November, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



435 



Farm Babies Face to Face 



was ready to experiment along those lines. Oats were ac- 

 knowledged a sure crop, but it was claimed that corn could 

 not be depended upon, on account of the short summer. But 

 I knew that even if it should not have time to ripen, the 

 fodder with the partly developed ears is eagerly eaten by 



be regarded as failures. The sheep, which were the pick of 

 several flocks, have proven so profitable that this year fifteen 

 thoroughbred Dorsets with a ram of the best breeding have 

 been added — the idea being to raise winter lambs, and in 

 this way occupation is provided for the farmhands in win- 

 ter, so that I am justified in retaining the best of them 

 throughout the year. 



The goats, although most difficult to keep within boun- 

 daries, have finally been persuaded to stay by strong woven- 

 wire fencing, and are proving themselves the finest of brush 

 clearers, even killing trees by continually barking them. 

 Their wool finds a ready market and a roast leg and ribs of 

 kid is in great favor on the farm table. The raising of colts, 

 of course, is a slower business, but our first one is a beauty. 



Our harvest of great golden ears of corn, with fodder 

 enough to complete the filling of the eighty-foot barn up to 

 the eaves,, has proven that Maine, if only for this one year, 

 can raise field corn. The other grains have produced good 

 crops, which in time will be better as the land improves. 



Commercial fertilizer has been called into service these 

 first (wo seasons, but increasing stock reduces this expendi- 

 ture each year. The first 

 spring there was not time to 

 plow and plant a large area, 

 especially as all the build- 

 ings needed repairs and 

 modernizing, and good labor 

 is none too plentiful. But 

 that fall, as much as possible 

 was plowed of the moss- 

 grown fields, vthe best hay 

 producers being left until the 

 following year. During the 

 winter lumber was taken out 

 of the woods and hauled to 

 the mills, preparatory to this 

 year's building, giving the 

 horses enough work to keep 

 them in good condition. 

 The few cows bought to 



supply 



1 v the fa 



rm 



table, 



Wire Fencing Was Needed to Keep' the Angora Goats from Straying 



every kind of stock. These were the first plans, which were 

 laid out after a considerable amount of study and with 

 absolutely no experience, and they brought in their train 

 many innovations in the customs of the country, which made 

 the natives shake their heads and smile at a woman's follow- 

 ing out her fancies in rather an expensive fashion. The 

 methods of their fathers are plenty good enough for them. 

 A better and fuller scale of living does not enter into their 

 calculations. If they make enough to eat and wear from a 

 few cows, chickens and acres of land, they are content to con- 

 tinue to do so to the end of their lives. 



Some of the most natural proceedings have been the cause 

 of widespread comment and interest. The advent of a sulky 

 plow and the turning over of about fifty acres of the old sod 

 last fall was almost an unheard of thing in its magnitude. Six 

 acres of corn was a sight that some of the younger men had 

 never seen. Harvesting machinery and large crops, where 

 the custom has been small crops gathered entirely by hand, 

 brought shoals of visitors. Pure-blooded stock with grades 

 of picked quality are already beginning to find ardent sup- 

 porters. 



In the short year and a half that the farm has been run 

 under the present methods, new departures have naturally 

 suggested themselves — but that is according to the original 

 plan, of taking up a few lines until more experience was 

 gained and then branch out. 



I feel pride in the fact that none of my experiments can 



proved to be so profitable in 

 the surplus butter which was 

 marketed, that the herd is steadily being increased, to the 

 great benefit of the land. Shorthorns have been chosen as 

 being good milkers whose calves can be raised cheaply on 

 the abundant pasturage, to make fine steers. The natural 

 accompaniment of dairying, even on a small scale, is pigs. 



One Must Admit that Pigs Interest One 



