What I know about farming : a record of thirty-five years of practical experience in agriculture and horticulture

Front matter

^ i

^X

Class Sl_5-04-

CHAPTER I Page What Is Soil? - - - - 22

The Essential Elements - - 23 Swamp-Lands and Jack-Pine

Natural Forestry an Indicator of Soil ----- Poor Soil Made Good Soil -

Page

25 26

Soil Robbery Crop Rotation Poisoned Soils Seed Sowing Commercial Fertilizers Testing Soils

CHAPTER II 28 The Value of Manures

29 Constant Cultivation - - -

29 Lime a Necessity _ . .

30 Manure Spreader - - _

31 President Taft's Prophecy -

31 A Recent Instance of Scientific 33 Farming - - - _ _

CHAPTER III Things to Know About Fertilizers ------ 41

Manures ----- 41

Analysis of Manure - - - 42

Fresh Manure - - - - 43

Rotted Manure - - - - 43

Poultry Manure - - - - 43

The Value of Lime as a Fertilizer - - - - .

Soil Preparation - - - - Conservation of Soil Fertility - Data from Experiment Stations Making Straw Pay - - _

CHAPTER IV The Business Farmer - - - 47 Labor-Saving Tools and Meth- Country Life Commissions - 48 ods ---___

Economical Farm Management 48 Keep Farm Accounts - - -

Own Your Farm

Time Is Money -

Three Classes of Farmers

Organization

House Plans

Cellar and Cistern

Stone Construction

Sanitation and Beauty

Barn Buildings -

Stone Barns

Good Ventilation

Sheep Barns

Machine Shed

Corn Crib and Ice House

CHAPTER V 53 Give the Children Pleasant Mem

54 Inspire Your Boys and Girls

55 A Fresh Air Outing - - -

CHAPTER VI How to Build a Silo - - - Capacity and Dimensions of

Cost of Filling a Silo - - - How to Protect Buildings from

Lightning - - - _ - The Farm Water System - System of Hog Fencing Fence Building - - - - Concrete Walks - - - _

33 34 36 37 38

43 44 45 45 46

56 57 59

75 76 77 77 78

CONTENTS— Contmu^c^

CHAPTER VII Page Pasture and Meadow

Clover and Cow Peas - - -

Stock in Pasture - - - -

Meadows . - - - -

An Eastern Meadow - - -

Nurse Crops of Grain - - -

Seeding to Clover with Spring

Grains - - - - -

Cutting Clover - - - -

Cutting Timothy . - -

Begin Small - - - - -

House Planting in ^Nlarch - Manures or Fertilizers

The Cold Frame - - - -

Hot Be'ds - - - - -

Potatoes - - - - -

How to Plant - - - -

Seed Potatoes Should Be Whole

Potato Culture - - - -

Potato Diseases - - - -

Marketing - - - - -

Rhubarb . _ _ - -

Radishes - - - - -

Lettuce _ _ - - -

Endives . - - - -

Spinach Asparagus

79 Hay Heating - - - -

80 Manure Spreaders - - -

81 How to Raise Alfalfa -

81 The Best Kinds of Soil

82 Getting the Soil Ready 82 The Weed Question -

Selection of Seed . - -

Planting the Seed _ . - When to Cut Alfalfa - The Question of Inoculation

CHAPTER VIII 89 Tomatoes

Sweet Corn -----

Garden Peas - - - -

Lima Beans _ - - .

Cucumbers - - - - -

Cabbage - - - - -

Pumpkins - - _ - - Egg Plant - - - - -

Melons ------

Celery ------

Storing Celery - - - -

Miscellaneous - - - .

Wintering of Vegetables in Cold

Climates - - - - -

Vegetable Pests - - - -

Cutworm - - - - -

Page 84

83 83 84

90 90 91 92

Corn Planting - - -

Cultivation - - - - Cultivating Tools

Field Corn - - - -

Fodder Corn . - -

A Home-Made Fodder Cutter

Seed Corn - - - -

Good Seed - - - -

Getting Good Seed -

Buying Seed . _ -

Testing Seed - _ -

Corn Smut - - - - The Corn Worms

Why Does Popcorn Pop? - The Oat Field - Rye in Minnesota

85 86 86 87 87 87 87

113 114 114

CHAPTER IX - 116 Cow Peas Sown for Live Stock 126

- 117 Growing Flax - . . - 127

- 120 Sorghum Raising - - - 130

- 121 Wheat Raising - - - - 131

- 121 Rust Resistance - - - - 132

- 123 Seeding to Winter Grain - - 135

- 123 The Hessian Fly - - - - 136

CONTENTS— Contmued

CHAPTER X Page

Raspberries ----- 138

Care the First Summer - - 139 Another Method of Planting,

Heeling in - - - - - 141

Blackberries - - _ - 141

Strawberry Culture - - - 142

Planting and Culture - - - 143

Old Strawberry Beds - - - Strawberries the Second Season Currants and Gooseberries - Protect from Worms - - - Grapes ------

Pruning Grapes - - - -

Bagging Grapes - - - -

Cutting and Layering Grapes - Insecticides - - - - -

CHAPTER XI Sites and Soils - - - - 154

Methods of Planting - - - 154

Dynamite in Orchard Planting - 155

Distance Apart - - - - 156

Transplanting - - - - 157

Propagation - - _ _ 157

Cultivation ----- 158

Mulching for too Early Bloom - 158

Cover Crops - - _ - 159

Pruning Trees - - - - 159

General Directions - - - 160

Apple, Pear, Cherry, Quince - 160

Pruning Tools - - - - 162

Making Over Old Orchards - 162

How to Top Graft - - - 163

Subsequent Treatment - - 164

Danger from Early Frosts - - 165

Insect Pests and Diseases - - 166

San Jose Scale - - - - 166

Spray Formulas - - - - 167

Other Remedies and Preventior* 168

Blight in Pear and Apple Trccf 169

How to Prune - - - 170

Sun Scald - - - - - 170

Hedge for Fruit Orchard - - 171 Directions for Planting in the

Hedge ----- 172 A Golden Willow Hedge for a

Fruit Garden - - - - 173

Chapter XII

Who Plants a Tree (Poem) Farm Forestry - - - Value of Tree Planting Methods of Tree Planting - The Elm Tree - - -

Varieties - - - .

When to Transplant and How Seedling Evergreens - Plant Away from Windows Sweep up the Snow - Using Tackles - _ _

Planting for Shade and Ornament

: 180

Mr. Emman's Grove - - -

Rapidity of Growth of Trees -

Trees of the Northwest -

The Care of a Woodlot

\pt:

Trees, Planting of Shrubbery - ER XIII

To Save Split Trees - - -

Pruning Trees and Hedges

Hedges -----

Watering Trees - - - -

Miscellaneous Notes - - -

The Tree Borer - - - -

Tree Stories - - _ .

COlSiTENTS— Continued

Chapter XIV

Soil Preparation - - - Transplanting and Cultivating Watering - - - - Seed Sowing . - -

In-Door Seed Sowing - House Plants - - - Alphabetical List of Varieties Hard and Soft Wood Cuttings Cutting - - - -

Striking the Cutting - Rose Culture - - - Pruning Roses - - - Winter Protection Rose Hedges - - -

Page

- 198 When to Plant -

- 198 Growing Rose Cuttings

- 198 Planting Climbers

- 199 Tea Roses - - -

- 199 Rose Pests -

- 199 Rose Jar -

- 200 The Greenhouse -

- 200 The Sash Greenhouse -

- 206 Comparative Costs

- 207 The Roof Pitch -

- 207 The Direction of the Sun

- 208 The Commonest Blunders

- 209 The Question of Width

- 209 Heating the Greenhouse

- 211 Figuring the Heating -

CHAPTER XV The Essentials - - - - Protect the Hives

Shipping Bees - - - -

Summary for General Spring

Treatment - - - -

Safe Wintering - - - -

Arranging Hives - - -

Pr.ge

■ 211

- 211 • 212

Bees in a Cave - - -

Uniting Stock . . _

Feeding the Bees

Shipping Bees and Honey -

Bee Pests and Diseases

Beeswax _ _ . _

Bee Stings - - - -

The Life of the Bee -

CHAPTER XVI Poem— The Hens Lay Every

Begin with Economy - Building the Poultry House Care of the Interior - Poultry Houses— Octagon Shape Another Way to Build the Hen

House - - ■ " "

Chicken House No. 3 - Chicken House No. 4 - Chicken House No. 5 - Chicken House No. 6 - A St. Paul, Minn., Chicken House A Crookston, Minn., Chicken

House _ - - - - House No. 9 - - - - Ventilation - - - - - The Scratching Room A Cloth Pocket Hen's Nest Laying and Setting - - -

-

Good Winter Layers

_

Setting Hens

-

The Incubator Chick( en

The Hen-hatched Ch ick

The Feeding of Poultry

Crop Rotation for Poultry

The Warm Mash

-

Various Methods of

Feeding

Value of Clover and

Alfalfa

Selling Poultry at a

Loss -

Geese - - -

-

Ducks -

-

Turkeys

-

Squab Raising

-

Diseases of Fowls

-

Nighthawks -

-

General Helps

-

Storing Eggs

-

Uses of Eggs

-

Summary

-

Stock Breeding -

Native Cattle Short Horn Cattle

CONTENTS— Confmuet/

CHAPTER XVII Page

- 270 Other Types

- 271 Beef Cattle for Market

Page

■ 273

■ 274

CHAPTER XVIII Dairying _

Selection and Breeding Care and Feed - Milking _ _ _

Care of Milk Butter Making -

275 275 275 276 276 276

Silo and Silage - - - - 278

Construction of the Silo - - 278

Cost of Silo - - - - 278

The Cow for Small Farm or

Dairy Notes ----- 279

Winter Rations for Milch Cows 277

Chapter XIX

Horse Department - - - 281 Horse Breeding and Horse Lovers - - - - - - 281

The Percheron-Norman - - 281

The American Trotter - - 282

The Father of Trotters - - 282

Prominent Sons of Messenger - 283

Mambrino's Descendants - - 283 Descendants of Bishop's Ham-

bletonian ----- 284

Descendants of Other Sons of

^Messenger - - - _ 284

History of Trotting Performances ----- 284 Arabian Horses - - - - 286 Stock Needed on the Farm - 286 The General Purpose Horse - 287 Raising and Breaking Colts - 287 Bitting the Colt and Training to

Diseases and Remedies - - 288

How Medicines are Applied - 288

To Protect Horses from Flies - 292

To Thicken the Mane and Tail 292

Frosts and Sprays

Facts About Frosts - - - 293

What Is Frost? - - - - 293

Location ----- 293

Factors that Influence Frosts - 293

Protection Against Frosts - - 294

Winter Protection for Shrubbery 294

Frost and Temperature Table - 295

CHAPTER XX - 293 After Frosts

Spray Calendar and Formulas - 297

Sprays for Vegetables - - 297

Sprays for Small Fruits - - 298

Sprays for Orchard - - - 299

Sprays for Forestry - - - 301

Formulas — Fungicide - - - 301

Formulas — Insecticides - - 302

CHAPTER XXI The Woman on the Farm - - 304

The Mission of the Farmer's

Will Educate the Children - - 304

Mrs. Burns' Outline - - - 305

A Practical Farmer's Wife - 305

Danish Law as to Loans - - 306

Observe Economy -. - - 306

Have a Soil Survey - - - 306

Sanitarj' Surroundings - - 307

Labor-Saving ^Methods - - 307

Recreation ----- 309

The Most Valuable Crop - - 309

CO'NTE^TS— Continued

Chapter XXII

Farming Methods . - - Habits and Diet - - - - Some of the Successful Farmers Early Farm Machinery Squatters -----

Page

Making Maple Syrup and Sugar 317

Laying in Stores for the Future 317

Wild Fruit and Game - - - 318

Two Great Inventors - - - 318 The American Farmer of the

20th Century - - - - 319

CHAPTER XXIII Miscellaneous Hints - - - 321

Poison Ivy or Oak - - - 322

The Farm Walk and Driveway 322

Trees and Vines - - -

Curing Pork or Bacon - - 324

Pickle for Pork -

Dried Beef -

Smokehouse

For Dyspeptics -

A Minnesota Orchard

323 A New York Thanksgiving at the Farm House - - -

List of Illustrations

The Author -----___ Frontispiece '- An Ideal Farm House -------- (3i

Main Stock Farm, State Experimental Farm, Minnesota - - 65 "^ A Model Sheep Barn, State Experimental Farm, Minnesota - 73 «/

Great Stand of Wheat - - - - - - - -129/'

Strawberry-Raspberry -------- j^j (/'

Strawberry Bed on a City Lot ----___ i^^ </

A Prolific Growth of Grapes ------- 1491/

A Young Orchard on Sandy Soil -_---_ y6\ v

Starting a Park on a Sand Bar ------ 177^

Ornamental Shade Trees on Gravelly Ground - - - - 1811/

Shade Trees Grown in Three Years ----- 185*

Group of Evergreens --------- 189 v

Golden Willow Hedge -----___ 193^

A Great Flower Bed --------- 201

Bees in Glass Case --------- 225

The Safety Pocket Hen's Nest ------- 237

Plan for a Model Hen House ------ 241^

Orange Blossom of Fairview — First Prize Cow _ - - 270 ^

Duke of Airdrie Bull ---_--_. 271^

A Pair of Heavy Weight Holstein Oxen ----- 272

Tenth Duchess of Geneva — 5 -year-old Cow - - - - 273^'

Pair of Mammoth Short Horn Oxen ------ 2741

First Duchess of Oneida — 23^-year-old Heifer - - - 275/

Sadie Vale Concordia — World's Champion Butter Cow - - 2,'j'j \j

Lady Fragrance — Pure Bred Short Horn - _ _ _ 279 s/

Black Percheron Draft Horse ------- 281 ^'

Lou Dillon — Trotting Queen ------- 287 ^

Mrs. John A. Widtsoe — Congress of Farm Women - - - ^q- v

Mrs. Amy B. Cooper — Congress of Farm Women - - 307 v/

Mrs. Chas. A. Lory — Congress of Farm W^omen - - - 309 \A

Mrs. Eleanor L. Burns — Congress of Farm Women - - 311 "^

Preface

This book is the outgrowth, as the title declares, of forty years of a mature experience of the life of the all-around farmer. I was born on a Central New York farm, grew to manhood on the same farm, and managed it for twenty-five years thereafter. Then circumstances sent me to other parts of the United States to continue along the same lines of agricultural and horticultural work. In those forty years, however, the outlook of farming in this country has greatly changed. Realizing this fully, from my wide acquaintance with the various farming sections of the nation. I have written these pages, in the hope that I may aid the young farmers of the day by presenting methods of work which are the results of a practical adjustment to each other of the old and new ways of farming. Verv little is set down in the work which has not had the test of my own labors in one field or another. For such few pages as are gleaned from the practice of other farmers I have aimed to give credit where due. Acknowledgements are also made to the valuable agricultural papers of the country for suggestions in their columns which corroborated my own field work. Especially is credit given to Farm. Stock and Home, the Northwestern Agriculturist, The Farmer and the Canadian Thresherman.

During the past few years there has been a loud call of "back to the land." Today the business of farming and horticulture is made to appear more attractive than ever before by the alluring advertising literature which is issued in such profusion by the numerous land companies and colonizing agencies in all sections of the country. To the uninitiated and to those who have had limited experience in agricultural pursuits I wish to sound a note of warning : Farming is a serious business. It requires just as much brains to be a successful farmer as it does to be a successful merchant or manufacturer, for it is really a combination of both of these. It requires a certain amount of capital to start even a small farm, and in this respect too. it is not so very different from other legitimate lines of business. I trust that before embarking in the business of farming my readers will first count the cost. Farming is a good business. It is a useful, a necessary and a dignified occupation, upon which practically all other lines of industry depend. In one way or another, the prosperity of the whole country is regulated by the activities of the farmer.

It is hardly possible to learn all about a subject from books, no matter how well they may be written. Practical experience is necessary to round out one's education, and my advice to the beginner in any of the various departments touched upon in this book, is to begin slowly. If you are destined to become a farmer, study the business from every possible angle. Keep posted by reading agricultural reports ; get acquainted with your prosperous neighbors, and study their ways of doing things. Don't lose an opportunity to attend county and state fairs. Co-operate with those who are in the same line of business as yourself ; attend local grange meetings, and in every possible way help with your voice and bes't efforts to dignify and benefit your chosen calling, for in this, as in other lines of occupation, what is for the best interests of your neighbors is also best for you.

Chapter I

A MAN who had been a practical farmer for over fifty years in the west, was asked one day what his methods of farming had been that he had been so successful. Being a man of few words, he replied, "My methods? I didn't have any to begin with. I just found 160 acres of good rich soil that Uncle Sam gave me — and then — well, the rest was mostly what grit I put into it."

My farmer friend was not so far out of the way. In fact, if he had put "grit" the first of his two requisites, and the soil second, he would not have made any mistake. No man is fit for a successful farmer unless he has enough sand in his make-up to outweigh what he may find on his land. Yet, while the man behind the plow is the first factor in good farming, the character of the soil decides the market value of the farm. It is possible to buy poor virgin soil, and, by a continual outlay of time and money, make it over into good farming land. The time is coming when this kind of transformation will be a necessity to the world. But it is not yet so near that this book is written especially for the needs of such restorative agriculture.

It is assumed that the farmer who reads these chapters has already some reasonably good acreage, or that he plans to possess such acreage soon. Granted that, how can he make the most out of his farm, large or small? How can be get big crops with the least cost to himself — and to the land? In other words, how can he keep his land fertile?

These, and kindred questions, must be answered by the practical farmers of today in order to make farming pay dividends. The big farms and tracts of land are fast being cut up into smaller ones to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. This means that every square foot of the smaller farm must be brought up to a profitable fertility, as is now the case in the old country, and this involves a systematic, if not a thoroughly scientific, rotation of crops, which will insure large yield, while conserving, if not increasing, the fertility of the soil.

Every farmer of today must realize the enormous waste that goes on where only one crop is raised year after year, and he appreciates the fact that diversified farming is the logical solution, of the farm conservation problem. Here every part of the operation and growth is dependent upon every other part. Fertilizers from the barns, stables and stockyards go to the fields and pastures, and the crops, in the shape of feed, go back again to the barns, stables, stockyards like an endless chain. Where before there were only one or one and half tons of hay to the acre, under these conditions three tons can be produced ; where before 35 or 40 bushels of corn were raised, now 90 to 100 bushels can be grown ; and so it is with wheat, formerly 12 or 15 bushels, now on well conducted farms 30 bushels can be raised. The farmer's soil, not unlike his animals, must be cared for and fed to produce the best and most lasting results. No one would expect to get a good rich milk from a starved cow. Why then should he attempt to farm on starved land?

Discouragements will come and harvests will be bad. The best soil "goes back" on a man in some years. But through ups and downs, the farmer, whether born a farmer or made a farmer by force of circumstances, will learn that fertility depends upon certain materials in his soil, and that thorough, increasing cultivation is just as much needed that good soil may remain fertile, as to give fertility to barren lands.

What Is Soil?

The soil contains, in varying quantities, those materials which are necessary for plant growth. By careful handling we may change the relative proportion of those materials. By keeping the soil in such a state, through proper and timely cultivation, that heat, frost, air and water can have the best chance to work upon it, to disintegrate the particles and make the important ingredients available, and to keep it sanitary so that the roots of the growing plant lying in this mass of well kept matter called soil, may have the best possible environment, the best soil will remain best and the poor soil will gradually grow better.

This brings us to the question of the formation, properties and constituents of soils. Briefly, soil is that part of the earth's crust in which plants are able to grow. It was originally formed from the rocks, by disintegration and erosion. To these particles have been added from time to time, more or less animal and vegetable matter, called humus. These various deposits when carried to new localities by water, change their character. Examples of this are the valley of the Nile River in Egypt, and our own Mississippi valley. These valleys have benefited by the large amount of humus which they received at the expense of the other and higher regions.

Soils possess both physical and chemical properties. Among the most important physical properties of the soil are : The size and form of the soil particles; their relation to heat, cold, air and water; their weight and their color, order, etc.

These properties have considerable bearing in determining what use to make of a certain soil. The size of the particles determines the class of soil ; thus clay is composed of the finest particles, and derives the quality of slow percolation of water from this condition. Silt ranks next in fineness and then comes sand. Each of the above named soils is particularly adapted to some class of crops and poor results are usually obtained by attempting to grow other groups of crops on them. The best potato soil, for instance, contains a very large proportion of sand, corn soil possesses about an equal proportion of sand, silt and clay, while the best gr^ss and grain soil has a preponderance of silt. A wheat soil, however, should be finer than for other small grains, so a soil containing- a larger proportion of clay can be used.

The Essential Elements.

Water in its relation to the soil is far and away the most important of the elements. Of course the alternate action of heat and cold upon the earth's crust in disintegrating it cannot be underrated, neither can the action of frost or air be left out. But without water there would be little need of any of the others so far as vegetation goes. Water may be found in the soil as bottom water — the distance of this from the surface may be told generally by the depths of wells of the community — and as capillary water, or that water held by capillary attraction between the particles of the soil. This is an important source of water supply to plants and may be conserved during dry weather by intelligent cultivation and mulching.

On the other hand water may be lost to the soil, (1) by percolation — the downward tendency of water mostly in sandy soils. This is bad because the plant food is carried too far down to do the plants any good. In loose soils this may be remedied by the addition of humus. (2) By evaporation, or the loss of water by the action of the air. This can be prevented largely by mulching and cultivating. (3) By transpiration, or loss of water by evaporation through the leaves of the plants. This loss cannot be prevented and the hot dry winds often cause the plants to wilt because transpiration takes place so rapidly.

Micro-organisms have been an important factor in the production of soils. Their action upon the soil is both physical and chemical. While there are between 65 and 70 elements in the soil, only about 12 are known to be essential to plant and animal life, three particularly necessary. These are nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash.

Nitrogen is a constituent of chlorophyll, the green coloring matter of plants, and when there is a dearth of it only a limited amount of chlorophyll can be produced. If nitrogen is absent from the soil, plants do not make any appreciable growth ; the leaves do not develop, and, as the leaves are the stomachs of a plant, the whole organism suffers. Nitrogen is particularly necessary during the early part of the plant's growth; for example, wheat uses about 85% of its nitrogen before the plant heads out at all.

Those plants with rich green, well developed leaves, are not in need of nitrogen. Too much available nitrogen causes the plant to direct its energy to wood-making and not to the production of fruit and seeds. Plants are also able to take nitrogen from the air. The most common example of this is the clover family, which extracts nitrogen from the air and deposits it in nodules at the roots of the plants. Raising clover is one of the best ways of adding nitrogen to a soil.

Phosphoric acid is also very essential during the early part of the plant's growth. In the case of the wheat plant, it has been shown that 80% of all phosphorous used is taken up during the first half of its growth. Light-weight grain results from an imperfect phosphorous supply.

Like the other two essential elements, potassium or potash is needed in the early stages of plant growth. It goes into the building of fibers, woods, etc. In a grain crop it is present in leaves and straw. Wood ashes are rich in potash.

Another element which is very important and by some considered as essential as the first three is lime. A soil lacking in this element grows plants lacking in hardiness. Grain crops do not remove very much lime while clovers take a great deal. Lime not only acts upon the soil chemically and combines with other elements to make them available as plant food, but improves the soil physically, if, of course, it is not present in too large quantities.

A rocky or an arid soil with clay subsoil often has available large quantities of these elements and only needs irrigation and cultivation.

All California needs to make it the garden of the United States is water. The same might be said of many other localities now awaiting national irrigation projects. On the other hand, a soil with an abundance of moisture may become so water-tight that the action of the atmosphere is hindered and thus the greatest factor in the health of the soil becomes an evil. Neither from stones nor muckholes can a farmer make a living. Yet what shall he do with the rock or the swamp-land if he happens to possess them?

Swamp-Land and Jack-Pine Lands.

The rocky land at once suggests its own cure. The few farmers of New York now living who can remember how they built the stone walls that fenced ofif their acres two generations ago could tell us something on this point. But the value of the swamp-land is not yet so well understood as it will be when state drainage has reclaimed the thousands of acres still left for the coming settlers to beautify and make productive by intelligent agriculture. It is especially rich in humus, as a rule, having received for ages the washings of the surrounding lands. And where the proper scientific use has been made of the little swampy corner of the farm home, it has been able to return the interest on the money invested in its drainage sometimes many fold. The same may be said of the jack-pine lands and of some ordinary pine lands. Instead of leaving the lands behind him to move on further west, the young man of small means would do better to try his skill at continuous yields of clover upon the better class of jack-pine lands. The department of agriculture has a bulletin based on the investigations of one of the department's workers in the jack-pine lands of Michigan. There clover has been grown for seed with yields of from 2 to 6 bushels an acre, at the same time greatly benefiting the soil. But the intending farmer is cautioned not to expect his farm to reach a high state of cultivation for at least three or five years. After that he can carry on such diversified farming as the locality permits.

The requisites to success on these lands are: