The land may be soured in several ways

The land may be soured in several ways

The land may be soured in several ways

The land may be soured in several ways. Whenever a large amount of vegetable matter decays in land, acids are formed, and at times sourness of the soil results. Often soils sour because they are not well drained or because, from lack of proper tillage, air cannot make its way into the soil. Sometimes all these causes may combine to produce sourness. Since most crops cannot thrive on very sour soil, the farmer must find some method of making his land sweet again.

Liming The Land

Liming The Land

Occasionally, when a cook puts too much vinegar in a salad, the dish becomes so sour that it is unfit to eat. The vinegar which the cook uses belongs to a large group of compounds known as acids. The acids are common in nature. They have the power not only of making salads sour but also of making land sour. Frequently land becomes so sour from acids forming in it that it will not bear its usual crops. The acids must then be removed or the land will become useless.

The machinery that makes farming so much more

The machinery that makes farming so much more

The machinery that makes farming so much more

The machinery that makes farming so much more economical and that makes the farmer's life so much easier and more comfortable is too complicated to be put into the hands of bunglers who will soon destroy it, and it is too costly to be left in the fields or under trees to rust and rot.

If it is not convenient for every farmer to have a separate tool-house, he should at least set apart a room in his barn, or a shed for storing his tools and machines. As soon as a plow, harrow, cultivator—indeed any tool or machine—has finished its share of work for the season, it should receive whatever attention it needs to prevent rusting, and should be carefully housed.

Such care, which is neither costly nor burdensome, will add many years to the life of a machine.

The farmer of the future must know three things well

The farmer of the future must know three things well

The farmer of the future must know three things well

The farmer of the future must know three things well: first, what machines he can profitably use; second, how to manage these machines; third, how to care for these machines.

Fig. 276. Properly Protected Tools and Machines

Fig. 277. Unprotected Tools and Machines

Fig. 278. The Harvester at Work

Fig. 279. In Need of Improvement

Farm Tools And Machines

Farm Tools And Machines

The drudgery of farm life is being lessened from year to year by the invention or improvement of farm tools and machines. Perhaps some of you know how tiresome was the old up-and-down churn dasher that has now generally given place to the "quick-coming" churns. The toothed, horse-drawn cultivator has nearly displaced "the man with the hoe," while the scythe, slow and back-breaking, is everywhere getting out of the way of the mowing-machine and the horserake. The old heavy, sweat-drawing grain-cradle is slinking into the backwoods, and in its place we have the horse-drawn or steam-drawn harvester that cuts and binds the grain, and even threshes and measures it at one operation. Instead of the plowman's wearily making one furrow at a time, the gang-plows of the plains cut many furrows at one time, and instead of walking the plowman rides. The shredder and husker turns the hitherto useless cornstalk into food, and at the same time husks, or shucks, the corn.

Land may be made to retain its fertility for generations

Land may be made to retain its fertility for generations

Land may be made to retain its fertility for generations

Since cowpeas, clover, and alfalfa add atmospheric nitrogen to the soil and at the same time are the best feeding-materials, it follows that these crops should hold an important place in every system of crop-rotation. By proper rotating, by proper terracing, and by proper drainage, land may be made to retain its fertility for generations.

EXERCISE

1. Why are cowpeas, clover, and alfalfa so important to the farmer?

2. What is meant by the protein of a food?

3. Why is it better to feed the farm crops to animals on the farm rather than to sell these crops?

The crops that produce the most

The crops that produce the most

The crops that produce the most

4. The crops that produce the most. We often call a crop a crop without considering how much it yields. This is a mistake. We ought to grow, when we have choice of two crops, the one that is the best and the most productive on the farm. Average corn, for instance, yields on an acre at least twice the quantity of feeding-material that timothy does.

5. The crops that will keep our soil in the best condition. A good farmer should always be thinking of how to improve his soil. He wants his land to support him and to maintain his children after he is dead.

The crops that will give us the most protein

The crops that will give us the most protein

The crops that will give us the most protein

3. The crops that will give us the most protein. It is the farmer's business to grow all the grass and forage that his farm animals need. He ought never to be obliged to purchase a bale of forage. Moreover, he should grow mainly those crops that are rich in protein materials, for example, cowpeas, alfalfa, and clover. If such crops are produced on the farm, there will be little need of buying so much cotton-seed meal, corn, and bran for feeding purposes.

What coal is most economical for his engines

What coal is most economical for his engines

What coal is most economical for his engines

The successful railroad manager determines by practical experience what distances his engines and crews ought to run in a day, what coal is most economical for his engines, what schedules best suit the needs of his road, what trains pay him best. These and a thousand and one other matters are settled by the special needs of his road.

Ought the man who wants to make his farm pay be less prudent and less far-sighted? Should not his past failures and his past triumphs decide his future? If he be a dairy farmer, ought he not by practical tests to settle for himself not only what crops are most at home on his land but also what crops in his circumstances yield him the largest returns in milk and butter? If swine-raising be his business, how long ought he to guess what crop on his land yields him the greatest amount of hog food? Should a colt be fed on one kind of forage when the land that produced that forage would produce twice as much equally good forage of another kind? All these questions the prudent farmer should answer promptly and in the light of wise experiments.

Our aim should be to make the best use of what we have

Our aim should be to make the best use of what we have

Our aim should be to make the best use of what we have

Our aim should be to make the best use of what we have, to improve by selection and care those kinds best adapted to our soil and climate, and to secure, by better methods of growing and curing, the greatest yields at the least possible cost.

2. The crops best suited to our line of business. A farmer necessarily becomes more or less of a specialist; he gathers those kinds of live stock about him which he likes best and which he finds the most profitable. He should, on his farm, select for his main crops those that he can grow with the greatest pleasure and with the greatest profit.

Fig. 275. Filling the Barn with Roughage from the Farm

The crops best suited to our soil and climate

The crops best suited to our soil and climate

The crops best suited to our soil and climate

1. The crops best suited to our soil and climate. Farm crops, as every child of the farm knows, are not equally adapted to all soils and climates. Cotton cannot be produced where the climate is cool and the seasons short. Timothy and blue grass are most productive on cool, limestone soils. Cowpeas demand warm, dry soils. But in spite of climatic limitations, Nature has been generous in the wide variety of forage she has given us.

The crops best suited to our soil and climate

The crops best suited to our soil and climate

The crops best suited to our soil and climate

1. The crops best suited to our soil and climate.
2. The crops best suited to our line of business.
3. The crops that will give us the most protein.
4. The crops that produce the most.
5. The crops that will keep our soil in the best condition.