disposal of your crops, be true to the principle of right and honor; let that be the standard of choice always, and the popular demand secondary to this. CHOICE OF CROPS MODIFIED BY THE CHARACTER OF THE SOIL. Another very important consideration in determining the kind of crops to be cultivated is the character of the soil. No farmer can be very successful in his business who does not understand the nature of his soil and the crops to which it is best adapted. The soil of some farmers is better suited to grass and the rearing of stock; others for grain, roots and other cultivated crops; others still for fruit culture principally. Some farms are better adapted to certain particular kinds of stock — those for special purposes; others still for specialties in farming, while many are suited to mixed husbandry, or cultivation of many of the farm products. In making a choice of crops, therefore, the farmer will find it to his advan- tage to understand the character of the soil he is to cultivate, as well as the demands of the market, and produce those to which his land is best adapted. Again, some soils may possess more of certain kinds of elements of plant growth than of others; for instance, one soil may be more deficient in phosphoric acid than other elements of plant food; another may have an abundance of phospho- ric acid, but be lacking in potash, etc., the same principle applying to a deficiency of any of the elements of plant food, the stores of which may be capable of a partial or complete exhaustion in the soil. Fortunately for the farmer, science has come to his aid and pointed out to him the way to restore the elements that may be deficient in his lands, through over-cropping without sufficient fertility restored to the soil, or for other reasons, and when once he has determined the great want of his lands he may, by applying it in a form of commercial fertilizers, or farm manure, so change its nature and. condition as to adapt it to the successful culti- vation of crops that it would not otherwise produce. He may use special fertilizers for certain crops, or he may use barn-yard manure, if it can be obtained in sufficient quantities, since it is a complete fertil- izer for all crops, and the commercial fertilizers are not. Special fertilizers that are complete can, however, be made for certain crops by a proper combination in kind and quality of commercial manures, which have given remarkable results even in soils not especially adapted for their production. Barn-yard manure is more slow in its results than commercial fertilizers, since it requires a long time for it to become assimilated to plant growth, being coarse in texture, Avhile com- mercial fertilizers being reduced to a condition to be readily taken up by the plants, act more quickly in stimulating the growth of crops. For this reason, where barn-yard manure is applied alone, the yield is always modified more largely by the adaption of the land for the particular crop under cultivation, than " Consider Well." (HO) WHAT CROPS TO RAISE. 141 where commercial fertilizers are used, and much of the fertility of the soil is left over to the following year, while the fertilizing properties of commercial manures are usually mostly extracted during the iirst season. With skillful management with special fertilizers (those adapted to certain products), many crops may he grown successfully on lands that otherwise were not well adapted to their produc- tion; still, as a general rule, the best permanent results are attained on lands naturally suited to the crop to be cultivated. It is well, however, for the farmer to bear in mind that one of the most important things to be considered is the necessity of thoroughly understanding, as far as can be, the nature of the soil he is to cultivate. The value of this knowledge cannot well be over-estimated. The soil is the element with which the farmer has to deal, and unless he possesses a good knowl- edge of it, he cannot expect to succeed. If he meets with any degree of success while working in ignorance, it is by mere chance that he reaches the result — a kind of "guess-work" without knowledge of the facts that lead to it. What could be expected of a mechanic who attempted, in the pursuit of his business, to use tools constructed in a complicated manner, when entirely ignorant of their use and construction? Equally presumptuous would it be for the farmer to expect to cultivate intelligently and with successful results the most complicated of elements combined — the agricultural soil — when entirely ignorant of its com- position, or of what it is best adapted to produce. RELATIVE COST IX PRODUCTION, ETC. Another important point to be considered in the choice of crops is the rela- tive cost in production and the value of different crops when harvested. There may sometimes be crops in popular demand in the market, for the production of which the soil of the farmer may be admirably adapted, but the expense of which production may so far exceed that of other crops less in demand, that the latter may be found to be more profitable. When it costs a farmer 50 per cent, more to produce a bushel of potatoes than it does corn, for instance, or any other crop and the former brings but twenty per cent, more profit than the latter, he will find it to his advantage to cultivate the latter, since by so doing he realizes a larger per cent. of profit; that is, his receipts are larger in excess of his expenditures than on the more expensive crops. It is not profitable to raise large and expen- sive crops that do not bring a large proportionate profit in return. The fact should be kept in mind that that farming is most profitable that brings the largest returns for Avhat is expended. Farmers should keep an accurate account with respect to the expense of each crop (including cost of fertilizers, expense of cul- tivation, harvesting, marketing, etc.,) and determining relatively what the cost of production and receipts of their sale are, they will thus learn which pays the best and which are the most unprofitable. By so doing, a decision as to which are the most desirable to raise can easily be reached. Where it Avill be found that the crops for home consumption on the farm can be grown cheaper than they can be purchased, it will, of course, be best to culti- vate enough of such at least as are necessary for that purpose; but where certain products for home production can be bought for less money than the farmer can grow them himself, it will not pay to cultivate such, when money and labor could 142 PROFITABLE FARMING. more profitably be expended on other products. By giving due thought and atten- tion to the subject of choice in crops, and taking measures to so inform himself as to obtain all the light possible on the subject, the-farmer will be liable to make a more judicious choice than otherwise; and having once taken such steps in the right direction — although he may make some mistakes, and often obtain benefit from such experience — yet he will, in the main, with other favoring conditions, meet with success. The farmer who profits by the experience of the past and wisely appropriates to his use the advantages within his reach that the present affords, must win success, however close the competition with which he meets, or difficult the obstacles he has to overcome. ROTATION OF CROPS. It has become an established fact in agriculture that the continued growth for successive years of the same kind or family of plants on the same soil is one of the surest and most speedy means of impairing, and, in many instances, ren- dering that particular soil unfit for bearing further crops of that kind. More especially is this true if the crop matures and ripens its seed, like the various kinds of grain, etc. It has also been ascertained by long practice that if a proper sys- tem of rotation be adopted exhaustion of soil will be greatly deferred, and that by use of fertilizers, which will return an equivalent for the elements extracted from the soil by the production of crops, the exhaustion can be largely prevented. Yet, even in such cases, it is found that for all soils a change by way of rotation is the most satisfactory in the result upon both the soil and the crops produced, most writers on the subject claiming that the application or the witholding of manures only serves to retard or accelerate this process of exhaustion. As a general rule, the poorer the soil the greater the necessity of diversifying the crops; consequently the greater the necessity of a rotation, and those crops that are wholly removed from the soil in root, branch, and seed will exhaust lands sooner than those that permit of a portion remaining on the lands to fertilize it, such as stubble, etc. Even on the rich lands of the West it is found that special crops, such as wheat, cannot be cultivated on the same soil year after year without deterioration. When lands became unproductive among the early cultivators of the soil, it was concluded that such lands needed rest; hence the fallow system was introduced, which was a common practice among the Romans. Their usual course was to permit the land to rest after each crop; a crop and a year's fallow generally succeeding each other, although where manure was applied two and sometimes several crops were taken between the fallowing periods. Among the ancient Eg} r ptians the fallow system was almost unknown, since their agriculture was confined to banks and lands adjacent to rivers having an annual overflow, which inundation caused a rich deposit of mud to be left upon the surface yearly, thus furnishing a rich top-dressing sufficient to keep the soil in constant fertility. The practice of changing the crops with more or less regularity, although found to be attended with beneficial results, has never been quite satisfactorily explained. THEORIES RELATIVE TO THE NECESSITY OF ROTATION OP CROPS. Various theories have from time to time been advanced relative to the cause of the failure or depreciation of the same kind of crops produced from the same WHAT CROPS TO RAISE. 143 soil continuously. One of these theories formerly was, that plants, in growing, exuded or threw off from their roots waste substances, which rendered tho soil unfit, to a certain degree, for the production of the same variety of plants, until time had neutralized the deleterious properties thus imparted, hut that these properties given off were not injurious to other kinds of plants. This theory is now generally discarded. Another theory, the one now generally adopted, is that different kinds of plants exhaust certain elements from the soil in different degrees, and that this explains why a change in the production of crops is bene- ficial. This may be a true reason to a certain extent, but it does not fully answer the question, since it is found that different crops, requiring about the same elements of plant food in similar quantities, do not affect the soil in the same manner, or, in other words, that the slight difference in the proportionate elements of plant food of different crops, does not account for the great difference between the alternation of these crops, and the successive following of the same, as is the case with wheat and corn, as instanced by the following from Prof. Blount, of the State Agricultural College, Colorado: In the vegetable as well as the animal kingdom, it is the infallible law of nature that constant cropping and continual feeding of one thing to the exclusion of all others, tend to reduce the strength, vigor, growth and product. Now corn takes from the soil only about six and one-half per cent, of its whole substance when dried, and wheat seven per cent. All the rest of the matter comes from the air in the shape of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc. If a succession of croppings be made, it necessarily takes from the soil these elements to a greater or less degree. Both wheat and corn, chemists tell us, take lip the same essential elements, but they fail to make the process or operation clear enough to show why one crop following itself lessens, and following another does not lessen the yield. Corn has its own natural habit of extracting food from the soil; so has wheat. The operation of both cannot be alike, or the exhaustion, lessening of the yield, and the same condition of the soil would follow rotation. It is evident that wheat leaves the soil in a better condition for corn than it does for wheat again, and corn leaves it better for wheat. Clover, peas, and sweet potatoes are among the best crops for preparing or leaving the ground for any crop. Wheat does much better after Irish potatoes and tobacco in some States, than after any other grain or vegetable. Several instances have come under my observation where sweet potatoes were raised for 10 to 20 years in succession, without any apparent exhaustion, but with great fertility to the soil. In looking into the chemistry on this subject, we find in the analyses that wheat contains about 55 per cent, of starch and corn 70 per cent. The gluten in the former runs from 10 to 19 per cent., while in the latter it is about 12 per cent. Now if the soil contains a certain average supply of these and other inorganic substances upon which the plant feeds, and the same wheat or corn crop is grown in the same soil year after year, the crops will carry off some of these substances in greater proportion than others, so that they will become relatively less every season. The result is, the soil will become so impov- erished of these substances that no crop of the same kind can be raised, although it may contain a large store of other inorganic substances. When these crops are grown one after another, one draws especially upon one class of elements, and the other upon another, thus keeping up the equilibrium of fertility necessary to sup- port either plant. (141) ■ Enemy ok the Farm Yard.' 1 () WHAT CROPS TO RAISE. 145 There evidently are other seasons for the difference in connection with the many theories advanced, which are not yet understood ami which are not neces- sary for the farmer to understand, since he has to ileal, with the fact itself, and its relations to agriculture. He can afford to leave the explanation of this phenom- enon to the agricultural chemists, and give his attention to the benefits that can be derived from a knowledge of the tacts. We find that NATURE GENERALLY FOLLOWS A COURSE OP ROTATION in her various departments of vegetable production. Although mowing lands part with their annual crop of hay, and by a partial rest, or a pasturage of their aftermath, or " rowen," will remain fresh and seem to retain the original plants that produced the crop, yet on close examination it will be ascertained that the varieties of the grasses and other plants will change gradually from year to- year, some kinds predominating at one time and others at another, in a con- tinuous round of rotation. But this fact of change is more strikingly illustrated in the succession of forest trees, which cannot fail to attract the attention of even the most casual bserver. AVe distinctly recall, among our childhood memories, a grand old forest of oak, walnut, and chestnut Many of these monarchs of the forest suc- cumbed to the fate of the woodman's axe. Soon appeared in their places a thick growth of white pine, which increased with remarkable rapidity. These pines were subsequently cut down, and maple, chestnut, and oak came up with scarcely a pine tree among them. And thus it is always found that when a forest is cut down and the roots destroyed, another growth of trees succeeds of an entirely different nature, and these are followed by still another variety, completing in time a rotation all probably produced from seeds that may have lain dormant in the soil for centuries, waiting for favoring conditions to germinate. It is often found that when a soil becomes exhausted to a certain extent by one particular crop, and ceases to give a sufficient return of it, it will still yield a large crop of some other kind that is adapted to it, and which calls for just the elements of plant growth that this soil may contain; this is not only a fact con- cerning field crops, but the same is true in gardening and culture of trees, etc. There would be found few gardeners of experience, if any, who would think of cultivating cabbages, turnips, or peas, on the same piece of land without an inter- val of at least two or three years; and although in some special cases, they may be grown successfully on the same soil for several consecutive seasons, this would be an exception to the general rule. The general and most successful method being to have an interval of two or three years between the crops, and this interval to be occupied by plants entirely different from them. A Massachusetts nurseryman, eminently successful in his business, says: I have witnessed the most extraordinary effects follow the carrying out of the prin- ciple of rotation of crops. To illustrate the point, I will say that in the prepara- tion of the ground for apple-trees, for instance, we are obliged to prepare it very nicely in order to be successful — as nicely as for a vineyard or garden vegetables. We plow deeply, manure thoroughly, and then, in setting out the small plants, the seedling apples, we calculate that the ground is in a fit condition to carry those trees almost to their maturity. Now you will see that the growing of a crop 146 PROFITABLE FARMING. of apple-trees successfully, which requires three or four, and sometimes five years, exhausts the soil of all the ingredients which the apple-tree, or perhaps any decid- uous tree, calls for. A nurseryman who knows his business understands that it would be folly for him, after he has taken off that first crop, to attempt to put a second crop upon that land, even if he manured equally as well as he did the first time, because his crop has exhausted the soil of certain things that are peculiarly necessary, and which only can be found in newer soil. My practice has been this: After my apple-trees have been removed, I find the land admirably adapted to the growth of evergreen trees, such as spruce, arbor vita?, hemlock, etc. Without remanuring the land, without any repreparation almost, except it be plowing, I can set out evergreens and get an admirable crop, because the elements that the evergreens calls for being different from those which the apple-tree calls for still exist in the soil. I grow them three years, and then they pass away. "What is , the condition of the soil then? It is exhausted for the evergreen, it is exhausted for the deciduous tree, and you might say that the soil is entirely exhausted. But such is not always the case. I may plow that ground thoroughly, without even putting manure on it, and raise a splendid crop of grass. We believe it is because the grass calls for different elements in the soil than either of the varieties of the trees specified, and the farmer will find the same principle true respecting his crops; for this reason orchards planted on old orchard sites seldom do well. The superintendent of the gardens and grounds for the department at Washington states that the same results have been found in the culture of the grape. For a number of years past, it has been customary for the department to propagate several thousands of plants, embracing many varieties of native grapes. These are mostly grown from single eye cuttings in sand-beds under glass, and placed singly in pots when rooted. About the end of May they are turned out of pots, and planted out in the open field rather closely in rows which are about three feet apart. When they have finished growth for the season, they are lifted and removed from the field; the ground receives a coat- ing of rotted manure, which is either plowed in or worked with a spade, leaving the surface rough to be acted upon by the frost In the following spring the soil is again worked over and left in good order for planting. At the proper period young grapes are again planted as before. These are removed at the end of the season, and the ground receives similar treatment to that of the previous year. Notwithstanding this treatment, the third crop is very indifferent, and if a fourth successive crop is planted, it will prove to be an entire failure. It is a fact well-known to florists, that even the smaller plants require a change, and such small growths as petunias and verbenas, if continued for a few years on the same ground, will not give satisfaction, however richly fertilized with different manurial applications, and that when it is desirable to grow these plants year after year in the same spot, it is necessary to remove six or eight inches of the soil, and replace it with fresh earth from other sources. Clover, which is the great renovator of the soil, may be cultivated on the same land until it becomes "clover sick," and ceases to produce it. In his experiments at Rothamsted, Mr. Lawes found that with occasional variations due to the character of the seasons, the average annual produce of a certain field for twenty successive years without manure was sixteen bushels of wheat per acre and sixteen hundred weight of straw. This soil was a strong clay WHAT CHOPS TO RAISE. 147 loam resting at a depth of five or six feet upon chalk, and probably produced a larger yield under the circumstances than most soils. In the case of turnips, when treated in the same manner, lie found that after a few years they ceased to grow larger than radishes, and he could not afterward by the application of any kind or quantity of manure obtain a crop equal to the first. The result was very different with the wheat experiment ahove referred to, for by the application of four hundred weight of Peruvian guano, the crop was at once doubled. Strawberry plants require a constant change of ground, in order to do well, and are constantly seeking to occupy new territory by throwing out their long "runners;" and it is said, by those familiar with the cultivation of mushrooms, that they never rise in two successive ceasons from the same spot. Nature has in such, and various other ways, sufficiently indicated the law of rotation as the law cf successful growth, and we doubt whether any agriculturists can improve upon it. Exceptions to this law are found, but they are exceedingly rare, change being the great demand for all varieties of plant growth. SCHEMES OF DOTATION The choice of crops for rotation will differ with the different soils, climates, and conditions; consequently, in deciding upon a scheme for any particular farm, various considerations must be regarded, such as the nature and capacity of the soils for production, the demands of the markets which may be accessible for the disposal of the crop, and the quantity and the kind of manure to be applied. Each farmer will have to decide these for himself. It is well to have a scheme made out of from four to six of the best crops, and the ands given to the culture of these in successive order. In all cases the best results will be attained when the soil is abundantly fed with fertilizers of some kind for each crop. The general rule for a farmer to base his scheme of rotation upon, is to culti- vate as large a variety of crops as his soil, circumstances, and the demand of the market will render profitable, and to have the scheme so arranged that the same, or a similar species of plants, shall occupy the same ground at intervals as remote as practicable. In the English practice, called tho " four-field or Norfolk system," which is considered, for that country, one of the best for friable soils of fair quality, in which half the lands are in grain and half in cattle crops annually, a great variety of changes may be introduced, which will bring the interval between the same kind of plants on the same soil, one of eight years, instead of four, for one or two of the more important crops. In this country, it is generally deemed desirable to have grass for one of the principal crops in the rotation system. It is thought by many farmers that wheat succeeds better after peas and crrnthan after any other crops. The following rotation practiced by Mr. Waring, l:s considered by those who have followed it as desirable for some sections. Grass is followed by corn; the next year the land is occupied by either potatoes, carrots, or sugar-beets; then follows green forage crops (generally oats or corn), and Avhen the land is cleared of these, winter rye is sown in the fall. The next year the rye is sometimes cut while green for fodder, and other forage crops are grown upon the land which are ready to be cut earliest,, In the fall of the same year wheat is sown, and the land seeded with timothy and clover. When the grain is harvested the following season, the grass remains and soon shows a vigorous growth. ■''!'' '''< . <)!•} ■ ■ i '■' ('■(SVl.'Sli •'Have some Dinner, Sir?" (1-WJ WHAT CROPS TO RAISE. 149 Peas or clover plowed under is thought to ho one of the host preparations for wheat; and old pastures, plowed under in the fall, are generally considered pre- cursors of fine crops of corn, while corn-fields are, in turn, followed by good pastures. Grass may also he followed by peas and corn, then wheat; some root crop followed hy barley, with grass and clover seed, which will produce a good crop ol' grass the following year. In this way changes can be made in rotation almost ad infinitum, and, as we have previously stated, a scheme for such can best be made when the character of the soil and the crops desired are known, since soils differ so greatly that a rotation for one section, or farm even, may not be suited to another, and only the general rules of rotation can be given as applicable to all. We have aimed to lay general rules simply, the details of which each farmer can best arrange to suit his individual requirements and circumstances. It has been found by long practice that better results are reached when two crops of grain are not cultivated in succession on the same field, though corn may be an exception to this rule; also, that certain products are mutual fertilizers, being so mysteriously related that the growth of one is the best preparation of the soil for the other. The following rotation for wheat, corn, oats, peas, and clover is recommended by the editor of the "Country Gentleman": Two modes of rotation are adapted for these crops, the most common being to invert sod, and plant corn on it, with good manuring the previous autumn or winter on the surface; follow with oats, barley, or peas, and the same autumn sow winter wheat with a moderate seeding of timothy, and the next spring clover seed. The field may remain in grass any number of years, according to the number of your fields. This rotation is modi- fied where the brown cut-worm is prevalent by first sowing wheat on the well- inverted and pulverized sod, and follow this with corn and the other crops already mentioned The decaying sod and the manure which is applied give a good crop of corn. Of course a rotation suited to one portion of the country would not be adapted to another portion where the products were very dissimilar, such as the Northern and Southern States. With respect to rotation of crops in the Southern States, Mr. C. W. Howard, of Georgia, says a great defect of Southern planters is, that they do not keep in the way of fertility what they get — that is to say, when they make a piece of ground rich, they afterward continue to work it in exhausting crops until all the richness is gone. The true policy is not merely to keep the ground rich, but to make it richer. To illustrate: If a piece of rich land is put in cotton, it may be followed with corn, small grain, with clover being sowed among the corn in August. If the clover is allowed to occupy the ground for two years and to go to seed, even under a longer rotation than the above, it will not be necessary to sow it again. As soon as the ground is at rest, it Avill be covered with young clover. Three years ago a piece of ground was put in turnips, manured in the ground with farm-yard manure. The turnips were eaten on the ground by the sheep. The next year it was put in corn ; the next in cotton worked very clean, and the following year in oats. After the oats were cut a fine stand of red clover appeared. This seed was never sown, but must have been in the manure applied three } r ears since to the 150 PROFITABLE FARMING. turnip.-. This is not a solitary case; many similar instances have occurred within the observation of the writer. It is such plants as clover and peas that not only hold, but increase the fertility of the soil. In order to illustrate the writer's views of diversified husbandry, the follow- ing rotation of crops is submitted as one suited to the agricultural condition of the South. We will suppose a farm of five hundred acres of open land under fence. Let two hundred and fifty acres be devoted to arable purposes, and the rest to grazing. The rotation might be as follows: 1. Cotton and corn in the same field in suitable proportions. 2. Oats sown in August on the cotton and corn land. 3. Rye ? or rye and wheat, sown in September, the land having been twice plowed in ordei' to kill the germinant oats. 4 and 5. Clover, if the land is in sufficient heart to pro- duce it; if not, the fourth year rest ungrazed, and the fifth year sheep and cattle penned upon it every night during the year, using a portable fence. An ordinary farm of five hundred acres will support five hundred sheep, beside^ the crops in the above rotation. The oats and rye will feed them during the winter nearly or entirely, without injury to the grain. Five hands would be suffi- cient to work such a farm and take care of the live stock. Prof. Pendleton, one of the leading agricultural authorities of the Southern section, recommends for the warm lands of the South, a rotation of cotton for two years, followed by corn on the most productive portions and wheat or oats in the rolling lands, with a fourth year at rest, the land to lie fallow. According to his opinion, cotton will give better results for two successive years, provided the soil is not very deficient in vegetable material, than if an intervening crop is made to occupy it. For lands badly exhausted by constant cropping without sufficient manure to return an equivalent for the elements exhausted, this fallow system may prove quite beneficial; but as a general rule it is thought by most writers on this subject, that the plowing under of green crops, such as clover, peas, etc., combined with the application of an abundant supply of manure will prove more beneficial to most soils than fallowing. ' Wherever practicable, pasturage may form a part of the rotation with profit. Especially so on farms where the live stock interest is one of the principal features in the management. By using a portion of the farm for keeping cattle and sheep a few years, and afterwards tilling it for crops, while a field lately tilled is in turn taken for a pasturage, the various tilled fields may often be utilized with profit in completing the rotation. Sheep, especially, are very beneficial in improving the fertility of the soil, as is seen in English husbandry. They can be more successfully reared at the South than in other sections of the country, since it has been found that they are as healthy in the cotton-growing States as those of the North, while the time of grazing is much longer at the South than it is at the North, thus giving a better opportunity to utilize pasturage in rearing them. Besides, cotton seed will furnish a cheap and nutritious feed in winter, and aside from the wool product, sheep on cotton plantations are worth keeping simply for the weeds and briars they will destroy, and the fertilizer they furnish to the soil. We believe that the proper management of sheep on cotton plantations will prove one of the most potent aids in restoring fertility to partially exhausted lands, as well as maintaining the fertility of such as have been properly tilled. WHAT CROPS TO RAISE. 151 Whatever the system of rotation may be, or whatever the nature "I the soil, it is well for tho fanner to bear in mind Unit good crops cannot be produced with - out proper management, and that that management has for one of its main fea- tures, a sufficient supply of manure to furnish the elements of plant food to the soil that is expected to produce so abundantly. If we are to have satisfactory results in the rearing of live stock, we expect to feed these animals with a suMi- cient supply of proper food; but many fanners seem to think that lands can con- stantly produce Large crops with only a meagre supply of plan' fund furnished for this purpose. This is a great mistake, as any farmer whose practice involves this principle will learn sooner or later, for, as a general rule, lands will produce- and remain in a state of fertility exempt from exhaustion, only in proportion to the proper amount of fertilizing material applied to furnish the elements of growth to the crops they produce ; and'if 1 hey are constantly forced by successive crop- ping without this aid, exhaustion must follow as a natural result. "Sweetheart and Wife." CHAPTER IX. brasses *m& borage plants BY CHARLES L. FLINT. LINT'S "American Farmer" says: Grasses, or plants consti- tuting the order Graminese, are distributed over the entire earth and constitute one of the largest orders of the vegetable dom. This order includes all the cereals of the temper- cm*: ate climate, together with the grains of the warmer zones and the bamboos of India and America — many of which have columnar stems reaching to the height of forest trees — yet all are formed on a common type, and therefore belong to the same botanical order as the tiniest spear of grass beneath our feet. The seeds of many of the varieties and the nutrition of the herbage, form the chief portion of the sustenance of mankind, and the more valuable of the domestic animals. Among these are wheat, rye, maize or Indian corn, barley, oats, rice, sugar-cane, sorghum, broom-corn, millet, etc., while the bamboo is indispensable to the natives of India in the construction of their dwell- ings, the making of mats, cordage, boats, sails, masts, rafts, and even musical instruments and weapons. A large number of grasses, however, seem to have little or no agricultural value, and, to all appearance, are but little better than weeds on a farm, causing the farmer considerable annoyance and labor in keeping his lands clear of them. There are also probably many valuable species of native grasses growing wild in different portions of our country, now regarded as little better than worthless weeds, which when fully tested may be found to be of great agricultural value. The Department of Agriculture has within a few years past made special efforts in ascertaining the value of some of these Avild grasses, the results of which investigations have been in a measure successful; but thus far these experiments have been carried on in this country to only a limited extent. The English are far in advance of us in this respect, the most careful experiments there being made with reference to the value of the various grasses for different soils, situations, and climate, as Avell as in relation to their value as to the season, etc. There are over two hundred varieties of grasses cultivated in England for the use of domestic animals, while in our own country the number of cultivated grasses is very much loss, although there is probably no country on the entire globe that possesses so many varieties of native grasses. A few 3^ears in advance of the present will doubtless show great improvement in this department of our agriculture, and the proper tests afforded by science and experience will acquaint us with the true value of many varieties, now almost unknown. (152} GRASSES AM) FORAGE PLANTS. 153 What render grasses so peculiarly nutritious, and hence valuable to agricul- ture, are the large proportions of sugar, starch, fatty matter, albumen and fibrine contained, not only in the seeds, but also in the stems, leaves, and joints of grass before the seeds arc fully matured. The importance of grasses in all systems of agriculture can scarcely bo over- estimated. In fact, the proportion of meadow and pasture lands in any region is regarded as a good criterion of the agricultural wealth of that region. Wherever the importance of the grass crop has g| been overlooked in the desire to realize immediate results from special crops, the consequence has gener-""" ally been an impoverished soil and an impoverished ~ people; Avhile the farmer with an abundance of pastur- age and meadow lands has in his own hands and under _j^f I i£-~-^^ =fe _ .s=^~^»z his own control the very elements of wealth which, if """^ '-^~ni~ju=»*...- ■■- =** judiciously employed, cannot fail of good in the result. riopover. It is not to anyone species of grass, or a few species only, that we should depend upon for the sustenance of our stock, but the many species intermingled, each doing its part in the great economy of nature — some starting and maturing early, others late; come preferring low, wet localities, others only dry soils; some seeking the shaded situations for growth, others the most exposed localities, such as the broad open prairies of the West, or the savannas of the South. Some will grow only in the water, others only along the margin of lakes and rivers; some only in fresh water, others only in salt water. Thus we have grasses suited to every section and condition, every soil and climate, from one portion of the con- tinent to the other, and no creation in the vegetable woidd or any other depart- ment of nature's vast laboratory will lie found in vain or useless, however man may regard it. The great error in New England farming has formerly been the practice of stinting or robbing the grass lands to feed the hoed crops and arable lands. Although there is at present a great improvement in this respect over the old-time method, still the practice is not wholly discarded, ^ t. and more attention should be given to the cultivation "■ ' of the grass crops than is common in many sections. As the general appearance of plants is . often greatly modified by climate, soil, and modes of cultiva- \ tion, it is important to fix upon certain characteristics which are permanent and unaltered by circumstances, by means of which the particular genus and species may be identified with ease and certainty. It is evi- dent that these characteristics could not be simply in - the leaves, or the stems, or the size of the plant, be- cause there will be a great difference between plants growing in a poor, thin, sandy soil, and others of the same species on a deep, rich loam. Botanists have, therefore, been compelled to resort to other peculiarities to distinguish between different species; and the terms used to express these, like the terms iised in other departments of natural history, are technical; and hence in detailing the natural history of Spring-Tooth Rake. 154 PROFITABLE FARMING. the grasses the use of technical language, to a greater or less extent, cannot be avoided. The flowers of the grasses are arranged on the sterns in spikes as where they are set on a common stalk without small stalks or branches for each separate flower, as in herds grass (Pheleum pratense), or in panicles, or loose sub-divided clusters, as in orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata). A panicle is said to be loose or spreading, as in red-top (Agrostis vulgaris), when the small branches on which the flowers are set are open, or extended out freely in different directions; it is said to be dense, or crowded or compressed, when the branches are so short as to give it more or less of the spike form. In different parts of the country, a great variety of grasses are known by different common names, the same name being frequently applied to grasses entirely different from each other; or, a single plant may be known by several different names, which occasions no little confusion Avhere the common or local name is wholly depended upon to distinguish one variety from the other; for instance, the grass that is commonly called " cat's tail" in England, is known as timothy in some sections of this country, and herds grass in others; and that which is called red-top in one locality is known as herds grass in another, and a,: by the various terms of Burdin's grass, red-bent grass, fj> summer-dew grass, small red-top, fine red-top, and ^pjd - fowl-meadow grass in others. What is commonly 55 1 called blue grass in one locality is known as green grass in another, etc.; so that it is evident were he common name to be depended upon alone, in dis- tinguishing one variety from another, considerable difficulty would be involved in arriving at a correct understanding as to which species it meant. And when we take into further consideration the fact of the close resemblance of many of the different species of grasses, especially to a per- son inexperienced in distinguishing one from another, the subject becomes a more puzzling one still, and it could hardly be expected that a correct understanding- could be arrived at when depending entirely upon the common or local name. We. therefore, see the necessity of the use of the Latin name of the species, and when this is once known there is no further difficulty in this respect, since the same Latin or scientific name is never applied to but one of a species. TIMOTHY, OR HERDS GRASS (PHELEUM PRATENSe). Generic characters: Panicle spikes, spikelets compressed, pales shorter than the awned glumes, the lower one truncate, usually awnless; styles distinct, fila- ments hairy, spike dense, rough, or harsh. So called from an ancient Greek term signifying cat's tail, the name by which it is still most frequently known in Great Britain. The name of timothy, by which it is more generally known over this country and abroad, was obtained from Timothy Hanson, who cultivated it extensively, and, according to some accounts, introduced it into England, from whence it is supposed to have been originally brought to this country. It forms a large pro- portion of what is called English hay. Dumping Sulky Rake. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 155 For land that is adapted to it, there is, all things considered, no better grass than timothy and it is probably unsurpassed for hay by any kind now cultivated. If allowed to stand too long, however, it will, as almost every farmer knows, heroine hard and woody and its nutritive value greatly lessened, yet if cut when in bloom, it is relished by all kinds of stork — especially so by horses — while it possesses a large percentage of nutritive matter in o »mparis< m with other agricul- tural grasses. It was formerly often sown with clover, but the best practical fanners have discontinued this custom on account of the different times of blossoming of the two crops; since timothy being invariably later than clover, the former must be cut too green, before blossoming, when the loss is great by shrinkage and when the nutritive matter is considerably less than at a little later period, or the clover must stand too long, when there is an equally serious loss of nutritive matter in that. It grows very readily and yields very large crops on favorite soils. We have known instances where its yield was four tons to the acre of the best quality of hay, the timothy constituting the bulk of the grass. It is cultivated with ease, and yields a large quantity of seed to the acre, ^-— - — ' varying from ten to thirty bushels on rich soils. - :r " ^ = _,-- This grass has long roots which extend deep into the soil, and when once well established it will withstand drouth better than many other varie- ties. When a good growth is once well started on a mellow surface-soil overlaying a moist sub- soil, this crop is quite safe against any ordinary sP" drouth. It only requires a good start in theal spring, so as to occupy and protect the ground. JOT May is the best month for the grass crop, and if5il§j§8 it be unusually dry, or cold winds prevail then.^fyygjg; the product will be liable to be effected accord- ' v, ^^ lvmm ^ M:m W^'^^-'- ingly; but such grasses as have a good soil and Draft Damping Hake, a. d. ibso. deeply penetrating roots will endure without permanent injury the effects of unfavorable weather better than those varieties lying near the surface, as they can draw moisture from the subsoil and also possess the basis for a good crop the following; year. When pastured, it yields abundantly during the season, starting very early in the spring, and is greatly relished by stock of all kinds. It may be sown on wheat or rye in August, or later, or in the spring. The quantity of seed required per acre depends largely upon the soil and its condition. From ten to fourteen quarts is sufficient where the soil is fine and mellow, while from eighteen to twenty might be required in a heavy clay when sown alone. It is stated by good authority, that a crop of pure timothy produced three tons to the acre on the farm of Mr. George Geddes, near Syracuse, NeAv York, and also that Mr. John Fisher, of Carroll county, Maryland, cut from one acre five tons and one thousand six hundred and twenty-two pounds of dry hay. The proper time for mowing timothy is when the first dry appearance is seen above the first joint; if mowed earlier than this, the plant is injured; if left to a later period, the starch and sugar are converted into an indigestible Avoody fibre, and the nitrogenous com- pounds on which its value chiefly depends are transferred from the leaves and culm to the seed, which mostly drop out before they reach the manger. Timothy 156 PROFITABLE FARMING. is not well adapted to hot sands, gravels, chalks, nor hard sterile clays; but thrives on peaty, damp soils, and especially on most calcareous loams, where it exhibits its fullest perfection. ■3^ GREEN MEADOW GRASS, JUNE GRASS, COMMON SPEAR GRASS. KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS, ETC. (POA PRATENSIS). r The characteristics of the genus poa are ovate spikelets, compressed, flowers two to ten in an open panicle, glumes shorter than the flowers, lower palea com- pressed, keeled, pointless, five-nerved, stamens two or three, seed oblong, free, stems tufted, leaves smooth, flat and soft. Specific characters: Lower florets connected at the base by a web of long, silky filaments, holding the calyx; outer palea, five-ribbed, marginal ribs hairy, upper sheath longer than its leaf; height from ten to fifteen inches, root perennial, creeping, stem erect, smooth, and round; leaves linear, flat, acute, rough- ish on the edges and inner surface; panicle diffuse, spreading, erect. The plant is of a light green color, the i spikelets frequently variegated with brownish purple. Introduced. Flowers in June. This is an early grass, very common on the soils of New England in pas- tures and fields, constitu- ting a considerable por- tion of the turf. It varies much in size and appear- ance accoiding to the soil on which it grows. In Ken- tucky it is universally known as blue grass, and else- where frequently called Kentucky blue grass, and still more frequently June grass. It must be regarded as one of the best pasture grasses known. It is common all over the northern part of the country, growing indigenously in all limestone countries lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels, and coming to its highest perfection upon the rich, marly, blue limestone soils of some of the central counties of Kentucky. It is said to have been found growing there when the region was first discovered, constituting a natural pasturage that attracted vast numbers of grazing animals, countless herds of buffalo, elk, deer, ante- lopes, etc. This grass is not so well adapted to a short rotation, and is, therefore, less suited to our mowing lots, from the fact that it requires three or four years to become well set so as to form a close sward. This habit of growth is less objec- tionable as a permanent pasture. When the soil is once well sodded with this grass, it will endure the vicissitudes of the seasons — heat and cold, sunshine and shade, droughts and floods — with wonderful persistency. It is the source of wealth in sections adapted to it, and there are pastures of it fifty years of age still luxu- riant and profitable. It throws up flower-stalks but once in the season, but it starts quickly after grazing or cutting, and forms a thick, green growth. Self-Dumping Rake, A. D. 1852. Dralt Dumping Rake, A. D. 18CG GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 157 Spring Tooth Dumping Rake, A. D. 1856. On this account, it is highly recommended for lawns. It thrives equally well on. high or low lands, hut is not adapted to a thin, poor soil. In some sections not adapted to its growth it is regarded as a troublesome weed. Its flower-stalk is short: and matures early. It is not to bo judged in value by this, but by its long leaves, abundantly produced throughout the season, which forms a rich, sweet herbage — in fact, one of the best for milch cows, the dairy product from such milk being of the best quality. On rich soil, the leaves will frequently attain the length of two feet when allowed to grow. It grows well in rather a dry soil, but will grow on a variety of soils, from the dryest knolls to a wet meadow. It does not withstand severe droughts as well as some other grasses. It endures the frosts of win- ter better, perhaps, than most other grasses; and in Kentucky, where it attains the highest perfection as a pasture grass, it sometimes continues luxuriant through their mild winters. As it requires at least two or three years to become well set, and does not arrive at its perfection as a pasture grass till the ,1 sward is older than that, it is not suited to alternate husbandry, or where the land is to remain in grass only two or three years and then be plowed up. In Kentucky, the best blue grass is found in partially shaded pastures. BLUE GKASS, OR IVIKE GRASS (POA COMPRESSa). Stems ascending, flattened, the uppermost joint near the middle, leaves short, bluish green, panicle dense and contracted; flowered flat spikelets; flowers rather obtuse, linear, hairy below on the keel; ligule short and blunt; height about a foot. It is very common on dry, sandy, thin soils and banks, so hardy as to grow on thin hard soils covering the surface of rocks, along trodden walks, or gravelly knolls. It shoots its leaves early, but the amount of its foliage is not large, otherwise it would bo one of our most valuable grasses, since it possesses a large per cent, of nutritive matter. Flowers in July. Most graz- ing animals eat it greedily, and it is especially relished by sheep. Its bluish green stems retain their color after the seed is ripe. It shrinks less in drying than '" most other grasses, and consequently makes a hay spiiBg Tooth Dum P in ? Rake, a. d. 1856. very h eavv i n proportion to its bulk. It is an exceed- ingly valuable pasture grass on dry ? rock}' "knolls and should form a portion of a mix- ture for such soils. This should not be confounded with Kentucky blue grass alluded to above. BERMUDA GRASS, WIRE GRASS (cYNODON DACTYLON). A low, creeping perennial grass, with abundant short leaves at the base, sparingly sending up slender, nearly leafless flower-stalks, with three to five slender diverging spikes at the summit. The flowers are arranged in a close row along one side of these spikes. The spikelets are one-flowered, with a short pedi- 158 PROFITABLE FARMING. celled rudiment of a second flower. The glumes are pointed, but without awns; the lower palet boat-shaped. This grass is a native of Europe, and is abundantly naturalized in many other countries. It is said to be a common pasture grass in the West Indies. In the Southern States it has long been the chief reliance for pasture, and has been extravagantly praised bj^some, and cursed by others, who find it difficult to eradi- cate it when once established. Mr. C. Mohr speaks of it thus: It thrives in the arid, barren drift-sands of the sea-shore, covering them with its long creep- ing stems, whose deeply penetrating roots impart firmness to a soil, which else would remain devoid of vegetation. It is esteemed one of the most valuable of our grasses, either in the pasture or cured as hay. Colonel T. C. Howard, of Georgia, says the desideratum of the South is a grass that is perennial, nutritious, and adapted to the climate. While we have grasses and forage plants that do well when nursed, we have few that live and thrive here as in their native habitat. The Bermuda and crab grasses are at home in the South. They not only live, but live in spite of neglect, and when petted and encouraged they make such grateful returns as astonish the benefactor. It seems that it rarely ripens any seed and the usual method of reproducing it is to chop up the roots with a cutting knife, sow them broadcast and plow under shallow. Colonel Lane states: Upon our ordinary uplands, I have found no difficulty in destroying it by close cultivation in cotton for two years. It requires a few extra plowings to get the sod thoroughly broken to pieces. Professor Killebrew, of Tennessee, states that in Louisiana, Texas and the South generally, it is, and Draft Dumping Rake, a. d. 1859. nas been, the chief reliance for pasture for a long time and the immense herds of cattle on the Southern prairies subsist principally on this food. It revels on sandy soils and has been grown extensively on the sandy hills of Virginia and North and South Carolina. It is used extensively on the southern rivers to hold the levees and embankments of the roads. It will throw its runners over a rock six feet across and soon hide it from view, or it will run down the sides of the deepest gully and stop its washing. Hogs thrive upon its succulent roots and horses and cattle upon its foliage. It has the capacity to with- stand any amount of heat and drouth and months that are so dry as to check the growth of blue grass will only make the Bermuda greener and more thrifty. Mr. Wall, of Mississippi, says it is a most valuable grass, and is destined to be the salvation of the hill land in Mississippi. With us it has no seed, but can be easily propagated by dropping the cuttings in a furrow, two or three feet apart. It does not endure shade, and can be destroyed by sowing the land with oats, fol- lowed by peas. CRAB GRASS (PANICUM SANOUINALe). This is a native of Europe, but has become naturalized in all parts of the country. It springs up quickly in both cultivated and waste grounds, and sends out roots from the lower joints, which take firm hold of the soil and spread rapidly in all directions. In the Novtborn States it is very troublesome in corn GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 159 fields, it being difficult to keep them clear of it. In the Southern States it is used for hay crops, giving a large yield of hay of excellent quality if cut at the proper time, which is before the ripening of the seeds. It also furnishes very desirable pasturage during August and September, when the spring grasses are old and dry. Professor Killobrew, of Tennessee, says of it: It is a fine pasture grass, although it has but few base leaves and forms no sward, yet it sends out numerous stems, branching freely at the base. It serves a most useful purpose in stock husbandry, and the Northern farmers would congratulate themselves very much if they had it to turn their cattle on while the clover fields and meadows are parched up with summer heat. It fills all our corn fields, and many persons pull it out, which is a tedious process. It makes a sweet hay, and horses are exceed- ingly fond of it, leaving the best hay to eat it. HUNGARIAN GRASS OR HUNGARIAN MILLET (PANICUM GERMANICUm) is an annual grass cultivated as a forage plant, and is a variety of Setoria Ger- manica, the common millet. It was introduced into France in 1815, where it has been considerably cultivated. It germinates readily, has a quick luxuriant growth, and is remarkable in withstanding drought, remain- ing green, even when other vegetation is parched and dry, while if its growth is arrested, in a measure, by dry weather, the least rain will restore its vigor. It j is much relished by horses and cattle, as well as all' other kinds of stock; when fed in too large quantities will act as a diuretic, and hence, in such cases, injuri- ous; but if fed in a moderate quantity it is nutritive and harmless. It makes most excellent hay, of good weight, flourishing on light and dry soils, though it attains its greatest luxuriance in soils of medium con- ,, sistency, well manured, and may be sown broadcast and cultivated precisely like other varieties of millet. When blown clown by storms and violent winds, it readily recovers its upright growth. A farmer recently mentioned the fact of his field being blown down three times in succession by storms, and each time it recovered its upright position very readily. It has been known to attain the height of three and one-half feet on rich soil. This grass does well on the rich lands of the West, though it will exhaust soil quicker than some other products. It is sown about the time of planting corn, at from two to three pecks per acre, and should be cured the same as timothy grass. The editor of the " Country Gentleman " expresses the following'opinion relative to this grass: "Hungarian grass will grow on any soil of sufficient richness and condition to raise good corn and potatoes, the richer the better, provided the manure has been applied to previous crops. Sow when the ground is warm and dry, or imme- diately after corn planting. If portions of the field are sown with a few days' interval between, it will not be ready to cut all at once, which may prove a con- venience in a large field. The ground before sowing should be thoroughly pulver- ized by harrowing, and made smooth and level, so that the small seed may not be buried too deep. Three pecks broadcast are enough for an acre. Cahoon's 160 PROFITABLE FARMING. I^^^j^^^^ ^ssssim sower is well adapted to do the work evenly. Cover the seed with a fine or smoothing harrow, and then roll the surface. In two months the heads will appear, at which time, if intended for hay, it should be cut with a mowing machine. Two or three days may be required for thorough curing, including turning or shaking up before raking, and opening the cocks. Good land, well managed, will give two or three tons of hay per acre. It is best as a fodder for cows. The crop is too dense in growth to sow clover or grass seed with it." COMMON MILLET (PANICUM MILLIACEUM). Iii growth and manner of bearing seeds the common millet resembles broom- corn. Its foliage is broad and abundant, heads open, branching panicles. It grows to the height of from two and a half to three and a half feet, according to the nature of the soil, and makes excellent forage for cattle, though not equal to the German, golden, or pearl millet. Allen states that from eighty to a hundred bushels of seed per acre have been raised, with straw equivalent to one and a half or two tons of hay, but an average crop may be estimated at about one-third this quantity. Birds are usually troublesome in destroying the seed when ripened, as they are very fond of it; consequently is is more profitable to cut it for the seed before all the heads have matured. It is cured the same as hay, and yields from two and a half to four tons per acre. All kinds of grazing stock are fond of it. The seeds are glossy, oval, and some- seed it is a very rich food, consequently Primitive Hand Folk, what flattened. When should be mixed with cut in the other hay in feeding. CULTIVATION. A rich, dry soil, well pulverized, is most desirable for the best results, although it will grow on thin soil. It can be sown broadcast or in drills. From the first of May to the first of July is the usual time for sowing at the North, the best time being generally conceded to be in June, when the soil is warm. At the South, it can, of course, be sown much earlier. From a bushel to a bushel and a half seed per acre is considered a fair quantity, if sown broadcast; if sown in drills, from eight to ten quarts per acre will suffice. It will ripen in from sixty to seventy-five days after sowing. It should be cut, if for fodder, while the seed is in a milky state, which will bo in about six weeks after sowing. It can be cut with a mow- ing-machine and cured the same as hay. For green food, it can be cut during its various stages of growth, and will produce a quick after-growth when cut at an early stage, and is not so liable to be effected by dry weather. GRASSES AM) FORAGE PLANTS. 161 It is especially valuable to supplement the hay crop, as a farmer can wait until lie can determine the yield of hay or ensilage crop before sowing, conse- quently can calculate the amount of millet required to be cultivated to insure his usual amount of iced for his stock for the year, while nearly all other crops require an earlier planting or sowing. TIME OF CUTTING AMI METHOD oh' CURING CLOVER. Of course, the time of cutting clovers, as well as grass, differs with different latitudes, and can only be determined by the condition of the crop. The opinion formerly prevailed that this crop should be cut after having fully blossomed and assumed a brownish hue, or as soon as the earliest heads showed signs of ripen- ing; but it has been ascertained, by .many and repeated experiments, that the proper time for cutting it is just as it. is coming into full bloom, as it then has the maximum amount of nutritive matter in a condition best fitted for assimilation. CULTIVATING CLOVER SEED. Some farmers pasture the clover-fields till June, and then leave it to mature a full crop of seed; others mow it early and leave the second crop to mature the seed;- but when this is done the first cutting should be before blossoming and seed-forming, as the plant will become too much exhausted to produce a second crop of seed, the seed-forming substance having been used up, in a measure, in the first crop. It is of more impor- tance to place more value upon the seed to be raised than the hay first secured, as this will prove more profitable in the end. The early mowing has the benefit of removing the weeds, while the second growth of clover will be so rapid that the weeds will be smothered, and the clover is then saved comparatively free from other seeds. An application of plaster to the clover-field in the spring will secure a better crop of seed when matured, while its application to the field gjs freshly mowed, after its first crop, will make the second growth very luxuriant and rank in hay, to the detriment of the seed crop. CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. Ilurpoon Horse Fork, A. D. 1SGV Tilting Horse Fork, A. D. 1870. Clover is not only extremely valuable as a forage plant, but also as a fertilizer of any soil on which it grows. It is often stated that the introduction of clover into England produced an entire revolution in her agriculture. We know its importance to the agricultural interests of our country are beyond estimation, and we wonder how our ancestors could have gotten on without it. li 162 PROFITABLE FARMING. Clover acts as a fertilizer in various ways. Its long roots not only penetrate the soil, loosening it and admitting the air, thus improving its mechanical condi- tion, but also serve to fix in the soil those elements important to enrich it. When these roots decay, they contribute their substance to further increase the fertiliz- ing properties of the land. The heavy foliage of clover also serves to choke out the weeds that would be liable to spring up on newly seeded land. It also heavily shades the surface, which tends to increase the fertility of the soil by this means. It has been found that while clover takes out of a soil as much of some of the elements of fertility as many of the farm crops, even more than wheat or other cereals, it leaves in it a much larger portion of nitrogen or nitrogenous ele- ments than any other crop. And it is a fact worthy of note, that a crop of grain will grow better after a crop of clover than it will after any other crop. The amount of nitrogen left in the soil by a crop of clover was found, by the careful investigations of Prof. Voelcker, who is one of the best authorities on agricultu- ral chemistry the world has ever known, to be equal to two and a half to three tons per acre. He also found that on soils where clover had been grown, not only is all that nitrogen collected and stored up in the soil by the clover, but it is left when spring returns in a much better condition to produce a grain crop than any other fertilizer that could be applied. These investigations were made at different depths of the soil, taking six inches at a time until a depth of eighteen inches was reached. From the thorough investigations thus made, Prof. Voelc- ker arrived at the following conclusions : 1. That a good crop of clover removes from the soil more potash, more phosphoric acid, more lime, and other mineral matters which enter into the composition of the ashes of our cultivated crops, than any other crop usually grown in the country. 2. There is fully three times as much nitrogen in a crop of clover as in the average produce of the grain and straw of wheat per acre. 3. Notwithstanding the large amount of nitrogenous matter, and of the ash constituents of plants in the produce of an acre, clover is an excellent preparatory crop for wheat. Grapple Horse Fork, A. D 1880. 4. During the growth of clover a large amount of nitrogenous matter accumulates in the soil. 5. This accumulation, which is greatest in the sui'f ace-soil, is due to decaying leaves dropped during the groAvth of clover, and to an abundance of roots, con- taining when dry from one and three-quarters to two per cent, of nitrogen. 6. The clover roots are stronger and more numerous, and more leaves fall on the ground when clover is grown for seed, than when it is mown for hay, which accounts for wheat yielding a better crop after clover-seed than after hay. 7. The development of roots being checked when the produce in a green con- dition is fed off by sheep, in all probability leaves less nitrogenous matter in the soil than when clover is allowed to get riper, and is mown for hay. Notwith- standing the return of the produce in the sheep excrements, wheat is generally stronger, and yields better, after clover mown for hay, than when the clover is fed off green by sheep. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 163 8. The nitrogenous matters in the clover-remains, on their gradual decay, are finally transformed into nitrates, thus affording a continuous source of food, on which cereal crops specially delight to grow. It is thus seen that clover is one of the best fertilizers known for preceding any crop. Clover is also a most valuable agent in restoring the fertility of exhausted lands by being plowed under while green. The leaves gather food from the atmosphere, and this food it stores up in its roots and stems, which by their decomposition afford a, peculiar nitrogenous element to crops. The texture of many soils is also greatly improved by the use of clover as a green manure. This subject of manuring with green crops will be found more fully treated in connec- tion with fertilizers, and hence does not require a further consideration here. THE COW OK FIELD PEA. This is much cultivated in the Southern States, and is more like a bean in appearance than a pea, and belongs to the leguminous or pulse family. The ease with which it can be cultivated, and its value as a forage plant as well as fertilizer of the soil, have given it a prominence in South- ern agriculture. Two crops from two successive plantings can be produced in one season, as it groAvs very rapidly. Hon. H. M. Polk, of Tennessee, in making a comparison between the field-pea and red clover, says the pea will thrive upon land too poor to groAV clover. It will produce a heavy and rich crop to be returned to the soil in a shorter period than any other vegetable fertilizer known. Two crops can be produced on the same ground in one year; whereas it requires two years for clover to give ' a hay crop and good aftermath for turning under; in this time four crops of peas can be made. The pea feeds but lightly upon, and hence leaves largely in the soil those particular elements necessary to a succeeding grain crop, and the pea lay in its decay puts back largely into the soil those very elements required for a vigorous growth of the cereals. There is no crop Avhich is its equal for leaving the soil in the very best con- dition for a succeeding wheat crop. It is the only crop raised in the South so rapid in its growth and perfection as to be made an intervening manurial crop between grain cut in the spring and grain sowed in the fall upon the same ground. And this alone makes the pea invaluable to Southern agriculture. In our particular latitude it flourishes equally with clover, and with two such renovators of the soil (aside from their value as food crops) no portion of the earth is equally blessed. North of us the pea does not succeed. It is admirably adapted to other crops, producing in the space between our corn rows both a provision and a fertilizing crop, with positive benefit to the growing corn. Harpoon Horse Fork, A. D. lSSl. 164 PROFITABLE FARMING. It aids in producing cheap beef, pork, milk, and butter. Without the pea pork could not be produced cheaply where it costs so much to make corn. It furnishes a double capacity for wintering stock, and with this a doubly enlarged manure heap. The large plantations of the South can only be restored by green crops turned under, united to a judicious system of rotation, looking to feeding the soil. This must be aided by all the manure manufactured on the plantation. By its use large addition is made to humus, upon which the tilth, as well as capacity of the soil for retaining moisture, so greatly depends. As for the cultivation of the pea, one can scarcely go amiss. When two crops are intended for renovating, break the land, sow broadcast and harrow in; or drill in rows three feet apart, and plow out when a few inches high. When pods begin to ripen, if the crop is intended for manurial purposes, plow under with a large two-horse plow, with a well-sharpened rolling coulter attached, or with chain passing from double-tree to beam of the plow to hold the vines down for facilitating covering. A roller passed over the vines, before plowing under will assist the operation. Caustic lime should be sown upon the vines before plowing under to pro- mote decay, and neutralize the large amount of vegetable acid cov- ered into the soil. Select the pea which runs least. The vines are easiest covered into the soil. They are the black bunch-pea, and the speckled or whip- poor-will pea. When planted in corn as a food crop, the bunch- pea ripens soonest ; but the Carolina cow-pea, the clay-pea, or the black stock pea are preferable, as they do not readily rot in wet weather and will remain sound most of the winter. For early feeding of stock, plant whip-poor-will pea by itself in separ- ate enclosure from corn, where stock can be turned Peas are often sown upon stubble after small grain is harvested. Flush up the ground, and sow either broadcast or drill in furrow opened with shovel-plow, covering Avith scooter furrow on each side. Block off or Hand Fork, A D. 1SS2. upon when ever desire* d. run over lightly with harrow and board attached. As ;ain, they are drilled in every fourth furrow, when turning over the stubble, the succeeding furrow cover- ing the peas. When either of these last modes of planting is adopted, the peas should receive one good plowing out when they are from four to six inches high. When planted in corn (the corn should have been drilled in rows rive feet apart), they should be step-dropped in a furrow equally distant from each corn- row and covered with scooter, with harrow or with block. This should be last of May or in the first ten days of June. The only work they receive when planted in corn, is a shovel or sweep furn >\v run an >und them when the corn is being "laid by," unless there is much grass, when 'it becomes necessary to give them light hoeing. The crop might be said to be made almost without work when planted with corn; in fact, it is often so made by those planters who sow peas broadcast in their corn and cover them with the last plowing given the corn. There is much diversity of opinion as to the proper treatment of the vines in curing thorn for hay. And as much as has been written on tin 1 subject, the writer GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 165 feels some diffidence in giving his own views. Suffice it to say, the great end to be attained is to cure the vines to the extent only of getting rid of some of the succulent moisture in the vine, without burning up the leaves. When exposed to too much heat, the leaves fall very readily from the stems and are lost. When put up too green and too compactly they heat, and when fermentation of the juices of the vino and the unripe pods occurs, the hay is seriously damaged, if not completely spoiled. Mildewed hay of any kind isbut poor feed for stock, and when eaten is only taken from necessity to ward off starvation. Some planters hoiise their pea hay in open sheds, or loosely in barns, with rails so fixed as to pre vent compacting. Others stack in the open air around poles having limbs from two to three feet long to keep the mass of vines open to the air and cover the top with grusjs. There la a diversity of opinions as to the proper manner of curing and pre- serving this hay, but tbere is none as to the value of this rich food for all stock, and especially for the milch-cow in mcreasing the quality and quantity of her milk. SOWING GRASS SEED. It has been the general practice with farmers of this country to sow grass seed with some kind of grain, preparing the land especially for the grain crop, and with the exception of covering it in the process of covering the grain, to make no provisions for the crops of grass the land is expected to produce. Although by this means the land may be utilized to produce two crops at the same time, and labor saved, yet we think it is far better and more economical in the end, to sow the grass seed separ- ately, thus giving it a fair start and insuring a good crop; because the practice of sowing together results in injury to both crops. By the usual method of sow- ing with grain, the grass crops suffers a great injury, by the grain taking possession of the fertilizing ele-< ments of the soil, and choking the growth of the grass, and also by shading it too much, and when the grain is cut, the grass is not only trampled and injured by cutting, but is often dried up by the hot sun, being too tender to bear its scoi'ching rays. We do not, therefore, believe it a good policy, as a general rule, to sow grass seed with any grain crops. By so doing we rob the grass crop for the sake of the grain, and the grass must in turn deprive the grain of some of the nutritive elements of the soil, to a limited extent; however, the grass crop is the one to suffer most by the practice. Whenever grass is to be sown with any kind of grain, barley is the one to be preferred; but even this is very objectionable. Grass is an important product, and should be regarded as such in its cultivation. If we take a grain crop from our grass lands, the grass must of necessity be injured by it, although it may not be entirely killed by such treatment. In preparing the lands, it should be plowed and given a good supply of manure or fertilizer of some kind, the quality suited to the character of the soil; sometimes guano or grass fertilizer is sown upon the Harpoon Horse Fork, A. D. 1884. 166 PROFITABLE FARMING. surface broadcast. The soil should then be pulverized with a harrow until it is melloAV and fine, and the seed sown either by hand (as is still the old-time prac- tice on small farms in many sections), or by a machine, which is much better, since it will distribute the seed much more evenly over the surface than hand- sowing, besides greatly facilitating the labor. So many seeds fail to germinate or are destroyed by birds and insects, that we favor a liberal quantity of seed sown, as well as large variety, in order to secure not only a heavy growth but hay of superior quality, for every farmer knows that hay is superior and finer in qual- ity where the grass grows thick and compact in the sod. It is a common fault to cover grass seed too deeply. Most of our grass seeds germinate most surely when only covered one-fourth of an inch, and by actual experiment it has been ascer- tained that when covered an inch half of the seeds fail. Grass seed, being so very small, should be slightly covered ; hence, if a common tooth harrow is used for the purpose of covering, as has frequently been the custom, the seed is buried too deeply in the soil. A common brush harrow is better for this purpose, to be followed by a good roller to press the soil down, ■gs. ■ which hastens the germination of the seed. Many |7 -'fiSfc : farmers who are not in possession of a good roller jS-w-s use a simple wooden drag for this purpose, which is .--■ JlH^jfei made similar to what is commonly called a "stone (pEr.; -.__ . ■■-^^d^^jSEsSp' .boat," the front being beveled up so as to avoid the ^^-l^^^^&JRptiS^ -- uneven surface. From eighl to ten feel long, and .3^r?8iiS3p4>B»i nffe^-v- - three and one-half feet wide, are very good dimen- ^^^^^^^M -mSm ; - t 'W^ i r~ s i° lls f° r such a constructed harrow. The inclined iBi ^^^^S ""^^^^^C^^P" P or ti° n ( ' an be about a foot wide; this answers the BSS j i ^^^^^^^&^^^P purpose of a brush harroAV and roller combined. It ^^^^^^^Si%^. is a good practice in reclaiming old worn-out ~^^^^^^^^^^^M^^^^^ meadows to give them a good coating of unfermented manure, and then turn the sod over. On this sur- Hand Tedder. f ac0 -(-j^g pi owe( j ) a dressing of well-rotted manure or compost with ashes is spread, and thoroughly harrowed lengthwise the furrows. The seed is then sown and lightly harrowed in, followed with rolling; the decom- posing manure, with the added fertilizing properties of the stubble and roots of the sod, will give a quick and luxuriant growth. Many farmers greatly improve their lands for mowing, when they do not wish to plow up and seed down, by furnishing a good top-dressing of manure in the fall or early spring (fall is better), and then scattering grass or clover seed over the field. The seed thus sown will catch quickly and greatly improves the crop, if sown when the sod is moist or just before a heavy rain. Pasture lands are often improved by running a harrow over them in a manner to cut the turf slightly into small squares, an inch square being the most desirable size marked by the harrow lines. This should be done when the soil is rather moist. Upon the ground thus prepared, sow a mixture of grass and clover seed of various kinds suited to both early and late growth, in order to insure a fresh, permanent pasturage through the season. Upon this put a little top dress- ing, and the seed thus so vn will quickly germinate and greatly improve the grazing, though it should not he fed upwn until it has had an opportunity to become deeply rooted and well established in the turf. It is very important (and GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 167 we would repeat it here to impress it more forcibly upon the minds of farmers,) that both mowing lands and pastures should occasionally have a dressing ol manure or some other fertilizer. It will be economy in the end for farmers to put more manure on their grass lands, instead of putting all on their other crops to the neglect of the grass. If it is not profitable to cultivate corn or wheat without manure, neither is it profitable, nor should be expected, to cultivato grass well without some assistance from fertilizers. The best time for applying the manure is in the fall, as it serves to protect the roots and gives the grass an early start in the spring. TIME OP CUTTING AND METHOD OF CURING HAY. As to the time of cutting grass for hay, there is still a diversity of opinions among the farmers of our country, although in the main there has been quite a change in favor of early cutting within the last twenty-five years. Some recom- mend cutting just before it comes into bloom, some when in perfect bloom, others when the blossoms have just fallen, others when the seed is in a milky state, and others still when the ( seeds are nearly ripe. Two very important considerations are involved with respect to this subject. The first is, to cut it at the time that it contains the greatest amount of nutriment; the second, to do it when it will involve the least injury to the after-Growth. The question to <^t*°*^'^® - be considered then is, when is the time ! Yv ltn T" regard to the first, the opinion and practice of Patent Tedder, i«si. farmers have greatly changed within the last quarter of a century. It was formerly the general opinion that the best time for cutting most kinds of grasses, timothy, and orchard grass, for instance, was when the seed was nearly ripe and ready to shell; but experience and scientific analysis have proved that the time when grass contains the greatest amount of nutritive matter, such as starch, gum, and sugar, is not at this period, but at the period before the seed is formed, since most of these nutritive properties of the plant go to form the seed, leaving the woody fibre in the stalk, which serves to give bulk food but not nourishment; hence, if not cut early, a great part of the nutriment of the stems and leaves i;i wasted. Experience and observation, together with the information afforded us by analysis, prove that the proper time for cutting nearly all kinds of grasses is when they are in full bloom, or just as they are coming into bloom; opinions vary somewhat with respect to these stages of growth, but we believe the majority are in favor of the time of full bloom. Even a casual observer must have noticed that when cattle are grazing they do not select the stalks of grass with ripened seed or withering blossoms. No, they pass those by, and take the more tender grasses that have not arrived at this stage, and we think they must be better judges than Ave as to Avhich is the most desirable for food. Now, in making hay, our object is to have as little change as possible in the grass and to preserve, as nearly as w r e can, the solid constituents, in the same state a& when the grass was young and green, and if cut at the period of blossoming there will be little of the woody fibre in its composition. If left until the seed is rip- 168 PROFITABLE FARMING. ened, we find the seeds the store-house of the starch, gum, and sugar, as before stated, while the stalk becomes hard, wiry, and about as nutritious as straw. Swale hay is almost worthless, if cut-when the seeds are ripening. Clover should also be cut when in full bloom and not when the head has become brown. It has been found by careful experiment that herds grass, red-top, and clover cut at the time as we have indicated, will produce more milk and butter than the same quantity of late-cut hay, even when- fed with a certain quantity of grain daily and that the same relative value will be found in making beef or feeding any farm stack; besides, no one can deny that the early cut grass is most like green grass. With respect to our second consideration, viz., the time of cutting that will best conduce to the after-growth, the same rule applies equally well. Any plant that is cropped at a certain time, before arriving at a state of maturity, will throw up a second growth more readily and be more vigorous than if cropped after it has matured. This is a law of nature that cannot escape any person, even the most unobserving. Now, if we apply this rule to grass cutting, we shall not only have better hay, as we have already seen, but the after-growth will start more vigorously and grow more rapidly, which will not only protect the young and tender grass roots from the hot sun, but "will furnish an aftermath or "rowen" — as it is often called — which will be quite an addition to the hay crop already gathered, while a third crop will soon start and grow sufficiently before the frost comes, to secure the roots a protec- tion through the winter; this protection aiding in an early growth in the spring. It is a fact, that all experience corroborates, that grass will not only start earlier in the spring, after a protection — whether of top-dressing or its own aftermath — but will produce "^^^^^^S^ a greater amount of hay the following season than paten Tedder, a. d. 1862. where no protection is thus given. Cutting grass after it seeds leaves a dry stubble that is slow in starting again, and will look brown during the remaining part of the season, unless the soil is particularly rich or damp, while it will not produce as much hay in quantity or as good in quality the following season, as the fields that are early cut. Thus we see that the present practice of early cutting is an improvement upon the old-time method, in securing not only a larger amount of hay, but hay of a better quality, and also leaves the land in a condition to furnish a larger crop of grass, the following season. Respecting the cutting of grass, we believe the universal opinion among our loading farmers is, that it should not be cut until the dew is well dried off, as it will then cure much more readily. We think the practice of many farmers of overdrying their hay is as great an injury to its quality as that of insufficient curing; in fact, Ave might safely say that farmers, as a general thing, lose more hay by drying it too much than by not drying it enough. Even under the most favorable conditions with respect to the time of cutting, there must of necessity he considerable loss of the nutritive qualities of the grass in drying; the action of heat and moisture causing a loss of sugar and starch. This loss is dependent in a great measure upon the length of time it is exposed GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 169 to the air and light; hence, grass cured with the least exposure to wind and sun- light, other conditions being equal, will be more nutritious, and contain less of ■\voody fibre than that which is ovnvuied by long exposure to wind and sun; and such hay is also more palatable to cattle, as is evidenced by their eating it more readily andshowing a preference for it when given a choice of" the two kinds. "Never dry hay so as to make it brittle when twisted in the hand," is a rule bv which many of our best farmers are governed. Hay should be housed <>n the day of cutting, if possible. Our experience in this respect goes to show that one good hay-day is sufficient for drying any kind of grass, unless it be, perhaps, wet meadow or swale hay, which requires more curing to keep well than most of our varieties; however, many farmers have fine success in keeping the latter in good condition when put in a barn the same day of mowing. Of course, much depends upon the kind of temperature, state of the atmosphere, etc., even on a bright, sunny day. It is, therefore, very difficult to lay out any definite rule with respect to the time required to cure hay, as any farmer knows that on some days twenty-five minutes will dry it more effectually than sixty minutes will at other times with a full sunshine. The extensive use of mowing-machines, and the degree of perfection that has been attained in their construction, is such that much of the hard labor attending haying in former times is obviated, besides facilitating the process of curing and getting it housed before the dew begins to fall. With all the modern facilities, the old adage, "Make hay while the sun shines," is as true now, and as important to be observed, as it was in the days of our forefathers. I am convinced that in most parts of New England our English hay should he cut and stored, if the weather allow, before the seed has set; commencing to cut with a mowing-machine as soon certainly as the dew is off. One man should be occupied trimming around the fences, trees, etc. At 11 o'clock, commence turning with forks or tedder, and loose no time till mid-day, when by this process it will become wilted. In this way, if the grass has been properly tedded, to cart into the barn as soon as 1 o'clock, always taking care to have help enough to finish carting as early as half past 4 or 5 o'clock, after which the dew has fallen and renders the hay unfit to be packed. By this process we allow from three to four hours for the out-door curing of our crop. We are always careful not to put hay into our barn that has any water in it, but never fear the sap if properly packed. When hay is taken from the cart or wagon, it should not be rolled off and then "H over and over on to the different parts of the mow, but it should be pitched on to the hay-mow, and evenly distributed over the mow in even forkfuls, and each forkful packed, which is absolutely neces- sary for the preservation of the hay, always remembering that the greener the hay is put in the closer it must he packed. In rainy weather let the hay be trodden upon by the men. Remember to keep the barn closed as much as possi- ble afterwards. Rake and Tedder, A. D. 1S65. 170 PROFITABLE FARMING. In order to secure rapid drying and facditate the process, as well as to improve the quality of the hay — since the quicker it is cured, the better the qual- ity — a good hay-tedder is indispensable, of which there are several varieties. It is important that all mowing lands should be clean and clear of everything objectionable to a mixture with the hay, such as dead stalks, fragments of brush, small sticks, etc., since rakes collect everything from the surface; and the best time to secure this is in the spring before the grass lias attained much growth. A good horse hay-fork or loader, for loading hay on the cart, is a very desir- able acquisition to the farm implements, and a great saving of labor and time. HAY CAPS. As to the utility of hay-caps there can be no question, since by them the farmer is enabled to protect his hay against the storms that frequently cause so much loss to this crop. Those who have been accustomed to their use value them highly. They can be made in the following manner: Procure common brown sheeting from fifty-four to sixty inches wide. This is torn into squares and the edges are ad turned down and sewed over a stunt cord. Make a loop of the cord in each corner about six inches long, in which to insert skeAvers or hooks for fastening them to the ground. The cocks of hay should be made from five to six feet high, about four feet wide at the m base and rather narrow at the | from 250 to 300 pounds of hay. If tin raked clown so as to give the form described, the caj^s will shed the rain no matter how heavy or long con- tinued the shower. It is a good plan to give the Eake and Tedder, a. D . 1867. ( . loth a good coating , ,f boiled linseed oil. whieh will aid in throwing off the water. The caps are thrown over the tops of the hay- cocks and fastened to the ground at each coiner by the loops through which wire or wooden pins are inserted and forced into the ground. We know a farmer who has had caps of this kind for his haying outfit for fourteen years and they are still in use and in good condition. top, and containing sides are STORAGE OF HAY is a very important subject, and one of which many of our practical farmers take too little interest. The question arises, Shall we put it into large, tight mows, or on loose scaffolds where the air is permitted to act upon it? If curing and keep- ing hay is in any respect analogous to the Chinese method of storing and keeping the tea-plant, then the quicker it can bo cured and the tighter it can be stored the better the quality of the hay. We believe that the less air that is permitted to enter the hay-mow, when properly cured, the better for the hay; in other words, hay that is compactly stored in large mows, other things being equal, is far supe- rior to that having a free exposure to the air. Though air is essential to curing hay, it is not essential to its storage. Every one knows that decay is a process of combustion, and combustion cannot occur where there is no air; hence, if the air is entirely excluded, no combustion or fermentation can take place, as is instanced GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 171 Rake und Tedder, A. D. ISTO. in. canned fruits, whore the cans arc hermetically sealed. Where imperfectly cured hay is stored", it will generally be found that in only those portions of the mow where air can circulate that heating and fermentation take place, and not down in the closely packed portions where the air is excluded. In feeding hay it is better to cut down the mow in sections, rather than feed from the entire surface, as in this way the exposure to air is less. The practice of many farmers of pitching the hay upon the barn- floor at night to remain therefor the next morning's feeding to stock is not a good one, as much of the aroma of the hay is lost by exposure to the air dur- ing the long interval of the night. It is the practice in some localities where the barn capacity is insuffi- cient for hay storage, to stack the hay in the field. Though this may be a necessity sometimes, yet it should be avoided if possible, as the hay that is housed is more nutritious and valuable than that exposed to air and storms, as it must of necessity be in stacks. Rather than stack his hay, it would be more economical for the farmer to procure a hay press, thus pressing it into bales, and by this method provide room for his hay in barns. Great saving of labor and time may be accomplished by the use of a hay carrier in the unloading, storage, and stacking of hay. AFTERMATH OR KOWEKT, although not as nutritious as hay made from mature grass, and as it does not furnish that fibrine which mature grass furnishes, is consequently not desirable for food for horses and oxen, upon whose muscular system the great tax of labor is laid, still, for calves, sheep and milch-cows, there is no forage crop that will surpass it. It approaches the nearest of anything to the green food produced by our pastures in summer for these animals, and for winter use furnishes a very desirable substitute. By cutting the grass early, before the plant has become exhausted as in seed production, the aftermath will have a longer time for growth before being cut, and thus a better crop secured, the great difficulty with rowen having formerly been that it came so late in the season, as to render its harvesting difficult, and hence it was often secured in an uncured condition. But with an early hay harvest, the second crop can be secured earlier, and can be cured mostly in cocks, which requires but little extra labor, and the former difficulty obviated. CULTIVATIXO GRASS SEED. The first of grass from seeds of grasses collected from the barn-floor seed in this country by our forefathers was made and from under hay-stacks. This was sown with the chaff, they having no available means of separating the small seed from the chaff. This method was practiced for a long time. Their next step towards progress in this branch of agriculture, we are told, was to sow a small quantity of seeds of those grasses they thought most desirable upon the ground in which they had cultivated their hoed crops. We of the present age have improved upon their method, but we are far behind the English in the variety 172 PROFITABLE FARMING. of grasses cultivated; Ave should not only sow a greater variety than Ave now do, but more abundantly also. To secure the best results, the land should be well plowed and manured, the soil well pulverized, and pains taken to keep the land free from other grasses than the variety desired for producing the seed. When the seed is ripe, it will be known by the changed appearance of the heads of grass. Care should be taken to cut it before it is so ripe that it will easily shell out from the heads, as much will thus be Avasted. It should be cut when the dew is on, to prevent the loss of seed. After partially drying, it can be arranged in the small sheaA'es, Avhich shall be placed Avhere they can become perfectly cured, as it can remain unbound until wholly dry, but it Avill need to be handled with the greatest care to preA T ent the seed shelling out, as it falls A r ery easily. It can be threshed Avith any implement that is used for threshing grain, and cleaned with a seed- cleaner or common fanning-mill with a fine screen. If the stalks are too green Avhile in the stack the hay w T ill heat or ferment, and the vitality of the seed will be liable to be thus destroyed. This injury to the seed is not always apparent by a change in its color, consequently stale and Avorthless seed are often put into the market and sold for good. There is no certainty in this respect, except to test a sample before soAving the Avhole, and if these germinate Avell there is a probability that the seed are good. The stalks producing the seed are woody and tough, yet by mixing with other food, and cutting, they may be utilized, but haA T e not suffi- cient nutriment to be fed alone. Horses will eat them in this manner better than other kinds of stock. After soAving the seed and exercising care to prevent the introduction of other varieties not desired, it is a A T ery easy matter to harA^est a good crop of grass seed for several seasons, by simply adding a liberal supply of top dressing. Many farm- ers are indifferent to extra pains in raising this product, and give it no more atten- tion than the care necessary in harvesting it, but it will repay any farmer to take special pains to produce the best crop of grass possible for this purpose, as the crop produced from such seed will be greatly superior to that Avhere no such pains are taken to secure the best results. The more luxuriant the crop, the better the seed produced from it, being the general rule. FALL GRAZING OF MOWING LANDS. The practice of turning the cattle on the moAving lands to graze after the aftermath has been cut, and the grass gi\ r en a little time for subsequent groAvth, is very common, and although the testimony of nine farmers out of ten Avould probably be that this practice is injurious to the grass crop the folloAving year, yet they continue to do so, justifying the custom on the plea of necessity. This is especially true in NeAv England, and Ave believe it to be one of the main causes of the deterioration of the grass crop there, the grass being often grazed so closely as to leave the roots exposed to the extreme cold of winter, which, are thus frozen and killed; besides, Avhere the soil is moist, the roots are often pulled up by the grazing and an equal injury done in this way, Avhile the trampling Hoofs of cattle upon the turf is an evil nearly as great. The roots need the protection of the U'rass for warmth during the Avinter in order to secure an early and vigorous start in the spring. Mowing lauds are unquestionably better where never grazed, but Avhen practiced, it should be early in the autumn, to proA'ide for an after-growth. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 17:5 for root protection during the winter, and to store up the elements of a thrifty growth in the following spring. Too close feeding is injurious at any linn' aid should never be permitted, as it will cause the lands to deteriorate and the grass to run out in time. An experienced farmer in Massachusetts says: "It is now more than twenty years since 1 have allowed any kind of domestic animal to feed upon our mown land, and my opinion previously lias been confirmed by my expe- rience. It is a decided benefit to let the after-growth remain upon the land; it is a protection for summer's drought and winter's cold. Some of my neighbors are following my example."' And another: "I sometimes feed off my after-grass. When I do feed it off, 1 take good care to feed it early and leave a good growth to protect the roots of the grass from frost in winter. I think it an injury to feed; mowing will last longer not to feed at all, and the land when broken up will pro- duce a better crop of corn and potatoes than if fed." Mowing lands should never lie pastured in the spring, as the soil is so damp then that the roots of the grass are easily pulled up by the cattle, while their trampling hoofs are also very injurious to them at that season. Sheep are less injurious in grazing mowing lands than cattle, but we believe that farmers generally would find it more profitable in the end to keep such lands entirely free from all grazing stock. The grass crop is one of great importance, since it lies at the very foundation of all prosperity and suc- cess in agriculture. Grass is said to be "king among crops of the earth."' and more land devoted to its cultivation and more money value realized from it than any other product, not excepting even cotton, which has been called at the South, king. The human race existed for ages without cotton, but never without grass. The statistics of nations prove that grass is the most essen- tial and remunerative of all crops. In view of its great importance, anything that will improve this crop and prevent its deterioration ought to receive the thoughtful attention of all farmers. Patent Tedder, A. D. 1883. KOLLING MOWING LAXDS AND PASTURES. It is a very good plan to go over the mowing lands with a roller in the spring after the frost has left the ground, as by this means the roots which have been thrown out of the soil by the action of the frost, are pressed into the soil again, where they will soon become firmly settled, and thus their drying up is prevented, as they otherwise would be liable to do. Experienced farmers have found this prac- tice extremely valuable to their grass crop, and to amply repay for the labor attending it; some even value the result so highly that they treat their pastures in the same way, whenever the surface is sufficiently even and unobstructed by stones to admit of the use of the roller. MANURING MOWING LANDS. It is said that New England farmers are in the habit of robbing their grass lands to feed their hoed crops and arable lands, which has been in a great measure, ■PPal I&»: . •^JI«iBlilliiili'.^ (174) GRASSES AiNl) FORAGE PLANTS. 175 we think, true, until a few years past, since which time more attention has been given to fertilizing, in various ways, lands designed for mowing. The improve- ment in this respect is, however, gradual, and even now there are many farmers who adhere to the old-time system of farming, and consider the grass crop of secondary importance, letting it take care of itself, year alter year, with little or nothing given the land to meet the constant drain made upon it in producing its annual crop, while the manure made from it goes toward the improvement of the other crops. Grass depends much upon the air for its material in growth, but also much upon the soil; and the elements it extracts from the soil in its growth should be returned to it, or exhaustion of soil will follow, and a consequent loss of the grass crop. No good farmer would think for a moment of cultivating his corn, or other hoed crops, without a liberal supply of manure, yet grass crops require the use of fertilizers just as much as any other, both for mowing lands and pasture, and unless such fertilizers are given the soil producing them, as will restore the elements taken, there is no reason for expecting anything but a failure in grass crops, the same as that of corn or any other cultivated crop treated in the same manner. The analysis of hay shows over five per cent, of earthy matter, while dried clover yields from seven to nine per cent., yet Ave will readily see that where land produces at the rate of three tons per acre, this element is taken off to the amount of 300 pounds per acre per annum. What soil could long endure such drainage without injury? The potash, soda, and other salts requisite to the growth of the grass are thus taken from the soil. Grass land must be renewed with suitable fertilizers, or exhaustion must of necessity follow. There can be no other result, in the natural course of things. Commercial manures, such as ashes, lime, crushed bone, gypsum, and guano, are all good for the grass crop, gypsum being especially valuable to clover. To these should be added animal or vegetable manures. Some farmers apply these fertil- izers in the fall, some in the early spring when the grass just begins to start, others apply them just before the first rains fall after the grass has been mowed, that the rain may wash the soluble matters into the roots; in such a case, the portions that remain undissolved are soon covered by the growing vegetation, and are absorbed more gradually. The best time for applying barn-yard manure is in the fall, since the frost will crumble the lumps and render them partially pulverized by the spring, while the manure serves to protect the roots through the winter, and its warmth aids in securing an early and vigorous start in the spring. The snow, in dissolving, aids in carrying the fertilizing elements down to the roots, which is a very great advantage, that cannot be secured by applying it in the spi-ing, while the soft soil will cause the turf to be badly cut and injured by the wheels of manure spreaders, or other implements for carting, if applied in the spring. The following is an opinion of Mr. Alexander Hyde, of Massachusetts, respect- ing the top-dressing of mowing lands: "We have found a compost made of muck and leached ashes an excellent fertilizer for grass. The wood ashes furnish the inorganic food in great variety, while the muck supplies the vegetable matter and renders the soil light and porous, ready to absorb the gases of the air and furnish them to the grasses as they may be demanded. In case the meadows are natu- rally cold and wet, abounding already in clay or peat, we should substitute, for the basis of the compost heap, sand instead of muck. Sand alone, scattered upon 176 PROFITABLE FARMING. a peaty meadow, has a wonderful effect in warming the land and inducing the growth of sweet, nutricious herbage. Indeed, we have found that meadows well drained after they have been mucked for a series of years, are greatly benefited by a top-dressing of sand, or better still, by a coating of alluvial soil which is to be found on the river bank. This alluvium contains not only sand, but the dis- integrated granules of the various rocks and soils that the river has brought down from miles above. We have used this alluvium lately in the compost designed for top-dressing ami have been much pleased with the result. When it cannot be obtained easily, the wash of the highway, or leaf-mould from the forest, answers a good purpose. The latter is particularly rich in all the elements of vegetable nutrition and our forests can well spare some of it for the benefit of the meadows. On a clover lay plaster operates most favorably. Spread broad-cast early in the spring at the rate of one hundred pounds per acre, it increases this legumin- ous crop greatly. This great result cannot, from so small a quantity, he attribu- ted to the increase of plant food furnished by tin* two main elements of plaster, sulphur and lime, although, as clover contains both these elements, they doubt- less contribute directly to its nourishment. But plaster is also a great absorbent, and its efficiency must in a measure be attributed to its power of retaining the ammonia of the air, and furnishing it to the clover and other plants as they may demand. Plaster alone cannot he relied upon to keep our meadows in heart for a series of years. Those who have seen its magical effect for a year or two, and have supposed that they could sell their hay and still keep up their meadows by spreading a little plaster upon them, have found themselves mistaken, and have complained that their fields became plaster sick. The sickness was simply starvation for the want of a greater variety of food. Plaster, from its own ele- ments and by absorption from the air, can furnish only two of the many inor- ganic elements which enter into the composition of our grasses. Clover, doubt- less, is more benefited by its action than the other grasses, as the ash of clover shows over 30 per cent, of lime. Plaster is found to act with great efficiency in connection with wood-ashes, as they supply the inorganic elements in which plaster is deficient. Farmers may differ about the action of plaster, but in the efficiency of barn- yard manure they are all agreed, and in the production of this, hay is the great reliance. Why should not more of this manure he applied to the reproduction of hay, and thus the law of action and reaction he carried out? The more hay, the more manure, and the more manure, the more hay. CPU ITER X. (Cereals. BY J. W. FITZ. ?^^ RAMINACiE (true grasses) include all cereal plants, except buckwheat, but they differ widely in their structure, character and method of cultivation. It is gratifying to know that during the years 1870 and 1880, there was the unprecedented advance in the cereal production of the United States of about one hundred per cent, for all kinds taken together, while the increase of the previous decade, or between 1860 and 1870, was but twelve per cent. The increase of the cereal product between 1850 and 1860, which was a period. of noted agricultural growth, was forty-three per cent. The total number of acres under wheat cultivation in 1880 was 35,487,065, which yielded a crop of 459,591,093 bushels. In 1870 the wheat crop of the country amounted to 287,745,626 bushels. The increase of wheat gi'owing in the last decade is shown by a comparison with former enumerations, to be seventy-three per cent.; that between. 1860 and 1870, to be sixty-six per cent., and between 1850 and 1860, sixty per cent. "We also find that Illinois shows the largest area under wheat, aggregating 3,218,963 acres; next Iowa, with 3,049,347 acres; Minnesota, with 3,046,821; Indiana, 2,619,307; Ohio, 2,556,134; Missouri, 2,074,314; Wisconsin, 1,948,036; Kansas, 1,861,342; California, 1,837,322; Michigan, 1,822,752 and that the six States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa, produce more than half the wheat of the whole nation. The increase in the product of corn between 1870 and 1880 was 133 per cent., the amount produced in 1870 being 760,844,549 bushels, while that of 1880 reached 1,772,909,846 bushels In 1880 the number of acres in the United States devoted to the cultivation of corn was 62,326,932, the State of Illinois leading in this product. The increase in the production of oats during the last ten years has been about 45 per cent. ; that of barley, nearly 50 per cent. ; that of rye only about 17 per cent.; while the minor cereal, buckwheat, has not increased in proportion to the advance in population — the total crop in 1870 being 9,821,721 bushels, while that at 1880 was 11,851,738 bushels. (177) 12 178 PROFITABLE FARMING. It is also gratifying to note the increased interest in the cultivation of the cereals in the cotton-growing States since 1870 — the increase in the corn product alone in that section being about 40 per cent. From present indications the report of the next decade, or that of 1890, may he expected to show a surprising advance on the above-mentioned rates of increase, while that which marks the close of the present century will doubtless exceed the most sanguine expectations, so immeasurably great are the resources and facilities of the country for the extension and development of this branch of agriculture. CORN. Corn Stalk. This is one of the most abundant of the cereals, as well as one of the most important agricultural products cultivated in the United States. The corn-plant belongs to the natural order, graruinse or grasses, and is indigenous to America, where it formed the principal food of the Indians, and for which reason it received the name of Indian corn. History states that Columbus found it cultivated quite extensively by the natives of Hispaniola, while it was found in possession of all native tribes in portions of the continent subsequently visited by explorers. It will grow in any portion of the United States, and readily adapts itself to different soils and climates, but thrives best between the thirty-sixth and forty-second degrees of latitude, as it attains its most perfect development under a hot summer sun, growing rapidly and ripening early, which renders it peculiarly adapted for this portion of the northern latitudes, where the summers are short and warm, however severe the winters may be. In high northern latitudes, close attention to its culture is necessary, on account of the difficulty of ripening it. The value of the corn crops annually produced in this country may, perhaps, be justly estimated in a financial point of view as amounting to a certain number of millions of dollars, but, in another sense, its value to this country is inestimable, when we consider the effect of its cultivation in hastening its settlement and the continuance of its prosperity, entering as it does, into the food of all classes of people, and also greatly cheapening and increasing the products of beef, pork, and mutton, besides the many other uses to which it is appropriated and the increased wealth of the nation resulting from the annual exportations of this product. Immense as is the production of this staple, the average yield of corn in this country at the present time is far below what it mic;ht and ought to be, and what with a little more Ear of Corn. care in cultivation might be easily attained. The average yield in the United States for the entire number of acres cultivated does not at present exceed thirty bushels per acre, while with good culture it might be made to reach sixty or a hundred bushels or more, and thus the amount now produced be more than doubled, with its attendant benefits to the nation and the farmer individually.' CEREALS. 179 The farmers of this country are gradually learning moro of the possibilities of this crop, and that there is more in its careful cultivation than was formerly supposed. There is no doubt that exaggerated statements have often been made relative to the amount harvested, and which cause farm- ers to look upon reports of unusually large yields with distrust; yet we know from authentic sources, that, under favoring cir- cumstances of soil, climate, skillful cultiva- tion, and a season suited to its perfect develop- ment, immense and almost incredible yields have been produced, which prove the possi- bilities of the crop when properly managed, and which should lead corn-growers to con- sider the question as to whether their present method of cultivation is the most profitable one that can be adopted, and whether more care in enriching the soil and tilling it would not in the end be more economic and profita- ble. The kind and quality of the seed will largely effect the yield, while other conditions, Primitive winDOWin e- *n* ™o b. o. such as soil, culture, etc., will modify it still further. The height to which the full-grown plant attains, varies with different varieties and soils, some- times reaching the luxuriant growth of eighteen feet on the rich soil of some of the Western prairies, and those of a similar character. The color of the kernel depends upon that of the hull and the oil it contains. In the white varieties they are both transparent; in yellow corn the hull is transparent and the oil yellow; the red or blue kinds owe their color to the hue of the hull or covering. In some varieties of corn there is more oil than in others, some being nearly destitute of it. Oil is useful in protect- ing the grain, when germinating in the soil, from being too rapidly decomposed in long con- tinued wet weather, and in imparting nourish- ment to the young plants. It also has a ten- dency to keep meal from souring as readily as it otherwise would, that ground from corn hav- ing the least oil becoming musty or sour, soonest. The Tuscarora corn contains very lit- tle, if any, oil, and the meal made from it will keep sweet but a short time. In the manufactur- ing of whiskey, during the process of fermentation, the oil separates from the corn and rises to the surface, and is taken off and used for various purposes. According to good authority, rice-corn contains the most oil, pop-corn next, Can- ada corn ranis third, and broom-corn fourth ; and as the lowest variant types are the small, rire-corn and pop-corn, and the highest some of the most valuable and improved varieties, it would seem that the effect of careful cultivation is to increase the starchy properties of the grain to the lessening of the fatty contents. Primitive Winnowing', Kome, B, C. 100. 180 PROFITABLE FARMING. As an article of food for man, it is a very healthful and nutritive diet, con- taining, as it does, the elements required for the development and support of the animal system. The analysis of corn as given by Palson is as follows: Gluten, etc., Starch, Gum and sugar, Oil, Bran, etc., Ash, "Water, 8.8 54.4 2.6 4.6 15.8 1.7 12.1 100.00 Although there is a slight difference in the proportionate ingredients that enter into the grains of different varieties, yet the above analysis would represent a fair average of the different kinds cultivated. VARIETIES. There is no other of the cereals which presents so many varieties as corn or maise, although there are comparatively but few which are distinct in general cultivation. Some of the cobs are red, others white, irrespective of the color of the grain, while the ears vary in length from one inch to fifteen inches or more, with pro- portionate variance in diameter and size of grain. In many of the corn-growing sections, the only recognized distinction is in the color of the grain; "white corn" or "yellow corn," according to the color of the kernel, being the only distinguishing terms in use to designate the kinds generally cultivated. As an instance of the changes produced by climate, when some of the small varieties which ripen early in the extreme Northern States are cultivated a few years in the Southern, where the summers are so much longer than at the North, they will gradually change, by ripening later, and with a much larger growth of ear and kernel. This change goes on from year to year, until the plant has perfectly adapted itself to its new location, where it remains a fixed variety, unless it should be moved again North, when it will gradually assume its former type. It is almost needless to particularize the valuable and popular varieties, as new ones are constantly being introduced, and the farmer will find no dimculty in selecting such as, with proper cultivation, will give good results. At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture the following description of the model or ideal of corn was given by the committee: English Fanning Mill, A. D. 1775. CEREALS. 181 It has an car medium in size as regards the diameter; tho kernels are deep; the cob is small at the butt, and the ear holds its bigness towards tho point until very near tho tapering off. It should bo capped over, and the kernels should hold their bigness towards the point and at the butt run out straight, and not crinkle. SELECTION OF SEED. U. S. Patent Fanning Mill, A. D. 1829. Dr. Sturtevany says: To the seed must wo look first in order to secure improvement, in order to gain the maximum crop at tho least expense. It is not enough to select the oar; this process has dono something, but alone this is not sufficient. We must pay attention to the past history of our seed; wo must breed our corn; we must secure prolific ancestry, and use the seeds from fecund parents. Thoroughbred types are as essential in the production of plants of a high order and the consequent improvement of crops as in breeding live stock, and a carefully cultiva- ted, pure bred variety of corn is as much superior to an indifferently cultivated mixed kind in transmitting its good qualities to its product as a thoroughbred animal is in this respect superior to a grade. PREPARATION OP SEED. In order to hasten the germination of seed and the growth of the young plants, many farmers soak the corn in warm Water a day or two before planting. A solution of saltpetre or copperas is sometimes recommended, and said to accomplish the same results, as well as to protect the corn against the attacks of birds, squirrels, mice and worms for a time; but there is a liability of the germi- nating power of the seed being destroyed or injured in this way, by getting the solution a little too strong of these properties, while, unless rather strong, it has no effect in keeping the little mischievous depredators at bay. Coating the kernels with coal-tar, or common tar, will generally prevent birds from pulling up the plants, or attacks from any other of the common enemies of this crop that are such an annoyance to the farmer. When coal-tar is used, the seeds should first be soaked a few hours in warm water; after this is drained off, a very little tar stirred into it will be sufficient to cover the kernels, a pint of tar being sufficient for two or three bushels of seed-corn. When common tar is used, a pint of boiling tar will be required for a half bushel of seed, stirring the corn briskly as it is turned in, until every kernel is coated with it. Whether coal or common tar is used, rolling the seed in plaster, bone-dust, ashes, or fine soil-dust will prevent either kind from being very trouble- some in planting when a drill or corn-planter is used, and it can be done with these machines the same as before it was thus treated, except that they must be regulated to give the seed a little more room for outlet, otherwise the grain will not drop freely. Before the tar is applied care should be taken to soak the seed 182 PROFITABLE FARMING. thoroughly, as the coating will have a tendency to keep moisture from the seed and prevent germination. Various other preventives are often recommended, but we know of nothing as sure in its results as that above mentioned. Most birds are a help to the farmer in destroying insects and worms that are injurious to his crops, and the few that pull up the corn plants will generally do more good than harm in exterminating these pests; hence it is far better to make the seed distasteful to them by the use of tar or other means, rather than kill them, as they are really the farmer's friend in the protection of his products. SOIL FOR CORN AND ITS PREPARATION. Corn thrives best in a rich, mellow soil, one that is warm and rather dry, although it will grow in almost any kind, being a plant of extraordinary apti- tudes. It should, however, be sufficiently moist to make rapid growth , but not wet. A rich loam is the best, and if it be of a dark color so as to absorb the heat of the sun, it will be so much warmer and better adapted to the purpose. Corn will not do as well on wet lands, or those that are very cold, like some of the strong clays, hence soils ■that are wet should be Avell drained for this ;crop, and cold soils should be cultivated in 'ridges and be planted with an early ripen- ing kind, in order to mature well. Although it thrives best on soils especially adapted to it, yet land that will produce almost any cultivated crop can be so carefully fitted that, with a selection of the variety suited to it and the climate, a good crop of corn can be produced. An old sod plowed under, and especially a clover lay, Avhen properly pre- pared, makes an excellent seed-bed for this crop, but it always should have a good supply of manure in addition, either farm manure or chemical fertilizers, for soil can scarcely be made too rich with the proper kind of fertilizers for this crop. " Breeding first and then feeding," is the old maxim of the stockman, which, when applied to cultivated crops, means quite as much as in its application to animals, for the selection of the seed is the breed- ing, and the choice of soil, the fertilizers and the cultivation, are the feeding. With the corn crop generally the largest yields have always been where the feed- ing has been of the right kinds of plant food and the most liberally supplied. A well-balanced and uniform fertility, such as is found in sod that has all the elements of plant growth in the best available proportions, or lands inundated by rivers, are what give successful results. The corn plant is vigorous in growth, and, like all animals that are such, is a strong feeder, and will appropriate almost any kind of available food. It is said to take the place among vegetable products that the hog does among domestic animals respecting the food it consumes, requiring a large amount, yet not over particular to its kind or quality. U. S. Patent Funning Mill, A. D. 1879. CEREALS. 183 Manure from the barn-yard (well decomposed), the hog-pen, sheep-yard, poultry-yard, or privy-vault, are all used with good effect on this crop, hut they should be spread broadcast and well mixed with tin,' soil. The Avide-spreading roots of the plant wilL he sure to find it if it is in (he soil and not so deeply buried as to he beyond their reach. When manure is applied simply in the hill or drill, the plant makes an early and rapid growth, producing an extension of the roots, which soon go beyond the fertilized portion in search of food and find but little support; hence its growth is retarded at this important period, preparatory to the formation and maturation of the grain. Sometimes an early growth of stalks and leaves is made at the expense of the grain in this way. Cockle Machine, A. D 1SS-1 Some farmers feed their soils as they do their animals, in a stinted manner, thinking they are thereby practicing economy, and receive corresponding results; others feed liberally, and in return receive a liberal compensation. Some of our most successful farmers use forty or more common cart loads of manure or compost per acre; others consider from eight to twelve to be sufficient; hence the one obtains a fine crop, while the other only a moderate yield. We know of no crop that responds more freely to liberal feeding than corn, although it is a patient plant, and will often give very fair results with the most indifferent treatment. The manner in which manure is applied affects in a measure its efficiency. Many farmers apply the manure broadcast and harrow it in well, afterward using commercial fertilizers in the hills or drills, according to the method of planting; this secures an early start to the plants and increases the formation of root-fibers. 184 PROFITABLE FARMING. Most of the corn-planters and drills have the means of distributing commercial fertilizers near the seed at the time of sowing. It is customar} r in some localities to spread the manure broadcast upon the sod before plowing, and then turn it ' under with a plow. We do not recommend this practice, as it buries the manure too deeply in the soil, and under the sod where it will remain too far away from the reach of the young plants at the time they require its nourishment to secure a vigorous start; besides, much of it might be lost altogether by leaching it into the subsoil. The most successful results will attend the application nearer the surface by plowing first, and harrowing in the manure afterward. Even with a shallow plowing the manure should lie above the sod in the soil. PLANTING. The time for planting differs according to the latitude and character of the season. It is said that the old Indian rule was, "When the oak-leaves are grown to the size of a squirrel's foot, it is time to plant corn." When the season is ordinarily early and not too rainy, the time of plant- ing this grain in the extreme Northern States, or in Canada, is in the early part of June; in Massachu- setts and States of a similar climate, from the 10th to the 20th of May; in the Middle States and those of the same latitude, from the first to the middle of May; in the Southern States of a latitude and climate similar to that of Virginia, from the mid- dle to the last of April; in sections farther South, a Good Home-Made Marker. it ig done in March. In some seasons the planting can be done a week or two earlier than the usual time, while in others, when unusually cold or wet, it will of necessity be delayed as much later or longer. It also can be done considerably earlier on high than on low lands. It is always best to delay planting until the weather is favorable, as corn will not grow until the ground is dry and warm, and if planted when cold and wet, the seed will be liable to decay in the ground before germinating; still, all farmers realize the necessity of getting corn planted as early as practicable, and it should not be delayed later than necessary for the welfare of the crop. Early planting, when the season will admit, will give better results than that which is late; besides, it can be cultivated earlier at a period when the farmer has more time to attend to it than when planted later, and is less liable to be destroyed by birds and insects, or injured by diseases of any kind when planted early. Early planting is especially desirable in those sections subject to early frosts in autumn, as both the grain and fodder are injured by it; hence, the earliest planting that the season will allow is always to be preferred. HILL AND DRILL PLANTING. Corn planting may be done by planting-machines or drills, and the seeds may be deposited either in hills or drills, some preferring the old method of hill- planting, while others the newer and more recently adopted one of drilling. When hill-planting is in squares, the corn may be cultivated both ways, which stirs the soil more than when it can be done only in one direction. When the CEREALS. 185 corn is planted in drills, tho plants can be more uniformly distributed over the ground, giving tho sun and air free access to them, while there is less crowding. The advocates of drill-planting claim that those benefits more than offset those of hill-culture. Tho advocates of hill-culture, on the other hand, claim that an increased yield is obtained by their favorite method. Both methods have their especial advantages, and by experimenting for himself the farmer can determine which he prefers; wo are inclined to favor drilling. The best planting-machines can be adjusted so as to drop tho seed either in drills or hills, as desired, as well as a common drilling-machine. They will open the furrow, drop the seed at regular intervals, and in proper quantity, in straight rows or drills, which admits of after cultivation by machinery, cover the seed at the proper depth as well as could be done by hand, roll it down, and measure and mark olf at the same time the distance for the next row or drill to be planted. In this manner a single- row machine, with one man and a horse, will plant from seven to ten acres of corn per day. With a double-rowed machine, planting two rows at a time, about twice this amount can be planted, or from fifteen to eighteen acres a day; these machines doing the work as rapidly as a horse can walk. Some of the smaller ones can be worked by hand, if desired. The summary of rules for securing large and profitable crops seems to be — ■ 1. Seed of a prolific variety. 2. Shallow plowing and deep pulverization. 3. Surface manuring, and sufficient, but not overmuch manure. 4. Thick planting; early planting. 5. Thorough and judicious cultivation, carried out with horse-labor. To be avoided — 1. Poor or unknown seed. 2. Insufficient or overmuch manure. 3. Hand labor. The seed should be well covered, about two inches being a depth suited to a moderately moist, mellow soil; a sandy soil requiring more depth than clay. It is always well to drop one or two more kernels in a hill than would be necessary for growth in order to provide for the kernels that may not germinate or produce healthy stalks, and, when the plants are sufficiently high, to make a selection of the feeblest, to pull up the latter, and leave the thrifty and healthy plants to mature. CULTIVATION. Frequent and careful culture are essential to the highest success with the corn crop. Air and water are necessary to the growth of plants by not only con- tributing to their sustenance, but also by aiding in reducing organic matter to its mineral elements and a soluble condition, and by effecting a disintegrating and solvent action on the mineral particles that the soil contains; consequently, the more the surface of the soil is broken and stirred, the more moisture is absorbed by it, and the more the circulation of the air is effected within it. Among some of the largest crops of corn that we have had authentic proof of having been harvested from one acre, was one of a hundred and fifty bushels, when shelled, and this was cultivated once a week up to the time when the ears were forming, and after the silk had been fertilized. We are also credibly informed that at this 186 PROFITABLE FARMING. advanced period a dressing of special corn fertilizer Avas worked into the soil; this latter being done to promote the growth of the ears and grain, and as an experi- ment, on the principle that these should be encouraged in growth, rather than the stalks and leaves, after the latter had attained a special desirable size. A requi- site amount of leaf-growth is essential to the perfect growth and maturity of the grain, but, beyond this requirement, an excessive amount of leaf-growth is not of importance or desirable. If we can, b} r frequent stirring of the soil, aid the plant in the production of more grain, by promoting the growth of larger and more perfect ears, and pre- venting abortive or false ears, or vacant spaces in the ears, we shall achieve in this department of agriculture Avhat will prove of immense value and profit in the production of this crop, and the labor expended will prove a paying invest- ment. Frequent stirring of the soil also hastens maturity. Mr. Stewart says that in the cultivation of sweet corn for market he has hastened the maturity of the crop several days by weekly cultivation. It is not necessary to wait for weeds, but do it for the benefit resulting to the crop. It too often happens that corn receives but little cultivation, the most of it being required in the most busy season with the farmer, when other farm work demands attention, hence the corn field is liable to be neglected. HILLING AND LEVEL CULTURE. "Whether the culture should be level or hilled, will depend much upon the character of the soil. Where the land is dry, it is better to keep the surface as level as possible. This admits of more uniform warmth and moisture, conse- quently hastens maturity and leaves the surface in the best condition after the crop is harvested and may be seeded down more easily to grass or clover if desired; besides hilling does not save the plants from being blown over by a severe storm, for the small support thus given is of little effect when compared with the force of the wind upon the broad leaves. On wet lands, or when coarse manure is used in the hills, it may be neces- sary to make the hills higher, but in all other cases, level cultivation is to be preferred. Shallow culti- vation is always beneficial to corn; deep cultivation is always attended with some risk, on account of breaking or disturbing the roots of the plant, which extend to a greater distance than is commonly sup- posed; therefore, Ave would not recommend the ploA\ r for corn culture; it goes too deep and breaks the roots. Farmers frequently have a mistaken idea with respect to the character of the roots of the corn-plant. It was a commonly received opinion many years ago, that the roots of trees extended from the base of the stems, only as far as the branches extended each Avay from the trunk or stems above. It requires but a little obsen'ation to become acquainted with the fact that all trees throAV out roots on each side as long as the entire height of the tree and fre- rrimitive Coin Husker. CEREALS. 187 fluently to a much greater distance; the same is true of many plants. Says a recent authentic writer on this subject: We have made some recent examinations of the roots of beans, potatoes, and of corn. Roots of beans within four weeks of the time of planting the seeds, oud when the plants were only five inches high, were found, which had extended a foot and a half from the stem; and potatoes planted the first of May, in rows three feet apart, were found to have pushed their fibrous roots by the middle of Juno so as to occupy the entire space between the rows. Very careful examination was, of course, required to ascertain these facts, and careless observers would be likely to overlook them entirely. The roots of corn do not extend so far as those of beans and potatoes during the early weeks of their growth; but early in summer, before the corn plants were six inches high, they were found to have horizontal roots in some instances a foot in length, making a circle of fibres two feet in diameter, or four times the height of the plants. When the corn bad reached twelve or fifteen inches, the roots had met between the three-feet rows, and while yet the plants had not attained more than one-tenth their final weight or bulk. Long before the ears Primitive Hominy Mortar. form the entire ground is occu- pied between the rows with their long and slender fibres. Observing farmers have long since discovered that much hill- ing of the corn crop is injurious to its growth, and lessens its pro- duct. But they generally assign wrong reasons. One of our best practical writers lately stated that hilling does harm by throwing the water of falling rains away from the roots of the plant — supposing that they are crowded in a little mass a few inches in length at the foot of the stalks, instead of actually spreading far and wide. As heavy rains soak the ground alike over the field, the hilling would make little difference; or if it did, the water would be as freely thrown on the roots between the rows as in them. The writer then refers to other erroneous methods of reasoning and practice sometimes followed, which consists of throwing the soil away from the plants for a time, to admit the rays of the sun to the roots, and further says: This mode is just the reverse of hilling, and if performed to any depth would be as likely to cause injury by uncovering or breaking the roots as burying them unnaturally deep in high hilling would occasion harm. Both methods are founded on the supposition of short roots, and both deprive the plants of the ben- efit of the broad, even, mellow bed of earth for the roots to extend in at all dis- tances from the plants, where there is little or no hilling. Shallow culture is, therefore, to be preferred for corn, stirring the soil only on the surface, but very frequently. This is of the greatest importance in dry weather, and after rains, when the surface has become hardened and dry. Some farmers go over the field with the harrow before the corn makes its appearance 188 PROFITABLE FARMING. from the ground, in order to destroy the young weeds when in the germ, and before they have taken hold of the soil; this may be well if the field has been plowed a week or two before planting, and has the effect of cleaning the soil of weeds. After the corn is well up and has taken root, it should be cultivated for the purpose of checking the weeds and promoting the growth of the crop. If it could be cultivated as often as once a week until after it has tassled out, it would be of great benefit to the crop. The old-time custom of hand-hoeing, still prac- ticed to a considerable extent in some sections, especially New England, is unprof- itable and expensive, and should be superseded by the use of the horse hoe or cultivator, which will be of more effectual benefit to the crop, with less labor, time and expense. WHEAT. This is one of the most important and extensively cultivated of the cereals, and next to maize or Indian corn, is the most productive of all the grasses belonging to the genus Triticum. It has been cultivated for the food of man from the ear- liest ages, the Bible, as well as the Egyptian and Chinese records, substantiating this fact; and although it is not known in a wild state, most botanists incline to the belief that it had its origin in the central portions of Asia. Rice forms the principal sustenance of the vast population of India and China; corn and the various other grains also contribute to the support of multitudes of the human family; but wheat forms one of the principal articles of food of the most powerful and civilized nations of the world. It may be cultivated in a variety of soils, and will adapt itself to either cold or warm climates, but thrives best in the temperate zones, and in soils that are rich and rather heavy. The lowest mean temperature in which wheat will ripen is 57.2 degrees. While the increased consumption of wheat in a country is an indication of an improved style of living among the general population, its extended culture ia also an index of an improved agriculture, since it is only on soils naturally fertile or have been rendered so by careful cultivation that it can be successfully grown. VARIETIES. There are already many varieties and sub-varieties of wheat, and the number is constantly being augmented by either the accidental discovery of new ones, or by cross-fertilization artificially brought about for this purpose. Some of these varieties are more hardy than others; but among the most popular kinds culti- vated, some may be found that can be successfully grown in almost any section of the United States and the southern portion of British America. The most common classification of wheat is that made by the time of its sowing, it being sown both in autumn and spring; hence, the terms "winter wheat" and "spring wheat." This distinction, however, often misleads, for while it is true that there are certain varieties best adapted for autumn and spring growing, respectively, it is also true that many kinds will admit of being sown at either season. The spring wheat has been obtained by a gradual change in the time of sowing. As a general rule, winter wheat, in localities adapted to its cul- tivation, gives a stronger growth of straw and larger yield of grain than the spring wheat, and the heads grow more erect and full with heavier grains. Many of the varieties that give the most favorable results in cultivation at the South. CEREALS. 18!) are not hardy enough for the climate of the Northern States, while many of the winter varieties are not sufficiently hardy for the extreme North. The selection of seed should always be adapted to the climate, and the more hardy varieties sown in the colder temperatures. Spring varieties may bring a surer crop, and involve less risk of loss to the farmer in localities where the winters are so long and severe that the crop some- times "winter kills," though this may frequently be due to improper preparation of the land through lack of under-draining, or other causes; but is often due to want of hardiness in the wheat-plant. The wheat-growers are constantly forced to seek other varieties to keep up the average yield. Some writers attribute this frequent tendency to deterioration in quantity and quality to be a natural inclination to return to the original unimproved, uncultivated condition; but we believe, if the real cause were known, it would be found to be more in the deterioration and exhaustion of the soil, together with a lack of judicious care in selecting the very best seed of the crop for sowing, and that if farmers would restore those elements extracted from the soil, in the production of the harvested crop, in the form of pro- per fertilizers, before sowing the succeeding one, and select only the choicest and most perfect seeds for that sowing, the deterioration, so often the complaint of farmers, would not be known. . Some kinds will do best in one section, and others in another; we doubt whether any variety Will ever be produced that will thrive equally well in all localities. The soft, plum-berried varieties are frequently found the most productive, and for this reason are much in favor with those farmers who would natu- rally think more of quantity than quality. The flint and glutinous varieties make the best flour, especially where that which is called the " new process " mill- ing is employed, and consequently flinty varieties are more popular with the millers. Wheat that is cut early makes not only whiter flour, but flour that contains more starch in proportion to the gluten than that made from wheat which is har- vested after becoming fully ripe. The microscope reveals the fact that the starch and gluten are not formed in the grain at precisely the same period, the starch- cells in the interior of the grain kernel being filled with starch-granules several daya before the gluten-cells (which are next to the bran) are quite filled. For this reason, wheat that is allowed to get as ripe as possible, to avoid waste, makes better flour, because it contains more gluten, although it is not quite as white as from wheat that is early cut. The quality of the grain is somewhat modified by the soil; if the soil be a moist clay and other conditions favorable, the berry will be plump and soft, while a dry, sandy soil will produce a smaller but harder kernel, a better quality, but less in quantity. It is stated hy good authority that American wheat contains more gluten than English, and that produced in the Southern States more than that in the North- Primitive Corn Shelter. 190 PROFITABLE FARMING. em; and as gluten is an element that imparts to flour the quality that is termed by bakers "strength," and which enables it to absorb a large quantity of water when made into bread, consequently in. an equal number of pounds of flour pos- sessing a greater and less per cent, of gluten, the quantity possessing the largest per cent, of this material will make proportionally the largest quantity of bread; hence, it has been asserted that while fourteen pounds of American flour will make twenty-one and a half pounds of bread, the same quantity of English flour Avill only make eighteen and a half pounds. Of course, different varieties of wheat will differ in the proportion of gluten furnished; but, as a general rule, other considerations being equal, the dryer or warmer the climate is in which the grain is raised, the greater is the evaporation and the more condensed is the flour of the grain, and consequently the more moisture it is capable of absorbing. There is considerable difference in the productive, as well as other qualities of the various varieties of wheat; and it is, of course, well for the farmer to endeavor to select the best that is adapted to his soil and climate; but the kind to be sown is not more essential than the thorough preparation of the land to receive it, since no variety, however good, would thrive except the soil be first well prepared. The important question as to how may the increase of wheat per acre be accomplished may therefore be answered in the following manner : By better tillage, by improv- ing the soil, and by soAving better seed. PREPARATION OF SOIL FOR WHEAT. There is scarcely any crop that requires more thorough and careful prepara- tion of soil for successful results than wheat, yet having once obtained a vigorous start, it grows very rapidly under favoring circumstances, although it is not as hardy as some other of the cultivated grains. It is partial to a very fertile soil, its cultivation usually being very successful in rich clays or heavy loams, although many light soils, when in proper condition, will produce a good yield. Lands for wheat should never be too wet, and when an excess of moisture exists it should be obviated by a good system of drainage, for unless this is done, the crop suffers by being heaved out by frosts in winter, and "winter-killed," or chilled, or dwarfed, in the spring and early summer, clay lands being especially liable to this difficulty. The beneficial effects of the best tillage on lands of the most superior quality will be counteracted by a surplus of water; hence, the proper amount of moisture in the soil should receive the first attention. The land should be so well drained that no water will stand in the furrows. The field to be appropriated to wheat culture should be well plowed at least twice, and afterward thoroughly har- rowed to reduce it to as mellow and pulverized a condition as possible, as this will serve to unlock the fertility of the soil, and put it in a state to best sustain the growing plant; it should then be well rolled to be as firm as possible before putting in the seed. The old adage, that, "Tillage is manure," is a very true one, and one especially adapted to the culture of Avheat. If, after being thus well pre- pared, a rain happens to fall in sufficient quantity to form a crust upon the sur- face, it should be harrowed and rolled again in the same manner before sowing the grain. By the thorough use of the harrow and the roller, the best pulveriza- tion of the soil can be secured, and a sufficient density given it without packing it too closely, and also leaving it sufficiently porous for the access of air and CEREALS. 191 Device for Shocking Corn, Fig. 1. water. Many of our most successful wheat growers plow the land, letting it lie for several weeks or even months, thus giving the heat and air an opportunity to act upon the soil, working it occasionally with the harrow and roller, until a com- plete pulverization is secured. The summer fallow is regarded with much favor in some localities. A good depth of soil is indispensahle to a large crop, as the wheat plant has two sets of roots; the first springing from the seed and extending downward; the second, extending laterally from the first joint and lying near the surface of the ground. A difference of opinion exists respecting the depth of plowing for wheat, some advocating only three or four inches, others considerably greater depth; we are of the opinion that for most soils, from four to rive inches is the proper depth, where land has pre- viously been deeply cultivated for other crops ; much, however, depends upon the nature of the soil. In clearing up new lands, such as those previously occupied by a forest, where the trees have been chopped and the soil burned over, as is the practice in some of the unsettled portions of the country, a fair wheat crop can be obtained with but slight labor in preparing the soil, since the proper plant food for the seed is found in the decaying vegetable matter of the soil, and the ashes of the debris burned in clearing; hence, a good crop of wheat is often grown upon the inverted sod with but little further preparation of the soil; but for old lands the most thorough preparation is necessary. Early plowing is always desirable for wheat crops. If wheat is sown upon oat-stubble, it is best to plow the stubble as soon as the crop is off, and before the ground becomes too hard to plow well. The scat- tered oats will sprout, but may be destroyed by harrowing thoroughly and repeatedly. FERTILIZING OF SOIL FOR WHEAT. Some soils are so rich naturally, that they will require little or no addition to their fertility to secure a large yield of wheat, but these are the exceptions rather than the rule, and even most of these will, after a few years' cropping, become sufficiently exhausted to necessitate the use of fertilizers in the form of plant food. This sustenance should always be in condition for immediate use; hence, coarse ma- nures, that cannot readily be taken up by the delicate feeding wheat plant, will not meet the demand, or be of any assistance in sustaining its life until sufficient time has passed for them to become assimilated to its use through atmospheric and other agencies, which often require two or three years. A crop of wheat, if fertilized by coarse barn-yard manure, for instance, might starve before the plant food that lay within the soil would be in a condition to nourish it. Whenever barn-yard manure is used, therefore, in the culture of wheat, it is essential that it be pulverized very fine; when applied in this condition, it is highly valuable. A heavy crop of clover, which has received a good dressing of lime, is some- times plowed under with very good results ; but this should be done several weeks Device for Shocking Com, Fig. 2. 192 PROFITABLE FARMING. before sowing the wheat, that it may have sufficient time to decay, and be in' con- dition to stimulate the growth of the crop. Lime has long been regarded as an important aid in the growth of wheat, and in preventing rust; also, in obviating an undue growth of straw, and assisting in tilling out the grain. For some very old lands which show a tendency to exhaustion, liniu and salt are often used with good effect. Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, England, recom- mends Peruvian guano as the best manure for the wheat crop in the English soil, to be sown broadcast and harrowed in before sowing the seed; he also mentions that if mixed with twice its weight of common salt or ashes a more equal distri- bution through the soil is attained. Whatever the fertilizer used, the soil should be made very rich, and the material for making it so should be put very near the surface; for if buried too deep in the soil it will be beyond the reach of the deli- cate roots of the wheat plant, and hence of no material aid in its sustenance. It is a common complaint with farmers in many sections that the lands that for- merly produced large crops of wheat now yield only about one-half that quantity. This is due to the exhaustion of soil at- tending constant cropping without the use of fertilizers to return the lands, thus drained of their fertility, an equivalent; hence, their former fertility cannot be re- stored without the application of an abun- dance of plant food. In England the problem of wheat pro- duction seems to have approached a very satisfactory solution, the average product of this grain sixty years ago having been only sixteen bushels per acre; now the average is thirty bushels, and many farm- ers harvest regularly an average of from forty-eight to sixty bushels per acre. Mr. George Cowen, of England, states that when on a visit to Mr. Mackenzie's noted farm in Manitoba, that gentleman informed him that his average yield of wheat was forty-one bushels per acre, and the year preceding thirty-six bushels ; and that his oat crop the previous year yielded an average of eighty-eight bushels per acre. When the farmers in the United States can attain an equal average in the production of these grains, the pursuit of agriculture will be attended with more satisfaction and profit than at present. We believe this can he accomplished by proper tillage and a liberal supply of the right kind of fertilizing element. Mr. Fust, of Quebec, says, in relation to this subject: "It is my firm belief that the reason why our wheat crops only yield half as much as the. English crops is that in England they utilize sheep as grain growers, while wo only consider them as wool and mutton makers." The great value of sheep as fertilizers is elsewhere treated in this work, and therefore does not require repetition here, but we fully concur in the above expressed opinion, and believe, if our farmers would utilize sheep for enriching the soil, they would realize a decided increase in their yearly crops of Avheat In the experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, of England, a repeated cropping of the same lands, yearly, for thirty years, gave an average of sixteen and three-fourths U. S. Patent Corn Husker, A. D. 1837. ( IEREALS. 193 bushels of wheat per acre, with mineral manures alone, while the unmanured gave fourteen bushels per acre during that time. The addition of sulphate of ammonia, with the same repeated cropping of the same land, brought the average up to thirty-six bushels per acre. With the leguminous crops it was the reverse, the experiments proving them to be greatly benefited by mineral manures. They also found, by repeated experiments, that cereals are most helped by nitrogen, next by phosphates, and very little by potash. For wheat, we would advocate the use of artificial fertilizers, in preference to farm manure, for the reason that farm manure is rarely applied in a mechanical condition to be readily assimilated by the wheat plant, while the former responds very quickly, and is in a condition to be readily taken up by the growing plants. This will, of course, involve some outlay, but the increase of the crop will well repay for the expenditure, experiments frequently proving that the judicious application of ten dollars' worth of proper fertilizers often brings a return of from twenty to thirty dollars' worth of grain. Too great importance cannot be placed upon finely pulverizing the soil, and having the fertilizing element near the surface, where it can be within the reach of the plant when it first gets started. Some farmers apply the fertilizers with a drill at the time of sow- ing the grain; when this is done, it is better to mix the fertilizers with about twice the quantity of earth, or to apply it broadcast and harrow it in, taking care that it is not covered too deeply; either of these methods prevent injury to the seed that might re- sult by having the strong chemical fertilizers com- ing in direct contact with it, which would have a tendency to injure the germ. Ground bone or superphosphate of lime is a very valuable and available fertilizer for wheat; it also hastens its maturity from one to two weeks in many soils. It should be lightly harrowed in, and never mixed deeply with the soil. From two hundred and fifty to four hundred pounds or more per acre should be applied, according to the nature of the soil. It is estimated by good authority that twenty-five bushels of wheat with straw, takes from an acre of ground 51.85- pounds of ammonia, 33.70 of potash, and 2G. 10 of phosphoric acid, which is equal to about fifty-seven pounds of bone phosphate lime. Permanent Corn Crib. SELECTION OF SEED. In order to secure the best results in the culture of wheat, it is not only important that the soil be sufficiently fertile and thoroughly prepared for the- reception of the seed, but that the seed upon which the future crop is dependent, should be the very best quality, perfectly sound, fully developed in kernel, well ripened, and entirely free from imperfections of any kind. The natural law of "like producing like" is as arbitrary in the culture of grains as in the propaga- tion of animals, or any other department of nature, and the deterioration of the wheat crop so common in some sections is largely due to carelessness and indiffer- ence in the selection of seed. The best soil, the most careful cultivation will not 13 194 PROFITABLE FARMING. produce a good crop from inferior seed. The difficulty and time required to sepa- rate the largest and most perfect kernels for sowing, is probahly the reason why so much inferior seed is sown. Many years ago, before the grading, fanning-mills, and separators were invented, farmers were obliged to resort to various devices for separating the best kernels for this purpose. One method was to dip up from the pile from one end of the barn-floor a small quantity of wheat in a saucer, and throw it upon the floor at the other end as far as possible ; by this means the heaviest grains would go farther than the light ones, and when a sufficient quan- tity had accumulated at the farthest end of the whole mass, the best seed was secured. Another method was to put up a wire sieve several feet long, giving it a suffi- cient slant to have the grain, when poured in at the highest end, pass over its sur- face; by gently shaking this sieve the small grains would drop through, and the large ones go on over the opposite end. Others selected the perfect heads from the bundles of wheat and shelled them by hand, which was a long and labored process of obtaining a quantity of seed. The grading-mill saves much of this labor and time, but it is by no means without objection, since many imperfect seeds find their way among the selected ones, though it is perhaps the best prac- ticable method where very large quantities are required for sowing. Where prac- ticable, the selection of the best heads, with a further grading by sifting out all the smaller seeds, will give a better selection, and by carefully cultivating these and permitting no weeds to grow among the wheat, yearly repeating this process, combined with the best cultivation, will not only prevent deterioration in the quality and quantity of the crop, but improve it in all respects. One of the best means of securing the choicest grains of seed is to take those growing in the lower half of the head, these being invariably larger and more plump than those in the upper half. This process of selection, of course, involves much labor and time, but it might be accomplished easily where only a small amount of seed were required, for a choice plot, or for experiment in growing for seed. Some very successful wheat growers save all the grain for seed that shells out itself in handling the sheaves, since the largest and heaviest kernels will shell out the more readily. A recent writer says that by this means of selection he has not only largely increased his average crop of wheat, but that the heads are much longer and heavier and the kernels larger. Mr. IT. Stewart says, in this connec- tion: The question occurs, how the habit of growing long, full ears is to be fixed on a variety. I answer, by selection and constant cultivation, and producing a pedigreed variety. Every farmer might do this for himself, but few will; there- fore, there is a large and profitable business for farmers to grow seed and make a special thing of it; not only by producing new varieties by crossing, but by cul- tivating the best that we now have and improving them in prolificness. If, by enriching the soil, we can produce only half the standard number of ears, and, by selection of seed, gain an average length of five inches of ear, Ave have fifty bushels of wheat per acre, and can afford to snap our finger at bonanza farming. As to the varieties of seed, upon the selection of which so much depends, no definite rule can be given, since some kinds are best adapted to one locality and others to another; careful and repeated experiments alone will determine their adaption to certain soils and temperatures. CEREALS. 195 TIME OF SOWING WINTER WIIEAT. Winter wheat should ho sown in time to give it a start before the ground' freezes, which will, of course, be modified by the latitude. The usual time at the North is from the 10th to nearly the last of September, although many farmers consider it expedient to have it sown at or before the 15th of September, in order to give it time to root well before the frost makes its appearance. The time of sowing at the South is from the middle of October to the middle of November, although in some sections it is sometimes delayed until the early part of Decem- ber; but this, we think, rather late for any wheat-growing section, and involve;', some risk to the crop. The appearance of the Hessian fly sometimes modifies the time of sowing winter wheat, it generally making its appearance about the first of September, and if sown at this time may be liable to its attack. If it is sown sufficiently early in any section to secure a good, strong root to the wheat plant before the ground freezes in the fall, an earlier growth in the spring is secured,! and consequently an earlier ripened crop for harvest. QUANTITY OF WHEAT SOWN TO THE ACRE. There has been rmuh discussion upon the subject of thick and thin sowing of wheat, many of the advocates of both methods, as is usually the case on all subjects, being extravagant in praise of his own favorite method, and often erring in carrying out their ideas to the extreme, some insisting that but a few quarts per acre is all that is essential for pro- ducing a good crop, and that all seed sown in excess of that quantity is mere waste. Others would sow so thick that the growth of the plant would be well nigh impossible for want of room. We believe that medium is generally the safer ground on most sub- jects, and this especially. When the largest and most perfect kernels are separated from all others for sowing, as they always should be, a less quantity will be required than where many of the grains are imperfect and will fail of germinating; hence, a difference should be observ- ed in the kind of wheat to be sown. A heavy sow- ing will generally produce lighter straw and heads, as all plants, when crowded thickly together, are more slender in groAvth. There is also a tendency in wheat and most of the other cereals to tiller or throw out new shoots for future growth, which seems to be an effort in nature to cover the entire ground occupied. Thick sowing will generally prevent this in a great measure; however, ii sown too thick there is not sufficient room for the growth of the plants, and not only a lighter straw is the result, but, we think, that it also modifies in a meas- ure the size of the kernel, as well as that of the heads, and this manner of sow- ing will soon deteriorate the quality of the wheat. Light sowing produces a strong, vigorous growth, with large, well-filled heads. We would, therefore, Roots of Com Plant. 196 PROFITABLE FARMING advise a medium in quantity sown, and avoid either extreme. Mr. H. Stewart says, in giving the result of his expeience and observation: It is a fact that a field of good wheat, whatever may be its yield, bears a pretty constant' number of ears per acre, and this standard number is about 1,250,000, or two hundred and fifty to the square yard, or twenty-eight to the square foot. This would bring the ears over the field to within two and one-half inches of each other. Now, every farmer may know that this is possible, for it is easy to grow one plant on a square foot with twenty-eight ears on it. The 1,250,000 grains are equal to two bushels, so that the amount of crop depends upon the number of grains to each ear. This number varies greatly, both in the length of the ear and its contents of grain. If the ears average twenty grains, the product should be forty bushels. I have found that good wheat generally carries about ten grains to the inch of the ear, but that ears vary with regard to the compactness with which the grain is packed in them. I have found only fifty grains in an ear of Clawson wheat seven inches long, and forty grains in an ear of Tread- well four inches long, and the same in an ear of Red Mediterranean, and several others. The desirable point to be reached, then, is to pro- duce long, well-filled ears. I do not think this is possible, except with thinner sowing than is usual. Two bushels of plump seed will contain 1,250,000 grains, but in not one case in a hundred or in a thousand, will tbe crop produce one ear for each grain sown, or one ear for every two and one-half inches each way. I once sowed a field of thirteen acres with Treadwell wheat, in strips, from one bushel of seed to the acre up to two bushels; there being five strips, increasing by a peck of seed from one side, crossing these strips with others that were dressed with superphosphate of lime at the rate of one hundred to three hundred pounds per acre; there being five strips, also, increasing by fifty pounds of fertilizers. It was all manured with twenty loads of good manure and of even character. The whole field when threshed averaged twenty-five bushels per acre. The strip with four pecks was best of all; the ears on this averaged seven inches in length, and one ear was picked out that was nearly nine inches long, and had 92 grains in it. On this corner of the field, the seed was much thinned out by a neighbor's pigeons, and several stools had each thirty ears. The opposite plat produced ears not much over two inches long, and the straw was quite thin; the ears were much smaller and thinner all along this strip of the field. The best were on the strip most thinly seeded. At a careful estimate, taking the grains in average ears, the best of the field produced over 40 bushels per acre, and the poorest not more than 15. The length Di ears were so conspicuous on the thin- seeded portion, which was next a public road, that many neighbors stopped and gathered liberal bunches for their own use without the formality of asking for them. I consider this to have been a proper and useful experiment from which one could gather definite knowledge, and better than those made on small plats, U. S. Patent Com Husker, A. D. 1883. CEREALS. 197 because it was made in regular farm-work. It would have boon more certain had the crop from each square of about half an acre been kept separate and measured, but my object was attained as well by noting the size of tho ears and their contents in grains. It proved two things, one being the advantage of one bushel of seed per acre, and the other was, the usefulness of 300 pounds per acre of superphos- phate against other quantities. SOWING. This may be done either broadcast or in drills, the latter being by far the better and improved method, and will, in all probability, soon supersede broad- cast sowing, where it baa not already, wherever the land is in a suitable condition to admit of it. Its advantage over broadcast sowing consists in distributing and A Fine Harvest. covering the seed more evenly, and putting it in at proper distances; this method also requires less seed, and admits of after-cultivation, insuring a stronger and heavier growth of grain, besides the grain grows more uniformly, the heads being all about of a height, and ripening about at the same time. It is comparatively of recent date that farmers have learned that after-cultivation will pay in the wheat-field, and that there is nothing of greater promise to grain-growers in this direction than the stirring of the soil between the rows of wheat, and killing the weeds that obstruct and retard its growth. Cultivation is, of course, only possible where the grain is in regular rows, and regularity of sowing is only attained by the use of the drill, hence, the invention of the wheat-hoe or wheat cultivator follows, as almost a necessity, that of the drill, which is merely a seed sower on a large 198 PROFITABLE FARMING. scale. A box contains the seed which is delivered by tubes, generally eight in. number, at the desired distance apart for the drills, and which can be arranged to distribute a lar er or less number of seeds in a given place. The difference in the varioua styles consists mainly in the arrangements fur opening the soil, the covering of the drills, and the regular supply of the seed. They also have an attachment for sowing concentrated fertilizers with the grain, when desired, and can be used for sowing corn, grass and clover seed, and all other kinds of grains and similar seeds, by means of an adjustable feeder. THE DEPTH OP COVERING WHEAT will depend somewhat upon the nature of the soil; a heavy moist soil requiring less depth generally than one that is light and dry. From two to two and a half inches is the usual depth, although some very dry soils may require three inches, and some that are very moist and mellow may not require more than one and a half, but this would be the exception; we should say that about two and a half inches would be the average depth for most soils. A recent experiment, by a well known agriculturist, on the depth at which wheat should be covered, resulted as follows: Of fifty grains deposited at the depth of eight inches, only two came up and these formed no heads; at a depth of seven inches one-fourth came up but formed no heads. Ten out of fifty came up at five inches deep, but had defective heads. At four inches covering there were a few perfect heads, but the majority were objectionable. Of those covered three inches, all came up, but the best yield was from those covered only two inches deep. We regret to state that in these experiments the conditions of the soil or its quality was not stated, nor the state of the season, but from the results obtained, we infer that the soil was moist, and that the season afforded the average amount of rain. AFTEK-GULTUKE OF WHEAT. It has been found by repeated experiments that loosening the soil about the" roots of the growing wheat plants adds materially to the crops when done at the proper time and in the proper manner; hence, when wheat is sown broadcast, harrowing in the spring is often resorted to, and although it may result in the loss of some of the plants, this process is thought to produce such an increased and rapid growth, combined with the tillering it produces, that the benefits derived more than compensate for the loss, tillering being desired when it occurs, so that the heads will ripen about the same time. In England the practice of drilling wheat and hoeing between the rows or drills has been generally followed for several years, and the increase in the amount thus produced seems to well repay for the additional labor. The practice of cultivating the growing crop has been adopted only to a limited extent in this country, but will probably become in a few years the common method, especially where wheat is sown in drills. Some of the wheat hoes and cultivators that have recently been invented have proved very efficient and valuable implements for this purpose. These should be employed to loosen the soil and exterminate the weeds, but care should be used not to break or dis- turb the roots of the growing plants. The former practice in England of hoeing drilled wheat by hand involved much time and labor. This process would not, of course, be practicable in this country on farms where its extensive culture is car- CEREALS, 199 ried on. It is a good plan to go over a field of winter wheat with a roller in the spring, in order to press back those roots of the plant that have been thrown out by the action of the frost. This should not be done, however, until the frost is entirely out of the ground. HARVESTING. The time for harvesting wheat is when the part of the stalks near the ground has turned yellow and the interior of the kernel has passed from a milk state into a harder consistency, sometimes denominated the "dough state," which is when it is easily compressed between the thumb and finger. If cut before this time, repeated experiments have proven that the kernels of grain will shrink and give light weight and reduced measure, although the straw will be more valu- able for fodder, as a por- tion of the nutriment that goes to perfect the kernel still remains in the stalk. If the wheat stands later than this period before Sowing-Broadcast and Drill. harvesting, the grain will be liable to waste by shelling out in the field, and the straw will become quite hard and less valuable for use as fodder. Where only a few acres of wheat are raised, it can be cut by hand, but large fields require the use of the reaper. Cutting by hand is a slow and laborious process, and where the field is large much of the grain will become over-ripe and shell out with con- sequent loss; therefore, it is always best to hire a reaping machine where one is not owned on the premises. The improved reapers and binders of the present time, that will reap and bind from sixteen to eighteen acres of any kind of grain per day, with the aid of only one man and a pair of horses, show the advancement made in agriculture since the period, comparatively but a few years remote, when all the grain har- rested was cut by hand. THRESHING. The common practice with extensive grain-growers at present, is to thresh the grain in the field with machines driven by either steam or horse-power. Before the use of machines, all the grain was threshed by hand, which was a laborious practice, but since the introduction of the various agricultural imple- ments in present use, the amount of labor requisite for the cultivation of agricul- tural products has not only been greatly lessened, but the amount of crops pro- duced vastly increased, resulting in a proportionate increase of wealth and pros- perity of the country. By the use of the thresher, the farmer is enabled to prepare his grain f< >r market in a short time, if desirable, when prices favor an early sale, thus saving the expense and labor of storing it, and the possible consequent loss, besides the trouble of insuring it, to say nothing of the loss of interest and annoyance of rermin that often attend its storage. 200 PROFITABLE FARMING. DISEASES AND INSECTS OF WHEAT. The diseases and enemies of wheat are more numerous than, those of any other cereal, and have sometimes, in certain localities, nearly or wholly cut off the entire crop. The most destructive diseases of wheat, and the ones which the farmer has most frequently to contend with, are smut and rust. The destructive insects are numerous, the principal being the chinch-bug and Hessian fly. Smut is a disease of grains in which the kernels assume a dark brown or black appearance, or are converted into masses of blackish powder. It is caused by parasitic fungi which are propagated by spores, and which absorb the nutritive juices of the stalks or heads to which they are attached. There are many varie- ties of this minute plant-growth or fungus; hence, that which attacks wheat (Til- letia caries) is of a different species from that of oats, rye, or that which produces distortion of the ears of corn. It usually first attacks the weaker grains; hence, it is essential that only the largest and most perfect seed should be sown, and also those obtained from a field unaffected by this disease. The usual remedy is to soak the seed in very strong and quite hot brine before sowing, stirring it well, and skimming off all the imperfect kernels that rise to the top, afterward mixing it thoroughly with slaked lime, and sow as quickly as possible. This process seems to destroy the germ of the fungi, and is one of the best remedies known. Another method to cleanse the seed is to soak it in a tub for two or three hours in a solution made of four ounces of sulphate of copper to a gallon of water, or the grain may be put in a basket on an elevation, under which a board may be placed in a sloping condition with a tub under the end to catch the solution as it is poured over the grain and filters through. A flannel cloth should be placed over the tub to strain out the smut that washes from the grain. When it ceases to drip, the contents of the tub can again be turned into the basket over the grain, and the process repeated until it is thoroughly cleansed, after which it should be spread on the barn floor and dried by being mixed with a little lime. Rust is also produced by microscopic vegetation, and is most common in wet hot weather. Winter wheat is more liable to be attacked by it than spring wheat, and some varieties are more readily affected than others. Like smut it is more liable to attack the weaker plants, which is an added argument in favor of always Bowing the best seed, since these will produce the most hardy plants, and, conse- quently, crops less liable to disease of any kind. It affects the stalks of wheat while the grain is forming, the minute plants making horizontal ridges along the stalks of wheat, which are of a russet orange tint. It is supposed that the spores or seeds of the fungus are constantly in the air, and when they fall upon the stalks and leaves of some plants, quickly germinate, and subsist upon their sap. Rusts of different species affect the leaves of many plants — wheat, oats and beans, strawberiy, raspberry, pear, apple, quince, hawthorn, mountain-ash, oak, beet, cabbage, clover, fern, flax, barberry, rose, sorrel, thistle, and many others, both wild and cultivated. It is a question if one kind will not affect a plant of another variety; it is known that some rusts infect other plants than their own native sort. There seems to be no remedy for this disease when it once makes its appear- ance in the field, and the grain should be harvested as soon as admissible. The only remedy is a prevention by selecting the most hardy varieties, and sowing the "So Tired'.' 202 PROFITABLE FARMING. most perfectly formed, and ripened seed of such varieties. Sowing on elevated lands, where the air has a free circulation, and the abundant use of fertilizers that contain salt, lime, or gypsum, is thought by some to be in a great measure a pre- ventive. The evil may be largely remedied by treating the seed before sowing as directed for smut. This process has a tendency to destroy the germ of the disease. The use of a solution of bluestone in the proportion cf one-fourth of a pound to a bushel of wheat, is recommended by Professor Pendleton for both rust and smut. OATS. The oat plant is one of the most hardy and thrifty of grains, and is a native of the cold climates, although it will adapt itself to a wide range of latitude and a great variety of soils. It, however, succeeds best in the northern part of the temperate zone, being decidedly a plant ofi that section, but does not reach as far north as barley. It can be grown in a southern latitude where the summers are long and very warm, but it does not flourish as well in such localities, and is apt to degenerate under such conditions very rapidly. As with most of the other cereals, there are many varieties and sub-varieties of oats, the difference in the latter being mainly due to the difference in soil and climate. While new kinds are being frequently introduced, some of which prove very valuable and fully merit the praises they receive from the extensive adver- tisements given them, others are found by repeated experiments and considerable expense to the farmer to be failures, as far as their adaption to general cultiva- tion is concerned. Oats that are imported from Norway and Scotland and a sim- ilar latitude, are quite heavy and have a plump kernel, also those in Canada, but if sown in a latitude considerably farther south, the product, with the cultivation, that they at present receive, soon degenerates to the common local standard in. quality. We believe that this deterioration is mainly due to the indifferent treatment that the oat receives almost everywhere in this country, and if proper care were exercised in the selection of seed and preparation of the soil to receive it, it might be prevented. The grain sown should be the most plump and perfect kernels from a crop cultivated on good soil and unaffected by disease of any kind, such as rust and smut. We see no reason why oats may not be cultivated here and kept up to their original standard of excellence, or even improved upon, as well as any other crop, when properly treated. The general idea prevalent among farmers is, that oats can grow on almost any soil, and with but little pre- paration, the poorest and most indifferent culture being accordingly given them. Were it not a very hardy plant, it woald utterly fail under such treatment. With some pains taken in the preparation of the soil, and -a suitable supply of manure given, a profitable crop is almost always a certainty. This grain has obtained the reputation of being very exhaustive to soils on which it is grown, which we are inclined to think is unmerited, and that if the soil before sowing received the same amount of fertilizing properties given to other crops, it would be found to leave that soil after the harvest more fertile than many crops that have not this reputation. It is a strong and vigorous plant, and being such will sometimes smother and too heavily shade smaller and weaker plants that may be grown with it — grass, for instance. Oats are one of the very best crops cultivated for feeding working animals, and especially as provender for the horse, they are superior to all other grains. Ruth, the Gi.fanfr. (203) 204 PROFITABLE FARMING. In Scotland, oatmeal forms a very important item in the diet of the peasantry, as well as that of the more wealthy classes also, to a certain extent, to which fact has heen attributed the robust health, strength and well-developed forms and muscles characteristic to that nationality. More than half the annual grain crop of Scotland consists of oats. In this country the use of oatmeal as an article of diet has been more common for a few years past, and if the taste of the American people could be cultivated more generally in the direction of regarding it a dish to tolerate (if not as a palatable one), there is no doubt that it Avould do much towards increasing their strength and vigor of constitution. "We once heard a gentleman remark, while ordering a dish of oatmeal at a hotel, that he did not like the food, on the contrary it was very distateful to him, but he ate it from principle, out of a sense of duty, or " as a sort of penance for his sins," hoping to receive good to the body thereby, which is certainly a novel theory on diet. For invalids and young children, it is very nutritious when properly prepared. Oat-straw makes quite good feed for farm animals when cut fine and mixed with other materials. When cut while in blossom and cured like hay, it makes excellent fodder for cows that are giving milk, or for sheep; espe- cially pregnant ewes or those with young lambs. When stirred into water oat- meal makes a very healthful beverage for laborers in hot weather, and obviates the evil effects of drinking too much water under such circumstances. Winter oats are said to be larger and the grain heavier and more suited for milling purposes than most of the spring varieties. The common white oat has been more extensively cultivated in the United States than any other, but new varieties have for a few years past been introduced, and many of them proven, for certain sections, far superior to the old in quality and productiveness. By testing new varieties, or depending upon reliable experiments of others in this respect, the farmer can soon ascertain which are the most desirable kinds and best adapted to his own soil and climate, as some will thrive best in one locality and others in another, the soil, climate and kind of cultivation affecting materially the product, both in quality and quantity. CULTIVATION. Oats will thrive well on almost any land that is well drained or naturally dry, a wet soil being very injurious to the plants, and almost sure to result in killing them. Of course, the better the soil, as a general rule, the bettor the crop, but oats will give a fair remuneration for their culture on quite poor soil and with but little care in preparation, although we should not advise any farmer to practice this style of cultivation for any crop, for we believe it most profitable and the best economy to endeavor to obtain the best results always, and adapt the cultivation to that end. They are sometimes sown on inverted turf, but this practice is not to be recommended, as they do best on pulverized soil. They will generally thrive well to follow potatoes, corn, or any of the well-manured hoed crops. Unless the soil is naturally quite fertile it should be enriched by some kind of manure, which may be well-prepared compost harrowed in, guano, or any of the concentrated fertilizers in use at the present time, but no green barn-yard manure should be used. Many of the special fertilizers are valuable. Salt, sown broadcast over the land from two to six bushels per acre, is highly recommended by some as a fertil- CEREALS. 20: izer, and is also useful in destroying insects injurious to the oat crop. It is useful on lands where, grain would be liable to lodge, and should always l>e used when sown on the sod. The soil for oats should be plowed to a medium depth and well pulverized. We believe it a general rule, with but few exceptions, that all small seeds and grain require a good seed-bed and their " food cut fine." In a moist season oats will do well on a sandy soil, but we believe that the best yields arc made on a line clay loam with good drainage and the seed sown early. We believe in sowing as early as practicable, as in most sections a better harvest is the result, but not until the soil is dry and mellow. In some localities mildew is quite sure to affect the stalks and grain if put into the ground late in the season. While bright straw and a heavy berry will usually result from early sowing, those sown late arc almost always light and of poor quality. Greater vigor and productiveness is secured to oats, as to wheat and most other crops, by occasionally changing the seed, although wo do not think it neces- sary to make such a change very often. Many of the best agricultural writers in England assert that in making this change it should always, if possible, be from an earlier climate and better soil; others assert, with equal confidence, that while this is true respecting high-lying lands which represent poorer soil and a colder climate, yet with a good soil and fair climate the best results are obtained with seed from the latter locality. We are inclined to the latter opinion, from our own experience and observation and believe that new seed oats should always be brought from a northerly locality, as they are heavier and larger grained than those of a southerly climate. Many farmers carefully cultivate their grain for seed on a small field apart from the main crop, giving it the best soil and fertil- zers, in order to keep up the highest quality of the variety unimpaired, or to improve upon it if possible. This method is almost invariably attended with good results. HARVESTING. Oats should be harvested when the lower part of the stalk has turned yellow; the plant then ceases to draw nutriment from the soil, and the grain has passed from the milk state and may be easily compressed between the thumb and linger. If cut at this period the straw is better for fodder and other purposes, and the grain more plump than later; but if the cutting be delayed, the kernels will be liable to shell out, and considerable loss to the crop may be sustained, besides the quality of the straw impaired. Small fields of oats may be cut with a cradle, and when badly lodged a scythe is used for the purpose, but for large fields a reaper seems to be a necessity; those that both reap and bind are of course the best, since they econo- mize labor most. It is very important that the oats should be well dried before being put away, if not threshed in the field, as they will be very liable to heat badly and the grain become discolored. Exposure to rain and dew will also have a tendency to discolor the grain, and lessen its value for market purposes. It is very important that oats be cut in dry weather, and the bundles put in small stacks for a day or two, and exposed to the sun, that they may become entirely free from moisture. When cut by a cradle or reaper that is not self- binding, they must dry in the swath before being bound. Much of the labor of 206 PROFITABLE FARMING. handling bundles and stacking them away is obviated by threshing the grain in the field with a machine that also cleanses it and bags it ready for market. When rain chances to fall upon a crop, it should be thoroughly dried as soon as possible. DISEASES OF OATS. There are fewer diseases and insects that affect oats than most grains, it being seldom injured by rust or smut. Whenever it is attacked by either, it is usually in warm damp weather. The wire-worm has at times been very destructive in some localities, and is most liable to be troublesome when fresh sod is used for sowing. We would not advise the use of fresh sod for this crop, but whenever «uch a course is pursued it would be well to turn it over late in the fall before the ground freezes, which leaves the insect pests without a retreat from the frost. The" use of salt as a fertilizer, and also lime, has a tendency to extirpate them from the soil. When rust or smut are seen in a field, it is best to have the crop cut as soon as possible. The brine-wash for the seed does not seem to have the same ■effect in destroying the germ of the fungus in oats as with wheat and rye, owing to the hard, thick covering of the grain. [Note. — The cultivation of barley, rye, buckwheat, and rice is confined to such a small portion of the Southern States, and we are so much crowded with other material of more general importance, that we do not treat them in this .vol- ume. — Ed.] CHAPTER XI. SEsculcut STuuers, Boots, anft peanuts. BY J. W. FITZ AND B. W. JONES. 00T CROPS, which form so large a proportion of the agri- cultural products of the English farmer, have not received that attention in this country generally, that their real value would seem to warrant, hut are gradually gaining favor, being cultivated more extensively at present as a food for stock than formerly. There are reasons why the English farmer cultivates roots so extensively, aside from the real value of the crops. The climate of the country is especially adapted to the cultivation of roots, while it is not adapted to the successful cultivation of corn. On the contrary, the climate of the United States is not as well adapted as that of England to the cultivation of roots, while it is most admirably adapted to that of corn. Yet, notwithstanding these considerations, there are many reasons why the farmers of our country should devote more attention to the cultivation of roots than has formerly been the custom. Various experiments have proved the fact that, although roots are not desira- ble as an exclusive or principal article of food for animals, yet when used in con- nection with grain, meal, hay, or other substances, animals will thrive better, fatten more readily, and keep in a more healthy condition than when roots are entirely discarded from their food It is nlso a fact well known to all dairymen, that more milk of a better quality can be obtained from cows fed with a liberal supply of roots during the winter, than when hay, meal, and bran only are used, and that butter made from such milk will not only be of better flavor and color, but more in quantity. Stock should have some kind of green food during the long winters, and roots are admirably adapted to this purpose, taking the place of gras3 in a measure, where ensilage is not used on the farm. Roots are easily cultivated, and large quantities can be grown on comparatively small areas of land. In England turnips form the most important root crop in cultivation, being used for feeding stock, and also as a clearing and fallow crop in the regular rotation of the soil. The potato is one of the most important crops in the United States. Indian corn is a good crop to precede any root crop, and by heavily manuring the land for it, and supplying a good dressing of composted manure to the land (207) 208 PROFITABLE FARMING. the fall previous to cultivating the roots, or commercial fertilizers Avell harrowed in about the time of sowing the latter, good results Avill generally be secured. POTATOES. The potato has become the most extensively cultivated and valuable of escu- lent tubers, both in this and foreign countries, although when first introduced as an article of food it was regarded with disfavor or indifference by the majority, and won its way gradually into popular esteem, until it has become an important article of diet with all classes, from the opulent to the very poor, and is one of the leading crops cultivated. It is a native of this continent, being iound in a wild state in the elevated tropical valleys of Mexico, Peru, Chili, the Argentine Republic and the island Chiloe, where it closely resembles the cidtivated product, except that the tubers of the former are much smaller, they rarely being more than an inch in diameter, and the flavor very unpalatable; careful cultivation having not only increased the size, but the edible properties in a proportionate degree It is supposed to have been introduced into Virginia from Florida by the Spanish explorers, and was car- ried to Spain and Italy from Peru as early as the sixteenth century. Its intro- duction into Great Britain from Virginia was, according to some authorities, in the year 1565, by Sir John Hawkins, and, according to others, about the year 1586, by Sir Walter Raleigh. Houghton, in his "Collections on Husbandry and Trade," gives this somewhat amusing description and history of this product: The potato is a biciferous herb with esculent roots, bearing winged leaves and a bell flower. This I have been informed was brought first out of Virginia by Sir "Walter Raleigh; and he stopped at Ireland, some was planted there, where it thrived very well and to good purpose; for in their succeeding wars, when all the corn about the ground was destroyed, this supported them; for the soldiers, unless they dug up all tho ground where they grow, and almost sifted it, could not extirpate them; from whence they were brought to Lancashire, where they are very numerous, and now they begin to spread all the kingdom over. They are a pleasant food, boiled or roasted, and eaten with butter and sugar. There is a sort brought from Spain that are of a longer form, and are more luscious than ours; they are much set by, and sold for sixpence or eightpence per pound. The potato was at first regarded in Europe as a delicacy, but it was not until near the middle of the eighteenth century that it acquired any real importance there outside of Ireland. It was also unknown in New England until the early part of the eighteenth century, when it is supposed to have been introduced there from Ireland. It is sometimes called a root, which is an erroneous term, as the roots are entirely distinct from these tubers, or underground stems, It is applied to several powerful narcotics, such as tobacco, henbane, and belladonna, and other common esculents, viz: the tomato and egg-plant. According to the best authority, the strong, bitter principle of the potato is more or less poisonous, and is aggra- vated by the light, such as exposure to the sun by having the soil long removed from it in the hill, and which causes the portions of the tubers thus exposed to turn green. All such parts should be removed before cooking. The potato con- sists (aside from water) almost entirely of starch, the analysis of it giving about seventy-five per cent, of water and twenty-five per cent, of dry nutritive matter; ROOTS, TUBKKS, AND PEANUTS. 209 it is, therefore, deficient in nitrogen, and not adapted for an exclusive article of diet. Its composition shows it to ho designed as an accompaniment of meat, instead of a substitute for it, and all nations now using it appropriate it to this purpose. The proportions of ils constituents vary according to the different stages of ripeness and different varieties. The more mature, the less the quantity of water, some of the richer varieties furnishing as high as thirty-two per cent, of dry nutritive matter, the latter consisting mostly of starch, with a small proportion of sugar, gum, cellular fiber, fatty matter, mineral matter, etc. Aside of its use as food for the human family and all domestic animals, it is largely employed in the manufacture of starch, as well as alcohol. Sugar has even been made from it, but not extensively, owing to its being more cheaply made from other products. Previous to the appearance of the disease known as potato- rot, which occurred in 1845, and destroyed nearly the entire product, this was a very productive crop, and was cultivated with little expense, and extensively used in fattening all kinds of stock; but since that period the varieties then most esteemed have been replaced by others, and the yield has largely decreased. The cost of production has also proportionately advanced. VARIETIES. In the early period of the cultivation of the potato it was regarded as a species of vegetable having no distinct varieties. For the introduction of different vari- eties Ave are indebted to the market gardeners near Manchester, England, who, being encouraged by the demand for this product, vied with each other in endea- voring to produce the best. and earliest kinds for the market. They did this by marking the plants that blossomed earliest, saving and sowing their seeds, and again securing the earliest from their product, until they finally obtained varieties that were two months earlier than those formerly cultivated. They also preserved the seed of the most farinaceous and best flavored, most productive and best shaped tubers, and in this manner produced both edible and productive qualities, as well as early maturity. The varieties at the present time are almost innumerable, differing in form, size, color, texture, smoothness of surface, flavor, time of ripening, productive- ness, hardiness, etc.; those being most preferred that are most farinaceous, fine- textured, delicate-flavored, and have a smooth surface, combined with the other desirable qualities, such as vigor of growth, hardiness, productiveness, and free- dom from disease. A potato that is termed "soggy" — that is, watery and defi- cient in farinaceous properties — is one of the most undesirable articles of food, and however productive or hardy such a variety may be, it is unprofitable as far as the market value is concerned, except as food for live-stock, and even then such kinds are not as nutritious for this purpose as those that are light and flaky when cooked. A deep-eyed potato is also objectionable. One of the leading agricultural writers of the "Country Gentleman,'' expresses the following facts and opinions respecting potato culture: From such facts as have come to my notice, I am led to the conclusion that when potatoes, and indeed all or nearly all vegetables, and perhaps the cereals, which have origi- nated in cool climates and grown under a Warmer latitude than where they make H 210 PROFITABLE FARMING. the strongest and best development, they require a soil very much stronger in the inorganic elements of plant food, such as potash, lime, magnesia, and phosphoric acid, and demand also to be grown wider apart, one from the other, because, per- haps, the extra stimulating forces of a hot climate shorten the period of growth, and there must not only be room enough for the feeding roots, but the soil must be full of plant food. Going South, one notices that nearly all common Northern vegetables have a tendency to grow above ground, and I was told that unless the soil is heavily manured with stable manure, it is nearly impossible to get cabbages to head, turnips to bottom, or potatoes to come to full growth. In the truck patches about Mobile, where cabbages are planted out in November and potatoes in February, an experienced grower informed me that his success with cabbages and potatoes was just in proportion t to the amount of stable manure and cotton- seed meal he used in the case of the cabbages, and potash in form of the ash of cctton-seed hulls in an incredible quantity, was absolutely essential to success with a potato crop. Perhaps the absence of vegetable gardens in the South, which so forcibly strikes the Northern observer, is quite as much due to the want of manure (on account of the limited quantity of stock of all kinds, which is seldom yarded and rarely stabled,) as to any indisposition to do the work of successful truck patching. POTASH FOE POTATOES. Potash in the soil is not only essential to the vine-growth of the potato, but its quality, since the mealiness so much sought after results from the presence of starch in the tuber, not a grain of which can be formed in the absence of this salt. In cool climates, the growth and ripening of the potato extend over some months, and the processes of the elaboration of starch occupy many weeks; hence, it will be found that a poor soil, in a high northern latitude, will grow better potatoes and more of them than a richer one farther south. When potatoes are grown on the worn, sandy first and second bottoms of the Mississippi river, north of Cairo and as far north as St. Louis, the crops are not unfrcquently tolerably large ones; but the tubers are apt to be soft, watery, and waxy, showing that while there is enough potash in the soil to answer the purpose of vine and tuber growth, there is not enough to admit of the changing of the cellulose into starch, in the brief space of the intensely hot summer season allowed for this process. But the growers of the St. Louis market manure highly with material obtained in the city stables, and the crop, though never comparable to northern grown tubers in quality, is a fairly good one. Probably the extraordinary fine quality of the Peerless potatoes I have eaten, grown for the northern spring market in the winter vegetable gardens in the vicinity of New Orleans, owed their excellence to the very liberal use of cotton-seed meal and ash, in connection with stable manure, as is the case of those in the suburbs of Mobile. Probably the best form of potash for potatoes is in that of wood-ashes, leached or unleached, the former being of more than half the value of the latter, while soft coal-ashes are by no means to be despised, especially in the western country, where more or less wood is burned in connection with coal. Indeed, for vegetables of any kind, coal-ashes, whether hard or soft, are to be sought after, since they are always valuable as an amendment to the soil, and possibly though ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 211 they may contain no plant food, they do contain ingredients which render certain kinds of insoluble plant food soluble. The lesson to he learned is that potash, and an abundance of it, is essential to potato-growing; that its best form is wood-ashes, not forgetting soft coal-ashes and well-rotted stable manure, and that as one goes south ho must increase the quantity of potash and other inorganic elements of plant food, in order that the starch in the tuber may be quickly elaborated. Virgin soil with little or no manure will produco the hest quality of pota- toes, as a general rule. Whatever the character of the soil, it should he plowed deeply and thoroughly pulverized with the harrow before planting. A deep, mellow soil is, according to the best authority, better adapted to resist the extremes of moisture and drought than any other. "When barn-yard manure is used, it should bo well decomposed, or composted, fresh manure being objectionable for potatoes, as it causes them to grow ill- shaped, with deep eyes, and gives them a strong unpleasant flavor. The same is also true in regard to turnips, beets, parsnips, etc., and causes onions to be coarse in texture and thick-necked. Poultry manure, wood-ashes, and plaster, mixed in equal proportions, makes an excellent fertilizer for this crop. Superphosphate of lime also gives very good results, as well as marl, bone-dust, guano, and similar fertilizers, and on wet soils are very beneficial in rendering them more dry, as they are of an absorbent nature. As has been previously stated, potash is highly beneficial to this crop, and may be applied in the form of wood-ashes, which should be placed in the hill in planting. As a general rule fall plowing is to be preferred, unless the soil is very friable. When sod is used for the crop, or heavy land with a hard-pan or clayey subsoil, it should be plowed rather deep in the fall, and harrowed and plowed again in the spring as soon as it is dry enough to be friable. If the manure is of a fine texture, it should be spread on and harrowed in, but if coarse manure is used, it can be spread on before the spring plowing or put in the hill or furrow. Some prefer to spread a part broadcast, and the remainder to be applied either in the hill or drill, according to the method of planting. Chemical fertilizers are often used in this manner in connection with yard manure, the former deposited near the seed, and the latter spread broadcast and harrowed in. Chemical fertilizers should, however, be mixed with the soil, for if applied directly to the seed they will be liable to destroy the eyes or young sprouts. New land is commonly considered the best for securing large crops that are free from disease. This may be due to the fact that new land contains more potash than that long cultivated, which is an element necessary to the development of the potato. Many of the chemical fertilizers made especially for this crop, of which the superphosphates are the principal basis, often prove highly beneficial in producing large yields of the best quality. Potatoes do not require so much fertility as corn, but still thrive best with an abundance of it, and in as nearly mineralized condition as may be, well com- posted, ready to be easily taken up as plant food. The quantity should be suited to the nature of the soil, new lands requiring less manure than those that have been long in cultivation. 212 PROFITABLE FARMING. If the soil is manured too heavily, and the growth over rapid, many of the varieties "will be hollow in the centre of the tuber, or, as is commonly termed, "hollow hearted.'' A long, slow growth is better than a forced, hasty maturity, giving a better quality as well as a larger crop, that can be better preserved, being less liable to disease. Some farmers use from eighteen to twenty-two horse loads of good yard manure per acre spread broadcast, and from seven to eight hundred pounds of chemical fertilizers in the hills in addition, and consider this the most desirable amount for this crop; others use twice this quantity of manure with artificial fertilizers. The quantity of fertility supplied to this crop should be modified in a great measure by the character of the soil. SELECTING AND CUTTING POTATOES FOE PLANTING. The varieties chosen for cultivation should be those possessing fine, edible, and productive qualities, and also those best adapted to the soil. The most perfect specimens of tubers should be selected for planting ; that is, those of medium size, not too large or too small, and which are as nearly perfect in size and condition as possible, caref u 1 1 y a voidi n g a n y th at have the least ap- pearance of disease. Since it is the law of nature that "like pro- duces like," if dis- eased potatoes be potato Planter. planted the crop will be very liable to be not only a small one, but an unsound, diseased one as well; or, if disease' does not make its appearance with the maturity of the crop, it will lie liable to at a later period, and necessitate quite a loss before the folloAving spring. There is still quite a diversity of opinion among farmers as to whether it is better to plant pieces of the largest potatoes or whole small ones; also, if pieces be used, which is the best end of the tuber for planting and the best size. There has also been quite a variety of opinions as to whether the perfectly ripe tuber should be used, or those not fully ripened, some claiming that the latter are more vigorous and early in sending out shoots. MEDIUM SIZE POTATOES POP PLANTING. Repeated and careful experiments by some of our most successful agricultur- ists, as Avell as long practice, go far in establishing the opinion that potatoes of a medium size are best for planting, and that pieces are better than the whole tuber ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 213 for this purpose, although good crops are often obtained from small whole ones; that those perfectly ripe are to he preferred to those not fully ripened, and that the eyes from one part of a potato are as prolific as those of another part. Some, however, according to the old custom, still make a practice of planting whole potatoes, one large and two small ones in a hill; on the other hand, Mr. M. J. Wheeler, of Massachusetts, says that the best crop of potatoes that ho ever produced came from sprouts taken off the potato. Cutting to a single eve is at present quite extensively practiced, and is a method highly recommended by some of our best authorities on this subject. Mr. B. K. Bliss says cutting is one of the most important subjects to be considered in the propagation of potatoes, and there is such a diversity of opinions regarding the manner and method of doing it, that many pages could be filled by giving the different experiences of the professors in this art. While we do not attempt to decide this question to the satisfaction of every one, Ave shall give our own views, and claim that in our method an enormous quantity of tubers now annually planted may be thrown into the market, causing a reduction in the prices charged for this common and necessary crop. Without discussing the respective merits of planting whole potatoes, or half a dozen pieces in a hill, each piece containing three or four eyes, Ave shall state what has been proA'en by so many cultiA^ators, that two good eyes are ample for one hill, and the yield of large marketable potatoes is larger than Avhen more are planted. This practice will seem a small alloAvance for a field crop by those Avho haA'Q been accustomed to use a larger quantity; still, Ave know it has many advocates, and that too much seed is usually planted, which results in croAvding in the hills, and producing a large number of very small tubers, Avhich are nearly Avorthless, except as food for farm animals, too much seed being as detrimental to the crop as too little. CULTIVATION. Frequent stirring of -the soil and freedom from Aveeds are indispensable to a large yield of potatoes. It is a good plan to plant rather deep, and give the soil one or two good harrowings before the young plants make their appearance from the ground, in order to check the weeds. Even after they are Avell started and are from tA\ r o to three inches high, many farmers use the harroAV Avith little or no injury to the plants, as they are then Avell rooted and have a firm hold upon the soil, and if a few become broken off, the new shoots will groAV very rapidly and take their places. By these repeated harroAvings in the early stages of groAvth, the after cultiA T ation is made more easy, as it effectually checks the weeds at this period and prevents their getting a hold upon the soil. When the plants are well up, the cultivator or horsedioe can be used to good advantage. If the planting is in hills, the ground should be stirred between them by running the cultivator in both directions, which can be brought quite close to the plants without injury; if planted in drills, it can be used only in one direction, between the roAvs. This stirring of the soil should be frequent in order to cheek the weeds and keep the ground mellow and open to atmospheric influences. After the plants have made their appearance, some farmers make a practice of top-dressing with compost, chip manure, or a little plaster and ashes i:: which 214 PROFITABLE FARMING. a small proportion of salt has been mixed; this stimulates the growth of the plants, and the latter has also a tendency to keep off for a time injurious insects. The hilling horse-hoe is often used for this purpose. Some farmers follow the practice of harrowing the whole surface, as has been previously suggested, regard- sSM^A; 1 week or more before the shoots then drag with a smoothing fore they break the ground, all the weeds that are then up, twice after they are above this, the cultivator is run be- two or three times before the after which they will require no vation, providing the weeds less of rows, a come wp, and harrow justbe- which will kill using itonce or ground. After tween the rows plant blooms; further culti- have previous- ly been prop- erly kept down. No culture should be given after the blossoms ^ begin to appear, as it will Jw cause the setting of a new Ja" lot of tubers and prove a great injury to the crop. The use of the hand-hoe may be neces- sary in potato culture, in order to destroy a few weeds that are nearest the plants and may be so located as not to be accessible to the cul- tivator or horse-hoe. It was for- merly the custom among some farmers to pick off all the buds before they opened in blossoms, in order to improve the crop, but the slight gain thus obtained doe? not repay the labor, and the tice is noAV obsolete. POTATO BUG OE COLORADO BEETLE This insect has become the scourge of the potato crop and the greatest pest known to the farmer in the cultivation of this product, which is one of such vast importance in our own and for- eign countries. Its destructive powers are so great and its dissemination has been so extensive since 18G0 that few insects have attracted more attention during ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 215 that period. Intho year 1819, the noted entomologist, Mr. Thomas Say, of Phila- delphia, accompanied the United States government exploring expedition to the Northwest Territories, he being atthat time the zoologist of the expedition. While on this tour of exploration numerous species of hectics were found on the upper Missouri near the hase of the Rocky mountains, among them tlio Doryphora 10- lineata, which has since become commonly known as the Colorado beetle, and which was first described by him in 1824. It gradually extended its course eastward, and in 1859 wo first hear of its invading the potato fields of Nebraska, In 18G1 it became known in Iowa, being assisted in its course by railroads, doubtless, as they were often found in and on the cars of the trains that had passed that in Tested dis- trict. They traveled eastward in a direct line over fifteen hundred miles in six- teen years, and became spread over an area of about 1,500,000 square miles dur- ing that time, until now their ravages are extended throughout the entire country, and there seems to be no method known of wholly exterminating them, paris green being the most effectual remedy thus far tried for checking their increase. With this insect, as with many others, it is the larva that is the most destructive to plants. Professor C. V. Riley says of it: This insect hihernates in the perfect or beetle state under old rubbish or in sheltered situations of whatever kind, but normally in the ground, generally but a few inches beneath the surface, but exceptionally at the depth of three feet. As vegetation starts in the spring it issues forth from the ground, and long before potatoes are up, or even planted, it may be seen flying on genial days in search of food and company, the rose-red underwings contrast- ing prettily with the yellow and black of the elytra. It will frequently Avorkinto a sprouting hill of potatoes, as these are raising the soil, and feed upon the tender sprouts and tubers, and as soon as the plant shows itself the female begins to lay her oval orange eggs in clusters from ten to forty, each attached by one end to the under side of the leaf, or to a stem. With favorable weather, there hatches in the course of a week from each e2;g a small dark Venetian-red hunch-backed larva, which becomes paler and acquires a douhle row of lateral black spots as it advances to full growth. This period arrives in about three weeks from hatching, and the larva finally burrows into the ground, where, within a simple earthen cavity, it becomes a pupa, and finally a beetle in from seven to ten days; the whole cycle of its transformation from the egg to the beetle requiring rarely more than a month. Mr. J. C. Tache, in his pamphlet entitled "La Mouche, ou la Ohrysomele des Patates," says, respecting the number of eggs deposited: The eggs are deposited in rows and by groups, of which the number most frequently ranges from ten to forty; but groups have often been observed of all degrees of numerical value. In the course of numerous experiments which I have made with insects kept sep- arate, I have seen groups of all numbers, from a deposit composed of a single egg up to one of 122 eggs, laid without quitting the spot, by a female kept in close seclusion. From two to four broods are hatched and perfected during the season, accord- ing to the locality and length of the season, the last brood going into the ground in perfect beetle state, to lie dormant during the winter, reappearing as soon as the ground becomes- warm enough in the spring to revive them. Each female is said to lay from five to ten hundred eggs during the season; therefore, if in the 216 PROFITABLE FARMING. spring, when they first make their appearance from the ground, some practical method of destroying them could he effected, large numbers prospective could be disposed of in every female bug that should be killed. Destroying by hand the first beetles and eggs that make their appearance on the young plants is often resorted to, but this is a slow and laborious process; it will well repay, however, in the check it may give early in the season. Machines for horse and hand power have been used to a considerable extent in some sections after the plants have attained considerable growth, but it is better to prevent their depredations upon the crop before this period, if possible, as much injury may be done the tender plants when the}' first make their appearance from the ground. PARIS GREEN FOR, KILLING POTATO BUGS. Paris green (arsenite of copper) is the most effectual remedy yet known for exterminating these pests, but it must be used with the utmost caution, being a deadly poison. Nothing in which it has been placed should be used for any other purpose, and that it should be kept from all animals, as when mixed with water and carelessly left where horses or other animals could have access to it, it has often been drunk by them, and valuable stock lost in this manner. When used in the powder or in water animals gaining access to the field would be very liable 1o be poisoned by cropping the vines or other herbage containing it. Paris green may be applied either in a dry or liquid state; each method has its peculiar advantages as Avell as disadvantages. When used in the powder it is usually applied when the dew is on the vines or after a shower. The advantage of this method over the liquid is in its adhering better to the leaves and stalks; in the absence of heavy rains it retains its power longer than when in the liquid form. The advantage of the liquid application consists in the facility with which it is applied, and the less danger attending its use. Like many other substances of general commerce, paris green is frequently adulterated and its effects propor- tionately diminished; hence, there are many grades of the poison, the. pure article being more effective than any of its adulterated forms and requiring a less quantity to accomplish the results intended. When the pure article is used, a tablespoonful of the powder to three gallons of water is the usual quantity. Some also mix a little molasses in the solution to render it sticky and cause it to adhere to the plants. This poison is not readily soluble in water, and will sink to the bottom; therefore it must be frequently stirred to secure a uniform distri- bution over the field. It may be applied with a common watering-pot, if performed by hand, or a small brush-broom with a handle sufficiently long to keep the hands protected from the water. By passing down the rows with a pail of the solution, and frequently inserting the broom and sprinkling the plants and insects, taking both rows right and left in passing, the labor will be made more easy than when only one row is sprinkled at a time, as this process reduces the labor of traversing over the whole field by one-half. Several machines for sprinkling with horse-power have been devised and are in use in some sections. The fields should be sprinkled as often as the larvse make their appearance in order to hold them in check. When powder is used, it is generally mixed with thirty-five or forty parts of some dilutant, like lime, a-'' 'S, or flour; the latter is considered the best by main-, as causing it to adhere ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 217 ■to the leaves and stalks best, while lime is highly recommended by others as being an aid in exterminating the insect as well as afertilizer and invigorator to the a- i nes. Many farmers use a considerably less proportionate quantity of the poison, and consider one pound of paris green sufficient for seventy-five pounds of lime and other mixture; much depends upon the quantity silted upon each plant. We prefer the liquid form as being more safe and moro easily accomplished. There is great danger of inhaling the powder, when applied dry. Various dusters have been invented and are employed when this method is practiced. Some farmers make a duster for their fields by puncturing a tin box in the bottom and attaching it to a long handle, and with this sift the powder over the plants. Applying it in this manner would he dangerous when there Was a breeze, unless the operator kept carefully to the windward, as there would be a liability of inhal- ing the poison or getting it into the eyes, either of which would produce serious results. SWEET POTATOES. The sweet potato is a native of Southern Asia, and was formerly considered an exclusively southern product, but repeated experiments demonstrated to Northern farmers a few years since that it might .he grown in almost any of the Northern States with very fair success. It is now quite commonly cultivated in many sections North, although the quality of this product is not generally considered quite equal to that of some of the Southern or Mid- dle States, and Northern growers are obliged to take better care of the crop than those ot a south- ern latitude in order to insure success, and to have Potato nigger. the tubers matured before the frost makes its appearance. With the exception of precautionary measures against the frost, the general methods of cultivation for both North and South, are essentially the same. This crop is' an article of food as common in every southern household, white or black, rich or poor, as the Irish potato is at the North, or rice in China, while through- out the country it is regarded as a very delicious and valuable vegetable. It was stated some time since on the authority of Dr. Voelcker, who analyzed the potato sent him by Colonel Ott, of Virginia, that the starch obtained from it was proven to be more valuable than that from the Irish potato. It seems surprising that a product of so much value as the sweet potato should be so little known in Europe. In some localities the yield is surprisingly large, it having been known to reach as high as four hundred bushels per acre, varying, of course, according to the soil, climate, season, and cultivation ; the average yield, with fair culture, being about a hundred and twenty-five or fifty bushels per acre. VARIETIES. There are comparatively but few varieties of the sweet potato. A yellow variety, known as the Nansemond, is generally preferred and most extensively cultivated at the South. A large light-yellow variety, called in some sections the "yam," is more productive and early, and also keeps well, but does not equal the former in quality. For Northern culture the early Peabody is generally regarded as the 218 PROFITABLE FARMING. best, being of good quality, large size, hardy, and quite productive. Those raised North, though fair in quality, do not equal those of Southern cultivation in this respect. The following from the pen of Mr. James G. Tinsley, of Virginia, an expe- rienced and successful sweet-potato grower, Avill give the method of cultivating this crop in that section of the country, which differs in some minor respects from that already described: Sprouting the sweet potatoes in the bed is the first step to be taken. In this latitude the best time to put the beds down is the first of April, as the slips can- not with safety be put out before the 10th of May; this gives ample time to get them large enough. First, dig out a pit nine inches deep, five feet broad, and as long as you may desire it, say fifteen feet, as that is a convenient-sized bed; then, to keep moles and ground rats out, plank up the sides by nailing the planks to stakes driven in the ground, raising the plank from the north side, say one foot above the ground, and on the south side six inches above the ground; then slant the short sides of the bed that run from north to south, so that the cover that is usually of planks or slabs, will make a tight fit; now throw the dirt that you have thrown out of the pit back against the plank that is above ground. The object of having the lower side to the south is to have a better exposure to the sun. The next step is to fill this bed so as to generate a moderate heat to sprout the potatoes. There is as much danger of too much as too little heat. I will now try to describe the cheapest and simplest way, and one that is used almost universally in this section. First put oak-leaves in the bed, watering and trampling them well, and continue to do it till there are six inches of leaves well moistened and trampled. Now, upon these leaves, put three inches of fresh sta- ble manure after it has been well packed in the bed — not putting as much as three inches in the middle of the bed, as the heat is always greater in the centre than on the sides; upon this manure put three inches of mould from the woods, or light dirt if you cannot procure the mould; on this put the potatoes as thick as you can without letting them touch each other; after you have completed the layer of potatoes, then cover with mould or dirt two inches. Now you have finished the business of putting the potatoes down to get sprouts. Examine your bed every day to see if you have too much or too little heat; if you want to increase the heat, it is very good to cover the dirt on top of the bed with three or four inches of pine-tags or straw, as that helps to keep in the heat. Raise the covers every warm, clear day about 9 o'clock, remove the pine-tags and put them in the sun, and let the bed be exposed to the sun until about 4 o'clock in the evening, when the tags must again be put on them and the covers let down. Continue to use pine-tags until the sprouts are about to come through the ground, then dispense with them altogether. When you find you have too much heat on your bed, the best thing you can do will be to drive a short stake in the centre of the bed, through to the bottom and shake around suffi- ciently to make a vent for the heat to escape. After the plants come up, con- tinue to cover them as long as there is any danger of frost; then remove tho covers, as it is necessary to harden them before setting out. In drawing the plants, be very particular not to mash or trample the bod, and draw the slips one at a time, drawing them sideways to keep from pulling up the potato. After the Aftss. Work is Over. (219) 220 PROFITABLE FARMING. plants have been drawn, water the bed well and continue to keep the ground moist as long as you wish to raise plants, as nothing makes them grow faster than for them to be well watered, We usually try to set out all Ave can in the month of May — set out after that time the crop is not generally remunerative. The proper soil is a light, sandy one, or any land that is well impregnated with sand. Stable manure is the best fertilizer, and after that cow-pen manure. In this section mould from the woods and pine tags are used in large quantities, the same land being often put in pota- toes. I never have been able to make good sweet potatoes with guano or artificial fertilizers alone; but it is necessary to supply some kind of coarse manure to mix with it. My plan is to drill all the stable and cow-pen manure I can spare for my potatoes, and by that means it goes much farther. Three feet is the best dis- tance for the rows to be apart, and I am accustomed to list on the manure that I have drilled in the rows, throwing up the list as high as I can with a single plow, putting two furrows together. I make it a rule never to list in a clay more than I can set in a clay, as the plants live better in a fresh soil. The distance apart for the plants in the row is twenty inches, and it is best to set them deep in the ground, as, if they should be cut off by cut-worms or any- thing else, they will be more apt to come out again. The evening is the best time for setting out, and after a good rain in May; j r ou can set out usually for four or five evenings. In June the sun is so hot it is very difficult to get plants to live without a good season. In the cultivation of potatoes the secret of success is never to let them get grassy, but work them as soon as a crust forms on the ground, If they get grassy it is impossible to remove the grass without injuring the potato roots; and it is easier to work them three times where there is no grass than once when they are grassy. You must always see that the hoes do not cut into the hill, but merely scrape the ground around the plant and then pull up a little dirt to it. Now, by my plan of horse cultivation I save a great deal of hoe work. First, throw out in about ten days after setting out the plants the little balk that was left in throwing up the list, and try to get the dirt as high as you can upon the list, so as to smother out any grass that might start to grow on the list where the potato plant is. Before this dirt that I have thrown up by thi s plowing commences to put up grass, I run a cotton-scraper (which is attached to Watts's A and B plow) as close as I can to the potato plants, throwing the dirt from them, trying not to let it cut more than half an inch deep. A good plowman can run the scraper in less than an inch of the potatoes. If the vines have run any, of course I have to send a man ahead to throw the vines in every alternate balk, and the scraper has to run all through the patch on one side of the list, and then have the vines thrown back on that side that has been worked and run to the other side. The last working with the plow is to throw all this dirt that the scraper has pulled away from the list back to it, moving the vines out of the way just as you did for the scraper, and plowing one side of the list all through the patch, and then come back and plow the other side in the same way, trying to make this fresh dirt meet in the middle of the list. Let your hands come on behind and see that no vines are covered up, as nothing lessens the size of potatoes in the hill more than to have the vines covered with dirt. ROUTS, TUBERS, AND I'EANUTS. . 221 HARVESTING. A slight frost will kill tho vines of sweet potatoes. When ready for harvest- ing, which should be before tli e cold is sufficient to effect the tubers, the vines should be cut off quite near the ground; this may be done with a scythe or sharp corn-knife, the former being the easier method. In some sections a sharp hoc is used for this purpose, but it is very objectionable, since the tubers lie so near the surface, that they will be liable to be injured by being cut by this process. If a few potatoes are desired for household purposes before the crop is fully matured, they can be obtained by carefully detaching them and replacing the soil. This can be done by running the finger down beside the vine until a large tuber is met, when it can be taken out, leaving the smaller ones to grow. Sweet potatoes should always be dug when the soil is dry and in a clear day. It is better to dig them in the forenoon that they may have a warm sun in which to dry. After the vines have been cut, they should be taken out of the way so as not to inter- fere with the digging, which may be performed in various ways. A plow is frequently used for throwing the potatoes out of tho ground, but they are liable to be cut or bruised in this way; besides many may be buried in the soil. A good potato-digger is the best implement we know of for this purpose, where large quantities are to be harvested, as the crop is less injured by its use than by the plow, and the labor is greatly facilitated. Where extreme care is observed, and only a small crop is to be harvested, a six-tined fork is often used for lifting th^m out of the soil. The tubers should bo handled carefully, as even slight bruises or cuts will cause them to decay very quickly. When first taken from the soil, they should be left on the ground fully two or three hours exposed to the sun to dry. They are then sometimes sorted in the field, when desired for ready market, and put into barrels or boxes for that purpose, taking care not to injure them by bruising or otherwise. STORING. When intended for winter storage, sweet potatoes are usually spread in a warm, dry, sheltered, and airy place for a week or two, that the moisture from the surface of the tubers may be absorbed, after which it is a good plan to pack them carefully in dry sand, in boxes or barrels, rejecting all that are not perfectly sound, or that have been cut or bruised in the least. They will keep best when packed like eggs, or so placed that each tuber will be separated from others and entirely surrounded by sand, which must be always very dry. After being Avell packed they should be put away in rather a warm, dry place, as they are very easily chilled and are entirely worthless if once touched by frost; but if put into a place where the temperature is too warm, the dry rot will be liable to attack them. Moisture or cold are equally detrimental and the principal things to be avoided in storage. Some care will be required to have the temperature kept uniform and other conditions just suited to their perfect preservation. It is always best to pack them without transferring from one place to another more than necessary, as the more they are moved about the more liable they are to get bruised and conse- quently the less liable to keep well. 222 ■ PROFITABLE FARMING. Where sand suited to the purpose is not convenient of access, chaff, fine-cut straw, or fine shavings are frequently used for packing instead, but dry sand is the best material we know of for this purpose. In some sections where this crop is largely produced, store-houses are built especially, the wall sometimes being made double and filled with sawdust or earth, where they are stored in shallow bins or boxes without being packed in anything; but with this method careful attention is always necessary in order to maintain a proper degree of temperature and sufficient ventilation, as well as to also remove many unsound ones as soon as they begin to decay. TURNIPS. The value of the turnip product pi this country is not to be compared with that of England, where it forms one of the most important of field crops as food for stock, and where they are also commonly fed to sbeep from the fields, which are enclosed with hurdles or movable fences. There is, however, scarcely a farmer in this country but that has his turnip-field, [although usually limited, when compared to the extent of land 'appropriated to many other crops. The nutritive properties of the turnip, when compared with some otber root crops, are not great, on account of the large proportion of water in their com- position, Avhich is about 90 per cent.; but they are valuable when fed with other substances. The turnip is found growing wild in The Turnip. Northern Europe and Asia, but cultivation has improved i: beyond recognition as the same species of plant. The common flat turnip was introduced into the United States by our Eng- lish ancestors, and has ever since that time been regarded as a palatable vegeta- ble for the table. In this country turnips are used for feeding sheep more than any other stock, carrots and mangel-wurzels being generally considered more valuable food for cows and horses. Turnips are a crop that can be raised Avith comparatively little labor and in large bulk, the average yield of many sections being from eight hundred to one thousand bushels per acre, and hence in this respect are an economical crop for those farmers having lands and stocks suited to their cultivation and use. They are, however, considered rather cold food for severe winter weather, and when given to pregnant ewes in this season, should be mixed or fed in connection with something having a tendency 'to produce warmth, such as corn or meal. To give an idea of the comparative nutritive value of some of the leading root crops, we append the following table of analyses from the work of Doctors Voelcker and Lankester: TABLE OF NUTRITIVE VALUE OP ROOTS. Sugar beet, - Mangel-Wurzels, Ruta-bagas, Yellow Aberdeen turnip, Large Globe turnip, Carrot, - "WATER. FLESH FORMERS. FAT PORXERS. WOODT Fibers. ASH. 81.05 l.oo 15.40 1.03 .80 87.78 1.54 8.60 1.12 .96 89.40 1.44 5.93 2.54 .62 90.57 1.80 4.64 2.34 .65 90.43 1.14 2 96 2 00 1.02 85.00 1.50 10.80 170 1.00 ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 223 The improved American is largely grown in this country both for table and stock-feeding purposes, and' is of line quality and keeps well till summer. TI19 Sweet German and Long White French are both sweet-flavored and fine-grained and valuable for table purposes; they are quite similar in all respects, tbe latter being a variety of the former. In good soils and under favorable circumstances, tbe Sweet Gorman will grow very smooth and regular in form, but under unfavor- able conditions it often grows very uneven; they both require earlier sowing than other varieties of turnips. CULTIVATION. Turnips can be grown on almost any kind of soil, from sand down to heavy clay and muck, but the common English turnip does best on a light sandy, or gravelly loam, well manured "with super-phosphates, bone-dust, or guano, and ashes applied at the time of sowing the seed. Ruta-bagas thrive best on a heavy soil made very rich. Land that has been newly cleared and burnt over, and old pasture plowed two or three time3 during the summer, and enriched with super- phosphates, bone-dust, or guano and ashes, as above recom- mended, will produce the smoothest and sweetest turnips. When farm manure is applied, it must be thoroughly decom- posed, and made very fine, besides being well mixed with the soil. Fresh stable manure should never be used for turnips, as it injures the crop for table use, giving them a strong, unpleasant flavor; besides they are more liable to be eaten by worms when farm manure is used than when commercial fertilizers are applied; neither will the bulbs groAV as regular in form, or as smooth. Land for turnips should be plowed to a moderate depth in the spring, about the time of plowing for corn, and kept free from weeds by an occasional harrow- The Ruta-Bagas. ing. Just before sowing the seed, it should be plowed again and thoroughly harrowed, that the soil may be well pulverized and moist, to induce an early germination of the seed and rapid growth. The fertilizers used should be applied broadcast, and well-mixed with the harrow. A rapid growth is of importance in order to get the plants beyond the danger of injury by insects as soon as possible. The sowing may be broadcast or in drills, though the largest crops are obtained by the latter method, which admits of after-culture, and which is of great benefit to the crop, while the former does not. From one and one-half to two pounds of seed will be required per acre for broadcast sowing, and from one to one and one-half sown in drills. This is a larger quantity than would be required provided all the seeds would germinate, and the plants thrive; but as some will not, and many plants be destroyed by the turnip-fly, or other insects, it is safe to sow liberally. One-half inch is a sufficient covering for the seed. It is best to put in the seed just before a rain, as this will afford a better escape from the fly, and induce a quick germination and growth. For the fall or principal crop of the English or common turnip, the sowing at the North may be from the middle of July to the last of August; at the South it may be delayed until later according to the latitude. If in drills, the rows 224 PROFITABLE FARMING. should be from sixteen to eighteen inches apart; Avhen the plants are well started or "when the rough leaf is fairly developed, they should be thinned out to six or eight inches apart. This may be done with a small hoe the first time, cutting out rows so as to leave small tufts of four or five plants at regular intervals. After the plants rally from this operation, the surplus ones may be removed, leaving the strongest and most vigorous plant of each tuft for the growth. This may be done by hand, but it involves considerable labor in a stooping posture, which, to say the least, is very uncomfortable. This labor can, with little prac- tice, be very easily performed with a hand-hoe; it is accomplished by an alternate thrusting and drawing motion of the hoe, a little practice of which will enable the operator to perform so successfully that double plants or vacant spaces will be very rare in the rows. The single. .plants should be from eight to ten inches apart after the last thinning process. The weeds should be kept down with a cultivator or horse-hoe, and the soil stirred in this manner several times during the season which cultivation should be completed before the plants attain a very large growth. A hand-hoe will be required for use between the plants. Shortly after the plants are out of the ground, they should receive a sprinkling of lime dust early in the morning when wet with dew, to prevent the attacks of the turnip-fly. This application repeated a few times with three or four days intervening, will prove an efficient safeguard. After the putting out of the rough leaf, they are safe from the attack of the fly. Many farmers give the soil a top dressing of plaster and wood ashes immediately after sowing the seed. HARVESTING. . Turnips should be gathered before severe frosts set in, although in those sections of the country not affected to any extent by frost they are often, when on dry soils, left on the field during the winter; the quality is, however, improved by gathering, as they are less liable to grow rank in flavor and wormy by remaining in the ground so long. The tops are more easily cut with a sharp hoe before pulling the turnips, a common hoe ground sharp being used for the purpose. It is better to cut off the tops about an inch from the bulb, if possible, as they will keep better than when cut close. The roots may aftewards be pulled with a chain harrow, a hoe, or by hand. The following method of harvesting turnips is given by a leading farmer in the State of New York: The one thing that makes labor in the root-field so unpalatable to Americans is the constant stooping that it nearly always involves. I obviate this almost entirely in havesting by using the hoe, ground sharp. With this in your hands, begin at the outside row, and as you follow it down, cut the top clean from each turnip with the blade, striking right or left, as is most convenient. The impetus given to the top will carry it about half way to the adjoining row. Returning to this, you strike in the same direc- tion, and so proceed. After a few minutes' practice two or three tops may be cut with one blow, and almost any one can "top" as fast as he ordinarily walks. After the field has thus been "topped," it will present this appearance: Two rows of turnips will alternate with each row of tops. In pulling the roots, strike the blade of the hoe back of the turnip, and with a quick jerk, pull it toward the adjoining row, pulled or unpulled. The blade of the hoe cuts many of the lateral roots, thus rendering the task of pulling comparatively easy. After topping and ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 225 pulling, a row of turnips will alternate with a row of tups; and in hauling, the wagon should be driven between these rows of turnips. I have myself topped and pulled by this method four hundred and five hundred bushels in ten hours. The tops are worth gathering as food for stock. STORING. Turnips require a cool, dark place for storage. When raised only in small quantities they may be stored in a cellar, cither in bins or upon the ground. They will keep better to have but a few bushels in a place, and cover slightly with earth or sand. Heat is detrimental, but they will bear considerable cold without injury. They may be preserved in a very good condition in trenches; in fact, all root crops will keep better in trenches than in a common cellar, and come out in spring almost as fresh as when put in. providing the trenches are properly managed. They should not, however, be piled deep in these pits. Trenches from two to two and a half feet Avide and two and a half feet deep, and as long as required for the quantity to be stored, are the best for this purpose. The turnips should be put in to the depth of only a foot and then covered with the earth that was thrown out in digging. It is better to have the soil for the pits quite dry, and the land a little sloping to admit of drainage. Should the weather be very severe, a cov- ering of stable manure thrown on the top of the trenches will prevent freezing. A root-cellar, made similar to a silo, and which has been previously recommended for the storage of potatoes^ is one of the best means of storage for turnips; they are, however, somewhat expensive in construction, but when once made are ser- viceable for many years. It ir; customary in some sect'ons to lay them upon the dry ground, in a locality slightly .doping to the south, in long piles like hay-wind- rows, the piles about three feet through; they are then covered with straw about six or eight inches, and earth eight or ten inches, leaving a straw ventilator every ten or twelve feet. Another method is to put them in large round piles from thirty to forty bushels each, and cover in the same manner. These methods involve considerable labor and some risk in freezing in extreme cold weather, which are obviated in a properly constructed root-cellar. Turnips and ruta-bagas are best feed to cattle in an uncooked state; they should always be first properly cut before being fed to stock of any kind. They should also never be fed to cattle on the ground in a yard or field, but always in the manger, where they can eat them more quietly without danger of getting choked or hooked by others, and where they can also get their proper share, as a few in every herd aie the "master-spirits," and will drive or frighten all the others wher they havo the opportunity. MANGEL WURZELS. This is a large, coarse-textured variety of beet, which is extensively cultivated for feeding stock. The roots grow to a very large size, but are similar in their constituent properties to the common beet, although of coarser texture. There are several varieties ot the Mangel Wurzel, among the most desirable of which are the Long Red Mangel, which is sometimes, when young, used for table pur- poses; the Mammoth Long Red, which as its name indicates, grows to a very large 15 226 PROFITABLE FARMING. size, a single root weighing fifty pounds having been exhibited not long since at the Smithficld Club Cattle-Show ; it is also of very good quality. The Yellow Globe, Red Globe, and the Ovoid, both yellow and red, are also good varieties. In the feeding of Mangel Wurzels, only a small quantity should be given at first, as they will have a tendency to irritate the bowels if fed too liberally, until the stock is accustomed to the food, or if fed in the early part of the winter, before the ripening process is completed, and the starch they contain is converted into sugar. Where turnips are used for stock food, it is better to feed those first, and reserve the manjrds till the middle or latter part of the winter, when they are more nutritious and will not be as liable to have an irritating or diuretic effect upon the system of animals. From twenty-five to thirty tons per acre is the average yield, although under favoring circumstances as many as eighty tons to the acre have been produced, the jueld depend- ing much upon thevariety, soil, etc. They will keep well until the mid- dle of the summer if properly stored. A CULTURE. The soil and its preparation for Mangel- Wurzel should be similar to that for the ordinary beet, except that land intended for the former crop should be plowed and finely pulverized long enough before sowing the seed to admit of its settling down a little firmly before the seed is deposited, which should be from the middle of April to the middle of May, the quantity required being four or five pounds per acre. The seed should he sown about two inches apart, in drills that are from two to two and a half feet apart, in order to admit of the use of horse- power in the cultivation of the crop. If the soil be light and the weather dry the roller should be used to press the earth down upon the seed and hasten its germination. When the plants are up about two and a half inches, they should be thinned out to twelve or fifteen inches apart, and the after-culture be similar to that of the common beet. In cultivating as much care as possible should be used to prevent breaking the leaves. Two or three hundred weight of salt per acre mixed with the manure, is thought by many growers to be of great advantage to the crop HARVESTING AND STORAGE. Beets should he harvested before there is danger of injury from frosts. The tops should be cut to within one inch of the bulb, and the small roots remain on such as are intended for late keeping. In pulling and cleaning the roots, care should be used not to wound or cut off any of the large fibres, as it injures the quality and induces a tendency to decay; neither should they ever be allowed to wilt, for having once become wilted or shriveled, they Avill never recover their firm and brittle texture. In stacking them, they will keep better if the crowns are placed outward. They may be stored in a cool cellar and slightly covered with dry earth, or in piles of from twenty to thirty bushels each, and covered with sufficient straw and earth to keep out the frost, as recommended for ruta- bagas. ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 227 Till'. PEANUT AND ITS VARIETIES, BY B. W. JONES. The peanut, pin dar, ground-pea or guber, (Arachis hypoga;a) is probahly of South American orgin,and finds its appropriate habitat in tropical or semi- tropical regions. But one species has, as yet, been recognized by botanists. There are, however, several varieties now in cultivation, and cultivation and selec- tion will develop more. The best and most popular variety is the Virginia peanut. The vine of this kind spreads out flat upon the soil, extending from two to three, and sometimes as much as four feet in diameter, and bears a great number of pods attached to little stems or peduncles scattered promiscuously at the axils of the branches. 1 1. is not uncommon to find from one hundred to one hundred and fifty good pods to a vine. The pods contain from two to three kernels of a light reddish color, which are sweet and well flavored. This kind commands the highest price. The red or Tennessee peanut grows much like the Virginia variety, but the pods are larger, often containing four kernels instead of two and the color is a deeper red. The taste is slightly rank and bitterish, and not so delicate as the Virginia. In North Carolina and other points South, another kind is grown called the guber or goober, the pod of which is much smaller than either of the other two. It is a more solid and a heavier peanut than the Virginia, weighing twenty-eight pounds to the bushel. It is not extensively grown, and is objectionable on account of the size of the pod, which makes it tedious to pick off and handle. There is also a kind, somewhat largely cultivated in Virginia, called the bunch peanut, the vines of which do not spread out flat upon the soil, like the sorts named above, but grow upright, and might bo readily mistaken at a little distance for the common, or cow pea. The pods grow all in a bunch near the main stem, and are easy to pick off, but can in no way be distinguished from those of the flat kind. The bunch peanut does not yield as much per acre as the others unless planted nearer together. A variety known as the Spanish peanut is popular in some sections of the South. It is so different from the others as to be almost en itled to be classed as a distinct species. The pod is extremely small, not more than one-fourth or one- third the size of the Virginia peanut, and the vine, small and delicate looking, grows erect, like the bunch variety. The little pods grow in clusters of fifty to one hundred near the main root, and can be pulled off by handfulls at a time. The kernels are about the size and shape of the garden pea, which they much resemble in appearance, and the taste is the mildest and most delicate of any pea- nut yet introduced. The vines may be grown very near together, six to eight inches apart. LOCATION. The peanut, although a tropical or sub-tropical plant, may be grown in per- fection over a very broad zone of the earth's surface. It has become quite widely dis- seminated over the Southern States from Virginia to Texas, and up the Mississippi Valley to Missouri and Illinois. It is, however, a plant very choice of location, and will not thrive except in a warm and genial soil, and in a land where the summers are warm and sunshiny. •Cold, moist countries, with much rain and absence of sunshine, are very objec- 228 PROFITABLE FARMING. tionable to the peanut. The warm belt of country along the Atlantic and Gulf coast, from Delaware to Texas, has proven admirably adapted to the production of this profitable crop. But even there the belts of the finest peanut soil are detached, scattered, and often quite narrow. Not more than a third of the land even in the famous peanut zone of Virginia is well adapted to its profitable culti- vation. The cool springs and autumns of the mountain sections, and the red and heavy clays of the sub-mountain country, are poorly suited to peanut culture. SOIL. The soil best suited to the peanut is a warm, sandy loam, free from moisture and acidity. If not calcareous naturally, it should be made so by the application of lime or marl. Oyster-shell lime is the best, fifty to seventy-five bushels to the acre once in about ten years. Marl takes the place of lime admirably, and is com- monly used as it is generally abundant throughout the tide-water section, and costs nothing but the digging and hauling. A dressing of about 150 to 250 bushels once in ten or fifteen years is a fair application. In the absence of lime or marl land plaster is often used, and acts well in very small quantities, if applied annually. Two hundred pounds is enough for an acre, scattered along the drill under the rows. Clay soil does not suit the peanut, being too cold and slow to act, and too tenacious. It also stains the pod, giving them a dingy color that buyers do not like. At digging, a close tenacious soil would force from the vines many of the pods, and great numbers would be left in the ground, and much dirt would adhere to the vines. A porous sand yields them up freely, and not many pods are left in the soil. The peanut is very sensitive to moisture, and hence none but dry soils suit it. The light grey sands of the tide-water zone, holding little or no trace of iron or other ingredient to stain and make dingy the pod, is the first choice for this plant. The whitest " silver edge" peanuts are grown in a soil like this. CULTIVATION. It is only during the past quarter of a century, beginning about the year 1866, that the cultivation of the peanut in the Southern States has attained the magnitude of a profitable branch of farming. The aggregate yield now (1890) is probably not far from 4,000,000 bushels annually. During the earlier years of its cultivation, it paid the farmer well, bringing him from seven to nine cents per pound, one dollar and a half to two dollars per bushel of twenty-two pounds. Later on, in consequence of the doings of certain peanut trusts who got con- trol of the market, the price fell to two and a half or three cents per pound, and the cultivation barely paid the farmer for his trouble. In 1889, the farmers, through the organization of the Alliance and their pea- nut unions, managed to force the market up again to from five to seven cents, which price leaves them a small margin of profit. The outlook is now more favorable for the peanut grower than it has been for several years. Tho planting time of the peanut is during the month of May in Virginia and similar latitudes. Some farmers plant as early as April 20th, and others as late as June 10th. Southward, planting begins earlier and earlier, according to- the latitude — April 1st being not too early for the Gulf States. ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 229 The soil for peanuts should bo clear of rubbish, coarse litter, and stalks. It should bo first plowed during the early part of April, and rows laid off from two and a half to three feet apart, according to the variety to bo grown and the strength of the soil. If fertilizer, lime, or plaster is to be used, sow it along the drill, and then foUow with the turn-plow, lapping two furrows over the fertilizer making a small ridge. Tho ridges are then flattened by. any method most convenient, and the seed are planted. One kernel or sometimes two aro put to a hill, and from ten to sixteen inches apart along the row. There are peanut planters that do good work, and home-made implements for leveling and marking tho rows. In about two weeks after planting, or as soon as the plants are well up and the soil is getting crusty and grassy, the peanuts should bo ploughed and wed. Tho work may be done with the cultivator, or with a light turn-plow, throwing the dirt from the plants. The weeders follow tho plow with light sharp hoes, cutting away the grass and leaving the soil loose about the young vines. The subsequent working may be done Avith the cultivator, keeping down tho weeds and grass, and making the soil mellow. Formerly, three or four weedings with the hoe Avere given, but recently the practice is to cultivate more Avith horse poAver and less with the hoe. With good and frequent cultivation by horsepower two Aveedings with the hoe are uoav regarded as enough, and some farmers, in fact, Aveed but once. By resorting to nice and timely Avorking Avith the cultivator, a crop of peanuts may be grown without any hoe Avork at all. This saves labor and reduces the expense. By the use of Aveeding and scraping attachments to the cultivator the need cf hand-hoeing is reduced to the minimum. It is generally best, hoAvever, especially if the land is foul, and about stumps, and the ends of the roAvs, to use the hoe once or twice during the growth of the crop. The tAVO essential points in the cultivation of the peanut are to prevent grass and Aveeds from groAving and smothering the crop, and to keep the soil about the plants loose and melloAV. Any mode of cultivation that "will secure these ends accomplishes the purpose. Thus there is a great latitude taken as to the methods of cultiA'ation, no tAvo planters folloAving the same course in every particular. As the cultivation proceeds, and the plant increases in size, the soil should be throAvn more and more to the plants, leaving them at the last ploughing on a broad, fiat ridge, with a small Avater-furrow in the centre of the balk. Tho crop should receive the last Aveeding during the month of July, or not later than August 10th. By this period the vines should be lapping all along the toavs, and nearly touching, some of them quite touching, across the rows. When this is the case the cultivator or plow is apt to tear the vines, and cultivation should cease. At this time, too, if hand-Aveeding is practiced, great care must be taken not to cut and destroy the little " fingers," or peduncles, that bear the pea. Every one of these cut now is a peanut destroyed. If the crop is getting grassy in the hills, one had better resort to pulling it out by hand than to depend upon the dangerous experiment of removing it with the hoe. The peanut begins to floAver in Virginia by June 20th, and there are by the "laying-by time" a great many pods already formed and forming. At this stage a peanut field of thirty or forty acres extent is a beautiful sight, the entire surface covered, and looking like a carpet of the richest green, spread evenly and deftlv OA r er the field. 230 PROFITABLE FARMING. The crop now remains untouched for some eight or ten weeks, during which time the pods are rapidly forming and maturing. So long as the vines continue green and flourishing the peanut is growing, hut when they hegin to assume a yellowish color they are approaching maturity. HARVESTING By October 1st in Virginia, and earlier southward, the crop is ready for digging or harvesting. Frequently, however, it is the last of October or the mid- dle of November before all the peanuts are dug and shocked. It should be the aim of planters to get the crop dug before a big frost catches it, as frost destroys the value of the vines for forage. The vine, when the crop is dug before the frost harms it, and while the leaves are all on makes excellent forage for horses and cattle, and as the quantity that the running or flat peanut yields is con- siderable, it makes quite an item in the value of the crop. As, however, planters are generally anxious to neve the crop remain undu«- as long as possible, in order to secure better maturity and weight for the pods* many of them pay no regard to the vines as forage, and so do not dig until about the close of October or first of November. There is no doubt but that the pea- nuts will be heavier, if allowed to remain late in the field, but sometimes as much is lost in other ways as is gained in this, and perhaps more. We prefer earlier digging if the color of the vines indicates maturity. ROOTS, TUBERS, AND PEANUTS. 231 The digging of peanuts is not done with the hoe, as some might suppose, hut •with tho plow. A point with a long wing, called the peanut point, is attached to the common turn-plow, and tho plow is then run first on the left side of the rows, and deep enough to pass under tho peanuts in the ground, and not so shallow as to cut them oif and leave them in tho soil. Returning, the plow passes on the other side, loosening the soil, and either at that time or at tho first, severing tho tap-root that holds tho vino firmly in the ground. Care must ho observed to set the plow deep enough to pass under the peanuts and not cut them ofF, in which case they would be left in the soil and lost. It is necessary also that the tap-root of the vine be cut, or the vine will not come away from the soil easily. Hands with pitchforks follow the plow, lifting the vines, shaking them clear of dirt, and laying them down again either singly or in small piles by putting three rows in one as the work proceeds. All this is done quite expeditiously, and a large field of peanuts is soon dug and shocked. The shocking of the vines may begin at once with the digging; but if the vines are wet with dew, it is better to wait until tho afternoon and shock up in the evening what have been dug in the morning. It is common, however, to let the vines remain till the next afternoon, when they will be Avilted and will shock better. If the weather promises to be fair, the vines may be left on the ground several days before shocking them. The peanuts intended for seed are thus left five or six da} r s to cure before shucking them. The shocks are made around a stout stake about the size of the arm, sharp- ened at the lower end. The stakes are cut previously about seven feet long, and are set into the ground about one foot, so that the shocks will be about six feet high, or as high as one can reach conveniently to lay up the vines about the stake. Billets of wood are laid around the stake to raise the shock from the ground, and the vines are then laid up around the stake until the shock is finished. The shocks should be about three feet in diameter. Care should be observed to have all the peanuts in the interior of the shock, and not exposed on the outside to the weather, birds, &c. The shocks should be finished off with a round top to shed the water better. Hay may be wound around at the top to protect the exposed peanuts, but this is not commonly done. The object of shocking the peanut is to protect them from the weather, and to get them nicely cured before picking them off. Peanuts cure better and sooner and of a brighter color in well-made shocks than anywhere else. Peanuts well shocked may stand in the field many weeks without the least harm to the pods. Only those upon the outside will get specked or mildewed. Driving rain, however, and Avarm muggy weather at that season will be sure to damage the crop in the field considerably. Some seasons, more than' half the peanuts will perhaps become blackened by the weather. This was the case in 1887. Warm nights, with heavy dews, after the peanuts are dug, will speck all the exposed pods. It is the safer course to haul up all the peanut shocks and put them under shelter just as soon as the pods are sufficiently cured to prevent moulding from close packing. In good sunny weather peanuts in shock Avill cure sufficiently to pick off in from ten to fifteen days, and should then be put under cover on the first appear- ance of a rainy spell. This, however, is not the common practice. Very few farmers have shelter room for several hundred, or perhaps one or two thousand, 232 PROFITABLE FARMING. shocks of peanuts, and must perforce allow them to remain in the field, where the peanuts are picked off, and the vines reshocked in large, round shocks, to be fed to the stock as needed. The peanuts are picked off by hand, the picker receiving about ten cents per bushel for picking. Swift hands get four or five bushels a day if the vines are full of pods. The raps and black pods should be put in a separate parcel. The stems should be carefully pulled away from the pods, and litter, dirt, D9 W in 3 P H H 236 PROFITABLE FARMING. J. B. Bunn, a citizen of New York city, translated the book which M. Goffort had written on the subject of silos and silage, and pushed the new science with, zeal, by holding "Ensilage Congresses," as he termed meetings on this subject. He procured cuts of the buildings erected in France and all the appliances, and kept the subject before the American people. Soon after, a Dr. Bailey wrote a book on silos and ensilage, and although his statements Avere so enthusiastic and extravagant that many farmers were intensely prejudiced against the whole matter, there were others who took it up and made trials. There was a lack of soft, succulent foods, as American farmers had not then, nor have they since, only in very limited numbers, grown roots for cattle or other stock. A number of wealthy men followed the example of the French teachers, and the lead of the few writers who espoused the cause, and erected costly silos. Others tried here and there, and persevered with many failures. It took considerable pluck and faith to keep on in the attempts to succeed, which characterized the early efforts of those who had silos. Those men are entitled to credit for perseverance, for the results were far from satisfactory to many, and not perfectly successful to any. There is such a craving on the part of cattle for food, other than the dry fodder cured for winter, that they would eat the contents of the silos, however unsavory and unnatural the silage might be. There was often so much taint to it that the milk of the cows was affected by it, and the proprietors of the condensing establishments and creameries refused to have it. Many silos were built to be abandoned; and the others who realized the want of more succulent food for dairy cows and young cattle were deterred from investing in them. There were many objections urged against the use of silage other than the taint imparted to the milk. Some of it was highly acid, and this was considered objectionable. In other instances it was quite alcoholic, and in others really putrid. The State experimental stations had not then been estab- lished, where careful and scientific experiments could be made, and the rich men, who had been tempted by the novelty of the thing to invest in it, were not cal- culated to make careful investigations. The enthusiasts were too visionary to see better results from a more painstaking conformity to the laws of science and common sense; while the great mass of practical people held to the old way of curing corn fodder, and would not waste time and money in experiments so far from the old beaten track of their forefathers and their own knowledge. At last some plain farmers and dairymen, realizing the great want of more succulent food for cows, risked a little by the erection of cheap silos, made of wood, and began the work of attempting the preservation of corn fodder in this way. These are the men who have made the new business a success. They did not follow the lines so closely, but struck out according to their own judgments, and from year to year made improvements in culture, curing, and erecting structures, until they have made a practical success, and have inaugurated a new era in the feeding and care of dairy cows and other stook. Silos in the immediate future will be multi- plied rapidly, and especially in all sections of the country where dairying is carried on, and in a short time they will also be utilized in the making of beef and mutton in connection with the growing belief that better housing and care of animals in winter are factors so important that they cannot be dispensed with where a paying profit is expected. SILOS AND SILAGE. 237 VALUE OF SILAGE. It is not claimed that the preservation of corn fodder, clover, or other green food adds very much to its value as compared to the same foods, when cured and analyzed, but it is asserted with good reason that the food properties in them are more digestible and hence there is more available nutrition. There is also a vir- tue in the succulent, or soft and more juicy condition of these foods when thus preserved. The animals which have a liberal ration of silage bear witness to this fact, that it helps to keep the pores open and to stimulate the functions, as they invariably have softer and more pliable skins and more silky and brighter coats than animals fed entirely on fodder; although they may have the same amoui:t of grain. They do not become as thirsty and thus are kept from the chill and bad effects of excessive drinkingof cold water. There is no doubt but that more milk can be obtained from feeding silage than from dry fodder corn, all things being equal. Chemistry or analysis will not reveal the fact, nor does it tell us what the churn does, that there is more cream in a given amount of milk pro- duced from silage than from dry fodder. These statements pre-suppose, and are founded upon the fact, that the fodders are of the same kind; the only difference being that one has been preserved in a silo, and the other cured or dried in the usual way. The cow gets all there is, in one, out of it; and in the other case she is unable to do so as portions of the food have passed beyond the digestible point and are not available. In tests of this kind the silage must be of the very best quality as the dried fodder may also be. It is among the possibilities that, in those States where the business of steer feeding is now practically destroyed, owing to the competition of the dressed meat monopoly, it may be partially restored by the more general use of silage, as the chief food for wintering grow- ing cattle, designed for slaughter. It has a value in this respect not yet much developed, but it can certainly be made a very great aid in promoting appetite and cheap growth. THE OLD AND THE NEW SILO. More money was expended on the original silo than is found to be necessary now for a better preservation of its contents. A costly structure of stone or cement is no more adapted to keeping silage than a wooden building. The old silo was oftentimes sunk in part into the ground to make sure that the contents would not freeze, and because of the ancient idea of a pit, which still casts its influence over the mind of the builder. There was not painstaking enough in many instances to make the Avails perfectly air-tight, and frequently the walls were so thin that they became clicked and admitted the air in many places. The bot- toms were also wet, or held moisture to such an extent that the rotting of the contents for some distance upwards was inevitable. The stone silos were almost sure to let the frost in, as they had no dead-air space, and the moisture was almost greater by the processes of frost and condensation in the inside which caused greater fermentation and decay of the contents on account of the wet. The cel- lars or underground portions were also liable to be wet and to produce more decay. The new silo is the opposite of the old one, in that it is built for dryness on the inside and to shut out the moisture and air. The bottom must be hard, and the best plan is to pave it with stone and cover it with concrete as high up as the tons of the sills, the sills being bedded in the concrete. This carefulness will 238 PROFITABLE FARMING. shut out the air and wet, and cause the bottom to he dry and air-tight. Then the sills should he saturated with good tar put on hoiling hot, as this dressing will be found to be a great preservative. The frame may be made of scantling two inches thick by six Avide. These should be set up edgewise two feet apart, which will then make a dead-air space of six inches to shut out tbe cold and damp. Then scantling may be sixteen or twenty feet long. The higher the silo is, the more difficult to carry the silage into it, and space is provided for by greater ground area. An increase in height also renders the lateral pressure more. Some silos are strengthened in this respect by iron rods crossing, which may be placed along the partition. They should not extend across the open space, as they would prevent the silage settling easily and tend to make spaces for air. These studs or sides of the frame are covered on the outside with hemlock or other cheap boards, and on these closely fitted together is nailed tarred building paper, and this is covered with matched ceiling. This is the outer wall of the silo, and the inner is made the same with inch hemlock boards nailed across the studs and covered with the building paper, and on this matched ceilings are put running up and down. The inner ceiling should be planed to admit of the easy settling of the contents. This is the best form of a silo. There should be a dormer door in the centre of the roof which will admit the contents, or the door at the top at the point most convenient to the cutting or unloading place. A silo sixteen feet high, twenty feet deep, and sixteen feet wide is large enough for an ordinary farm. It will hold one hundred and two tons of silage, as one cubic foot of silage is estimated to weigh about forty pounds or fifty feet to the ton. The roof should be high enough above the top of the silo, which is in reality a big tight box, to allow a man to stand erect when it is full. There should be a partition in the middle which may be made of the one thickness of the ceiling. This partition should be put in to strengthen the structure and to prevent spread- ing. The old silo was most liable to bulge out on the sides, owing to the pressure put on the contents at the top in the form of weights of several tons, or the screw power applied to press the contents down. This is all unnecessary with the modern system of preparing the contents and filling. A movable shute should connect Avith the carriers from the cutting machine, so that the green silage may be let into one or either apartment of the silo. It is important to have a parti- tion in every silo, so that the contents of one can warm up and ferment while the corn or other material is being put into the other apartment. With the tAvo apartments, the work of filling can go on each day alternating from one to the other. In Avinter, when the silage is being used AA'ith two apartments, only one need be used at the time. After one is empty, the other can be used. In a silo of large area, it is best to cut down the contents in sections and not expose the whole surface at one time. By so doing, the silage will better retain its warmth and moisture. The construction of a silo for the best preservation of green food, is not an intricate or expensiA^e operation. In almost any part of the country a silo of the capacity Ave have mentioned, should be made for less than tAvo hun- dred dollars. THE LOCATION OF A SILO. The silo should be located in some place handy to the stables, and, if possible, on the same level and connected with them. At the same time the convenience SILOS AND SILAGE. 239 of filling must be taken into the account. A favorite place with many farmers is to build the silo in one end of the hay, or large ground space in the barn which is used for storing hay. One end, or the outside of the barn and a part of one side, are utilized as the outside of the silo, and a partition through the hay and in front make the other sides. A silo thus located can be filled from off the barn-floor or at the end. Silos thus made can be made a success provided pains are taken to make them air-tight and dry A lean-to or wing may be added to the barn or stable building, and this addition may be made into a silo. At the Kirby homestead farm, in New York, a lean-to twenty feet wide is added to the gable end of the largest barn, and this connects or opens directly into the cow stables. This silo is filled at a dormer window, in the centre of the roof, directly above the centre of the silos and over the partition which separates them. There eould be two dormer windows, one over the centre of each silo. This should be the case whenever the silo is large, as the material could be discharged from the carriers right in the middle and save extra moving, or moving not so far, as when the material was delivered from the other side. The silo mentioned is twenty by sixteen feet and sixteen feet high. A cow stable has been constructed from the lower part of the hay in the barn, and a strong flooring is now in place overhead on which hay is stored to the top of the barn. The silo has taken the place of the storage space, where the cows are now stabled. The end of the barn makes a side for the silo. The silo mav be the building entirely by itself and connect with the stable by a covered passage, or shed, or it mny be put into the middle of the barn-yard and thus be central in its location. It will be found in the long run best to have it located where its contents are required the most, and, if possi- ble, where the silage may be carried in a cart or box set on wheels, from which, in front of each cow, the contents can be shoveled in the mangers. This is the case at the Kirby homestead and on many other farms where convenience and economy in labor are carefully considered. THE KINDS OF SILAGE — FODDER CORN. Any sort of green food can be preserved in the silo and its succulent character preserved. Experiments have been made with clover on an extensive scale, and it has been determined that grain of any kind maybe kept in a succulent form if put in the silo. Grain of all varieties can be preserved in a green state. It is, how- ever, a doubtful question, if making silage will pa}- out of any kinds of fodder other than clover, millet, sorghum and maize or corn. When clover is cut and cured before getting fully ripe it is a very complete food, and has more of the characteristics of silage, its nutritive qualities and succulence, than any other food. Where corn can be grown easily it is better to cm*e the clover and feed it as hay, than to go to the trouble of converting it into silage. Sorghum has not been tried but to a limited extent, and no pronounced opinion can be given regarding its value for the silo. It is one of the best, if not the best fodder to feed in a green state, as all kinds of animals are fond of it and it has special fat- tening value. How well it will keep in the silo has not teen satisfactorily deter- mined. Some owners of silos do not believe that sweet corn is so well adapted for making silage as the other less sugary varieties. Millet is better for silage than hay, and in both cases it should be cut before the seed is matured. Corn is the 240 PROFITABLE FARMING. great staple for the silo. It is fitted in many ways to be the natural foundation^ for the develo}i>ment and success of a new era in the care of domestic animals and the growth and perfection of the great dairy interests of America. Fortunately we have a great variety of the genus corn, and some kinds suited to all climates and conditions as well as wants. Much has been learned regarding the different kinds of corn and their adaptation for making good silage within a few years. The old practice of sowing the dent corn broadcast at the rate of three or four bushels to the acre is becoming obsolete. When sown in this form the stalks are soft and mushy, and the leaves small and few. An improvement has been found in the plan of sowing the corn in drills, with a somewhat less quantity to the acre. Recent experiments have demonstrated that still less seed is better, and that whatever the variety, bo it great or small, it never should be planted so thickly, but every stalk should have space to grow and develop its full nature in leaves, stalk, and ears. It is now a mooted question, whether the loss in the development of the ears, on account of thickness in the rows or an excess of seed, is, or can be made up by more stalks. In other words, it is claimed that of any kind of corn more ears with less weight of stalks is the more valuable form in which to grow corn for either fodder or silage. It has been found that corn with plenty of ears can be preserved better in the silo and will return a much greater yield in butter, milk, or growth than all stalks. The bulk of material to handle is not so great and the food is better balanced in its nutritive properties. The corn grain is soft and digestible, and saved in this form does away with the labor of breaking and the necessity of grinding in order to insure the greatest or fullest value for food. The corn most in use for putting into silos is the Southern white, and the kind most popular and the best suited for the purpose, so far as obtaining the greatest amount of forage is concerned, is the sheep-tooth or Sioux. Both this and the horse-tooth are grown. In New York and the Northwest, where silos are more common than elsewhere, there is a growing opinion that the native flint varieties of corn are perhaps the best, as they will always mature ears, which is not the case with the Southern white or the Western dent. A greater growth of stalk and leaves can be had with the white sheep-tooth than with any other. Another kind is grown quite extensively known as the "B. & W." This is similar to the other dent corn, and is called from the feed firm of " Burrill and Whitman." The common dent grown in the West, planted on rich ground, will make a large yield. The stalks of all these dent varieties grow large and coarse, and on this account they are objected to as furnishing an excessive amount of woody fiber and pith for the amount of sugar. This is a fault, especially when the season is not unusually long and warm, so that they may have nubbins if not ears. It is often the case with the large kinds'of corn, that the ears never reach maturity or even a boiling 6tate, as far north as New York or Wisconsin, and hence there is not a full or complete development of the food properties. There is an excess of water. Experiments are now being made to bring out and perfect new varieties of corn, especially adapted for the silo, and combining large growthy stalks with an ear or ears, Avhich will mature during the average season. In all cases the corn should be planted as early as the season will admit. SILOS AND SILAGE. 241 HOW TO PLANT — TILLAGE — WHEN T< > HOUSE There ;ire machines drawn by two horses or one, which murk the rows, drop and cover the corn all at one time. These machines can be set to plant closely in a row, in the form of drilling; that is, with hills near together or wide apart. This machine is a valuable aid, and almost a necessity in growing fodder corn in a good form for the silo. A common grain drill can be utilized by allowing the; seed to fall into the required drills, so as to place the rows far apart enough for tillage with the cultivator; of course, the seed may be distributed by hand and it may be covered by a harrow, being dropped into furrows. The rows should always be north and south to admit of the sunshine more abundantly than of the rows running east and west. Some men experienced with silos, and in feed- ing silage to dairy cows, will not, af- ter experimenta- tion which has de- terred them, sow corn in any other way than in hills, far enough apart to insure a devel- opment and matu- rity of ears. They claim that four hills of rich corn in the form of silage will furnish food enough for a cow for 24 hours. Their statement may be tinged with some enthusiasm, but certain it is that corn thus grown has four- fold the feeding value of the soft, jointless, and imperfect fodder corn too com- monly grown. There is now a wise determination to plant less of all, or any kind of silage. This establishes the necessity of drill culture; but nevertheless, with clean, mellow ground, corn may be raised by the broadcast plan, and make most excellent fodder; provided, always, it is sown time enough. It can also be culti- vated when put in this form, as it may be gone over to advantage with a common harrow, or what is less destructive, a Thomas smoothing harrow, an implement with round teeth turned backwards. The culture of corn in drills can be econom- ically aided in the same way, and in both forms of planting, as there is usually too much seed, and if some plants are pulled out it is all the better ; to get the best results as to fodder and ears, not more than eight quarts of seed should be put in. That is in striking contrast with the old silo advocates, who used from three to four bushels, and boasted of the great weight of the fodder, which was probably eighty or eighty-five per cent, water. The large dent variety of corn should be 18 The Ensilage Cutter. 242 PROFITABLE FARMING. put in rows not less than three and one-half feet apart, and with four feet there would be more ears. The common flint variety can be planted in rows two and one-half apart. The tendency is always to put in too much seed, and too close together. We never knew of a mistake being made on the opposite extreme. The harrow can be put on as soon as the first leaves or blades unfold, or when the corn is about two and one-half inches high, and they maybe kept going until the corn is so large it will be broken by the teeth. With this mode of tillage followed by the cultivator very little, if any, hand-hoeing is necessary. The corn should bo cut, if possible, before it is injured by freezing. This will depend on the season. When the season is favorable and the danger of frost is not taken into account the corn may be, and should be, left until it has reached its greatest perfection. This, the chemist tells us, is the period when the kernels begin to glaze. Cut at this time, and put into the shocks for curing, the grain would become pretty ripe and hard. It would then contain by analvsis most nutrition, but we are of the opinion that for use in the silo it would be best to cut as soon as it had reached a full boiling state, or in other words to cut as soon as when the kernels had reached their full growth. More succulence should be induced at this stage than afterwards, and fully as much of the silage would be digestible. Chemistry does not determine the digestibility of the food, but it determines its component parts. It is safer to begin earlier, than to defer the commencement to the glazed condition, and then be obliged to harvest and store more woody fiber and pith unripe, or beyond a digestible form. CUTTING AND FILLING THE SILO. If not too large, the corn may be cut with a reaper or mowing machine. Hand cutting is slower; but in this Avay the stalks may all be laid one way and even, so as to handle better. The stalks should be cut a day or two before being drawn and put into the silo. This gives an opportunity for a considerable per cent, of the moisture to evaporate. Under no circumstances should the corn be put into the silo wet, either with rain or dew. The old-time silage was often ruined by the excess of water and the mode of filling. If tbe corn fodder can be matured and put into the silo with no more than sixty-five per cent, of water in it, all the better; any excess of this amount is at the risk of depreciating its value. Here is the explanation of the failure of so many who have attempted to make a sweet or even decent silage. They disre- garded this fundamental law, allowing too much water to get into the silo, and by filling too rapidly. There should be no haste in this work. Time must be allowed for the corn put in any one day to heat up to 125 or 135 degrees before any more is added to the pile. It is not necessary that the corn should be cut fine, or cut at all, as it will keep whole. It is handier to feed in the winter when cut; it is best cut to an inch and a half in length. When shorter it seems to hurt the mouths of the cows, as the bits stand edgewise. The advantages in two silos are apparent in filling, as one will heat up while working on the other. The heating is called the cooking, and it arrests fermentation at the right point and dries out the moisture. The corn should be evenly spread out and well tramped to insure compactness and keep out the air. The owner should arrange to continue filling as soon as the temperature has reached the required degree, as the addition of SILOS AND SILAGE. 243 C^C^ri green corn will arrest fermentation in the lot cured up. A mild form of carbonic acid gas takes the place of the natural atmosphere, and in this gas the silage is preserved until used. The silage in this gas pr tects itself from cold and from further fermentation, as the germ or organism of the fermentation have been overcome by the heating and only a very mild form of acid has been developed. This slight acid is an aid to digestion, and is harmless in its action on the secretions of the animal. By giving time in tilling for forty-eight hours, the silage is compacted by settling, be- sides being in the right chemical condition to keep well. This plan also gives time for the air to be expelled, and carbonic acid gas takes its place; there is not enough of this gas taken into the stable to do any harm, or to effect the animals. Dr. Henry Stewart, in the "Rural New Yorker" o'ives the Stages Of ^ FllledSilo being Emptied by Vertical Slicing. fermentation and acidity and the formula, with scientific reasons, covering the condition of the silage during the different periods and processes of change. He says (speaking of the new methods we have described) "the chemical change is averted before acidity is produced." KEEPING AND FEEDING When filled, or when the work is completed, the top of the silage should be leveled off and the mow trodden down and covered with a layer of building paper, and on this matched boards should be placed. The paper and the covering of wood should be in sections, so that only a portion should be removed at one time — the rest of the surface remaining closely covered until the firsf section is all removed. By using in this way, the remaining contents will not be injured. The door should extend in sections from the top to the bottom, so that an entrance cari always be had on a level with the silage. Some of the contents will always be rotted at the top, and if the top is covered a foot deep with straw or chaff the damage Avill be confined to this, and all the green food will be pre- served. No weighting or pressure clown with screws is necessary when a silo is filled, as we have described, nor is there any risk of loss in its contents, or of its becoming sour, weak in taste, or unsuited for a fcdder ration for any kind of animals ; but, on the contrary, it is a healthy and valuable food. Many farmers report filling their silos at a cost of less than one dollar and fifty cents per ton, including the entire cost of growing, and an average yield of from fifteen to twenty tons per acre — with twenty on extra good land. The silage is ready for use a few days after filling the silo, and it may thus be preserved during the entire year and fed the next summer. It is a cheap and successful method to soil or summer stock in the stables in summer. Major R. L. Rahland. 244) CHAPTER X1IT. tTobncco BY MAJOR R. L. RAGLAND, OF HYCO, VA. mation INDUSTRY has made greater progress in new and improved varieties, implements, fixtures, methods and man- agement, than tobacco-planting during the past decade; and as success therein so greatly depends upon starting right and pursuing the latest improved methods and prac- tices, the publishers sought and obtained from "the most renowned authority on tobacco culture, Major R. L. Ragland, of Hyco, Va.," a revision of his celebrated manual on tobacco, prepared specially for us at our request, that our readers may be furnished the latest, safest, and best infor- acco culture extant. AS A MONEY CROP. An examination of the quotations of prices for farm products in our prin- cipal markets, taken in connection with the cost of production, satisfies us that no crop, of which the soils of the United States arc capable of producing, pays such large returns as tobacco where successfully grown and of fine quality. But it is only the best grades of the various t3 T pes which pay handsome returns, demonstrating the importance of making quality rather than quantity of most consideration in its production, and, therefore, the purpose of the publishers in this publication is to furnish such information in regard to the growth and man- agement of the tobacco crop, as will insure a product of the highest quality and price. THE BEST RESULTS COME FROM ENLIGHTENED PROGRESSIVE EFFORTS " This is emphatically a progressive age, and he who fails to keep full abreast with the times in whatever industry he is engaged, can never expect or realize the full measure of success or honor that follows intelligent industry." — Western Tobacco Journal, Cincinnati, O. HOW TO GROW AND CURE ALL THE TYPES. The several types of tobacco, whether for chewing, pipe-smoking, or cigars, require different soils and management to insure a product that will command an adequate return for the labor and means expended on the crop. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that the planter should know what type his lands are (245) 246 PROFITABLE FARMING. capable of producing in the greatest perfection, and the modes and management to accomplish the best results from such choice. A deep rich soil, overlaying a red-clay subsoil, is best suited for dark, heavy shipping tobaccos. A gravelly or sandy soil, with a red or brown subsoil, is best adapted to the production of sweet fillers and stemming tobaccos. Alluvials and rich flats produce the best cisrar stock. Experience has proved that a gray, sandy, or slaty top-soil, with a yellow porous subsoil, is best for yellow wrappers and smokers. And these grades are in such great demand, and command so much more in price than any others, that we propose, in this short treatise, to, devote to them most space; for in the pro- duction of these, the author has had most experience and success; and while the production of "brights" requires more skill and careful management, they seldom fail to make ample compensation for all the attention bestowed upon them. But unless the planter makes provision by building or arranging suitable barns provided with flues, or prepares charcoal, he need not expect to succeed, and had better aim at some other grade requiring less preparation, cost, and skill. Log barns, ranging from sixteen to twenty feet square, are the sizes mostly used. These should be built about twenty feet high in the bod}-, and covered with shingles or boards. Large logs may be used until the pen is built about seven feet high from the ground. Then if the size is twenty feet, lay off for five rooms, four feet apart, and place tier poles across to form the lower tier. Raise two logs higher all around, and put on another course of tier poles directly over the first. Then, using smaller logs (cabin size), place on three logs higher all around, laying on tier poles as before, and continue to elevate the body of the barn until you have five tiers. Then place two more logs around the plates, and the pen is ready to be roofed. You will then have a barn with five rooms and five tiers high. Mark you, the lower tiers are not firing tiers, but placed in the barn for the convenience of hoisting, and for storing cured tobacco when neces- sary. By this arrangement, the tiers are about three feet apart vertically, the body '»f the barn a cube — as high as it is wide and deep — and the whole arrange- ment conformable to the process of curing. The roof is so constructed, conform- ing to the plan of the tiers below, as to contain three tiers above the joist, vary- ing in length. Such a barn will hold about six hundred and fifty to seven hun- dred sticks of medium tobacco, six plants to the stick. To prepare for curing brights, it must be chinked and daubed close inside and out. FLUES ANO FLUE-CURING. Flues have almost entirely superseded charcoal for curing yellow tobacco, as being cheaper and better every way. The heat is more readily controlled by the use of flues — an important item in successful curing — and the tobacco cured therewith is cleaner, brighter and sweeter than that cured with charcoal. The flue is, moreover, the best mode for applying beat in the curing process for any type of tobacco requiring the application of artificial heat, and may be used to good advantage in drying out and seasoning those types cured mainly by the sun and air, and preserving them from injury. Its use is fast "superseding the open , wood fire with its objectionable smoke," as predicted bv the writer years as;o. TOBACCO. 247 The following cut represents the "Furnace and Pipe" flue, more extensively used at this time than any other, and is not patented. It is cheap and reliable, easily controlled, safe, and may be relied upon to work well. Fluo Curing. Cut out two or three logs from the end of the barn as represented by the brick work. Then first construct the two furnaces with brick or stone, as follows: Let the mouths of the furnaces project fifteen inches outward beyond the wall, and extend the furnaces about five and a half to six feet. The outer wall of the fur- naces should be about fifteen inches distant from the logs or sills of the barn. Build the walls of the furnaces eighteen inches apart and eighteen inches high, running back to fourteen inches high, and let the bottom of the flues slope upward from four to five inches. The furnaces should be arched with brick or covered with fire-proof stone, or No. 1G or 18 sheet iron. Be careful to see that the furnaces at every point are so constructed as not to come in near contact with the sides or walls of the barn, lateral or vertical, and that the exits of the pipe are protected by brick or stone, as seen in the diagram. Insert sheet-iron pipes on cast-iron eyes made for the purpose and placed into the ends of the furnaces, as'near the tops thereof as possible. The eyes are not absolutely necessary, but they greatly protect the pipe from burning, and being fixed into the ends of the furnaces, the pipe is more readily adjusted. For a 20 by 20 feet barn use pipe eleven or twelve inches in diameter; for barn 16 by 16 feet use ten-inch pipe. Extend the pipe all around, with a gradual elevation of one foot rise, and with two feet elevation. Cap the ends of the pipes with an elbow. For small barns, the pipes may be brought together midway, by a V-shaped connection into one twelve-inch return pipe, through the middle of the barn. This flue operates well, and is very popular with the planters working a small force and using only small barns, which are better for them than large ones, and is the cheapest good flue made. Any tinner can make the pipe, and foundries and hardware stores furnish the .eyes. The cost of pipe varies from five and a half to six and a half cents per pound, and ten-inch cast eyes cost about two dollars a pair, and twelve-inch eyes 248 PROFITABLE FARMING. •about two dollars and fifty cents. The cost of piping for a small barn varies from eight to ten dollars, or less. Patented flues cost more, and some of them are well worth the difference in the cost over the plain flue. The "Regulator" is one of the best, and costs very little more, and as a fuel-saver alone will more than compensate for difference in cost in one season's curing. By the use of this flue the heat is more easily under the control of the curer — the temperature being regulated at will by throwing the heat into or out of the barn. The "Regulator" is manufactured at South Boston, Va., by Jordan & Easley. SELECTION OF SEED. There is no farm crop grown as a staple in the United States that pays better than "good" tobacco; and to grow good tobacco requires, in the first place, good seed; for good seed is at the foundation of all successful farming; and more essen- tial, if possible, as regards tobacco, than in any other crop. For in this, the range of types, grades, and prices, are wider than in any other crop, while the seed affect and control all these more than any other factor. Soil, climate, and management, next to variety, operate to determine the character of the product. The variety must be suited to the type which the planter intends to raise, and the soil must be adapted to the type, or failure is certain. Bright yellow tobacco cannot be produced on dark rich soil, nor rich dark " shipping' - on poor gray soil; nor will the rich, coarse varieties produce fine silky yellow goods, or the thin silky varieties make heavy, fat, tough export tobaccos. There has been a wonderful improvement in varieties of tobacco during the past generation — improvement by selection in the old kinds and the introduction of new varieties, with superior qualities and characteristics for every type of tobacco. None but an old fogy will continue to plant the old, unimproved varie- ties because they were his father's or grandfather's favorites. The world moves, seeds are improved, and industries developed and advanced. Our ancestors sue- TOBACCO. 240 ceeded with the varieties of tobacco they planted, when there was mainly bul one type — the dark shipping — but taste and fashion change, now types arc wanted and new varieties suited to these types, and planters who meet the demand are thoso who make tin* most money by tobacco planting. Where is the successful fanner who now sows the old wheats once \i^~<\ by his ancestors? Look at the improvement in varieties in vegetables, fruits, farm and horticultural, in the past century. Seeds, like animals, are greatly improved by propagation of selections and judicious crossing; and especially is this true as regards the improvement of seeds, when carried on under the most favoring con- ditions of development as to soil, climate, and cultivation. Virginia is the home of the tobacco plant, and here it develops to the highest perfection, and, conse- quently, here have originated the best and finest varieties. She grows now all the types used in plug tobacco and for pipes and cigarettes; and she has some sixteen hundred square miles of soil suited to another type — cigar tobacco — and these soils lie mainly in the Piedmont country, where our people are striving to compete with the West in growing grain. Here is an opportunity that ought to be improved. It is a recognized fact that where any flora develops to greatest perfection, there is where the " best" seed can be grown. It would pay planters in the South and West, who grow the yellow and dark export types, to get their seeds every year from Virginia, as market gardeners get seeds from localities where the several varieties develop to greatest perfection, rather than grow their supplies at lower cost, but under less favoring conditions, as to adaptability of soil, climate, &c. They know where to get the best, and are aware of the tendency to degeneration in seeds generally, and the importance of "a frequent recurrence to first princi- ples," to promote healthy normal growth and maturity. Planters have no excuse for using poor seeds when pedigree seeds of all types may be so cheaply procured. The cost of tobacco seed per acre ranges from ten to twenty cents — the cost of seed of no other farm crop is so little. VARIETIES FOR SPECIFIC TYPES. Wc will premise by stating that only an approximate guide may be given for the selection of varieties suited to the several types. The variation in soil and climate in different localities greatly modify the selection. For what is best in some localities is not best in others; and trial, at last, must determine what is best in every case. When this is found, it is Avell to stick to it and plant mainly of this variety, and sparingly of others until a better is found, if possible. VARIETIES SUITED FOR THE VARIOUS TYPES. For dark, rich "shipping," nothing has been found superior to the following: James River Blue Pry or, Lacks or Beat-All and Medley Pryor. For sweet fillers: Sweet Oronoko and Flanagan. For stemming: Long Leaf and Broad Leaf Gooch, Hester, Tuckahoe, Big Oronoko, and Lacks. For mahogany wrappers: Tuckahoe, Sweet Oronoko, Flanagan, Primus, Long Leaf Gooch, and White Stem. For cutters: Hyco, White-stem Oronoko, Yellow Oronoko, Granville Yellow, Sterling, Lacks, Yellow Pryor, and Hester. 250 PROFITABLE FARMING. For yellow wrappers and fillers: Sterling, Primus, Granville Yellow, White- stem Oronoko, Tuckahoe, Hester, Long Leaf Gooch, Yellow Oronoko and Yellow Pry or. Trial will determine what variety is best for any locality, as no one variety is best for all locations. To plant varieties unsuited to the type, or on soils unadapted thereto, is to invite failure every time. The leading cigar varieties are: Connecticut and Pennsylvania Seed Leaf, Imported and American Grown Havana, and several Spanish Strains. In localities liable to early frost it is safest to plant the earliest varieties of the several types, such as Sterling, Primus, Granville Yellow, Hyco, Hester, Sweet Oronoko and Bradley for the manufacturing types, and Havana, Big Havana, and Persian Rose for cigars 1 . White Burley, when grown on rich limestone soil, makes a mild type of tobacco in great favor, but this type cannot be successfully produced on silicious soils, such as are best adapted to all other leaf types; and for this reason, it has invariably proved a failure in the old leaf producing States east. Southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky produce the best grade of this type. Sweet Oronoko — the Eastern Burley — makes mild, sweet substantial chewing and smoking goods, unexcelled by Burley or any other type, when properly grown on silicious soils. Hyco and Lacks cure readily and more certainly of colors desired in types for which they are recommended. Hester and Long Leaf Gooch possess greater adaptability to soils than any others, and therefore succeed where others fail. Sterling, Yellow Oronoko and Yellow Pryor are unexcelled for producing the finest Lemon Yellow goods, while Long Leaf Gooch, Tuckahoe and Hester make the finest Orange Yellow. Bradley makes fine manufacturing and good cigars. Big Havana is the best Americanized Havana, and Persian Rose, the earliest cigar leaf, is one of the most promising foreign varieties. HYBRIDIZING. New and superior varieties are being constantly originated through hybridi- zation, and that planters may be enabled to develop and test them, the following instructions are given to aid them in efforts in this line: The bloom of the tobacco plant (see Fig. No. 2) has a monopetalous in fine dibula-formed corolla, i. e., the petals are joined as one in a funnel-formed corolla; within which are fine stamens (the male organs of the flower) adhering thereto and surrounding the pistil (the female organ), which terminates in the ovary below the nascent capsule, where the seeds are formed. The end of the stamens are capped with anthers which secrete the pollen or fecundating dust, which is taken up by the stigma, the vascular upper end of the pistil, and thus fecundation is effected. THE MODUS OPERANDI OP HYBRIDIZING OR CROSS-FERTILIZING VARIETIES. If the pistils of the Oronoko variety are fecundated with pollen from stamens of the Pryor, the cross is a hybrid-Pryor on Oronoko, and vice versa when the pistils of the Pryor are fecundated with pollen from the Oronoko, the hybrid is an Oronoko on Pryor. TOBACCO. 251 To accomplish such crosses readily, it is necessary to select blooms at the stage of inflorescence just before the corallae open; then carefully open the tube, say of the Oronoko, with a small sharp-pointed pen knife, carefully remove- the stamens, then take stamens from say the Pryor bloom just before it opens natu- rally, and insert these Pryor stamens into the corolla of the Oronoko and around the stigma thereof, and from which its own stamens had been removed, thus fer- tilizing the stigmas of the Oronoko with pollen dust of the Pryor stamens, and thereby producing a cross or hybrid Oronoko and Pryor. By the above-described mode, crosses of any varieties of the species nicotiana tabacum may be effected, and by any planter of intelligence, if directions are followed. NATURAL DEVELOPMENT AN]) CAREFUL PROPAGATION. Some of our best varieties are accidental crosses produced by insects carry- ing the pollen from the bloom of one variety into that of another. Some again are developed by careful selection long continued with reference toward increas- ing certain desirable qualities — perpetuating and increasing the good points and "breeding out" the objectionable ones — until the highly developed plants became a new variety, sui generis, as are some of our most popular and desirable ones now in use. The top flowers alone ought to be crossed upon, the lower or sucker branches being removed as soon as the plant is selected for a seed plant, and then opening them in the order of their maturity, or just as they show signs of opening naturally. If the flower is allowed to open naturally self-fertilization is apt to take place before the stamens can be extracted artificially. The following cuts represent the tobacco flower in all the stages of its growth from the green bud to the fully ripened seed capsule. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. -1. Fig. 1 represents the bud of the tobacco plant, natural size. Fig. 2 represents the flower and all the organs male and female, complete and natural size. Fig. 3 represents the flower magnified, with all the organs male and female, stamens and stigma, complete. Fig. 4 represents the flower magnified, showing the male organs or stamens complete, and the stigma or female organs clipper! off by tweezers. 252 PROFITABLE FARMING. Fig. 7. Fig. S. Fig. 5 represents the flower magnified, showing the female organs or stigma only, with the male or- gans or stamens clipped off by tweezers. Fig. 6 represents the seed capsule, natural size, in the green state, just as it reaches the maximum of its Fig- 5. growth. Fig. 7 represents the s eed capsule in its dry or cured condition, ready for cut- ting from the main stem of the plant, to be hung up in a dry room for preservation. Fig. 8 represents the capsule broken open with seed exposed, ready for the plant-bed. For the guidance of the planter we give the definitions, or nomenclature of the essential organs of the tobacco plant, as a more intelligent guide to crossing varieties. Stigma, the upper extremity of the pistil, or that part which receives the pollen; pistil, the central organ of the flower, consisting of the ovary, stylus and stigma; style or stylus, the stalk or elongation of the ovarium which supports the stigma; ovary, the organ containing the female ova, or in which, impregnation is performed, the hollow case enclosing the ovules or young seed; stamen, the male apparatus or fertilizing organ of the flower, consisting of fila- ments, anther and pollen; filaments, the fine threads of which the nerves, skin and flesh are composed; anther, that part of the flower containing the pollen or fertilizing dust by which the seed-vessel is fructified; pollen, the powder or pul- verulent substance contained in and on the anther of the flower; capsule, the woody seed-vessel of the plant. [Note. — The publishers take pleasure in stating that the tobacco seed raised by Major R. L. Ragland, of Hyco, Va., have won a deservedky high and extensive reputation, both at home and abroad, as the best for all the distinctive types grown in the United States. They are grown on scientific principles and by the latest improved methods, and have received the endorsation and recommendation of the Tobacco Associations of Virginia and North Carolina.] Of the multitude of certificates recommending Major Ragland's seed we select only one, which is instructive, and covers the ground completely: "We assume that you have secured seed of absolute purity and with as much care as you select for other crops. By far too little attention has been paid to this. You can no more gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles than you can get good tobacco from impure or imperfect seed. It is a mistake to think it economy to buy or borrow from your neighbor whatever he has, simply because it is called tobacco seed. The raising of seed is as much a business by itself as is any other branch of agriculture. The proof of this is fouu 1 in the results TOBACCO. 253 obtained by those who have used seeds grown for market at such places as the Ragland Seed Farm, Hyco, Va. Due regard should be had as well to the nature of the soil as to the type of tobacco desired." — W. H. Snow. High Point, N. C. The scope of this work docs not permit us to cuter further into this subject, but full information as to the varieties of seeds adapted to the several types can be obtained from Major Ragland as above. PREPARATION OF PLANT BEDS. There are two modes for raising plants — in hot bed or cold frame, or in the open air; one or the other of which has preference according to locality — the former being more practiced north of forty degrees latitude, while the latter is preferred south of that line. We will here give both, that planters may choose. For a hot bed, select a southern or southeastern exposure, sheltered on the north, dig and shovel out a space five by twelve feet or any required length, to the depth of eighteen inches. Place straw to the depth of three or four inches in the bottom of this trench, and cover with fresh un rotted manure from the stable to the depth of six or eight inches; then cover the manure with soil (woods mould is best) five inches deep. How to cover the bed with canvas will be presently described. Tobacco seed is sown on the bed thus prepared at the rate of two teaspoon- fuls to a bed five by twelve feet. To sow regularly, mix the seed with a fertilizer, ashes, or plaster, and sow in drills three inches apart. When the plants have pretty well covered the surface of the bed, remove the canvas during the day, and only replace it when there is danger of frost, or to keep off the flea-bugs. There is the advantage of having earlier plants by this mode and perfect security against the flea-bug, which will repay for the additional cost of raising at least a portion of the plants needed for the crop by this safe mode. But there is no question that open air beds are cheapest. And where this mode of raising plants is practicable, it is greatly to be preferred for the main supply of plants. It is the well-established opinion that plants raised in the open air stand transplanting better and usually grow off quicker than plants raised in hot bed or cold iranie. On the selection of a proper locality for a plant bed, and its preparation largely depends the timely supply of strong, healthy plants, without which it is impossible to raise a crop of fine grade. The planter, therefore, cannot be too careful in choosing a sheltered spot, neither too wet nor too dry, as rich naturally as can be found, and located so as to possess different degrees of moisture. Go into the woods — original forest, if possible — and select a spot near a branch or stream of water, embracing both hill-side and fiat, and having a southern or southeastern exposure, protected by woods on the north. Burn over the plat intended for plants, either by the old or new method. The first consist^ in placing down a bed of wood on small skids three to four feet apart on the ground well cleared and raked. Then fire this bed of wood and permit it to remain burning long enough to cook the soil brown for half an inch deep. With hooks, or old hoes fastened to long poles, pull the burning mass of brands a distance of four and one-half or five feet, throw on brush and wood, and continue burning and moving the fire until the bed is burned over. Never burn when the 254 PROFITABLE FARMING. land is wet. It will require from one and one-half to two hours to cook the soil properly. Or, better still: Rake over nicely the plat to be burned, then place down poles from two to four inches in diameter, three and one-half to four feet apart, over the entire surface to be burned. Then place hrush thickly over the plat and weight down with wood, over which throw leaves, trash or other combustible material; over this sprinkle kerosene oil, and set the whole on fire and burn at one operation. But any mode of burning the plat will suffice, provided that it is effectually done. After the plat has been burned and has cooled, rake off the large coals and brands, but let the ashes remain, as they are essentially a first-class manure. Then coulter over the plat deeply, or break with grub-hoes, and make fine the soil by repeated chopping and raking, observing not to bring the subsoil to the surface, and remove all roots and tufts. Manure from the stable, hog-pen or poultry house, or some reliable commercial fertilizer, should be chopped into and thoroughly incorporated with the soil while preparing the bed to be sown. Expe- rience has demonstrated that it is better to use both. A good tobacco fertilizer mixed with equal quantity of poultry-house drop- pings and thoroughly incorporated, makes a most excellent manure for plants, and so does a compost made with selected chemicals, stable manure and rich moist earth. The latter when composted in time is the best and surest. But beware of using manure containing grass seed. The judgment of the planter must guide him in the amount of fertilizing material to be applied at this stage; but it is well to remind him that the tobacco plant rarely responds to homeopathic doses of plant food, but that the allopathic usage suits it best. This plate illustrates the sowing, treading and trenching of a plant-bed in the forest — the favorite location— where there is less danger of injury to the plants by the flea-beetle, and where beds hold out longer during drought and furnish a larger supply of plants. The treading is greatly enjoyed by the young of the colored papulation, who sing and dance, "cut shines,' as they prance over the surface to firm the soil and thereby nasten germination of the seed. Under the slave regime it was the custom to strike up a jig or corn-husking song as the work progressed, the old joining (he young in both song and dance aa the excitement increased, thereby winding up the job in a regular jollification. Sow at the rate of a tablespoonful of seed, which is about half an ounce, on every fifty square yards at first sowing, and later resow with a heaping teaspoon- TOBACCO. 255 ful over the same surface, to secure a good stand. Injury by frosts or hugs may require a third or fourth sowing. Sow a little thick rather than too thin to meet contingencies, and secure a good stand in time. The best way to sow the seed is to mix: them thoroughly with a fertilizer or dry ashes, and sow once regularly over the bed, reserving seed enough to cross- sow to promote regularity. The tobacco seed is the smallest of all farm seeds, and consequently requires a light covering. If the seed arc sown before the 20th of February, the best way is to firm the surface of the bed by treading it over closely, but if sown later, sweep lightly over with a brush or light rake. Then run surface drains through the bed, with inclination enough to pass off the water. To do this properly, run them off four or five feet apart with the foot, then open with a narrow grubbing-hoe to the depth of three or four inches. Then trench deeply around the outside of the bed, to ward off surface water and prevent wash- ing- Mulching ami Covering. — Hog hair whipped fine and scattered over the bed attracts and retains moisture, protects the plants from frost, and acts as a manure. There is no better covering for a plant bed, but unfortunately it is rarely ever in full supply. Fine brush should be placed thickly over the bed, or, if not handy, cover with straw or chaff free from grain „ A covering of some such material is necessary, or the young plants are likely to be killed by frost or suffer from drought, and they thrive better with some protection. Canvas Covering for Plant Beds. — A covering of thin cloth has been found to hasten the growth of plants and protect them from freezing and injury by the flea-bugs. This makes the bed warmer, and acts as a cold-frame, the canvas tak- ing the place of glass. This cut is intended to show how to construct & canvas covering over a plant-bed, First, boards should be placed all around the bed close, so as to prevent the little black beetle, or flea, from creeping through, eighteen or twenty inches high on the upper side and sloping to ten or twelve inches on the lower. Then prepare a lot of small stakes (small round poles, one and one half inches in diameter, make good ones), sawed into lengths graduated from two feet to eighteen inches long, and sharpened at one end. Drive these stakes six feet apart, in rows, through the bed for the laths, two inches wide and one inch thick, to rest upon. The middle lath should be a plank one inch thick and six inches wide. Then drive 25f> PROFITABLE FARMING. ten-penny nails, eighteen inches apart, all around the outside of the boarding, and from five to six inches from the top edge. Also drive nails in the middle board, eighteen inches apart. Make the covering in two pieces, each the size of half the bed — say ten by ten yards — and sew on the outer edge, all around each cover, loops of cloth, made of common domestic, eighteen inches apart, to receive a cord or twine, which runs through loops all around and tie, and the cover is ready to be placed over the bed and fastened by pulling the twine or cord over the nails all around, letting the two covers meet in the middle over the six-inch board. By this arrangement the cover is kept fast over the bed at the right distance above the plants, and may be removed and placed over it at will in less time than by any other known contrivance. A Standing Plant-Bed. — Every planter ought to have a standing plant-bed, which may be secured in the following way: Some time in July or August select one of the best of the old plant-beds, and with hoes shave down the green plants over its entire surface, and cover over thickly with straw or leaves, then place green brush thickly over the bed and weight down with wood. When the whole is dry, some time in the late fall or early winter, set on fire, and thus rebumover the bed. Then chop and rake fine, sow and trench as when first prepared. Repeat the same operation every year, and, if the bed is manured properly, it will improve and prove a stand-by for many years. Unburned Beds. — Plants may be raised by going into the forest, selecting a moist rich plat, and after raking off the leaves', coultering or chopping the surface fine, manuring heavily, and sowing the seed. But such beds rarely hold out well if the season be dry. They never "repeat" well after the first " drawing" like burnt beds, which are more reliable for a successive supply of plants as the season advances. Time of Sowinj Seed. — The time for sowing varies with the latitude, variety, and season. Between the parallels of 35 and 40 degrees north latitude, compass- ing the great tobacco belt, beds may be sown any time between the 1st of January and 20th of March, and the sooner the better for bright grades, which ought to be planted early to mature, ripen and yellow, preparatory to being cured early in the fall, when the most successful curings are usually made. Yellow tobacco ought to be planted out in May, but June plantings usually do best in heavy dark grades. The planter will consult his interest by sowing at a proper time to suit the grade he desires to raise. Plants set out after the 10th of July rarely pay for growing and handling, and if not planted by that time, it will be wise to plant the hills in peas, potatoes, or something else. Hastening the Growth of Plants. — As soon as the plants become "square " — i.e., have four leaves — you may begin to force their growth, if necessary. Nothing is better at this stage of their growth than to apply dry stable manure, rubbed fine, and sowed over the bed, applying at the rate of five bushels to every one hundred square yards. Be sure to have it dry and fine, and apply when the plants are dry. This is a favorable time to apply a good fertilizer, and the best time to apply it is during a shower, or when it is apparent that one is impending. Every planter should compost in time stable manure free from grass seeds along Avith prepared chemicals suited to tobacco, using just enough moist rich earth to promote fer- mentation. Nothing is better than this compost for a top dressing on plants to promote rapid, vigorous, stocky growth, defying the ravages of the flea-beetle and hastening their preparation for transplanting. TOBACCO 257 Look Out for the " Flea-Bug." — If the " fly," as it is called, begins to devour the young plants, apply plaster, in which rags saturated with kerosene oil have lain for a few hours, covering the plants with the plaster, if necessary, to keep the little pests from devouring them. Repeat the application after every rain unless the flies have left. A covering of green cedar brush has driven off the fly when other remedies failed, and saved the plants. If the flies are numerous, the planter can save his plants only by vigilant and constant attention. Hard burning, early and thick sowing, liberal and frequent applications of manure, are the best safeguards, which rarely fail to reward the planter with an early and full supply of stocky plants, and with some left for his less provident neighbors. Some planters, if such they may be called, alwaj^s fail — some never. Follow the latter, and you will always be riejht. Canvas-covered beds are the surest protection, and seem the best every way. IMPORTANT. At the risk of repetition, but to make plain further instruction on a branch of the subject about which beginners are less informed and most need advice, the author adds what follows: PRESENT STATUS OF THE VARIOUS LEAF TYPES IN THE MARKETS FUTURE PROS- PECTS, ETC. The dark export type is dull, and excepting the best grades, is selling below the cost of production, and consequently offers no inducement to planters to raise the type, except a few in Southside Virginia, and portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, where soils are peculiarly adapted to this and uttsuited for other types. Planters in North Carolina and Piedmont Virginia will do well to let this type severely alone and grow only the manufacturing types — and of these mainly the bright yellow, for which their lands are peculiarly adapted. Portions of the Piedmont section in Virginia and North Carolina can successfully produce a rich mahogany, which is always in demand at remunerative prices. The mahogany type is usually grown on soil somewhat too rich for the finest brights, and the fact that the leaves grown upon rich soil possess more substance (cellular tissue, oil, and gum,) is the main reason why they cannot be cured with higher color. Where the soil is well adapted to this type, it is profitable, because it usually commands a high price, and its product is from 25 to 33 percent, more than bright yellow. The sweet sun-cured type is usually produced on soils similar in character- istics to those which produce the mahogany type, and when there is a failure to catch and fix the mahogany color by flues, a nice red color similar to sun-cured is obtained by running slow fires in the flues, and thus making a nice sweet filler almost as good as tobacco cured entirely by sun and air. But the usual mode now practiced by the most successful producers of the sun-cured type, is to place the tobacco on scaffolds, so soon as cut, near the barn, and permit the leaves to cure by sun and air, if the weather permits, and then remove the tobacco into the barn and apply slow fires in the flues to dry out thoroughly stems and stalks. A sweet sun and air cured filler is always in demand at paying prices, and a taste once acquired for this type will usually reject all others as inferior. In fine. 17 258 PROFITABLE FARMING. for plug and fine-cut chewing, nothing surpasses the "old favorite." The reason for this is that thoroughly ripe tobacco mellows in the sun and under a low artifi- cial heat in curing, develops sugar in the leaves, which is fixed before vinous fer- mentation takes place, and the vegetable oils are retained to improve the aroma and taste. VARIETIES SUITED TO TYPES. It is of prime consideration to select varieties adapted to the type sought to be produced. Those which develop with a coarse thick fibre and hold the largest percentage of gum and oil are the kinds which make the heaviest and waxiest shipping. Mahoganies require a large well-shaped leaf, closer and more elastic fibre, less gum but more oil. Brights must grow rapidly and ripen early, possess silky fibre and less gum and oil than the aforementioned types. But variety, soil, manuring and cultivation all affect more or less the staple through the cellular tissues of the leaves, while the mode of curing determines the color and to some extent the quality, which governs the price. THE BRIGHT YELLOW TYPE. Choose a gray gneiss soil, sandy or slaty, dry and overlaying a porous sub soil — the very opposite to a close, soggy wet soil; for tobacco will not flourish with wet feet, nor will the plants yellow as they ripen on a cold impervious clay soil. Discard all lands unadapted to this important crop, and what is of more consequence still, experiment on a small scale in testing such as are most likely to produce this type of the finest quality. It is useless to test a spouty, black gravelly soil, which should always be avoided, or one which is known to cause " frenching," wallowing, or other abnormal worthless growth, or on which tobacco is liable to fire, spot, or develop frog-eye, for it very rarely ever pays to plant such soils in any type. An experienced planter will rarely err in selection, but some- times nothing short of trial will definitely determine adaptation of soil or variety for the several types. The most prolific cause of failure results from inexperience in not knowing how to prepare for raising tobacco, in constructing suitable barns, and in the lack of skill in curing. Next to these come improper selection of land and varieties unsuited to soil or type aimed to be produced; the variety must be adapted to soil and type, or full success is impossible. It is nevertheless true that during some seasons a pretty fair quality of tobacco is produced on soils not adapted to tobacco, and by the use of varieties unsuited for the type raised, but such are exceptional cases, for never can extra fine crops result from such mismanagement. It will alwa}'S pay planters to select with reference to the adaptation of both soil to type and the right variety for both. Improper and defective cultivation also operates against successful tobacco plant- ing, but the latter is often the secondary consideration in comparison with other mismanagement alluded to above. Possibly the most discouraging of all the failures results from the want of skill in curing, which comes mainly through practice. It will pay any unskilled planter to have his fine yellow tobacco cured by an expert; for it is a pity to spoil a barn of tobacco by curing it up green or black, when it might so easily have been cured of the desired color by one who understands the effects of heat in fixing the color, and how to so regulate the same as Jo procure the desired end. TOBACCO. 259 OTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS. Some varieties are far more easily cured yellow than others, but no fixed rule can be given for regulating the degrees of temperature to fix the color, during the curing process, in consequence of the variable condition of the material operated upon, which variations are caused by differences in soil, climate, variety, weather, and season. Therefore, the curer must at last rely mainly upon his judg- ment in regulating the temperature so as to niak© a successful cure. During some years (such as 1889 proved to be up to 9th of September) all tobacco planted on gray lands well drained and in some one or other of the reliable yellow varie- ties cured yellow readily when heat was applied. In fact, it was almost impossi- ble for any one, with even a modicum of experience and common sense, to fail in curing the desired color. But that portion of the crop ripening after the 10th September required far more skill to yellow and cure successfully, and the reason for the change was in the changed condition of the tobacco. It would extend this branch of the subject much beyond prescribed limits to explain the rationale of a super-abundance or lack of sap in the leaves, more or less oil and gum, and how these affect the color under the application of hot, dry or moist air during the critical process of curing. But it is becoming plain to most planters with more or less experience, that success in curing is oftenest obtained for ripe plants of the earliest plantings grown from the earliest varie- ties. It is notorious that gveen plants will not yellow properly, nor will the utmost skill in curing fix and retain the desired color in immature tobacco. Warm, calm weather greatly aids in curing successfully. Therefore, it is important to plant such kinds as possess fine texture, grow rapidly and mature early, when the weather conditions are most favorable to curing the finest and brightest goods. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS WHICH APPLY TO ALL THE TYPES. The foregoing, in relation to raising plants and what follows, under the head- ings, Preparation of the Soil, Manuring. Planting, Cultivating, Pruning (called "Priming"), Topping, Worming, and Suckering, apply substantially to all the types up to the stage of harvesting when different methods become necessary, which are specified under each type. SELECTION OF SOIL, PREPARATION AND MANURING. The tobacco plant thrives best in a deep, mellow, loamy soil, rich or made so with fertilizers. The subsoil ought to be sufficiently porous to permit the water falling on the surface to pass downward readily, and not to accumulate to drown and stagnate. If old land is selected, it ought to be fallowed deep in the fall or early winter, that the frosts may pulverize it. Turn under, if possible, some coarse farm manure, for its decay will greatly help to loosen the soil, while furnishing food for the crop. , As a coarse manure for yellow tobacco, nothing is better than wheat straw turned under in the fall and winter. The plants rarely fail to ripen yellow in color on land thus treated. 260 PROFITABLE FARMING. In the early spring more manure may be applied, but it is better that this should come from the compost heap. Follow the application of the compost with one-horse turning plows, crossing the previous ploughing, turning not exceeding four or five inches deep — about half the depth of the first ploughing. Then, just before it is time to plant, run double-shovel ploughs over the lot, crossing the previous furrows, and follow with harrow or drag, crossing again to thoroughly make fine. These repeated ploughings, crossing each time every previous one, never fail, if the work is done when the land is in proper condition, to put it in proper tilth. Let the planter remember that "a good preparation is half cultivation," and not stop until the land is in proper condition. In preparing land for tobacco, be sure you don't plant varieties unsuited to the soil or type, else failure is inevitable. The cause of so much mean, nonde- script goods on the markets every year is mainly attributable to failure in plant- ing the proper varieties on the right kind of soil, and planters should carefully note this and sow seed suited both to soil and type. If any one knows of a better way, then let him pursue it — the writer knows of none better. And just here it may be well to state that perfection is not claimed for any mode or practice recommended in this book, but only the best methods known to the author are given, for guidance to the xminitiated. We live and learn, but life is too short to learn every good thing by experience unaided. Every man owes something to those who are to come after him; to freely give as he has freely received. But the author is not writing for those who know more than he does — and doubtless there are very many — but for beginners, and those having but little experience in tobacco culture. He gives no advice which he has not followed in his own work, and recommends nothing which experience has not commended as the best in theory tested by practice. Those who possess a better knowledge of the subject, and whose practice is verified by results, ought by all means to give the public the benefit of their knowledge and experience. Planters will gladly welcome their teaching, and honor them for their service. But, to return, having put the land in nice "order," lay off the rows with a shovel plough, three feet three inches apart, and follow, drilling along the furrow a good fertilizer at the rate of some two hundred and fifty to four hundred pounds per acre, according to the natural strength of the soil and the quantity of manure previously applied; then follow with one-horse turning plows, lapping four furrows on the fertilized trench, and when finished in this manner your lot is ready to be planted, when the beds have been "patted" with hoes, with "pats" two feet ten inches apart, to mark points for setting the plants. In the older portions of the fine yellow tobacco country the applications are becoming heavier from year to year, some planters using as much as six hundred pounds to the acre. New ground, or old field that has grown up and been cut down, will require different preparation from old smooth land. But on the former our best brights are raised. Any preparation that will put the soil in fine condition, clear of roots, tufts and trash, is all that is required. Experience teaches that if land is cut down two or three years previous to its being prepared for tobacco, it greatly facilitates the preparation and helps its fertility. Much of the vegetable material, both in and upon the soil rots, the roots break easily, and the soil is altogether lighter and finer. TOBACCO. 261 While it is economy to dispense with the hand-hoe in making hills on old land — the plow doing all the work, as it ought, when it can be well done — yet on Stumpy, rooty, and rough land the hoe is indispensable in the preparation of a hill, as it should he made to receive the plant. But before the hills are made, it may he well, unless the soil is naturally rich — and such is not often the case with soils best adapted to yellow tobacco — to apply some fertilizing material to hasten forward the plants, and mature them properly and early. Here commercial fer- tilizers have done, and are doing, their best work. Bulky, coarse manures often do more harm than good on new and puffy soils. The smaller the bulk, and the more concentrated the fertilizing elements, the more readily they are appropriated and assimilated by the plants, if of tho right material, and in the most available form. Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, lime, and soda are most necessary for the tobacco plant; and a fertilizer which supplies the relative quantity of each, and from the proper sources, will never fail to show good effects therefrom if the rainfall is sufficient to quicken their action. Most of the soils best adapted to the finest types of tobacco, especially bright and sweet fillers, are thin and poor, and need plant food to push the plants for- ward, and rapidly, in growth and maturity, so that the product may be ripened and mellowed of yellow color, preparatory to being housed and cured. FERTILIZERS FOR TOBACCO. "While chemical analysis defines the composition of plants, it does not define proper feeding, either in the proportions or forms best suited to the crop." Tobacco is grown for its leaf crop; not the largest product, however, that can be grown on the soil, but such as possess fine elastic texture, color, and other desirable qualities, according to type. In a crop like tobacco, where the commercial value is largely influenced by artificial conditions of development, the plant food ought to be abundant, solvent, and furnished in form and proportion, which practice has demonstrated as pro- motive of the best results. "It is a problem of practice, enlightened by science, and not to be figured out by science." And, moreover, one which each planter, to some extent, must determine for his soil and the type for which it is best adapted. There is no tobacco fertilizer made suited to all the types and varied soils. The " universal cure-all pill " is as inapplicable to the varied forms of disease as the universal tobacco manure for all the types and soils. CHLORIDES OBJECTIONABLE. Tobacco grown for its leaf product indicates that potash is applicable as a manure, but certain forms or combinations of potash are not suited therefor, since it has been clearly demonstrated that chloride of potassium (" muriate of potash ") is really objectionable.- For Stoner says: "The objection to chloride of potassium as a manure for tobacco depends upon the fact that leaves of this plant which have been grown upon land rich in chlorides will not burn readily when dry, apparently because the chlorides tend to prevent a certain swelling or puffing up of the ashes in the half-burned tobacco, which is favorable to bringing the parti- cles of carbon into intimate contact Avith the air. Numerous experiments in proof of this peculiarity of the chlorides have been recorded." 262 PROFITABLE FARMING. Experiments by Nessler and Schloesing were conclusive as regards the capacity of cigars once well lighted to hold fire, being in inverse ratio to the chlorides employed in growing the tobacco of which the cigars were made. The variations running from "absolute incombustibility" of tobacco grown with chloride of calcium, to one which held fire for three minutes grown with sulphate of potash. Boussingault obtained practically similar results. The above objection applies mainly to cigar tobacco, but chlorides also act injuriously on the texture and flavor of the leaf manufacturing types, and there- fore planters should scrupulously avoid using fertilizers containing chlorides in any form; for it stands to reason, aside from experience, that a manure which "hinders beet sugar from crystalizing and tends to make potatoes waxy rather than mealy," as chlorine does, can scarcely be expected to improve the texture and flavor of the tobacco leaf. But the sulphate and nitrate of potash can be used most advantageously in manuring for any type of tobacco, and particularly on soils deficient in potash. A superabundance of potash tends to keep the tobacco plants green even while ripening, and for the yellow type thus interferes with curing the desired color. It would serve a good purpose to require analyses made of all tobacco fertil- izers to state the percentage of chlorine along with the other materials contained therein for the guidance of planters. Analyses may indicate, but do not deter- mine, the real value of a fertilizer. The estimated commercial value of any fer- tilizer is based on the available percentages of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash contained therein; but analysis does not determine its true value, because it fails to specify the forms and quality of these constituents. The experiment stations in the several States are engaged in a most com- mendable work in testing fertilizers on various crops to find out in what forms, 1 proportions, and combinations fertilizing materials produce the best results. "The continued use of any one manipulated fertilizer is injurious and disap- pointing." It has been plainly demonstrated that the same fertilizer used year after year under the same crop, as is done in some portions of the tobacco bolt, ultimately fails to give satisfactory returns. The product not only grows less in yield, but inferior in quality, while the land seemingly gets poorer every year. This is because of the failure to furnish elements needed by both crop and soil, and of which they have been deprived, while others have been accumulating to the extent of such over-supply as to injuriously affect the crop. The soil therein" "thrown out of balance" may need possibly only one or two elements furnished to produce large crops of fine quality. A change of brands sometimes works wonders in one season, while a continued use of the same afterward leads to disappointment as before. Of the causes injuriously affecting the yield and quality of the tobacco crops during the past decade, aside from the injudicious selection of soil and vari- eties, none have been more potent than the wrong selection and inappropriate application of so-called tobacco fertilizers. Extensive areas of poor gray silicious soils in the yellow belt are rendered capable of producing good crops of fine yellow tobacco, by the aid of commer- cial fertilizers alone, when of composition suited thereto. Mode of Applying Fertilizers. — Planters differ in the manner of applying fertilizers, whether in the hill, drill or broadcast. That the same quantity will go TOBACCO. 263 further and produce larger results the first year, for the quantity used when applied in the hill or drill, is generally conceded. But advocates of broadcasting claim that when the crop, to which the fertilizer is applied, is to be followed by another in quick succession — to be sown in wheat as soon as the tobacco is removed — then broadcasting is the best, for reasons which seem too apparent to need explanation. Having prepared the land for hilling, apply the fertilizer by whichever mode the planter prefers, and in such quantity as the natural strength of the soil indi- cates, laying off the rows three feet three inches apart, and make the hills about two feet ten inches distant from centre to centre. Mark the measure on the hoe- handle and require the hillers to apply it frequently as a guide. The rows should be wider apart than the hills, to afford proper cultivation without breaking and bruising the plants at the final plowing — a matter of no small importance, as the least blemish on a fine leaf nearly destroys its value as a wrapper. This plate illustrates the work of hilling. It is becoming common to plant on the drills instead of in hills, where thorough preparation has been made on clean soil. But it is well to chop line that portion of the drill where the plant is intended to be set, and then pat it firm with the hoe to facilitate planting and cause the plants to loot better. Planting. — Having prepared the hills, you are read} 7 to plant any time after the 1st of May. Planting is often most effectually done when the hills are being- made in May, and the land is moist with the winter's sap, by planting in the afternoon the hills made the same day. If properly planted, very few of the plants will fail to live. Observe to draw the plants one by one from the bed, and handle so as not to bruise them. It is a waste of time and plants to set out very small plants, but wait until they are proper size — the largest leaves about two and one-half to three inches wide. Put a basket of plants in the hands of a boy or girl, who drops a plant on each hill, dropping in one or two rows, according to age or expertness. The men follow, with each a planting peg made of hard wood, six inches long, one and a quarter inch in diameter at large end, and tapering to a point. Each planter takes a "hand plant" to start with (unless the dropper has learned to drop two plants on the first hill), and pushing his planting peg some two inches into the hill, withdraws the peg, inserts the plant, and by a dexterous movement of the peg and the knuckles of the left hand, closes the dirt 264 PROFITABLE FARMING. gently but compactly around the roots. He then picks up the piant on the hill as he moves forward, and by the time he reaches the next hill has adjusted the plant in his hand to insert into the hole in the next hill. Thus the "hand plant" facilitates the work. Try it and you will be convinced. There is art in planting properly, as is shown in the increased number of living monuments that attest superior work. But why enter into such minute details? say some. That you may start right, shun the errors of inexperience, and practice at the start the best methods, as demonstrated by successful practice. If the soil is dry when the hills are made, then it will recpiire a "season" for planting. The best come with showers. It is not well to plant soon after a soaking rain, but wait until the land settles. If the plants are good, seasons favorable, and the planting well done,, very few will die if transplanted before the 10th of July. After that time all is uncertainty. Hence the importance of getting a stand before that time. After planting is over, it will he necessary to replant from time to time as seasons occur, embracing every opportunity to fill up the missing hills. If cut- worms are troublesome, hunt for and destroy every one as far as possible; for it is useless to put a plant in a hill where one of these pests has taken up quarters, and expect it to live and grow. One woman dropping the plants from a basket on the hills for two men to follow planting them. Cultivating. — It is important to commence cultivation soon after planting, to loosen the soil and start the plants growing. Just at this point many planters fail to do their duty, which no subsequent work can atone for. Early, rapid, and thorough cultivation is necessary to produce first-class tobacco. If the prepara- tion has been thorough, thrice plowing, followed each time with a hand-hoe, will suffice for the crop. For the first plowing, no implement is better than the wing coulter, the next best the cultivator or double-shovel with the coulter points. The second plowing maybe effectually done with the turning plow or cultivator; if grassy use the first. The last plowing is most effectually done with three furrows with the single shovel — a furrow on each side, then splitting the middle with the third ancl last fur row. TOBACCO. '265 Never "scrape down " tobacco with the hoe without putting back on tbe hill or bed as much dirt as is scraped down. Tins will prevent baking, and save many plants should a dry spell follow the hand-hoe working. Any process which stirs tbe soil effectually and often, and keeps tbe plants free from grass and weeds, will con- stitute good cultivation, no matter how and with what implement done. Old land will require more work in cul- tivation than new, and dark grades more than bright. Short singletrees should be used after the plants are half grown, to prevent tearing and breaking tbe leaves. Tbe yellow grades should be cleared of grass I and weeds before tbe first of August, .and not plowed thereafter; but tbe hoes may be used at any time to clear out tbe crop till tbe leaves commence graining. The longer tobacco is plowed tbe later tbe plants will be in ripening; therefore, the impor- tance of giving early and thorough cultivation. Any one who can raise, good cabbages ought to know how to cultivate tobacco, as tbe cul- tivation is very similar Sometimes it becomes necessary to push the plants forward, where previous manuring has proved inad- equate, to hasten ripening, so as to escape frost and to cure well. I would advise the use of some good standard fertilizer, applied around the plants, in quantity about 150 pounds per acre, and earth scraped upon the fertilizer around the tops of the hills as applied. PRUNING AND TOPPING. Bennla Tobacco Transplanter Under this head there is wide difference of opinion. Breaking off the small &nd inferior leaves of the plant near the ground is called "priming," or pruning proper, which operation is done along with the "topping," if done at all. There .are advantages for and against priming, but all resort to topping — plucking out the seed bud and adjacent small leaves with the thumb and finger. Some contend that pulling off the lower leaves saps the plants and retards the growth if the weather is dry. That permitting the lower leaves to remain on the stalk protects the upper ones from sand and grit, makes them cleaner, and therefore more sal- able. Sand and grit are the terror of the tobacco buyer. On the other hand, it is contended by some that by pulling off the lower leaves, which are generally useless, the remaining leaves receive more nutriment and contain more wax, oil, and gum, and that the lower leaves harbor worms and make the worming proccoi: more tedious. 266 PROFITABLE FARMING. , It is best to wait until a considerable number of plants begin to button for seed before commencing to top. Topping should be the work of experienced and trusty hands — men Avho can top, leaving any required number of leaves on a plant without counting. The secret of this — no longer a secret to the initi- ated — is, that the topper soon learns to know that counting the bottom leaf and the leaf that hangs over it in the third tier going upward, make nine leaves, including both top and bottom leaves. Fixing this in his mind, the topper has only to add to or deduct from this index leaf marking nine, to leave any desired number of leaves on each plant with certainty and without counting. Young- man, if 3'ou don't know how, get some old negro to show you. Topping, you Avill find, is a slow business if you have to count the leaves on all the plants topped. If the plants are not "primed," then the "bottom leaf" must be fixed by the eye, looking upward for the leaf in the third tier, which hangs over it, to catch the cue as before. If priming is done, don't err in pulling off too many leaves. No regular rule can be given, so the planter must judge for himself. The reason given for waiting until many plants are ready to be topped is mainly that more plants may ripen together, and be ready for the knife at the same time. This is an advantage that applies with strong force to all tobacco intended for flue curing. The number of leaves to be left on each plant varies according to the time the work is done, early or late, the appearance and prospective development of the plant, the season, whether propitious or unfavorable, strength of the soil, and amount of fertilizing material applied. On medium soils, in ordinary seasons, the first topping should be from ten to thirteen leaves — rarely more — for brights. For sweet fillers from nine to ten, and for dark, rich shipping, from eight to nine leaves are enough. As the season advances reduce the number of leaves accord- ingly, remembering that quality, more than quantity, regulates returns. Thia illustrates a field of tobacco undergoing the laying-by process, the final work of "scraping up,"" and topping, as this latter work was formerly done when both operations weie performed together and by the same " hands," i. e., laborers. Now the "hoe-hands'' only perform the hoe work, and topping is done by the most expert on the farm in executing this important work. The toppers now never carry a hoe in (heir hands, but go right along the rows, carrying two at a time, pinching out the buds in the process or topping with both hands. Many devices have been resorted to in order to lessen the number and miti- gate the ravages of the horn-worm, but the lack of general and continued efforts- TOBACCO. 267 from year to year has brought only partial relief. Some years they come in great numbers, and, despite the best efforts of the planter, seriously damage his crop. Perhaps the next year they are few, and give him no trouble. Tfc is the nature of this insect to raise at least two broods during the year. The hawk-moth or tobacco-fly usually makes bis appearance in Virginia in the month of May. The eggs deposited by the first moths hatch out in from Jive to seven days larva: or worms. The worm sheds its outer skin twice before it gets its growth. The grow- ing stage of the worm lasts from twenty-five to thirty days, and after it has attained its growth it gorges itself a few days longer, and then crawls or burrows into the ground, where it soon passes into the pupa state; and after some twenty- three or twenty-five days from the time of its crawling into the ground the pupa sends forth a moth to lay more eggs and hatch out more worms. Each moth is capable of laying on an average two hundred eggs. So that for every moth in May we may reasonably expect at least one hundred worms of the first brood; and if none of these are destroyed, but all allowed to change to moths, and these latter to raise a horde of worms, what wonder that the second brood sometimes appears in ;uch countless numbers as to defy all efforts to destroy them befoi-e they have ruined the crop. Every moth ought to be destroyed as they appear, and this may be done to great extent by injecting a few drops of sweetened Cobalt (which is a poison) into the flowers of the Petunia, Honeysuckle, or Jamestown (Jimpson) weed, which will give them their final quietus. But this hunt for the moth is not general, and if it were some would escape. But if every planter would wage a war of extermination on the first brood of worms — unfortunately a thing rarely done — they would never appear in such unconquerable hordes later in the season. The suckers should be pulled off every week as they appear, and ought never to be permitted to get over two inches long; for, if permitted to grow large they abstract much that would otherwise go to perfect a rich, silky leaf. No planter need expect a crop of fine grade Avho does not pull off the suckers while small, and prevent the horn-worms from riddling the leaves. RIPENING. The leaf type, as contra-distinguished from cigar tobacco, is known to be ripe when its color changes from green to a greenish yellow, thickens, so that when the leaf is folded over — the under surface being outward — and pressed between the thumb and finger it cracks open. The upper surface of the leaf is roughened, for reasons stated under Science of Curing Yellow Tobacco, and gene- rally of a mottled yellow and green color. Ripening of this type usually takes place in Virginia and North Carolina in about five to six weeks after the plants have been topped, sometimes longer when growth has been retarded by drought. The cigar type ripens about two weeks sooner after topping. [Note. — Mr. S. P. Carr, of the tobacco commission firm of Carr & Dickin- sons, Richmond, Virginia, and by the way one of the best-posted tobacco men engaged in the tobacco industry, writing to the "Western Tobacco Journal," gives the following advice and information in regard to the best stage in which to har- vest tobacco :] Just as granulation reaches its maximum, if the weather continues open and cool, as is most likely at cutting time, the stalk ceases to pump nourishing plant 268 PROFITABLE FARMING. food from the soil into the leaf, since the leaf is full beyond its capacity to take more. Slow decadence of the stalk's vitality now sets in, and, following the economic law of nature, it begins at once to return to the soil, by capillary absorption, the surplus elements not needed to mature seed for the perpetuation of its kind. If there are no seeds to fill, as in topped tobacco, it sends up the requisite nourish- ment through its instincts for that purpose, and then begins to slowly absorb the filling of the leaf, and belting the main stem and laterals as described above. The same rule applies to the cutting of tobacco that applies to the cutting of clover, hay and timothy, or any other kind of provender. If tbe grasses are cut over-ripe, or after reabsorption has returned the oils and albuminoids to mother earth, they cure up woody and lifeless, and are rejected by stock of all kinds. If cut while in the flower, when all the plant cells are surcharged with saccharine and other constituents belonging to their nature, they are fixed by curing, and are soft, waxy, flavory, and sweet, making foods of th< j highest standard of their kind. Wheat, oats, corn, and other grains suffer deterioration from over-ripeness or remaining too long unharvested, as every farmer knows. CUT-WORMS AND BUD-WORMS. The cut-worms are troublesome only during the early stages of plant-growth, wnen they crawl from the ground during the night and cut off or devour the small plants. Clover lands and such as have borne a heavy crop of weeds the year previous are the favorite haunts of the cut-worm. On such, it is sometimes almost impossible to get a stand owing to the extensive depredations from this nocturnal insect. No remedy has been found, except to hunt diligently for every marauder and kill him on the spot. The bud-worm, so called from its habit of selecting the buds of the plants to feast upon, while scarcely so numerous as the species heretofore described, inflicts for their numbers more damage than the horn-worm, because they eat the small tender leaves full of holes and utterly ruin them — a small worm destroying often more than half the leaves on the plant. Like the cut-worm, the bud-worm must be searched for and killed — being easier found, as his lurking jdace is always in the bud. A field whore worming and suckering are going on ; turkeys are seen assisting in the former process, for they are expert worm-catchers. TOBACCO 269 CUTTING AND HOUSING. Do not be in a hurry to begin cutting your tobacco until it is ripe, and enough fully and uniformly ripe to fill a barn. A thin butcher or shoe-knife, well- sharpened, and wrapped with a soft cloth around the handle and extending an inch along the blade, will do the work effectually and be easy to the hand. Try it. Put knives into the hands of experienced cutters only, men who know ripe tobacco, and will select plants uniform in color and texture, and will cut no other. Have your sticks already in the field, and placed in piles convenient — sticking a stick vertically in the ground over each pile that they may be more easily found when wanted. Pino sticks, rived three-fourths of an inch by one and one-fourth inches, and four and one-half feet long, drawn smooth, are best. Cutting and sticking, as once the almost invariable practice in the Southern Tobacco States, but now only to be seen where the dark export type is raised. The bright yellow and sweet filler types are now usually hung as above described and not permitted to touch the ground. Start together two cutters and one stick-holder — the cutters carrying two rows, and the stick-holder walking between them. The cutter takes hold of the plant with his left hand at the top near where the knife enters the stalk; with his right he splits the stalk down the centre (observing to guide the knife so as not to sever the leaves) to within three inches of the point he intends to sever the stalk from the hill; and as the knife descends his left hand follows the slit or opening, and when the plant is severed from the hill, by a dexterous movement of the left hand the plant is straddled across tho stick in the hands of the holder. When the stick has received about six medium plants, if intended for brights, it is ready to go to the barn, either carried by hand if near, or hauled on a wagon if distant. If it is nccessaiy to use the wagon, prepare a bed sixteen feet long to hold three coops on piles, on which place tobacco as cut, and after placing twenty-five or thirty sticks of cut tobacco on each coop, drive to the barn to be unloaded. Tobacco suitable for brights is best handled in this way as it is bruised less than if handled by any other mode. Try it, planters, and know for yourselves. Very heavy tobacco will break less if, after being cut by the above mode, the 270 PROFITABLE FARMING. sticks are placed gently on the ground and the plants allowed to wilt before being removed to the barn. But tobacco of medium size bruises less to handle it without wilting. Cutting and housing by this mode you never have any sun- burned tobacco. For brights, it has been found best to commence curing at once, as soon as the barn can be filled SUN-CURED TOBACCO. Just here it may be well to give our practice in sun-curing. If the crop is too rich and coarse for brights, then it may be good policy to cure it sweet. To do this properly, erect scaffolds at or near the barns, on which place the tobacco as soon as cut. But some, in order to obviate the hauling of heavy green tobacco, place the scaffolds in or near the tobacco field. But it is never safe to scaffold tobacco away from the barn; for after the leaf is partially dry it ought never to be caught out in the rain; which may happen if tobacco is placed on scaffolds away from the barn. When rain threatens, that on scaffolds near the barn may very soon be placed out of danger, but not so that on scaffolds afar off CURING SWEET FILLERS WITH FLUES. To cure fillers with flues, when the tobacco is placed in the barn as soon as cut, raise the heat in the barn to eighty-five or ninety degrees Fahrenheit, and then go about other business. Kindle fires in the flues every morning, raising the heat to ninety degrees, and then leave as before, and continue to do this for four or five days until the tobacco is thoroughly yellowed. If the tobacco has much sap, it may be necessary to continue the yellowing process from five to seven days to yellow properly. After this very little flue heat will be necessary to dry out the tobacco. If rains occur before the tobacco is thoroughly cured, raise fires in the flues and dry the leaf, as often as may be necessary. TO CURE MAHOGANY COLOR. After the tobacco has yellowed sufficiently on scaffolds or under flues, and when the leaves have assumed a mottled, piebald appearance, run the heat to one hundred degrees and let it remain at that point for three or four hours. Then raise the heat two and a half degrees an hour until one hundred and thirty is reached. Keep the heat at this point until the leaf is cured, and then move up gradually to one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy, and thus cure stalk and stem. If cured properly there will be much of the leaf mahogany, while the remainder will run from a bright dapple to a cherry red. SHIPPING TOBACCO. Dark heavy shipping — and nothing which does not possess size and sub- stance is fit for this grade — may be cured with flues better than in any other way. Smoke from the open wood fire is objectionable, and with the flue you get the heat, which is all that is wanted, without the smoke. Curing With open wood fires belongs to the past, and none but the old Bourbons will continue the old prac- tice, because they know no better. Taste and fashion are against smoke, and nothing else is needed to banish the old and recommend the new mode. If a TOBACCO. 271 dark color is desired, which is not so'fnshionable as formerly, it can be secured as easily over Hues as over wood fires. But the world wants colory tobacco, and this can be produced certainly better with the flue than in any other way. Besides by the flue the leaf is cured sweet and free from smoke or soot. A skillful curer can produce the colors most in demand, and by the flue bet- ter and with more certainty than in any other way. The main object of the author is to induce planters, who have never used flues, to try them for all grades. Housing the dark shipping type to be cured by open wood fires ; the practice of generations until the development of other types and newer and better methods. CURING BRIGHT YELLOW TOBACCO. There are two modes for curing yellow tobacco — one with charcoal and the other with flues. The first is the primitive mode, but is fast giving place to the latter, which is cheaper and more efficient, and is being adopted by most of our best planters. The chief agent in either mode is heat — a dry, curing heat — to expel the sap from the leaves, stems, and stalks of the plants, and catch the color, yellow, next to nature's color, green, and to fix it indelibly. This is the science of curing yellow tobacco. There are seven prismatic colors — that of green tobacco occupying the middle of the prism. By the process of nature, leaves in drying descend in color from green, first to yellow, then orange, then red, and finally lose all color as they go to decay. Now, a quick dry heat, so regulated as to dry out the leaf and catch the yellow, and fix it, is the modus operandi of curing fancy bright tobacco. A barn containing seven hundred sticks of green tobacco, six medium plants on each stick, holds along with the tobacco four thousand five hundred to five thousand pounds of Avater, which must be expelled in from eighty-five to one hun- dred hours. Charcoal produces an open, dry heat, well suited for the purpose; but its prep- aration is costly, its use tedious, dirty and laborious, and it deposits a black dust on the leaf that is objectionable. With flues (see diagrams) constructed with 272 PROFITABLE FARMING. furnace and pipes, the wood is burned as" cut in the forest or old field, and the whole process of curing is less costly and less laborious, and the tobacco cured therewith free from dust, and has a sweeter flavor. The flue process possesses so many advantages over all other modes of curing tobacco, is so safe, if properly constructed, and free from smoke, that when its merits become better known it will come into general use and supersede all other modes. The first step in curing is called the steaming or yellowing process. Medium tobacco will require from twenty-four to thirty hours' steaming at about ninety degrees to yellow sufficiently ; but tobacco with more or less sap, larger or smaller, will require a longer or shorter time to yellow. Here the judgment of the curer must be his guide. Inexperienced planters would do well to procure the services of an expert curer, if they have tobacco suitable for fine yellow. The planter saves in enhanced value of his crop many times the money paid to the curer, and. besides, by close attention, he may learn in one season to cure well himself. Theory alone, however good, and directions, however minute, will not do here, but it is practice that must qualify one to cure well. When it is remembered that no two plants are exactly alike, no two barns precisely similar in every particular, and that the weather may change every hour, is it reasonable that a fixed programme can be followed for every curing with any certain hope of success? The experienced know better. On work so variable, only general directions can be given. The planter here mustuse his head as well. The next step is called fixing the color. When the tobacco is sufficiently yellowed, best leaves of a uniform yellow, and the greener ones of a light pea- green color, it is time to advance the heat to one hundred degrees; observing the leaves closely to detect sweating, which will soon redden and spoil the color, unless driven off. To do this, open the door and let it stand open, and if after an houi or more the sweat has not disappeared, open a space between the logs on opposite sides of the barn to let in more air, and permit it to remain open until the tobacco has dried off all appearance of the sweat. To dry off the sweat speedily, sprinkle dry straw or hay over the floor and set fire thereto, using just enough straw to accomplish the desired result. Right at this point more curings are spoiled than at any other stage of the process. It may be well to remember what is a fact, that at least five curings are spoiled by proceeding too fast, to one failure from going too slow. Now stick a pin here. But to go back to the barn, where Ave have just dried the leaf, and where the thermometer indicates a fall of five or ten degrees — but this need not concern tlie curer to put him out of hope, for a little cooling under the circumstances was necessary — we close up the opening and raise the heat to one hundred degrees. But a skillful curer detects the first indications of sweat, and prevents it by regu- lating the heat and ventilation. Keep the heat at one hundred degrees for four hours, and then advance two and a half degrees every two hours, until one hundred and ten degrees are reached. Here you have reached the most critical point in the difficult process of curing bright tobacco. The condition and appearance of the tobacco must now be the-curer's guide. No one can successfully cure tobacco until he can distinguish the effects of too much or too little heat in the appearance of the leaf. Too little heat, in fixing the color, operates to stain the face side of the leaf a dull brown color, and is called "sponging," and may be known to the novice by TOBACCO. 273 its appearance only on the face side of the loaf. Too much heat reddens the leaf, first around the edge and then in spots, which are visible on both sides. Now, to prevent sponging on the ono hand and spotting on the other, is the aim of the experienced curer. No definite time can be laid down to run from ono hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty degrees. Sometimes four hours will suffice, then again eight hours is fast enough. "While it is usual at this stage to advance about fivo degrees every two hours for medium tobacco, the condition of the tobacco often indicates, to the practiced eye, the necessity for slower or faster movement. But it is safe not to advance above ono hundred and ten degrees until the tails begin to curl up at the ends. Arrived at one hundred and twenty or one hundred and twenty-five degrees, this is the cur- ing process. The heat should remain at or near these figures until the leaf is cured, which will require from six to eight hours, according to the amount of sap in the leaf to be expelled. When the leaf appears to be cured, advance five degrees every hour up to one hundred and seventy degrees and remain until stalk and stem are thoroughly cured. To run above one hundred and eighty degrees is to endanger scorching the tobacco, and perhaps burning both barn and tobacco. To recapitulate — First. Yellowing process, 90 degrees from 24 to 30 hours. Second. Fixing color, 100 degrees, 4 hours. " 100 to 110, 2h degrees every 2 hours. " 110 to 120, 4 to 8 hours. Third. Curing the leaf, 120 to 125, 6 to 8 hours. Fourth. Curing stalk and stem, 125 to 170, 5 degrees an hour. And continue at one hundred and seventy degrees until stalk and stem are thoroughly killed and dry, which usually requires from twelve to fifteen hours. THE NEW METHOD OF CURING. The curing process for yellow tobacco, as heretofore laid down, was first pub- lished in the year 1871, and was the first systematic treatise given to the public on the difficult art of curing yellow tobacco; and it has remained substantially unaltered through six editions of the pamphlet, aggregating largely over 100,000 copies. Thousands in several States have taken it for their guide, and been ena- bled to learn to cure successfully, without any other assistance. But the yellow tobacco industry has greatly progressed and extended during the past decade, and new light has come through experience to further perfect the art of curing. The following is given as the latest improvements in curing tobacco: House the tobacco as soon as cut, and after warming up the barn for two or three hours at a temperature of about 90 degrees, advance the heat rapidly up to 125 degrees, or as high as it will bear without scalding the tobacco, letting the heat remain at 125 degrees only a few minutes, and then, by drawing the fires and turning the dampers, cut off the heat and let the temperature of the barn descend to 90 degrees. This is generally called " sapping." The rationale of the process is this. The heat by expansion, opens the sap cells and starts the water to the surface, facilitates evaporation and hastens the yellowing process. 18 274 PROFITABLE FARMING. This " limbering up" process, of high heat at the start, must be of short dura- tion, or else great injury will be done to the tobacco. Following this mode the yellowing process is greatly shortened, requiring from four to eight hours less to yellow sufficiently, and also hastens the second stage of curing, fixing the color. It is well to state that there is so great a difference in the character of tobacco grown in different localities that no rule can be given for the yellowing process applicable to all. The tobacco of Middle and Western North Carolina will yellow in much less time than that grown in Middle Virginia. Then, again, tobacco will bear higher temperature in the yellowing process during some years than in others. Notably, the season of 1884 was so dry, and tobacco held so little sap when ripe, that many commenced yellowing at 100 degrees, and had the leaf cured in fifty hours. But this is exceptional, and for general practice would spoil both color and tobacco. The season, therefore, it must be borne in mind, greatly determines the amount of heat the tobacco will require to be yellowed and cured. Some of the patented flues are so con- structed that the heat is easily controlled, and the tobacco smoked or steamed, or both, as may be necessary in the yellowing stage. Some tobacco will require neither to yellow right, while some other will dry up green or red without yellowing, if smoke or steam be not used to assist the yellowing process. Smoke or steam will facilitate the yellowing of thin poor tobacco holding very little sap. Wetting the barn floor from time to time will assist in yellowing tobacco. Then there is an occasional barn of tobacco that defies all the known modes and appliances to yellow or cure bright. But for all practical purposes, whenever the curer has mastered a knowledge of the effects of too much or too little heat, as evidenced in the color of the tobacco, clearly described heretofore, he possesses a key to solve the difficult problem in the science of curing tobacco. By close observation this lesson may soon be learned, and then success is easy. After curing, as soon as the tobacco is sufficiently soft to move, you may run it up in the roof of the barn and crowd it close, or if the barn is needed for other curings, the tobacco may be carried to the storage barn or bulked doAvn in any dry house on the premises. But be sure that nothing is bulked with green stalks or swelled stems, for if such are placed down in bulk it will be sure to heat and utterly ruin. Common Sense Barn. THE SCIENCE OF CURING YELLOW TOBACCO. The first step in explaining the process is to give in outline the chemical con- stituents of green tobacco. TOBACCO. 975 Besides its inorganic (mineral) elements — lime, potash, soda, magneria, alumina, ferric oxide, phosphorous, sulphur, chlorine, and silica — it contains the following organic substances: starch, glucose, albuminoids, resinous and fatty compounds and the vegetable acids, pectic, citric, malic, oxalic, and acetic. And of the combinations of organic elements there are found in tobacco nicotine, micotianine, celluloid, and chlorophyl. RIPENING OF TOBACCO. After the plant has attained its full growth, the leaves cease to expand and "granulation, due to the distention of the individual cells of the leaf through accumulation of inter-cellular substance begins," which in North Carolina and Virginia usually takes place from five to six weeks after topping, hastened or retarded, according to season, soil, and time of planting. Then, if the weather is dry and favorable for a few days longer, the color changes rapidly from green to a pale yellowish green, as the plants get ready for the knife. The main cause of the change in the color of the leaves is due to the chlorophyl — the coloring matter in leaves — being changed to xanthrophyl. CHANGES IN TOBACCO INDUCED BY FLUE CUEING. The temperature of 90 to 100° Fahr. continued for 30 to 36 hours under the tobacco, induces slight fermentation, expands the leaf cells and starts the sap to the surface, when evaporation commences in earnest. The vegetable acids, act- ting on the starch, glucose and albuminoids, produce at first slight fermentation — somewhat after the ripening of an apple or pear, and causes a change of color in the leaf, superinduced by the same reasons or agencies which induce change in the color of a ripening apple or pear. In the chemical changes produced in the incipient curing stages — the yellow- ing of the leaves — sugar is formed, ammonia evolved and chlorophyl changed into xanthyne. Now, if the temperature is raised slowly at this stage of the drying process, so as not to oxidize the organic properties in the leaf, the color is pre- served till the leaf is dried. But a too rapidly advancing temperature causes oxidation and discoloring, or rather reddening of the leaf, sometimes to the extent of scalding — virtually cooking it. And so, if the heat is not properly advanced and adjusted and fermentation too long continued, the yellow color fades into brown. To so regulate the color by heat as to catch and fix it in the leaf while sap is being expelled and the leaf dried, is the science of curing yellow tobacco. What is termed " sweating " during the curing process is the accumulation of sap, driven by the heat to the surface of the leaves more rapidly than the ventila- tion will enable the hot dry air to absorb. And whenever this condition occurs, the experienced curer knows it results from inadequate or imperfect ventilation. For, whenever the ventilation is properly adjusted, there will be no sweating — the current of warm or hot dry air induced by the draft will take up — absorb — the moisture thrown to the surface as fast as it is evolved. " Sponging" is produced by oxidation caused by fermentation too long continued, and indicates the inci- pient stage of what is called "house-burn," "pole-sweat," or "barn-rot." Proper ventilation as well as heat, is necessary to so dry the leaf without sweating or 276 PROFITABLE FARMING. sponging, as to catch and fix the } T ellow color. Tobacco cured with a slight green color, which disappears before it is sent to market, is the fashionable color for fancy stock. STRIPPING AND ASSORTING. Tobacco should never be stripped from the stalks except in pliable order, and the leaves on every plant should be carefully assorted, and every grade tied up separately. Usually there will be three grades of leaf, assorted with reference to color and size, and two of lugs. Of leaf tie six to eight leaves in a bundle, and of lugs eight to ten. As fast as you strip, either hang the "hands" on sticks — twenty-five to each stick and hang up or bulk down in two layers, the heads of bands or bundles facing outward. The latter mode is best, if you intend to sell in winter order loose, on the warehouse floors. If bulked down watch frequently to see that it does not heat. If the bulk becomes warm it must be broken up, aired and rebulked, or hung up if too soft. It is safer always to hang up as soon as stripped, unless you design to sell soon, and strike down in " safe-keeping order" in spring or summer. It is considered in "safe order" when the leaf ia pliable, and the stem will crack half way down the tie. This Illustrates the antiquated mode of stripping and tying tobacco, where the " head-man " assorted* anil women and children performed the work of tying the leaves in bundles or bands, out of doors. This work is now much more carefully and nicely done indoors — usually in a stripping-room specially con- structed for the purpose, with glass windows to afford sufficient light to execute the work properly. don't spoil, tobacco after it is cured. If the temperature is raised above 160 degrees — and for some tobacco above 150 — much of the vegetable oil is expelled, and therefore the " life " of the tobacco killed and thereby seriously damaged in other respects — evolving and fixing in tl »e leaves ammonia and acids which bite the tongue and injure the flavor. The unscientific planter may know nothing of the chemical constituents of tobacco, or the rationale of the effects of heat in inducing a pale green color in the leaf, or why heat and evaporation properly adjusted prevent oxidizing and TOBACCO. 277 reddening thereof, or that induces sweating and sponging and wherefore; but every one who reads this short monograph will the better understand why the changes and metamorphoses do occur and tho reasons therefor. ORDERING. If, after the tobacco is cured, the weather remains dry and it fails to get soft readily, so that it can be moved, it may be brought in order in the following way: Place green bushes with the leaves on over the floor and sprinkle water over them copiously; if the tobacco is very dry and the atmosphere contains but little moisture, and if the weather is cool, a little fire kindled in the flues will assist in making the tobacco soft. Straw, wet or made so, will answer the same purpose. If the weather is damp, there will be no necessity to use either straw, brush or water. But when it is necessary to use any means to order tobacco, it is best to apply them in the afternoon, that the tobacco may be removed the next morning. If the weather continues warm and damp or rainy, tobacco that remains hanging will be apt to change color, unless dried out by flues or charcoal. When this becomes necessary, build small fires at first, and raise the heat gradually. PACKING. If you sell loose, deliver in large uniform piles — such will cost less, and your tobacco bring more in price. But to sell in a distant market, pack in tierces — half hogsheads make the best and cheapest — to weigh about four hundred pounds net, taking care not to press the tobacco so as to bruise it, or pack it too closely together. The best leaf" is wanted for wrappers, and it must open easily when shaken in the hand. Pack one grade only in each tierce, uniform in color and length; but if it becomes necessary to put more than one grade in a tierce, place strips of paper or straw between to mark and separate them. Pack honestly, for honesty is always the best policy. The man who "nests " his tobacco will certainlj go on the "Black List," and buyers have good memories. This cut illustrates the work of packing and prizing into hogsheads for market, except there ia want- tog in the picture a girl or boy extra to each packer, to handle the tobacco as it goes into the packer's hands. The manufacturing types are largely sold loose in piles on the warehouse floors, where the tobacco is deliv- ered in planter's wagons. If sent by rail, it is loosely packed and prized lightly, if at all. 278 PROFITABLE FARMING. If your tobacco is fine, sound and nicely handled, you will have the satisfac- tion of getting, at the least, a remunerative price for it, although poor and nonde- script stock may be selling for less than the cost of production. The world outside of this country makes, as a rule, low grades plenty, and at a cost to raise much less than we can compass. We must plant less surface, fertilize heavier, and cultivate and manage better, if we would get the best prices. A NEW METHOD OF HARVESTING THE LEAVES BY STRIPPING THEM FROM THE STALKS. During the past few years quite a change has been going on in harvesting tobacco. Instead of cutting and housing the entire plants, the practice of a century or more, the leaves are pruned ("primed") off as they ripen, strung on wires, twine, or other material, placed in the common log-barns over flues or in framed barns after the manner of the modern tobacco barn invented by Capt. W. H. Snovv, of High Point, North Carolina, where they are cured with less fuel and in less time than by the old method. The following, copied from the circular of the Modern Tobacco Barn Company, states the advan- tages of the system and its claims for adoption : snow's modern tobacco barn and stick for log barn. The "Modern Tobacco Barn" and the "Stick" for log barns are, as is universally known, the inventions of Capt. W. H. Snow, of High Point, North Carolina. The object of the inventor was: First. — To avoid the necessity of cutting the tobacco stalk, carting it to the barn, and using it as a handle on which to cure the leaves, for this was all the use to which it was put. In this connection we are aware that it was claimed that there was some virtue in the stalk which in the process of curing was transferred to the leaf, but this theory, so contrary to every law of nature, has been so far abandoned that we only refer to it. Second. — To cure all of the leaves, and not a part only, which was impossible under the old method. Third. — To save the time, trouble, barn space, and cost of fuel, expended in handling and curing the stalk, which was worth nothing after it was cured. Fourth. — To greatly improve the quality while adding to the quantity of tobacco cured. Fifth. — To provide for the farmer, ready to hand, a fertilizer for his soil, by leaving the useless stalks in the field, and, by plowing them under, returning to the ground much of what had been taken from it in the process of growth, thereby giving back nature's own fertilizer without any expense whatever. Keady for Harvesting. TOBACCO. 279 That the above purpose has been fully accomplished, is proven by the hun- dreds of barns and thousands of sticks in Virginia and the two Carolinas. It has been fully demonstrated that the net profits of the crop have been and can be increased 100 per cent, over tho best results obtained from the old log barn and stalk cure. The plan has been before the public for three years, and there has been a steady growth of friendly comment by all parties who have used the modern barn or sticks, or handled the tobacco so cured. The inventor has not, at any time, desired to unreasonably demand the attention of the farmer, but he has sought rather to demonstrate the eminent practicability of the system, and to let every one convince himself that he cannot afford to grow and cure tobacco in the old way. The modern barn is the first attempt ever made, so far as we know, to distribute tobacco leaves f in the curing barn so that each / leaf shall get its equal share of heat and air, and cannot be crowded by the adjoining leaves by the carelessness of operators — it thus insures a uniform cure. This is the secret of its success. Each of the 100,000 leaves in the curing barn occupies just the space required and no more. The mechanic has done the dis- tribution ; the operator has noth- ing to do with it, nor can he crowd it if he tries. The method •f placing tobacco in the barn by means. of racks or traveling tier- poles is so easy that a twelve-year •Id boy will place as much tobacco in leaves in the curing barn, in twelve hours, as four men can do in the same time on the stalk in the log barn. The leaves are brought to the curing barn in baskets made for three feet long, eighteen inches wide, nine inches deep. The leaves when ripe, and carried in the basket any desired distance without injury The gathering is done for less money than it can be done on the stalk the old way; women and children can do the sticking on the wires. The placing of the sticks with the leaves hanging from the wires on the racks in the barn is easily and cheaply accomplished. The modern barn, when complete, gives the skillful curer complete control of his conditions; he is master of the situation, and if his tobacco commences to ripen early in the season he is prepared to cure it. Not a leaf need be lost in the crop. If the tobacco is not topped "low," leaves will grow instead of suckers. If the growing plant is treated properly the leaves will be of a normal growth, Snow's Moileni Tobacco Burn the purpose, are gathered 280 PROFITABLE FARMING. shapely and smooth, with small stems and fibers. Curing tobacco stalks has not been a paying business. If the tobacco planters will come to that conclusion, the day of their deliverance draweth nigh. Losing eight leaves on each plant is not economy; the eight leaves wasted are as valuable as the eight that are saved. Why not save the sixteen leaves? Why burn eight cords of wood to cure 2,000 pounds of tobacco, when one-half cord will cure it better? Why build six barns for curing when one will do the work better in less than half the time required by any other method? Snow's Patent ^lick. Why injure the flavor of your tobacco by curing it with the stalk, when it can be cured without it and the flavor improved? Why not grow and cure mild sweet tobacco when the trade demands it, and you have in what you have been throwing away millions of pounds? These questions almost answer themselves. Every reader will say that there i3 no reason why any of these losses should be sustained and costs incurred if they can be avoided. To the question, can they? the answer is ready. It is found in the modern barn or in the stick for log-barn process. The modern barn complete is the best plan in the world to cure and handle tobacco. The next best thing is the modern barn stick, on tiers, in the log barn. While we recommend the complete barn, it is not necessary to procure it to avail yourself of some of its advantages. If you prefer, for any reason, to still use your log barn, we will furnish you with a complete set of our wired sticks adapted to such use, and guarantee results, where our directions are followed, far in advance of any possible method of curing without them. We do this with greater confidence because we know that a trial in your log barn will make you want a new one, even at a supposed sacrifice. The sticks and baskets together furnish a complete outfit to save all the leaves grown in the field, and. to make them marketable at prices higher than stalk- cured leaves. The tobacco cured by our process is far superior to any that can be cured on the stalk. This is true both for chewing and smoking tobacco. The reason for this is found in the facts that it is cured at the proper temperature, as we do not use the heat necessary to "kill out" the stalk, and in doing so kill the leaf; that the bitter, pungent, and biting properties of the stalk are left out, and only what la wanted is preserved. Our mode of bulking without either stalk or stick — bulking close, so that the air cannot penetrate the bulks — insures a decided improvement in every leaf bulked down in the proper condition. There is no running red in damp weather, and no fear of "May sweat." That has taken place soon after you have bulked in a close, compact body. The aroma is perfect, and you can class and hand up when you choose without regard to the weather. TOBACCO. 281 The economy of tho modern barn process is so great that wo have always been, and are now, willing to divide equally with tho farmer the cost of cultivating and curing his crop, and take for our share of tho profits what is practically wasted by the old process. That we would bo largo gainers by this will appear from the following statement of facts: Tho rule among planters is to plant 5,000 plants to the acre ; they top at fourteen leaves and prime off tho four bottom leaves, leaving ten to mature on each plant. The topping and priming usually takes place the last days in July, after the bottom leaves have become full size and nearly ripe, and when a few days more would render them fit for curing. They have taken nearly all the sus- tenance from the plant they require. In nearly all crops two of the ten leaves left to mature ripen prematurely and are lost, leaving the plan- ter eight leaves to har- vest; two of these re- maining eight leaves are marketed as trash lugs, and average the farmer about five cents per pound; they barely pay the price of hand- lin and carrying to market. If these are taken off the stalk and plant superior to them. Snow's Tobacco Basket. cured at the right time there are no two leaves on tho If cured the last days of August or the first of September they make the silkiest wrappers or the finest long Avhite cutters, and will average higher prices than any other part of the crop, and we never saw a market where they were not in brisk demand. Next come the two leaves that are always allowed to waste on the plant, the lugs that the cutter finds dead and dry on the bottom of each stalk when he is cutting his crop for the curing barn. These two leaves, if taken from the plant at the proper time, bring from thirty to forty cents per pound, and have been sold on the Henderson market for ninety-five cents per pound by TV. A. Elam, of Swepson, Virginia. If you doubt it, ask him. If the primings had been left to mature and cured the last of July, when they can always be cured bright, they make the best smokers that can be found on the plant. And yet they have been (by the old method) taken off and thrown away to promoto the growth of the tips, which three times out of five are not as good as the lost primings. We take these eight leaves — four primings, two bottom leaves and two trash lugs — which bring no profit to the farmer, and relinquish the remaining or ripe upper leaves to our partner. TVe will remove our leaves just as they change from a dark green to pale green and cure them. Our partner may cure his part as he «hooses; he may wrestle with Jack Frost and with the autumn storms, the worms 282 PROFITABLE FARMING and the frog-eye, and have the full benefit of the heavy dews to thicken his leaf. Our part of the crop is housed by the first week in September, and, one season with another, we will have as much money as our partner, and have it in our pocket by the first of November, if we choose. Another very essential point of the economy lies in the fact that 20 per cent. is added to the weight of every leaf of tobacco when removed from the stalk before curing, over the weight of the same leaves when cured on the stalk. We call your attention to another feature of extravagant waste necessitated by the stalk cure: You build a barn for every three or fo,r acres you plant in tobacco, wherein you cure about eight leaves per sulk, when one barn is suffi- cient to cure fourteen leaves from each plant on twenty acres. Another item of waste: You consume about two cords of wood te cure about five hundred pounds of tobacco on the stalk, when one-half of one cord will cure two thousand pounds in the leaf with- out the stalk; over seven cords of wood saved in two thousand pounds of tobacco. The large two-story packing houses whick we see with many large tobacco planters are useless. A building 30x20 feet, one story high, with tight floors, ceiled up and lined with paper, will store and keep in a supe- rior manner any crop of tobacco we ever saw raised in Virginia or North Carolina. A strictly first-class modern barn will cost $325. It will cure twenty acres in one season. But this is too costly, says the planter. If so, then we reply, you can't af- ford to grow tobacco without one; at the end of the season it will be found the cheapest barn ever built. The barn will save abou eight leaves that are usually wasted ox. each plant. The primings when cured in the modern barn are worth double the price of fillers. The lugs are made the best tobacco on the plant and bring the highest price as cutters and wrappers; no trash lugs in the crop; the top leaves ripen earlier and better when the lower leaves are removed as fast as they mature. If a farmer plants twenty acres of tobacco it will pay the cost of construction and fifty per cent, interest on his outlay the first year. The following, from the pen of Mr. J. B. Smith, of Milton, North Carolina, will be read with interest and profit. It was originally published in the "Southern Tobacco Journal:" As I have had, perhaps, more experience in the process of stripping leaves from the stalk in the field than any other planter, I have been requested to pre- pare an article for the benefit of our farmers in the Golden Belt of Virginia and North Carolina. I will say, by way of beginning, that if the object of the tobacco grower be simply to house his crop in the most expeditious manner, regardless of color and texture, lot him adhere to the old process of cutting the plant. But if Housing in Snow's New Tobacco Bam. TOBACCO. 283 the object of the planter be to realize the greatest profit from an acre of land at the least expense, then I unhesitatingly advise him to adopt the "new process" and strip off every leaf of his tobacco, as he will not only secure better color and texture, put also superior flavor and greater weight. Now, right here, Mr. Editor, while conceding the superiority as to the color, ninety-nine out of a hundred farmers who have never tried the new process will declare that is not true about the increase of weight. And yet I am confident that I could convince the most incredulous and ignorant farmer in either State of the truth of the assertion, if I could have him come and see with his own eyes and feel with his own fingers. I can Bhow him tobacco grown on new ground, without the use of a pound of fertilizer, one stick of which, with only thirty-two leaves, just as cured, will weigh one pound six ounces. Now this is equivalent to over a pound to four plants, while from a whole barn taken from the same land and cured on the stalk I challenge any one to find five stalks, the leaves from which will weigh as much — or better still, to pick fifty leaves out of that barn that will weigh as much. And the color and texture c f the barn cured on the stalk does not compare with the one pulled off, although it was the picked barn of my crop and cured by a man hired at a big price in order to make a fair test, who upon looking at the tobacco was confident he could equal my barn of leaves, but upon finishing the curing, 284 PROFITABLE FARMING. declared that no living man could cure that tobacco as well on the stalk as if the leaves were pulled oft', and further said he never intended to cut another plant of tobacco for himself. But apart from ocular demonstrations, I think I can con- vince every intelligent person that tobacco cured off the stalk is heavier. Every farmer knows that fodder pulled off and cured is heavier and more nutritious than when the stalk is cut and the blades permitted to cure on it. Because it is one of the laws of nature that applies to all animal as well as plant existence, " for the body, in the last struggle for existence, to draw sustenance from its extremities." And the tobacco plant is no exception to this rule. As soon as the stalk is severed this struggle begins; the stalk drawing sustenance from the leaves, or as the tobacco curer expresses it, "the sap is driven in the process of curing from the tip of the leaf upwards through the fibres and stem into the stalk.; By the process of stripping the leaves, all of this drainage is prevented, for in less than five minutes after a leaf is broken off, a gum exudes from the stem and hermetically seals the pores in the butt-end of the stem, and in the curing process' all of the oils are retained in the leaf, which increases its weight and elasticity. I also find the stem and fibres are very much smaller. And the leaf when cured, instead of possessing a glued appearance, has a soft, spongy look, and feels like kid-skin. I will now briefly enumerate some of the most important advantages the new process has over the old. 1st. The planter can begin to house his crop from two to four weeks earlier. 2d. Everything is saved and there is no loss by "firing on the hill." 3d. As the lower leaves are pulled off, those left on the stalk ripen up and yellow more rapidly, which enables the planter to get in his crop earlier in the season. 4th. Tobaccco can be cured a more uniform color. 5th. Less fuel will be required. 6th. The risk of setting fire to the barn will be greatly lessened. 7th. The tobacco can be stored in a much smaller space, and with no danger ©f losing color, or of mould. 8th. By this process enough leaves, which are lost by the old process, will be saved to pay for the fertilizer necessary to grow the crop, also to pay for all extra labor needed in housing the same. 9th. It will help to solve the problem of over-proouction, by grading up the tobacco in our section so as to place us above the competition of those sections which grow low grades of tobacco, which in the past lew years has proved so detrimental to our pockets. COMMENT The author of the tobacco department of" The Progressive Farmers' Book," has been practicing for more than a decade the method of stripping the leaves from the stalks as they ripen, and curing on devices of his own and inventions of others, and recommends the method as a great saving of material usually lost or thrown away, as also economizing fuel; for the leaves cured stripped from the stalks require far less fuel to dry than when cured on and with the stalks. His practice has been to follow the mixed method, i. e., to commence harvesting TOBACCO. 285 the lower leaves as they get in the best condition, by making one or moro prun- ings, and afterward cutting tha remainder on the stalk and housing and curing by the old method. Tho varying conditions of tho weather, season, and maturity of the crop will indicate what mode commends itself to the planter, as likely to givo the best results. It is just to the reader to :ay, however, that there is difference of opinion as regards the increased weight of tho crop claimed for that cured off the stalk over and above that cured hanging thereon; but it is reasonable that tho aroma and flavor of the first must be superior to tho latter, while the increased product, resulting from saving the lower leaves of the plants in their best condition, is an indisputable advantage, which is too apparent to need further demonstration HISTORY OF BURLEY TOBACCO, BY S. P. CARR, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. As this new variety has commanded a prominence in the markets of the world never approached by any other single variety since the introduction of tobacco into civilised tastes and habits, a brief notice of its origin and general characteristics will not be out of place. We extract the story of its origin from an editorial appearing in a Western tobacco journal of Cincinnati, Ohio, some years past. It reads as follows: "White Burley tobacco was first observed in Brown county, Ohio, near the banks of the Ohio river in 1864. A gentleman named Webb in that year planted a lot of Little Burley seed, procured across the river in Kentucky. When the plants were ready for transplanting, he found an occasional one showing a white or light yellow color and supposed them diseased plants. He pulled them up and threw them away. The next year seed grown produced the same kind of plants. Mr. Webb and his neighbors had their curiosity excited and decided to transplant a small number of the plants. They grew well, and when matured showed a light cream color, and excited wide-spread interest. The tobacco cured Well, but it had a somewhat bitter taste, and this prevented the planters from p „tting out much of a crop of it. In 1866 about 20,000 pounds was produced and two hogsheads were shipped to Cincinnati and sold at high prices, and after- wards sent to the St. Louis Fair of 1867, where it was aAvarded first and second premiums for cutting leaf, and sold for fifty-eight dollars per hundred pounds. The Ellis Brothers, of Higginsport, Ohio, bought up the balance of the crop and offered it at the Cincinnati Fair in 1867, where it obtained the premium as the best ten hogsheads of any class, and sold at an average of thirty-four dollars per hundred pounds; and it was one of these same Ellis Brothers that gave the name to this now famous type of tobacco called White Burley." Since 1867 its culture has partially merged into the light and light red filler, and has extended into all parts of the West and South where the older varieties were previously grown; and many parts of the East have attempted its culture Avith varied success, it being discovered, as the boundaries of its culture were extended, that a strictly limestone soil was only a contingency, and not a neces- sary condition, for the best White Burley lands, and as all fertile soils contain the greatest abundance of lime for the needs of the most exacting lime-feeding plants, it is apparent that the quantity necessary to perfect the ideal Burley leaf is in ample abundance in soils of good strength. Burley, like all mild tobaccos, (28G) The First Smoke. TOBACCO. 287 must have a warm, porous soil to reach its highest excellence, and as the pres- nce of lime rock is generally a guarantee of high fertility, porosity and perfect catacomb, or subterranean drainage, those lands when having a yellow clay sub- soil, with from six to eight inches of vegetable loam, are the best conditions f r the growth of Burley tobacco. Yellow or ocher clay has greater capillary power than any other clay, and on this account draws moisture from the depths when the surface moisture is inadequate to the wants of the plants, and absorbs the excess through capillarity when the surface is supersaturated in rainy seasons beyond the healthy requirements of the plants. What is known as the Mason and Blue Grass district of Kentucky possesses this ideal soil with few local exceptions, and hence the popular idea that the under- lying beds of limestone were essential to the growth of the genuine White Burley. Freestone soils in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio, .-•.. . "'.' - ." ' Down in the Meadow. (289) 200 PROFITABLE FARMING. known plug filler; its percentage of chlorine as low as any smoking or cigar stock in the world. It analyzed a higher percentage of fatty and resinous substances than any domestic tobacco except North Carolina, Granville county yellow and Louisiana perique. It equals the Connecticut and Sumatra cigar wrapper in crude fiber or cellulose, which, including its lack of chlorine, gives it a combusti- bility not excelled by any smoking tobacco in the country. We find it without a rival as a chew and smoke combined, called cut plug, and manufactured from the golden yellow leaf commonly called cutters. The light red and cherry wax red leaf is worked into strictly chewing plug, called navy, and has no rival for general adaptability to the average taste of the chewing public the world over. A few localities in Virginia and North Carolina produce a plug filler, when sun-cured or by light, 130 degrees flue heat, that to a line of customers long accustomed to its peculiar fruity taste and flavor would not be exchanged for any other chew; but these sorts, owing to the great popularity of the fancy cutters and smokers of those States for cigarette and pipe smoking stock are less cultivated than fermerly, and hence cannot be considered as rivals of what Ave might deem the national filler. North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia alone wear the triple crown for the finest straight smoking and cigarette stock known to the trade, and the only kinds of the old varieties left unharmed by Burley competition. We repro- duce two articles on culture and curing of Burley tobacco by prominent Ken- tucky and Ohio planters that will apply to Burley lands East and West. HOW TO Crr/I'IVATE and grow white burley tobacco, by j. t. boggess, of OHIO. i I'LAXT-BEDS. To be successful in raising a crop of tobacco depends entirely upon the first step taken in that direction. Secure plenty of plants and have them early. Select for plant-beds a fine soil (south or southwestern exposure, new and slightly elevated), a ground holding sufficient moisture as not to dry out during the day. Burn your beds sufficiently to kill all the seeds of grass or weeds. Then you are ready to dig up your bed. Dig in the ashes well; then rake and pulverize every clod. Be sure and take out all the roots, rocks and whatever other obstructions may be found in the bed. Sow your seed any time from the first of February until the last of March. Sow a bed for every acre you intend planting is a good rule to go by. Sow about two large tablespoonsful to the hundred square feet. Then one of the most important parts is securing the plants, and do not fail to do it by brushing your beds heavily with green brush. The seed should be mixed with ashes or corn-meal before sowing, so as to prevent getting them tno thick. SOIL, ETC. The soil best adapted to the White Burley tobacco is generally agreed to be of a limestone nature. The best and finest tobacco that comes from the cutting district is grown on new land; first and second crops, and in some cases a good crop is raised the third year, but that is running the ground too hard. All our fancy cutting tobacco is raised on such land, and as a general thing it is under- laid with limestone, although we raise a really nice article on old land, by plowing under a crop of red clover and using plenty of stable-manure. If you do not TOBACCO. 291 possess good rich land you had hotter let tobacco growing alone, unless you have plenty of manure or other fertilizer. It should bo the aim of every tobacco grower to go for quality and not for quantity. If they were all to adopt that plan for a few years wo would soon get our markets rid of a great burden. Cultivate less ground and make a famy article. PLOWING AND CULTIVATING. Land intended for tobacco should be plowed in the winter if possible and plowed deep, if you expect a crop. In the spring the ground should bo turned with a double-shovel plow, and harrowed and rolled if rough and cloddy. The more you cultivate your land before you get your crop out the less work it will take to tend it after it is set. After you have it planted keep the plow and hoe going constantly, and plow just as deep as possible. The best plow for that pur- pose is a double-shovel plow, shovels not wider than three inches and full ten inches long. The more work you give your tobacco the better body it will have. Tobacco should be set both ways on bottom or level land, three and one-half feet by twenty-eight inches; on hill-land it will have to be set wider, to give room to tend it — full four feet between the rows. TOPPING, SUCKERING AND CUTTING. Now comes another important point in the growth of the crop, and that is topping. Don't top to more than twelve to fourteen leaves at the furthest; you will make more pounds at that height than at sixteen or twenty. Your top leaves will all fill out and mature and be as large as any on the stock. As to cutting, do not cut until ripe, just about four weeks after topping. Keep all suckers off and concentrate the strength of the plant in the leaves. Suckering tobacco is very tiresome, and is tho most laborious work that is connected with the crop. Worms and suckers at this period of tho crop demand the planters entire atten- tion until it is matured and ready for the knife. Cutting is now to begin. A good hand will cut from 500 to 800 sticks a day, and some extra hands 1,000 to 1,200. Place from four to six stalks on a stick; you will have to be governed by the size of the plants — if large four to six is plenty on a four-foot stick. HANGING AND STRIPPING. In hanging in the barn the sticks may be hung about eight inches apart, if dry and well wilted. Never take tobacco in the barn if wet with dew or rain, as you are likely to have it house-burned. Never use fire in curing White Burley tobacco, as the smoke renders it useless for cutting purposes; but keep the barn open so that the air can circulate freely. When your tobacco is sufficiently cured to strip you should be careful in keeping each sort by itself. First keep all the chaffy, trash leaves together; then your bright trash or lugs; next comes the bright leaf, which is about the centre of the stock, and sometimes all on the stock is bright after the lugs are off. Be sure and keep each color and each length together by itself. BULKING. Having your crop all stripped it is now ready for bulking. Great care should be exercised in having the cases all right, as too much casing will cause your 292 PROFITABLE FARMING. tobacco to funk. Heavy bodied tobacco will stand more casing than a fancy arti- cle will. To get in proper condition for bulking it should dry out thoroughly after stripping, and then as the leaf cures in cases before the stem, it should be just moist enough so as not to break under your knees as you bulk it. The stems may be dry enough to break, but that will not damage the tobacco if the leaf has sufficient moisture to keep it from breaking. PACKING AND PRIZING. Next comes the prize in hogsheads preparatory to shipping. This is not a very great task, but a great many make it so. Thei'e is but one way in which tobacco should be put in hogsheads, and that is, every kind should be packed in a hogshead by itself. Do not mix different kinds together. If you do you are At the Club. sure to get the worst on the draw and your tobacco will sell for what the lowest grade in your sample is worth; therefore you lose all j'our good tobacco, simply because a few handsful of trash or some other worthless article is in your sample. Mr. Ben. K. Davis, of Owen county, Kentucky, says: Having been requested to give my views on the culture and growth of White Burley tobacco, I now pro- ceed to comply with the request. Preparation of Land. — Lay two parallel poles, say four inches in diameter, eight feet apart. Cut logs twelve feet long; put as many as six of these logs oil TOBACCO. 293 the poles; then start your fire and let it hum about forty minutes. Then roll your logs on the same poles about the samo distance again, and continue the same operation, making your plant-bed any length desired. Souring of Seed. — I would suggest the first dry weather in February or March; I have had good success the first light moon in March. Would prefer the soil to be a gradual southern slope. Digging and Sowing. — Take a common weeding hoe and dig about two and a half to three inches deep. Then take a hand rake and pulverize and rake oif all the little clods. After this take the back of the rake and level the earth down smooth. With the handle of the same separata the bed into three parts of equal width and put a tablespoon, level full, of seed on ten feet scpiare. In sowing the seed take a half gallon of ashes to every tablespoonful of seed, mix well and sow twice and tramp until perfectly solid and level. Cut straight green brush and lay on these beds all one way. Be careful and raise the brush, if in the woods, by the last of March, in order to remove the leaves that have accumulated, and then place the brush back as before. Preparing of Land for Planting. — If sod land break s early as February, let it remain until the middle of May; then put on a heavy harrow and harrow the same until thoroughly pulverized, but never rebrake. If land was in cultiva- tion the year previous, break the first of May and let it lay ton or fifteen days, and then take a heavy log and roll the same twice; next take a small plow and lay off rows four feet wide. Set your plants two feet and a half apart on the side of the furrow. Within four or five days, if your plants have lived, commence to hoe them. Ten days after this take a small plow and run two furrows to the row Do this every week for three weeks, and then follow with a hoe, drawing dirt to the plant. By this time the plant has grown too large for any more work with the hoe or plow. Worming. — The worming must be attended to once or twice a week. Topping. — In topping, top from fourteen to twenty leaves, according to the healthy appearance of the plant. Two or three weeks from topping, you will com- mence suckering; this must be continued until you take off two suckers to each leaf. When this is done your tobacco is getting ready for cutting. When the leaf begins to curl or cup, you may then begin to cut. Gutting. — Now comes the important part. As soon as the tobacco is half wilted, have the team take the same to the barn for scaffolding. Never pile in the patch. Construction of Scaffold. — The proper mode of constructing the scaffold is to set a row of heavy forks, fifteen feet apart, another row parallel, the space between the two rows to be twelve feet; lay heavy poles in the forks; then la} r a pole twelve feet long every four feet. When finished it must be at least six feet from the ground. Though the scaffolds must be close to your tobacco barn, the same must not be loaded after scaffolding, neither must it remain on the scaffold longer than three or five days in warm weather. As the season advances, longer time on the scaffold would not be amiss. Never, under any circumstances, house it while wet; and I would also say, never put fire about the tobacco with the hope of bet- tering the same, as the result would be the reverse, for open fire destroys its value by smoking it. 294 PROFITABLE FARMING. Housing. — In housing, put your tiers three and a half feet apart, and your sticks six or ten inches apart in the tiers. Be governed according to size of the tobacco. Stripping. — Another important part is stripping. I will say that there are five different grades on any fine plant — trash, lugs, first fine, second fine, and top leaf — all separate and distinct classes, which are very necessary to he separated. Hang those classes fifteen hands on a stick in your tiers, according to grade, after being stripped — trash in bottom tier, and lugs next tier above, and so on in grades, placing your finest in the top tier, so as to enable you to bulk your low grade first. Bulking. — As to the time of bulking, first let your tobaccco get thoroughly dry. I prefer the March winds. To make a certainty in keeping order, never bulk until the frost has quit falling and you are sure all is out of the ground — say last of April or first of May. Have the leaf in moist case, so as not to break with pressure. The stem must break a little. Would advise four layers wide in the bulk, and remember not to take the stick out when bulking. Prizing or Pressing. — Never commence less than three weeks after bulking, but I would prefer six weeks. The size of hogshead necessary is four feet nine inches long, and the head four feet in diameter. Pack from one thousand to twelve hundred pounds in a hogshead. I prefer pressing tobacco quite lightly. I never lost anything by having light weight in fine tobacco. The above plate represents a curing-shed 24 feet wide and of any length desired. Some have been erected 200 and 300 feet long, the length being regulated TOBACCO. 295 by the size of the crop. A shed 24 feet wide, 30 feet long, throe tiers high, or 24 wide by 24 foot long, four tiers high, will hold one acre of tobacco of whole plants cut and hung upon laths. The distance vertically between girders for whole plants should be about 3^ to 4 feet; for leaves pulled from the stalks, from 2£ to 3 feet apart. The posts should rest upon low rocks or pillars of bricks in place of sills and braced as shown in the cut. The bents — girders — should bo from 10 to 15 feet apart, and on these the tier poles should rest about 4 feet apart, on which the laths strung with tobacco should hang. _ This cut illustrates a barn more substantially built, 32 feet wide, 60 feet long, and 27 feet high, with Tentilators in the sides and ends, so constructed that they may be opened or closed at will to admit or exclude air, as the condition of the tobacco and weather demand. A barn thus constructed should be closed in very dry or windy weather, closely or partially, and give plenty of air during the proper curing stage, closing the ventilators during the day and opening them at night, so that the tobacco may receive moisture to give it a uniform good color, or closing day and night during warm wet weather to prevent mould. Here the furnace and flue may be advantageously used to aid the curing pro- cess and preserve the tobacco sound and prevent the evil effects of excessive moisture in curing this type. The flue, once used as an adjunct to nature during the curing process of cigar tobacco, will rarely be dispensed with after the advan- tages resulting from its use have once been tested. CIGAR TOBACCO. To grow this type successfully it is i ml ispensable that both variety and soil be adapted thereto. Alluvials and sedimentary soils produce the largest crops and of the highest quality generally, but cigar tobacco is grown successfully on both silicious and limestone soils, both fresh and old, provided there is a suffi- 29fi PROFITABLE FARMING. ciency of humus in the latter. Liberal applications? of stable manure have been found to be the best manure for this type. The smoking habit growing faster than that of chewing necessitates increased production of the smoking types, and it is only a question of time Avhen cigar tobacco will be much more extensively grown in States heretofore growing what is known as the commercial leaf tj^pes exclusively, and for which in some types there is already a perceptible decrease in demand — notably the dark heavy export type. And this change is made more certain since it has been demonstrated that large areas South and West in the old tobacco belt are admirably adapted to the production of fine cigar tobacco. CUTTING AND CURING CIGAR TOBACCO. it. Plants of this type are in the best condition for harvesting when the process of expansion ceases — that is, when they have ceased to grow and granulation is going on — and not when the leaves are full ripe, as for some other classes of tobacco. Cigar tobacco may be harvested by ending the leaves as they ripen, or by cutting or spearing the plants and hanging on laths. The curing is done in sheds or barns constructed for the purpose, so arranged as to freely admit currents of air through the housed tobacco, for, be it remem- bered, cigar tobacco is cured without artificial heat, being mainly air-dried. PACKING AND SWEATING. It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the importance of having tobacco in right case — i. e., in a proper degree of pliability when it is packed; for if too dry, it is broken and damaged to a very great extent, and if too limp and it holds excessive humidity, fermentation is so rapid and extensive as to destroy the vitality of the tobacco, induce mould or rot, and spoil its flavor. The stems — midribs — should be fully cured and dry enough to break on pressure several inches down from the butt ends, while the tissues of the leaves should be just soft and pliant enough not to break in handling. The tobacco should be packed in dry sound boxes 2-| feet square at the ends and about 3g feet long, observing to make the contents as uniform as possible in length, color, and quality, and by pressure placing from 350 to 425 pounds in each box, placing the heads of the "hands" or bundles to the ends of the boxes. After being packed in proper condition, the boxes are piled on one another, usually on the sides, and under cover where the rays of the sun cannot reach them. There is difference of opinion about whether it is best to sweat in a base- ment or upper room; in any case, however, the room should be dry. " The process of sweating is to tobacco what fermentation is to wine. It ripens it and prepares it for use. It perfects it in color, improves the flavor, subdues the acid or pungent taste, increases its burning qualities, and gives it a shining oily surface, which is called 'satin face.' All tobacco, however, docs not go through this process well, as all wines do not ferment well. Some of it comes out with a lifeless appearance. Whether this is due to the want of essential oils, or arises from improper condition in which it is packed, isaquestion not fully determined. Tobacco, like wine, will often go through a second fermentation the ensuing year, with an improvement in quality." TOBACCO. 297 Tobacco loses in weight in passing through the sweating process from ten to fifteen per cent., and takes from three to four months to prepare it for beinj* worked into cigars. There is a process of artificial sweating by steam practiced by manufacturers, which need not be described here. TOBACCO — HISTORICAL AND COMMERCIAL. A Brief Notice of the Principal Commercial Types. After the cereals, hay and cotton, tobacco occupies the next place in the value of its product in the United States, and as a money crop stands next to cotton; for, next to that staple, tobacco constitutes the largest item in our export list. A CHANGE IN TYPES. For nearly a century the dark rich type produced on the richest and most heavily manured lots and cured over open wood-fires, heavily smoked, was the only type in demand for export. But as other types were developed, milder in flavor and more pleasant to the taste, the demand for the old smoked type com- menced to diminish, and has continued until this type is now grown only in limited quantities over circumscribed areas where it has been found the best grades thereof are produced. THE SWEET SUN-CURED TYPE. The demand for a milder type developed about sixty years ago, and to meet it, gray uplands were planted in Sweet Oronoko, and the product cured mainly by sun and air and without the objectionable smoky flavor of the heavily fired export type. The sun-cured proved a popular type, and the demand therefor would have greatly increased but for the development of THE BRIGHT YELLOW TYPE, which has grown faster in favor and production than the sun-cured type, brights being adapted to more forms of manufactured work and more popular than all other types grown in the old tobacco-growing district. Besides, the prices paid for this type operated to greatly extend its production, until now it is the princi- pal type grown in upper Virginia and nearly throughout North Carolina; and is yearly extending southward through South Carolina and into upper Georgia. The bright yellow type commands the highest prices of all the types grown, and -where soil and climate are adapted to the production of the finest grades of thi3 type, no crop which the land is capable of producing can equal or compare with it in profitable returns. THE WHITE BURLEY TYPE. This popular type originated in Ohio about a quarter of a century ago, and has proved so profitable, and the demand therefor so great, that it is now the principal type grown in southern Ohio and over large areas in Kentucky and por- tions of Tennessee and Missouri. Burley, like the Virginia air-cured and cigar tobacco, is cured without artificial heat, and is, therefore, entirelv free from the 298 PROFITABLE FARMING. creosotic taste and rank flavor of the old export type which it supplanted; has won its way to favor, and has come to stay. Burley makes most excellent chew- ing and smoking tobacco, and promises to contest with seed leaf for superiority in cigar manufacture. THE CIGAR TYPE. " The culture of tobacco in the Connecticut Valley was almost coeval with its first, settlement," and the tobacco grown there being found to be well adapted Mm My First Pipe. for making cigars, it was the first of the tobacco product of the United States utilized for that purpose. From thence the cigar typo extended to Massachusetts. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin, which States now produce the bulk of the cigar tobacco grown in the United States. The product of tobacco in New England ran from a few thousand pounds in 1740 to over 500,000 pounds in 18.30. Since then the product ran up in 1879 to TOBACCO. 209 over 20,000,000 pounds. It is proper to say, however, that legal restrictions were placed upon its production in New England during the first century of its pro- duction there. Florida is developing into a profitable field for the production of cigar- tobacco, its product is said to almost rival the Cuban; and why not? when grown on a soil and in a climate with like conditions as are to be found in the famed Queen of the Antilles. THE WONDERFUL ADAPTABILITY ' V THE TOBACCO PLANT When it is remembered that tobacco can be successively grown under the torrid temperature of the equator and on the bleak hills of Canada, beyond the 40° n. lat., the question regarding its production is not "where can tobacco be grown," but rather " where will it not grow? " The tobacco plant adapts itself to almost any climate where its votary man can subsist, but it is exacting in one respect, it will not flourish on a wet bed or with wet feet. Thousands, aye, millions of acres of land, well adapted to tobacco, remain unutilized all over the United States. And on much of this undeveloped area the finest types of tobacco can be successfully and profitably grown. • RESUME. The following, prepared for us by Major Ragland, is the substance of his manual "boiled down." The tobacco plant thrives best in a rich, warm, well-drained soil, and can be successfully grown from the equator to beyond the fiftieth parallel of latitude, showing a most wonderful adaptation to climate. Beyond any other field crop grown, tobacco requires "high farming," i.e.. heavy manuring and thorough tillage; and no crop responds more readily or bountifully, when the right types are planted on soils adapted thereto, and the product properly cultivated, cured and handled. A deep, rich soil overlaying a red or dark brown subsoil, is best suited for the dark, rich export type. • A gravelly or sandy soil, with a red or light-brown subsoil, is best adapted to the production of sweet fillers and stemming tobaccos. Alluvials and rich flats produce the best cigar stock. White Burley is most suc- cessfully grown on a dark, rich limestone soil. For yellow wrappers, smokers and cutters, a gray, sandy or slaty top-soil with a yellowish porous subsoil is prefera- ble. The land must be loamy, dry and warm, rather than close, clammy and cold ; and the finer and whiter the sand therein, the surer the indication of its thorough adaptation to the yellow type. The soil so greatly affects the character and quality of the products, that success is attainable onty where the right selection of both soil and variety is made for each plat planted, and planters do well to heed this suggestion. For dark, rich "shipping," nothing has been found superior to the following: James River Blue Pryor, Lacks or Beat-All, and Medley Pryor. For sweet fillers: Sweet Oronoko and Flanagan. For stemming: Long Leaf and Broad Leaf Gooch, Hester, Tuckahoe and Big Oronoko. For mahogany wrappers: Primus, Tucka- hoe, Hobgood. Yellow Pryor, Flanagan and Gold Leaf. For cutters: Hyco, White- stem Oronoko. Yellow Oronoko. Silkv Prvor and Granville Yellow. For vellow 300 PROFITABLE FARMING. wrappers and fillers: Sterling, Primus, Granville Yellow, White-stem Oronoko, Tuckahoe, Hester, Long Leaf Gooch, Yellow Oronoko and Yellow Pryor. Trial will determine what variety is best for any locality as no one variety is best for all locations. To plant varieties unsuited to the type, or on soil unadapted thereto, is to invite failure every time. The leading cigar varieties are: Connecticut and Pennsylvania Seed Leaf, Imported and American Grown Havana, and several Spanish Strains. Start Bight. — The planter should select and prepare land suited to the type he purposes to raise, and then sow seeds of varieties recommended herein for the types specified, in good time, on beds thoroughly prepared and fertilized — warm southern and southeastern slopes preferred — and cover the beds with thin canvass. South of thirty-seven degrees north latitude seed may be sown from 15th of December to 10th of March — the month of January preferable. Further north, sow later. Sow at the rate of one ounce of seed to the 100 square yards, and firm the soil with the feet or lightly brush them in. Raking buries the seeds too deep for successful germination. If the seed-beds are thoroughly manured and canvassed as directed, they will require but little further attention, and the plants be ready for transplanting soon after 1st of May. Plant no tobacco after 1st of July, but fill up the missing hills with field peas or other crop. To grow a paying crop of tobacco, the soil must be thoroughly prepared and put in fine tilth and be heavily manured. No soil is naturally so rich that the product is not materially increased and made finer and better by the application of manure. Both domestic and commercial manures are successfully used under tobacco. And experience has demonstrated that it is best to use them in con- junction — either together in compost which is best, or by applying the domestic manure broadcast and drilling the commercial material when preparing the land for planting. The usual practice is, for the leaf types, to run the rows three feet three to four inches wide — to facilitate through cultivation — and set the plants in hills or drills two feet ten to three feet apart. White Burley and cigar tobacco is set closer. Commence cultivation as soon as the transplanted plants have taken root, which will be in from ten to fifteen days after setting out, and continue to stir the soil with plow and hoe every two weeks until the leaves begin to lap across the rows; after which the hand-hoe alone must be used. Frequent cultivation, when the plant is young, tends to promote rapid and vigorous growth, early development, and ripening, essential to the yield and quality of the product. Any mode of cultivation which is frequent and thorough, and very similar for the cabbage crop, will suit tobacco. Different soils require different utensils and cultivation, and therefore the judgment of the planter must guide him, as no fixed rules can be successfully followed. The diversity of soils and the vicis- situde of seasons prelude any fixed line of action. Pruning and Topping. — So soon as the plants shall have attained sufficient size and the seed-bottom is discernible, prune off the small lower leaves of the dark export type to six inches up from the ground and pinch out the seed-bud, leaving eight to ten leaves on the plant, the number left varying according to the fertility of the soil. An average of nine leaves to the plant makes the richest and most salable product 302 PROFITABLE FARMING. For the yellow and other manufacturing types it is best not to prune, but to gather the lower leaves as they ripen and cure them for smokers. White Burley and cigar tobacco may be topped leaving ten to fifteen leaves to the plant. The bud and horn worms must be carefully picked from the plants as they make their appearance, or they will inflict great damage to the crop. The former is most destructive early and before the plants are topped; the latter comes in two broods, the first in June, and if these are destroyed, the quantity in August and September (their second appearance) will be greatly curtailed. Various modes for destroying worms and moth have been resorted to, but none so suc- cessfully as hand-picking and killing. Suckers Avill sprout at the axils ©f leaf and stalk after the plants are topped, and these must be pulled off as fast as they attain the length of two and three inches. If permitted to grow longer they sap the juices of the plant and detract from the size and richness of the leaves. Ripe tobacco of the commercial leaf type is known by the graining and thickening of the leaf and change of color — the leaf assuming a 3 r ellowish and sometimes mottled yellow and green appearance- — and when the under-surface of the leaf will crack open on pressure between the thumb and finger when folded over. White Burley and cigar tobacco are harvested not so ripe as indicated for the leaf types. Tobacco of the several types are hung in several wa}*s: Some cut the plants by splitting them down the middle of the stalks and straddling them across laths; some spear the plants, using a spear-like instrument hollow at one end to fit the lath; others string the leaves, pulling them from the plants as they ripen and stringing them upon wired sticks or laths, while others use cotton twine in the place of wire. The dark export type is still mainly cured in log-barns dried over open wood fires. But it is only a question of time when the flue, so indispensable for curing the yellow type, will be used for curing this type also. Creosote imparts no desirable qualities to any type, and the taste grows every year more and more in favor of unsmoked tobacco. The sweet filler is partially dried by sun and air and afterwards cured by flues. The yellow wrapper and cutter type is cured entirely by the use of flues. The cigar type and White Burley are cured mainly by air-drying. To specify every detail of the several modes of curing the different types would extend this article greatly beyond the limits assigned, and Ave therefore commend to the would-be tobacco raiser a careful perusal of the methods hereto- fore mentioned. The tobacco planter should bear in mind that no crop is more exacting than tobacco; that small crops receive better attention, and are more profitable than large ones. No crop grown in the United States will pay more handsome returns than tobacco when properly grown and managed. Many fine crops are ruined, after being cured, by rough and careless handling in stripping, assorting, bulking and packing. Tobacco should never be handled except when in "order" or "case" — i. e., when the leaf is pliant and not too limp from excess of moisture. TOBACCO. ::<>:; All tobacco should bo assorted as the leaves are stripped from the stalks <>r taken from the sticks, having reference to rolor, length and quality, tieing all such together neatly into hands or bundles, placing eight to ten leaves of "lugs" — inferior, lower or ground leaves — and five to seven of leaf, in each hand. Tobacco is in safe order or condition fur packing when the leaf is pliant and the stem dry and will crack half-way down from the large end. Packed in such condition, tobacco "sweats sweet." If too moist, it will heat in bulk and spoil; if too dry, it is broken and shows rough and unsightly. We have requested Major Ragland to furnish us his descriptive list of tobacco seed for insertion in this book, that applicants may know where to apply for the best varieties suited ,to all the types, and by reference to the foregoing pages may be enabled to select properly. TO TOBACCO PLANTERS. To grow fine tobacco of any type, the first thing requisite is good seed of some variety best adapted to the type sought to be produced. The bright varie- ties will not make rich, heavy, waxy goods, nor will the dark varieties make fine yellow, silky goods. While cigar leaf requires varieties specially adapted to stock Suitable for cigars. You cannot be too careful in the selection of your seed, and it will pay you to procure them from reliable growers or dealers only. Poor seed are dear as a gift, while good seed for a large crop of tobacco cost very little, and yet one dollar properly expended at this point has saved hundreds of dollars in the increased value of the crop. Take no risk, but use only the best varieties which are essential in making a fine staple, which always sells at remunerating prices. TO SEEDMEN AND DEALERS. There are varieties of farm and horticultural seeds which grow to perfection only in localities most favorable to their normal development, and it behooves every dealer in seeds, solicitous to furnish the best, to grow or have grown for their trade these seeds where they come to the highest perfection. The soils and climate of Virginia are peculiarly adapted to tobacco of every • type ; and seed grown here, under improved methods, possess the highest vitality and finest native qualities. Many planters in other States send to Virginia for seed every year — Virginia seed giving better results than seed procured elsewhere. Tobacco seed grown and saved like buckwheat, i. e., every panicle on the stalk allowed to remain and bear capsules, will turn out double the quantity in yield, over seed plants trimmed of all their lower thyrsi and only three or four at most of the top ones allowed to bear seed. The pruning process, however, is the proper mode, for by it the seed capsules are larger — the whole force @f the plant is directed to the formation of fewer capsules with seed of higher vitality, which may be more surety relied upon to transmit their peculiar good qualities. Seed thus grown are more reliable in every essential quality, and should never be classed with seed grown after the old method. VARIETIES RECOMMENDED AS THE BEST FOR EVERY TYPE OF TOBACCO. Use only pedigree seeds, improved by continuous selection, and grown on the crown shoots only, warranted true to name and of the highest vitality. It is 804 PROFITABLE FARMING. essential to select a variety suited to the type desired to be produced, and to olant only one variety in the same field, to insure uniformity in the crop. None better can be found than the following: Sterling. — The newest and brightest of the yellow type; being the earliest to ripen, is surest in localities liable to early frosts. Primus. — Leaves large, fibres fine and texture silky. Yields big crops of extra fine quality. Suited for manufac- turing or cigars. Grows rapidly and may be relied upon to ripen with Sterling. New and scarce. Spotted Pryor. — A new favorite ; early, fine and adapted to several types. ,. Mild in flavor and makes fine brights or mild colory fillers. Long Leap Goocti. — Leaf larger and finer than the Round Leaf Gooch. One of the very best for the manufacturing types. Lacks. — Broad leaf, tough fine fibre. On gray soils cures bright and elastic; on dark soils, rich and gummy. Known as Jesup or Beat- All in some localities. Good and reliable. Granville County Yellow. — A superb variety, and a favorite with many planters who average from thirty to fifty dollars per hundred pounds — select lots selling for several dollars per pound. Among the earliest to mature and ripen. Tuckahoe. — A first-class variety in every respect. New and preferable to most of the older varieties for possessing more body. Leaf long and extra fine — the perfection of a wrapper. White Stem Oronoko. — From the yellow Oronoko, which it resembles, and a most excellent variety. Greatly preferred in some localities where the finest types are grown. Hyco. — A new variety, and the easiest of all cured yellow. Fine texture, good flavor and sells well. A hybrid Oronoko and gourd leaf. A beautiful and desirable variety. Hester. — A new variety originated in Granville county, N. G, and has no superior for the yellow type, and makes fine cigar stock. It has size, shape, texture and color, and ripens early. It recommends itself greatly in this, that it has greater adaptability over a wider range of soils and latitude than any other of the yellow varieties, and may, on this score, be considered the surest. Yellow Oronoko. — A reliable old yellow variety, grown for more than fifty years, and improved with reference to the production of yellow stock. Gooch. — A new variety of a great excellence. Resembles the yellow Oronoko, but has a larger leaf; a splendid manufacturing sort. Yellow Pryor. — Preferred by many for brights, and succeeds where other yellow sorts fail. The west is giving it preference. Sweet Oronoko. — Used for first-class plug fillers, and makes, when sun-cured, the best natural chewing leaf. A favorite for the " Homespun " wherever known. Known as little Oronoko in some localities. Makes an eastern filler unsurpassed. Flanagan. — Originated in Henry county, Va., and is greatly used for making- sweet fillers and mahogany wrappers. It is a variety of the Old Sweet Oronoko, with broader leaves and finer texture. TOBACCO. 305 Bio Oronoko. — An <>kl variety and a good, tried one. Has a large, broad, finely-shaped leaf, and for strips and dark wrappers has no equal. Blue Pryor. — The genuine James river favorite. Rich shipper, superior to the Kentucky Blue Pryor. Medley Pryor. — Originated in Halifax county, Va., about seventy years ago, and is a general favorite with planters who grow the English and Continental grades. When properly grown and cured, it commands the highest price for a "shipper." Figuring up the Prottts. Bradley Broad Leaf. — A popular variety for several types — export, manu- facturing and cigars. A good, reliable variety. Connecticut Seed Leap. — The largest, finest and best of this indispensable kind. Every seed-stock carefully selected. Pennsylvania Seed Leaf. — Gessner and other superior kinds. The best grown in the famous Lancaster county district. General Grant. — One of the finest, earliest and most popular kinds for cigars. Grows more in demand every year. Persian Rose. — Finer than the Muscatel, and may be relied upon to make the finest cigar stock. A very promising variety. Hardy. — A Turkish variety which stands heat and drought beyond all others, and may be topped to twenty-five leaves or more. Superior to Latakia, and pos- sesses a very agreeable odor and flavor. Brazilian-American. — The finest Brazilian strain acclimated. Makes excel- lent cigars and delightful, aromatic pipe-smoking tobacco. Havana. — Grown from imported seed (Vuelto de Ahajo) — direct Better than imported seed for American planters. Big- Havana. — A h}d:>rid Havana or Cuban seeddeaf. A heavy cropper, of fine texture, delightful flavor and the earliest cigar variety to mature and ripen. Will make two crops from one planting in the South, whilst its earliness makes it most desirahle for high latitudes. 20 CHAPTER XIV. Cotton. BY PROFESSOR J. S. NEWMAN, ALABAMA, AND F. C. FURMAN, GEORGIA. HE COTTON PLANT is a child of the sun. Its natural habi- tation is in the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America, but it has been acclimated and successfully cultivated as far 'IjP north as the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude. Its cultiva- -.■Qr~- tion covers a very large portion of our globe. In the eastern hemisphere the range of its cultivation extends from Southern Europe on the north to the Cape of Good Hope on the South. In the Western Hemisphere from Virginia to Southern Brazil. It has been most successfully cultivated, however, between the thirtieth and thirty-fifth degrees of north latitude. Humboldt found it growing in the Andes, at an elevation of nine •thousand feet. Boyle reports it cultivated at an elevation of four thousand feet in the Himalayas. Such elevations, however, are not favorable to its best develop- ment. Botanically, cotton belongs to the natural order Malvacear, genus Gos- sypncm. Botanists differ as to its proper classification into species; some nume- rate as many as ten species, others seven, and others only three as necessary to a clear discrimination between the distinctive characteristics recognizable after making due allowance for differences resulting from soil and climatic influences. The history of the cotton plant antedates in its beginnings the commercial annals of the human family. India seems to have been the most ancient cotton- growing country. For five centuries before the Christian era her inhabitants were clothed in cotton goods of domestic manufacture from the fiber, grown upon her own soil, by her own crude methods. "It is said that 'more than two thou- sand years before' Europe or England had conceived the idea of applying modern industry to the manufacture of cotton, India had matured a system of hand- spinning, weaving, and dyeing, which, during that vast period, received no recorded improvement. The people, though remarkable for their intelligence whilst Europe was in a state of barbarism, made no approximation to the mechanical operations of modern times, nor was the cultivation of cotton either improved or considerably extended." Notwithstanding the proximity of China to India, it was not until the eleventh century, that the cotton plant became an object of common culture in China. The first mention made of cotton in the records was two hundred years before th-e Christian era. From that time down to the seventh century it is men- tioned, not as an object of industry, but one of interest and curiosity; an occu- 306 COTTON. 307 pant of the flower garden, the beauty of its flowers heing celebrated in poetry. It is recorded in their annals as a circumstance worthy of note,- that the Emperor Ou-ti had a robe of cotton when be ascended the throne in 502. In the eleventh century field culture of cotton commenced in China, but owing to the opposition of the people, especially those engaged in growing and manufacturing wool and flax, it was not until 1368 that the cultivation and manufacture of cotton were well established. Central and South America and the West Indies grew and manufactured cotton long before their discovery by Columbus, Avbo found the plant under cul- tivation, and the people using fabrics made from the staple. At the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, in 1519, he found that the clothing of the Mexicans consisted prin- cipally of cotton goods; the natives of Yucatan present- ed him with cotton garments and cloths for covering his tuts, while Montezuma pre- sented him with "curtains, coverlets, and robes of cot- ton, fine as silk, of rich and . -. ' . Cotton Planter, A D. 1S7B. various dyes, interwoven with feather work that rivaled the delicacy of painting." The plant was successfully cultivated in Peru in the time of the Incas, in 1332. Specimens were also found in the ancient Peruvian tombs and taken to England at an early •date for exhibition. Egypt seems not to have either cultivated cotton or used its fabrics at a very early date, since the cloths in which the mummies were enveloped were of flax, instead of cotton. Indeed, it appears that those nations which were early cele- brated for their manufacture of fine linen, were slow to substitute the cotton for the flax. Herodotus mentions cotton fabrics 450 B. C, and speaks of trees in India, ^'bearing as their fruit, fleeces more delicate and beautiful than those of sheep." The cotton fabrics of the Hindoos have been excelled in firmness and excellence only by the production of the most perfect machines of modern times. The city of Calcutta, on the western coast, gave its name to the fabric known as calico. Tavernice describes some of their goods as "so fine that you could hardly feel them in your hand, and the thread when spun is hardly discernible." The famous muslins of Dacca have been, on account of their fineness, desig- nated as "webs of woven wind." It is said that muslins made in Bengal are so fine that " when spread upon the grass and covered with dew they are not dis- cernible." Spain was the first of the European States to grow cotton. It was introduced here by the Moors in the tenth century. The first cotton was planted in the United States in 1621. "Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina" mention the growth of the cotton plant in that province in 1666. In 1736, it was pianted in gardens in Talbot county, Maryland, latitude thirty-nine north. At the commencement of the revolutionary war, General Pelaeall was said to 308 PROFITABLE FARMING. have had thirty acres planted in cotton near Savannah, Georgia. It is stated that in 1748, among the exports of Charleston, South Carolina, were seven bags of cotton wool, valued at three pounds eleven shillings and five pence a bag. Another small shipment was made in 1754, and in 1770 three more, amounting to ten bales. In 1784, eight bales shipped to England were seized on the ground that so much cotton could not he produced in the United States. The first Sea Island cotton was grown on the coast of Georgia in 1786, and its exportation com- menced in 1788, by Alex- ander Bissel, of St.Simon's Island. In 1791, the cot- ton crop of the United States Avas two million pounds, of which three- fourths was grown in South Carolina and one- fourth in Georgia. Ten years later, 1801, forty- .8£!2@S eight million of pounds 'i were produced — twenty million pounds of which was exported. The United States have long since excelled all other countries in the quan- tity and quality of the cotton produced. India ranks next in importance in its supply of cotton to the United States, but its fiber is far inferior to the American. The other cotton-producing countries worthy of mention are the East Indies, Brazil, the West Indies and Guinea. Cotton Planter, A. D. 1883. THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON. We commend the following letter from one of the most prominent and suc- cessful planters of the South to the attention of our readers: My purpose is not to enter into a lengthy discussion of the nature of the cotton plant, but simply to give a few plain and practical rules to be observed in its cultivation. The cotton plant is subject to many disasters, and requires great care in its cultivation. It is a tender plant, and requires that its surroundings should be favorable, in order to insure its proper growth and development, and hence it is necessary to give it every possible advantage from first to last. The success of a cotton crop depends as much upon the proper preparation of the land before planting, as upon the after-cultivation of the cotton. This can only be done by plowing deeply, and breaking up very fine; and unless this is done, the cotton will not stand a drought without shedding its forms, as cloddy land will not stand a drought. If the soil is stiff and liable to break up in clods when plowed with an ordi- nary plow, the sweep is, in my opinion, the best plow that can be used to make the soil fine in breaking up. It is true that it will have to be broken several times before bedding, but still very little, if any time will thereby be lost, as it makes a wide furrow, and an acre of ground can be broken up almost three times as quickly with a wide sweep, as it can with a scooter , In cultivating cotton, sweeps COTTON. 309 from twenty to twenty-four inches across the wings, should bo used altogether, as they never make the land cloddy. In stiff land plow twice in the same furrow, the first and second plowing in order to make the soil fine and deep — four furrows will plow out a row, and then set the sweeps to run very flat and shallow, so that they will not penetrate the soil more than an inch or an inch and a half, and run only twice or three times in the row. This shallow plowing is necessary to avoid cutting or breaking the lateral roots of the plant, which is always fatal to cotton, causing it to shed its fruit and Cotton fiauting. thereby lose a portion of its first crop. The finer and deeper you can make the soil between the rows before the cotton begins to take on forms, the more effec- tually will it resist drought and greater will be its yield. For deep sandy soil, however, light skimming is best at all times. The width of the rows should he regulated by the climate and soil in which the cotton is planted. La a northern climate or on moist flat lands, or bottom' lands, the rows should be wide enough (according to the variety of cotton planted) to prevent the branches from inter- locking, in order that the cotton may get sufficient air and sun-shine to make it mature and open early. The stand should be thick in the drill, say three stalks for every foot, to keep down the sap of the cotton to hasten its maturity, j^or such a climate and such soils, the Early Cluster variety of cotton is best; and it should be planted on high beds and these should be kept up in its cultivation in order to keep the soil as warm as possible. In sections far north, for cotton, it 310 PROFITABLE FARMING. would be well to stir the soil shallow after every rain to increase heat. By a strict observance of this rule, I think that the production of cotton could be success- fully accomplished at least one degree north of the present limit of its cultivation. In the middle portion of the cotton section, the rows should not be very wide ■n order that the branches may interlock freely, with a good stand in the drill, say two stalks for every foot. In the southern portion of the cotton section (except on damp or bottom lands), the rows should be narrow, especially on diy sandy soil, or in sections subject to long droughts (such as some portions of Texas and Southern California), in order that the land may be well shaded and kept comparatively cool to prevent the heat of July and August from causing the cotton to shed its fruit. Moreover, the cotton should be planted and cultivated on a flat surface. Cotton Hoeing. In sections subject to droughts, cotton should be planted very early (even at the risk of its having to be planted over), in order that a fair crop may bo made before the heat of summer comes upon it. The success of cotton raising depends very much upon the variety of cotton planted. For a general crop, I consider the last improvement on the Early Cluster variety, the best that I have every used, as it produces a large crop of bolls on a comparatively small stalk, and matures very early, thereby insuring in sections subject to the cotton worm, a fair proportion of bolls before the worm appears. COTTON. 311 The foregoing hastily written views are submitted to the public with the hope that they may be of some little benefit to the cotton planter, and even if they do not embody a correct system of cotton culture, that they will at least be instru- mental in directing the minds of those who are concerned to a thorough investi- gation of the matter which will eventually lead to a satisfactory solution of the question, " What is the best practical mode of cultivating cotton?" FIRST WORKING OF COTTON. By the time the corn is disposed of, cotton will need its first working; To avoid "getting behind," it is very important that these first workings should be begun as early and pushed forward as rapidly as possible. Not a moment's time should be lost. Just as soon as the cotton is up, the ground on each side of it should be lightly scraped off, either with scraper, sweeps or harrow. Something that can run veiy near the cotton, kill incipient weeds and grass, break the crust, &c, and yet not cover up the cotton. The dirt scraped off being thrown in the middle will cover up the young grass there and leave everything clean but the narrow strips where the cotton stands. Follow now with hoes and chop out lightly aYid rapidly. The bringing down to a final stand had better be left for the next working. Opinion is much divided as to what constitutes a "stand." It must necessa- rily vary with soil and climate, and ought to vary with width of rows — the wider the rows the thicker the stalks should stand in the drill, other things being equal. Wherever the nature of the land (as bottom lands) produces dense, luxuriant growth, greater distance must be given to admit air and light and prevent rotting of the bolls. Mr. Dickson's plan of leaving from two to three stalks, at the dis- tance apart of the width of a No. 2 Scovill's hoe, when first" published, was opposed by many. On the sandy lands along the coast, where Sea Island cotton is cultivated, such crowding will not answer. The stalks will run up without throwing out a branch for eighteen inches or two feet from the ground. Mr. Samuel Barnett, the worthy secretary of the Georgia State Agricultural Society, after quite an extended investigation of the point in question, came to the conclu- sion that the nature of the land decided whether it was best to leave one or three stalks in a'hill — and that matter had to be tested by each one for himself on his own farm — no general rule on the subject could be laid down. It is altogether probable that besides the nature of the land, the length or shortness of the season would have a controlling influence. Mr. Barnett's observations Avere made prin- cipally in the middle portions of the " cotton belt." One of the best farmers in Eastern Virginia says: The land for cotton plant- ing should be closely broken from four to six inches deep, according to quality. Light soft land need not be broken at so great a depth as stiff close land. If you have coarse barn-yard manure, it should be spread on the land before breaking; but if fine, Avell rotted manure, it is best to put it in drills, Avhich should be marked off a distance in this section of country of from three to four feet, varying accord- ing to the richness of the soil, giving the widest distance to the richest land; but the usual distance does not \ r ary far from three feet. The rows should be laid off with a shoA^el plow or trowel hoe; and if you cannot do better, a single-horse turn plow will answer pretty well. If I have fine, Avell rotted manure, or intend using 312 PROFITABLE FARMING. Peruvian guano or strongly ammoniated manures, I put it along in this row and turn two streaks over it with a one-horse turn plow, which will only make a small ridge, which, while fresh and light, should be opened with a wooden hoe, made by trimming a piece of hard wood, two feet long, in tbe shape of a hand-saw file, and placing an upright in about the middle, so that when placed in a plow-beam and run on top the ridges the rows will be opened not more than two inches deep^ and quite sharp at the bottom, so that the seed when sown will be in a narrow, straight row. If using any of the superphosphates, I sow it in this row with the seed. About three bushels of seed to the acre will be found sufficient. The seed COTTON. 313 may bo rubbed in wood-ashes, lime, plaster, or dirt, by pouring a little water over them and then rolling them -with a -weed-hoe, in order to divest them of the lint that holds them together, and thereby enable you to scatter them uniformly along the rows. This being done, run a board over the rows to cover them up, which should bo done as shallow as possible. When my cotton is covered, I like to see a good percentage of the seed on the top of the rows. The plow to cover them may be made by taking a piece of scantling or plank, two feet long, and mortice or nail it to an upright piece eigh- teen inches long, with a tenon to go through a plow-beam, and run it gently over the rows. Care should be taken to secure good seed, and regularity in sowing is 314 PROFITABLE FARMING. n% essential, as much depends on a good stand of cotton to secure a full crop. The cotton being up, the cultivation should be commenced as early as pos- sible; first, by scraping off the ridges with a cotton scraper, or by running the bar of a single horse plow each side of the cotton, just as shallow as the plow Avill turn. This will assist you very much in cutting the cotton out to a stand, as it leaves the cotton on a narrow row, and if done by good plowmen will be quite straight; but avoid letting your plow go deep, or you will have diffi- culty in keeping your cotton from fall- ing after chopping it out. The seasons in this climate being very short and uncertain, every facility should be afforded the cotton, to make an early start; the sooner the cotton can be placed in a growing condition the better. Commence cutting it out just as soon as it is done coming up. No. 2 or 3 weed hoes should be used for that purpose. I usually run over it rap- idly, leaving several stalks in. a bunch, always following the cutting out with the plow to put a little dirt to the cot- ton to keep it from falling in case of wind or drifting rain. The Cato plow I mostly use for this purpose, but a shovel plow or one of old-fashioned trowel hoes with a little mould-board is about the best thing I ever tried for that purpose. As soon as over gapping it out, I commence thinning to a stand, leaving one stalk according to the width of the hoe, and when at wider distance, two stalks. Your cotton thinned and worked, you have done the most difficult part in cultivation. The plowing for cotton need not be very deep, but thorough and close, keeping the land well stirred to keep down the grass. You will find it necessary to plow your cotton about four times, and to go over it about once with the hoes after it is thinned to a stand. You should plow your cotton over as 'COTTON. 315 soon as possible after heavy rains or wet spells, but it should not bo plowed when the land is too wet; but there are some years that the seasons are so wet this can- not be avoided. In tbe cultivation of the crop I gradually draw out my plows. The last plowing should bo quite shallow, only sufficiently deep to destroy the grass. Cotton does not require much rain, so that in its cultivation you should avoid leaving it in a condition that the water will settle around the roots. I mean by this that you should keep the middles plowed out so that the water will settle in the middle of the rows. When the cotton begins to spread over the row so that you cannot cultivate it longer without injury, or when the bolls begin to form to considerable extent, the cultivation should cease, always leaving your cotton clear of grass. There are two opinions about topping cotton. My own is that some seasons it is an advantage, Avhile in others it is a disadvantage. In a wet season it is cer- tainly a disadvantage, as it will cause the cotton to sucker, and thereby do more harm than good. When the seasons are regular, I think topping an advantage; and of a dry year I think it does no good, as the cotton will not be apt to be of too large growth. Half a bale of cotton in this section I think at least an aver- age crop, but we sometimes get as much as a bale to the acre. The same land may be put in cotton for many years without injury to the land or detriment to the crop, by proper care and judicious fertilizing. The season for picking cotton in this section commences about the 1st Octo- ber, and about one hundred and fifty pounds is a fair day's Avork. LINTLESS COTTON. Gerald McCarthy, Botanist, North Carolina Experiment Station, says: This is what is usually known as a "Sport" in the vegetable kingdom, and will not pro- duce seed true to the new type. The composition of cotton seed is as follows : One thousand pounds of seed contains about fifteen pounds potash and sixteen pounds phosphoric acid, all of which comes from the soil, and must be rej^laced with fertilizer. According to latest statistics, the farmers of the cotton belt annu- ally produce about 2,300,000 tons of cotton seed, which they sell to the mills for export to the Northern States and Europe for about $18,000,000. To replace the potash and phosphoric acid contained in this quantity of seed they are compelled to pay for commercial fertilizers $46,500,000. In other words, they deliberately throw away, or make a present to, Northern and European stock-raisers and rail- road companies of $28,500,000. These figures tell the whole story. They explain why, throughout the cotton belt, the houses are generally unpainted, the surroundings wretched, an d poverty apparent everywhere. It must be a very wealthy country that can afford to throw away annually as much money as the cotton planters do. But the above figures are really much below the real amount. Not only does the cotton farmer sell his seed for less than one-third of its value, but he afterwards buys back at exorbitant prices, under the name of "lard," the oil contained in the seed, and the meal as Northern beef, which has probably been fed upon cotton seed. Considering the manurial value of cotton seed, and the market price the farmer gets for it, the business is sufficiently ruinous even when the farmer sells 31fi' PROFITABLE FARMING. his lint for a fair price. To go into the business of growing lintless seed is not a very encouraging prospect for either the farmer or the country. Intelligent and prudent farmers will continue to grow for lint, and strive, by careful selection, to improve both quantity and quality of the staple, while reducing, if possible, the weight of seed to the bale. They will return their seed directly to the soil, or better, feed it to cattle or sheep, and save the manure. If, when cotton is "laid by," cow-peas, burr-clover, rye, or buckwheat be sown in the furrows, the latter crops will cover the ground and keep the land free from weeds. When the cotton-pickers have finished their work, cattle or sheep may be turned into the field to consume the crop sown in the furrows, or this may be allowed to stand till spring and be plowed under. In this Avay, with the purchase of very little commercial fertilizer, the maximum crops of lint cotton may be secured and the land kept in good heart. TWENTY-EIGHT BALES OF COTTON ON TWELVE ACRES OF LAND. During the cotton season a correspondent of the Southern Planter frequently heard of a wonderful patch of cotton on Mr. John P. Gray's farm. He says, in the March, 1890, number of this excellent journal : I have secured an ac- count thinking it might stimulate others, particularly those who work small farms with their own hands. If every crop this year were cut down one-half, and the same time and manure and attention given to the other half, there would be no diminution in yield and more satisfaction. The yield of cotton is won- derful in this case, but others have nearly reached it Mr. A. M. DeLoach, of Stafford's, made on thirteen acres fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five bales of 500 pounds each. The land was cow-penned at the rate of two acres per year. "We have too few stock; no cattle, no prosperity. There should be three where there is only one cow now, and 1,000 sheep where there is now only one. Mr. Gray will use 1,000 pounds of fertilizer this season and fifty bushels of cotton seed, and Mr. DeLoach will work his field for all it is worth. Who will follow suit? Here is Mr. Gray's account: Broke the land flush with six-inch turn plow, deep, in latter part of Febru- ary. Then laid off in five-foot rows, very deep. Put down fifty bushels green cotton seed per acre; measured acres twenty-one row to task. Covered the seed lightly with board on plow stock. Let stand until the 6th of April, and put down two hundred pounds of Georgia State Grange fertilizer to the measured acre on the top of the seed. Then I put four furrows, with seven-inch turn plow to the bed, moderately shallow; opened for planting with small, short bull tongue. Dropped seed by hand thirty inches apart in hills; covered with log drag on the 10th of April; then on the 1st of May before it was fairly up, plowed very shal- lowwith twenty-six inch sweep, four furrows to the row, and replanted; stand poor. On May 20th, ploAved every other middle very shallow, and put in the siding furrow two hundred pounds of the following mixture: Equal quantities of cotton seed meal, acid phosphate and kainit to the measured acre. On the 1st of June, same in the other middle, going behind each plowing with hoes, and chopping anything that should not remain in cotton, going over three acres per day with the hand; thinned to stand, which was never very good. On the 12th of June put four furrows to every other middle with twenty-six inch sweep, very Bhallow; on the 24th, four furrows to every other middle with twenty-six inch An Ante-Bellum Planter. (317) 318 PROFITABLE FARMING. sweep, very shallow. July 6tli, the other middle same way; on the 18th same as to other middle. The cotton hy this time would hide a medium size mule. Did not plow any more. After the land was broken all plowing was very shallow. Season was good through April, dry in May, until middle of July, and then excessively hot and wet. After very heavy rains — 13th, 14th, and 15th — all the crop on place, except the twelve acres described, scalded and stopped growing and made nothing after that. But the twelve acres did not drop a form or leaf or change color, and grew on steadily until September 15. Then the caterpillars left nothing but stalks and bolls. I am confident the patch would have made one-half bale more to the acre if the caterpillar had not attacked it. The land was old and worn. Ten years ago I commenced to manure it. Soil is sandy, mixed a little with clay in spots; subsoil yellow clay, varying from six inches to three feet in the three acres. The following is the cost: Work, plowing and hoeing, - - - - - - $96 80 Cotton seed for manure, ------ 120 50 Guano (600 pounds to acre), 79 20 Cost of picking, - - 190 50 $486 00 I gathered twenty-eight bales weighing five hundred and five pounds, includ- ing bagging (jute) and ties. Averaging net $45 — the twenty-eight making $1,260, and the net on twelve acres being $774. I planted Peterkin seed, hybridized with the Jones big boll. TSTEW VARIETIES OF COTTON. During the last year the Mississippi Experiment Station has grown twenty- five varieties of cotton as a test of comparative yield and values. All were grown on similar soils and received the same treatment, but the yields varied from 157.6 to 396.3 pounds of lint cotton per acre. The proportion of lint to seed varied from 26.5 per cent, in the "Dickson's Improved" to 36.3 percent, in the "Cham- pion Cluster," and the average number of ripened bolls from lOf on "The Pre- mium" to 32§ on the "Peterkin." The average yield of lint cotton was 301.9 pounds per acre, while the average of the five varieties giving the largest yields was 379.2 pounds per acre, as follows: Truitt's Premium, 396.3 Ferrell's Prolific, -------- 395. Jones's Long Staple Prolific, ------ 385.2 Excelsior, --------- 335.5 Dickson's Improved, ------- 352.2 This work is to be continued during the present year, and it is desired to add other new and promising varieties to those used last year. Parties having varie- ties of cotton which are in any way superior to the old and well-known sorts, will confer a favor by writing to me and giving description. S. M. Tracy, Director Experiment Station, Agricultural College, Miss. February 6, 1890. COTTON. 3T9 HON. PARISH C FURMAN ON INTENSIVE FARMING. In the life-history of every people, as in that of each individual, sooner or later, there conies a timo when confronted l>y an onward rushing wave of adverse circumstances, all the intelligence, courage, and self-reliance of the individual, all tho patriotism, culture, and self-devotion of the people are called into active and unswerving exercise in order that from the nettle danger may be plucked the flower safety, and that the wave threatening devastation and destruction may, once overmounted, become the friendly tide that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. It is through such an ordeal that Ave, the people of the South, are passing to-day. Within a period of time so short that it seems that yesterday all our most cher- ished institutions have been swept away like leaves upon the bosom of a mountain torrent, leaving us, as the heritage with "which to begin as it were anew our struggle for existence, only our homes and our honor — the one as pure and untarnished as the driven snow — the other, alas! in bub too many instances, charred by a cruel war. Never, perhaps, in the history of the world have circumstances surround- ing a people appeared so dark and gloomy as those that have latterly enveloped iJs. For us, it has truly seemed that each day dawned upon a change, and every sun set upon new miseries. Our heart-strings torn and bleeding with the loss of many of our bravest and wisest, with every representative of value that had been established among us swept from existence, without any manufacturing interests, we were forced to turn to our Southern soil, and to that alone, as the source from whence the material must be obtained with which to rebuild our shattered for- tunes. Nobly has that soil responded, and although at first our progress was slow and uncertain — though dark was the night and lowering the clouds by which we were surrounded — without the light of even one feeble star to guide our falter- ing footsteps, yet at last, thank God, the night is passing away, and through a rift in the clouds, that are fast dispersing and disappearing, the glorious sunlight of a new and perfect day is gilding with its golden beams the hilltops and valleys of our native land once more. For us, old customs, old methods, old systems have become as memories, suggesting to us in their connection with a past that can never be reproduced, associations that are both pleasant and mournful to the soul. The old South, with its peculiar institutions, its marked individualities, is gone forever. New methods, new habits, new systems are daily asserting and establishing themselves among us, and it is to a comparison of the old and the new that I invite your attention to-day; for it is only from the record of our mistakes in the past that •wisdom can ever be derived to lead us to success in the future. Great as are the changes that have occurred with us in every department, in none have they been so marked and complete as in our entire system of agriculture, and in no depart- ment was the necessity for a change more pressing — nay, more vitally essential. An examination into the methods and customs almost universally in vogue among the farmers of ante-bellum days shows that these were deserving of the name of system upon one score only, and that was systematic destruction, every- thing to tear down — nothing looking towards building up. With our fore-fathers the history of agriculture was the repetition of an oft-told tale — the plow ever following fast upon the axe. Their system of agriculture looked only to immediate jeturns, not to ultimate results. 320 PROFITABLE FARMING. When this country, with its untold resources, was delivered into their hands a priceless heritage indeed was theirs. How have they accounted for the trust? After retaining its possession and use uninterruptedly for nearly a century, in what condition have they transferred it to us, their descendants? Is it improved, beautified — with its hill-sides laughing with fatness and its valleys teeming with accumulated fertility? Ask of the intelligent traveler who has just completed a journey through the cotton belt of the South, and what think you will be his answer? He will tell you of a land from the face of which the magnificent forests of oak, ash, hickory and pine, that once adorned the hills and beautified the valleys, have disappeared, leaving in their stead a ragged growth of old-field pine, interspersed with patches of broom-sedge and briars, and seamed and scarred with gullies of every conceivable shape and size. He will tell you that the brooks and streamlets, once perennial, now upon the recurrence of every summer dry up and disappear, leaving the beds over which they were wont to sing and sparkle, as deposits for mud and organic matter, rotting and festering under the rays of our semi-tropical sun — fruitful sources of miasma and disease. He will tell you that our rivers, once teeming with the finest fish, their waters pure and clear as those of the fountains from which they took their source, now roll on, dark, muddy, repulsive — their waters laden with the fertility that every rain bears into their bosoms from our denuded and already exhausted soil, making of them fit abodes only for the scavengers of the sea, tbe mud-cat and the gar. He will tell you that our country looks prema- ^^^^?§^P turely old and that there must be something .radically HmaooFootEoiier. wrong in a system of agriculture that has already wrought such disastrous results, in a section peculiarly favored with advantages of soil and climate, and that promises to develop under more favorable auspices into the garden spot of the world. Do we not realize fully the force and effect of these statements. Under the old system, before the war, was not the truth brought home to us by the yearly hegira to the fresh and untried regions of the West, that annually deprived us of many of our most valuable and enterprising citizens, who, perceiv- ing that their lands were failing, and the fresh or forest land in the older States having all been pre-empted and cleared, sold out and sought fresh fields and pastures new, rather than attempt to build up and restore their paternal acres. But there is a limit to even this. The Western lands, then a terra incognita, are now in their turn settled and in cultivation, and are in many sections, notably in Mississippi, as I learn from reliable authority, even with their wonderful natural fertility, beginning to give warning by decreasing productiveness, that they cannot always stand the drain of our unnatural system. In every section of the South, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, the farmers are awakening to the fact that the system of our fore-fathers was ruinous to themselves and the prospects of their children. While they recognize and indorse the principle so grandly illustrated by thousands of their brethren during the dark days from 18G0 to 1865, that it is right to die that our country may live, yet they have followed a policy at home that is slowly but surely draining from that country its heart-blood drop by drop; they have been allowing their country COTTON. 321 to die, and aiding and abetting in that death, that they themselves may starve. At last they have become keenly alive to this great fact and every impulse of patriotism and self-interest prompt them to put a stop at once and forever to so unnatural and unfortunate a system. They admit that their lands are daily becoming poorer; they recognize the fact that this is an evil, and that the great question of the day in this country for all classes, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant is, what is the source of this evil, and where is the remedy? It is a maxim of the law, based upon common sense and experience, that for every wrong there is a remedy, but before the remedy can be applied the cause from whence the evil springs must be definitely ascer- tained, for that once removed, the evil, which is but its visible manifestation, can no longer exist. In this case the cause is, I am satisfied, to be found in a system directly and necessary resulting from the peculiar cir- cumstances surrounding the Southern planter of the olden time. • From the very nature of things the Southern planter was foreordained to be an extensive farmer. With him everything was done on a magnificent scale. He was Hindoo churka Gin. literally monarch of all he surveyed, with authority within the law as abso- lute as the autocrat of all the Russias. The possession of hundreds and thou- sands of slaves dependent upon him for food, care and protection, drove him to the utilization of their labor in the cultivation of large areas of land. His business necessarily became so cumbersome and its demand for time ana attention in all its branches so irksome that the management of its details (those all important items in scientific agriculture) was inevitably entrusted to agents, and on every Southern plantation in the days of slavery the overseer, as the agent was called, became a standing institution, as essential to the regular working of the farm machinery as Cuffee himself. These overseers, without exception, were an uneducated class of men, energetic, with fair executive ability, but entirely devoid of those educational advantages, absolutely essential where improved methods, based upon an exact and scientific system are to be introduced and observed as the ground-work for an advanced and intelligent system of hus- bandry. To them, as a rule, the supervision of the farm work, from seed time to harvest, was entrusted, and the attention of the proprietor was divided between the general management of his finances, a search after recreation, in travel, at home and abroad, and an active interest in the success of his political party, and friends — for Southern agriculture of the olden time proved a better school for statesmen than for farmers. Under such a system diversified agriculture was out of the question, for it requires a division of labor necessarily employing skill and training, and fer- quently demanding the use of improved implements and machinery, and above all, calling for the constant presence and intelligent direction of an educated brain, such as the average overseer could never expect to possess. Southern agri- culture, therefore, resolved itself largely into the cultivation of the two great crops of the country, corn and cotton, and it is to the constant, unvarying production of these, that we may trace the source of all our woes. Labor costing nothing, 322 PROFITABLE FARMING except the expense of feeding and clothing the laborer, the corn crop furnishing the hog and hominy, the favorite food of the negro, and the cotton was left as the money crop, always easily and certainly convertible into cash. Under this system the last thing ever taken into consideration was the effect upon the soil; that planter was considered the most successful who could exhibit the greatest produc- tion to the hand or laborer, and not to the acre or given amount of land; and until the introduction of Peruvian guano a few years before the war the use of manure, except upon the garden, or the turnip patch, was an unknown factor in Southern agriculture. As a natural result there has been a steady and rapid deterioration in the productiveness of our cultivated lands. Even with slave labor, agriculture in the older settled portions of the South, where the lands had long been and continuously in cultivation, was becoming unremunerative; and when, after emancipation, our planters, loath to leave the old rut, and wedded to old habits, undertook to hire their labor, and farm as before, the result was not slow in making itself known, by working out the universal bankruptcy of all who attempted it. It has been thoroughly demonstrated that in the older settled portions of the South the extensive system as formerly practiced must be abandoned, and in many sections a system of tenantry for a stated rent, or farming on shares, whereby the labor of the freedman is put against the use of this land, has been adopted ; but this is only temporary, as the wear of the land is greater here under Cuffee's mode of culture when farming for himself, uninstructed, and neglected by the land owner, than when the same darkey Avorked it as a slave under the watchful eye of the overseer. There can be no permanency in any system of agriculture that fails to build up the soil, and keep it at least at a certain standard. This can only be accomplished with us by a change from extensive to intensive farming — by a reduction of our acreage and an increase of its productiveness. In other words, we must plant less land and make more on it. Just here lies the solution of our troubles. But methinks I note a suggestion in the form of a query shaping itself in the minds of more than one of my hearers: "I can easily plant less land, but how am I to make more on it? There's the rub." I tell you to feed your land and your land will feed you. The return in increased and sustained power for labor and service upon the part of the animal, that you secure from the food that you give your horse, is not more certain, immediate, and satisfactory, than will be the increased productiveness of your land in its yield of any given crop, in return for plant food furnished in quantity and quality suited to the requirements of that crop. You must feed your land, but you must not do so blindly but intelligently. Success may be attained once by accident, but permanent results are found only attendant upon a practice based upon correct theory. With many intelligent farmers the idea has been persistently maintained that in case of imperfect pro- duction, the deficiency being in the soil, soil analysis should be resorted to as the most direct and economical means for acquiring that knowledge necessary to enable them to restore to the soil those elements in which it is lacking; and this theory which, though specious, is incorrect and impractical, has really been a great stumbling block in the way of our proper agricultural advancement. Upon this point, I desire to give you in full the opinion of George Yille, of France, the man selected by Napoleon III. as the man in all France to take charge of the experimental farm of the empire at Vincennes. Ho says: One COTTON. 323 would think that a chemical analysis -which has been pushed so far in our day and whose methods have acquired at the same time so much delicacy and cer- tainty, ought at least to give us a means of estimating with certainty the richness of the soil, and so guiding us in the choice of the manure best suited to its nature. There is none, however, and I defy the most skillful chemist to say in advance what will be the return from earth submitted to him, and what manures are most appropriate. A few words will explain the reason why chemistry is powerless to furnish us with these indications. Let us suppose a soil containing both quartz sand and feldspar sand among its mechanical elements. For vegetation these two sands are equivalent, although the first is from silica, and nothing but silica, while the second is a silicate based upon lime, potash and soda, besides containing phosphate of lime in feeble but very appreciable Quantities. Here then are two bodies whose composition, in spite of simil- itude of exterior, have no analogy, and which, however, are equivalent in an agricultural point of view, because the feldspar being insoluble in water its role in regard to vegetation descends to that of the quartz sand, that ♦s to say to a simple mechanical element. But for the chemist there are no insoluble bodies. So he confounds in one whole the potash, lime, and phosphate of lime \/&" that the feldspar sand contains, though they are of no use in vegetation, with the products of the same nature cSmie cotton dewier, which we have ranged under the class of active assimilable elements. Thus is explained the insufficiency of the signs Avith which chemistry can furnish us. You cannot, therefore, by analysis of your soil find your way to properly feed your land, because, in a mixture of minerals, the chemist is powerless to dis- tinguish between those that are active in regard to plants, and those that are inert. Let us, therefore, come to look upon our soil as being what it really is — only the vehicle for making our crops, furnished, it is true, by an all-wise Creator with a supply, greater or less in different soils and different localities, of the dif- ferent elements of fertility essential to plant growth ; but a supply, limited at best, and that must be constantly renewed as a drain is made upon it, to prevent final exhaustion and sterility. Having assumed this stand-point, does not our way become clear? Is it not evident that without a draft upon the natural sup- ply or deposit in our bank, so to speak, the capital will not be disturbed? while on the other hand, common sense and experience both tell us that if continual drafts are made without any return, our deposit must sooner or later be entirely exhausted? Whence, then, comes the drain? Clearly from the crops. If, then, we are able to ascertain what it takes to make a given crop; Avhat organic and inorganic elements, and in what proportion of each, and can further determine accurately in what form to restore these to the soil whence they have been with- drawn so as most economically and effectually to furnish them as plant food, then the problem is solved, and we ought, in practice, to be able to build up and improve our lands under a continued and unbroken cultivation. With our Southern farmers much discredit has been thrown upon the chemical manures, Avhich, pro- perly used, are invaluable, by their improper or one-sided use, first as Peruvian guano, and latterly by what are knoAvn as commercial fertilizers. These are phos- phatic ammoniated manures, and you will pardon me for quoting the opinion of 324 PROFITABLE FARMING. Hand Puliiug. an eminent scientist of Germany, Dr. Franz Guroberg, as touching the effect of their indiscriminate use. The doctor says: "There is no doubt about the fact that the application of bone dust, as well as other phosphates, to the soil, may and will produce large yields for several years, the soil, by reason of such application (mainly in connection with nitrogen) being stimulated to more vigorous action. The soil yields largely of the nourishment, which, in addition to phosphates, all plants necessarily require, but as no compensation is allowed for the absorption of the former, we but too often experience the result that where a soil receives only phosphate manu- ring for a length of time, it will become eventually entirely unproductive. Phos- phate manuring only restores to the soil the one, omitting the other nourishments needed for the active thriving of the plants, and as a consequence the soil and crops deteriorate in quantity and quality. One- sided manurement will not produce satis- factory results for any length of time." The experience of our farmers in the use of these phosphatic ammoniated ma- nures exactly supports the truth of the doctor's assertion. "When first intro- duced all who tried them were delighted and thought they had found a bonanza indeed. So long as the elements essential to plant growth that the fertilizer failed to furnish, and that therefore had to be forthcoming from the soil, held out, not a dissenting voice was heard as to their value, and the business of the manu- facture and sale rapidly assumed gigantic proportions. But after a while the farmers found that, all at once, without any premonition, lands upon which fertili- zers had been continuously used, began to show evident signs of exhaustion, and in the case of the cotton crop, rust, which is but the result of improper nutrition, or starvation, made its dreaded appearance. To meet the exigency many farmers doubled and quadrupled their application of fertilizers, but, to their astonish- ment, with no visible improvement; and not understanding the cause of the sudden change, many of them believed that the acids in the chemicals had poisoned the land. In this they were mistaken. Most plants are very composite. the cotton plant peculiarly so, requiring nine different elements, organic and inorganic, for its perfect production. Of these commercial manures furnish only four, leaving the others to be supplied by the soil or atmosphere. The moment any one of these is exhausted, at once the effect becomes apparent in a sickly condition of the plant and a marked reduction in production. This, and not the presence of the acid, is the cause of the trouble that has puzzled the brain of so many of our farmers. In proof of it, take, as I have done, the cotton plant, have it submitted to analysis, ascertain its component parts, and from these com- pound a manure that shall be a perfect food for the plant, apply enough to meet all tli3 requirements of the crop, and I Avill guarantee that rust "will disappear at once and never more make its appearance so long as the proper supply of perfect COTTON. 325 plant food is furnished upon this system. As an evidence of the wonderful increase in production directly resulting from the use of a perfect manure, I will give the official figures, taken from the official reports of the French empire, giving the difference in yield between the natural land, the same laud manured with lot manure, and again when fertilized with a perfect plant food: From a field in Champagne, cultivated for the first time with an application of 71,000 pounds manure to the acre, nineteen bushels of wheat were raised, while, by the use of a complete fertilizer, the return was raised to forty-seven bushels; from an acre of silicious earth in the department of Aisne, with thirty- six thousand pounds of manure, 11^ bushels of wheat were obtained, with the perfect manure 40^ bushels, the same earth without manure producing 3.60 bushels; and in the department of the Drome, on a pebbly hill broken up for the purpose, the earth without manure yielded 4.33 bushels to the acre, with thirty- four thousand pounds of manure it gave 11.41 bushels, and with the complete fertilizer the return was 43.11 bushels. Nearer home, upon the scrubby pine lands of Middle Georgia, I myself, by the use of a perfect cotton manure, have in four years raised the production of •sixty acres of land from eight bales of cotton, to seventy bales of cotton and 500 bushels of oats, and the increased value of the land alone will more than pay for every dollar's worth of manure used upon it during the period, leaving the crops — the cost of working which under the intensive system was very small — almost clear profit, proving incontestably that the results from scientific agriculture in the world are no more certain and satisfactory than with us on this side of the Atlantic, for correct principles are universal in their application and results. I have asserted that in practice the old or extensive system has clearly demon- strated itself a failure, because it has rapidly impoverished our lands, and has thereby made agriculture unremunerative, driving from its pursuit those of our young men who have brains and energy, and making of it only a dernier resort of those who having failed at everything else are pronounced fit to be only farmers. On the other hand, I assert that the intensive system builds up our lands and offers to the young men of the country with limited means, but possessed of energy, education, and industry, by far the most inviting field for enterprise and labor opened up to the youth of this generation — a field in which they at once and at the same time may achieve their own ease and independence, and compel the assurance that the future of their country has opened out into a vista that grows broader and more beautiful as it reaches further and still further onward into the realms of the great unknown. Let us consider these propositions and the proof given to establish their truth, for if true all must admit their vital importance. The first is, that our Southern lands are becoming poorer under the existing, or extensive, system. This no one will deny. The second is, that the intensive system is able at once to meet and remove this evil — to stop at once the wear and tear and consequent exhaustion, and more than this, to rebuild and restore our worn and wasted lands, so that they may once more feast our eyes with fields of golden grain, and gladden our hearts with granaries that groan under the accu- mulated burden. Whence, then, proceeds this wear and tear that causes the exhaustion? Its source is clearly not natural but artificial, for nature never tears down, she always 326 PROFITABLE FARMING. builds up; and in recognition of this fact the farmer turns his land out to rest, as he calls it, in order that nature may be allowed an opportunity to revive its failing powers. The trouble comes, first, from a continual withdrawal from the soil of min- eral or elementary matter by successive crops without any return until the natural supply, which, in the case of mineral matter, nature is powerless to reproduce, is exhausted or so reduced as to furnish an insufficient supply of available material for plant food; and, second, from the loss mechanically, caused by our tropical rains and burning summer sun and winds, in washing away the finer particles of our soil, and drying out the humus or organic matter from the soil, both of which losses are aggravated by our shallow system of culture, keeping the surface soil always loose and clear of the weeds and grass that nature strives to place as a car- pet upon the surface to guard against loss by evaporation. Saw Gin, A. D. 1794. Under the intensive system the dram upon the soil by the crops is at once removed, for that system pre-supposes the supply in advance of an amount of food fully sufficient to the requirements of the crop, and this plentiful supply of plant food in itself produces a rapid and vigorous growth upon the part of the crop — say cotton — that causes it to quickly shade the ground, protecting it from the sun and winds, and thereby largely removing in part the second cause of trouble. The rapid growth of the plant also, under the complete system, which is won- derful, causes the earth to be quickly filled with a net work of rootlets, holding it together and preventing washing, and a succession of crops, one following imme- COTTON. 327 diately upon the removal of the other, gives quick and satisfactory dividends, and keens a growing crop constantly upon the surface, protecting it from loss hy wash- ing or evaporation Under the intensive system the rapidity of plant growth is almost incredible. Last year, after raising a crop of oats, I planted the land on the 9th day of Juno in cotton. In August I pulled up a stalk of tho cotton to exhibit it in connection with my address before tho Georgia State Agricultural Society. Just fifty-nine days after the seed were deposited in the ground, and if then measured five feet and three inches in height, and had on it one hundred and twenty-six bolls, blooms and squares. You can readily understand how a crop growing as rapidly as this would soon cover the land and protect it in every way. Four yearr ago I took a piece of sandy land, loose in texture and easily washed, lying upon a steep hillside — so steep, in fact, that it is neces- sary to have the crops carried part of the way up the hill to the wagon at harvest. My object in Selecting it was to see if by a continuous succes- sion of crops it was not practicable to stop the washes, which were very numerous, and in some places more than two feet in depth, and bring the land into good condition. I began by planting oats, followed at once by RoiierGin, a. d. ua. corn and peas; first filling the gullies with pine tops and ploughing over them. I fertilized each crop with manure suited to its requirements, and kept the land in continual cultivation, raising every year on it three crops, as above stated, and to-day its productiveness is increased four-fold and the surface is smooth and unbroken, without any sign of a gully apparent. From these illustrations, drawn from my own experience, you can see that the intensive sj^stem is able to remove the sources from which spring the great evils that so sorely afflict our agricultural interests. The only other question left for consideration, and one with which I am fre- quently confronted, is; " Granted that it can do all this, does it pay? Is it not too expensive for general adoption? Is it within the means of the average farmer?" To answer these queries I will draw upon my own experience and give you the figures covering my five years' experiment on sixty acres of land. Five years ago I selected sixty acres of the poorest land in Middle Georgia, five acres being red clay, twenty-five sandy surface, with clay sub- soil, near the surface, and about one-half or thirty being sandy, piney woods land, without any clay within several feet of the surface. I cul- tivated this carefully the first year without manure, and made on it eight bales of cotton. The second year I applied five hundred pounds of com- post per acre, consisting of six bushels cotton seed, six bushels stable and lot manure, and one hundred and forty pounds of chemical, costing two dollars per acre, making the cost of manure used on the sixty acres $120. The crop was twelve bales cotton, averaging four hundred and seventy pounds, and bringing $4? per bale — giving four bales of cotton increase, or in money $188, and leaving 32S PROFITABLE FARMING a profit on its use, after paying for the manure, of $68, or about sixty per cent. The third year I doubled the manure, using one thousand pounds per acre, costing on the sixty acres, in the aggregate, $240, and the crop nearly doubled, rising to twenty-three bales, and giving an increase of fifteen bales, worth $675, with a profit from the use of the manure of $435, or nearly two hundred per cent, on the money invested in manure. The fourth year I doubled the application again, with an aggregate cost of $480, and this time the crop was a little over doubled, being for this year forty-seven Dales; the increase over the first year being thirty- nine bales, worth $1,755; leaving a profit of $1,275, or nearly three hundred per cent, on the investment. The fifth or last year I again doubled the manure, using four thousand pounds to the acre, costing altogether $960, and the crop harvested was seventy bales cotton and five hundred bushels oats — five acres of the land having been planted first in oats and afterwards in cotton, with a yield of five hundred bushels oats and seven and two-thir s bales of cotton. Putting the oats at sixty cents per bushel, the money value of this crop was $3,450, leaving a profit on investment in manure of ,f 2,490, or a per centage of profit of nearly two hun- dred and sixty per cent. You will observe that the per centage of profit was not quite so great this year as last, but the return in money was greater as there was twice as much invested, but the profit in the use of the manure in increased production represents only one branch of the profit. While I was increasing my crops and receiving heavy dividends, I was building up my land. "When I began, two hundred dollars would have been a large price for the sixty acres, to-day I could sell it for fifty dollars an acre; so that twenty-eight hundred dollars has been made by the increase in value of the land, but the manure used during the time only cost in the aggregate $1,800, so the enhanced value in the land pays for the manure and leaves a thou- sand dollars as profit. Again, to make seventy bales of cotton and five hundred bushels of oats with the average production of Georgia or Alabama lands, will require at least two hundred and fifty acres of land, and it will take at least eight mules and labor in proportion to cultivate it. I cultivated my crop with two mules, thus saving the investment of nine hundred dollars in that most undesir- able of all property, a mule, when run by Cuffee as a freeman, saving the labor of a six-mule farm, and the feed of six mules; really, under the intensive system, I cultivate my sixty acres of land with less labor than a crop of sixty acres required under the old system. I plant late, and all good farmers know that means less work, and my crop grows so rapidly that it, as it were, works itself, and I soon have to lay it by, whereas, under the bumble-bee cotton system, it is a hard fight all the year between the cotton and the grass, and the farmer is kept constantly digging to save his crop. Again, I am able to employ and secure the best and most effective labor. There are two ways of controlling men, one by the hope of reward, and the other by fear of punishment. I have found that by holding out the inducements to my laborers of extra wages in the event that a certain fixed product is obtained that the quality and efficiency of their work is greatly improved. Again, they take a pride in the crop, and are as careful and constant in their efforts to secure a maximum result as I myself. If, then, the intensive system is preferable to the old or extensive, why, you will ask, is its adoption not more universal? Remember that Rome was not COTTON. 320 built in a day. It takes time to revolutionize the habits of thought and action into which a people have crystalized by tho practice of three generations. But I note in the eagerness for thorough practical information as to tho new system that every day is becoming more extended and more earnest among our people, a golden bow of promise spaning the horizon that overhangs tho destinies of the new South. And I predict here, to-day, that we have already entered upon an era of success and prosperity such as has never yet been recorded for any people in the annals of history. To us nature has proffered her choicest blessings in boundless profusion. The sky that smiles upon the vine-clad hills of Scio's rocky isle is not more blue than are our Southern skies — the winds that caress the waves upon the bosom of tho dreamy iEgean are not more balmy than are Southern zephyrs. Our rivers as they rush foaming over their rocky beds on their ceaseless journey to the sound- ing sea offer to us a power of nature's own creation, needing only the intelligent control and direction of educated man to drive the machinery of industries, as yet unnumbered and untold. Our mountains hold stored away within their rugged bosoms a wealth of varied minerals, equal in supply to the demand of the united world of ages yet unborn. All that is needed for the development of these won- drous interests is educated brain, for truly is educated, skilled thought in tho brain of labor the alchemy of modern industry — turning all that it touches into gold. Our neglect as a people in the past of the advantages that nature has lav- ished upon us has been almost criminal — let us be careful to make for ourselves such a record in the future as shall serve as an expiation for that past. With the whole world paying tribute to South Carolina as eager pui-chasers of her phos- phate rock, we have sat quietly by and allowed European manufacturers to come under our very noses, transport the rock across the ocean, manufacture it and ship it back to us as their most available and profitable market. Ah ! but you say, we could not help it; we did not have the material here from which to make the sulphuric acid necessary to render the rock soluble and available. My friends, nature never does anything by halves and never makes a mistake. The scientists will tell you that iron ore is never found in working quantities without the pres- ence of coal, laid away in the great store-house of nature in close proximity, for without the coal the iron ore could never be reduced. So nature never manufactured in her wonderful laboratory the phosphate beds without a provision near at hand of a material ready at the proper time to be utilized by man in the preparation of that phosphate rock for the salvation of our worn and wasted lands. We have that material. The mountains both of Georgia and Alabama abound in pyrites ore of the finest quality, exactly suited for the production of sulphuric acid, that pi'oduct of which Liebig, the great agri- cultural chemist, said: " Show me the amount of sulphuric acid that a nation pro- duces, and I will tell you what is its advancement in the scale of civilization." The American manufacturers have heretofore ignored pyrites in the manu- facture of acid phosphate, using Sicily sulphur, a volcanic product, brought at heavy expense across the ocean, as the base from which to procure thoir acid. The English manufacturers, however, the largest and most successful manu- facturers in the world, of acid phosphate, utilize pyrites, obtained from Spain, in the manufacture of their sulphuric acid. They ship the pyrites from Spain to England — buy the Carolina rock at Port Royal and Charleston, grind it fine, 330 PROFITABLE FARMING. "§g aild " L aw8's Vet- r a nv y on , .; , q U ; V -r d 'r and m ° re m0dern ' both written ^such language i one? I? I y " nt ert f " cL • Iu "y serious cas «> e ^ploy a veterinary pnxcti- r;£ t!! J"- 1 T h ° 1S J ° a i ly qUalifi6d - If ^ u have t0 de r-nd on your own information and .judgment, after consulting your books or heed the sillv eS^fTbttTff ^ rf hb0r , 00d " h ° SS ^cfor," depend on yourse\ri" annaren? lit !!,/ ^3- b ° dy •" ^ eye ' 0r an ^^niation from a cause not So vou r m-n P T n r f besua PMr«M and such as you would admit into youi own eye if hurt or sore. If the matter be obviously not serious, and The Draft Horse £2£?2 col^W^ ^simple and m-ventnate^?Lov7lhfcau Se 25 if tntt ^iT da -n' dirty ' Clwded > teamster or groom remove Sm ' 1 I T° be ai } Matured, violent grace to the^r) « HL ^^ttoS^ZT^ ° r ^^ ^ LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 403 accumulation of them take a pocket knife and scrape the eggs off the flank and legs as a man would in shaving. This in the fall of the year. If a horse have •colic or inflammation of the bowels, keep a syringe of half a gallon capacity; inject a couple of syringefuls of warm soap suds, which may be followed by expulsion of wind and dung, also by urine; then, if not relieved, administer two ounces of lauda- num in warm water, by the mouth. If the symp- toms are still violent, bleed until the horse staggers; and if the bowels remain obstinately locked, take about two ounces of tobacco, make of it an infusion in half a gallon of hot water, and when cool enough to bear inject into the bowel. This will almost certainly be followed by ejections from the bowels. If a horse or other animal suffer a sprain or severe bruise, apply at once and continuously 01d st y leof Grooming. until relief is evident, quantities of water as hot as can be borne, which follow by cloths wrung out of hot water and steeped in equal parts of laudanum and tincture of arnica. "When colts are to be castrated, let it be done in the month of May, when about two years old. It is best to employ an experienced and successful person, but every fai'mer should learn to castrate and spay, and to caponize fowls as well. _«=-*- These operations are very simple, and easily per- formed after a few lessons by a competent oper- ator. Obviously this is not the place for a descrip- tion of the numerous breeds of horses afid their special excellences. In relation to brood mares, let them have the stallion at three years old. They make better milkers, and consequently better mothers, than if allowed to go longer un- served. Afterwards have them served every year, and never later than the eighth or ninth day after foaling. We knew of a mare belong- ing to an old farmer which got first with foal at two years, and thereafter, in fourteen successive years, produced fourteen foals that sold for over $2,500, and she did as much work as any horse on the place besides, but she was always well and kindly treated. CATTLE ON THE FARM. 'is^M^r^CT-^:: — : Patent Oruuuiu Of course the farmer must have milch cows and a good yoke of oxen and a bull, and of what sort shall they be? shall they be scrubs or some improved breed? The selection of cattle for the farm will depend upon a great variety of considera- tions, such as the locality with reference to market and to soil and climate ; the size of the farm; the lay of the land; whether level or steep; the nature of the pasture; whether the purpose be butcher's meat or dairy products; butter or milk, and other obvious considerations. We may, therefore, run over the charac- ters of the various breeds in connection with the various purposes for which they LIYK STOCK ON THE I'AKM. 405 are best adapted. A very serious mistake is quite commonly made by keeping a breed of cattle of great excellence in localities which suit them, or on farms or in localities wholly unsuited to them. This applies to all live stock, and is a consideration of very great importance. The commonest and most serious error is in selecting breeds of stock too heavy for the pastures. Farmers generally admire bigness in animals and very many times fail to reflect that scant pastures and big beasts are very ill assorted. Southdowns Avill fatten on pastures where ponderous long wools can scarcely live. Devons will thrive on pastures that will not support heavy Short-Horns. Clydesdales or Percheron Normans, or other ponderous draught horses, could not possibly live where Beach Ponies fatten and thrive and multiply. Where lands are level and fertile and blue grass makes heavy and permanent pastures, Short Horns are the best and most profitable cattle, but it wouldbe Short-Horn Bull. utterly useless to try to keep these superb beasts in the pine barren regions of the South Atlantic states. Equally out of place is the Jersey, the Ayrshire, the Devon, in the blue grass country. We are not in this place addressing the pro- fessional dairyman, nor the great grazier or feeder, but the general farmer, who pursues a mixed husbandry. If the object- be merely the production of milk, no cattle equal the Holsteins; if butter is wanted, the Jersey stands first; if the farmer wants to breed the best cattle for the yoke he must have Devons; if he wants a cow or two to give milk for his table, scouring pine thickets for pasture, and wintering under the lea of a straw-rick, "scrubs" are the cattle he is looking for. It will very often happen that the best and wisest plan for the farmer wili be to get grade cows of the breed best adapted to his wants and to keep a thorough- bred bull. In the great beef-producing region of Southwest Virginia, the average farmer keeps grade Short-Horn cows and a thoroughbred bull, or gets the service LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 407 of one from his neighbor, and there can be no doubt of the wisdom of so doing. The grade Short-Horn cows of that region are rarely surpassed at the pail, and their calves, both spayed heifers and steers, are sold as yearlings past or two-year olds past, to tbe graziers at very high figures. The farmer who keeps six or more cows does not have to seek his market; the purchaser comes to the farm and buys and drives away the young cattle. It would certainly be most unwise for the farmers of that section to give up their Short-Horns for any other cattle whatever. In Tidewater Virginia, on the other hand, a worse breed of cattle could not well be selected than the Short-Horns, for perfectly obvious reasons already mentioned and which need scarcely be repeated. Small breeds, and small breeds only, can be kept profitably in that country, not only of cattle but of all sorts of live stock. This general principle may be relied upon with full confidence. This is true of all the coastwise region from Hell Gate to Dry Tortugas, and of all similar regions in the world wherever found. The Devon, the Ayrshire, the Jersey, the Red Poll, ,x "«t resentatives to the representations of competent and disinterested authority, have become so firmly implanted that they can only be eradicated by years of patient work and great expenditures of money. Texas fever is a native malady, sometimes very destructive. But the most insidious and dangerous of bovine plagues is the imported pleuro-pneumonia, which has been deliberately allowed by the govern- ment to spread far and wide in spite of ample in- formation and earnest remonstrance from most trustworthy sources, of the calamitous results sure to ensue upon failure to grapple with the plague promptly and effectually. The writer has himself strongly urged this matter upon the dull, cold ear of Congressional committees, and members indi- | vidually, and has heard the matter urged by such 5 men as Sam Salmon, backed up by the official prayers and bcseechings of Commissioners Le Due, ■i ne jersey cow. Loring and Coliuan. Congress nor the Executive can plead want of information. If agriculturists mean that their reasonable and just demands upon the attention of the politicians, into Avhose hands the govern- ment has fallen, shall be respectfully heard and promptly heeded, they must organize for political action and show these men their teeth. Neither milch cows nor beef cattle at full pasture require other ration. When the pastures burn up in midsummer drought, or in winter when there are no pastures, cows must be liberally fed, or it will be best not to expect them to pay for their beef and the trouble of milking. If cows at the pail are to pay their way they must be always full fed. In winter they had best be at liberty in some convenient field or lot, at least during the day time, whenever the weather is not LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 409 inclement. In inclement weather and .storms they should have shelter, but their stalls must be comfortable, well ventilated, roomy, and always clean, if it is expected they are to keep healthy and pay their way at the pad. There are few places so nasty as foul cow stables; few objects so disgusting as a nasty cow. Ensilaged corn is an excellent addition to the winter ration of cattle and sheep, and it is really very cheap food, if wisely managed; wholly immature green corn stocks make ensilage little else than water and woody fibre. Corn allowed to stand until the stalk is mature and there are ears on it in the dough state form an almost complete ration. The wholly inaccurate and foolish estimates that have been made of it have been like all such stuff, misleading and mischievous. The best ensilage Weighs forty-eight pounds to the cubic foot; average quality forty-five pounds. It is very easy to obtain the cubic feet of the mass in the silo^ Polled Angus Cow. which multiply by forty-five and divide by 2,000 to obtain the numoer of short tons. Estimates of the number of tons in a silo six or eight times too high have been repeatedly published, whereby a good thing has been materially prejudiced. The question has been much argued whether beef cattle should be winter-fed in barns or open lots. In small lots it pays to winter suitable cattle in stalls. It never pays to stall wild young cattle wholly unaccustomed to restraint, for they will lose all the time, it matters not how liberally they may be fed. It does not pay to winter very large lots in stalls. The extra labor of hauling feed to them, and feeding in barns and keeping the stalls clean, and hauling and scattering the manure, is too great and too expensive. If cattle be home-bred and reasonably cared for they are scarcely subject to epidemic disease, and but little liable to even serious sporadic disorders. Heifers 410 PROFITABLE FARMING. should be bred at from eighteen months to two years. Short-Horns especially, if not bred early, frequently become over fat at pasture and difficult thereafter to get in calf, if they do not become permanently barren. In the large breeds, care should be taken in putting the cow to the bull ; serious and fatal accidents not unfrequently then occur. The writer has seen several valuable cows killed outright, and others badly crippled by the service of immense bulls. Abortion frequently prevails epidemically in herds, and especially among stabled cows. It often occurs moreover as the result of ergot or smut poison, the so styled Randall grass or meadow fescue (festuca elatior) being especially dan- gerous from that cause to all animals carrying young. The writer has satisfied himself by ample personal examination and observation that no other grass or grain produces a tenth part as much ergot as this. According to the writer's experience, the foetus is usually cast from this cause in the first few weeks ot pregnancy, often when not larger than a field-mouse. Very rarely a cow is lost from mal-position of the calf, which could only be remedied by a skillful person. Sometimes after calving the womb inverts or turns itself inside out, and is at the same time extruded from the body. This accident, commonly called in the farm- yard "wild calves," very commonly causes death from shock. Sometimes the womb contracts to the size of a child's head and remains hanging out behind the cow a disgusting sight; she had better be dead. This accident is very difficult to remedy even by a skilled veterinarian. After the organ is fully contracted amputation is sometimes successful and the animal may be fattened for the butcher. Especially when grazing on young clover before the dew is off, but sometimes without obvious cause, cattle become hoven or enormously distended with gas, and if not relieved perish in great agony. The paunch should be cut open and the imprisoned gas let out. Any person can do it. Stab the most pro- tuberant point with any sharp instrument or knife; a piece of some sort of tube may be inserted, such as a piece of elder with the pith punched out. A drench containing two or three ounces of spirits of turpentine is the best medicine. The cut in the paunch left to itself soon closes. Mercury in all forms is poisonous to cattle and more so to horses. Mercurial ointment freely applied to the surface of the body will certainly kill an ox or cow. A sick cow generally stops chewing the cud, and all sorts of abnormal remedies are resorted to for the purpose of restoring the cud. Cure the animal of her disorder, or allow her a chance to get well, and she will presently chew the cud as usual. Space can not here be spared to expose all the absurd cruelties of the ignorant pretender who assumes to be a cow doctor. This is a safe rule of practice: when in doubt what to do, give the cow the benefit of it, and let her have a chance to get well. SHEEP. The limits assigned this article leave only a brief space to consider especially sheep and swine. Sheep, well managed, pay better for the amount invested than, any other live stock. Their wool and lambs bring in income twice a year, and at times when other farm products are seldom ready for market. There is very much land all over our whole continent from which an income could be obtained and the land improved by means of sheep, and which it is difficult to suggest how else to derive any benefit from. Besides this, on every farm a moderate-sized bunch. LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 411 The South Down. of good, common ewes and a thoroughbred ram of some improved breed, will save several hundred dollars without in the least diminishing the capacity of the farm for carrying the heavier sorts of stock. The sheep merely pick up what would other- wise be lost. We farmers fill the land with a clamor against sheep-stealing curs, and beset the legislatures to tax the dogs. But who keeps the dogs? The farm- ers keep them, and allow them kept by the hired help in cabins about our premises and other cabins which we most unwisely let to shiftless negroes and other such like persons, who keep numberless curs, which, unfed at home, prowl the neighbor- hood for prey. The writer has bred Southdowns for twenty years, and never lost one by dogs. He does not suffer any clog, except his own, kept on his place, and when a stray dog comes prowling around he is severelv stung with shot — a dose which seldom requires to be repeated. Every night the sheep are put into dog-proof lots or shelters, easily made. A trained sheep-dog will drive them to where they are wanted. The writer's sheep will come to call, and very generally come up at nightfall to be put away, like fowls going to roost. The gene- ral farmer, pursuing a mixed husbandry, will find that a flock of fifty good grade ewes, with a couple of Southdown rams, will pay about five dollars each a year, or fully one hundred per cent, on their value, which will very commonly be the convenient sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, added to the income of the farm over and above all 'that would be derived from all other sources without the sheep. Moreover, an occasional fat lamb for the farmer's own table is a great addition to his "hog and hominy." It is the most digestible of meats, and very delicious, if properly butchered and served. Even with " free wool and protected blankets," no farmer need doubt that a fair-sized flock of sheep will pay for at erm of years one hundred per cent, annually on their cost and value, if Avell managed; and if there be anything which will yield a profit, even when neglected, sheep will come as near it as anything else. Every season about one-third of the best ewe lambs should be reserved to take the place of a similar number of old, unsatisfactory ewes discard- ed from the flock and sent to the butcher. The rams need not be changed until too old for service. There should be at least one ram to every twenty- five ewes. No sort of harm will result from breed- ing a good ram to grade ewes of his own get; but if any one is prejudiced, it is easy to avoid this where two rams or more are kept. The tail of every lamb dropped should be docked the second day after birth — cut to within one inch of the body. The hemorrhage is commonly trifling, it may be entirely prevented by tying a ligature of thread or twine close to the point where the tail is to be divided, tight enough to stop the circulation, which ligature should be removed after five or six hours. It does harm rather than good to castrate lambs The Cots-wold. The Merino. LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM, 413 intended for early market. If intended to bo fed to a year old or so they must be castrated. This operation is best done as soon as tbe docked tail is fairly healed over. If done at this time by a skillful person very few will be lost. Ewes occa- sionally require assistance in lambing, and the person who undertakes to render it must be patient, deliberate, and gentle, avoiding all jerking or tearing force. Ewes should all have their lambs weaned, and taken away if not sold, on a given day from six weeks to two months before they are to have the bucks. If there is one ram to twenty-five ewes, the whole flock will be impregnated within a short period, and the lambing period will be correspondingly short, the lambs will bo an even attractive lot, and sell well. Such details in the management of sheep make the difference between heavy losses and large profits. A sick sheep, it must be confessed, is a bad patient. Their diseases are diffi- cult of diagnosis, and apt to be fatal in spite of treatment. Prevention is better than cure. Weed out the defective sheep from the flock, keep them dry and clean, and they will seldom be sick. On low, undrained, marshy, and water-logged soils, it is best not to attempt to graze sheep. Dog-proof enclosures for sheep ranges are easily constructed of barbed wire or the combination wire and picket fence, which is cheaply made. In Loudoun and some other counties in Virginia dogs are taxed, and the money so raised set apart as a "sheep fund" to pay for sheep destroyed by dogs; a very good plan, but prevention is the better remedy— dog-proof fences and barn-lots, and doses of small shot, to wit. SWIXE. The one great drawback to the Keeping of swine is the so-styled hog cholera. In this matter the Federal authority has been wholly remiss. There seems to bo little doubt that this disease could be arrested by innoculation. and the government ought to under- take the work of discovering a practical method of providing and distributing the virus. What are those so-styled experimental stations worth? What are they for? Certainly not places for unfortunate gentlemen out of employment seeking a place at the hands of "the party." " The chestet white. The general farmer who keeps swine should select a boar of the thoroughbred sort best suited to his views, and grade up the herd from a strong, healthy, native and acclimated stock. Young pure bred boars, fit for service, are now to be had at very moderate prices from the professional breeders. If it be true, as doubtless it is, that the rearing and management of live stock is the most agreeable and profitable branch of modern farming, then certainly he is the best farmer who best understands this branch of the business in all its scientific and practical details. Again, we say, what are our "Agricultural Col- leges" for? What are they worth? They seem to proceed upon the idea that scientific agriculture is a kind of chemistry — a mere matter of analyses and recipes. Compared with the average "Professor of Agriculture" the average "cow-boy" is a learned doctor. Once we knew a "Professor of Agriculture," a distinguished graduate of a very famous university, being a prize scholar and star graduate of their "scientific LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 415 school," having a magnificent set of testimonials as standing in "University cir- cles" as high as the highest. But he was a stranger to the farm-yard, poor gen- tleman, and he actually delivered a lecture on a Guernsey hull as a typical Short Horn. If there is any one thing of which nothing is known in "University cir- cles" it is agriculture, either as the greatest of modern sciences, as the most important of practical arts, or as the most essential, the most ancient, and the most illustrious of human pursuits. MULE RAISING. The use of mules in the Southern States is much more common than in the Northern and New England States. Many are raised in Virginia, but the largest and finest are brought here, and further South, from Kentucky, and from other Western States. We do not see why Southern farmers cannot supply themselves with those "to the manor born" more cheaply. For many purposes, and less costly food, endurance and longevity, they are superior to the horse; and accord- ing to size and weight,- they are superior as Avork animals. Below Ave give some excellent vieAvs in regard to mule raising. Chester, in "Planter and Farmer," says: We haA'e never seen or heard any estimate of the amount of money annually paid by Virginia to other States for mules, but any one at all acquainted with the subject knoAvs that the purchase of these necessary animals makes no inconsiderable draught upon the finances of our farmers. Under the old dispensation, Avhen our crops Avere cultivated by compulsoiy labor, and the care of stock Avas deputed to those not directly interested in its Avelfare, it Avas perhaps more satisfactory, and in some cases more economical, to purchase mature animals ready to put to labor than to rear them upon the farm. But this is now changed. As a general rule, the owner of the stock has the feed- ing and care of it in his oavii hands, and a very large number of our farmers are performing their own farm labor, with only a little hired assistance. Under these circumstances Ave lnvve not the slightest doubt that mules can be economically and profitably raised. It is useless to enter into a discussion of the relatiA*e merits of horses and mules for farming purposes. It is a question which every farmer decides for himself, and the fact that the larger portion of the labor of the South- ern States is performed by them justifies the belief that the farmers believe them better suited to their wants than any other animal. Be this as it may, Ave have the fact that mules are always in demand at apparently high prices, and this alone will justify the inquiry AAdiether Ave can raise them for ourseh'es, or be still com- pelled to purchase them from others. AVe meet the inquiry with the assertion that the most of our farmers are in the exact condition of those in other States who breed by far the larger number of the mules that supply the Southern States. Mules are generally bred by farmers Avho do their OAvn work with the mares which produce the mule foals. In those States where mules are extensiA r ely bred almost eA r ery farmer has one or more mares, which perform their regular share of the farm work and produce annually a mule foal. Some farmers Avork mares exclusively and breed them regularly, realizing thus a considerable addi- tional profit for their animals. But Ave must hasten to the practical part of our subject — i. e., hoAV Southern 410 PROFITABLE FARMING. farmers may raise their own mules. It is well known that the mule is a hybrid between the male ass and the mare (or female) horse. The best jack for the pro- duction of mules is the Spanish, being in almost every particular superior to the Maltese, and giving more sprightliness, activity, and earlier maturity to his progeny. He should be from fourteen to fifteen hands high, have great length of body, round barrel, and broad, deep chest. He should have heavy, flat-boned limbs, a long, thin face, and fine, thin jaw-bone. His ears should be carried upright, and be large, but thin and Velvety. Mares for mule-raising should have large, lengthy bodies, on short, broad and flat limbs. If she has a dash of blood, so much the better, as the mule will undoubtedly show it in his style and action. Mares go about eleven months in foal, and should be bred early in the spring, so as to be sure to have her in foal, that the colt may come before hot weather. March is perhaps the best month for mares used on the farm to drop their foals. When the time approaches, the mare should be put by herself in a good, comfortable, roomy stable, where she can be noticed and cared for in case of accident, though there is very little danger of this, especially in case of mule foals, as they are usually smaller than other colts. After the colt is a week or two old, the mare may be put to work; and by the time corn is up, so that he would injure it by running over it, he may be safely left in the stable or a small grass lot from morning till noon without suffer- ing for food. They are not so much disposed to follow their dams as colts, and are frequently so indifferent as to be really troublesome when it is desired that they should follow. Where there is more than one mule colt, they will be per- fectly satisfied without their dams, unless they are hungry; but it is not a good plan to put horse and mule colts in the same stable, as the mules kick so badly as frequently to injure the colts. After it is a month old, the mule should have constant access to grass, or have nice, fine hay or cut-oats and bran in a trough to itself. It will soon learn to eat, and by the time it is five or six months old will be able to make a living independent of its dam. In weaning, there is very little trouble if the mule has been kept regularly from its dam; but it is best for both that it should be removed entirely out of hearing. It should be well fed on oats, bran, and hay, and freshly-pulled corn blades are excellent food for weaning colts. The great aim should be to make the colt comfortable, and supply all his wants, and he will soon be weaned. Great care should be taken that the colt does not lose condition at this time, as he ought to be in good order to commence the winter. The first winter of a colt's life it is important to give him good attention. Clover-hay, fodder, oats, and a very little corn, may be given. He should have access at all times to a good, dry shed, protected from driving storms of wind, rain, or snow. If possible, an old sod pasture or rye field, or, in lieu of these, ruta bagas or carrots should supply his craving for green food. In the spring he may never lose condition. Mules will browse a great deal, and do exceedingly well in woods-pasture' through the spring and early summer. Even supplied with the best pasturage, they will spend an hour or two of every day in any little thicket of brushwood they can get to. busily picking buds and peeling off bark. The second winter the colt may be fed with stalk-fodder, with a little grain, and the ensuing summer lie treated as in the last. The fall after he is two years old, a mule, if well-grown, may be put to work; and at three or three and; a-half years old will perform his share of the ordinary duties of the farm. A Friend in Need. (417) 418 PROFITABLE FARMING. THE COW S ODDER. The cow's udder, with its teats, is not a mere vessel with pipes for outlets, but a mass of intricate ducts, which run together very much like those of a sponge. The skin of the teat is turned back, and under it, at the extremity, the fibrous tissue of which the sphincter muscle is formed. This muscle is a voluntary one, and subject to the cow's will, by which she contracts it, and so closes the outlet of the teat and prevents the escape of the milk. It is (says Mr. Henry Stewart in the " Rural New-Yorker") by the contraction of this muscle, as well as by the contraction of the whole of the udder, that the cow holds up her milk when so disposed, and one may see, when a cow is thus engaged in thwarting the desires of the milker, how she will lift up the udder and contract it, and so draw together the sponge-like mass of ducts and cause it to retain the milk. The structure of the teat may be thus explained: In the centre are the lactife- rous ducts which run into each other in precisely the same manner as the cells of a sponge; around these ducts and holding them, as it were, in place, is a fibrous tissue which is extreme- ly elastic, which is a part of the fibrous structure of the udder. Around this mass of tissue and the connecting ducts which ramify through it, is a layer of glandular tissue which is the same as that of the udder. These glands are made up of vesicles clus- tered upon fine tubular ducts, like grapes upon their stalks, secreting the milk which flows through the fine ducts into the larger ducts, where the milk se- creted from these glands meets the milk which flows down from the udder, so that the teat is realty a part of the udder, and does its part in producing milk, .„,.,„„„ „ and is not a mere channel for its passage from the udder. A section of the udder, in fact, shows a very similar structure, in each of the glands or quarters, to that of the teat, and the teat really differs from the udder in its structure only at its extremity, where the real channel for the escape of the milk is very short and no longer than the thick- ness of the muscular covering. For these reasons one should be very cautious about interfering with the ope- ration of the teat, and especially in trying to push anything into it. At times it is necessary to do this, but quills and straws are extremely objectionable. But every one who owns a cow should have and keep a silver tube expressly for this purpose, as he may never know the day when he will want to use it. I THE SCIENCE AND A11T OF MILKING. When the teats are first touched, either by the milker or the calf, the first ( effort of the cow is to draw up the tendons tighter than ordinary, causing a con- traction that gives to her bag a hardness that makes it seem as if caked, and the milker can at first only get the little milk which, from being crowded, had oozed through the orifices into the teats. Presently, if all is quiet and peaceable, she gives a full relaxation of the strictures which hold back her milk, and her teats are not only filled but crowded, and the whole contents of her udder are placed LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 4 It) at the disposal of calf or milker. If now duo expedition is used in drawing the milk, it can all be obtained. Usually this effort at relaxation does not long con- tinue. Whether the milk is all drawn or not, cows soon tire of keeping up the relaxation, and allow the cords to assume their natural contracted position, and thus shut off the flow. This makes it important to milk speedily. The linger- ing milker never gets the whole of the mess. Neither does he who allows the process to be interrupted. Hence the milking should be continuous. < !ows enjoy the sense of relief when a crowded udder is being emptied, and they will continue the relaxation which opens the milk ducts as long as they feel that relief taking effect; but let the milker stop and the relaxation will stop, and it can rarely bo Quiet and comfort are also induced again before the time for another milking, essential to obtaining all the milk. CAREFUL MILKING. The manner of milking has a more powerful and lasting influence on the productiveness of the cow than most farmers are aware of. That a slow and care- less milker soon dries up the best cows, every practical farmer and dairyman knows. The first requisite for a good milker is, of course, utter cleanliness. Without this, the milk is unendurable. The udder should, therefore, be carefully cleaned before the milking commences. The milker may begin gradually and gently, but should steadily increase the rapidity of the operation till the udder is emptied, using a pail large enough to hold all, without - the necessity of changing. Cows are very sensitive, and the pail cannot be changed, nor can the milker stop or rise during the process of milking, without lead- ing the cow more or less to withhold her milk. The utmost care should be taken to strip the last drop, and , do it rapidly, and not in a slow and negligent man- ner, which is sure to have its effect on the yield of the cow. If any milk is left, it is reabsorbed into the sys- tem, or else becomes caked, and diminishes the ten- dency to secrete a full quantity afterward. If gen- tle and mild treatment is observed and persevered in, the operation of milking appears to be one of pleasure to the animal, as it undoubtedly is; but if an opposite course is pursued — if, at every restless moment, caused, perhaps, by pressing a sore teat, the animal is harshly spoken to — she will be likely to kick as a habit, and it will be difficult to overcome it afterward. To induce quiet, and readiness to give down the milk freely, it is better that the cow should be fed at milking time with cut food, or roots, placed within her easy reach. The same person should milk the same cow regularly, and not change from one to another unless there is special reason for it. U. S, Patent Vacuum Milker, A. D. 1883. PROFESSOR L. B. ARNOLD S SEVEN POINTS IN MANAGING MILK. 1. To make the finest flavored and longest keeping butter the cream muse undergo a ripening process by exposure to the oxygen of the air while it is rising. The ripening is very tardy when the temperature is low. 420 PROFITABLE FARMING. 2. After cream becomes sour, the more ripening the more it depreciates. The sooner it is then skimmed and churned the better, but it should not be churned while too new. The best time for skimming and churning is just before acidity becomes apparent. 3. Cream makes better butter to rise in cold air than to rise in cold water, but it will rise sooner in cold water, and the milk will keep sweet longer. 4. The deeper milk is set the less airing the cream gets while rising. 5. The depth of setting should vary with the temperature; the lower it is the deeper milk may be set; the higher, the shallower it should be. 6. While milk is standing for cream to rise, the purity of the cream, and conse- quently the fine flavor and keeping of the butter, will be injured if the surface of the cream is exposed freely to air much warmer than the cream. 7. When cream is colder than the sur- rounding air, it takes up moisture and im- purities from the air. When the air is colder than the cream, it takes up moisture and escapes from the cream. In the former case the cream purifies the air; in the latter case, the air helps to purify the cream. Th« selection of a creamer should hinge on what is most desired — highest quality, or greatest convenience and economy in time, space and labor. Primitive Scythian Churn. whatever surrounding TEMPERATURE FOR CHURNING. In winter sixty degrees, and in summer fifty-six degrees is a good tempera- ture at which to churn cream. In twenty-five minutes the butter grains should be forthcoming. If the temperature of the cream is eighty degrees the churning will take seven or eight minutes and the butter be little better than grease; if it is forty-five degrees the churning will take more than two hours. Canon Bagot thinks thermometers are cheap enough to be in every dairy. One of the reasons, says an exchange, why so much poor butter is made in private dairies is, that farmers often begrudge their wives and daughters the most improved appliances for household work. They biry reapers, threshing machines, feed cutters, grinding mills, seed drills and sulky plows; but when it comes to a revolving churn, a butter-worker, or a creamer, there is no money for "such new- fangled things.' KEEPING MILK SWEET. A correspondent of Colman's "Rural World" gives what we conceive a very practical and valuable hint in relation to preserving milk sweet during warm weather. His plan is to place little blocks of wood about two inches square and one inch thick under the pans, so as to admit a free circulation of air beneath as well as around them. He keeps the windows of his dairy open as much as pos- sible, having frames made the size to fit the windows, and covered with wire cloth LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 421 to keep out cats, &c. By these means he keeps his milk cool in tho wannest weather, and preserves it sweet and nice as long as desired. He gives another hint to those about to build a new dairy which wo think is a good one. Instead of making the shelves of solid boards, he constructs them of two strips, about two inches wide, and placed just far enough apart to nold tho pans from tipping over. This method, besides taking less lumber, admits a freer circulation of air, and tends to keep the milk cooler. Primitive Grecian Chum. RATION FOR MILK. A correspondent of the New York "Tribune" says wo all want a cow to do her best. What is her best ? Is it to consume nearly a dollar's worth of feed a day, to secure an increase of a few ounces of butter? No. Should we not consider her as doing her best when she is fed eco- nomically enough to enable her to hold her own and give most profit to her owner? But cows differ in so many ways that no^ universal ration can be recommended, not even one proportioned to the live weight. =g~ When upon grass or good hay they mayl|" vary the amount of what they eat accord- *^ ing to the demands of the system, but as it • " is well known that while for a deer or wild cow the varied herbage of the hillside may be a perfect ration, for a cow bred for 1,000 years to give more milk and butter than any natural wild cow gives to her calf, the ration of grass alone is not sufficient to supply all the wants of a cow giving a large quantity of rich milk- It should be supplemented by grain and phosphatic salts. After giving the subject considerable thought, I have come to think that one and a-half per cent, of a cow's live weight may always be safely given to a healthy cow, provided one-third of it be bran. We need bran for the phosphates. Thus a 1,000-pound cow would receive daily ten pounds of rich grain feed (say equal parts corn meal, ground oats, and pea meal) and five pounds of bran. She might eat less grain, but this amount would probably produce a greater quantity of butter, enough to pay for the additional feed, and more, too. It is certain that in testing cows to show their value as economical milk and butter producers, we do not want to force them or to train them to eat more than they can perfectly digest. The enormous tests made by some Jersey breeders have done injury to the breeds by unsettling the faith of some breeders in tests, and by causing other people to feel as if phenomenal tests were the only ones to strive for. Hence, as they will not take the risk of high feeding of their cows, they make no tests at all. The "grass only" tests have, however, been numerous, and some of them excellent. The most satisfactory tests have been made with grass and a few quarts of meal or bran, such as I have indicated. LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 42 TESTS OF DAIRY COWS. • > At the Ontario (Canada) Agricultural College grounds, ten different breeds of cows have been tested as regards the value of the milk, cream, butter and cheese made by them. The results of these experiments have been reported upon by Prof. Brown, and while these may not bo conclusive they are of general interest. According to Prof. Brown's report, the Jersey is far ahead as a producer of cream or of butter, with the Ayrshire next. The Ayrshire, in the same report, stands first where the milk is to be sold or cheese made; the Devons rank next for the cheese-maker, and the Short-Horn grade comes close after. In the lists referred to, Prof. Brown calculates the values on a basis of three- fourths of a cent per pound for milk, five cents a pound for cream, ten cents a pound for cheese, and 20 cents for butter. The Short-Horn, with an average weight per head of 1,570 pounds, yielded, by his calculation, $19 worth of milk, from which the cream would have amounted to only $11. The cream made butter to the value of $22, or $30 worth of cheese could have been made from the milk. This breed averaged giving milk 170 days in the season. The Short-Horn grade, which averaged in weight 1,450 pounds each, proved better, as they produced milk 220 days in the season to the value of $30, but the cream was valued at $10 only, and would make but $18 in butter, though it yielded $42 worth of cheese. The Devons give milk 200 clays; its value was set at $21; the cream, at $11.25; and they averaged $19 worth of butter, or $45 worth of cheese. The Devons made an average weight of 1,050 pounds each. The Ayrshires weighed 1,000 pounds each and gave milk 210 days, valued at $39; the cream was worth $21, and it made $35 in butter, while the cheese from the milk was worth $58. The Jerseys averaged a weight of 740 pounds per head and gave milk 20<> days, which was valued at $19. The cream on it was valued at $57. According to some tests made in which 100 pounds of cream made 44 pounds of butter, the butter amounted to $88, without any allowance for extra quality of butter. In drawing conclusions, another point made for Jerseys and Ayrshires was their light weight, taken in connection with the fact that a cow requires food very nearly in proportion to her weight. RAISING CALVES. The " National Live Stock Journal" says : As many farmers want the milk of their cows for making butter they cannot afford to raise the calves on it, and by raising combinations of other foods they can grow them with less expense. If the milk of the dairy is made into cheese, then the whey may be profitably fed to calves, provided it is mixed with other food that will supply what has been taken from the milk in making cheese. Whey is simply the sugar of milk, and is a very important element of food, but should no more be fed alone to calve^ or hogs than sugar should be made the diet of man. Whey, before it undergoes too much fermentation, is a valuable fattening food, possessing the elements of fat in a soluble and digestible condition; but as fat is only one constituent of the animal body, life and growth cannot be supported for any considerable length of time upon a food that lays on only fat. Muscle-forming food should be mixed with 424 PROFITABLE FARMING. the whey to compensate for the cheese that has been taken from it. This may be found in oil meal, oat, barley, or pea meal, or wheat middlings. Oil meal is one of the best foods to mix with whey, as it possesses twenty-five per cent, of muscle-forming food, with ten per elements. Pea meal is very similar cent, of oil and is rich in bone-building except its lack of oil. The former is a laxa- tive and the latter a constipating food, and, therefore, they are excellent to feed together. The pea meal should be cooked to render it easily digested, and oil meal should be dissolved in hot water before mixing with the whey. Wheat middlings should also be 3f cooked before mixing with whey, to produce the best result. The feeder should begin with only two tablespoonfuls of oil meal uj ^§S8§L P er day to a calf, but may use more of the : other additional foods. After the calf is a _ V- month old, then use four ounces of oil meal -/■'■^—i^-^'' -— V— ■ \ anc { the same quantity of pea meal or mid- vibrating chum, a. d. 1808. cllings per gallon of whey, and have all well mixed together when given to the calf. Upon this diet and grass we have raised very fine calves — heifers that would weigh 400 pounds at six months, and by keeping them well afterwards would weigh as much as a common cow and come in at two years old. Such heifers are worth $50 at two years old, while those kept on the pinch and starve system are not worth half the money. If the milk is made into butter, then skimmed milk can be fed to the calves, which is much more valuable than whey. Skimmed milk is only deprived of its oil, and yet contains its most valuable elements as a food — the casein or cheese to lay on muscle, and the phosphate of lime to form the bones and frame of the calf. It also contains the whey, and is, therefore, almost a perfect food for the young animal. Judicious feeding with skimmed milk will raise a calf with fine development of frame and muscle, even better than a food of greater fattening quality. If the quantity of milk is small, use a little oil meal or wheat middlings with it; the latter is excellent for that purpose, and is generally the cheapest. Corn meal, unless thoroughly cooked, should not be fed to calves, as it usually produces scours. Farmers are apt to be too careless about raising good stock — begrudge a small extra expense in food and care, and thus have animals not worth even what Duten Mode cramming. they cost. Twenty or thirty per cent, added to ordinary food and care will double the value of the young animal, and this slight additional cost will produce a profit on the whole expenditure. One-third added to the weight of an animal increases the value of its whole weight fifty per cent, on account of quality. Farmers must strive for early maturity of their animals, and this can only be accom- plished by intelligent feeding and good care. LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 425 CALVES AND YOUNG CATTLE. Working Body Churn, A. D. 1872. The calf soon after it is dropped should bo able to stand and get milk without aid; but if it is unable to do so, it should be raised up and held to the cow until it gets a sufficient supply of milk, and, for several days at least, it should stay "with the cow and supply its wants in the natural way. The cow should also be milked by hand and what is left in the udder taken away. If the calf is for veal it should have all the milk it will take, and if not enough it will soon learn to take small quantities of meal, which is better if cooked. In case the young calf is intended to be raised, it is usual to take it from the cow at the end of five or six days and keep it in a stall. It will soon learn to drink water or milk, but for two or three weeks new, warm milk should be liberally given. In cold weather, the calf should be kept in a dry, warm stall under shelter. During the first year or two the calf should not be kept en- closed with large cattle. It is usual to allow several calves to run together, or in the same lot or pasture. When over two years old they may run in the same pasture with the other cattle. Stall-Feeding. — The business of stall-feeding cattle will, I am confident, increase east of the great grazing plains during the coming years, along with dairying. In this respect, we must follow the course of the English, Scotch and European farmers. Grain will be grown in the rich Northwestern Territories and in California, where land is cheap and mixed farming is not suitable on account of the climate. Grain cannot well be grown to pay in the East — and, by East, I mean all the states east of the Missouri river — unless stock is stall-fed to make manure. Rich feeding stuffs, as oil-cakes, bran from the great Western mills, and corn from the prairie states, which can be bought more cheaply than it can be raised, must take the place of farm grown coarse grain; and fodder crops and roots will be produced in abundance for the cattle. A farm of 100 acres will have its feeding sheds where from twenty to fifty head of beeves or 200 or 300 sheep will be fattened every winter, and larger farms will feed more in proportion we cannot see how this can be helped. Calves that are now butchered or sold for a few dollars, and lean cattle from the West, will be bought up for feeding. The land can be made rich enough for profitable farm- ing only in this way, and by dairying, and dvery farm cannot be a dairy, because there is a limit to the demand of butter and cheese, and the great cities and foreign countries must have beef and mutton. In this case properly arranged barns for feeding must be provided. Patent Rotary Churn. 420 PROFITABLE FARMING. Labor must be reduced to a minimum or the profit Avill be small, and labor is reduced by convenient arrangements for feeding. One man is able to feed and care for fifty head of cattle when everything is well arranged with suitable buildings. This will cost about two cents a day for attention and care, which is about as cheap as, I think, it can be done. If the cattle are fed for four months, and two hundred and fifty pounds only is added to the weight of each in that time, the cost for labor will be less than one cent per pound of this increase. The great profit in feeding cattle, how- ever, is not in the increased weights, but in the increased value of the whole ani- mal from its better quality. A fat steer can be easily made worth one cent a pound of live weight more than its cost when it was thin; thus, a 1,600-pound animal will have at least $16 added to its value in this way in addition to the value of the added weight. Those farm- ers who do not understand this fact lose sight of the most important part of the business. Cattle Sheds. — A cattle shed should be roomy, both to give the animals plenty of fresh air, and to afford convenience in feeding them and removing the ma- nure. The pens should be made in ranges, having a feeding-passage large enough for a cart to be taken through with roots, hay, straw, and feed, and an alley as large, for the purpose of taking out the manure. It is a good plan, when there is abundance of straw for litter, to fill up the pens once a day, and let the manure collect for a month, or, in fact, for the whole feeding season, as it is kept hard-trodden, and is not at all dis- agreeable. In this case, the stalls are enclosed, and made large enough for the cattle to turn around, and the ani- mals are left loose. This plan is very common on the large cattle farms in LIVE STOCK" ON THE FARM. 427 England. The plans of these sheds afford plenty of room, and are very con- venient. Enclosures. — Wire fences are now used, and they may he of plain and barbed wire, with a narrow board in place of the top strand to enable the animals to see the fence, and escape danger of being injured. The common post and rail and post and board fence make suitable enclosures for all stock. For cattle and horses, three rails or three boards will generally be sufficient. It is important that enclosures be kept in good order, as shackling fences not only cause loss in crops, but enable stock to learn how to jump and get over them; and this kind of edu- cation is never forgotten. WOOL AND SHEEP AGAINST TOBACCO. William Holman says the object of this paper is to call the attention of the farmers of the tobacco growing regions to the value and importance of sheep raising and wool as compared with tobacco. Every Southern State is well adapted to sheep raising, and nowhere else can they be raised so cheaply and so profitably. There are in each Southern State vast quantities of open lands too much impoverished to be profitably cultivated, usually called old-field lands, which can be purchased at from $3 to $5 an acre ; sheep thrive upon these lands in the most wonderful man- ner. They are mostly elevated and dry, but abundantly supplied with water from creeks and branches. Sheep delight in a dry soil and a dry climate, and hence the great adaptation of such land to sheep husbandry. Sheep require very little feeding here, and I have known them to subsist the whole year round without any feeding whatever. In order to show how well sheep pay here, the writer will take the liberty of giving an item in his own experience, and that of one of his neighbors. He commenced the last season with thirty -two old sheep. From these he raised thirty-eight lambs and 160 pounds of wool. Putting the lambs at $3 each and the wool at 25 cents per pound, we have the gross product of $154. Deduct from this the cost of raising — say $40, and $114 is left as the net profit on thirty-two sheep. My neighbor has done even better than this. From twenty-four old sheep he raised thirty-three lambs and 120 pounds of wool, valued at $129. Deduct the cost of raising, which he puts at $25, leaves a net profit of $104. My neighbor says that all the feeding he has given his sheep was a few ears of corn occasion- ally when the weather was bad, and yet his flock is in fine condition. These are not exceptional cases. It is the usual result with all who give their flocks proper attention, and do not allow them to become too large. It must be acknowledged that they do not do so well in large flocks. There is no doubt of the fact that wool may be made a great and most profitable industry in Virginia. We will now proceed to show how much more profitable sheep are than tobacco. There are forty-three counties in Virginia that raise tobacco, and the tobacco pro- duct may be estimated at 50,000,000 pounds. Putting the average value of this at eight cents per pound, we have an aggregate value of $4,000,000. The cost of production is estimated at six cents per pound, equal to $3,000,000, leaving a net profit of $1,000,000. Now, take sheep. In these forty-three tobacco counties there are about 61,774 farms; allowing the very moderate number of twenty-five sheep to be raised on 42> PROFITABLE FARMING. each of these farms, we have an aggregate of 1,544,350 sheep; estimating the clip of each at 5 pounds, we have a wool product of 7,721,750 pounds, which, valued at 25 cents per pound, makes the aggregate value of the wool crop $1,930,437. Add to this amount the value of the lambs raised (allowing one to each ewe), Nothing like this at the South. equal to 1,544,350 lambs, which at $2.50 each, make $3,860,875. We have as th« aggregate gross product of lambs and wool the sum of $5,791,016. Deduct from this the cost of raising (yearly) — say $1 each, the sum of $4,246,962 remains as LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 429 the net profit, as against $1,000,000 on the tobacco crop. Now the excellence of this result is that it can be reached without any or very little additional labor, whilst the planter can keep on making tobacco as usual, except that he should curtail his crop somewhat, which he ought to do anyhow, and what he does culti- rate make better. But the poor innocent sheep has two very formidable enemies Avhich deter many from raising them. One is the dog, and the other is the sheep-stealer. These obstacles, with a little care and attention, may be overcome in a great measure by having the sheep at night in an enclosure as near the homestead as possible, and by putting bells on a few of the sheep. The writer has been doing this for several years, and he has not lost a single sheep from these causes as long as he kept it up strictly. Other advantages result from this practice. They are made and kept gentle, and the owner can see them every day, and thus readily discover when anything is the matter. Notwithstanding these facts, not more than about one-third of the farmers in the South raise sheep at all. All could and should do it, for it would make a valuable addition to the income of the farm, whilst it would involve but little additional cost or labor. VIEWS ON SHEEP HUSBANDRY. A writer in the "Home and Farm" saj T s: We have long been of the opinion that the cheapest, quickest, and best way to renovate the worn-out lands in Georgia, and indeed of all the Southern States, is to convert them into sheep- walks for a few years. "We are glad to see that others are of our way of thinking, and that the "Home and Farm," and other agricultural journals of influence are giving to the subject the prominence it deserves. We hold that no land is worth cultivating, that is will pay expenses and yield any revenue, which is not fertile enough to produce ten bushels of corn, eight bushels of wheat, or between 300 and 400 pounds of seed-cotton per acre. In the present condition of agriculture, and with the present system of labor, it is wiser to throw out all such land, if we cannot do anything else with it than to try to raise corn and cotton. But our experience and observation satisfies us that lands of this sort, or even poorer, may in a few years be restored to a high state of fertility, and produce, in the meantime, a good interest on the capital invested, by converting them into sheep-walks. Now we hear our farming friends who have raised cotton and corn time out of mind, say: " What do you mean by sheep-walks ? Tell us what you mean, and how you propose to do all you say." In anticipation of these natural inquiries, we crave space to make a succinct statement of our plan of sheep-husbandry. Let us suppose a plantation of 1,000 acres, well fenced, and supplied with everything needed, except the sheep. We would divide into three parts, two of which should, be set apart for grazing, and the third, including woods, house-lots, etc., should have from 100 to 150 of arable land for cultivation and renovation. In February and the early part of March, having previously repaired and built all the requisite fences, we would prepare well from forty to fifty acres, half of which we would sow in oats in the end of February, and plant the rest in corn in March. Having done this, we would then sow eight or ten acres more in oats on 430 PROFITABLE FARMING. which we would fold the sheep at night during the summer and fall, in pens enclos- ing about half an acre. 3 u The sheep should bo bought in April or May; 500 will do to begin with. increasinc; until the number is 1,000. LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 431 The folding the sheep is the source of improvement and profit, and should therefore be looked after with the utmost care. They should never be put up in pens until after sun-down and turned out before sun-rise, and if cattle are penned with, them, will not suffer with disease and they will be protected from dogs. The first half-acre will be sufficiently manured in ten days, and then the pen should be removed, and the manured ground thoroughly plowed, and sowed in oats and rata baga turnips; and the same process should bo followed with each successive pen until the beginning of August, care being taken to plow under all that part of the land set apart for folding on which the oats have ripened, before the folds have reached them. In the beginning of August the sheep ought to be divided into two flocks, one consisting of the breeding ewes and stock wethers, and the others of the lambs, and such of the old ewes and wethers as may be intended to prepare for market. The folds may now be brought back to the ground first penned and sown in oats and turnips, now covered with a fine growth of both for the second folding. In this second folding there should be two pens for the two flocks, the lambs and fattening sheep being allowed to occupy each pen for three or four days before the stock sheep, and allowing the latter to remain for four or five days before removal. The land folded before the middle of September may be plowed and sown in turnips for the use of the sheep in winter and spring, and the subsequent pens can be sown in rye and wheat, or any other quick growing crop for spring grazing. When winter comes the fat sheep should be disposed of as soon as possible, the breeding ewes put in one field to themselves, and the rest of the flock in the other. They should be brought up at night and put in separate lots, provided with good sheds for shelter, and fed night and morning on hay or fodder and turnips. When the ewes begin to drop their lambs in March, they should be separated from the rest of the flock, fed twice a day on chopped sheaf oats, and allowed to run on land prepared for them the previous fall. The work of each succeeding year differs only from that of the first in that instead of breaking new ground for oats, they shall be sown in the twenty or twenty-five acres of corn land, and the ten acres of manured land should at the same time be seeded heavily in clover and grass. Thus ten acres of clover and grass land would be added each year to the resources of the farm. When the 100 or 150 acres first set aside for cultivation have been by this process converted into clover and grass pastures, fifty acres may be taken in from each of the pasture fields first set aside, and the same system pursued until they are redeemed. Thus in a few years the whole farm will be raised to a very high state of fertility, and the increase and sales of the sheep Avill yield a good revenue with very small expenses of labor. An experienced shepherd and a couple of smart boys are all the labor permanently required. In shearing time and harvest extra labor would be necessary for a few days. We have no doubt that by the adoption of a system such as we have indicated above, or one substantially like it, our poor red hills may be reclaimed, the comfort and prosperity of the people promoted, and the value of the real property of the State immensel} r increased. Farmers in England appear to be making more money on their sheep than any other animals. It pays well to keep them in narrow quarters, as pigs are 432 PROFITABLE FARMING. often raised and fattened for meat; feed them cut grass, clover, oats, and corn. Large English sheep are healthy in confinement. Good wool for combing and worsted purposes always sells for a remunerative price. THE REMEDY FOR SHEEP-KILLING DOGS. A friend to sheep and birds writes: "No complaint is more common among farmers than the difficulty of raising cheep, owing to the ravages of worthless dogs. Many dog laws have been enacted but none ever enforced, and the sheep LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 433 are killed and "worried as much as ever. Indeed, in the neighborhood of towns the keeping of sheep has been almost abandoned. Yet it seems strange that farmers should so quietly surrender to the dogs and their keepers when each man can remedy the matter in his own neighborhood. Years ago the writer cultivated a farm on the outskirts of a Maryland town, and as usual in Maryland, this town was overrun with dogs. "We kept no sheep, but the injury done by the dogs in other ways was fully as exasperating. Forbearance having ceased to be a virtue, we inserted a notice in the county papers that after a certain date named, out- place would prove unhealthy for dogs, and advised those who valued their curs to keep them home. The date having expired, an epidemic broke out among the dogs, and in a short time we had thirty dogs in the compost heap. One beef head and an ounce vial of strychnia did the work. There was a howl for a little while, but after that we could have raised a field full of kittens without the dread of dogs. Therefore, I say that farmers have the remedy in their own hands, and if they allow worthless dogs to drive them out of the most profitable part of stock- raising it is their own fault. If farmers who keep sheep would poison every dog which trespasses on their land the keeping of those worthless curs would soon cease, and profitable sheep take their place. But, says one, you might kill some 'valuable bird dogs.' Well, I have yet to see a bird dog that was of real value; in fact, I think the birds are of more value to the farmer than any bird dog or the idle fellows that follow them over the fields, and a poisoned field would be relieved of both dogs and gunners, and the sheep and birds both would be happy. Dog compost, I assure you, is very good manure, and the only good use to which the average dog can be put." IN PRAISE OP MUTTON. The demand for mutton always increases as a community increases in age and wealth. Old butchers in this city state that the demand for mutton, as com- pared with beef, increases every year. At present mutton retails at a higher price than beef. As to spring lamb, it is a dainty that always commands a fancy price. A farmer who has the conveniences for raising very early lambs has a source of income superior to anything involving the same amount of capital. In this, as in almost everything else depends the season, the earlier in the season the higher the price. Sheep are better adapted to furnishing meat for a farmer's family than any animal he raises. The carcass being small, it can generally be eaten fresh with- out any of it being liable to injury. Mutton can be kept much longer than beef under the same circumstances, and its flavor is improved by being kept a rea- sonable length of time. No meat is the superior of mutton when cured with salt, boiled, and eaten with vegetables. Cold, roast mutton is superior to beef, owing to its fine flavor and excellent keeping qualities. A nice mutton chop is the finest breakfast dish that can be found for the same cost. The health and bill of fare of farmers would both be better if fresh mutton more generally took the place of salt pork. It is an easy thing for farmers to provide themselves with a constant supply of the most delicious meat. And the animal may be ready to slaughter at any time. Any farmer can learn to properly dress sheep, and the operation requires no appliances. Sheep pelts always bring cash, and can generally be sold at good prices. 28 434 PROFITABLE FARMING. Sheep raising has had its tips and downs like almost every kind of business, but it is a question if any business has paid better for a series of years. The rapid increase of sheep is very favorable to farmers of small means who wish to engage in wool-growing. Sheep raising is too much neglected by farmers gene- rally. The animal that furnishes clothing, food, and light, which eats what other animals reject, which crops hillsides too steep for other creatures to ascend, is entitled to vastly more credit than it receives. HOW TO MAKE SHEEP-RAISING PROFITABLE. It is a well-known fact that Avhile many farmers in this country give but little attention to the sheep, in England it is styled "the animal that pays the rent." By comparing the methods practiced in both countries it will be noticed, in the first place, that we give greater attention to wool than to carcass, which is quite the reverse of the method practiced by the English farmers. The English farmer breeds principally for mutton, making wool a secondary consideration; but in raising sheep he makes a small area produce a large amount of choice, high-priced meat. He possesses no advantage over our farmers, but pursues an altogether different method. The common practice in America is to turn the sheep out on pasture, feeding gram whenever necessary. As but few special crops are grown for their benefit, the sheep are allowed ample range and are expected to forage over a large surface, which necessarily compels our farmers to devote more space to each sheep than many of them can afford. In England the pastures are considered too valuable to be devoted to sheep without some method of restriction, and they are hurdled on small areas. Nor does the English farmer depend upon his pasture entirely for sheep, as he is compelled to secure a crop of winter hay. He sows turnips on a plot, turns in the sheep as soon as the crop is large enough, and while they are supplying themselves he has another crop growing to which he removes the sheep as the first crop is eaten. In this way he continually grows quickly- maturing crops and changes his movable hurdles frequently. Large numbers of cabbage are also grown for sheep. Rye is used as an early grass in the spring, and wheat, barley, and oats are also sown for the sheep to graze upon. We have greater advantages for hurdling sheep in this country than are pos- sessed by the English farmer. If our farmers will practice the English system of hurdling they can pasture on rye early in the spring, which should be sown in the fall for that purpose. Oats may follow, and next peas. As the season ad- vances Hungarian grass and Indian corn may be sown, to which the sheep should be allowed access as soon as the crops are a few inches high, as sheep prefer short grazing. When the sheep have cleared off one piece and are changed to another, the plot from which they are removed may be sown to something else. TESTIMONY FOR SHEEP A prominent London journal recently stated that, amid all the crushing fall of prices for nearly all descriptions of British agricultural produce, safe footing seems to be found only in high-class sheep. This testimony, coming from a source so reliable, especially emphasizes what has been so frequently asserted — that sheep husbandry is the sheet-anchor of British agriculture. The sheep, LTVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 435 with its contribution to the fertility of lands — by its continuous droppings — has steadily and generally arrested the attention of the farmers of Great Britain, who have yearly been compelled to an increasing regard for economies as yet ignored by tbeir American cousins. Close students years ago asserted that sheep husbandry is a necessity to the permanency of English agriculture, and the appre- ciative breeders of that country, recognizing this fact, early devoted themselves to the work of developing sheep of especial merit, characterized by their pecu- liarities of form, size, precocity, covering, etc., to the end that with animals, as with the yield from the land, there should be the least possible loss, the greatest possible return for the food consumed and the care bestowed. Efforts in this direction have been so far successful that at the present time throughout the Dangerous Neighbors for Sheep. kingdom are to be found types of sheep peculiarly fitted to their surroundings — the hardy Black-faces and Cheviots on the mountains of Scotland, the famed Southdown on the chalky hills of Sussex and Surry, the heavier-bodied Cots- wold, and Leicester and Lincoln on the more fertile lands from which bountiful pasturage is a certainty, and a number of cross-bred types between these. The time will come when something like the attention bestowed upon the sheep by the English farmers will be recognized as a necessity by the farmers of this country. SHEEP HUSBANDRY. The following, correspondence has been sent to us for publication. We will- ingly give it space, as it expresses the views of one of our most progressive and enlightened farmers on this most important question: 436 PROFITABLE FARMING. Chicago, III., July 9, 1890. Messrs. Stebbins & Lawson, South Boston, Va. : Gentlemen: I take the liberty of writing you for information, your names hav- ing been given me as dealers in wool. I am interested in a large tract of land in your county, and in communication with some other parties have had an idea of establishing a sheep farm on a large scale. The affair is in an in- definite form as yet, but if you can kindly give me the information I desire, perhaps it will benefit you later on. I would like to know if sheep raising is seemingly prosperous in your section ? If the climate, pasturage, etc., seem suitable? If foot- rot or other disease is common ? About how many months in the year is it necessary to feed in enclosed pas- ture? Assuming that one desired to stock a placo fully, about how many sheep to the acre will average pasturage stand? About what is the average price of corn and hay ? Is there gen- erally plenty in the mar- ket which may be pur- chased at market price? Are the ''bottom lands" of the Dan and Staunton rivers liable to overflow? I refer to the cultivated lands along the river edge. * * * About how much are good ewes, from two to five years old, worth? And about what is the average weight of fleece, and at about what price do your farmers sell their wool? Do the sheep run to coarse, medium or fine wool? Do you think 2,000 selected ewes could be picked up, without too much trouble, b} r going through the county? In Distress LIVE STUCK UN THE FARM. 4:57 I hope you Avill pardon me for asking so many questions, but if you will kindly take a few minutes to reply, it will be greatly appreciated. Chicago, Illinois. Very truly yours, E. J. Hulikg, Jr. Iivco, Va., July 15, 1890. Messrs. Stebbins & Lawson, South Boston. Va. : Dear Sirs: Yours of the 12th instant, enclosing a letter of inquiry to you from Mr. Hiding, of Chicago, is received, and at your request. I will essay to reply to his inquiries. I will premise by saying that I can conceive of no better branch of farming on our large river plantations than sheep raising on a large scale, managed by compe- tent flock-masters. AVe certainly cannot compete with the West in raising grain under the present low transportation charges, and you know that tobacco, of the •export type, for which our river farms were once so admirably adapted, and on which it was so successfully grown, "has gone out of fashion," and ceased to pay the cost of production. But mutton and wool can never go out of fashion, so long as mankind's taste for tender lamb and succulent mutton holds, and his needs for warm, comfortable clothing are felt, or better substitutes are found, which thou- sands of years have not yet developed. If I owned such lands — river-side farms — I would set red top (herds grass) on all the lowest flats, because it is not easily killed by overflow, and succeeds better on wet soils than any other grass for grazing and hay, and set the higher, or " second low-grounds," in timothy and clover, and go into sheep raising, commenc- ing with grade Southdowns, or a cross of Southdown and CotsAvold ewes, using thoroughbred bucks, and breed upward instead of downward. I would eschew altogether the diminutive, slender-bodied, spindle-legged, hairy-bellied natives now roaming over our woods and old fields like deer in search of a bite of grass, for there is nothing but disappointment, loss, and dissatisfaction in handling such animals. Sheep husbandry in Middle Virginia, properly conducted, will pay, and pay handsomely under right management. As evidence of this assertion, do you know of a single failure in the sheep business in Halifax county on any fairly good farm by a competent sheep-raising farmer? Never a single instance of the kind has ever come to my knowledge. But I have known flocks of our native scrub sheep to pay their owners better than any other stock kept on the farm, and better than any crops raised thereon. The climate, pasturage, and topography of Middle Virginia are well adapted to sheep raising, and, as you are doubtless well aware, some of the best sheep ever raised in Virginia, and exhibited at our fairs, went from Middle Virginia. During an experience of forty years in farming, I have never known but one flock in this county infected with foot-rot, rarely ever saw a case of scab, and, moreover, during an experience of over twenty years as Stock and Crop Reporter to the National Department of Agriculture, assisted from time to time by some of •our best farmers, Ave haA r e invariably all the Avhile reported sheep " the healthiest of all our farm animals." as thev surerv are. I 138) Heed the Advice OF the Wise. LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 439 Sheep require less feeding than any other farm stock. Many flocks went through the past winter without being once fed. It is safe to calculate on not feeding sheep more than eight or ten weeks during average winters, and then only during snowy, rainy, and coldest weather. Aery little grain is ever fed to sheep here, possibly not enough to keep them in the best condition for profit. Our open lands unimproved will carry from three to four sheep per acre on sedge and the natural grasses, and more where Lespideza (Japan clover) covers the land, and this is being rapidly done all over this county. Lands in good con- dition sown in grass will carry twice the number above specified, and in better condition. Much depends, however, on the character of the land, for some farms will naturally, and improved, carry twice the number of sheep that can subsist on farms adjoining or hear by. The average price of corn during the past five years on the farm varies but little from fifty cents per bushel, possibly a little lower at husking time. The price of corn here is largely governed by the price in the surplus corn-growing States "West. Hay sells at from $10 to $12 per ton on the farms; very little hay raised here for market. Transportation facilities are exceptionally good in every portion of the county, which is intersected by three separate lines of railroad running North, South, East and West; in fact, no section of the State can show better facilities for shipping inward or outward. The low-grounds along the margins of the Dan, Staunton, Bannister and Hyco rivers are all admirably adapted to the production of corn and oats, and also for hay and grazing. Only a few years ago the value of the corn sent from the county, mainly shipped South, was greater than the value of the tobacco shipped during the same year, showing that our county is capable of being self- sustaining during ordinary seasons, so far as bread and forage stuffs are con- cerned. But we are always greatly behind in meats. Mutton is the surest and the verv cheapest meat raised here, and the supply falls far short of the demand. I do not believe that 2,000 selected ewes, suited for breeding, could be easily, if at ah, found in all this county. Therefore, parties intending to embark in the sheep business will do well to select breeding stock where such can be had to the best advantage. There are fine flocks of grades and thoroughbreds in the State which can be purchased on terms fully as well and of quality fully as good as can be found West — -already acclimated, too, and at a saving in transportation. So far as my observation and limited experience enables me to judge, the Southdown breed seems to thrive best in this county. The Downs crossed on the Cotswold also make good sheep, and by crossing thoroughbred bucks of the Downs on our native sheep, flocks are greatly improved. Our common wool, as you doubtless know, runs from 1\ to 5 pounds per fleece, and you know present prices better than I can tell you. I have sheared grade Downs weighing from 10 to 16 pounds per fleece, and. sold lambs from $3 to $5 each, and breeding ewes from $3 to $4 each. Natives sell for less. Sheep-raising is a profitable coming industry for Southside Middle Virginia, and to one who comes among us thoroughly equipped and expert in the business there is big money in supplying a demand for breeding stock, and a cordial wel- come to our agricultural ranks. 440 PROF1TA BLE FARMING. When Mr. Huling comes to the county and examines carefully into the cajxi- hilities of his farms for sheep-raising, I doubt not he Avill concur with me in the belief that they can be most profitably utilized in converting them into sheep ranches. Yours very truly, R. L. Ragland. P. S. — The following paragraph, taken from the " Baltimore Sun " of July 19th, demonstrates what is heing done in sheep-raising in Virginia by a compe- tent flock-master. R. L. R. I,nst ! "C. H. Paxton, of Rockbridge county, kept last winter for breeding purposes 150 ewes. He has realized from the sale of their wool and lambs $1,027 and still has the ewes — a gross profit of nearly $7 per head." LIVE STUCK ON THE FARM. 441 THE RAISING AND FATTENING OF llOUS. Prof. B. Puiyear, in "American Farmer" says: We believe that it is the true policy of farmers to raise all the food products demanded for the support of their families, and as large an excess for sale as circumstances will allow. It seems a bald absurdity for a farmer to buy meat for his family and hands. It is his business, his alone and exclusively, to raise meat for the non-producing class. The financial wreck of thousands upon thousands, who raise cotton well nigh exclusively, and rely upon the proceeds of the sales of their crop for the purchase of food products, wofully attests the impolicy of the plan. The same disastrous results follow paramount attention to tobacco, but not in so marked a way, only because the cultivation of tobacco has never been so exclusive as the cultivation of cotton. The temptation, when a great staple is high, to devote exclusive atten- tion to it is almost irresistible: but when prices fall or the crop fails, then calamity comes swift and sure. There are times when a farmer can say that it is cheaper to buy meat and bread than to raise them, but it is never true in the long run or on the general average. Particularly is it incumbent on the farmer now, when all the products of his fields are so distress- ingly low, to make money by saving it. He can hold his own and tide over the bad time only by raising on his farm every- thing he can that will contribute to the support, to the comfort, health, pleasure and happiness of his family. Let his farm be his chief resource alike for the support of life and for the enjoyment of life. Let him pay more attention to his garden, his poultry, his flock of sheep, his cattle, his horses and his hogs. Fewer dollars may find lodgment in his pocket, but, perhaps, the difference may be made up in the fewer going out and in the increased pleasure and bounty of his board. But in this article we wish to direct special attention only to a single point, the raising of hogs. Every farmer, however profitable his staple crops may be, should raise a plenty of pork for his own family and employees, and should have bacon for sale all the year round. Nothing is more salable than good bacon, so much so, indeed, that it is almost equivalent to cash. It is easily exchangeable for labor and for almost anything the farmer needs. And, as when properly cured, there is no clanger of loss, he can hold it as long as he pleases, selling when the price is high and when it suits his convenience. The ready money thus coining at odd times into his hands will never be found inopportune or inconve- nient. With little attention and a little forethought it is easy for the farmer to accomplish the results we have indicated. Let him see that his pigs are pushed from the start, so that they will be ready for the knife at from ten to sixteen months old. At these ages, if they have been properly treated, the hogs, even Primitive Scalding. 442 PROFITABLE FARMING. of the common breed, will weigh from 140 to 240 pounds. They should neither be turned on tbe commons nor confined in houses or pens. Let them have a lot of sufficient size, and not far from the house, where they can be kept clean, be healthy and grow rapidly. Clover and corn should be cultivated for them, and cut and fed to them in sufficient quantity. Where much butter is produced, no better use can bo made of the buttermilk. All the slops and garbage of the kitchen and garden can be best utilized in this way. With such and similar food, together with but a small quantity of grain, they can be kept thriving and growing until the fall. And now comes the time when they can be fed more cheaply and will grow more rapidly than at any former period. In May, June, and July peas should be sowed for them, and they should be turned on these fields as the pea pods begin to brown. As one field be- comes pretty well exhausted let them be turned on another sowed later, and so on until fattening time. Here is a food, the best possible for the growing hog, that costs the farmer absolutely less than nothing. Let us see: Tbe fields of peas depastured by the hogs are so much better for a crop next year as to pay for the cost of sowing the peas. The land will plow better from the mutilation and partial removal of the pea vines and pods by the hogs, and will be enriched also by their excrements uni- formly distributed over the whole area. If this be so, and it certainly is, tbe hogs have had the best food for two or three months absolutely without cost to the Catching and Suspending, A. D. 1881. farmer On nothing will the young hog grow so rapidly as on peas. Peas contain 24 per cent, of gluten, or muscle-forming material, while corn contains only 10 per cent. Hence the fact, so well attested by experience, that no better feed can be given the growing hog than peas, particularly when they are on the vines, fresh and soft. On the other hand the fattening power of corn is much greater than that of peas. Corn contains about 10 per cent, of oily matter; peas only 2 per cent. While the muscle-forming power of peas is li times greater than that of corn, the fattening power of corn is five times greater than that of peas. Hence, when the hogs are through with peas, which have largely developed the muscular sys- tem, we have only to feed them a few Aveeks on corn to engorge their adipose tis- sues with fat. I once had a parcel of hogs that were about ten months old which were not well grown, but which I wished to fatten. I wanted them to grow and fatten at equal pace. To do this I combined the two ideas on which I have been insisting. I boiled the peas in large pots until they were soft, and then thick- ened the boiling mass with corn meal. The result was exactly as 1 anticipated. Each hog averaged, according to my best calculation, again of 90 pounds over the weights I had hitherto been obtaining by feeding on corn alone. The richness of the peas in gluten caused a large development of muscle; the richness of the corn in LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 443 oily matter produced a rapid assimilation of fat; the growing and the fattening went on together. No doubt, also, the result was in a smaller measure due to the mechanical reduction and the cooking of the food, so that there was the mini- mum of waste. Another point, sometimes overlooked, is of vast importance. The proper time of fattening hogs is in the fall, not the winter. The aim should be to have them ready for slaughter as soon as the first good cold spell comes. A bushel of corn when the thermometer is sixty degrees, will increase the weight as much as two bushels when the thermometer is thirty degrees or lower. The reason is obvious. The temperature of the animal-hody must be maintained at the normal point of ninety-eight degrees. The food of the animal is his fuel also. Its com- bustion in the capillary system develops animal heat. But if the loss of heat from the body is very rapid, as must alwa} r s be the case when the animal is exposed to i extreme cold, a correspondingly greater amount of food must be consumed in the capillaries to offset the large amount of heat removed by contact with the cold atmos- phere. If for any cause we are compelled ! to fatten hogs or other animals in the dead j of winter, we must provide them with warm, »* , i >.fi ■] comfortable quarters. To do otherwise is simply to burn grain for fuel. PORK RAISING AT THE SOUTH. Can it be made profitable? We think it can, but not in the way that it is raised u. s. patent sauaing, a. d. issa. here. Ours is not near so good a corn country as Ohio and Illinois, and if we rely on corn for hog feeding as exclusively as do the people of those States, our pork will cost us very dearly, more perhaps than it would in money to buy in St. Louis or Cincinnati, with transportion added; while the prevailing plan of allowing hogs to shift for themselves in the woods, and fatten such of them as survive till two years old on corn is little less if not more unprofitable. The next question is, then, what is a cheap plan of making pork at the South? Answer. — Have woods, lots or other pastures of perennial grasses, such as Red top and Timothy on the parts inclining to be wet, and orchard grass, tall Meadow oat, Mesquit, Terrel, Bermuda, and White Clover on dry lands with plenty of shade and good water accessible. Such pasturage is for the breeding sows and sucking pigs only, and the sows are to have their noses rung to prevent rooting. It is likewise important to have enough portable fence to confine the sows to such a part of the pasture only as they can feed off in the course of a month, at the end of which time the hogs should be turned on a fresh portion of the pasture for a like period and so on, by which means with the grasses named, grazing can be furnished the year round; and Essex and, perhaps, improved Berk- shire sows will keep as fat thereon as they ought to be for breeding, without other i o IJVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 1 15 feed except in mid-winter or while suckling. The pigs from the time they are old enough to eat till weaned, in addition to the pasturage and sow's milk, should be fed — in a pen having an entrance large enough to admit them but nottho sows — all they will eat twice a day of cooked grain — never feed soured or raw corn — the latter has exactly the same effect, though not always in thesamo degree, as cotton seed fed to pigs under three months old. The sows should have enough concen- trated feed to prevent them from becoming low in flesh, the amount of course depending on the breed, the season, the number of pigs suck- led, etc., but the young pigs ought to have all they will eat up clean twice a day, as a good start is very important. Any kind of grain, peas, peanuts or a mixture of wheat bran and sweet potatoes will be excellent cooked food for young pigs, and an occasional change from one to an- other will be advantageous, not omitting to add salt in small quan- tities often ami regularly. Hogs other than the breeding stock and suckling pigs, and such as are too young to kill, should be kept from after the first white frost, till killing time or until March, in afield containing ungathered crops (raised the previous summer and fall) of Jerusalem Artichokes, Tory Peas, Sweet Potatoes, and Peanuts, alternating with each other in nar- row strips across the field, so that when the hogs are confined to one portion at a time (as they should be by a portable fence, until such por- tion is eaten out) they may not lack in variety of aliment. Those designed for early killing should precede the others in feeding off a portion of the field, the smaller ones being turned in to glean after those removed to a fresh portion. Hogs of a good breed will be as fat as butter on this treatment at Christmas without any other feed than they thus gather themselves as we know from experience. Shall we Raise Him or Not? CHAPTER XIX. Poultry. BY J. W. FITZ. NE OF THE GREAT MISTAKES made by poultry breeders .is that they follow the advice of Northern breeders and write I too much. The methods that are required in the South differ (entirely from those at the North, and also the treatment for the [diseases we are subject to here, and it is therefore necessary that we should have different advice and guides to go by; con- sequently this article may help those just beginning one of the most remunerative occupations in the United States — that of poultry-raising. We will try to give our experience, and will rely only on experience and not on theory, as a great many writers on this and other subjects do. There is a great field open in the South for this branch of business, and Ave hope soon to see it well filled and the supplies in this line raised at home. We read an article lately about New England as the greatest poultry-raising States in the United States, of which we have no doubt, but wonder at the fact when the South has such great advantages over its leader. Here we have none of the difficulties of the cold winters, and in some parts of the South grain is as cheap as in the North. Prices are always much higher for several reasons, which would take several years to overcome. The great fault here is that we have not enough breeders to supply the demand, and Ave do not think there will be for a long time to come, for as the supply increases so will the demand. Many that are not in the habit of eating much poultry Avill acquire a taste and appetite for the most delicious of all meats, and the increased production Avill only pre- cede the increased demand. EGGS AND CHICKENS. No farmer can afford to be without eggs and chickens, and if he had to buy Ave fear the good Avife would come short sometimes, fi^^g? eggs being used in so many Avays about the kitchen, and a plump fei^^t- foAv] is so handy for a meal. Poultry and eggs are a Avholesome IffizEgs ^-^.- diet Avhich every one likes, and at times when fresh meat is not Poultry. on hand they fully supply its place. And when raised for market they are generally quite remunerative, especially in the fall and Avinter seasons. Mr. (448) POULTRY. 447 Read, in " Farming for Profit," says : Hens are kept upon almost every farm, and may be made to pay well ; but in order to be profitable tbey sbould receive some attention. If exposed to cold and storms, and kept half starved, they can neither take on flesh nor produce eggs. They should have a good house, which should be kept very clean. In it (or near by) feeding- troughs and drinking-pans shonld be placed. These should be so arranged that while the fowls can eat and drink freely, they cannot get into the vessels. The roosting places should all be placed on a level. This is much better than the old method, one above another. When perches are of different heights too many hens will try to get upon the highest one, the weaker ones will fall or be crowded off, and in falling may be seriously injured. The perches should be of small poles of sassafras or wild cherry when they can be obtained. Let the hens have a good range ; they like to be on the grass. The The pijiuoain Kock. orchard is a good place for hens; they will go for worms and bugs, and in that way benefit the orchard very much. FACTS AXD FIGURES ABOUT THE POULTRY BUSINESS. That well-known and very successful poultry breeder, Fanny Field, writes as follows to the " Poultry Raiser " : Several, months ago two women who contem- plated going into the market business wrote me: We wish you would give us some facts and figures about the profit on poultry. We want to know what ordinary people have done under ordinary circumstances, and not what a few have done by selling eggs and fowls at fancy prices. It immedi- ately struck me that a good many people were hun- gry for the kind of reading asked for by my corre- spondents, and I at once set about the task of gath- ering "facts and figures" from farmers' wives and others who kent poultry under ordinary conditions. n Lcjrhorne. The first account comes from a young woman Mi O who kept 100 fowls. She says: This is my fourth year in the poultry business. The first year I kept twenty fowls and cleared about $15 in cash and a good deal in experience. The second year I kept fifty fowls and made $46. Last year I kept an even 100 fowls, and cleared $140 from the sale of the eggs alone. The highest price obtained for eggs was 35 cents a dozen, the lowest 15 cents. The hens are grade Plymouth Rocks, and averaged 121 eggs apiece in the year. I paid my father the mar- wiitte licgnOTisr ket price for all the feed used except the scraps from the table and an occasional pan of sour milk, and I offset that against the 44 otherwise would. The tire of the wheels gets loose, and ib *e v er reset, tintil by long rattling — which would be sufficient to signal the approach of such vehicles at a long distance — they finally come off, and repairing becomes an imperative necessity. Harness gets dry and stiff for lack of oil, soon bleaks in consequence, and is tied together with tow strings, or leather stripe made after the fashion of cobbler's shoe-strings, and is thus used until it can be used no longer, and a new set is bought to receive the same kind of care. It seems strange that farmers who are often economical, and even penurious, with respect to spending money for other things, should permit such wastes, when with a little care it might be obviated. A reaper should never rattle when at work, and if by taking hold of a shaft it can be shaken, it shows that the boxes need filling. This may be done by almost any farmer himself, or it will cost but a few dollars to have it done at a machine shop. A few pounds of old type when melted will serve for the mate^ rial. In the use of all farm machines, they should be kept in good repair, with every nut and rivet tight. They should also be kept w^ll oiWl where the latter is essential. A few moments spent in replacing a lost bolt, tightening a loosened screw, or making any such light repairs, will often save much labor and expense in making more extensive ones that may be required through neglect at first. Serious accidents to rider and team may also not unfrequently be avoided by attending to such slight repairs in season. Insufficient Help. — The number of laborers on a farm should always be adapted to the amount of work to be performed. With ideas of false economy, some farmers employ only about one-half the hired help that is necessary in order to perform the work in the proper time and manner, and endeavor, by working this force to the utmost, early and late, to be able to secure the accomplishment of the work for the season, at a much less expense than would ordinarily be involved in accomplishing it. By this course, much of the work is delayed beyond the proper time of doing it, and many of the crops become seriously injured. The cultivation and harvesting is in many instances delayed, weeds obtain the mastery of the soil, on account of other duties pressing, because there are not sufficient hands to perform at the proper time, crops become over-ripe, the grain shells out in the field, and the whole machinery of the farming system seems clogged. The loss occasioned by such management will usually far exceed the expense of employing a suitable number of hands; while hived help who feeL that their employer is endeavoring to over-reach them by exacting more from. them in service than is just, for the compensation received, will not take that interest in the work, or do it as well, as when they feel that they are fairly treated* Besides, aside from motives of policy, which should be secondary, any course that is based upon such selfish motives is not founded upon honor, or the prin- ciple of right, and the man who is not willing to give a just and fair equivalent for what he receives, is not an honest man, and is not entitled to the respect oi others. The employer who treats his help fairly and reasonably in all respect i is the one who will, as a general rule, secure the best results from their service. Poor Teams — Labor and time are often wasted by the use of inefficient farrr teams in performing the work. Perhaps oxen are used where horses would be more serviceable or the reverse — teams that might be good in themselves, but Preparing a Good Dinner. !•?-) 486 PROFITABLE FARMING. not adapted to the kind of work or the place. For performing certain work, such as plowing, two men may, perhaps, be employed where one man with the proper team would do just as well, and the labor of one man appropriated to other pur- poses, thus saving the labor of one extra hand. In other cases, weak, fractious, lame, or otherwise inefficient animals may be employed, which results in slow progress and work poorly done, when a good team of the right kind would have performed the work better and perhaps in half the time. Besides, it costs no more to maintain a good team than a poor one, and the labor done by the former is so much more satisfactory that it is far better economy to always keep good teams, although the first cost of purchasing suck would be more than that of an inferior one. Good teams are the cheapest in the end. Inferior Stock. — The same might be said of the stock bred upon the farm, or animals selected for the dairy, as of poor teams. Under a mistaken idea of economy, the lowest-priced animals are used, when the product of the best cows for the dairy and thorough bred stock for breeding purposes would more than double the profits, besides soon paying for the extra expense in purchasing. Where milk is the principal object, a milking breed should be selected; if beef is the leading consideration, a beef breed should be chosen. The animals should be adapted to the purpose to which they are used. False economy, and the lack of knowledge in selecting, breeding, and feeding animals, is one great cause why this department of farming does not prove as remunerative as it otherwise would. Since it requires as much labor and expense to maintain inferior stock as the best, it is a waste of labor and money as well as a loss to the farmer to maintain and breed the former, when so much larger profits could be secured by keeping the latter. There is too much indifference manifested by farmers with respect to this subject. Great improvement could be made in the poorest flocks and herds in a few years by the use of thoroughbred sires of suitable breeds, and farmer? who have generally not given their attention to the subject Avill find that they can advance their interests and profits very materially by this means. The same principle holds true with respect to feeding and handling all kinds of farm ani- mals. Generous feeding, good care, and kind treatment have quite as much influence, if not more, in regulating the profits which result as the breed. A poor animal or farm implement is costly at any price, while the best are eventually the cheapest. Inconvenience of Farm Buildings, etc. — Another cause of waste of time and labor may be found in the fact that the farm buildings are not conveniently arranged or the farms properly laid out. On some farms the buildings have every convenience with respect to construc- tion and location; there are suitable places for the storage of crops and tools and the shelter of stock. Hence, the labor is all utilized to some purpose, and there is no unnecessary waste in this respect. Where soiling is practiced, the crops grown for this purpose are near the barn, where they may easily be cut as wanted and fed to the stock, while the yards and sheds are supplied with an abundance of pure, fresh water for watering all the farm animals. The cultivated fields are conveniently located for carting manure and for tillage, and everything scemi arranged to help on the farm work, instead of hindering it. On the other hand, some farms seem so arranged as to require double the amount of labor and lime 488 PROFITABLE FARMING. Koad Builder, A. D. 1883. in accomplishing the same results. The buildings are not convenient in location or arrangement, and there is not sufficient room for the storage of anything. No water is provided in the yards, and the stock must be driven quite a distance in winter to a field, and the ice broken in order to water them. This involves much trouble and time, with a liability to injury to some of the animals from slipping on the ice, or hooking each other, aside from the exposure occasioned on severely cold or stormy days. The soiling crops are grown at a distance from the barn, involving the necessity of the use of a team every time anything is cut for feeding, while all the ar- rangements on the farm seem calculated to im- pede rather than to assist — the progress of the farm work. Much of the labor expended in such cases would have been unnec- essary under a better sys- tem of arrangement, and is a constant expenditure of labor and time that brings no real compensa- tion in return. Better Knowledge of Farming and Less Drudgery. — Money, time, and labor are often wasted by farmers from alack of knowledge of the nature and requirements of the soil and plants cultivated. A vast amount of labor is frequently expended in attempts to produce crops from soils which are not adapted to those particular kinds of plant growths, or which lack some of the essential elements of plant food. Failing to inform them- selves with respect to the improved agricultural methods of the present time, many farmers do not profit by that which has been gained by years of experi- ment and observation; hence, they are a generation or more behind the age in which they are living. Knowledge is power in every branch and department of business, and the farmer who possesses the best knowledge of his business is the best capacitated to make that business a success. The hands should serve the head, and the farmer that has the best agricul- tural knowledge, combined with the mental ability to successfully plan and execute the most thorough system, will not be obliged to make his life a mere drudgery of toil from morning till night, day after day, and year after year. The devising of the best plans and methods should be the first consideration, and their execution secondary. He who drudges on, without any sj'stem or method, will never be anything but a mere drudge, or attain to anything but a meager success. Farmers, as a class, should spend more time in informing themselves in their business, by reading the best agricultural books and papers, attending farmers' clubs, etc., and also more time in devising the best methods for all kinds of farm work, based upon the knowledge thus obtained. By such means, more h^ad work, and few hours of labor with the hands, will secure far better results than are now commonly obtained. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 489 Farmers should also acquaint themselves with the best and uniformly cheapest rates of transporting their goods to market. This consideration will be called in question in deciding what crops to raise. Farmers, as a class, also need a better understanding of business principles to enable them to buy and sell to the best advantage — the time, manner, and rates for the different products of the farm all having due consideration. They need, in this connection, to deal more directly with the consumer and manufacturer in disposing of their products, and in purchasing implements, clothing, etc., and less with the "middle men," whose commissions largely modify the receipts and expenditures of the farmer in such eases. With better information on agricultural subjects, there will be better tillage, the use of better seed for crops, better farm stock, better plan- ning and systematizing, less hard labor, and bet- ter profits. Constant and severe toil incapacitates the mind for the best thought of which it eapable; there will neither the energy nor the time for it. A certain amount of rest from hard labor is, Wheel Scraper, A. D. 1884. therefore, a paying investment, as the hands will then be made to serve the brain *,o the best advantage, and there will be less drudgery and more knowledge and skill in conducting the business, while larger profits, other conditions being equal, will be the result. Improved Farm Implements Essential. — The improvement made in farm imple- ments during the last quarter of a century is truly astonishing, as well as the influence of their use upon agriculture. During that period they have been sub- stituted in a great measure in place of hand labor on the farm, which has resulted in vastly increasing the agricultural resources of the country, since by their use labor can be performed much cheaper, faster and better than by hand. They are a great convenience on small farms, and absolutely indispensable on large ones, where extensive crops could not be cultivated without them. Take the reaper, for instance, the introduction of which into the grain fields has added many millions of dollars to the annual harvests, by rendering it possi- ble to secure the entire product, and also by admitting of a largely increased area of grain culture. The same might be said of improvements in harrows, cultiva- tors, plows and all other farm machinery. The use of suitable farm implements also enables a farmer of small means to conduct a much larger business than he otherwise could where only hand work was employed, thus cheapening the cost of production. Since labor can be so much more easily performed by the use of im- proved machinery, it is the practice of economy to employ them whenever practica- ble. There are, however, many farmers who, with ideas of false economy, still persist in depending mainly upon hand labor, while the few implements that may be in use upon their farms are of the most inferior kind. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 491 Where the amount of crops cultivated will warrant the purchase of the host machines, they will soon pay for themselves many times over, in the amount of labor saved and the increased facilities thus afforded for cultivating larger and better crops. The use of machines also saves time, labor and health. By their aid the farmer can raise better crops with less physical labor, and consequently less risk to health. As a general rule, farmers look older according to their years than any other class of individuals. , This is due to the severe toil to which they subject themselves, and the constant overtaxing of their strength. We do not wish to be- understood to convey the idea that we do not consider farming a healthy business. On the contrary, Ave believe it the most healthy of all occupations when judiciously followed. But every good is liable to perversion, and we believe the majority of farmers either injure their health or hasten old age, and break down in the latter part of life quicker than they ought, through the excessive hard labor that they impose upon them- selves. If the machines can be employed to perform the necessaiy farm work, and thus prevent a waste of strength and health, how much better to make use of these things than to make life a drudgery with all the attendant evil effects. Instead of feeling that he cannot afford such aids, the farmer that has a correct idea of economy will feel that he cannot do without them. In connection with the use of better farm implements, which, by admitting of better tillage and increased facilities of cultivation and harvesting, will enable the farmer to pro- duce larger crops, might be mentioned the economy of so fertilizing the soil, combined with improved methods of tillage, that much larger crops may be pro- duced from the same area. By this means labor will be saved, and compara- tively larger profits be secured. English agriculture, where a dense population requires that the cultivation of the soil be such as to secure the highest results from a limited area, might be mentioned as an example of this method. Where land is abundant even, this principle will hold true to a certain extent, since about the same amount of labor will be required for the cultivation and harvest- ing of a light or a heavy crop. The land must be plowed and harrowed, the grain sowed and reaped, and if, by a little extra care in preparing the soil, a third or one-half larger crop can be produced, it will well repay for the extra labor and expense bestowed. A Faithful Friend. 492 PROFITABLE FARMING. A leading aim with the farmer should be tc raise the largest amount of farm products with the least expense. To half till a field of ten acres and obtain but three or four hundred bushels of corn, when that amount could be raised by cultivating properly four or five a ' c r e s , would be poor econo- my, since the same re- sult could be reached with half the amount of plowing and other necessary labor in cul- t ivat i n g and harves- ting. Be- sides, the well-culti- vated four or five acres w o u 1 d be left rich and mel- low, and could be much more easily worked for subsequent crops than the hard, poorly- tilled soil of the ten acres. It is the best econo- my for the farmer nev- er to CUltl- Primitive Log Bridge. vate more land than can be done in the most thorough manner. Anything beyond this, aa a general rule, will result in a waste of labor and prove unsatisfactory i:i (ho end. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 493 The fear, that is so natural, of incurring expense for tho purchase of suitable fertilizers, or the lack of judgment in purchasing and applying guch as are suitable to the soil to be cultivated, or the crop to be raised, is often tho source of great loss, or rather failure to realize as much as •Tight to be realized. The farmer, above all others, should be a live, thinking man. Systematic Management. — One of the great wants pertaining to farming generally is a more perfect system of management — a system that will nut only admit of the various kinds of work on the farm being done in the proper time, but in the most profitable manner. Time and attention should be given in ascer- taining the best methods of conducting the business, and then, having decided upon and adopted a certain plan or system, it should be carried out thoroughly. Experiments in this manner may sometimes result in changes in certain respects, and new and improved methods will be adopted, from time to time, if the farmer is progressive — as he should be — in order to keep abreast of the times and the age in which he lives; still, he should conduct his farming in a methodi- cal manner, whatever that sj'stem may be, and never permit the business to manage itself, as is too frequently the case. A well-developed system will enable the farmer to pursue an even, uniform plan of operations, and have a tendency to obviate the frequent shifting from one department to another, with no permanency in any one of them, which practice reduces farming to a continuous routine of profitless experiments and ventures. Not that we would condemn experimenting in a judicious way. Every pro- gressive farmer will not only experiment for himself, but will profit by the intel- igent experiments of others; but experiments should be the exception and not he rule for general practice in farming, and shovdd always be made judiciously, md with an intelligent understanding of the nature of the things to be experi- nented with. A lack of system is one of the fruitful causes of failure in all kinds of ;mployments, and especially so in farming. To be a successful farmer requires i wide range of knowledge and methodical practice. He must not only know vhen and how to cultivate the various crops, the soil to which they are best adapted, but how, when, and where to dispose of them in the most profitable nanner, how to purchase the necessary farm supplies to the best advantage, what :rops and farm stock are the most profitable for him to raise, etc. In order to ascertain definitely with respect to the comparative profits of Efferent branches of farm industry, and the real state of his business, every armer should keep a correct account of all the receipts and expenditures. It is inly in this way that the actual profits or losses of the farm can be ascertained. aich an account is also often convenient for reference, as furnishing important lata that can be obtained in no other way. Keeping such an account has also a ondency towards systematic practice in every department, and cannot fail of I cinch profit to the farmer in all respects. More Capital in Farming. — It is frequently the case that the limited success f the farmer is due to a lack of sufficient capital. It may be the young farmer, ist starting in life, who has invested nearly all of his money in purchasing a arm, has but little left with which to supply the necessary outfit. Hence, l procuring a team, farm implements, stock, etc., he is from necessity obliged to 484 PROFITABLE FARMING. run in debt or purchase those that are inferior; or, if first quality, not the number that is needed on the farm sufficient to make the business as profitable as it should be. To be limited in capital, or to incur a heavy debt, are both a great drawback in successful farming, and many a young man has to contend with this evil year after year before being freed from it. As a general rule, it will be better to purchase less land at first, and add to it from time to time as means will permit, and retain a suf- ficient amount of capi- tal to furnish and stock it well, rather than to ex- pend nearly all in land and be embarrassed in managing it for lack of means to render the labor bestowed profitable. There may, however, be exceptions ; for in- stance, desirable lands that can be purchased at a low rate may be so lo- cated as to soon largely increase in value, which, if lying even unimproved for a few years, will bring in selling many times the original expen- diture; but we refer more particularly to farms pur- chased with the view of cultivating the whole, or larger portion of them. Again, with ideas of false economy, many far- mers who possess an abundance of means for cultivating their lands in the most successful manner, will limit their expenses to the lowest possible figure, permit- ting their farm buildings to run down for lack of re- pairs and improvements, using antiquated and unsuitable machines in doing work, in order that they may put the receipts of the farm into the bank, bonds, or other securities. By invest- ing such receipts in the improvement of lands, farm buildings, farm implements, and the farm business generally, might in many cases perhaps double the profits resulting from the former course. Extravagance and waste should always be Singing Lessons itt Home. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 195 avoided, but it must be remembered that it requires capital to make capital, and the farmer who invests a certain amount of money in his business to maintain and continue all laudable improvements has the best opportunities, other condi- tions being equal, to make that business a success. CHOICE OF FARMS. Lattice Bridge. There is something in the ownership of land that gives independence to a man's character. It is in itself an honor, and has connected with it a kind of reflex influence that does not seem to be associated with other possessions. The retention of the old family homestead and farm by a long line of ancestry for successive generations is one of the interesting features of the older-settled por- tions of the country, "and is in many respects a desideratum, whether we regard it in the prac- tical light of an investment or of m a pardonable pride, as the basis of the sentiment of family honor and respectability that is to be as- sociated with the name and inher- itance. Among the many changes of ownership of lands it is pleas- ant to see, as we do occasionally, although too rarely, an instance of this kind. While the few among the multitude of farmers have this privilege of retaining the old home, the majority, in establishing themselves in business, either from necessity or choice, locate elsewhere. In selecting a farm there are many things of importance to be taken into consideration. The advantages and disadvantages are to be carefully weighed, and the sum of each taken into account. The location, quality of soil, size, the purposes to wnicb.it is to be appropriated, etc., all are to be judiciously considered, and that decision given which seems to favor the highest possibilities of success. But it must be remembered that absolute perfection, either with regard to man- kind or locality, will never be found on the face of the whole earth. We must, therefore, not expect it, and take things as we find them, making a choice of such as seem to us, by the vise of our best judgment, to contain the most good and the fewest evils. No location can be found but what will have its disadvantages as well as its peculiar advantages; and, according to the great natural law of com- pensation, the sum of the one will in a measure offset that of the other. Whether mixed agriculture or sjDecial be the object, the facilities for trans- portation and nearness to market must necessarily be considered in selecting a farm, as well as the adaptability of the soil and climate to the crops to be pro- duced. If tropical products, for example, are to be raised, the farmer must make choice of lands where the soil and climate is best adapted to such crop. If grain is to be the specialty, some of the Western States will afford the best facilities. If the object be sheep husbandry on a large scale, some of our river bottom lands should be the place chosen. If it be the care of large herds of cattle, it should be a ranch in some of the far Western States or Texas. But if the (496) a Gallani Escort. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 49' farmer wishes for himself unci family the peculiar advantages to be derived from a home in the older-settled portions of the country, some State in the Eastern or Southern section would doubtless be his choice. [f he desires a locality remote from other inhabitants, he must forego the educational, social, and other privileges that a nearness to a city or largely popu- lated section will furnish; while, if the choice lie in a densely populated region, ho must of necessity give up the peculiar advantages of retirement, and accept the objectionable features that such a place may possess. In making a selection of locality, the farmer should never overlook the health, comfort, happiness, and general welfare of his family. These should always be primary, and the money profits of the business a secondary consideration; for, while money making is one of the great desideratums with most men, it is not the chief good in life, neither does it constitute the sum total to earthly happiness, as many, by their lives, seem to regard it. Success and happiness in life do not depend so much upon the location and business, as the character of the individual. As a general principle, the man makes the business, and not the business the man. Success is what we make it, and the man of the right stamp, who is honorable in his dealings, energetic, capable, systematic, practical, and thoroughly business-like, will be successful wherever he maybe located, or in whatever laudable business he under- takes. And those farmers who are generally dissatisfied with their condition, and imagine that they may be greatly benefited by a change of place, will find, in the majority of cases, that. the fault is more in themselves than in their sur- roundings, and that the adoption of a better system and improved methods will produce better results than a change of locality. For this reason a change should never be made without due deliberation, and an honest endeavor to ascertain the true reason for the lack of success that has thus far characterized their business'. Of course, there are exceptions to this, as to all rules, but we think that it will prove applicable to most cases. The desertion of the old homestead is too frequently a mistake with young men. If properly managed, money can be made there as well as elsewhere: Avhile other considerations of importance are involved, such as the influence of the association connected with the home on successive generations, their tendency to restrain from, evil and promote the good in a desire to hand down the family name with honor from one generation to another, etc. In many of the sparsely settled portions of New England the old homesteads are passing into the hands of foreigners and the state of society, as well as the lands in those sections, is deteriorating. For the sake of the general good of the community in such locali- ties, enough of the native population should remain to sustain our institutions and maintain that intelligent enterprise and progress which is characteristic of American people, and which should be a credit to the country at large. Advantages of Large Farms.— The size of a farm should always be adapted to the purposes to which it is to be devoted, but it will also be largely influenced by the location. In the Eastern section wherethere is a dense population, where taxes are high, and land sells for a comparatively high price, smaller farms will be found more profitable than at the West and South, where land is plenty and can he bought at much lower rates, and also where extensive use can be made of improved agricultural implements. As a general rule the number of men who are capacitated to manage successfully extensive farms is small compared with the 32 498 PROFITABLE FARMING. number represented by those who can make profitable the management of farms of small or medium size. Some man have special talents for successfully engag- ing in large enterprises. They possess the ability not only to originate the most perfect and systematic plans, but to successfully execute them as well. But these are in the minority as it will be found in the majority of cases that the management of small farms, or those of moderate size, will in the aggregate prove most successful. Large farms, however, possess many advantages over small ones. While the former will, as a general rule, cost less in propor- tion to their size than small ones, they furnish a larger proportionate area of tillable soil from which an income can be obtain- ed. The insurance, taxes, repairs, and other expenses will also be larger in pro- portion to the investment on a small than large farm; hence, there is a larger proportion of un- productive property in the former than the latter. Large farms require a smaller proportionate amount of capital to be in- vested in buildings. The same principle holds true with respect to fencing. The expense of fur- nishing farming imple- ments on a small farm is very much higher in pro- portion to the amount pro- duced than on a large one, while the cultivation, be- ing performed on a large scale of operation, can be done with much more fa- cility and under a more perfect system of manage- ment than on the latter. Thc LitUo Mischief. A farm of seventy-five or a hundred acres will require nearly as many kinds of farm implements for performing the work as one of five hundred acres, and they will cost about as much when purchased as those for a larger farm. The principal difference will be that the owner will have several times as much profit from their more extensive use as the owner of the one hundred acres; hence, a PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 499 larger per cent, of profit on the investment. In fact, on very extensive farms, where a number of the same kind of machines are required, such as sulky or gang-plows, harrows, reapers, etc., these implements can be purchased at a large discount, making the expense for this purpose on the large farms very much less in proportion to small ones. The same is true to a certain extent with respect to teams for the farm. In disposing of produce where mixed farming is prac- ticed, the time and labor spent in taking to market the surplus products of a small farm are about the same as for a large one, with the exception of a differ- ence in handling in loading and unloading and the heavier cartage. While the business of a large farm can be handled to a better advantage, and those who are adapted to it can make it more profitable than that of a small farm, still there is always more risk attending it. The losses are greater in case of failure. On cheap lands, and until a section becomes dense!}' populated, larger profits will be found generally in cultivating large areas devoted more particu- larly to special crops. When well populated the land becomes more uniformly divided, the farms as a consequence are reduced in size, and a more thorough cultivation is given. The natural result of continued cultivation of large areas devoted to special crops is to produce exhaustion, while smaller farms under a more thorough system, combined with proper rotation, will not only retain, but increase their fertility. Advantages of Small Farms, etc. — While large farms possess many advantages over small ones, yet the latter also admit of some special advantages over the former. In the Western sections, where bonanza farms are under cultivation, corn and other grains bring a much less price than in the East, where their cultivation is necessarily limited; hence, the Eastern farmer receives much larger returns for his crops, and, therefore, it is essential that the Western farmer should culti- vate more land and secure larger products in order to make even the same profits that result from the crops raised by the Eastern farmer. Small farms always require less capital invested, and a man of moderate means can establish himself on such a farm without incurring a heavy debt, the interest of which would be constantly consuming his profits, while the mortgages would prove a source of continuous "nightmare" if he were a man of energy and business capacity. They also require less hired help, less expenditure in supplying wdth suitable teams, etc., while there is less care and anxiety as well as less risk attending their management. A small farm admits of more thorough culture, and if properly tilled, can be kept in a higher state of fertility than a large one, and be made to produce a larger crop in proportion to the area cultivated. While there are some farmers who could increase the size of their farms with profit, yet by far too many own more land than they can properly manage, or their capital may warrant, or are what may be called "land poor." As a general rule, it is not profitable for the farmer to hold unproductive property. He should own no more tillable land than he can. properly cultivate, and should add to his farm from time to time as his resources will admit. An authoritative writer on agriculture says, respecting capi- tal in farming: " Were I asked to point out the best paying farms of this country, I should seek them not where land is cheap and where agriculture is conducted on a large scale, but upon the outskirts of some metropolis among the market gardens, the secret of whose success is hidden only by the shades of night, a PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 501 ■when cart, load upon cart load, the waste of city consumption, is convoyed back to the outlying farms; and thus while the world is sleeping, is supplied, as to a growing school-boy, such vitalizing gain as more than balances the daily loss. Nowhere better than such sections of city surrounding country, can the system of high farming be carried to perfection. The nearness of the consumer furnishes a ready market for vegetable products which, from their perishable nature, 502 PROFITABLE FARMING. demand immediate consumption, while unrivalled facilities for obtaining fertili- zers leave a margin for profits which can scarcely be equaled in places more remote." In those sections where the farms are generally small; it is a good practice for a few of the proprietors to co-operate in the purchase of expensive farm machines or choice stock, thus largely reducing the outlay to each, and increasing proportionately the profits, while it permits each individual interested in the ownership to obtain the benefits resulting at a comparatively slight expense. Whatever the size of the farm, the capital should never be all invested in land. There should always be a sufficient amount of working capital left in the hands of the owner and manager of the farm to thoroughly till it, and no land that is capable of being tilled should be left unproductive. MODEL FARMS. There are man}' farmers who are strongly prejudiced against scientific farm- ing, or what they call "book-farming/' regarding it as pertaining more to a mere theory than utility in practice. They consider all who favor it as visionaries — the old methods are supreme, and all attempts towards an innovation as fanciful and unprofitable schemes. It will invariably be found that those who are most strongly opposed to scientific agriculture are the most ignorant concerning it. To be sure, mere scientific knowledge is not by any means all that is necessary to successful farming. Theory is important as far as it goes, but the art is fully as essential; and when we have the two combined, viz: the science and art of agriculture, or, in other words, when we have the skill to put in most successful practice the knowledge that science , bestows, it is then that we have a complete union, and the highest standard attained in agricultural achievements. But what is scientific agriculture of Avhich we hear so much, and, unfortu- nately, see so little? Science, literally, means knowledge, and when used in connection with agriculture it means no less. Scientific agriculture, therefore, means the employment of that knowledge obtained from Nature's vast laboratory — of her forces and her laws- — in the prac- tical art of farming. But why should we not make use of the aid which science gives? Why refuse any assistance that will give us a more perfect knowledge of the elements with which Ave have to deal? It is a fact that there is no business whatever that requires such a varied and accurate knowledge of nature'slaws as farming; neither is there any business that calls into exercise more frequently that faculty that is usually denominated "practical common sense." No one can deny that the manufacturer is enabled to make vastly larger profits by the aid of science, and conforming his labors to scientific principles, and whv not the farmer as well ? Aboriginal Dwelling. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 503 "We do not claim that farming can bo reduced to a science as exact as that of mathematics or mechanics, for there are too many varying influences over which the farmer has no control to admit of it — such as the heat and cold, rain and sun- shine, etc. — but we do claim that the highest attainments in this direction are reached only through the knowledge imparted by science. Those farmers, there- fore, who reduce their practice to the most intelligent system, will, other condi- tions being equal, be the most successful. The best methods, when properly put in practice, will always be found the most profitable. FARM BUILDINGS. As the degree of civilization attained by a people can be very accurately determined by the manner in which they till the soil, and the implements used for that purpose, so in like manner can the standard of civilization be measured by the kind of houses they construct for themselves and their domestic animals. The lowest types of the human family live in holes dug in the ground, burrow- ing like some kinds of animals, while savages of a little higher order than these construct rude huts, that are a single improvement upon the former habitations. As intelligence and civilization increases, the style of architecture improves in a proportionate degree, until the habitations of the most intelligent nations of the earth are characterized by thrift, refinement, and taste ; wealth, intelligence, and culture being as unmistakably evinced by the style of architecture of such a nation, as by the cus- toms and manners of the inhabitants them- selves. What is true of all nations is equally true of individuals, and the conditions of the farm and farm buildings will, as a gen- eral rule, be an index of the thrift, enter- prise, and refinement of the owner. Al- though there has been a great improve- ment in the construction of farm buildings of all kinds in the last quarter of a century, not only in the number adapted for the various purposes of farm convenience and style of their construction, still there is in many deficiency in these respects, which occasions much inconvenience and loss. Buildings Necessary on the Farm, etc. — The number of buildings required on the farm will depend upon a variety of circumstances, such as the size of the farm, the purposes to which it is best adapted, the special departments of busi- ness to be conducted, the productiveness of the land, etc. A large farm will require more and larger buildings than a small one. Inasmuch as the family should have the first consideration above that of the domestic animals, of course the house should receive the first attention, and be considered the most impor- tant of all farm buildings. It should have the most care and money spent upon it in rendering it healthful, pleasant and attractive, while the barn should be secondary in this respect, although Ave know of some farmers who seem to regard First Step Towards Comfort. use, but in the sections a sjreat 504 PRO FIT ABLE FARM ] N ( 4 . their horses as first in importance, and wife and children secondary, and who will be at a great expense of money, time, and labor for the welfare of their stock, providing fine comfortable barns, in which they seem to take much pride, while they are at the same time careless and indifferent with respect to the wants of the family, and provide for them a home comparatively much inferior in con- venience, comfort, and general architectural construction to the barn. We are glad to know that this class of farmers is in a small minority, and yet such are by far too numerous, and wherever*found will always be characterized by a lack of the essentials of true manliness and intelligence that are characteristic of farmers generally. In many sections cf the country it is necessary to provide shelter for the stock during a portion of the year, hence a barn is essential for that purpose, as well as for the storage of their food. Where large numbers and a variety of animals are kept, a stock-barn will be necessary for this purpose. In those parts of the country where cereals are cultivated to any extent, a granary will be essen- tial for the storage of such crops. A hog-house will be indispensable on a farm where swine are kept, while the poultry-house, wagon-house, wood-house, or place of storage of any kind for fuel, store-house, tool-house, and repair-shop will be found equally necessary. Sometimes one building may be made to answer the purpose of two or three combined, on small farms, such as the wagon-house, tool- house, wood-house, etc, being different departments of the same building. Aside from those already mentioned, the ice-house will be found a great con- venience on most farms, and the source of supplying a luxury which, when once enjoyed for a season, will be regarded as a necessity. The expense and labor attend- ing it is slight, compared with the bene- fits that may be received. On a dairy farm an ice-house is very necessary, as is also a milk-house, in those sections where there are no creameries or cheese-factories in the vicinity. These will not only prove a great convenience, but will contribute largely to the profits of such farms by improving the quality of the daily products. Where to- bacco or other special crops are exclusively cultivated, buildings adapted to the pur- pose will also be required. If to the above the farmer is so cir- cumstanced that he can add a small con- servatory, not as anecessity, but as a lux- ury and a means of increasing the edu- cating and refining influences of a home as well as adding to its attractions, the money and labor thus expended will be found, wherever such a course is practi- cable, to be a profitable investment. In the construction of all farm buildings, convenience and good taste should have due consideration. It costs but little more, at first, to construct a building that is convenient and tasty than one that is lacking in these respects, while con- venient, buildings will prove the cheapest in the end by the vast amount of labor Kuii a rdiit Cubin. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 505 saved that is always involved ■where buildings are lacking in this essential. Of course, good judgment and taste are necessary in securing such results, and while the one who plans the structure may possess tlio former, he may not the latter, for it is not everv one that is endowed with sufficient taste to plan the artistic arrangement of a building, as will he seen by the attempts at this hind of art, exemplified by the many buildings commonly seen upon the farm. In the con- struction of farm build- ings health, comfort, and convenience should he the first conside- ration, being of primary importance, while behuty of design and ornamenta- tion, though of secondary importance, should not be entirely over- looked. Ri pairing and Fainting Buildings, etc. In the archi- tectural study of farm build- ings, a recent writer has divided them into two classes, viz : "Thoso al- ready built, and those that are to be built ' — in other words, the old and the prospec- tive new. A s the former are by far the most numerous we will consider them first. The importance of keeping farm buildings in good repair should not be over- looked by any farmer who has regard not only to the general thrifty and orderly appearance of his surroundings, but to economy as well. On every well-regulated Captive Liberated. 506 PRO FIT ABLE FARMING. farm, frequent repairs in "buildings become a necessity in securing their preser- vation, and unless these necessary repairs are made in season and thoroughly performed, the expense of repairing will he largely increased and permanent injury to the buildings often be the result. If a leak in a roof of a building or elsewhere is promptly stopped, no injury is occasioned by it; but if neglected month after month the frame-work of the building will be liable to decay, and become after a little time so injured as to be entirely worthless. When buildings need painting, the sooner the new boat of paint is applied the better. If too long neglected, the surface becomes rough by exposure to the weather, which will ren- der the painting more difficult to perform, and also require much more paint to cover the surface well; hence, promptness in such cases is an economy in both the expense of labor and material. Besides the economy of keeping buildings in good repair, their neat and orderly appearance is no small argument in favor of such management. Good work, promptly performed, is in all respects the cheapest. In painting buildings, two objects are secured, viz: ornamentation and durability. Paint adds to the- beauty of the buildings, and also tends to preserve the wood to which it is applied. Buildings that are kept well painted have a neat and attractive appearance, are an indication of the culture, refinement, and prosperity of tbe owner, and render home more pleasant to the family circle. Un- painted buildings have a dingy neglected ap- pearance, and will require a new covering of wood-work much sooner than those that are kept well painted. In answer to the question, whether it will pay for the farmer of small means and many expenses, to incur the additional ex- pense of keeping Ills buildings well painted, we would say, that it depends upon various cirumstances ; if money value merely in ben- efits resulting from having well painted build- Modem vma. j n o- g j s considered, it will depend upon whether it will cost more to procure the paint necessary to preserve the wood- work than to newly cover the buildings when they need it. In some sections, where lumber is cheap, the paint would be the most expen- sive; in others, where timber is scarce, the cost of timber and labor of re-covering would be the most expensive. But the money value of things is not the only consideration to be involved. The attractions that may be added to the home by the outlay of keeping the farm buildings well painted and in good repair, and the pleasure and satisfaction afforded the family, besides the refining and educating influence of pleasant surroundings, are considerations which it would be difficult to weigh by a money standard. If farmers would take more pains to make their homes attractive and pleasant, and farm life something better than the hard drudgery that it too com- monly is, there would be more respect and love entertained for farming, as an occupation, by farmers' children, and less complaint by farmers generally of being left to till the farm alone in their old age. If farmers wish their sons to be attached to the farm home and farm life, thev must make that farm home and PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 507 farm life sufficiently attractive to induce some of their boys to stay; and how can they make a better beginning than to commence right at homo and first make the farm buildings neat and attractive? We are sorry for the farmer's son or daugh- ter who feels ashamed to say to a stranger friend, " This is my home; " while it is refreshing to see a kind of pardonable pride manifested by children for their home. Home should be the dearest and most attractive place on earth to hus- band, Avife, and children, attractive to both heart and eye, and in order to make it such there is more responsibility involved individually in connection with each member of the household than mere sentimentalism might include. The home should be made attractive and beautified. Money thus spent is capital well invested, and will bring larger returns to the farmer and his descen- dants in real happiness, comfort, and elevating influences generally, than almost any other investment that could be made; and to those farmers who can make such a course practicable, we would say: Spare no pains or reasonable expense in making your homes as attractive as possible. The expense of painting may be greatly reduced by the farmer being able to perform the labor of applying the paint himself, instead of paying a professional painter to do the work for him. This was formerly in a great measure imprac- ticable on account of the lack of knowledge of the proper method of mixing paint; but the difficulty is now obviated by the use of what are called "mixed paints," which have for several years been in general use. These may be found in the market mixed in the proper proportions, ready for use. The Farm-House. — The location of the farm-house should never be chosen without due deliberation, as it has much to do with the health and comfort of the household, as well as the pleasantness of the home surroundings. The site chosen for the new house should always be on dry soil. A damp cellar is one of the most objectionable features of a house, and the fruitful cause of various ills. Many incurable diseases, besides deaths that may have been regarded by the members of the family as the dispensation of an overruling Providence, might be directly traceable to this source. Unless the site chosen be on a naturally dry soil it should be made perfectly dry by carefully and thoroughly underdraining. A low, marshy locality should be avoided by all means, the air of such places being filled with dampness and malarial disease. It is a mistake to suppose that the hill is colder than the valley. Every farmer must have noticed that the late frosts of spring and early frosts of autumn do more damage on the lowlands than the highlands, and the thermometer of a cold, still night shows a lower degree of temperature in the lowlands. The valley may furnish a shelter from the winds, but not from the cold. Cultivate, there- fore, the valleys ; but place your iarm buildings on the hills, where an equally good shelter from the winds can be secured by clusters of white pines or other evergreen trees planted on the windward side of the buildings. As a second suggestion, we say, locate farm buildings where the sun will shine the most hours of the day and the most days of the year. The value of sunlight, both for man and beast, has never been fully appreciated. There are life, health, and elasticity of spirits in sunshine. Show me a woman who has worked for j^ears in a dark, gloomy cellar-kitchen, and in all probability you'll show me one the corners of whose mouth are turned down, whose constitution is impaired, and who has lost all buovancv of feeling. Show me an ox that is stalled in a 508 PROFITABLE FARMING. dark cellar stable, and yarded on the north side of a barn, and I will show you one whose eye is dull, hide inelastic, hair bristling, and step heavy. Physicians tell us that patients located on the south or sunny side of hospitals are more likelv to be cured than those located on the north side, and heliopathy is as much ' Afniiil of Calves iii fashion as hydropathy once was. What the exhilerating and invigorating effects of a sun-bath are we can conceive from the change that conies over our feelings and powers when the .sun shines out clearly after having been hidden for a Ioult time beneath the clouds. PRACTICAL RUCGERTIONS. -.09 Very nearly allied to the location of the house where the family may enjoy the full benefit of the sun's rays is our next suggestion, that the house he not sur- rounded hy too many shade trees. A tree is a thing of beauty and a joy forever, and we would by no means discard all trees around the farmer's premises; hut it is possible to have too much of a good thing. A house without any shade trees looks naked, and is naked. A few well-located elms, maples, mountain ashes, 'and white pines, add much to the beauty and comfort of home, but no one should live in a forest. Mosquitoes may live and thrive in such a deep shade, but man finds his true de- velopment where air and light find free access. We never desire to see so many trees around a house that the grass will not make a velvety turf on the lawn. Beautiful as are trees and exquisite as are the forms and colorings of flowers, there is nothing that pleases the eye more, day after day, than a well-kept lawn. A stately elm here and a cluster of evergreens there, adorn and protect a rural homo far better than a perfect swamp of trees. The southern slope of a hill side is a desirable site for a house, as it furnishes the opportunity for the enjoyment of the full sunlight during most of the day. The north- ern side of the road should also be chosen when practicable. The house should always be located near the highway. We have seen houses in the country located in such a manner and so far from the road, that it would he almost impossible for the inmates to catch a glimpse of what was passing on the highway, and with the excep- tion of going from the premises, or the receiving of visits from friends, they would seem almost as much isolated from the outer world as though they were behind prison bars. The farmer and his sons would not be as much affected by the unpleasant location of the farm-house as the wife and daughters, since their business calls them away into the fields and broad sunlight so large a portion of the time; but it does very materially affect the health and happiness of those compelled to spend the most part of their time in such a location. iiving (he Young Ones a Show. 510 PROFITABLE FARMING. The house should he so located and planned that the rooms most occupied in the daily tasks of the home duties should be upon the sunny and most pleasant side of the house, commanding the best view of the highway and neighboring farm houses. To persons possessing certain temperaments, the isolation and «--^^^- , — retirement IplfPlPpP^--'''"!?^ — ^— - ' __ """" - which some 'ocalities in he country mpose, is a serious cause of nervous- ness and mor- bidness, and it has been stated by some of the highest medi- cal authori- ties, that much of the insanity among farm- ers' wives — which is more frequent, in proportion, than among almost every other class of persons — may be direct- ly traceable to excessive hard labor and this isola- tion and mon- otony in life. With nothing to divert from the dull and monotonous routine of la- bor, day after " Keep him Away I Keep him Away 1" "liv llld Veir after year, the mind is apt to prey upon itself with the consequent evil effects. Our surroundings have much to do in making up the sum of happiness in life, and nothing that contributes to it even in the least should be over- looked . PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 511 Country life is, of necessity, devoid of much of the variety which the village or city afford, but it need not be rendered doubly isolated and the home a lonely hermitage fur that reason. The most pleasant location possible should be chosen for tho home, at a convenient and desirable proximity to the public road, on a slight elevation if practicable. In sections where the land is low and level, a slight elevation can be made artificially by carting earth and building up the surface. This involves considerable labor, but will well repay it, in some locations, by the better drainage thus secured, as well as by improving the appearance of the grounds. Influence of the Dwelling upon Character. — In the con- struction of all farm buildings they should be adapted to the purpose for which they are in- tended. As the house is de- signed for the protection, com- fort, health, and happiness of the household, it should be constructed in a manner suited to subserve these purposes ; hence, it should be convenient, roomy, and of sufficient size to meet the wants of the fam- ily. It should be well lighted and ventilated, pleasant and tasty in arrangement and de- sign. It should be borne in mind that "home" is not merely a place of shelter from the storms and cold of winter and the heat of summer — a place in which to sleep securely at night and labor by day; it is all this, and something vastly more. It is a place where the children receive their first and most lasting impressions, those that go far in molding and forming the character of the man and woman in after life. A tasty, orderly home has a refining, educating influence upon its inmates, while an unattractive, gloomy-looking, and poorly-furnished house has an influence which is the reverse from elevating. Where there is nothing to cultivate a re- fined taste and there is necessitated a constant association with things that are meagre and mean, the mind naturally is warped in the same direction. A plea- sant home will not only prove an attraction to the children of the owner, keep- ing them from places that are debasing in their influences, but will also attract 512 PROFITABLE FARM I N( 'i. .better associates for them, who will come and visit where they hud the same refining and pleasant surroundings to which they are accustomed in their own homes. Things that may seem small in themselves are often vastly large in their influence, and determine the Avhole course of many a human life. We are apt to speak of "destiny" in life, and regard it as something mysterious and inevita- ble — an indefinable power that determines the fate of mortals, and over which they have no con- trol. But the fact is, our destiny is in our own hands, and is what we make it ; consequently, our own lives, and the lives of those de- pending upon us, arc, in a great mea- sure, what we make them. We are more or less influenced by our surroundings, and too little atten- tion and import- ance is generally given to this fact in the construction and furnishing of our homes. But some fanners will say: "Such talk is all very well for those that have plenty of money and can afford to have nice homes, but we are not able to make our homes tasty and attractive ; we are poor, and Haying Lots of Fnn. we an( j QU] . c ]jU. dren must work for a living. We have neither the means nor the time to bestow in beautifying our homes, and the idea of farmers of such limited means, that the}' can scarcely make a living from their farms, embellishing their homes, is all nonsense." To be sure, "bread" is, indeed, the "staff of life," and the material wants must receive the first attention; it is better, if we cannot have but one, to have the body properly fed and cared for, than to have a beautiful home. But without PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 513 pleasant surroundings lifo is but half a life, and how few realize at what slight expense a home maybe made tasty and attractive! How few understand how pleasant and enjoyable life on the farm in the country can be made, and at what small expenditures the rural home may be rendered convenient, tasteful, and really beautiful! For the exercise of good taste and ingenuity does not necessa- rily imply extravagance. We have seen houses in the city furnished with the most wanton extravagance, where money was lavished almost without limit, and His Future Master. yet they were not beautiful, because there was no taste displayed in the selection and arrangement. To be sure, everything Avas expensive and rich, but there was a lack of harmony and good taste that offended the eye, as a discordant note in a strain of music offends the ear. On the other hand, we have entered many a rural country home — a small bird's-nest kind of cottage, perhaps — where everything seemed so neat, tasteful, and perfectly adapted to the place, and surroundings that possessed a charm and 33 514 PROFITABLE FARMING. attraction th it rendered the term ''beautiful" not an inappropriate one to apply- to it; and yc fc, perhaps, many of the furnishings and ornamentations were rustic carvings, or jther work performed by the father or boys of the household on winter evenings or rainy days when not employed on the farm, while the wife and daugh- ters had beautified every niche and nook within with specimens of their decora- tive art and handiwork, and without with trailing vines, blooming shrubs and flowers, in a manner that only a certain quality of feminine taste and ingenuity can devif- 1 and execute. Wealth loes not always furnish a tasty or a happy home, although it may pos- sess the n )ans of doing this, while the lack of a competence need not necessarily prevent tl i possession of a home that is tasteful and attractive, the abode of contentm* at and happiness. Plant for Form Houses. — Before erecting a new house it will be very essen- tial for 1 le farmer not only to have a well-defined plan, which will secure for himself i ad family all the conveniences and comforts practicable, but also to carefully estimate the expense that will be incurred, and whether he can safely and with >ut injury to his financial prosperity withdraw from his business the amount of money necessary for the purpose. In some cases it may be found better to occupy the old house two or three years longer, until the financial status of the fa rner is such that he can safely invest in the enterprise of building the new; fo> while a neat and attractive house to live in is a very desirable thing, still it a better to occupy one that is old and time-worn and even shabby in appeara ice than to be driven into bankruptcy by the erection of a new one before being r< ally able to do so. On the other side of the question, farmers, as a gen- eral ruL-;, are very cautious and quite too apt to go to the opposite extreme of delay in ;• the enjoyment of the new beyond their means, instead of taking them in adva ice. And too many of them subject themselves and families to the depri- vation < if many things that might and should be enjoyed. LI; e is short at its longest, and if a few years of it may be made brighter for the household by occupying a neat and commodious house, why not brighten these few years for such members as soon may leave it, instead of delaying it and involving a loss to all, and, perhaps, until it shall be too late for some loved one ever to enjoy it? - , A house, in order to be comfortable and pleasant, need not necessarily be very expensive. A neat and tasty cottage, relieved by slight ornamentation of the severe plainness so frequently characterizing country homes, would be very suitable for the purpose. The Barn. — As commonly appropriated, farm barns are used for the protec- tion of stock against inclement weather, the storage of their food, the manufacture and preservation of fertilizing materials, and the storage of farm machinery. Aside from these considerations, the convenience in performing the barn work should also be taken into account in constructing a barn. On very large farms necessitating the extensive use of farm implements, a separate building is some- times required for their storage. A good barn is one of the great essentials on a farm. In newly settled por- tions, they are sometimes dispensed with for a time, until the land can be put under cultivation, and the owner is able to erect the necessary farm buildings. This is frenuentlv the case in the far West, but even under such circumstances Ci o o o '$-<■* K ^__ 616 PROFITABLE FARMING. the most thrifty and enterprising farmers will not be long without a barn, and those which are the most enterprising and prosperous will erect the best farn buildings and keep them in the best repair. As a general rule the barns of the Western and Southern portions of the country are not equal in architectural structure and convenience to those of the New England and Middle States, although many portions of the older settled sections of the West are fully equal in this respect to either of the latter mentioned. Next to a good farm house, a good barn is essential, and no farmer'can afford to be without one, which shoxild be of sufficient size for all the purposes to which it is to be appropriated. While large barns are more expensive than small ones, and a surplus of room in this respect is therefore a lack of economy, yet it more frequently happens that barns are. too small, rather than too large, and the owners are obliged to be subjected to great incon- venience for this reason, or be at the expense of building oth- ers, cr enlar- ging the orig- inal. Alaig3 number o f small build= in gs on a farm are 9 blemish and an unneces- sary expense, and it is bet- ter in every respect for the farmer to build one barn of suffi- cient dimen- sions for all the practical rises on the farm, than to be obliged to build two or three small ones. The size of the barn must, of course, be proportionate to the size and pro- ductiveness of the farm, and the number of animals to be furnished comfortable quarters. Even in latitudes that do not require the housing of stock during a certain portion of the year, animals that are kept stabled a part of the time are more valuable, as they have better care, and are more gentle and therefore easily managed, while they can also be fed with less Avaste of material, and the fertili- zers they produce can all be saved with little care, which is no small considera- tion when we take into account the value of well decomposed manure to the farmer. In those latitudes in which the ground is covered with snow a portion Recreation for City People. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 517 •f the year, the barn should bo largo enough to accommodate all the stock on the farm and their fodder. Animals that are not protected from the cold require more food than those that are, since much of the food "which they consume goes towards the production of animal heat, and unless enough food is given them to satisfy their hunger, this extra demand reduces the supply for repairing the waste of the system; consequently such animals will not only consume larger quantities of food, but will grow thin in flesh and present an emaciated condition in the spring. Young horses and cattle are frequently stunted in their growth by this means. On the other hand, stock that are provided with warm, comfortable quarters, will consume less food, and be kept in a thriving condition during the winter. Diseases are also more frequently prevented, and more easily cured under such conditions. Cows that are kept in warm stables will give more milk and of better quality than those that are not comfortably housed. This truth is so appa- rent that it requires no argument to substantiate it. It is, therefore, a practice of economy, as well as humanity, for the farmer to furnish food and good shelter for his stock. Where ensilage is used extensively for feeding animals, less room will be required in the barn for the storage of hay. Hay may be stacked in the field, thus rendering less room necessary in the barn; but hay that is thus exposed to the weather is greatly inferior to that which is stored ; besides, stacking involves much waste. A great advantage in this respect will be found in baling hay, as it will then occupy much less room than otherwise. In building a barn the farmer should have as definite an idea of its use, and the necessities for its con- Tenience, as in building a house, and in many respects what will apply to the one will, with slight modifications, apply to the other. In a large portion of the country it will be necessary to build barns in a manner to secure warmth; hence, they must be tightly covered and the floors well laid, that the cold air may not blow in upon the animals. At the same time, good ventilation must be maintained. While warmth is essential in a barn for the comfort and thrift of the animals, it is better that the barn be cold, and good rentilation secured by air blowing through the cracks and about the windows, rather than that the animals be made to breathe the offensive and tainted atmos- phere of badly-ventilated stables. Cattle kept in such enclosures cannot be healthy, and are totally unfit to become food for mankind. Location of Barns. — The barn should be located at a convenient distance from the farm house, but sufficiently removed to prevent all contamination of air and water. It should never be placed upon the ground higher than the house, in such & manner that the drainage of it, either on the surface or in the soil, will be able to reach the cellar, well, or the surroundings. Unless on a level, with the house, the barn should be placed on a lower level, if practicable. The location should also be so chosen that the drainage from the barn-yard shall flow upon the farm lands, that they may receive and absorb all the fertilizing elements that may be washed from the yard in heavy storms, etc. We have frequently seen barns built upon a road side, with a slope towards the highway into which all the wash from the yard is carried year after year. By this means much of the fertility that might be derived from this source is lost to the farm. This may seem a small matter to those farmers who till the prairie soil, possessing such a wealth of fer- tility that it requires no fertilizer in addition, for the production of vast crops; (518) O, Mister, Open the Gate, will yer ? 1'iiACi'j.OAL BuGGJiibTlONS. 519 bub to the farmer whoso soil is such quality that it necessitates such a large supply of plant food applied every year to render it productive, that it is difficult to preserve, or secure the requisite amount, it means considerable. Other important considerations are involved in the location of a barn, such as the health and comfort of the animals to be stabled in it; consequently dry land should be chosen and damp localities be avoided; also cold, bleak sites, or those that are inconvenient of access in hauling loads to and from it. The old- fashioned custom of building a house on one side of the highway and the barn on the other, nearly opposite, should also be regarded as obsolete, and a better one substituted in its place. Frequently a locality will be found admitting of a basement partly under ground, which will furnish the best facilities for a root- cellar, as well as for other purposes. Stables. — It is always Avell to have plenty of stable room, even in a warm cli- mate, where protection from the weather is not as necessary as in the higher latitudes. Animals that are stabled a portion of the time are more tame and gentle, hence more easily managed, and are really more valuable on this account. They also can be kept in a better condition by the care they may thus receive, while they will not waste one-half the food that they would if spread upon the ground. Animals that are fed on the ground will not only waste a great deal, but are liable to be injured by being hooked by others, while the master spirits of the herd prevent the timid ones from getting their portion. By stable-feeding, these evils are all avoided. Stables should be so arranged as to avoid crowding. Animals that are crowded into narrow quarters will not thrive. Stables should, as a general rule, be built higher than they commonly are, They should never be less than eight and a half feet, while ten feet would be much better. A better and drier condition of atmosphere is thus secured. The atmosphere of any stable should be sufficiently dry to permit the insensible per- spiration to pass off, and at the same time sufficiently warm to dry a horse readily when its coat is wet with perspiration and is being well rubbed. Light in Stables. — Stables should be located in the sunny side of the build- ing, that the animals may have the benefit of the warmth and sunlight thus afforded. A dark stable should always be avoided. Light is as essential to ani- mals as to men, and no animal will thrive to be excluded from it for any length of time. At the same time, the arrangement of the stable should be such that the light can be admitted without its being too intense in the face of the ani- mals. We have known horses and cattle to have been made partially or wholly blind by being confined in stables where their eyes were exposed to a stronglight most of the time. If practicable, the light should come in from the rear, thus affording a protection to the eyes. Stables located on the south side of a building — which is the most desirable arrangement — will admit of the best means of thus adjusting the light. Ventilation of Stables. — Good ventilation is also highly essential. So much • has been previously stated with reference to this subject that a repetition here seems unnecessary. No animal can be healthy without pure air. Good ventila- tors should be arranged at the top of the barn where stock are kept to permit the foul air to escape, while there should also be openings near the floor for admit- ting the pure air. Great care should be exercised in order to have the arrange- ments for ventilation such that no animal shall be exposed to a draught of air. (5:20) Embryq Seamen, PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 521 Such exposure will produce the most serious results to mankind or animals, pneu- monia and other diseases being frequently occasioned by it. We have in mind a farmer who lost with lung fever a valuable Alderney cow from his dairy herd for three winters in succession from having them stand in the stable directly in front of an open window, where they were constantly exposed to a draft of air from the rear. And this farmer was either so indifferent, or ignorant, Avith respect to sanitary laws, that it was only the fact of the cows that died in this manner having each occupied the same place in the stable that aroused his mind to in- vestigate as to the cause. Stables should be built tight and warm for the comfort of the stock, as well as for economic rea- sons, while the pure air to be sujDplied for the animals to breathe should find an entrance in itsp roper place, and not through the cracks of the barn at the sides, or up through the stable floor, or through an open window in cold, wintry weather, where the air is constantly blowing upon the animals. If any farmer doubts the soundness of our position in this respect, let him imagine or experience the discomfort and effects up- on the health of being himself confined to a limi- ted space, from which he oould not get free, and be obliged to be constantly in a cold draught day and night. If those having •harge of animals were themselves obliged to be subjected, for a short time even, to the same treatment they impose upon tho dumb, patient, and so often abused creatures under their care, there would soon be a great reformation in this respect, and more kindness and consideration shown them than we now often see. Keereatiou lor Country Folks. 522 PROFITABLE FARMING. Floors, Box-Stalls, etc. — The floors of stables should be strong and well-laid. Serious loss sometimes occurs from the giving away of the stable floor. There- should be a few box-stalls in every barn where stock is kept, and these should be so arranged that a single animal may be turned in loose when desired. These are very convenient for horses or sick animals to occupy. They are also almost a necessity for use as lying-in stalls for cows, while they furnish a convenient place for young calves when separated from the mother. Whatever the method of fastening employed, it should be such as will admit of the free use of the head and a restful position in lying down. We have seen animals so tied in the stable that they could not lie down without great discom- fort. While cattle should be so secured by fastenings that they cannot break loose, hook or otherwise injure each other, they should have sufficient freedom to maintain comfortable positions in standing up or lying down. All animals would be more comfortable when stabled if they could each have the freedom of a box- stall, without being tied at all. This would be impracticable where many cattle are kept, but if all working horses could be favored with such comfortable quar- ters we believe they would last much longer, and the benefits derived would well repay the expense of this luxury to them. Freedom of movement is just as essential to animals as to man for health and comfort, and if horses could each have a large box-stall, where they could run loose and get some exercise in unfavorable weather, and lie down in any posi- tion that they might choose, it would be much better for them than the common custom of fastening them to one place in a narrow, dingy stable. Mangers should be made perfectly smooth inside, and so well fitted that even dry meal or bran can be fed them without waste. Where racks are used, a shallow box should b» arranged underneath to prevent the waste of hay. A GOOD PLATFORM FOR THE FARMERS. If the farmers will stand flat-footed on the following platform for the next year, they will not be ashamed of it: 1. Six full days' work every week. 2. Never wait for work to push you. 3. Kill the May crop of grass and weeds dead before they have time to claim the field by peaceable possession. 4. Look carefully after the feed, health, and comfort of your work animals. Remember that sore shoulders and skinned backs of horses and mules indicate careless and cruel mastors. 5. Keep tools in good order, and have duplicates of such as are liable im break or wear out. 6. Never get in an awful hurry, and push and rush and cavort around. Suck men generally break down before the middle of the week. 7. Lay all your plans several days ahead, and always have a job ready for a. wet spell. Never let your hands know that you are wanting in plans and deci- sion. That will make them indifferent, and perhaps lazy. 8. A well-cultivated crop is of much more importance to you than political meetings, wire-pulling caucuses, and conventions. 9. Work for the biggest yield to the acre you have ever made. 10. Make your own supplies on the farm as far as you possibly can. (0BS) 024 PROFITABLE FARMING. FEEDING OIL-CAKE. The great importance given to oil-cake, as an auxiliary food, raises the perti- nent question, in what form — crushed, steeped, or in meal — can it be most profita- bly employed ? Concentrated rations are most useful when given under a form which permits them to be readily digested. The experiments of Professor Kuhn, of Mockern, show, that if anything, concentrated food is less assimilable in tiie liquid, than in the pulverous or mealy, dry state. Softened by steeping, much food is swallowed, not masticated, by the animal, and in the case of ruminants, passes directly into the third stomach, and so escapes eudding. Now rumination plays an important part in digestion. Dry and mealy rations should then be moistened, but not wet; or, sprinkled over other food. In the case of rape-cake, the steeping produces a penetrating odor which communicates a taste to the milk and butter, and occasionally affects the animal's health. It is considered that more deleterious foreign matters find their way into oleaginous food, when in the state of cake, than if in the sifted meal form. True, the latter can be on the other hand adulterated; but against this there is the usual protection of purchas- ing from respectable houses. CULTIVATE THE WILLOW. There are many special crops which might be profitably grown in this coun- try, and which have been entirely neglected, or at least to that extent which nearly amounts to neglect. For many years we have depended upon foreign countries for our supply of basket willow, and some idea of the extent of the demand for this simple article or variety of wood, can be gleaned from the fact that nearly $6,000,000 worth is annually imported into the United States from Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, and France. From Holland, how- ever, comes the largest supply, and, as a rule, the best and most acceptable quality, the climate and the numerous dykes, on the borders of which it flourishes finely, being especially adapted to its successful growth, while experience has taught tb« Hollanders how to prepare it so as to best meet the wishes of manufacturers here. There is no just reason why we cannot readily produce all that can possibly be called for in this country, and do so profitably to the grower, for that there is considera- ble profit in its growth for market is undoubtedly true. One of the greatest items in its favor is that it grows best on such spots of lands as cannot profitably be utilized for other crops, on account of the excessive and constant moisture, but meadows and the banks of low and shallow streams being best adapted for its rapid and healthy growth. It is also in such localities, an admirable wind-break, while it serves to beautify or hide what would otherwise be unsightly spots on the farm. It grows over a wide range of latitude and temperature, and is found in variety in nearly every State in our Union, especially the black willow, which is grown as an ornamental tree, and as a shelter and wind-break. This variety, however, is not vised in basket-making, and in kindred work, the true osier wil- low being the only kind which can thus be used, on account of its light color, its strength and elasticity, and its tendency to succor, thus producing wood of the size and form most desired. In severely cold climates the rapid growth of the black willow is used as before stated, as a protection to stock from the bleak and cutting blasts which prevail in some localities nearly the entire winter, its rapid and dense growth soon affording the necessary protection. Distressed. (525) 596 PROFITABLE FARMING. While all varieties of the willow delight in a cool, moist, or wet soil, and on. lands bordering on streams, it will readily root and grow in almost any locality, even on upland, and is not at all particular as to the quality or richness of the ■oil, although where it is planted — the osier — for profit, such localities as are best suited to its successful growth should be selected, so as to produce a quick, strong growth, and an abundance of such shoots as find greatest favor with purchasers. Aside from its value as an ornamental tree, as a wind-break, and for basket-mak- ing and for like uses, its value by no means ceases there, for its lightness, tough- ness, and elasticity fit it for numerous other uses, to which it would be put mora largely if the supply from domestic sources could be depended on. In making ox yokes it is especially prized, as it is less than half the weight of the hard woodi so frequently used, and this with no decrease of strength or durability, while it is more extensively used by furniture manufacturers than many persons imagine, it being a wood which will partake of a magnificent finish on account of its close- ness and evenness of grain, and so tough as to stand rough usage almost indefi- nitely. The manufacturers of gun powder use the charcoal in large quantities made from this wood, while tanners call for its bark for their uses, the bark con- taining large quantities of tannic acid, and the sprouts are utilized by the basket- makers, so all is made good and profitable use of unless it be perhaps the leaves. In growing the willow principally for the basket-makers' uses, it should be the object to encourage the production of large numbers of shoots. The wil- low is readily propagated by cuttings which are either set out and then trans- planted when they are well rooted to the spot where they are intended to grow, or else a couple" of shoots about a foot or so in length set out right where they were intended to remain, as they root quickly and seldom fail to grow. If both of the shoots grow one can be removed to another place, as one is enough to remain. Let it grow all it will the first season, and in the late fall cut it back; and the fol- lowing year you will get a good growth, when the cutting back can be repeated. The third season you can, if the plantation has been properly handled, harvest your first crop, and thereafter for many years, as the willow is long-lived and will produce increasing crops every year. It will be found to bring in a very accepta- ble crop of money each year, and from land which would otherwise be worse than useless. The expenses of starting and maintaining a plantation of the osier or basket willow is trifling, and is not at all felt. It requires no cultivation and but little to keep the trees, so-called, in proper trim, the greatest amount of time being expended in harvesting and preparing the shoots for market. In doing this the bark is quickly and thoroughly stripped from the shoots by means of an impro- vised hatchet attached to a bench. This hatchet is made in several different shapes, the one most readily used being a series of dull V-shaped teeth in a dou- ble frame, the upper one being loose and movable, to give with the varying size of the pieces, and so as not to injure the appearance of the wood. The shoots are then seasoned, care being taken not to injure the white color so muck desired, when they are assorted into sizes and put into bundles and bales and ship- ped to dealers in such goods in our different largecities. THE TIME TO CUT TIMBER. The time to cut timber should be determined by the consideration of the nse to which it is to be put, for one thing. For example, hickory cut when the Wr.LL Trained! (527) 528 PROFITABLE FARMING. bark adheres has very little value for fence rails. In nine cases out of ten the worms will attack it and soon bore it to pieces. Also it will rot very fast when the bark adheres. Hickory is very susceptible to moisture, and when moisture gets under the bark, as it soon will, the sap-wood rots very rapidly and the rot eats fast into the heart-wood. A hickory rail with the bark sticking fast to it should never be put into a fence. It will rot so soon that it is hardly worth handling, and then to replace it will be troublesome. But if live hickory is cut' when the bark peels off, say in August or early September, and the bark it jerked off and the rails stacked up off the ground to season, the rail will be very nearly or quite as durable as the best for off the ground use. It matter« not at what time hickory is cut, it will soon rot if it rests upon the ground, for, as we have already stated, it is very susceptible to moisture. But if used above the bottom course, a hickory rail free from bark and seasoned will last for a quar- ter of a centurv. It appears, therefore, that hickory to be used for fencing, or for any other purpose where durability is required, should be cut when it will peel readily. This is true of other woods. White oak for posts will last one-fourth longer if cut when the sap is flowing. Of course moisture is well retained under the bark, and this hastens rotting; hence, by getting rid of the bark we retard th« rotting. The idea has also been advanced that when the tree is cut while the sap is flowing and the live wood is charged with sap, this sap excludes from the pores of the wood the air and external moisture, and therefore decay i» retarded. For fuel, however, wood should be cut when the bark adheres, unless the wood is to be stored for some time. Usually the durability of the wood we nse for fuel cuts no figure, as it is burned before it can decay. We want the bark, for it makes considerable heat. Taking our former example, hickory, the impor- tance of having the bark adhere becomes plain, for hickory bark makes a very hot fire. To lose the bark is to lose a good part of the fuel. This is true of the bark of other woods, though perhaps not in so great degree. Another advan- tage in having the bark adhere is that it ignites readily and is a help in starting the fire. We desire the bark to adhere, and to adhere closely, else the wood makes a litter whenever it is handled. Not only the bark falls on the carpet, but also the small pieces of loose wood and the dusty stuff just under the bark, which is allowed to escape by the loosening of the bark. The woodshed, the walks, and the rooms are littered up sadly when wood for fuel is cut at such time that the bark falls off. It is most convenient to cut nearly all wood for fuel in the winter, when the bark will adhere; but it is inconvenient to cut timber when the sap is flowing freely, and that is when it should be cut for rails, posts, etc. Spring is prac- tically out of the question, as at that season we must lend all our energies to repairing fences and to fitting the ground for crops and getting those crops in the ground. The fall is when we must cut most of the timber for such uses that durability is an important quality. Chopping is warm work, and especially in the woods in the West. But all the necessary chopping can be done in the early morning, before the day gets hot; for all that must be done is to cut the trees down — they need not be worked up until cool weather comes. In fact, the logs, which Ave presume will bo cut into the proper lengths with the cross-cut saw, as 84 Careful Builder. (529) 630 PROFITABLE FARMING. that is less laborious and far less wasteful than to chop them into pieces with the axe, can be sawed most easily when they have partly seasoned. If sawed as soon as the tree is cut down, the sap, freely exuding, will gum and clog the saw and make work more difficult than it would be later. Thick chunks should be laid for the tree to fall on, not only to keep the trunk off the ground, and thus protect it from moisture and hasten its seasoning, but also to make the work of sawing the trunk into pieces not so tiresome to the back. There is another point as to time of cutting to be considered in relation to the durability of the wood. Many kinds of wood last much better if the tree is cut while yet alive. Take that variety of oak, for example, known as pin oak in the West, where it is quite common. If the tree is allowed to die before it is cut, the wood is of no value for rails or posts. Even off the ground rails cut from dead pin-oak trees will decay so rapidly that it does not pay to put them into a fence. But if the pin oak is cut while alive and when the bark will peel off, and it is allowed to season, it makes a very durable rail off the ground, and a moderately durable rail on the ground or a good post. However, at the best it is not so good for posts or ground rails as the white oak. While it does not make so great a difference in the durability of some woods as the pin oak to cut it before it dies, so far as we know live wood is always the most durable, and dead wood should be used for fuel. A EAT-PEOOF COEN CEIB. A crib that is proof against rats has become a necessity on every farm where corn is grown. The rat of to-day is not the rat of ten or a dozen years ago; his enterprise is equal to and keeps pace with that of man. His ratship at this age thinks nothing of climbing into a crib that his early ancestors would have given up in despair. What can be more filthy than a crib of corn into which rats or mice have daily access. No animal should be compelled to subsist on such foul rations. If this marauder were content to eat to his satisfaction and then get out without doing other damage it would not be so bad, but that does not suffice; the whole crib full must be subject to his inspection, and the result is generally not very satisfactory to the owner of the corn. Last winter a part of our corn crop was stored in a crib built ten or a dozen years ago. When first built it was seldom if ever that a rat managed to get into it, unless something was carelessly left leaning against the crib. The last year or two, and especially last winter, there were a few enterprising fellows among the rest that thought it good fun to climb in and help themselves whenever they wished, much to our disgust and damage, notwithstanding we did our best to hinder them. Another part of the crop was stored in a crib built later than the first one, and on a plan somewhat similar, but the construction is such that "Mr. Rat" has a much more difficult job when he undertakes to climb in — in fact we cannot remember that there ever was a rat in it. This crib has the advantage over those with large posts or stones set in the ground, inasmuch that the supports under the crib are and can be made much smaller than if set in the ground. The corner and middle posts of the crib should extend from the roof down to the ground, not into it, but on to a solid flat stone placed a little above the surface. Such a stone should be provided for each post and leveled up so that the posts can all be of equal length from the bottom of the crib down. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 531 Our last crib built lias been so satisfactory that we intend shortly to build another similar to it. We shall use posts for corners or wherever there should be supports under the crib sawed Gx6 inches; these posts will runup to the plate bearing the rafters. For sills we will use 2x6 pieces, say 15 feet long, and using two lengths will make a crib 30 feet long. The 6x6 posts will be provided with a 2x6 mortise about two feet from the lower end. This mortise should be made just loose enough to slip the 2x6 sill through. It will be readily seen that this makes a strong, substantial and durable crib. The cross sills should be tenoned or mortised into the side sills and pinned on the outside. For a 30-foot crib we would use 2x6 sills 15 feet long, using 10 6x6 posts; this will make the posts 7 J feet from centre to centre and make it amply strong for a large amount of corn . The lower end of the posts can be left full 6x6 down to the stone, or tapered down; we prefer the latter. By raising anywhere from two feet to 30 inches from the stone to the sill and tapering the lower end, and nailing some tin on around the four sides, rats and mice on attempting to climb the post will become so disgusted that they will leave the farm for more promising fields. To make it more easy to get in and out of the crib a piece of five-eights round iron can be made in the shape of a horse- shoe with the upper ends flat- tened and fastened on below the door. The rat that tries to get a hold on this step will meet with but little better success than on the posts. We hope some reader of this book in- tending to build a crib will try Farmer's Daughter. this plan. It cannot fail to give satisfaction in being substantial and in many dollars in the security' of one of the most important of the farmer's crops. WHEN AJTO HOW TO SELL CROPS. The farmer who knows when and how to sell his crops to the best advantage, says the "Husbandman," is more fortunate than his fellows who lack such knowl- 532 PROFITABLE FARMING. edge. There can be no definite rule by which to insure always the best prices, but there are certain general rules, well established, that may be observed with profit. The most important of these is that a crop fitted for the market should be sold at a time which- will best suit the seller. That is to say, if he permits himself to be hampered in such a way as to allow the buyer to make terms, both as to price and time of delivery, he is practically without voice in the matter. The first requisite in entering, the market with reasonable expectation of obtaining prices for products that will afford profit on the labor of producing them is, that they be of good quality and deliverable in good order. A farmer who has a crop of wheat threshed soon after harvest, well cleaned and stored in bins, is able to exert some influence in fixing the price. If he has a desirable crop there is in it something to tempt the buyer, an inducement to reach the highest figure. Now, if added to this there is safe confidence in the integrity of the farmer his profits in sales are still further augmented. What is regarded as integrity in this case is the high character of the farmer which inspires confidence that the crop shall be what it appears to be, clean at the top, in the middle and at the bottom, that the bins as they show give true ideas of condition and quality. Then the same guaranty comes in Avith beneficial effect regarding delivery; the buyer says: "I want to use this crop just ten days from this time; can I have it then?" If the farmer's word be as good as his bond, when he says " yes," that should mean that the crop will be delivered promptly upon the time specified with no possibility of failure, barring such accidents as are beyond human control. It is true that careful observance of these requirements will not always secure the prices necessary to bring about profit, but it will secure the best prices that are paid at that time. Then comes the question about delay, about holding products for better prices. Of this personal judgment must be the sole guide. Many a farmer, not satisfied with the current rates for his products, holds without definite ideas about chances; without informing himself what influences are exerted, to advance or depress prices, simply waiting, Micawber-like, for something to turn up. There is no wisdom in this course. The farmer who has no understanding about the markets except as prices are quoted to him, will usually do the best when he sells at a price that affords profit, because he does not know when to wait. He has no reason to justify holding, although such reasons may exist. After all it is not a bad rule for any farmer to sell his products whenever the prices afford satisfactory profit. When the markets are steady, with general ten- dencies upward, and he has full understanding of the situation, he may wait with- out incurring risks, that is to say, he may await his convenience for the delivery — take his own time when it will best fit into the general work. But when prices fluctuate materially, he will do better to "catch on," as the street phrase runs, when the price has suitable margin of profit. That for him is the time, while failure to use it will be very likely to put his products at the bottom. The influences which govern the markets differ very greatly from those of a few years ago. Now all the principal products of the farm m ay be delivered in large cities from an extent of country vastly beyond that which forty years ago was the restricted source of supply. Wheat is delivered from Chicago, St. Louis or Milwaukee as quickly as a few years ago it could be delivered from counties adja- cent to the cities which are the ultimate markets, and the same is true of all other Out in the Storm. (533) 634 PROFITABLE FARMING. farm products, including cattle, sheep and swine. In effect the field is multiplied a thousandfold, and therefore competition multiplied a thousandfold. There is so much less chance for individual advantage. On the other hand the means of information are so greatly extended that an intelligent farmer may have better understanding of the market. If he studies conditions with care he will be able always to act intelligently in selling. Market reports made up fairly, not in the interest of buyers, nor of sellers, but rather to represent the true condition of affairs, become safe guides to sound judgment, and such reports are accessible to all farmers. The one general rule that should govern in selling and buying is: Get full information of all conditions affecting the product offered, then seize upon the opportunity which affords satisfactory profit. THE MARKETS. To market a crop profitably, or to know where or to whom to consign it, is as indispensable to the farmer, as to be able to produce it successfully. While an article may command a good price in one market, it, at the same time, may hardly pay the freight charges in another. Even the cereal grains of like quality may vary in prices in the different markets, and distinct varieties of the same vegeta- ble, or fruits of the same variety and quality, may, and do, suit one market better than another, and it is necessary to learn the peculiarities of each, and reliable information should be had if the best results are to be obtained. With a little attention and examination of prices in different cities, the farmer may be cor- rectly posted and be able to sell to the best advantage. THE CORX WEEVIL. Now that the growing of corn has become a branch of profitable farming in the South, the following, from the "Texas Farm and Ranch," may be of service to some of our Southern readers who have to contend with the weevil pest: There is a good deal of interest manifested by farmers on the subject of weevils in corn. In the Southern section of Texas a large portion of the crop is annually destroyed by these small but exceedingly numerous messengers of destruction. Not unfrequently corn is literally devoured in the field, until nothing is left but husks and dust. This only happens when corn is left long in the field after ripening. Recently the "Texas Farm and Ranch" has published from its correspondents a number of suggestions for preventing the ravages of the weevil. Some of these may answer the purpose; but some of these plans this writer has tested without benefit, and is convinced that neither lime, salt, nor the leaves or berries of the china tree will serve the purpose, unless used in impracticable quantities. However, the writer has never known a crib of corn, if put up quite wet, to be seriously damaged thereafter by weevils. The supposition is that the heating of the contents of the crib destroj's the insects. If put up too wet some of the corn may rot, but rarely more than one per cent. But what does it signify if one ear is found to be rotted if the ninety and nine are found to be sound and free from weevils ? It would undoubtedly be beneficial to add salt to the water, as it would make the shucks more palatable to stock. Another important aid in keeping corn sound is to gather and house it early. Besides the ravages of weevils to which corn is always exposed in the field, it is subject to other casualties which PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. >35 sensibly reduce both its amount and quality. It is a common custom in the South to put off gathering corn as long as possible, often until frost, or until the rush of cotton picking is over. All things con- sidered, it would probably be a great saving — • and all the more important when the crop is un- avoidably short, to gather early and crib accord- ing to the fore- going suggest- ions. This, at least, is the opinion of one who has had many years ex- perience in the worst weevil- infested section of Texas. Who and how many farmers will giv^ this plan a fair trial and report the result? TIDINESS ON THE FARM. Tidiness in farming is worth a great deal more than many persons imag- ine. Much de- pends on "the looks of the thing" after ah, as the following incident will show: Two men were riding along a high- Wluch Shall I Keep? PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. way, the one a stranger, the other an old resident of those parts. They came to a point where two farms joined, being separated only by the public road. The stranger pointed to one of the farms and said: "I should judge the owner of that place to be a shiftless farmer, and behind-hand in the world. But this one on the right is a successful farmer, and no doubt doing well." "Upon what do you base your judgment?" said his friend, who knew both men Avell, and knew that his companion had slipped for once. " Why, upon the appearance of the two farms, certainly. See; this one's ditches and fences are crowded with briers and weeds, the apple trees are covered with trumpet-vines, the gates and fences are broken and shabby, the buildings are sadly out of repair, and there is an air of general neglect and untidiness Educated Bears. about the whole place. But this one on the right is everywhere neat and trim; there are no weeds along the hedgerows and in the corners of the fences, we see no broken down carts and implements encumbering the lane, and the buildings are in good condition and most of them painted. Surely this man is worth at least two or three times as much as that one." "Well, for once you are wrong. The two men have about equal means, and both are good farmers. They both get on well and are making money, and their farms, in fact, are about equal in value. You judge by appearances, truly, and appearances have misled you this time. It is all on account of the habits of tidiness of the two men. Mr. A. lets no brush lie about, or weeds grow, or vines ■encumber his fruit-trees, or boards hang loose on the barn. He keeps his barn 538 PROFITABLE FARMING. in nice order, everything neat as a new pin, and thinks a good deal on the looks of it. On the other hand, Mr. B. seems to have no eyes for weeds or brush, does not know how to keep things picked up, has no time to bother with broken gates and the like; but he is a capital farmer, nevertheless, and is making money despite his shiftless way." Thus -it is that strangers, on passing the farms, judge of the means and ability of the owners, and generally they are right, but not always. The looks of a place go a great way, and a good farmer who is not attentive to appearances does himself injury and is rated at less than his real value. Therefore, keep the farm tidy. COMMON SENSE FARMING. The " Rural Messenger" says the papers are indulging in a discussion of the system of farming now in vogue, and there has been much adverse criticism. It seems that, in laying the whole blame of non-success upon excessive cotton, peanut and tobacco planting, they stop far short of the true reason. These are the best, most money producing crops for our section and climate. These are certain crops, and when ready for market are equivalent to cash. They are easily marketed and easily handled; are better adapted to the present system of labor. To charge the failure to exceptional weather and seasons, and the con- sequent financial disaster, to the cultivation of these crops, is, to say the least, mis- taking effect for cause. Hog and hominy is a very good catch-cry, but it does not reach the root of the matter. The lack of business system with the majority of farmers is the true reason why they do not get rich. We venture the assertion there cannot be found a farmer with half the business system of a successful merchant who is not getting rich at farming. We have in our mind's eye men in the country who have a balance to go to the progressive side of their account at the end of every year. It is not because they raise their -own hog and hominy, but because they personally superintend every department of their farms, they get the wages value out of their laborers, they keep an account of all money expended, they have a place for all their farming implements and keep them in that place while not in use and not left exposed to weather. Above all they use judicious economy, which every successful business man does in his affairs. They do not come to town at every opportunity and carry home with them more corn in another shape than hominy than their brains can stand. They do not allow a commission merchant to keep their accounts, they do not have an irresponsible overseer to do work which they ought to do, they do not break up a cart or so, and kill a mule or so during each year, and then curse these crops because the price is not high enough to pay for all sorts of extravagance. The conclusion of the whole matter, to an impartial observer, is that hog and hominy is a good thing, but business system and economy are better. FARMING AS A PROFITABLE BUSINESS. Farming does not mean simply stirring the soil, sowing the seed and harvest- ing the crops, but from the beginning of the year to its end there should be a constant production in every possible manner. While the crops are growing the future food is being prepared, but as it is harvested it should be made still more PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 539 serviceable by being converted into some higher-priced product. While an acre of land may produce fifty bushela of corn on its part, yet that corn may nearly all find its way back to the soil that produced it, only that portion being sold that will repay the cost and labor of converting it into beef, pork, wool, milk, muscle or whatever it may contribute. The farmer who can so manage as to secure the largest crops, and return to his soil the larger portion by disposing of that which is more readily salable in some other shape, will gradually become wealthy, though the actual receipts may be apparently small. Farming is a continuous operation. It is the changing of products from one kind to another, according to demand for each. In estimating the value of a bushel of corn produced on the farm, and to feed to stock it must be regarded as cheaper to the farmer than to any other person, since he does not have to trans- port it to market; and when charging it to his animals as food he should deduct from the market cost the expense which he would otherwise incur in bagging, hand- ling, hauling and freight. The true value of the corn is that which it produces. The rule of charging interest for the corn as a crop, and also on the beef or milk derived from it, often causes the accounts to appear unfavorable. It is the final disposition of the crop that regulates its value. If it disappears from the farm in the carcass of the steer it stands in the same position as if the steer grew upon the land instead of the corn, the corn being only a component part of the steer in the shape of marketable beef. If the crop be fed to the cow, and the milk sold off the farm, the crop is simply sent away in the milk cans in place of bags, and instead of being compelled to sell the entire crop in order to realize a certain sum, the change of form by conversion into some other product results in the securing of an equal sum from only a portion of the crop. Hence the farmer should aim to sell as little as possible off the farm. That is, he should endeavor to secure the largest sum possible with the smallest amount of product by con- verting all crops into those that are less bulky and command the higher prices. But the farming business requires system. It calls for the use of all kinds of suitable machinery and stock. As no manufacturer of cotton goods can afford to weave his goods with hand looms, neither can the farmer expect to make farming profitable unless he takes advantage of the opportunities open to him. If his crops are to be fed on the farm and rendered serviceable in producing something else through the agency of stock, such stock must be perfectly adapted to the pur- poses designed. The largest possible increase at the least cost and in the shortest period of time should be the rule and upon this depends the turning point btween profit and loss. WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD FARMING? An answer to the above question suggests thought in many directions. A proper attention to every matter concerning the farm, whether it be attention to stock, care of implements, careful cultivation of crops, timely repair of building, fences, or implements, providing what is necessary for the successful carrying on of all farm operations, all go to make up good farming. There is, however, one pretty sure index to good farming, and that consists in the condition of the farm from year to year, by way of comparison. In business the success of a man is frequently measured by the accumulation of his bank account, or the increased value of his stock in business; so it is with 540 PROFITABLE FARMING. the farmer if from year to year there is an improvement of his farm in the extent of its fertility, if his crops also increase, and at the same time his manure pile is gradually growing larger, it is a sure sign that good farming is heing practised. Because a farm is producing larger crops is not of itself an evidence of good farming; some peculiar modes may be adopted that will, by robbing the soil for a time, appear to be profitable, but which in the end proves otherwise. Many farms are put through a sort of skinning process, which renders them poorer year by year. Any systenrwhich will rob the farm is bad farming, and should be abandoned. The same principle may be applied to the care of animals. Feeding so sparingly as to allow the animal to decline in flesh is loss to the farmer, even though he has fodder to sell in consequence. There are farmers who seem to have failed to discover these points, and go on upon adownward course. LESSENING THE COST OF PRODUCTION. The farmers' products constitute wealth to the country, no matter how grown, but they are not wealth to the farmer himself unless grown at less cost than they will bring in the market. It is the very small margin between cost and selling pricethatisthe basis of national prosperity. What the farmers of this country make above cost of production is that which they can invest in bettering the conditions of their living. For two or three years past expenses have eaten up all the farmers' profits. This, however it may be disguised, is the cause of the business depression that has prevailed during this period. As farmers all over the world seem to be laboring under the same difficulty, it becomes a contest as to which can produce most cheaply. If American farmers would succeed in this contest they must allow no needless wastes, and make every stroke tell. We have learned much about economy in production during the past few years, and it is probable that other like lessons are in store for us. With the enormous amount of available land to cultivate, and the labor-saving implements to till it, we are not likely to have high prices for agricultural products for many years to come, perhaps never. Success in farming must therefore depend on close economies rather than on high prices. This was the traditional policy of farmers the world over until recently. We got out of it during the high, prices that prevailed during the war, when for a time it seemed that to extend operations, cultivate larger areas, and have more to sell was the easiest way to make money. In those days we made too much money. Our currency became depreciated, and this soon led everybody into expensive habits, which are much easier to get into than to unlearn. Undoubtedly the greatest mistake of modern farmers is in trying to culti- vate too much land. We are " following the ideas thit prevailed before the war, when extended operations, however conducted, were almost necessarily profitable. Tli is has long since ceased to be the fact. For fifteen years or more the fewer acres a man tilled with the same capital, the larger his profits. Instead of making money by purchasing additional farms, there has been more advantage in selling a portion of what he originally owned and using more capital in thoroughly cul- tivating the remainder. It is the intensive rather than the extensive system of farming that must prevail in this country in the future. It is also necessary now, as it was thirty or forty years ago, that farmers should themselves do all they can in working their land. Hired help get most PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 541 of the benefit from labor-saving machines, and the farmer who expects to have these run exclusively by hired labor will find himself left on the wrong side of the ledger account. It is not possible, at present prices of farmers' produce, to grow crops, harvest and market them exclusively with hired labor. A farmer who has land free of debt, and two or three boys to help him, can grow crops cheaply enough to make some money; but in most cases it will be no more than fair compensation for the work of himself and his family. We speak now of ordinary farming on land of average fertility. Where is this to end? Is farming never again to be profitable? Most cer- tainly it will, but it will be after farmers have learned by bitter experience not to try to compete with the West in growing large areas of grain, yielding not more than half what it should per acre. If a majority of farmers who have failed to succeed had known enough ten or fifteen years ago to sell half their land and use the money in bringing up the other half to the highest fertility, their efforts would have been crowned with success. By this time they would have had money enough from their few acres to purchase more. One reason for this is, that the small farmer generally goes into one or two specialties, and thus relieves his business from the strong competition in grain-growing which Eastern farmers unaided are not able to meet. farmers' rights. One of the aggravating experiences of a farmer's life is to go out on a sum- mer morning into his melon patch to pluck some melons to lay away in his cool cellar or ice bouse with which to treat a party of invited guests, only to find that some villainous prowler has visited his grounds in the night and carried away the very finest fruit of the vines which had cost him so much labor, and which he had been daily watching against the time of ripening. Numbers of our read- ers, Ave doubt not, can fully estimate the severity of such a disappointment from having been despoiled in this manner themselves. Sometimes it is an orchard that is raided, and trees are stripped of choice apples, peaches, and pears, and boughs broken down. Sometimes the vineyards are robbed of their finest clusters. There is in every community a class of idle, thriftless but very hungry people, who imagine that the world owes them a liv- ing, whether they make an effort for it or not, and so they break through and steal the goods of their neighbors. And why not despoil the farmer? His fruits and melons grow out of the earth even while he is sleeping, and thus cost him but little. Many people in the cities think farmers have no rights which they arc bound to respect, and often disregard them when riding or strolling on the high- ways. The farmer's house is his castle, and his acres whether few or many are his domain over which he alone has rule, and right to say who shall have the increase thereof. And toiling through summer's heat and winter's cold for the subsistence of the rest of mankind, he ought surely to have ample protection of his rights. Special and severe laws should be enacted against all depredators of his garden, orchard or field. They lie open day and night to the hand of the prowler who chooses his times and opportunities when the eye of the master is turned awav or closed. They cannot be guarded by locks and bolts as can be the property of (542) So Near and yet so Far, PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 543 the dweller in the city. Surely the farmer has enough losses from devouring insects, floods and droughts without being at the mercy of robbers. When he visits town or city he does not go behind the counter of the merchant and help himself to dry goods or groceries. He does not regale himself unbidden on the sweetmeats and pastries of the confectioner. They do not belong to him, and lie knows it very well. If he wants any of these things he buys them, pays their price, and nobody is thereby despoiled. The farmer's commodities ought to be fust as safe from intrusion. This, at least, is our opinion of the matter. STAND-STILL FARMERS. Despite of the advancement that is being made in the various branches of agricultural science, there are still some farmers belonging to the class who "never learn, and never forget anything" — stand-still farmers. Despising anything like "book-larnin' " they are content to plod along in the old ruts, made smooth and venerable by the easy, slow-measured pace of past generations. Shunning, as they would the plague, any organization of their fellow-farmers whose object is to "develop a higher manhood" among its mem- bers, and where questions pertinent to the advanced state of the farming of to-day are discussed, they are not abreast with the times, and fall an easy prey to every sharper and swindler. Their ignorance of the plainest laws of physiology, and of the medical prop- erties and action of the commonest and most useful remedies, subjects them to losses and vexations that are unknown to the live, reading, thinking farmer. Such men may be seen toiling through mud ankle deep sowing clover-seed, allowing the precious days of the early corn-planting season to pass by when their ground is all ready, or during the fall rains when all ready to sow wheat, all because the "sign " is, or is not right, as the case may be. Not long since one of these men told us in all candor and seriousness, that the most effectual remedy he had ever tried for collar galls on horses, was the skull-bone of a dog rnbbed over the parts affected; another's sure cure for Poll- evil, was a glass bottle pounded fine and poured into the ear. We once saw a farmer take a young and valuable horse that had taken a heavy cold, and was evidently suffering Avith pneumonia, bleed the animal and put him out on the meadow without covering, although the day was quite cold; as may be supposed, the horse soon died. Another case — a man puts a valuable mare in his apple orchard at night, the trees bending and the ground almost covered with fruit. Next morning the mare is sick; owner doesn't know what to do for her; so, in great alarm, he starts a man off in haste with the animal to the nearest " doctor," only to have her tumble down and die at her journey's end. Both these men were past middle age, and had had the care of horses all their lives. All this loss and worriment might have been avoided by the possession of a little of the despised "book larnin'," coupled with a few grains of j^rudence. Such a lack of information on subjects of such vital importance to their pecu- niary interests is inexcusable, if not criminal, and would better befit the wild Indians of the far West than the sons of our own enlightened section; yet these incidents ;.:e facts, "nothing has been extenuated, nor aught set down in malice," 544 PROFITABLE FARMING. and what is more, these are not isolated cases, their name is legion. "What shall we do to arouse the Rip Van Winkle sleepers? Shall we ask, Am I my brother's keeper? or say in the language of a former cabinet officer, "Gentlemen, this is not my funeral." No! No! We would fain extend a fraternal hand to lift them to a higher plane of agricultural knowledge, and were these people to ask us for counsel, we should say "go subscribe for some live paper," and attach as much importance to reading as you do to smoking your old pipe; connect yourself with the nearest organization of farmers, attend its meetings as regularly as you take your meals, for as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth a man sharpen the countenance of his friend. Do these things, and the "sign" farming and " skull-of-a-dead-dog " cures will be things of the past. PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. Progressive agriculture, as some appear to understand it, means going ahead without regard to safety or expense. The young progressive farmer, who never hoed an acre of corn or mowed an acre of grass, fancies that by applying " busi- ness principles " to agriculture, he can roll up a fortune in a few years. He must have a farm as large as his father had in his old age; must live in a better house than his parents; he must drive a better horse; ride in a better carriage; sport a finer watch; live in a more fashionable style; play the gentleman at more expense; cut larger swells; speak louder and be known further than his old fogy ancestors ever dared to dream of. The young progressive farmer has no idea of getting rich by the little; he is bound to have a pile all at once. He is not going to bring up lambs by hand, sell turnips at twenty-five cents a bushel, cany chickens to market, wear patched clothes, and cart potatoes around like a peddler. Not he! talk to him about cul- tivating a farm of fifty acres! Why, he wants four or five hundred acres, and he will demonstrate by figures that the more land he cultivates the larger his per- centage of profits will be. Talk to one of these progressive farmers about experience, and he will laugh at you. Why, he is sure that he knows a thousand things that would astonish his father. Experience! To be sure, he has not had it himself, but he knows who has, and what it is. He wants to start, not at the bottom of the hill, but at the top. He don't believe in climbing up slowly, working and waiting, and though he may be willing to work, he is not anxious to wait. Instead of beginning with much, they ought to begin with little. Instead of a large farm they ought to have only a small one. Their experience is small, their judgment is weak, and their wants ought to be few. And, beginning with a few acres, they will soon learn how to proceed to insure the best results. THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER. The typical American farmer now is the sound, intelligent man who believes that progress is the law of our race; who holds that no man of enterprise can afford to stand still while the world goes forward — that inactivity means simply stagnation and decay, and that the surest proof of vitality and vigor, both of mus- cle and brain, is the steady, forward movement of wise and practical men, who are always intent on working out better methods, and always ready and willing to enrich the general fund of knowledge with the fruits of their experience. When- PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 545 ever such farmers, in the course of their investigations, succeed in bringing to light new facts or new processes, they give a fresh impulse to husbandry and make their countrymen their debtors. These are the men who by improved methods and hy increased production, are creating from year to year, new values in agriculture, and new sources of national wealth. FARM WORK IN WINTER. Prof. B. Puryear, of Richmond College, says to the farmer the winter is the season of comparative leisure and ease. The weather is frequently such that all farm work is suspended, and his labor is restricted to the care of his stock and the comfort of his family. The season affords him special privileges and exemptions, which he should be prompt to utilize and enjoy. And yet it is true that the way in Avhich he spends the winter will be an important factor in the determination of his success or failure, when come the long, hot days of toil. There are certain duties incumbent on him in winter, to which it is opportune, and to some it may not be useless, to invoke special atten- tion. 1. The most obvious and imperative duty of the farmer at this season of the year is the comfort of his domestic animals. His mules and horses should emerge from the winter in improved condition. His cattle, hogs and sheep should have throughout the season an ample investiture of fat to keep them warm. It is hard to say whether the man is more wicked or more wasteful, who exposes his domes- tic animals to the untempered severity of winter. It is vastly cheaper to keep them in good condition than to have them lean and lank and weak. The object of food is not only to build up the system and repair its constant waste, but also to furnish fuel for the development of animal heat. Indeed, the larger part of nearly all food is used up only in the production of heat. The temperature of the body must be maintained at the normal point, ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit, or death ensues. The more rapidly heat is lost from the body, the greater must be the amount of food and tissues burnt off in the blood to maintain the normal temperature. On the other hand, if the animal be kept warm and comfortable, less heat being lost from the body, a smaller amount of food will be required for the generation of heat, and a larger amount will be converted into fat and the vital tissues. An animal shivering in the cold, even with generous rations, gets lean rapidly. Why? Simply because its fat, the most combustible of its tissues, is burnt off rapidly to compensate for the large amount of heat lost from its body to the cold atmosphere. The plain question that confronts us then is this: Shall we burn up our grain and provender in the bodies of our animals to keep them warm, or shall we provide for them dry, warm and comfortable quarters? The cost of the erection of convenient and comfortable shelter for our domestic animals will be repaid, over and over, in the diminished amount of food, which with such protection they will require. The foregoing by no means exhausts the advantage and the benefits which belong to the policy here recommended. The gains of the owner are greater in sundry other ways. Losses by death are fewer; the reproductive power of his animals is increased by their good condition; and, instead of requiring half the summer to repair winter ravages, they continue to put on fat and flesh almost 35 54C. PROFITABLE FARMING. without a cliock the year round, so that when they come to the shambles, their greater weight and the superior quality of the meat make additional recompense for the can:- they have received. Work animals begin the heavy work of the coming year with. renewed strength, do more work, and do it better, and so save the owner from those vexations, disappointments and losses, which may always be expected when weak teams are the reliance for the heavy work of the farm. There is another consideration which cannnot be measured by dollars and cents, but which we hope will not be considered inappropriate even to the pages of an industrial journal. Thoughtful care of our domestic animals is, in the highest sense of the term, an educational process. It is educational in a double sense, for it not (inly exercises and informs the mind, but also softens and refines th< heart. A man who thoughtfully provides for the comfort of the dumb beasts, thai must perforce look to him for support, is made by the fact a better and more intelligent citizen, and is a better man in all the social relations of life. As soon as he addresses himself to this matter, a great many interesting and important questions spring up and engage his attention. He is dealing with life and health, nutrition and growth, indeed, with all the facts and phenomena of the animal organism, and if his mind be at all active and inquisitive, he will seek to know what light can be thrown from anatomy, physiology, hygiene, thermotics, chem- istry, upon the subjects that engage his daily thoughts. These and kindred sci- ences he will study in a way more or less formal; he will learn something about them from the occasional lecture, from the discussions at his club, from conversa- tion with his friends, from formal treatises as he may have time and inclination, and largely, perhaps chiefly, from the pages of agricultural publications. Instead of following with unthinking faith the traditional routine, his mind is active in quest of the knowledge that affects his livelihood. He thus gets out of the mechanical ruts; he learns to observe, to collect and explain facts, and to form from them logical conclusions. This intellectual activity, this constant accumulation of knowledge, makes him, in all respects and every way, a man of larger and of broader views, fitting him better not only for his special work, but for all the duties and functions of life. But this intelligent oversight of our domestic animals is educational also in a moral sense. The very fact that they engage our attention begets kindliness of feeling, which they soon learn to reciprocate in unmistakable ways. With gladness they hear the master's voice and greet his coming. The best emotions of his heart are evoked as he pats and praises his pets. This constant contact with the dumb animals that depend on his care and almost clamor for his notice softens and refines his nature and makes him always and everywhere more gen- erous, more kindly, more pitiful. His family, his friends, his neighbors, and society at large share in the benefit of the kindly feelings thus engendered and nurtured. The shepherd folding his ninety and nine and going to the bare moun- tains in search of the lost lamb, which finding, he bears on his bosom home, is the divine illustration of the point in hand. None better could be given or con- ceived. The world seeks no stronger evidence of a man's goodness of heart than kindness, nor of its badness than brutality to his beasts. 2. We believe thoroughly in plowing in the fall and winter all fields intended for cultivation next year. This work is done when a cooler atmosphere makes labor less irksome, and when the farmer is loss pushed and hurried in his "Vords of Wisdom. (547) 54S PROFITABLE FARMING. work. It will be done then with unusual satisfaction. All the vegetation turned under rots during the winter and becomes thoroughly assimilated with the soil. The winter freezes, expanding the water as it congeals, makes the soil, when plowed in spring, light, porous, and mellow. The subsequent cultivation, both from the cleanness of the land and its mellow condition, is vastly easier, so that labor, when it is most pressing, is more rapidly and successfully accom- plished. We believe that the lighter labor in spring and summer is itsell a suffi- cient warrant for winter fallowing, to say nothing of other advantages that fol- low. By all means, then, let farmers who have not already finished fallowing their land take advantage of every opportunity that yet may offer. 3. But the winter is the time when the farmer should reinvigorate his wasted energies, both physical and intellectual. The long nights and the blazing fires suggest ease, comfort, cheer, and mirth. With a zest, seasoned and heightened by congenial companionship, let him, like others, have at times his sumptuous symposia, and "thank the gods for all the good they give." Such festivities sweep from the brain the cobwebs of care, and expand and exalt the social affec- tions. The labors yet to come are met, therefore, with braced heart and bright- ened hope, and even richer harvests follow as the result. The farmer's great work in winter, however, is to post himself in the activi- ,ti3S of the world, and particularly to study the needs, the demands, the trend and drift of his own calling. Farming is becoming less and less insulated; it is getting to be more and more interlaced with the great questions that engage the thought of the world. The wonderful progress of modern science has stimu- lated it into healthful activity, and put within its grasp the means of influence and power. It is responding to the stimulus. The farmers, who employ more laborers and represent more capital than all other occupations put together, are already asking why, with such resources at their command, they are made "hewers of wood and drawers of water." They are already studying the hostile legislation that puts its wasting hand upon the leading interest of the world. As they have leisure and opportunity, let them study agriculture alike in its prac- tice and principles, and the causes that retard or promote its progress and devel- opment, and so, learning to know, and hence to maintain, their rights, they may give to the world another demonstration that " knowledge is power." FARM MANAGEMENT. To make farming a success, or to use a common expression, "make it pay," requires good management. We have known good farmers, men that understood well the making of crops and handling farm implements, run behind and finally conclude that farming did not pay, simply for the want of ability to manage the business as it should be done. With those who know little about the business there seems to be a prevailing opinion that any one can "farm it" as they term it, and if a boy is too dull and stupid to set up as a merchant, or enter the pro- fession, he is considered smart enough to make a farmer. When tin fact is, there is no occupation that a man can engage in that requires more tact or better iudg- ment than agriculture. And Ave are glad 1o see that this opinion is becoming more general every year. As an evidence of the fact, it is only r.ecessary to refer to the increase of books and papers devoted to agriculture This shows that more PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 549 information is wanted in regard to matters pertaining to the farm, and that farmers are trying to educate themselves up to the high calling of their profes- sion. The different Agricultural Colleges, if conducted properly, will result in much good by imparting correct ideas to young men who desire to become suc- cessful farmers, it is being understood that farmers require education as well as those engaged in other pursuits, and it ought to be regarded as a very favorable outlook. For the reading, thinking farmer should also improve in ability to conduct the different farm operations, as here lies the secret of success or failure. Together with a better education, there should be a natural inclination, a prefer- ence for the business, that what is done should be thoroughly done. This care- less, haphazard, slip-shod farming is altogether too prevalent, and has ruined many a farm where good managment would make it pay. OUR SURPLUS LANDS. It is a matter of paramount importance to the prosperity of any community or State to have its surplus lands occupied by an industrious, enterprising, and moral population. We have but to look at the condition of any thinly-settled district to be convinced of the evils arising from sparse population. In such communities we find few of the conveniences that make life agreeable or endura- ble. Social intercourse is interrupted; churches and schools are few and poorly attended; roads are of the poorest kind; there are no railroads, newspapers, or public libraries; arts and trades are neglected; agriculture does not flourish; igno- rance and pauperism abound; prejudices, vices, and often crimes clog the wheels of progress; and the whole cumbersome and rotten fabric rests, like an incubus, upon the breasts of the State, with these contaminating influences extending and ramifying into every crevice and pore of society. This condition and these results of sparse population, which might be shown in more repulsive colors, should be sedulously guarded against by every commu- nity having a common interest in a common cause. To do this effectually, care must be taken to multiply farms and homes to the whole extent of the available territory. "What is the best way of doing this? To our mind the method is sim- ple and practical enough. Let land-holders unite in a written compact to sell off, at a nominal figure, say one-half of their surplus lands, to actual, industrious settlers; reserving to themselves the remainder as a guarantee of remuneration when an increased population shall have created a demand for and enhanced the value of real estate. Motives of patriotism no less than of self-interest, it seems to us, would induce land-holders to such a course. To find occupants for these lands, let the first choice be given, and the first efforts made be to induce our native born white men who are without homes to settle thereon. Even were it necessary in some cases to bestow a deed of gift of thelands to such settlers, the land-holders, the community, and the State would eventually be benefited. After settling every native white man in a home of his own, then by all proper available means it would be well to seek to introduce immi- gration from the old world, but of such individuals only as would be a useful acquisition in an industrial and social point of view. 550 PROFITABLE FARMING. PROSPERITY A PPKOACHrNG. The depression of the farming interests all over this continent, its cause, and the probable duration of it, are prolific subjects for the best thought of the coun- try. That most farmers have had " a hard row of stumps to hoe " during tlx- last few years is a fact which admits of no argument, and this brings up at once the question " What is the icason for this?" It is conceded that the immediate reason lies in the fact that there is an over-production of the staples, such as wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., necessarily forcing such sharp competition in selling that the price is materially reduced. This being the ease we must look into this quests n of over-production. One of the strong economic writers of the day. Mr. C. W. Davis, sa} r s, and he brings the figures to prove it, that the acreage of wheat la; id reached the maximum several years ago, and that extensive additions to that acreage are now practically impossible. He takes issue with other writers who have pictured limitless areas of a prospective Avheat empire stretching northward in the great interior of the Northwest British territories. He shows that the pre- vailing low prices of wheat began with the enormous development of wheat laud in Minnesota and the Dakotas, and that the product of these millions of acres simultaneously opened to cultivation, necessarily glutted the market. The capac- ity of production being already practically reached, it is estimated that the increas- ing ratio of consumption will, as early as 1895, advance prices far beyond the cost of production and inaugurate an era of unexampled agricultural prosperity. Assuming that the present population of the United States is 65. 000,000, it is- estimated that the excessive production at present ratio is sufficient to supply corn for five and one-half additional millions of people, wheat for fourteen more millions, cattle for six millions, and swine for eleven millions. It is well known that the acreage that can be devoted to agriculture is rapidly diminishing and the products cannot keep pace with the increase in population. In proof of this it is cited that whereas nearly forty-eight millions of acres of new land were brought under cultivation in the five years between 1874 and 1870, only twelve millions of acres in the five years ending with 1889. It is asserted that existing data demonstrate, that for each unit of population under the existing order of things there is now required 1.15 acres of corn, 0.57 of an acre of wheat, and 1.53 acres of other staple products — a total of 3.15 acres per capita. Using this data asa basis for future estimates, andapplyingthem to that, relating to diminishing area of lands open to development, a conclusion is arrived at which will certainly gratify the hearts of those agriculturists avIio are now struggling through an unprosperous era. Assuming the substantial correctres* of the estimates of area by the Department of Agriculture, andthathome require- ments will be such as to employ 3.15 acres per capita, the answer to the question, When will the farmer be prosperous? resolves itself into a calculation as simple as the following: Acres. Actps. Jnnimrv, l8o^, a population of 72.000,000 will require in staple crops an area of 226,Soo,ooo Area i»w employed in growing such crops . . 211,000,000 Additions to be marie to such area in four years 12,000,000 223,000,000 Acreaye deficit January, 1 894 3,800,000 This deficit should be sufficient to neutralize any possible understatement of the area now in cultivation. When this stage of the problem is reached, farm These for a Cen i (651) 552 PROFITABLE FARMING. property will appreciate in value, as well as farm products; and then, too, improved methods of fertilizing and cultivating will have to be resorted to, in order that the yield may be increased. The farmer will no longer be " in the soup," but he will be on top of the heap, happy, prosperous and a capitalist. It is a consumma- tion devoutly to be wished. SKILL IN FARMING. A great many people have the iaea that the man who farms does not require any skill in the carrying on of his dceupation — that skill belongs to professional men, and is necessary for them only. Now, a man who farms, from the nature of his calling, must essentially be a man of skill, and then a man of strength, and not first a man of strength and then a man of skill. A man can overcome difficulties much more successfully through skilful operation than through the * operation of mere physical strength. The day for purely physical strength has long gone by and men who would farm with profit must farm with skill. The prevalent idea is like this, that a dairyman among farmers is a man whose sole occupation consists in producing or manipulating or selling milk. He may per- haps rise to be a manufacturer of the products of milk, but beyond that meager outline of work men think he requires to know nothing and do nothing. I will try and make my meaning clear, and speak, first, as to why a man needs skill in carrying on the work of a dairy farm. It is his business to find food for the others of his race, because most of the food we consume from our tables comes as a product of some dairy farmer's skill, if the single commodity, called fish, be excepted. If you go through the whole list you will find that most of them belong to the products of dairy farming. The man who finds food for all the world must be a skillful man, because his occupation demands skill. It gives him a sphere for the exercise of skill of the highest order. As a man produces food he will have to seek that food from two sources of supply, from plants and from animals, and through these from all the resources of nature that are put there to be brought out by the application of his skill. But he is more than a producer, he becomes a manufacturer of foods such as are made by animals on the farm — milk, choose, butter, beef and things of that sort. In that way you see a man requires, first, the deepest and highest and farthest reaching of skill that he may control the forces of nature and make them operate for his purpose. He requires skill for that, he requires skill to understand the operation of the machinery whereby he elaborates raw products into finished goods. You sec there are avenues for the exercise of skill. His judgment must first determine the kind of plant that will render him the most service directly, or indirectly, through animals. A man would never think of growing strawberries for the production of milk. In that case his cow would consume more value in strawberries than she would produce in milk. We have known a cow to cat two baskets full of strawberries but they did not increase her milk supply in the least. We havo merely given that absurd illustra- tion to show that while men do not grow strawberries as a rule for the feeding of dairy cows, they sometimes grow a product on their farm that is in manner but not in degree ns extravagant for the production of milk. A man's skill shall solve for himself the question of the cheapest food so far as its potentiality and efficacy is concerned. There is room for skill here, surely. Then a man's skill shall not merely select the kind of plants that he shall grow, but his skill shall PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 553 select the varieties of the plants. In the growth of oats a man may select any one of 200 varieties, and if he selects thorn in a haphazard fashion, they will serve him in a haphazard way. Our friend, Professor Saunders, told us that hy care- ful selection of single grains of a variety of the oat plant, he obtained three thousand nine hundred odd grains from the planting of one seed. If we can be skillful in selecting seeds of equal vitality and vigor, we would not merely get a thirty-fold but a three-hundred-fold service from the crops that we grow. A man growing crops may even get a five-hundred return from the seed if he will sow tho right sort. Then a man's skill shall make preparation for the furnishing of food, for the seed which he plants, and many a man by failing to supply food for the plants which grow on his fields is unable to find food for himself. Beneficent nature is always just and generous and she will richly repay a man for the appli- cation of thought and skill that he may bestow on her. The tiller of the soil will find the proper kind of plant and place it in the ground. A man's skill makes preparation for its food by cultivation. When a man cultivates his soil he is not merely probing about with instruments and tools; if he does this he is exercising no skill. A man's skill shall look right into the soil and shall go on, so acting upon and acting through it that his skill shall reach up through the soil and govern the sun that shines over his farm. It is the duty of the farmer to exercise his skill in such a way on the soil that he may harness the old sun every morning and make it do his will. He cannot do that if he has not skill. The sun, with his strength, energy, and potentiality, thrills down for our service when he tries to store these into plants. We eat to get strength, that we may control the strength and do something. Whence comes the strength ? From the old sun. We want from food strength and sunshine, and when we get really strong butter, we get strength and no sun- shine. The old sun is streaming like this on all the fields; if he comes to a man's farm whose fields have no plant food, then the old sun looks into that man's soil, and finding no material into which to store his strength, he merely loafs around that field. When a horse pulls us in a wagon, the horse is merely expending what he got from the sun; when the engine is puffing along, it is only expending what the old sun stored in the fuel centuries ago. When Ave eat our own food we are merely getting for our use the energy that the old sun accumulated in it under the direction of the skill of some man whose right it was to rule his acts and make him subservient to him. A man who would be a successful farmer needs to be a man of skill and then a man of strength. If a man goes at his work with his fists he is not so successful as if he goes at it with his head, because with the latter he could clear a way for the application of the strength which he has. Therefore let a man exercise his skill in such a way that all the powers in nature will serve him, and that he will have dominion over the sun and over the water in the soil. A man not only needs skill, but he needs to apply his skill. The man who applies his skill to the growth of a plant can do so best along two lines. First, along the line of skillfully adapting suitable plants of conditions aird circumstances of his farm and locality, and then along the line of handling plants, that the strength of the old sun shall not be wasted or lost. First, lethim try to get within his grasp some of nature's powers for his service, and then let him so use that power back out into the world that he will not lose anything, but thereby increase its intensity. 554 PROFITABLE FARMING. PERNICIOUS WEEDS. These may be destroyed if frequently hoed down and some may be killed if only cut down once. The crops of the farmer, and especially of the truck farmer, should be kept well stirred so that most of the weeds he has to contend with mav he killed before or as soon as they appear above the ground. If they get a fair start they are hard to manage, and the labor of extirpation will be doubled or trebled. The worst of our weeds tare the worm seed and dog fennel, must be eradicated when young or they will become extremely troublesome by sprouting and extending from the deep roots. They are among our worst pests. Purslain is a troublesome weed in gardens, that spreads an extraordinary number of fine seeds, which, when mixed in the soil, will continue to vegetate year after year. It should be destroyed when young. It is easy to cut up or off, but if any part is left slightly covered with soil, it will take root in a day or night and in two or three days will be as rampant as ever. Owing to the nature of the leaf and the paucity of stomata, this plant may be upon the surface for many days in the hot sun, with or without roots, without dying. We have many other noxious and troublesome weeds of persistent growth and tenacity of life, that infest our fields and gardens ; the popular names of some are crab-grass, with tough, bunchy roots, hog-weed, May-weed, Canada this- tle, wild onions, wild daisy, or ox eye, white clover, wire-grass, &c. Weeds con- sume the food intended for the crops. They should be plowed or hoed up as soon as they appear, and the sooner done the less labor, and the crops reeeive the ad- vantage of stirring the soil. WEEDS AND WEEDING. This weed that succeeds wheat and other crops, known as bitter weed, ragweed, &c, is not to be considered a pest. In Virginia after small grain crops are taken off, it soon occupies the whole surface of the field, shades the exposed soil, and when the ground is ready to be fallowed, it is up waist high or more, according to the strength of the soil or the seasonableness of the weather. The amount of vege- table matter it returns to the soil, when the growth has been rampant in some fields is immense. This vegetable matter when turned under in the fall and allowed to rot is highly beneficial to succeeding crops. It is a question with some of our farmers whether this should be done in a green or dry state. The water in the weed affords no manure, but in a green state, decomposition takes place much more rapidly and affords food for plants much sooner than when put under in a dry state. Some farmers argue that if green crops are turned under, which is generally done with a two or three-horse plow and drag-chain, by means of which the whole growth is completely buried, that the land is killed for a time by the sour gases arising from rapid fermentation, caused by the great mass of sappy, green material; and, if done at all, it should be done late in the fall for oat or corn land the next spring. We think farmers generally have no fears as to such a result as this. As a general thing the quantity thus covered could not pos- sibly heat so as to effect soil injuriously, and, besides, it is turned under Avith less compactness than most other green crops. We are of opinion that a crop of rag- weeds, well turned under in a green state, will afford as much, or nearly as much, humus and plant feed, suitable for the next crop, as almost any other soiling green crop. The subject of Aveeds should be more generally discussed by our agricultural writers. T. IT. P. Wallis, of Tennessee, has given a valuable essay on this subject. CHAPTER XXT. Soulhei ii Immigration. BY THOMAS WHITKnivM). coMMISSIONKR OF AORIOUJ/TTTRE OF VIRGINIA. m i OR VARIOUS REASONS the Northern section of the United }~q States acquired population faster in proportion to area than t^MQy the South. Perhaps the people settling in that section were ^wwp^xf^ more given to commerce and manufactures than those settling ^,,'^ L ^j r ^ the warmer States. Certain it is, that at an early day com- l^J x .''H'^y^'~ meTCe ' navigation, manufactures, trade, and the mechanical ge part of the population onies. To make comfort- t* Mcv^gV^:^ arts occupied the attention of a lar ^h^^^^k: °^ wnat nac * been t ,ne Northern col .J^j^l- :.-?:' "able and profitable homesteads, with meadows and dairies and "5^^^j^fr%#- orchards on well-kept farms, was the Northern agricultural idea, while large plantations, extensive clearings, and fields of tobacco and cotton was that of the South. The Northern people quickly discovered riches in the mines of coal and iron, and furnaces everywhere sent up smoky signals of thrift and industry. The busy brain of this people saw and utilized the advantages of manufacturing, not only the products of these mines and forests, but the avooI, leather, and cotton of the South. These industries naturally attracted the tide of emigration from Europe. They gathered all the artisans and skilled workmen, and such capital as escaped from the old world found a resting place in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. The Northern States became thickly populated, and sent their sons West, leading and controlling the tide of emigration that poured into the Northern cities. Up to the war between the States the South appeared content with profitable agri- culture. Mining and manufacturing, except tobacco and a little cotton, were almost unknown. Very little was said about Southern immigration. There appeared to be no netd of it. Labor was abundant. It was property, and its money basis its main value. Small farms and intensified farming were occa- sionally found around cities and towns, but they were the fancy farms of the wealthy. The independent monied men were the planters on large estates. All along the years from 1837 prominent men, with voice and pen, occasionally, like prophets, raised a Avarning voice in view of the fact that our people were going West, and calling attention to our cheap lands and sparse population, and urging the improvement of our soil. In 1842, Hon. AVilliam C. Rives addressed the Agricultural Society of Albemarle county, Virginia. The following extract from his address reads as if it had been delivered in 1890: " Should any one doubt whether we shall derive from the reduced surface, better cultivated, a product equal to that of the whole under inadequate culture, SOUTHERN IMMIGRATION. 557 let him recollect the instructive story told by old Columella, in his 'De re rus- tica,' of a Roman vine-dresser, who had a vineyard and two daughters; when his eldest daughter was married he gave her a third of the vineyard for a portion, and yet he had the same quantity of fruit as before; when his second daughter was married lie gave her the half of what remained, and stdl the produce of his vineyard was undiminished. " This anecdote of the Roman agriculturist, gentlemen, points the full force of its moral against the fatal mania for emigration which has hitherto carried off so large and valuable a portion of our population to seek wider domains for them- selves and families in the prairies of the West. It is not more land we need. We have enough and more than enough already, if properly cultivated and improved, for ourselves and our children after us. It is industry, improvement, good hus- bandry we want, to develop the natural capabilities of our soil, and to make it adequate to every reasonable wish, and even to the fondest dreams of prosperity and wealth. With these, seconding the gifts of Providence by which we are sur- rounded, we shall have nothing to envy in the untamed abundance of the West, tempting us from the cherished scenes of our childhood and the hallowed tombs of our ancestors. I am happy to believe, gentlemen, that a brighter day is now dawning upon us, and that the eminent natural advantages and superior capabili- ties of Virginia are beginning to be appreciated at their true worth, by the citi- zens of our sister States, as well as to be more and more felt by her own children, while emigration from our borders has, in a great measure, closed, other States are beginning, in their turn, to send to us tributes of their moral, industrious and enterprising population, attracted hither by the advantages of our climate, ©ur numerous navigable rivers, our water power, our mineral resources, our favorable geographical position, our kind and improvable soils." Wise as were such counsels they had little weight with Legislatures or people. The war between the States came and ended, and the development of the great mineral and timber resources of the South became a necessity. The man with 2,000 acres into whose tall forests no axe had come, and whose estates had never been disfigured by mines or cut up with roads, who had lived in indepen- dence and comfort on the proceeds of his plantation, was a poor man. He could neither cultivate nor sell his surplus lands, open his mines, nor fell his forests. Along the Blue Ridge from Alabama to Maryland this was the case. Along the tidewater from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mississippi, the immense crops of corn, wheat, tobacco, cotton and sugar were gone, fields were growing up, ditches and drains filling, enclosures gone, tobacco barns and gin houses and even stables going to decay. Immigration had become a necessity. Labor was abundant but demoralized. Still it could be profitably handled with capital, brains and energy. What the South needed was capital in the hands of a large population of good people. It needs but this now to give to the section unparalleled prosperity. An urgent need also of the entire section is, the sale at low rates of at least 10,000,000 acres of lands in every State. That the South has in soil, climate, productions, conveniences of transpor- tation, markets, social, educational and religious surroundings advantage over the Western States and territories, is susceptible of easy proof. It is as impor- tant that the native Southern people should be made to understand the advan- tages of their section as that foreigners should be informed what it offers, and it a g 5 m Id ►4 O a o § SOUTHERN IMMIGRATION. >5» ia the patriotic duty 6f every well-informed tho facts and arguments to insure theii The industrious, steady man with a family make a home and good living in a healthful living in of man to sec that his neighbors havq the South. with a i\'\v hundred dollars, can land with a delightful climate. Long days without extremes of heat or cold, rainfall or drought, mean clear money, and profit to the farmer. On the cheap unimproved lands of the South Atlantic slope, with its grasses, its fruit, fish and game, a poor man can do better than he can on the public lands of the great West as a free gift. Tho corre- spondence of immigration societies and real estate agencies discloses the fact that thousands who went West and settled on government lands now want to come South, and are prevented by mortgages they were compelled to give to erect build- ings on their homesteads. The Immigration Departments of the Southern States have thousands of such letters from men in Canada, Kansas, Nebraska, Minne- sota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Dakota. The Northwestern farmer is dis- satisfied. The winters are severe and fuel is scarce and high. Long winters cut down profits on stock fed eight months in the stalls. Short summers curtail the range of vegetables and fruits, and distance to markets eats up the profit on large crops. He wants a better climate, nearer market, cheaper fuel, and better water. The Southern farmer has too much land. He wants capital. He needs stock and implements. He is suffering because he owns too much unfilled land. The Northern landholder wants to sell to emigrate, the South- ern landholder wants to sell to keep from emigrating. The South needs a particu- lar class of immigrants. All the South Atlantic and Gulf States are under a system of governmen t — State, coun ty and district — giving educa- tional, religious and social privileges and advantages. In very few are there any public lands, State or Fede- ral. Agricultural labor is abundant in the rural dis- tricts, and the cities and towns are supplied with such as they need. The landing at the Southern ports of ship loads of emigrants from an}- Decides to g0 somET country without means of support, however good, honest and industrious, would be a calamity to the emigrant and to the State. It is not labor or population that the South needs and desires. It is families with means to buy homes, how- ever humble, however small, and support themselves and grow up to become citi- zens of the new South. The sale of three-fourths of the land in the South Atlantic States, leaving one-fourth to be cultivated by the original owner with increased capital, will not 560 PROFITABLE FARMING. mingling only infuse new life and vigor into native farmers and planters, but into State and county, and lay the foundation for a section held, controlled and governed in future years by a population of thrift, intelligence, integrity and patriotism. Proof of this is being already seen in Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. Indus- tries are springing up everywhere. Northern settlers are generally prosperous. New industries havo been introduced. Poultry, fruit, bees and dairies have been greatly increased. Small industries in wood, leather, straw, etc., have been intro- duced in and around the villages. The welcome which the South has given to immigrants from foreign lands, but especially from the North, gives promise of an honest desire to have them, and proves that in the marts of trade, and fields of indus- try, as citizens of the same States, having the same in- terests, will sweep away all the prejudices and distrusts of the past. The South offers won- derful inducements to citi- zens of the other States and foreign countries who are seeking a field for the in- vestment of capital. Its mines of iron, coal, copper, zinc, sulphur and manga- nese, are wonderful in quan- tity and quality, and their location for advantages in smelting and washing is so greatthatphenomenalcities are springing up from the Gulf to the Chesapeake "bay, Its climate is unsurpassed. In winter its Gulf line from Florida to New Orleans is A Satisfied Emigrant (ten years at'ier moving). thronged with the fragile of the North gathering new life in the balmy breezes of the semi-tropics, and in summer the panting denizens of the far Southern cities meet their Northern friends at the watering places in the Blue Ridge and Appalachian range. Its water transportation and steamboat navigation, winter and summer, on coast and river, quadruples the balance of the States. Its range of cereals, fruits and vegetables are equal to anj^. From the Chesapeake to Florida are the finest fish and oysters in bay and river. Its fowls both wild and domestic are abundant and excellent in quality. The South may adopt the apos- trophe of Capt. John Smith, of Virginia, "Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation." Some statistics may here be given: In tobacco and cotton the Southern States head the word's list SOUTHERN IMMIGRATION. 561 In iron the Southern States surrounding the Southern Appalachian chain will shortly furnish enough for the world. The coal and coke oi* the South with only a few years development are now at the front. In manganese it is admitted that the South will soon furnish the world's chief supply. Southern zinc supplied the material for Italian cannon some years ago and the mines have been doubled in the last year. Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, and even North and South Carolina are smoking with furnaces and dotted with new cities. Florida and South Carolina will supply the country with phosphates and Georgia and Virginia with sulphur. Timber for the supply of the coming 100 years is in the Gulf States, to say nothing of the mountain vallys that pierce the centre States. Here is employ- ment for millions of population and the prospect for a market for the products of thousands of new acres. Here is the opening for capital and industry, a place for the farmer, planter, grazier, dairyman, fruit culturist, vine-dresser, bee-keeper and poultry man, on fertile lands secure from storms, from the rigors of winter and the tropical sun of summer. Here the skilled artificer in brass and iron and the cunning workman in machinery will soon find abundant work, and a full reward for his skill and labor. The statistical tables will show that in the Southern States there is nearer a medium rainfall, nearer a medium range of the thermometer, less epidemic and a better health rate than in any section of as extended area elsewhere. The educational advantages of the South are better than in any other country of as little financial ability and as sparse a population. The taxes of the South- ern States are less than any other- section of equal extent. The South has as moral, law abiding population as any section, and as many churches, and chari- table institutions, as any section of equal extent. Testimony to these facts has been borne by prominent public men through the press of the country and by dis- tinguished foreigners who have traveled and sojourned in the section. Why, then, it maybe asked has not this fertile, this goodly land been before occupied, developed, and cultivated? The answer is that the North with the prestige and power of the National Government conquered the South and has had control of the government all these years. Many of its people, its press, its authors were prejudiced against the section. It had a bad name, many spoke against the land and people through ignorance, some from prejudice. The South could not get the ear of the world, nor can it fully get it now. But light has broken in, the young men are coming on, the sections are meeting, the people are mingling and "the crowning day is coming bye and bye." Another trouble was, our legislatures have clone little and Congress has done less. Very few organizations had any patriotism in them. There was no regular system to induce select immigration, but little organization to protect the immigrant and secure him the worth of his money. Every influx of immigrants to a section, however small, put up the prices and checked the move. Most men were "on the make." The first stream of immigration after the war was badly handled in the South. Multitudes of foreigners were brought 562 PROFITABLE FARMING. in who had no money, they brought families, bought land, could not pay the prices, and scattered — they losing their time and landowners their money. Matters have improved. The States must take hold of this subject witk liberal provisions. They must secure the help of railroads, offer inducements, and see that the immigrant is protected. He must have official assistance and advice, so that he will feel that his person and property are under the care of those who will see that he has a fair chance in his new home. The people who own these lands if they understand their own welfare — if they desire to get money for the uncultivated acres, to secure capital, to advance their agricultural affairs, must see that those who lay upon these lands the taxes to support the State, ' There's where I was Born.' appropriate some of the money to secure for the Southern States the valuable population seeking new homes. The Western States have expended hundreds where the South has tens, to secure population. The South is settled, organized with all the appliances of refined, intelligent society. It will take effort of brains and money to secure such a population by immigration as it ought to have, but it can be done if wise and patriotic men make the effort. It is gratifying to know that in all the Southern States som« Northern men, and men from Europe, men of intellect, capital and high standing are aiding the South in this effort to rehabilitate itself. They deserve the thanks of the people, for among them are some who wore the Blue, and are now work- ing as earnestly for the development of our section and the building of its cities, as those who wore the Gray. CHAPTER XXII. !3lcjricultuiv>l €ftucaltou. BY PROF. .1. S. NK.WMAN, OK ALABAMA. GRICULTURE in every country passes through two distinc- tive periods, viz: The destructive and the reconstructive. During the first period the farmer apparently acts upon the assumption that soil is inexhaustible. He disregards at once the necessity for protection from surface washing, the restora- tion of vegetable matter, and the return of plant food removed in the crops sold from the land. If he went systematically to work to destroy the fertility of the soil he could not adopt more effective means of accomplishing this end than the sys- tem of farming generally practiced upon virgin soils, which were so generous in their returns for the labor of the husbandman, as to preclude the idea of restitution or the adoption of measures precautionary against impoverishment. That the soil was intended to be the generous mother of untold generations — that it was the great reservoir of latent energy from which plants directly, and animals indirectly through the plants, should during countless ages " multiply and replenish the earth," seems to have been entirely unrecognized by the destructionists. It requires neither skill nor learning to destroy. The barbarians at one swoop destroyed the civilization of Greece and Rome — the results of the cumulative energies of centuries. So a single generation has often marred the beauty and destroyed the productive capacity of virgin soils teeming with latent energy sufficient, if wisely pro- tected, and economized, to supply food and raiment to millions. These energies, how- ever, have been neither protected nor econo- mized. Millions of acres of fertile fields have been rendered barren wastes and deserted by the destroyers who sought new empires to conquer in their march to the West. The bur- ied valleys and corrugated hills bear mourn- ful testimony of man's prodigality, and the old-field pines, with which nature in shame has mantled her bare bosom, entrust a funeral dirge to each passing breeze. When farming ColonU1 Wa£hing Machine meant wearing out the land so that the apparent profits only represented a cor- responding diminution of capital, it was indeed true that " any fool could farm." But how different is the case now that we must take this legacy of dilapidation (563) 664 PROFITABLE FARMING. and not only rebuild the waste places, but while doing so WTest a living from exhausted nature. Ignorance of the laws of being may destroy health, but the hand of the skillful physician is required to restore it. Violations of natural laws are ever accompanied by a penalty, whether it be a moral or a physical law. The whole universe, animate and inanimate, bows to the will of the Creator as expressed in natural law. It is considered a matter of the utmost importance that the engineer be familiar with the laws of being of the locomotive which he controls, and which draws the precious freight of human life, and yet it is regarded a matter of small import- ance that the soil, at once the source and support of all life, should be entrusted to those so utterly ignorant of the laws which control its productiveness as to render it an- nually less capable of furnisbing the means of subsistence to the increasing millions de- pendent upon the labor of the husbandman. Tn view of these considerations the necessity *of educating at least the captains who com- mand the host of tillers of the soil is too Hand washing. plain to admit of argument. Yet Ave find the most unreasonable and unreasoning opposition to every agency established for the elevation of agriculturists and the advancement of their interests. Strange as it may seem, this opposition is found in its most malignant form amongst those who, with their children, would reap the most direct and immediate benefit. This can be explained only on the hypothesis of ignorance and prejudice which are generally companions. Another class oppose them because they fear the emancipation of the farmer from their control and profitable use. In the colleges, the School of Agriculture is opposed by the old-fogy professors of Latin, Mathematics, English, Physics, etc., who resent its introduction as an in- novation upon the traditional curriculum. Let us consider for a moment what is the scope and character of this pons asinorum upon which so many otherwise well-inform- ed men stumble. We state, as a basis of this discussion, that the votaries of no other avocation are brought, in their daily life, into such close and varied association j with, and dependence upon, natural laws as the agriculturist, and consequently in no p other avocation is the necessity for a knowl- edge of these laws so imperative. There is no other avocation in which knowledge of the natural sciences is brought into such constant and practical use. Agriculture, then, should be taught as an applied science. Natural history, chemistry, physics, political economy, and mechanics are placed under contribution and their appli- Boilcr Washer, A. D. 1S74. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 565 cation to the arts of agriculture should constitute a large part of the course of instruction given by the chair of agriculture. Much confusion has resulted from the fact that many boards of trustees have failed to grasp a proper conception of the vast scope and importance of the subject, and the proper field to be occu- pied by the chair of agriculture. Some have supposed that a knowledge of chemistry constituted the necessary qualification for the professor of agriculture. Others have underrated the impor- tance of a knowledge of the natural sci- ences, and gone to the other extreme of making the chair of agriculture a mere manual labor school, in which it was taught merely as an art. As a natural consequence of these blunders, the chair has too often become a laughing stock and a disgrace. If the chair is filled by one familiar with the related sciences, but ignorant of the art, the smart boy reared and trained upon the farm, feels that he knows more than his teacher, and proclaims the latter a failure, and proclaims truth. If the professor of agri- culture, on the other hand, is merely an oscillating Rubber, a. d. issa experienced farmer without knowledge of the related sciences, his blunders soon become by-words with his science-taught students, and failure is written on his epitaph. This is simply a photograph of the chair of agriculture in many of the col- leges representing its changes of front as the pendulum describes the extremes of its arc. An attempt to teach agriculture was a new departure and men had not been trained to the new work. Even if the electing powers had imbibed the proper conception of the character of the work to be done, men fully qualified to perform it were not to be found, who were willing to tread the unbeaten track. Those who knew enough to comprehend the vastness of the subject shrank from an attempt to occupy a field so vast in ex- tent, in which the first furrow had yet to be run, without having even the rubbish and snags removed. Those who had not advanced far enough to see more than a small part of the field to be occupied, enter- ed only to be lost in the wilderness of their own ignorance. The undertaking is still surrounded with more difficulties than environ any other school, for the reason that no settled course of instruction has been adopted as in other departments of study, nor are text- books yet prepared which meet the demands of the lecture-room. This renders the lecture-room work much more laborious to the teacher who can instruct by Vertical Rubber, A. D. 1883. 566 PROFITABLE FARMING. original lectures, and utterly impracticable to him who cannot so instruct. It is claimed by some that the chair of agriculture is superfluous since the related sciences are taught. This view can only be held by those who, however well informed in sciences themselves, are in blissful ignorance of the various and profitable applications of these sciences to the art of agriculture. It is the application of (for science is knowledge and knowledge nothing more) to the art which the student needs and which must be taught or failure and disappointment are inevitable. No matter how learned one may be in all the mysteries of science as taught in the school, unless he has a far-reaching, varied and in- timate acquaintance with the details of practical agriculture, horticulture, pomology and stock-breeding, combined with a knowl- edge of characteristic soils in the section of country from which his pupils come, he must be a slave to text-books, which teach Hand-Wringer. &g mU(jh errQr ag tmth _ JJjg effortg &t teach- ing can but prove disappointing to his pupils, his patrons and himself. The progress of agricultural education has been almost fatally retarded by teachers who were but '' blind leaders of the blind." This brings us to the consideration of a proper COURSE OF STUDY for those who wish to make agriculture their profession. The so-called disci- plinary studies should, with the exception of English and mathematics, be com- pleted in the freshman class or in some good high school before entering. Mathe- matics may, if necessary to embrace trig- onometry and surveying, extend through the sophomore year, but should with proper training at the high school end with the freshman year. English should extend through the entire course and be made as thorough as possible. Before entering college, however, at least one year should be spent in actual labor upon a Avell-equipped, systematically conducted farm, devoted to diversified agri- culture. Boys thus trained have been found to profit most from the lectures in the col- lege course. Art ever precedes science. While the boy during this year learns how to perform only in a mechanical way the various operations in the farm garden, orchard, vineyard, and stock yard, without understanding the reasons for them or the principles involved, wlien these are explained in. the lecture room, ho is prepared to grasp them much more readily and thoroughly than one who has enjoyed no such privilege. ■■saw -?=s? U, S. Patent Wringer, A. D. 1*17. AGK1C U LTURAL ED U CATION. 567 No more of the college student's time should be occupied in manual laboi than can be profitably employed as part of the instruction of the classes. Such labor as ordinary plowing and hoeing, digging ditches, milking cows, . 1855. Again, in teaching pomology, commence with a full and detailed discussion of the propagation, selection, transplanting, cultivation and pruning of trees and vines, in the light of the most advanced thought and practice, and require the students to perform all of these operations under the immediate instruction of the professor, each in its proper season. In a three year's course, the student sees the yearly development of the cutting he planl - ed, the bud he inserted, or the tree he trans- planted, and observes the effects of each year's work done by his own hands. He assists in the weighing and manipulation of the chemicals for experiments, notes the different methods of preparing and culti- vating the soil, and observes the effects of a multitude of experiments upon the growth and fruitage of the plants subjected to treatment. There is education in this, and the student is gradually lead to love the labor of the farm which seemed before mere drudgery. Paying students for work upon the farm while at college, while afford- ing the means of procuring an education to a few impecunious young men, is wrong in principle, and holds out a wrong incentive to the student. He "should look for his reward in the instruction he receives from it, and with this incentive he secure? the maximum good and feels the deepest interest in the work. Roller Wringer, A. D. 1862. 568 PROFITABLE FARMING. Adjustable Holler, A. D. 1872. There is no more reason for paying the student for work in the laboratory of agriculture than in those of chemistry or natural history, and the adoption of the system of paying for the work done by students in their laboratory degrades the study, and by placing it upon a false basis diverts the attention of the student from the true object of the exercise. Instead of a student of the application of science to the most important of all arts, he becomes a mere hireling giving an equiva- lent of muscular force for a stipulated sum of money. The intellectual feature of the exer- cise is lost in the reward of muscular force. In shapingthe lecture-room course it must be constantly remembered that the farmer has daily need of knowledge of the soil, of plants, of fertilizing agents, and of the habits and needs of all species of live stock. After the student has been taught the origin of soils and the agencies supposed to have produced them, he must be impressed with the fact that in their relation to pro- duction they must be studied both as to their physical and their chemical properties. The various agencies by which their physical condition may be either bene- fically or injuriously affected, as regards their productiveness, must pass under review in the lecture room. This involves the influences of air, water, frost, vege- tation, the plow, exposure to the sun, shade, saturation, drainage, surface wash- ing, the means of preventing the latter, sub-soiling, the effects of stirring while wet, tramping by stock when wet; indeed any and everything which affects the physical condition of soils in their agricultural rela- tions must be made familiar as the founda- tion upon which every other consideration | rests. The student having the facts in connec- tion with the operation of all of these agen- cies brought to his attention with the ex- planation of how they act upon different classes of soils, and upon the same soiL under different climatic influences, has his powers of observation and reasoning stim- ulated to activity, and Avhether effects are 1 raced back to their causes, or the causes followed down to their effects, he realizes that in proportion to his knowledge of the physical properties and suscep- tibilities of his soil will bo secured in preserving or increasing its pro- ductiveness. He learns that the soil which he must cultivate contains matter derived from three distinct kingdoms — the mineral, the vegetable, and the Adjustable Holler, A. D. 1 the physical properties preserving or increas AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 569 Roller, A. D.1877. animal — and is load by pleasant and logical sequence from the consideration of the physical properties to the chemical constituents of soils, and is shown how inseparably the two are interwoven with each other. Ho is surprised to learn that the air he breathes is at once the most active agency in affecting the physi- cal condition, and the chemical composition of his soil, and, perhaps for the first time, though he may have spent months between the plow-handles, understands why he plows. He is next taught that the soil must not only be brought into proper phy- sical condition in order to secure profitable returns for his labor, but there must be cer- tain chemical substances present, and that these substances must be capable of being dissolved in water. Another important step is now taken in the ascending scale — plants are intro- duced as the only agencies by means of which the dead matter of the earth can be transformed into life. Being a thing of life it must be fed, but is capable of feeding only upon liquids and gases, apart of which it takes from the soil and part from the air. If the plant must be fed and a por- tion of its food is derived from the soil, of what does this food consist, in what form must it be presented, and from what sources can it be obtained if necessity arises for its artificial sup- ply? The sophomore has by this time made sufficient progress in his study of chemistry to understand what is meant by oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phos- phoric acid, calcium, magnesia, soda, pot- ash, sulphur, carbon, chlorine, &c, and can be readily made to understand the relations which they bear to soil, air, and plants, and the important part played by water as the vehicle of plant food. The student is then ready to be intro- duced to the subject of feeding plants by the application of these chemical substances to the soil, and is prepared to understand a thorough discussion of fertilizers in connec- tion with different characters of soil and different species of plants. If not already instructed in the school of natural history in structural botany, he must be introduced to this subject to a sufficient extent to enable him to understand the general classification of plants as regards their manner of growth, the office performed by the organs of vegetation, the circulation of the sap, the physical and chemical forces brought into play, the assimilation and organization of the fluids of the plant, its rela- Flat Iron. 570 PROFITABLE FARMING. Sad Iron, A. D. 1852. tions to meteorological conditions both above and below ground. The organs of reproduction, too, must be explained and understood as the immediate means leading to the object for which the plant is usually grown. The student must be made to gi'asp the life-history of the plant in its relations to soil and air, and to understand that this organism, is only a factory intended to convert a maximum amount of the substances of soil and air into commodities suited to the tise of a higher order of organisms, and that the profit which he may derive from this fac- tory will depend upon his knowledge of the laws governing the work of its machi- nery and those influencing the supply of available material. The general principles serve as a solid foundation upon which to build the re- mainder of this beautiful structure of agri- cultural education — an edifice containing such a maze of secret chambers that no life has yet been long enough to explore them all. The farther one pursues these paths of pleasantness and of peace, pry- ing, it seems, into God's sacred mind, the more enchanting becomes the scenery in the long hallways bordered with recesses leading to new stores of knowledge, inviting the microscopic eye of science to perpetual research. The ground-work having been well and deeply laid, useful cultivated species of plants are studied in the concrete, taking special note of the character of soil best adapted to supply their needs and all the conditions which favor their maxi- mum production from the necessary conditions of vigorous germination to those most favorable to the fullest development of its finished product. This continued through the catalogue of field and garden crops embraces a vast amount of practical information in which fundamental princi- ples are given a concrete application and the student equipped for embarkation upon the voyage of actual life in the field and garden. It has been aiready stated that the plant is regarded as a factory for the preparation of food for animals and food and raiment for man. The student is next introduced to the various species of domestic animals, poultry, bees, (fee, and is taught to regard all of these as machines devoted to the conver- smoothing iron, a. d. ists. sion of cheap vegetable matter into the more valuable products, beef, mutton, pork, milk, wool, eggs, honey,