CULTIVATION NECESSARY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2208, 15 August 1910, Page 7

CULTIVATION NECESSARY.

The remedy for threatened exhaustion of natural resources lies in the hoe. We must turn industry and intelligence away from the factory and back to the farm. The soil, differing from iron and coal, is our only renewable wealth. It is the only dependable resource to give food and comfort to the millions. We must point inventors, chemists, and scien- ! tists to the consideration of earth, i says “Collier’s.” “Agriculture, in | the most intelligent meaning of the I term,” says Mr. Hill, “is something ! almost unknown in the United I States.” Instead of it we have “a light scratching of the soil and the gathering of all it can be made to produce by tbe most rapidly exhaustive methods.” Agriculture must be more extensive. The individual farmer must have fewer acres and more hoes. He must nurse his soil, and see to it that it produces more next year than it did last. Evolution in farming is taking the direction which Mr. Hill points. Irrigation is making the change. Farming an irrigated ranch is a problem of chemistry—there is a fixed quantity of soil, a fixed quantity of sunshine, and the water can be measured out to suit. This kind of agriculture will evolve a very different farmer from the harried and hopeless victim of too much sun in May, and too much water in July, who has learned to accept the crop that chance denotes him. Moreover, irrigated land being more expensive, farms will be smaller—from 20 to 40 acres will probably be the unit in the arid West. And in this tendency lies much of the stability of our future.

The general farmer is learning that it pays to rotate bis crops and grow legumes (says a n American exchange) corngrowers are convinced that seed selection pays ; dairymen are learning that they should feed mixed rations and cull out the unprofitable cows ; horticulturists are learning that it is the choicest fruits that bring the top prices, and that spraying and proper cultivation are essential to success, livestockmeu are learning that the good sires always pays ; all good farmers are learning that they must read good papers, attend institutes farmers’ meetings, and always be on the alert for tbe idea that will save an hour’s work or turn a dollar.

Sheep will clean the farm of weeds more effectually than could he done at a largo outlay in other ways. They devour weeds because they relish them, and therefore it is no hardship to utilise them for this purpose. When the weeds become woody and produce seeds sheep will gather the seeds with great diligence, although they will probably refuse to eat the woody stem which produces them.

We read all sorts of devices to cure kicking cows. Like baulky horses, kicking cows are usually made so by the men who handle them. The best device we have ever seen is to put a ring in the floor overhead, and with a halter on the cow draw her head up pretty taut. She cannot kick very well in this position, and the beauty of it is she does not know what it is that prevents her, as she soon comes to know if a strap is buckled about her legs.

It is not generally known that milk clears away ink in a fabric like magic, if only the spatter is dipped into it once while wet, and almost all spots will yield to prolonged soaking in buttermilk. Washing-soda and water can sometimes be made to take the place of buttermilk.

Wigwag : "I never knew such a fellow as Bjones ! He is always look' ing for trouble.” Henpecked : "Then why doesn’t he get married 1”