138 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[Seplember, 



six years, ami has not only met with a single 

 failure. He says : " I plant any time be- 

 tween May 20 and June 20 usnig a corn- 

 planter, and planting one quart of seed per 

 acre. Cultivate exactly as you would corn, 

 and make thorough work. The plant will be 

 ready to put in shock by September 1, at 

 which time cut and shock the same as corn, 

 letting it remain in the field until it is wanted 

 for feed in winter. It makes excellent feed 

 at any time, and especially when the ground 

 is covered with snow. 1 only feed sorghum 

 during bad weather, unless I have an unusual 

 supply, when I feed it at all times. It makes 

 a very rich food, and all kinds of stock will 

 eat it with a relish, eating it clean, stalks and 

 leaves. 



" Another method of growing sorghum for 

 feed is to prepare your ground by plowing 

 fine and deep immediately after harvest. 

 Plant with a corn-planter as fast as you plow 

 until you have the number of acres you in- 

 tend to put to this use. About the 1st of 

 August the sorghum is nicely up ; then har- 

 row it thoroughly lentghwise of rows. By the 

 15th of August the sorghum will probably be 

 from six to eight inches high, at which time 

 proceed to seed the field with rye. Drill one 

 and one-half bushels per acre ; then, when the 

 cold weather comes, turn your stock in upon 

 It, and you have an excellent pasture. I con- 

 sider this latter mode one of the best and 

 most profitable ways of cultivating sorghum 

 for winter feed. It does away with the ex- 

 pensive item of harvesting. When planted 

 on or before July 20 the sorghum will mature 

 before the frost sets in, and a fieljl thus 

 planted will secure you a great amount of 

 valuable fodder for all kinds of stock m 

 winter." — Farm and Fireside 



THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN 

 HOG. 



The fear is expressed by some of our 

 American papers that the agitation against 

 American pork in Germany and elsewhere 

 will have the effect of both curtailing the de- 

 mand for our swine product and stimulating 

 the growth of hog-raising beyond the Atlantic, 

 ultimately so crippling our export trade as to 

 necessitate a curtailment of production, and 

 creating a rivalry in other countries which 

 will forestall us in the markets of the world. 

 This is an alarmist view of things, and we be- 

 lieve is wholly unwarranted. It is true that 

 in nearly every country to which our pork 

 has been shipped, influences have developed 

 which are hostile to its admission. It is true 

 that the bulk of our foreign trade is held in 

 the face of bitter opposition, and that in some 

 places our products are narrowly watched to 

 find some pretext for their exclusion. Yet we 

 have the greatest confidence in the future of 

 hog-raising in the United States. For this 

 there are several reasons : 1. We can raise 

 corn and hogs at a less cost and furnish pork 

 to the people of Europe at cheaper rates than 

 it can be done by any rival or by the con- 

 suming countries themselves. 2. The peasan- 

 try of Europe have had abundant opportunity 

 to test the quality of our pork, and profit by 

 the low prices at which it has fnr a greater 

 part of the lime been furni.shed, and Govern- 

 ments cannot permanently maintain a policy 

 of exclusion which directly contravenes the 



best interests of the masses. 3. After all the 

 howl about it, there is less disease among 

 American swine, proportioned to the number 

 grown, than in those of any otlier country, 

 and nearly all the pork exported is a high- 

 class article. The opposition to it on sanitary 

 grounds is therefore captious, and contro- 

 vertible. 4. The late decline in pork values 

 has largely increased exportation, showing 

 high prices have had as much to do as any- 

 thing else with our i-estricted trade. For 

 these and other reasons, it is evident that the 

 supremacy of this country in producing swine 

 and marketing pork is in no danger of being 

 lost, nor is there any probability of there being 

 a necessity for lessened production as the 

 country grows older. On the contrary, the 

 business has a grand future before it, and is 

 destined to add vastly to our agricultural 

 wealth in the coming yeais. Our exporters 

 can do much for hog-raising by seeing that 

 nothing except strictly flrst-claas product is 

 allowed to leave our shores ; farmers, by 

 breeding up their stock to a higher averiige 

 grade of excellence ; and the Government, by 

 so improving its sanitary regulations as to 

 furnish the besi possible facilities for removing 

 disease wherever it may appear. Without 

 expecting too much, it is reasonable to look 

 for some advance in all of these directions, 

 and every such step tells solidly for the wel- 

 fare of the business. — Western Sural. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



Why does a farmer change the crops of each 

 field every year, growing first clover and grass 

 and then corn, then oats, and lastly, wheat or 

 rye, and again seeding down to clover and 

 grass ? It is because he knows that these 

 crops succeed better when thus grown, and 

 that he can not grow the same crop evi ry 

 year on the same ground with profit. There 

 is a good reason for this. It is because the 

 nature of each of these different crops is not 

 the same ; that one seems to rest the soil, that 

 clover actually leaves the soil better than it 

 was before, besides adding to it in shape of 

 roots, stems and leaves, a large quantity of 

 valuable plants food for the corn which fol- 

 lows it ; that the culture of corn kills a vast 

 quantity of weeds, cleans the ground, and 

 jn-epares it for the oats and wheat ; that after 

 the oats have been grown the soil has given 

 up to that crop all the strength it possessed, 

 and that it then requires help to restore it. 

 This is given by the manure and fertilizers 

 used to prepare for the wheat or rye and the 

 clover and grass after it, and that by this 

 treatment one can go on year after year, for a 

 whole lifetime, growing crops, and then leave 

 his farm still fertile and useful for his chil- 

 dren, who may do the same, to be tollowed 

 again by their children. 



This method of culture is called the rota- 

 tion of crops, and the usual rotation consists 

 of the four crops mentioned, viz.: clover and 

 grass, corn, oats and wheat. This is called 

 the four-course system. Some farmers add 

 other crops and so lengthen the course with 

 great benefit to the soil ; because in the four- 

 course system there is too much grain and too 

 little fodder for feeding cattle and makiug 

 manure, without which good crops can not be 

 grown. There are also not enough of the 

 renovating crops, as those are called in which 



either the soil is manured or rested and re- 

 stored, or in fact renewed in strength and 

 power to produce the other crops which take 

 more from the soil, and are therefore called 

 exhaustive. For the principle at the bottom 

 of this system of rotation is chiefiy this : That 

 the farmer must follow an exhaustive crop 

 with a renovating one ; that is one that is 

 hard or difficult to grow with one that is easy, 

 and so give the soil an opportunity to reeover 

 before its strength is taxed too much. 



Much injury has been done to many farms 

 by an unwise neglect of this precaution and 

 crops of wheat and corn have been grown year 

 after year, until the soil has been made un- 

 able to produce enough to pay the farmer for 

 his labor, or to support him and his family 

 with comfort. It is in this vvay that farms have 

 been worn out and people have been forced to 

 go further west to get new land, that the same 

 wasteful practice may be followed. Now that 

 the West is becoming filled up and the best 

 lands are occupied, this can no longer be done, 

 and farmers are obliged to follow a more skill- 

 ful practice and are forced to study more care- 

 fully the nature of their business that they 

 may make their farms more productive. 



The feeding of cattle and sheep is the most 

 important part of the farm work, and the 

 growing of feeding crops therefore needs to 

 be made a special study by the young farmer. 

 A rotation then, which can be made to in- 

 clude the largest number of feeding crops, is 

 the best. A seven-course rotation is some- 

 times practiced in which clover and grass are 

 grown one year for hay and a second year for 

 pasture, followed by corn, oats, roots (either 

 turnips or mangels) barley, clover for hay, and 

 wheat on the clover sods, followed by grass. 

 This rotation has many advantages. It has 

 two cultivated or cleaning crops, corn and 

 roots; tvvo sods plowed under, and four feed- 

 ing crops, viz : corn, roots and two hay crops. 

 Where it can be followed it enables the fanner 

 to keep a flock of sheep or to keep cows and 

 a dairy which is one of the most profitable 

 and pleasant parts of farming, and gives the 

 girls an agreeable opportunity of adding to 

 the income of the farm and to their own re- 

 sources, by making butter, as well as finds 

 employment for the boys, which is not so 

 laborious as the constant raising of grain. 

 When the rotation is chosen, the farm is di- 

 vided into fields, to suit the course, five for 

 the four-course, in which there are two in 

 grass at the same time, and eight for the 

 seven-course rotation. — Country Gentlemen- 



GROWING CABBAGE. 

 Late cabbage is a more important crop than 

 that which is early, as it is not required to 

 market them at once, which enables the grower 

 to obtain prices for the cropdurinf the winter 

 season, when most vegetables are scarce. 

 Nor does the late crop require a hot-bed for 

 forcing, nor come in competition with the 

 southern product. The preparation of a field 

 for cabbage should be very thorough, deep 

 plowing and frequent harrowing being neces- 

 eary to get the soil in proper condition. As 

 the cabbage plant is a gross feeder, any 

 quantity of manure may be used without 

 danger, and it should be well worked in and 

 incorporated with the soil. They should be 

 set in rows of suflicient width to allow a horse 



