Fortunes for Farmers 



applied to land is wasted by wrong application, 

 but how many seek expert advice? How many 

 know what the Superphosphate Ring is? The 

 Kainit Monopoly? The Nitrate Syndicate? Yet 

 they affect every farmer. How many analyse 

 their special manures to see if they are getting 

 value for cost? Many get less than half, and yet 

 the figures are there, and it is easy to reckon them. 

 Who goes into the comparative worth of feeding 

 stuffs or cakes? They take what the merchant 

 pushes. There are a thousand details they ought 

 to know if they are to protect themselves from 

 unscrupulous traders; for instance, that they 

 should buy rye-grass by weight per bushel, or 

 that they should weigh their stack covers (rick 

 sheets) as well as measure them. It is quite easy 

 to reckon the weight per square yard. Again, 

 how many sow handpicked peas? Just consider 

 the question : if you let your labourers' wives and 

 children pick your peas the waste being a valuable 

 pig-food is worth at least the cost of the labour. 

 You only sow the same amount of good peas as 

 anyone else, but you get a much more even crop; 

 so, probably, a better yield. It must always pay 

 to pick them, and one is unable to understand 

 why thousands of sacks of good pig food (and 

 rotten seed) are so carefully put into the ground. 

 What is the remedy? The youthful farmer 



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