1858 . 
THE CULTIVATOR 
43 
Unprofitable Farming. 
“Why is it that there is so much unprofitable far¬ 
ming, when it has been shown, again and again, that 
money can be made in the culture of the soil 7 Where 
lies the failure 7” 
“ In the neglect of known rules and precautions in 
nine cases out of ten,” we answer. For the one failure 
from the want of knowing how , we can point you to 
scores where the farmer did not “live up to his light,” 
but concluded to “take the chances,” when his reason 
told him they were largely against him. A list of the 
practices common among farmers, though generally 
acknowledged to be unprofitable, would surprise the 
majority of our readers. Let us instance a few, and 
it can be but a few, of them. 
Depth of soil is acknowledged to be necessary to 
large productiveness. A large hill of corn, a thrifty 
growth of wheat, barley, or grass, must have roots and 
rootlets equally large and thrifty—and such only grow 
in a deep mellow soil. With plenty of room and food 
for the roots, the whole plant will correspond ; with a 
shallow four or six inch soil, the roots are only ade¬ 
quate to a small growth above ground—they can nei¬ 
ther find nor carry up the nourishment required to a 
large product. A shallow soil also soon becomes sterile 
under the influence of drought, especially if the sub¬ 
soil is of a retentive character. 
Clean Culture is an acknowledged necessity in pro¬ 
fitable farming. All allow it to be a matter of much 
importance to a growing plant, whether it has a whole 
field to itself, or whether weeds surround it, stealing 
away the greater share of the nourishment supplied by 
the soil. It is acknowledged poor policy to manure and 
plant a field and then have useless weeds to use up 
that manure, and starve out the planted crop. And 
yet how often is it done. It would not be too much to 
say that weeds, of one kind and another, exhaust one- 
third of the productive energies of nine-tenths of the 
cultivated acres of the country. This alone accounts 
for so much un-profitable farming. 
Unseasonable seeding is known to generally result 
in loss to the farmer ; and yet nothing is more common 
than to plant and sow, when only a very remarkable 
season can produce a favorable result. Corn is plant¬ 
ed, when we know that frost must come before it is 
nearly matured ; spring grains are sown when in the 
usual course of nature the summer drought will injure 
them to a large extent; wheat is gotten in too late to 
withstand the winter, and just in time for the midge— 
the farmer “taking a risk” no insurance company 
would venture upon without the highest premium. 
Adaptation of the crop to the soil is important to 
profitable production. It is well known that some crops 
seldom succeed on a clay soil, while others fail on those 
of a sandy character. Wheat, for instance, delights in 
a well-drained clay, while rye likes best the sandy 
loam. These “ likes and dislikes ” should be studied— 
the affinity of soil and product carefully attended to— 
then we should escape another frequent cause of loss to 
the farmer. 
Other sources of loss to the farmer—of losses known 
and acknowledged by all—we shall perhaps refer to in 
a future number of this journal. 
—-*-•--- 
§3P“ At the late Agricultural Fair at Stockton, Cali¬ 
fornia., a $50 dress was awarded to the unmarried lady 
who made the best bread. 
Horn Piths. 
Messrs. Eds. —In the Co. Gent, of 7th inst., J. 
Swinburne inquires the relative value of horn piths, 
compared with other bones, as a manure. Crushed in 
a bone mill, pound for pound, they would be of about 
the same value—beside, from their more porous nature, 
they would in the soil more readily decompose. Within 
the past twenty years, 1 have used many cart-loads of 
horn piths, procured at the tanneries. Some two years 
ago I paid $5 for three cart-loads, which were sawed 
and broken as finely as could conveniently be done, 
and applied to an acre of land sown with wheat last 
spring. I would not give a man a fig to warrant me 
twenty tons of hay from that acre the comiDg ten years ; 
and the cattle that eat the hay will not be troubled 
with the bone disease during the time. For the two 
past seasons, when planting potatoes, I have dropped 
a horn pith into each hill of a portion of my crop ; 
when the potatoes are dug, the piths are completely 
enveloped with a coating of fibrous roots. After dig¬ 
ging the potatoes, I collect the piths, storing them 
away for next year’s use, they being better than new 
for the purpose, and probably they will last a dozen 
years or so. 
In May, 1856, plowed half an acre or green-sward 
land and planted with potatoes, using different manures 
in the hills. Two rows had about half a spoonfull of 
Peruvian guano to each hill; then a row without ma¬ 
nure ; then two rows superphosphate of lime ; next row, 
no manure ; two next, Mexican guano ; then two rows 
with one horn pith in each hill; two rows with a hand¬ 
ful of damaged salted tongues and sounds—others with 
plaster, ashes, &c. 
The rows having the horn piths had much the largest 
and most luxuriant tops; the difference could be plain¬ 
ly seen at the distance of half a mile, in the month of 
August. But the rust took the tops when the tubers 
had obtained about half their usual growth, conse¬ 
quently had a light crop. At digging time, I ascer¬ 
tained by “weight and measure,” (no guessing about 
the matter,) the relative product of the rows receiving 
the different manures. 
Where horn piths were used, it took forty hills for a 
bushel—where the guano and superphosphate were 
used, there was a trifling variation—varying from six¬ 
ty to seventy hills per bushel—where no manure was 
used it took over ninety hills per bushel. The ashes 
and plaster had but little effect—a result very different 
from what I have had on other kinds of soils, in their 
use for the potato crop. About the time the potatoes 
were making their appearance at the surface of the 
ground, the dogs from a large circuit congregated in 
my potato patch, under cover of night, and dug every 
hill, so that I am completely in the dark as to the ma- 
nurial value of salted “tongues and sounds” for the 
potato crop. 
In conclusion, I will just say to Mr. Swinburne, col¬ 
lect all the horn piths and other bones within your reach. 
But if you undertake to break them up with hammers, 
it will be well for you to get an insurance on your eyes 
L. B. Warner, N. H. 
-»*.- 
The American Veterinary Journal. —The third 
vol. of this valuable work commences with the Janu¬ 
ary number. G. H. Dadd, V. S., Boston, editor and 
publisher—monthly at $1 a year. 
