Ib4 



THE LANCASTER FARMER 



[October^ 



SUPERPHOSPHATES FOR WHEAT. 



One of tlie most remarkable changes that 

 lias taken place in our agriculture during the 

 past eight years is the general use of super- 

 phosphates for winter wheat. That it pays 

 the fanners to use it, there can be no doubt. 

 Farmers are not inclined to make accurate 

 experiments ; but they do not continue to pay 

 out money year after year for an article the 

 use of which is unprofitable. How long the 

 use of phosphates will continue profitable, 

 will depend on the amount of organic matter 

 existing in the soil, and upon the use that is 

 made of the increased crops obtained from 

 the u.se of the phosphates. If all the crops 

 are sold off the farm, we should soon, exceiit 

 in rare cases, so far impeverish the soil that 

 profitable crops could not be grown. On the 

 other hand, if we use the money obtained 

 from increa.sed crops of wheat, barley, pota- 

 toes, vegetables, etc., to buy a small amount 

 of bran, cotton-seed cake, malt-sprouts, etc., 

 to feed out in connection with our straw, 

 corn-fodder, clover hay, etc., the use of phos- 

 phates will enrich rather than impoverish the 

 land. 



Year before last the wheat crop in this sec- 

 tion was the best I have known for thirty-two 

 years. The Deacon has lived here much 

 longer than this, and he says he has never be- 

 fore known so good a crop. And farmers 

 who cleared up the land from the original 

 forest say the same thing. One of them told 

 me— and he is a reliable man— that he got fif- 

 teen hundred bushels of wheat from thirty 

 acres. It was not phosphates in this case; he 

 drilled in ashes and plaster ; but it was not 

 ashes and plaster that produced the crop. 

 Whatever the cause, it is still evident that our 

 soil is still capable of producing crops of 

 wheat. 



One thing is certain, our fanners as a rule 

 are working their land better than formerly. 

 We have better plows, better cultivators, bet- 

 ter harrows, better rollers, and better horse- 

 hoes, though the latter are not half as good as 

 they ought to be. We do more fall plowing. 

 Even the Deacon harrowed his corn stubble 

 last fall, and got it ready to drill in oats this 

 spring. We are getting more and more in the 

 habit of preparing our land in the autumn. 

 — American AgrieuUurUt. 



FACTS ABOUT IRRIGATION. 



It is very evident from common experience 

 that injurious droughts are increasing in fre- 

 quency, and the careful consideration of the 

 subject will develop the following simple but 

 significant truths : 



That whatever the cause of this deficiency of 

 moisture, whether from the destruction of the 

 forests or not, the simplest and cheapest 

 remedy at the hands of the agriculturist is 

 irrigation. 



That whenever a supply of water can be 

 obtained, the cost of pumping it will not ex- 

 ceed three cents per 1,000 gallons for an 

 amount of 10,000 gallons per day pumped to 

 a heighth of 50 feet above the surface of the 

 water, which cost will include the necessary 

 repairs and depreciation and interest on the 

 cost of the necessary fixtures and reservior ; 

 this is less than one-sixth the price charged 

 by the city of Boston for metered water, and 

 considerably less than the price charged for 



irrigation in any place where the present gen- 

 eration has constructed the works and seeks 

 to make them pay a remunerative income. 



That should a brook or spring not be avail- 

 able, there are but a few places where an 

 adequate supply may not be obtained by sink- 

 ing wells. 



That the cost and arrangement of the work 

 will vary so much with the different locations 

 and circumstances that no schedule of cost 

 can be given, but the cases will be rare where 

 $750 to fl,000, discreetly expended, will not 

 furnish ample water for the irrigation of 

 fifteen acres of tilage land. 



That the preservation of a single crop, in a 

 year of unusual drought would reimburse the 

 whole expense. ^ 



That the positive assurance of immunity 

 from the effects of drought should induce all 

 cultivators to secure at once the means of 

 irrigating their lands if possible. 



That besides the security afforded in the 

 case of an excessive drouth, it will be found 

 that water can be used very profitably in 

 almost any season with a great variety of 

 crops. And lastly — 



The great wonder is that our farmers and 

 horticulturists have disregarded the matter 

 for so long a time. 



FEEDING HAY. 



Concerning the indefinite quantity of the 

 hay ration in the most reputed feeding experi- 

 ments referred to in a recent issue of the 

 Gazette, it may be observed that feeding hay 

 is a matter that requires considerable judg- 

 ment. Animals, like men, when the oppor- 

 tunity for exercising preferences is presented, 

 are apt to consider that the best only is good 

 enough for them ; and if more hay is given 

 than they require will pick out the tenderest 

 and sweetest portions and leave the remainder, 

 which not only wastes valuable feed, but en- 

 courages the habit of daintiness in the animals 

 which is conducive to anything but thrift. 

 Animals that pick over their food, smelling 

 and poking every blade and stem in apparent 

 hesitation as to whether to eat or not, do not 

 compare in thriftiness with the good, square 

 eaters, whose appetites give them a good 

 relish for a reasonable quantity of any proper 

 food. The general practice is to "feed 

 enough," which is correct enough when just 

 enough is given, and very incorrect when 

 great quantities are given to be trampled 

 under foot or otherwise wasted. But, with 

 hay in bulk, it is not easy to gauge the quan- 

 tity given, and even if this were possible, it 

 would vary materially with the quality of the 

 product, although where good grain rations 

 are given, variations in the quality of hay are 

 not so important. We remember once weigh- 

 ing some hay that had been passed through a 

 cutting machine, and that a great big pile of 

 it uncut, measured only a new bushel basket- 

 ful after the machine had done with it, 

 weighing seven and a half lbs. to the basket, 

 or" just half the weight of coarse wheat bran 

 weighed at the same time. It is not possible 

 in the practical operation of the farm, to be 

 strictly accurate in such matters, but what- 

 ever departures there may be should be, so far 

 as possible, controlled by calculation, and not 

 left altogether to accident. The farmer can 

 not have a chemical analysis made of his hay 



to ascertain its exact nutritive value, and he 

 cannot weigh out to each bullock so many 

 pounds and ounces ; but he can, considering 

 the quantity of grain he is feeding and the 

 average quality of the hay, make up his mind 

 about how many pounds he should feed. If 

 he does this, and finds part of it wasted, he 

 can decrease the quantity, and if the quantity 

 should be insufficient, his own practical obser- 

 vation will soon disclose that fact to him. 

 Having made up his mind about how many 

 pounds to feed, he will have to guess and 

 weigh a few times until he can approximate 

 somewhat the desired quantity, and will have 

 a basis or starting point from which to in- 

 crease or decrease the ration. Besides he is 

 pursuing a method, and there is nothing that 

 contributes so much toward sharpening one's 

 powers of observation and ripening his ex- 

 perience as the habit of doing everything ac- 

 cording to some fixed method or plan. — 

 Breeder^s Gazette. 



SELF-BINDING REAPERS. 



There are some modern improvements which 

 are not all gain, as, for instance, the modern 

 self-binding reaper. An Ohio farmer thus 

 states the case : Fifty years ago when he was 

 a young farmer it cost him £0 cents an acre 

 to put grain in the shock, the reaping being 

 done with the sickle. Thirty years ago it cost 

 76 cents an acre to cut and shock wheat, the 

 cutting being done with the cradle. Kow it 

 costs SI. 40 per acre to put up grain in shock 

 with the twine binder, and 87^ cents with the 

 self-raker and hand binding. So that each 

 improvement has actually increased the cost 

 of harvesting, the only gain being in time. 

 The inventor and manufacturer of a popular 

 reaping machine died worth $30,000,000. This 

 enormous wealth turns out to have been gath- 

 ered from an equivalent loss to the farmers 

 who have used his machines. And some 

 farmers have actually found the purchase of 

 a costly reaper for which they were induced 

 to go into debt, the first step on the road to 

 ruin. 



Nevertheless, neither this Ohio farmer nor 

 any other man would be willing to go back 

 again to the back-wearying sickle and cradle. 

 There are some things in this life that are 

 worth more than money, and the farmer who 

 would sweat and worry over his one acre a 

 day with the sickle when he can go comfor- 

 tably over twelve rcres with his self-binder 

 would be considered by his neighbors as hav- 

 ing lived past his usefulness. Moreover, cheap- 

 ness is not always profitable. A farmer can 

 make much more money by a profit of $10 an 

 acre on ten acres than $11.10 per acre on one ; 

 the dift'erence, $88.90, is the exact benefit to 

 the farmer of the self-binder. And this larger 

 profit is made possible because with the belter 

 system of agricultuse coincident with our 

 present valuable labor-saving and time-saving 

 machinery we have more land in cultivation 

 and larger crops for each acre cultivated. 

 Therefore no one who has outgrown his cradle 

 should ever despise the self-binder or any 

 other machine which does the work of ten 

 pairs of hands. 



It is claimed that sway-backed horses keep 

 in better condition on the same feed than the 

 high-backed. 



