JUNE 23 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ftural Sflpks. 
THE POOR FARM AND HOW TO 
MAKE IT PAY. 
RURAL, PRIZE SERIES. 
H. A. KARHART. 
The ending cause why there are so mauy 
poor farms that yield their ownera but a mere 
pittance for the labor expended on them, is 
that they are too large to be put in good con¬ 
dition by the means at the command of the 
owners. We know plenty of farmers who 
persist in cultivating UK) acres, whereas if 
they would put the same lubor, munure and 
effort on 35 acres, they would find at the end 
of the year that their returns would be larger 
and more satisfactory than when cultivating 
the greater quantity of land. 
Labor is not the only factor that makes 
the successful former. Farmers of to-day need 
to be intelligent; more so than at any period 
in onr history. The most effective manure 
for poor, half-tilled lands is brains. The 
thoughtful farmer will study the conditions 
of his soil as well as what crops will be most 
remunerative, aud so apply his efforts that he 
will often forestall partial failures. Too many 
poor farms have been aud are yet subjected 
to the skinning process. Their owners take 
the dollar they see. aud have no patience to 
wait for the ten dollars that are coming, i. e. 
they take all off and return comparatively 
nothing. Who, therefore, can wonder at the 
result i 
Eastern farmers, with few exceptions, can 
no longer hope to make grain raising profit¬ 
able. If they wish to succeed they must 
learn to turn their attention more to special¬ 
ties. Dairying, fruit growing, truck, poultry, 
sheep aud swine afford a wide range of profit¬ 
able employment on poor farms whose owuera 
possess limited means. All who engage iu any 
or all of the above should go slow at first, aud 
gradually increase the extent of their outer- 
prise as they master and become familiar with 
all its ramifications and requirements, remem¬ 
bering that the most thorough attention to 
details will tie well repaid. Scores of pool’ 
farms owe their unprofitable existence to the 
fact that their owners follow iu the beaten 
track of their fathers. They need to be quick¬ 
ened by the modern leaven of the ubly-eon- 
ducted agricultural newspaper of to-day. No 
man can hope to meet with l ull success who is 
not an intelligent reader and inquirer into the 
theory and practice of the foremost farmers of 
the day; therefore, before we enter any fur¬ 
ther upon the discussion of the subject. 1 say 
emphatically that, poor farms are the result 
of ignorance of proper methods, spreading 
the means at hand over too much land, aud lack 
of business methods. 
Small farms are more easily managed than 
large ones, and can be made more profitable 
iu our thickly settled Eastern and Middle 
States. The constant and daily increasing de¬ 
mands of every village, town and city for 
choice vegetables, fruits, etc., give every cul¬ 
tivator au opportunity to better his condition. 
Those who live contiguous to town or village 
can do well by starting a small dairy—de¬ 
livering milk to customers every morning, and 
in connection with the dairy they can devote 
a few acres to the cultivation of vegetables 
and small fruits, aud market the same on the 
milk wagon. I admit there is considerable 
lalKir connected with this; out I do not know 
of any way in which the farmer who is pos¬ 
sessed of only limited means, can increase his 
income so easily and with so small an outlay 
of money. There are thousands of towns all 
along our Atlantic coast and iu the more 
thickly settled Western States, whose citizens 
would appreciate and patronize an enterprise 
of this kind. 
Those who are distant from good markets 
now since the railroad and telegraph have 
placed the most distant cities, as it wore, at 
our doors, can ship their butter, eggs, fruits, 
etc,, aud receive good prices, remembering 
that the quality of the produce will make the 
difference of profit or loss iu the sales. 
Many who live on poor farms will complain 
that they do not possess the means ^to pur¬ 
chase sufficient manure to bring their farms 
into good tilth. All such can increase their 
annual pile of manure three-fold if they will 
make a special effort to ut ilize all waste mate¬ 
rials on the place. Much good can be done 
with green manures. Rye is truly the poor 
man’s manure. Sow iu the Fall on every 
vacant spot, in the corn stubbles, etc., tlrat 
preparing the ground by running through the 
rows with the cultivator and then sowing 
about three peeks to the acre, aud in the 
Spring you will have a heavy sward to plow 
under. It mellows the soil wonderfully and 
keeps mauy weeds in check. If not plowed 
early, you can make several cuttings for the 
cows, which they will eat with great relish, aud 
it will make a material increase in the milk pail. 
No farmer who hopes to meet with the 
greatest success should have his farm encum¬ 
bered with interior fences. They harbor weeds 
and briars which usually yield a sufficient 
supply of seeds to reach over the whole farm. 
Besides, tho interest of the money invested in 
them and what might l>c grown on the land 
they occupy, would more than pay the wages 
of an extra hand on tho farm. 1 do not think 
it a wise plan to pasture farm lands: there is 
too much waste; the soiling system is surely 
the best for the poor farm and the poor farmer 
Early plants of tomato, cabbage, beets and 
celery find a ready sale in nearly ev ery neigh¬ 
borhood, aud with proper management the 
sales of these will foot up a snug little sum. 
crop, by first sowing in drills; and when an 
early crop is taken off pull them, cropping part 
of the leaves and the tap root and dibble them 
in, and you wall raise finer roots than if you 
left them standing in the original drills. Car¬ 
rots require a deep, loose soil to yield large roots. 
Spinach and onions planted in September 
come in as very early Spring crops, finding a 
ready market at good prices. I use the onion 
sets, stickiug t hem iu in the beginning of Sep¬ 
tember. The growing of onion sets is a profit¬ 
able business; but they require the richest 
kind of soil. Considerable can be added to 
one’s income by growing a few choice strains 
of any kind of vegetable or field seeds, as I 
Mr. Brown’s Barn Plan. Frame Next to Bay.—Fig. 3:58.— See Page 393. 
Sash will be needed for your earliest beds; but 
after the hardest freezing is over, au admira¬ 
ble cover for hofc-Iteds is sheeting prepared 
with two coats of the following preparation; 
One quart linseed oil; one ounce pulverized 
sugar of lead; four ounces pulverized resin. 
Dissolve in an iron kettle; stretch the muslin 
and paint it with the hot preparation. Sow 
rings to the edges, so that they can be slipped 
over nails, uinkiug a tight Cover for the bods. 
Iu many respects these covers will be' found 
preferable to glass. 
An acre in quinces would make a handsome 
return, as they are always iu demand, bringing 
remunerative prices—last season from four to 
eight dollars a barrel wholesale; ami I have 
known them to be as high as fourteen dollars. 
No fruit is so sure to yield a crop as quinces if 
find neighbors are more willing to pay a good 
priee for home-grown seeds when the quality 
is assured. Mauy seemingly small details of 
farm management pursued intelligently will 
lead to grand results. After all. intelligence 
in every pursuit is sure to win the day. Aud 
.the farmer should gather all the information 
possible to be obtained if he hopes to succeed. 
Dauphin Co., Pa. 
ADVOCACY OF HORSE-RACING AT 
AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. 
I have noticed the remarks made in the 
Rural New-Yorker several times regarding 
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Mr. Brown’s Barn. 
Ground Plan—Fig. 337.— See Page 393. 
they receive proper attention. Moreover, l>e- 
tween the trees a crop of truck can bo grown. 
My fives bear a fair crop of fruit every year. 
The fruit spurs that have borne fruit are cut 
back the follow ing Spring, when they form 
new ones. If neglected, that wood does not 
form, and the trees bear less bountifully. I 
also prune the ends of all branches that have 
made new wood during the past season, and 
keep the ground iu good tilth and I uever miss 
a ert>p. My finest trees were raised from suckers. 
Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, eur 
rants ami gooselterries are all remunerative 
crops, and a small crop can be safely devoted 
to each. Hoots, t, e , carrots, parsnips, ruttt- 
Ltagns, mangels and sugar lioets, do not re¬ 
ceive tho attention on the poor farm that 
they should. A few acres iu roots will prove 
of much value to the dairy. Rutabagas, inau- 
gels and sugar boots can be run in as a second 
horse-racing at agricultural fairs,” and par¬ 
ticularly the article signed “Clem Auldou” iu 
the Rural of November 18th last. In spite of 
all the arguments used against the "speed ring” 
at our agricultural fairs, human nature is hu¬ 
man nature, and unless we have something to 
amuse as well as to instruct and admire, 
three-fourths of our county agricultural fairs 
would be a failure anil a financial fizzle. For 
example, in (lie county where I live our an¬ 
nual agricultural fair was a complete success 
iu 1880. The fair runs four days; the first, or 
opening day, the attendance is generally slack, 
but during the other three days in 1880, the at¬ 
tendance was very large, and all on the 
grounds seemed to he enjoying themselves 
thoroughly. At that year’s fair wo had a riue 
race programme, with quite a large number 
of extra-good trotters. After one o’clock the 
racing was kept up with little, loss of time Le- 
tween the races, and owing to the interest' ta¬ 
ken in these contests the grand stand was full 
to its utmost capacity every day, at 10 cents 
per head, which netted the association quite a 
snug sum towards defraying expenses. 
Like all other communities, of course, we 
had some sore-heads among the—I am sorry 
to say—agricultural people: a few who were 
strictly “formers” ami came there for business 
and wanted no fun. These men raisod such a 
hubbub that the association decided to have a 
strictly agricultural exhibition the next year, 
1881. They had it—horse-racing was almost 
ignored, the prizes of $10 to $80 did uot even 
attract scrub ponies to enter. People wan¬ 
dered about the grounds for an hour or two, 
then got disgusted at the tameness of the 
thing generally. They had no place to take a 
good rest, where they would be interested and 
amused while sitting down, as they would 
have been had there been attraction enough 
to induce them to pay 10 cents at the grand 
stand, which sum was still charged to enter 
there, and, finally, they went away. The fair 
was a complete failure in almost every respect, 
aud the association was not able to pay up the 
premiums for lack of funds. It was several 
hundred dollars short, in fact. 
For a long time afterwards there was not a 
township one visited where remarks regarding 
the big fizzle the “County Fair” was, could not 
be heard. I took a great deal of trouble to 
inquire into the cause of this outcome to what 
farmers called so loudly for the previous year, 
viz.; a strictly agricultural fair—a farmers’ 
fair. There were plenty of fine stock, lots of 
agricultural implements, and wonderful speci¬ 
mens of grains, vegetables and fruits; yet the 
fair was a failure, and financial disaster the 
result. The secret, dear Rural, was simply 
that there was nothing to hold the people, or 
in fact bring them there at all; this applies 
at least to a large percentage. There was 
uothing to amuse the mind. Every farmer’s 
wife and daughter and son, as well as uncles, 
aunts and cousins, had been looking at and 
feeding fat cows, hogs and sheep all their 
lives—fiue- stock at that. They did not care to 
spend more than an hour or two walking 
round looking at these things; they were 
familiar with them all, as well as with the 
implements, and as far as the produce went, 
oue could have heard more than one remark 
made by many a comely matron and maid, 
"Why we have bigger potatoes, turnips, etc., 
at home, aud father did not think them good 
enough to be sent in.” This walking around 
inspecting was a tiresome thing, and they soon 
left. Others who had not been at the fair 
heard it was a slow thing from those who had 
gone, anti staid at home. 
So our fair of 1881 became a failure. See¬ 
ing the cause and effect in 1881, the association 
last year changed its tactics and put in a good 
horse-racing programme, with moderately 
goixl prizes, and although the exhibition of 
stock ilid not equal that during the fairs of 
the two previous years the show was finan¬ 
cially a success, so much so as not only to 
enable the association to pay every dollar for 
1883, but, there was enough left over to pay 
off all the previous year’s indebtedness. All 
the arguments in the world will not contro¬ 
vert the fact that hundreds of people go to the 
agricultural fail's to bo amused, and hundreds 
go ceery day that were mere the day before, 
for amusement. A few hours’ walking round 
in one forenoon enables visitors to see all the 
fine stock, line and new implements, splendid 
produce, etc., etc., aud they do uot care to see 
these things again aud again. What, then, 
brings t he same people there every nay • They 
Come simply for amusement, and if that is 
not furnished they stay at home, to the finan¬ 
cial hurt of the association. The entrance 
money does not come in and the “Grand 
Stand” as au investment to pay dividends is a 
dead loss. Therefore, human nature being 
human nature, there must Ik* something to 
attract and amuse; something to draw a 
crowd of humans mo! to hold them; and since 
the days of the Roman amphitheatre* uothing 
will draw as big a crowd, ready to pay an 
entrance fee, and keep them interested and 
amused for how's at a time like horse-racing. 
All of which, summed up. means that the 
average county agricultural fair without 
“horse-racing” will generally be a financial 
failure to the association, and a fruitful 
source of discontent regarding the fair to a 
large majority of the people. Farmer. 
[Remarks.— Tin* R, N. Y., from first to last, 
has had more to say against horse-racing, etc. 
at agricultural fairs than all other papers put 
together. Wo are always glad—indeed we 
deem it onr duty—to give both sides of all 
questions. It is our own belief, however, that 
if agricultural fairs are as dependent upon 
horse-raciug for their success as our friend 
makes it appear, they had better be entirely 
abolished. If the agricultural fair needs aids 
there are scores of innocent aud attractive 
amusements which might l>e introduced which 
would prove fully as fasciuatiug as horse- 
raciug and other actual or incipient forms of 
