We live in a section of country where nature has not been lavish with
her gifts. Our soil is sandy and only produces paying crops by high
cultivation. Farming with us comes near to being one of the lost arts.
We are not tillers of the soil. Living, as we do, within sound of the
Atlantic surf, as it beats its everlasting measure upon our coast, we,
from associations of birth and early training, plow the Ocean for a
living, the furrows frequently stretching from pole to pole, or to the
opposite side of the globe. Few, very few, keep cows. A large proportion
of our people do not keep any, and it is not common to find many that
have more than one.
We keep a good grade Jersey, and will give our way of keeping one cow,
having learned long ago, that stock of any kind paid for good care.
Keeping a lot of cattle or hogs, or poultry, and simply feeding what
we happen to have, or what we can buy cheap, leaving them to shift for
themselves in cold and stormy weather, or giving them wet uncomfortable
stables, always results in disease to the stock and loss to the owner.
We sow as early in the spring as the ground is in condition to work,
forty rods with a mixture of oats and peas, and forty rods in spring
rye. We commence cutting our oats and peas as soon as the peas begin to
bloom. Where we have a good stand, a rod per day, divided in three feeds,
morning, noon, and night, is generally enough. As soon as we have cut
about ten rods we plow under the stubble, and plant Early Minnesota Sweet
Corn—rows two and one half feet apart—hills two feet in the rows, leaving
two and three stalks in a hill. The next ten rods we serve in the same
manner. If our rye is now grown enough to cut with profit we commence
feeding it, and cut the balance of our oats and peas, and cure them for
winter.
If our rye is not fit to cut for soiling, we continue to use our oats and
peas until it is, and then cure for winter what is left. As soon as the
last of our oats are off, we plant about four rods with beets (mangel
wurzel). We prefer the Globe varieties, as the yield is better on our
soil. The balance of our oat-and-pea ground we sow with Hungarian grass.
As soon as we have cut ten rods of our rye, we manage as with our oats,
turn under the stubble and again plant sweet corn. The earlier the
variety the better. We prefer the Early Minnesota. As soon as we have
cleared off the next ten rods of our rye, we plant from two to four rods
with turnips. The balance we sow with a mixture of Hungarian and the
earliest “Canada Gray” pea. We now feed our rye until our first planting
of corn and Hungarian will do to feed, when we turn under the rest of the
rye stubble (curing what is left of the rye for winter), sow half with
Hungarian and the balance we sow (not plant) with sweet corn. As soon as
our first planting of corn is cut up, we sow two or three rows broadcast
with flat turnips, some of the strap-leaved varieties, hoeing or raking
them in by hand. We continue to plant or sow some quick-growing variety
of corn, peas, grass, grain, or roots, even when it is very doubtful if
we shall receive any return for our time and work; but we frequently get
a fair yield from our third planting. I presume a great many will be
sceptical in regard to this “third crop business.” It must be remembered
that our first sowing is made very early in the spring, and that we do
not wait until any of our forage crops mature, but we cut them long
before they would be ripe, thereby shortening the time of their growth
and leaving the ground to be planted with something else.
The above is no iron rule, but subject to great variations. Our plan is
to sow as early as possible in the spring with the earliest maturing
grass or grain we can get, and from the time we commence cutting until
there is no possibility of getting any return. We sow and plant wherever
we have a few rods of bare ground, as soon as any of our crops are
maturing or there is something coming forward to take its place. We cut
and cure what is left for winter. We advise close seeding in all cases,
roots, of course, excepted.