30 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



keeps us on the highway of progress, and where one makes a failure by cling- 

 ing to preconceived notions or theories, a dozen perhaps will make a success of 

 the same thing by having that failure as a warning for them to shun. 



One man would graze and feed exclusively, relying on this as a sure means — 

 a very good one provided he has land as natural for this purpose as the blue 

 grass regions of Kentucky. I apprehend such are scarce in Michigan. Another 

 would cover his farm with sheep, believing the constant tread and the richness 

 of their droppings will certainly produce the desired fertility. To my mind no 

 greater mistake could be made. Their noses are so small that they drop into 

 every little crack ; their bite so close as to take the crown from every bulb of 

 grass in the field before you are aware of it. This is death to every plant that 

 does not perpetuate itself from the joints in the root like our June grass. And 

 as to their droppings, highly concentrated as they are with ammonia, their best 

 value soon passes in thin air unless put underground. 



Another would raise corn and clover and rely on swine to do the work — a 

 very slow process. A man would want to begin young and live to be old before 

 he would get a farm, large or small, very fertile. The reason for this lies in 

 the fact that his swine want the adaptability of converting the whole product 

 into fertilizers. They are masters of the corn grain and some green clover 

 when it has but little fertilizing power in it. 



Others would discard all stock and rely on wheat and clover to do the work. 

 Here, too, we apprehend, is a mistake. While the two work well together 

 they are both subject to failure. If one fails and the other stands you have a 

 break in the succession which will discomfit your plans and render a part of your 

 work lost, and the system is so costly in labor few will adopt it if they can find 

 a better. 



A better and more successful practice is to combine these several plans in 

 one, making what we call mixed farming, with a regular system of rotation 

 and thorough cultivation, with this one thought predominating, how much 

 manure may I manufacture this year. 



To carry out this thought successfully many things must be taken into con- 

 sideration. The barnyard and stables should be so constructed that nothing 

 can run to waste. The supply of material should be the entire vegetable 

 growth of the farm, and additional if it can be obtained without robbing your 

 neighbor. The stock should be chosen for their ability to manufacture the 

 materials you have to work up, probably a percentage of each kind. You 

 must have cattle to handle the coarse, bulky material on hand. Your coarse 

 grains naturally go with it, and all should pass first to the stable, then to the 

 yard, and there met by the swine, who will take it in hand, turn it and return 

 it, mix it and manipulate it so as to make it fit for use for your corn and oat 

 crop. While your animals are thus working to further your purposes you will 

 have an eye open to the gathering of the ashes aud garbage from the city or 

 village, worth to you double their cost if not too distant to haul them. Per- 

 haps your soil is porous aud the surface uneven and you find the minute par- 

 ticles of decayed fibre run into a depression of the surface, forming a swamp 

 or marsh, making it a waste because of its adaptability to hold water. Seek 

 an outlet for the water and use diligence in removing these washed and made 

 particles back to their proper place. And last, not least, be liberal in the use 

 of plaster, lime and salt. These are all cheap and their value in production 

 is beyond question. Plaster for the barnyard to hold the ammonia and pre- 

 vent fire faug or burning ; plaster for your clover, corn, oats, barley and peas, 

 put broadcast on the soil as soon as plowed, then worked in by further fitting 



