Grain-growing East And West
I disclaim all pretensions to ability to teach Western farmers how to
grow Indian Corn abundantly and profitably, while I cheerfully admit
that they have taught me somewhat thoroughly worth knowing. In my
boyhood, I hoed Corn diligently for weeks at a time, drawing the earth
from between the rows up about the stalks to a depth of three or four
inches; thus forming hills which the West has since taught me to be of
no us
hungry plants to throw out their roots extensively in every direction,
and subjecting them to needless injury from drouth. I am thoroughly
convinced that Corn, properly planted, will, like Wheat and all other
grains, root itself just deep enough in the ground, and that to keep
down all weeds and leave the surface of the corn-field open, mellow and
perfectly flat, is the best as well as the cheapest way to cultivate
Corn. And I do not believe that so much human food, with so little
labor, is produced elsewhere on earth as in the spacious fields of
Wheat and Corn in our grand Mississippi valley.
And yet I have seen in that valley many ample stretches covered with
Corn, whereof the tillage seemed susceptible of improvement. Riding
between these great corn-fields in October, after everything standing
thereon had been killed by frost, it seemed to my observation that,
while the corn-crop was fair, the weed-crop was far more luxuriant; so
that, if everything had been cut clean from the ground, and the corn and
the weeds placed in opposite scales, the latter would have weighed down
the former. I cannot doubt that the cultivation, or lack of cultivation,
which produces or permits such results, is not merely slovenly, but
unthrifty.
The West is for the present, as for a generation she has been, the
granary of the East. In my judgment, she will not long be content to
remain so. Fifty years ago, the Genesee valley supplied most of the
wheat and flour imported into New-England; ten years later, Northern
Ohio was our principal resource; ten years later still, Michigan,
Indiana, northern Illinois, and eastern Wisconsin, had been added to our
grain-growing territory. Another decade, and our flour manufacturers had
crossed the Mississippi, laying Iowa and Minnesota under liberal
contributions, while western New-York had ceased to grow even her own
breadstuffs, and Ohio to produce one bushel more than she needed for
home consumption. Can we doubt that this steady recession of our Egypt,
our Hungary, is destined to continue? Twenty-three years ago, when I
first rode out from the then rising village of Chicago to see the
Illinois prairies, nearly every wagon I met was loaded with wheat, going
into Chicago, to be sold for about fifty cents per bushel, and the
proceeds loaded back in the form of lumber, groceries, and almost
everything else, grain excepted, needed by the pioneers, then dotting,
thinly and irregularly, that whole region with their cabins. Now, I
presume the district I then traversed produces hardly more grain than it
consumes; taking Illinois altogether, I doubt that she will grow her own
breadstuffs after 1880; not that she will be unable to produce a large
surplus, but that her farmers will have decided that they can use their
lands otherwise to greater advantage. Iowa and Minnesota will continue
to export grain for perhaps twenty years longer; but even their time
will come for saying, "New-York and New-England (not to speak of Old
England) are too far away to furnish profitable markets for such bulky
products; the cost of transportation absorbs the larger part of the
cargo. We must export instead Wool, Meat, Lard, Butter, Cheese, Hops,
and various Manufactures, whereof the freight will range from 2 up to
not more than 25 per cent. of the value." They thus save their soil from
the tremendous exaction made by taking grain-crop after grain-crop
persistently, which long ago exhausted most of New-England and eastern
New-York of wheat-forming material, and has since wrought the same
deplorable result in our rich Genesee valley; while eastern
Pennsylvania, though settled nearly two centuries ago, having pursued a
more rational and provident system of husbandry, grows excellent
wheat-crops to this day.
I insist that the States this side of the Delaware; though they will
draw much grain from the Canadas after the political change that cannot
be far distant, will be compelled to grow a very considerable share of
their own breadstuff; that the West will cease to supply them unless at
prices which they will deem exorbitant; and that grain-growing eastward
of a line drawn from Baltimore this north to the Lakes will have to be
very considerably extended. Let us see, then, whether this might not be
done with profit even now, and whether the East is not unwise in having
so generally abandoned grain-growing.
I leave out of the account most of New-England, as well as of Eastern
New-York, and the more rugged portions of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania,
where the rocky, hilly, swampy face of the country seems to forbid any
but that patchy cultivation, wherein machinery and mechanical power
can scarcely be made available, and which seem, therefore, permanently
fated to persevere in a system of agriculture and horticulture not
essentially unlike that they now exhibit. In the valleys of the
Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Hudson, and of our smaller rivers, there
are considerable tracts absolutely free from these natural impediments,
whereon a larger and more efficient husbandry is perfectly practicable,
even now; but these intervales are generally the property of many
owners; are cut up by roads and fences; and are held at high prices: so
that I will simply pass them by, and take for illustration the "Pine
Barrens" of Southern New-Jersey, merely observing that what I say of
them is equally applicable, with slight modifications, to large portions
of Long Island, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
The "Pine Barrens" of New-Jersey are a marine deposit of several hundred
feet in depth, mainly sand, with which more or less clay is generally
intermingled, while there are beds and even broader stretches of this
material nearly or quite pure; the clay sometimes underlying the sand at
a depth of 10 to 30 or 40 inches. Vast deposits of muck or leaf-mold,
often of many acres in extent and from two to twenty feet in depth, are
very common; so that hardly any portion of the dry or sandy land is two
miles distant from one or more of them, while some is usually much
nearer; and half the entire region is underlaid by at least one stratum
of the famous marl (formed of the decomposed bones of gigantic marine
monsters long ago extinct) which has already played so important and
beneficent a part in the renovation and fertilization of large districts
in Monmouth, Burlington, Salem, and other counties.
Let us suppose now that a farmer of ample means and generous capacity
should purchase four hundred acres of these "barrens," with intent to
produce therefrom, not sweet potatoes, melons, and the "truck" to which
Southern Jersey is so largely devoted, but substantial Grain and Meat;
and let us see whether the enterprise would probably pay.
Let us not stint the outlay, but, presuming the tract to be eligibly
located on a railroad not too distant from some good marl-bed, estimate
as follows:
Purchase-money of 400 acres at $25 per acre $10,000
Clearing, grubbing, fencing and breaking up ditto at $20
per acre, over and above the proceeds of the wood 8,000
One thousand bushels of best Marl per acre, at 6 cents per
bushel delivered 24,000
One hundred loads of Swamp Muck, per acre, at 50 cents
per load 20,000
Fifty bushels (unslaked) of Oyster-shell Lime (to compost
with the Muck), per acre, at 25 cents per bushel, delivered 5,000
One hundred tuns of Bone Flour at $50 per tun 5,000
-------
[Net cost, $180 per acre.] Total $72,000
I believe that this tract, divided by light fences into four fields of
100 acres each, and seeded in rotation to Corn, Wheat, Clover and other
grasses, would produce fully 60 bushels of Corn and 30 of Wheat per
acre, with not less than 3 tuns of good Hay; and that by cutting,
steaming, and feeding the stalks and straw on the place, not pasturing,
but keeping up the stock, and feeding them, as indicated in a former
chapter of these essays, and selling their product in the form of Milk,
Butter, Cheese and Meat, a greater profit would be realized than could
be from a like investment in Iowa or Kansas. The soil is warm, readily
frees itself, or is freed, from surplus water; is not addicted to weeds;
may be plowed at least 200 days in a year; may be sowed or planted in
the Spring, when Minnesota is yet solidly frozen; while the crop, early
matured, is on hand to take advantage of any sudden advance in the
European or our own seaboard markets. Labor, also, is cheaper and more
rapidly procured in the neighborhood of this great focus of immigration
than it is or can be in the West; and our capable farmers may take their
pick of the workers thronging hither from Europe, at the moment of their
landing on our shore. Of course, the owner of such an estate as I have
roughly outlined, would be likely to keep a part of his purchase in
timber, proving the quality thereof by cutting out the less desirable
trees, trimming up the rest, and planting new ones among them; and he
would be almost certain to devote some part of his farm annually to the
growth of Roots, Vegetables, and Fruits. But I have aimed to show only
that he would grow grain here at a profit, and I think I have succeeded.
His 60 bushels of corn (shelled) per acre could be sold at his crib, one
year with another, for 60 silver dollars; and he need seldom wait a
month after husking it for customers who would gladly take his grain and
pay the money for it. This would be just about double what the Iowa or
Missouri farmer can expect to average for his Corn. The abundant
fodder would also be worth in New-Jersey at least double its value in
Iowa; and I judge that the farmer able to buy, prepare, fertilize, and
cultivate 1,200 acres of the Jersey "barrens," could make more than
thrice the profit to be realized by the owner of 400 acres. He would
plow and seed as well as thrash, shell, cut stalks and straw, and
prepare the food of his animals, wholly by steam-power, and would soon
learn to cultivate a square mile at no greater expense than is now
involved in the as perfect tillage of 200 acres.
This essay is not intended to prove that Grain is not or may not be
profitably cultivated at the West, nor that it is unadvisable for
Eastern farmers to migrate thither in order so to cultivate it. What I
maintain is, that Wheat, Indian Corn, and nearly all our great food
staples, may also be profitably produced on the seaboard, and that
thousands of square miles, now nearly or quite unproductive, may be
wisely and profitably devoted to such production. Let us regard,
therefore, without alarm, the prospect of such a development and
diversification of Western Industry as will render necessary a large and
permanent extension (or rather revival) of Eastern grain-growing.
More
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Bones Phosphates Guano
I hate to check improvement or chill the glow of Faith; yet I do so keenly apprehend that many of our people, especially among the Southern cotton-growers, are squandering money on Commercial Fertilizers, that I am bound to utter my note of warnin... Buckwheat
Buckwheat shares with rye and cowpeas the power to make a fairly good crop on poor land. At the same time, of course, a full crop can be expected only from fertile land. The three varieties most grown in America are the common gray, the silver-hu... Budding
If, instead of an apple tree, you were raising a plum or a peach tree, a form of propagation known as _budding_ would be better than grafting. Occasionally budding is also employed for apples, pears, cherries, oranges, and lemons. Budding is done in... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Buying A Farm
No one need be told at this day that good land is cheaper than poor--that the former may be bought at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It should be considered in the light of the less obvious ... Cattle
All farm animals were once called _cattle_; now this term applies only to beef and dairy animals--neat cattle. Our improved breeds are descended from the wild ox of Europe and Asia, and have attained their size and usefulness by care, food, and s... Co-operation In Farming
The word of hope and cheer for Labor in our days is COOPERATION--that is, the combination by many of their means and efforts to achieve results beneficial to them all. It differs radically from Communism, which proposes that each should receive fr... Commercial Fertilizers Gypsum
Prices vary so widely in different localities that no fertilizer can be pronounced everywhere cheapest or best worth buying; and yet I doubt that there is a rood of our country's surface in fit condition to be cultivated to which Gypsum (Plaster o... Corn
When the white man came to this country he found the Indians using corn; for this reason, in addition to its name _maize_, it is called _Indian corn_. Before that time the civilized world did not know that there was such a crop. The increase in the ... Cotton
Although cotton was cultivated on the Eastern continent before America was discovered, this crop owes its present kingly place in the business world to the zeal and intelligence of its American growers. So great an influence does it wield in modern ... Crosses Hybrids And Cross-pollination
In our study of flowers and their pollination we have seen that the seed is usually the descendant of two parents, or at least of two organs--one the ovary, producing the seed; the other the pollen, which is necessary to fertilize the ovary. It h... Draining Generally
Having narrated my own experience in draining with entire unreserve, I here submit the general conclusions to which it has led me: I. While I doubt that there is any land above water that would not be improved by a good system of underdrains, I ... Draining My Own
My farm is in the township of Newcastle, Westchester County, N. Y., 35 miles from our City Hall, and a little eastward of the hamlet known as Chappaqua, called into existence by a station on the Harlem Railroad. It embraces the south-easterly half... Draining The Soil
A wise man was once asked, "What is the most valuable improvement ever made in agriculture?" He answered, "Drainage." Often soils unfit for crop-production because they contain too much water are by drainage rendered the most valuable of farming lan... Esculent Roots Potatoes
In no other form can so large an amount and value of human food be obtained from an acre of ground as in that of edible roots or tubers; and of these the Potato is by far the most acceptable, and in most general use. Our ancestors, it is settled, ... Exchange And Distribution
The machinery whereby the farmer of our day converts into cash or other values that portion of his products which is not consumed in his house or on his farm, seems to me lamentably imperfect. Let me illustrate my meaning: After three all but f... Farm Implements
A good workman, it is said, does not quarrel with his tools--which, if true, I judge is due to the fact that he generally manages to have good ones. To work hard throughout a long day under a burning sun, is sufficiently trying, without rendering ... Farm Poultry
Our geese, ducks, turkeys, and domestic hens are all descendants of wild fowls, and are more or less similar to them in appearance. The earliest recorded uses of fowls were for food, for fighting, and for sacrifice. To-day the domestic fowl has fo... 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-com... Farmers' Clubs
Farmers, like other men, divide naturally into two classes--those who do too much work, and those who do too little. I know men who are no farmers at all, only by virtue of the fact that each of them inherited, or somehow acquired, a farm, and hav... Farming On Dry Lands
Almost in the center of the western half of our continent there is a vast area in which very little rain falls. This section includes nearly three hundred million acres of land. It stretches from Canada on the north into Texas on the south, and from... Fences And Fencing
Though I have already indicated, incidentally, my decided objections to our prevalent system of Fencing, I deem the subject of such importance that I choose to discuss it directly. Excessive Fencing is peculiarly an American abuse, which urgently ... Flower Gardening
The comforts and joys of life depend largely upon small things. Of these small things perhaps none holds a position of greater importance in country life than the adornment of the home, indoors and outdoors, with flowers tastefully arranged. Their s... Fruit-trees The Apple
If I were asked to say what single aspect of our economic condition most strikingly and favorably distinguished the people of our Northern States from these of most if not all other countries which I have traversed, I would point at once to the fr... Garden And Field Insects
=The Cabbage Worm.= The cabbage worm of the early spring garden is a familiar object, but you may not know that the innocent-looking little white butterflies hovering about the cabbage patch are laying eggs which are soon to hatch and make the dread... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Good And Bad Husbandry
Necessity is the master of us all. A farmer may be as strenuous for deep plowing as I am--may firmly believe that the soil should be thoroughly broken up and pulverized to a depth of fifteen to thirty inches, according to the crop; but, if all the... Grafting
By a process known as _grafting_ you can force your tree to produce whatever variety of apple you desire. Many people raise fruit trees directly from seed without grafting. Thus they often produce really worthless trees. By grafting they would make ... Grain-growing East And West
I disclaim all pretensions to ability to teach Western farmers how to grow Indian Corn abundantly and profitably, while I cheerfully admit that they have taught me somewhat thoroughly worth knowing. In my boyhood, I hoed Corn diligently for weeks ... Grasses
Under usual conditions no farmer expects to grow live stock successfully and economically without setting apart a large part of his land for the growth of mowing and pasture crops. Therefore to the grower of stock the management of grass crops is ... Growing Feed Stuffs On The Farm
Economy in raising live stock demands the production of all "roughness" or roughage materials on the farm. By roughness, or roughage, of course you understand that bulky food, like hay, grass, clover, stover, etc., is meant. It is possible to purcha... Growing Timber Tree-planting
In my judgment, the proportion of a small farm that should be constantly devoted to trees (other than fruit) is not less than one-fourth; while, of farms exceeding one hundred acres in area, that proportion should be not less than one-third, and m... Hay And Hay-making
The Grass-crop of this, as of many, if not most, other countries, is undoubtedly the most important of its annual products; requiring by far the largest area of its soil, and furnishing the principal food of its Cattle, and thus contributing essen... Hemp And Flax
In the early ages of the world, mankind is supposed to have worn very little or no clothing. Then leaves and the inner bark of trees were fashioned into a protection from the weather. These flimsy garments were later replaced by skins and furs. As m... Horses
While we have a great many kinds of horses in America, horses are not natives of this country. Just where wild horses were first tamed and used is not certainly known. It is believed that in early ages the horse was a much smaller animal than it now... How A Plant Feeds From The Air
If you partly burn a match you will see that it becomes black. This black substance into which the match changes is called _carbon_. Examine a fresh stick of charcoal, which is, as you no doubt know, burnt wood. You see in the charcoal every fiber t... How Milk Sours
At the left, pure milk; at the right, milk after standing in a warm room for a few hours in a dirty dish, showing, besides the fat-globules, many forms of bacteria] On another page you have been told how the yeast plant grows in cider and causes... How The Plant Feeds From The Soil
Plants receive their nourishment from two sources--from the air and from the soil. The soil food, or mineral food, dissolved in water, must reach the plant through the root-hairs with which all plants are provided in great numbers. Each of these hai... Improving The Soil
We hear a great deal about the exhaustion or wearing out of the soil. Many uncomfortable people are always declaring that our lands will no longer produce profitable crops, and hence that farming will no longer pay. Now it is true, unfortunately,... Insects Birds
If I were to estimate the average absolute loss of the farmers of this country from Insects at $100,000,000 per annum, I should doubtless be far below the mark. The loss of fruit alone by the devastations of insects, within a radius of fifty miles... Insects In General
The farmer who has fought "bugs" on crop after crop needs no argument to convince him that insects are serious enemies to agriculture. Yet even he may be surprised to learn that the damage done by them, as estimated by good authority, amounts to mil... Intellect In Agriculture
If a man whose capital consists of the clothes on his back, $5 in his pocket, and an ax over his right shoulder, undertakes to hew for himself a farm out of the primitive forest, he must of course devote some years to rugged manual labor, or he wi... Irrigation
Irrigation is the name given to the plan of supplying water in large quantities to growing crops. Since the dawn of history this practice has been more or less followed in Asia, in Africa, and in Europe. The Spanish settlers in the southwestern part... Irrigation Means And Ends
While few can have failed to realize the important part played by Water in the economy of vegetation, I judge that the question--"How can I secure to my growing plants a sufficiency of moisture at all times?"--has not always presented itself to th... Large And Small Farms
There is fascination for most minds in naked magnitude. The young colonel, who can hardly handle a brigade effectively in battle, would like of all things to command a great army; and the tiller of fifty rugged acres has his ravishing dreams of th... Laying Off A Farm Pasturing
Whoever finds himself the newly installed owner and occupant of a farm, should, before doing much beyond growing a crop in the ordinary way, study well its character, determine its capacities, make himself well acquainted with its peculiarities of... Laying Off A Farm Pasturing
Whoever finds himself the newly installed owner and occupant of a farm, should, before doing much beyond growing a crop in the ordinary way, study well its character, determine its capacities, make himself well acquainted with its peculiarities of... Laying Off A Farm Pasturing
Whoever finds himself the newly installed owner and occupant of a farm, should, before doing much beyond growing a crop in the ordinary way, study well its character, determine its capacities, make himself well acquainted with its peculiarities of... Laying Off A Farm Pasturing
Whoever finds himself the newly installed owner and occupant of a farm, should, before doing much beyond growing a crop in the ordinary way, study well its character, determine its capacities, make himself well acquainted with its peculiarities of... Laying Off A Farm Pasturing
Whoever finds himself the newly installed owner and occupant of a farm, should, before doing much beyond growing a crop in the ordinary way, study well its character, determine its capacities, make himself well acquainted with its peculiarities of... Laying Off A Farm Pasturing
Whoever finds himself the newly installed owner and occupant of a farm, should, before doing much beyond growing a crop in the ordinary way, study well its character, determine its capacities, make himself well acquainted with its peculiarities of... Legumes
Often land which was once thought excellent is left to grow up in weeds. The owner says that the land is worn out, and that it will not pay to plant it. What does "worn out" mean? Simply that constant cropping has used up the plant food in the land.... Life In The Country
As ours is a country in which the people rule, every boy and every girl ought to be trained to take a wide-awake interest in public affairs. This training cannot begin too early in life. A wise old man once said, "In a republic you ought to begin to... 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 n... Manuring The Soil
In the early days of our history, when the soil was new and rich, we were not compelled to use large amounts of manures and fertilizers. Yet our histories speak of an Indian named Squanto who came into one of the New England colonies and showed the ... Market-gardening
The word _horticulture_ is one of those broad words under which much is grouped. It includes the cultivation of orchard fruits, such as apples and plums; of small fruits, such as strawberries and raspberries; of garden vegetables for the table; of f... Milk Cream Churning And Butter
=Milk.= Milk is, as you know, nature's first food for mammals. This is because milk is a model food--it contains water to slake thirst, ash to make bone, protein to make flesh and muscle, and fat and sugar to keep the body warm and to furnish energy... More About Apple-trees
In my opinion, Apple-trees, in most orchards, are planted too far apart and allowed to grow taller and spread their limbs more widely than is profitable. I judge that a pruner or picker should be able to reach the topmost twig of any tree with a t... More Of Irrigation
I have thus far considered Irrigation with special reference to those limited, yet very considerable districts, which are traversed or bordered by living streams, and, having a level or slightly rolling surface, present obvious facilities for and ... Muck How To Utilize It
The time will be, I cannot doubt, when chemists can tell us the exact positive or relative value of a cord of Muck--how this swamp or that pond affords a choice article, while the product of another will hardly pay for digging. There may be chemis... Oats
The oat plant belongs to the grass family. It is a hardy plant and, under good conditions, a vigorous grower. It stands cold and wet better than any other cereal except possibly rye. Oats like a cool, moist climate. In warm climates, oats do best wh... Orchard Insects
=The San Jose Scale.= The San Jose scale is one of the most dreaded enemies of fruit trees. It is in fact an outlaw in many states. It is an unlawful act to sell fruit trees affected by it. Fig. 150 shows a view of a branch nearly covered with this ... Origin Of The Soil
The word _soil_ occurs many times in this little book. In agriculture this word is used to describe the thin layer of surface earth that, like some great blanket, is tucked around the wrinkled and age-beaten form of our globe. The harder and colder ... Peaches Pears Cherries Grapes
Our harsh, capricious climate north of the latitudes of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and St. Louis--so much severer than that of corresponding latitudes in Europe--is unfavorable, or at least very trying, to all the more delicate and luscious Fruits,...