THE GEITESEE FARMER. 



241 



HOW FARMEKS LOSE MONEY. 



Farming without profit is a money-losing busi- 

 ness. Farming neglectful of practices known to 

 ensure larger crops, is a money-wasting business. 

 Farming with mistaken ideas of economy, saves 

 cent= to throw away dimes — spares a few days' 

 work and gets but half what the soil would give with 

 better treatment. Let us give a few illustrations. 



To begin Avith a minor instance, farmers lose 

 money by neglecting to study the 



ADAPTATION OP CROPS TO SOILS. 



It is well known that almost every crop and pro- 

 duct succeeds best in some one kind of soil, and 

 that these preferences vary as widely as soils vary. 

 One kind of soil is a corn soil, another a wheat 

 soil, another suits rye, and another cat-tail flags 

 and bulrushes. Let us try, then, to so plan our 

 operations as to give (as far as a judicious rotation 

 will allow and our farms admit) each crop the soil 

 which suits it. And there is room here for a care- 

 ful study of the affinities of soils and products; — 

 we commend the subject to the agricultural writing 

 public. 



Farmers lose money by a neglect of the maxim 

 that all 



POOK SOILS MUST BE MANURED 



before they can become productive of valuable 

 crops. To grow, a plant must receive suitable 

 food — it can be starved as readily as man or beast. 

 And yet, how much of the unprofitable farming to 

 be seen, results from attempting to grow crops on 

 worn or impoverished soils without mamtre. The 

 corn crop, for instance, is a comparative failure on 

 all but good soils, from want of food to thrive upon, 

 — from lack of abundant and ready prepared nutri- 

 ment to hasten its growth so that it may reach 

 maturity in season. An acre of land, of suitable 

 soil, rich, deeply tilled, planted in good season, and 

 thoroughly and cleanly cultivated, will produce 

 more corn than five acres, poor, skim-tiiled, late- 

 planted, and half-cultivated, and at perhaps one- 

 half the expense of the latter. 



The question of deep or skim-plowing needs fur- 

 ther illustration. An acknowledged requisite of 

 large productiveness is 



A DEEP AND MELLOW SOIL. 

 A large hill of corn, a thrifty growth of wheat, 

 grass, oats, or barley, must have roots and rootlets 

 equally large and thrifty ; and such only grow in a 

 deep, mellow soil. With plenty of room and food 

 for the roots, the whole plant will correspond; 

 with a shallow or cloddy soil, the roots are only 

 adequate to a small growth above ground — they 

 can neither find nor carry up the nourishment 

 requisite to a large product. It may be said that 

 some soils are already too light and mellow ; but 

 such are rare. We have had no experience in their 

 culture, and doubt their being very attractive to 

 agricultural labor. 



Farmers, again, lose money by 



UNSEASONABLE SEEDING — 

 by sowing and planting when only a remarkable 

 season can produce a favorable result. Spring 

 grains are sown when in the usual course of nature 

 tbe summer drouth must injure them seriously ; 

 corn is planted when frost is most likely to find it 

 " in the milk ;" wheat is gotten in too late to with- 

 stand the winter and just in time for the midge — 



the farmer taking a risk no insurance company 

 would venture upon without the highest premium. 



CLEAN CULTURE 

 is an acknowledged necessity of profitable farming. 

 Is it a matter of small importance to a growing- 

 plant whether it has the field to itself, or whether 

 weeds surround it and rob it of a portion of the 

 nourishment supplied by the soil? Experience 

 teaches that it is not — observation will show us 

 that we can not feed a vagabond with the bread 

 which belongs to our faithful servants, unless they 

 go hungry for the same. 



Lastly, (for this time, at least,) farmers lose 

 money by not heeding the injunction, 



"DON'T ATTEMPT TOO MUCH," 



/. e., more than they can carry out thoroughly and 

 systematically. Don't let us attempt to grow cat- 

 tail flags on good corn soil — to raise a "premium 

 crop" of any kind on an exhausted soil without 

 manure — to feed plants with brickbats and inert 

 subsoil — to plant when we should be hoeing — or 

 to raise grain and weeds at the same time, expect- 

 ing both to flourish; — but attempt only what we 

 can give due preparation, manure, time, and cul- 

 ture ; and the number of ways (they seem almost 

 innumerable) in which " farmers lose money" will 

 be slightly less. J. n. bixby, 



. Eoyalton, Magara Co., N". Y., 1S5S. 



COST OF RAIL FENCES. 



The expense of fencing a farm per acre has been 

 variously estimated at from three to six dollars per 

 acre, and one curious in statistics might readilv 

 calculate the total value of fencing in this country. 

 Probably, at the lowest, it would amount to $500,- 

 000,000, with an annual expense for repairs of 

 $50,000,000 more. The interest on capital invested 

 in fences, and in woodland required for renewal, 

 would swell the amount to about one lillion of 

 dollars — a pretty snug sum truly. 



A rail fence put up on our little farm, a few 

 years since, gave us a chance to figure cost as fol- 

 lows : The material was black ash rails, costing, 

 delivered, (a very low rate,) $20 per thousand. 

 About 12 rails to the rod are allowed for a seven- 

 rail fence; so a thousand rails make 83.3 rods. 

 One-half the boundary fence of the lot (about 166 

 by 28 rods, and containing 22 acres,) will require 

 2,350 rails, costing $47. Two cross fences, at 

 least, are necessary. These will take 675 raDs 

 more, worth $13.50. So, for rails alone we must 

 lay out over $60. The cost of laying the fence, 

 with stakes and caps, will be at least six cents per 

 rod ; which brings up the cost of this rail fence to 

 $75 — about $3.41 per acre, the size of the fields 

 averaging seven and a half acres. 



Perhaps we have estimated staking and capping 

 too low, as we have not the figures to refer to. 

 We know that before they were added, there was 

 an added expense of relaying the fence after very 

 high winds, which would go some way toward pro- 

 viding them. A YOUXG farmer. 



One of the best pieces of spring wheat in this 

 vicinity last year was sown about the first of -Tune. 

 It was too late for the midge, and escaped entirely. 

 Adjoining fields, sown early, were much injured. 



