Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1893 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

Effect of Thorough Tillage. Chicago Inter-Ocean. An old fanner who possessed a good mind and reasoning powers once said to us: “The great mistake of my whole farming life has been in trying to cover too much ground. I measured my year’s operations by the number of acres I tilled, and not by the amount of the crop. I had to spend so much time getting over a large amount of land that I never had time to cultivate ah'ythihg thorougbly.' My advice to my boys now is, ‘A little farm well tilled.’ We were reminded of the above conversation by reading the following from Roland Smith in Farm Journal. The three Ps of intelligent farming—Principle, Practice, and Profit—are so clearly set forth here that further comment is unnecessary. Two neighbors competed in rais • ing potatoes. Each broke up a three-acre piece of 3-year-old sod on land adjoining, so it was alike in natural characteristics. Both agreed to use no fertilizer of any kind and to. cultivate in the usual manner. Both sold in the same market and used the same seed and same quantity- -Following are the results in figures; Intensive. Common. Plowing .. I 7.50 $ 7.50 Cross-plowing 7.00 Harrowing 2.50 2.50 Seed and planting 10.50 10.50 Cultivation. 15X0 2.75 Hand hoeing 4.00 10.00 Mowing weeds 3.00 Digging 0.00 12.00 Total cost, three acres.... #56.00 #48.25 Yield .....„.74S bush. 367 bush. Amount realized ............8371.50 -8183.50Less coat of growing. 56.00 48.35 Profit on crop u „...8315.CO 8135.25 Profit per acreßlos.l3 #45.08 It will be noticed how much larger the cost of cultivation was for the intensive farmer, and yet the net profits are nearly double those of nis neighbor. These are due to a heavier yield because of greater latent fertility in the soil and constant stirring to render it available and circumvent drought. Ewes and Lambs. Mr. A. O. Fox, the noted Shropshire breeder of Wisconsin, is a man of close observation regarding sheep and thorough energy in carrying out what he has found to be right and expedient. Success with animals can only be obtained in this way. Mr. Fox gives the following hints concerning the proper management of ewes with twin lambs: As the lambs advance in age and begin to partake liberally of food and to require considerable room all twin lambs and their dams should be separated from the flock. Their apartments ought to be very roomy, giving both ewes and lambs an abundance of space at the troughs and racks. This twin flock should be kept separate from the singlelamb flock until -weaning time. I usually wean about July 1, or as soon as I have my first field of clover mown and cleared. I then' put my lambs immediately on this fresn field, and let lambs and clover grow simultaneously. In this way all trouble with scours or bloat is usually avoided unless in an unusually wet season, when it might become necessary to give the lamb a change once a week and to add a ration of clean Gats every morning. < Care should be taken to keep the proportion of stock upon the clover field such as to prevent the clover growing rank. Lambs permitted to run on rank clover, unless in a very dry season, will not do well. As the season advances the lambs will stand it to be placed upon the older pasture fields, the grasses of which are more difficult to digest. The rape patch, early turnips, early cut cqrn fodder, etc., will then in succession play an important part in their proper preparation for winter. 1 The Juicy Melon. Melons thrive best in a warm, sandy loam soil, not too sandy and dry but rather low, with just slope enough to drain the so that it will not be too wet and heavy, writes David Butler, of Avon,-Wis., in the Farm Journal. They growftfest on new land or sod. Clover or timothy sod is good, or land that has produced potatoes, cabbage or tobacco is good. A clover sod where the land is so rich that the second crop will grow thick and thrifty, plowed late in the fall or as early in the spring as the ground will do to work, with a top dressing of 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of unleached ashes, or ten tons of well rotted horse manure per acre, well worked in with disk harrow just before planting, I find by experience to be the very best soil and preparation for a big crop. A compost of horse stable and hog manure on old land, say thirty tons per acre, plowed under and then worked up with a disk harrow, is good. I have obtained best results from horse stable manure alone on old and of any kind that I have ever tried. In plowing old land it should be plowed deep to give a deep, loose soil, and the manure should be well covered. I have tried manuring in in the hill and many different ways; have furrowed out the rows and have ridged them up, and mv plan now is to fill the land full of t&e right kind of manure, pulverize and work it up mellow, and then mark 6x6 feet, raise my hill an inch or two with moist dirt, drop eight or ten seeds of watermelons or twenty of musknaslonfe, cover one inch or mure, according to the condition of the soil. I used to plant Bxß feet between rows, then 7x7, now 6x6. I find

this a saving in land. Better ent the vines off and not let them run too far. Leave the main vine eight feet and the side runners three or four feet, and the growth and sap will go into the melons and not have so much vine to support. I leave three or plants in a hill, and by cutting the vines bdek I get as large melons and more of them. About my melons begin to come up, or a little before, if the ground is dry, I cultivate them with a finetooth cultivator. This heads off the cut-worm. When I see signs of them in the hills I pick them out. Next comes the striped bug. What shad! we do with the worst of all pests in this country? I have had my plants nearly devoured-wi th them. In three days they didn’t leave a tenth of the plants. But I have outgeneraled them to a preat extent. I prepare a compound of air-slacked, lime two parts, to one part sulphur. Mix and pulverize the whole as fine as flour. When you see signs of the plants coming up r sift this over the hHFuntil the ground is white. Repeat this once in four or five days, putting it on when the plants are wet with dew and after every shower of rainThis will not only keep the- bugs and cut-worms off, but will fertilize and help the plants; the same treatment is good for cucumbers and squash vines. Cultivate every five or six days y and if the weather is hot and dry be sure to stir the ground deep after every shower of rain. Keep the hills free from weeds and grass and keep soil mellow in hill. Do not allow the ground to crust. When the plants are in the rough leaf thin out to two or four plants in a hill as conditions may need. As soon as the vines begin to meet plow and hoe for the last time. Handle the vines carefully and leave a large, level hill. In a week or two;, when the fruit is well set, prune the vines to desired length. I seed to clover after last plowing while the ground is mellow. To prune or clip the vines take a fork handle, saw in one end, take an old hoe blade, put two rivet holes through the blade, rivet to handle, grind thin and. sharp. A man walks between two. rows and cuts the vines each side of him as he thinks they need. A man will clip an acre or more per day. - Dairy Notes. Sometimes a cow taken away from a farm to which she has become familiarized will get restless and give much less milk as the result of the change. One of the«very best things to do to cure homesickness in a cow and bring her to her natural yield of milk as soon as possible, is for the person who is to milk her to card her frequently the first two weeks. Disturbed mental state decreases her milk. This is nervous agitation. The carding is grateful to her and -soon makes her feel delighted with her new master and surroundings, and she returns to her normal milk yield. A writer in Hoard’s Dairyman, finding Something wrong about the butter from a herd of fifty-two cows, made thorough investigation, with the following results: “Every possible source was overhauled, till at last it was traced to the milk of one particular cow which had been observed, when the cows were out at their daily watering, to make .persistently for the dirtiest puddles in the yard, and drink these in preference to the running water to which she had free access with the rest. When her milk was kept separate it was found that the milk of the other fifty-one was all right.”