378 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
An Interesting Letter from Kansas. 
Mr. R. A. Steele, of Douglas Co., Kansas, 
writes as follows: "I wish to tell you that I 
have been following your advice in regard to 
my farming operations. I have been in Kan- 
sas for fifteen years, and have been on the farm 
that I now occupy for five years. It consists 
of 500 acres, and over 200 acres of it is bottom 
land, and part of it wet. I wish you c»uld see 
it now ! I cut a main ditch, 200 rods long, run- 
ning in the same direction as the River Waka- 
rusa, and emptying into the river at a bend. 
This ditch prevents any water from running on 
my land, except what falls. The ditch is 6 feet 
deep at the outlet, and 2 feet at the starting 
point. I used a plow and scraper on the shal- 
low part. I have on hand a large lot of tile 
which cost me three cents per foot, that I am 
going to put in soon. I have fifteen acres of 
corn on the wet part, where water stood the 
year round before ditching. I plowed it twice 
last summer, and during the winter I plowed it 
again full 8 inches deep, harrowed it this spring, 
and planted it on the 20th of April. I will send 
you a sample of the corn in Hie fall. It now 
beats any thing on the farm, and exceeds my 
most sanguine expectations. I spread over 200 
loads of manure on my bottom land this spring. 
I think it pays. I feed every thing I raise. I 
fattened 75 head of cattle last winter, and about 
the same number of hogs. 
"Last spring I started an orchard, or rather an 
addition to one. I broke the sod a year ago last 
June, and fenced off the land by itself. I 
penned 150 head of cattle on it for sixty nights; 
plowed it again in January, and also in April, 
and then planted 2-year-old apple-trees. Every 
one is now growing. I planted the orchard in 
beans, which is an experiment. 
" Your plan with sheep is good for your coun- 
try, but will not do here. I gave sheep a thor- 
ough trial, but they will not pay here. They 
improved my farm materially, and I lost no 
money, and made but little. I tried it for five 
years with from 100 to 1,000 head. The sum- 
mer is what tries them. Thej' may do when 
we get tame grasses. 
" I have the Magie stock of hogs, which I think 
is superior to the Chesters or Suffolk. I intend 
to try the Essex breed." 
Remarks. — "We are glad to hear that our ad- 
vice in regard to draining, and the thorough 
working of the soil, manuring, etc., has proved 
so satisfactory. The fact is, that the principles 
of good farming are true everywhere; it is their 
application that varies, according to the char- 
acter of the soil, location, and circumstances. 
The wise farmer will learn all he can from 
others, and then think and act for himself. 
Our correspondent is unquestionably right in 
feeding out his crops on the farm, rather than 
to pay the high charges for freight in shipping 
bulky produce to distant markets. We think, 
too, he is probably right in regard to cattle and 
hogs being more profitable on his land than 
sheep. Such is unquestionably the case on his 
low bottom land. "We may add, too, that we 
have never recommended seeding a young 
orchard to grass. Our own practice, to which 
allusion is made, was on an orchard fifteen years 
from planting. "We stated that it was our inten- 
tion to keep it down in grass, to top-dress it 
every year or two with well-rotted manure, and 
keep it closely pastured with sheep. In this 
way, we thought the land would be kept rich 
enough for the trees without cultivating the 
land. But young orchards require cultivation, 
either with a bare fallow or with some such 
crops as corn, beans, or potatoes, that admit 
the free use of the cultivator. And even in the 
case of old orchards, let no one suppose we 
recommend keeping them in grass, unless the 
grass is frequentlj' manured and the whole of 
it is fed off on the laud by sheep or swine. — Ed. 
"What is Science in Farming ? 
It is not unusual— perhaps it is not unnatural 
— for one who has been only a " practical " 
farmer all his life to discourage the idea that 
science can be of assistance to him, and to doubt 
its value. Perhaps his objection would be less 
if he appreciated the exact meaning of the word. 
Webster gives it four definitions: "(1) Knowl- 
edge; penetrating and comprehensive informa- 
tion, skill, expertness, and the like. (2) The 
comprehension and understanding of truth or 
facts. (3) Truth ascertained; that which is 
known. (4) Knowledge duly arranged, and re- 
ferred to general truths or principles on which 
it is founded and from which it is derived." 
Now, surely no farmer will deny the value of 
knowledge — a knowledge of his own business. 
He must know how and when to perform the 
various operations of the farm, and if he knows 
also the reasons why the}' are necessaiy, he will 
be better able to exercise a sound judgment 
concerning them. The more penetrating and 
comprehensive his knowledge is, aud the greater 
his skill and expertness, the more cheaply and 
the more effectively will his work be done. 
The more comprehension and understanding 
of the truths on which his success depends, 
and of the facts which daily arise in his 
management of his business, the better far- 
mer will he be. Truth ascertained, that 
which is known, is "Book Farming" — that is 
to say, the knowledge that we get from books 
aud agricultural papers is nothing more nor less 
than the recorded knowledge (not the fancies) 
of other people. It is an important item of the 
science of farming, that seed, in order to germi- 
nate and produce a crop, must be so put in the 
soil as to satisfy the conditions of growth. This 
much every farmer knows, and to this extent 
has he acquired a scientific understanding of ids 
business. The knowledge is of absolute value 
to him and to every other farmer, and its value 
would not be at all lessened if he were to write 
a communication to an editor informing him 
and his readers of it. If another person were 
to write that because the germinating plant 
comes up in a certain way, therefore all farmers 
ought to plant their grass seed with their fin- 
gers, always putting the right end uppermost, 
this would be neither book farming nor science, 
nor anything else; but mere fancy, and a fancy 
of winch every farmer would see the folly. 
Now, generations of men have been busy in 
investigating, mainly in the field, every thing 
conuected with the operations of practical agri- 
culture. Little by little they have acquired 
knowledge, which knowledge lias been duly 
arranged, and so much of it as is well under- 
stood has been referred to the general truths 
and principles on which it is founded, and from 
which it is derived. The knowledge itself is due 
mainly to the experience of working farmers ; 
and chemists and others, who have made gene- 
ral truths and principles the subject of careful 
study, have classified and arranged it, and given 
it the form that is generally understood by the 
word "science." No error, no unproved 
theory, none of the fancies of those who write 
from imagination rather than from experience, 
is to be called either Science or Book-Farming, 
and it is unfortunate that so much of our agri- 
cultural writiug has been done by men who 
lack experience on the farm. It has given rise 
to the doubt referred to in our first paragraph, 
and discouraged many of our best and most in- 
telligent working men from seeking knowledge, 
where it is best to be found, in the recorded ex- 
perience of those who have gone before them. 
The real truth of the matter is that in decry- 
ing science farmers decry knowledge, and a 
natural deduction from their reasoning would 
lead them to withdraw from the management 
of their farms, because thej r have some knowl- 
edge, and give it over to men who have none 
whatever. If knowledge is essential, and if, as 
we are told and believe, " a little knowledge is 
a dangerous thing," then the more knowledge 
we get, the better our chances will be. Follow 
no false lights, but let the lamp of true knowl- 
edge lead wherever it will. 
How to Use Corn Fodder. 
The usual method of feeding corn fodder has 
been hitherto a very wasteful one, though its 
now generally recognized value as an article of 
feed has to some extent brought about a change 
in this respect. Yet it is still true that the 
larger portion of the corn-stalks produced 
is wasted, so far as its feeding properties are 
concerned. It is the common practice to throw 
out into the barn-yard to the cattle a quantity 
of stalks, sometimes not even unbound, and 
allow them to eat what they can aud destroy the 
rest. Iu the fighting and trampling done by cattle 
under such circumstances, the greater part of the 
fodder is uuconsumed, and becomes trampled 
down iu the mire or snow, a tangled mass of 
tough, unbroken stalks. There they remain, 
until it is necessary in the spring either to cart 
them out to the fields, or to turn them over in 
the endeavor to get them rotted. In the one 
case, they are useless as manure, and a very 
great impediment to the plow or harrow, and 
even to the mowing machine, for they often re- 
main on the surface undecomposed until the 
hay crop comes round again. In the other case, 
much labor is necessary to get them rotted, and 
the tearing the mass of them apart and turning 
them, is certainly the most severe labor the 
farmer is called upon to perform. 
Now, with a rational mode of using them, all 
this trouble and anno3'ance can be avoided, and 
their whole value as fodder be made available. 
If a farmer owns but one horse and cow, he 
can save money by procuring a fodder-cutter, 
and cutting up and feeding his corn-stalks. 
Where few stock are kept, the copper-strip fod- 
der-cutter, of small size, aud costing ten dollars 
or thereabouts, is sufficient. With a numerous 
stock, a larger machine, to run by horse-power, 
and costing $30 to $40, would be needed. Pro- 
vided thus, the farmer should cut up the whole 
of his stalks. They coutain, when properly 
harvested and housed, much nutritious matter, 
and in our experience we have found no differ- 
ence in the appearance of our stock, or their 
productive qualities, whether fed on fodder or 
hay. Cut up, wetted, and sprinkled with meal 
of corn, oats, or buckwheat, either singly or 
ground together, with wheat or rye bran in 
equal proportions with the grain, at the rate oi 
one quart to the bushel of fodder, with a hand- 
ful of salt, they make a feed capable of keeping 
stock of all kinds in good, thriving condition 
throughout the winter. The quantity needed 
for one feed is one bushel ef this mixture to 
