No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 199 



profitable trade, and will discount the profit of two cows at the 

 price of one cow's feed, with less loss and less labor. All these farm 

 products to be profitable require careful attention. It is seldom 

 a success as a sole factor in this country, but in France they have 

 large and profitable chicken farms, conducted solely by women. 

 The profitable farming includes the utilizing of everything upon 

 the farm, draining every foot of wet land and especially preparing 

 the ground for the crops. There should not be more ground plowed 

 than can be manured, either with barnyard manure or fertilizers 

 and fully comminuted. The roller should follow the plow before 

 the furrow becomes dry, then harrowed, and harrowed so frequently 

 that the ground is like an ash heap. You have then a seed bed 

 that the rootlets of the crop can secure its plant food. 



Lime is a good means of changing the humus of the soil into this 

 plant food, but it is poor economy to lime your ground unless you have 

 enough vegetable matter for it to burn up, without this humus you 

 burn your land. The cheapest way to restore the humus in my opinion, 

 is to plant oats with a fertilizer. When changing color, plow down 

 as a seed bed and upon this plant your wheat or rye with grass, fol- 

 lowing this with lime and you have made a rapid advance in the 

 fertility of your soil. Nature has given the soil enough phosphorus, 

 unfortunately not available with our extravagant farming, but with 

 a shorter rotation of crops. Clover plowed down with its won- 

 derful crop of roots, and your experience confirms this statement. 



The reason rye is not a good crop to plow down green is that 

 there is less than one per cent, of phosphorus in its ashes, while oats 

 have about 12 per cent. Unless the ground is in good title and has 

 enough plant food in it available for the crop, farming does not pay. 

 The hard work is done, and medium crops repay the husbandman. 

 Many farmers have too much land wasted in neglected fence rows, 

 sprouty-land and worthless trees. Illustrating this point, one of 

 my farmer friends has a valuable river farm. He is a good farmer, 

 works hard, makes a good living and but little money. Across from 

 his barn he has a four-acre flat, spouty piece of ground. A spring 

 has made a run through it. There is fall enough to drain it. This 

 land would, under proper cultivation, produce 12 tons of hay annu- 

 ally, or 50 or GO tons of corn silage, j'et it is a tramping place for 

 hogs, cows and chickens. 



Another friend had a large farm in partnership with his son-in- 

 law. They concluded to divide the farm. With half the land he 

 has, with more time and better farm work, his barns and granaries 

 are as full as he had with all of his land. He had a swampy, spouty 

 lot near the house, but had no time to care for it. He has it drained 

 and it is far the most productive piece of land on his hill farm, worth 



