316 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



I have shown you in this man principles of success. Whether on sand or 

 clay a man must have a heart in the work if he will succeed. The proportion 

 of men who attempt farming that make a success of it is much larger than 

 in any other pursuit. You say, "Why?" Because the improvements made on 

 the farm are permanent, and are not easily bartered away. If a farmer 

 could sell out and jump the country every time he gets the blues, there 

 would be a much larger proportion of farmers fail. But they are compelled 

 to stay or lose all, and so they take a new lease and work out of debt and 

 the farm enhances in value, and before they are aware of it, they are called 

 independent farmers. 



One great principle of success in farming is system in cropping. I call to 

 mind an instance in my neighborhood of injudicious cropping. A poor man 

 clears off an acre of ground around his new log house and sows it to oats. 

 He has no domestic animals to consume the crop. He can't eat it himself, 

 and to thresh and sell the crop, it virtually amounts to nothing. What he 

 should have done was to put in potatoes, cabbage, rutabagas, sweet corn, 

 peas, beans, etc. Then when a field is cleared well enough to seed down, give 

 it a lay off — a rest; pasture it one or two seasons and then turn it over to 

 give it a rotation of crops. Don't sow oats after oats, especially on light 

 soils. Peas are the best on the sod, then oats, then wheat, rye or barley, 

 and seed down again ; then mow one or two seasons, and crop again, if you 

 wish ; or mow it and pasture as long as you can get anything off. and you 

 will not run the soil out, because the droppings from the stock, together 

 with the rest the land has, will keep it up. We should grow more stock 

 and better stock than we do. Sheep are especially adapted to the high, 

 rolling, light soils. The coarse wools, such as the Leicesters, Shropshires and 

 Southdowns are amoug the best. As to cattle, there are so many good breeds 

 that some insist one and some insist the other breed is best. The Holsteins 

 are great milkers, and grow large, and are hardy in this climate. The Short 

 Horns are fair milkers and of excellent fattening qualities. The Jersey is the 

 cream cow, but is not profitable for beef. There are other excellent breeds, 

 such as the Herefords, Polled" Angus, etc., but I am not so much acquainted 

 with them. Stock is essential to good farming on any soil, but indispensa- 

 ble in light soils. 



I could give some valuable experience on the keeping of store hogs, but I 

 have occupied too much of your time already. 



Dr. Beal: I think those present would like to hear Mr. Van Buskirk's 

 experience in feeding swine. 



FEEDING HOGS. , 



Mr. Van Buskirk: I raise mostly Poland Chinas and Berkshires, and 

 crosses from them. 



When I have to keep hogs over for breeding purposes, the way I feed is to- 

 take clover hay and cut it in a cutting box and put it into a kettle with 

 enough water to cover it nicely and let it steep two or three hours over a 

 slow fire. The tea from that is very rich, and hogs or calves like it very 

 much, and the hogs will eat up every particle of the hay after you have 

 dipped off the tea, and you may dip up the hay together with the tea into a 

 barrel and mix a little bran with it. I have kept ten hogs over winter with a 

 half ton of bran, and they came out in nice shape in the spring. We fat our 

 hogs altogether on peas, using them instead of corn. We don't raise corn at 



