THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



27 



be used to a good advantage in growing 

 this crop. 



Bone dust is a good fertilizer for this 

 crop, but it is usually not as readily soluble 

 as is what is generally considered a good 

 grade of complete fertilizers, but the bone 

 meal is usually more lasting in its effects. 



Let the material used be what it may, it 

 is very essential to have it thoroughly in- 

 corporated with the soil, while with care 

 very good results can be obtained by ap- 

 plying in the hill. The best growth and 

 yield can be secured by applying broad- 

 cast. 



This, of course, requires a larger quan- 

 tity, but it is less work to apply, while 

 more benefit can be derived. When ani- 

 mal manure is used, a good plan is to ap- 

 ply after plowing, and the work of prop- 

 erly preparing for the seed will work suffi- 

 ciently in with the soil, but with ashes or 

 commercial fertilizers, if applied broadcast, 

 a good plan is to partly work the soil into a 

 proper tilth, then scatter the fertilizer 

 broadcast, and one or two good harrowings 

 will work sufficiently into the soil. In 

 neither case should the fertilizer come in 

 direct contact with the seed. 



Something for Market. A farmer, 

 who is always complaining about hard 

 times, poor crops and the poor markets 

 for farm products, went to a neighbor 

 farmer to borrow money with which to 

 pay his taxes. 



On entering the door he noticed an egg 

 box well rounded up with fresh eggs ready 

 for market. Just inside the pantry door 

 was a large pailful of butter prepared 

 for shipment. While talking about the 

 good price being paid for potatoes the 

 money lender remarked that he had sev- 

 eral hundred bushels of good potatoes for 

 sale. He also had several tons of hay to 

 dispose of at the good price then being 

 paid. He always kept a small bunch of 

 sheep, and as he did not want to increase 

 his flock the increase of last season must 

 be sold. This numbered forty head, which 

 were fat and ready for the market at the 

 highest price. The others would soon 

 yield a fine clip of wool. The granary 

 contained a great deal more wheat, corn 

 and oats than that necessary for seed, 

 bread and feed for the animals for another 

 harvest. In an old-fashioned smokehouse 

 was hanging a lot of pork which could not 



be consumed by the family during the sea- 

 son, and of course a portion of it was for 

 sale. The moneyless farmer stated his. 

 mission, was furnished with the money he 

 desired and at once started for home. He 

 wore a downcast expression, and his gait 

 indicated that he was thinking. What his 

 thoughts were we leave the readers of the 

 AGE to conjecture. 



Profits of Gardens. A half acre 

 fruit and vegetable garden well cared for 

 as a market is worth from $100 1o $200 

 to any intelligent farmer's family in this 

 State, says M. A. Thayer, president of 

 the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 

 A good garden, he says, will often banish 

 the doctor from your house and the sheriff 

 from your door. It will make the boys 

 and girls love the farm when everything 

 else fails. Last season he harvested 2,500* 

 bushels of strawberries. The cost for 

 cultivating, picking and marketing was 

 five cents per quart, and the berries were 

 sold at an average of eight and three- 

 fourths cents per quart. The farmers 

 who purchased the berries paid two cents 

 for raising them, one cent for picking, one 

 cent for crating, one cent for delivering, 

 and the balance amounted to 375 per 

 cent above actual first cost, counting the 

 retail price at ten cents per quart. 



Can farmers afford to pay such profits 

 when they can just as well be reaping^ 

 the harvest themselves? The way to pre- 

 vent what some farmers may call whole- 

 sale robbery is to grow the berries at 

 home. The cost of plants is but small 

 and the work required to put out a half 

 acre of small fruits is but a trifle when the 

 profits are considered. Other small fruits 

 and vegetables are equally as profitable 

 and as much desirable. 



Dairymen Must Organize. la 



the pSst, dairy farmers have been the vic- 

 tims- of sharks on all sides. They are 

 awakening to the fact, however, that there- 

 is a way of protecting themselves and 

 dairy interests generally by ojganization, 

 and these organizations are being entered 

 into freely. The victory over oleomar- 

 garine or "hog butter," should be a great 

 encouragement to these farmers to go fur- 

 ther and root out the numerous other 

 evils, among them bogus cheese. By or- 

 ganization, prices can be regulated in a. 



