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ROCKY MOUNTAIN HUSBANDMAN r si . A.A Journal Devoted to Agriculture, L4ve-stock, Home Beadi;g, and General News. P- 810GL COPY. VOL. 3. DIAMOND CITY, M. T., MAY 16, '78. NO. 26. )Uinml.Y %_ -n _ n ,if[ 1¶'.,IEUWEEKiLY 13D i L. N. SUTHE LIN, ED[TO t AN.D PR1'.O PRBIETOR The• )1cil MOUNTAIN IIUSB. NL[AN is desigenetd n he, ia i.ls iini ju11 in' ic:ftes, a hiusbzla nudm n n i every .eo , th l tetnl., l)h:';lAu in; in . col:irrins every i tmeit ot Agl'lture, Stotk-:Ci:.ig, ][orti uare, oci'al and )Domesti E ,o omv. ADTVERT[IING RATES. ,'F is" " $7 $9 $1'tO $ 30 nm uth 10 16 21 30 4 120 innthý I, 24 3 I 45'] 54 I . 1O 200 e : 40 G1 75 1 90 15 I 180 I 250 'TIr:ýes t dvcrtiseme,'te Ia V5' 'Ic inl advllance. }aUeul'ar nivertisellCmets pyinyaile q!il; terlv. Traity-tlie per cent. added for speca.1l aidertise. h!llrs A1 I C [ L T 11A L. T'I'I heallhiest p.eople on the fawe of the irtli are those who follow 'the occupation Sfarniers. The noblest specimens of hu ianity that figitre In the worldi'" history of I ges since the (lays of the good old patri tchs, are from the ralnks of husbandry. hen why should we of the iresent day not iok upon our a:lling with a hdue sense of lie? As it was in the time of ancient ,ome, .nd( has bee through every decade c'e, so it is now; the tarmier is the only ie soV'et'ign.i'l a01 idiolarcil'h tmonllt e men; Sother (,li,'es en it ,do him hiomaie. lie s the worhl. If there is indilpeh(lenice ywhcre it, is with the man who owns anc Is the .oil, and "who owes no pelnny lie moot pa."'' Seed time and harvest come !d go. as 'fime piisrues Iris endless cy.les, Id his stores ar; always full anlic- his board pplied with plenty. It' happiness exists ywhire on carl ii, cert;iiily it is beneath cool slp:ade of a( coumtr'y home, and wi.tlh the love-liglhtedl walls of'the farmer's thige whlat a treasure of Iheall.h innocencee I beeauty-lite's greatest wealth--tmaly be nd. What thin(ghl tile farmer's sons be wlny and sunl-broizd, anid his daughters' i ,ek mantled with :t crimsnon glow; 'tis Sthe insignia of toil-the proudest that be worn. Then stay by the farm ; lead .s of usefuhness and independence; the card comtlo each day that you live. INEXHAUSTIBLE SOIL. will try to answer Mr. Kauntze's queG regarding the " inexhaustible - soil." st of all, let me demur to his statement t `. what these ingredients (i. e., the in clients that determine fertility) are, real re do not protess to know." So far as I nw, no dloubt regarding these ingredients sto, or has existed for 30 years past. y are those out of which are' compound the conuercial fertilizers, in' the man-1 ure and purchase of which untold mil s are annually inlvested. The practical roved ftct that these substances main or restore fertility, and tlhiit they are in contained in the products which we e from the lields, sets at rest, it seems to all doubt on this question. is true that the imere presence of these redients, in an available-form, well known e inclispenrsable, is nevertheless not all iS needed. The physical condition of 'er yet nlot exceSsive moisture, heat and iousness mnust also be fultilled. in order the plant food may~ be available for tation. It is in regard to these condi £ ot availability that our knowledge is yet as definite as it is,in respect to the e natnre of the ingredients; and the e is true as regards the specific influen f such conditions upon the development re sever:il cultivated plants. at when a soil has borce good crops of tin kinds for a number of years. and ce:iaes. to bear themn while still under g the same treatment, and subject to amIe natural conditions, there cannot narily be any question that the failure is to the withdrawal of plant food from d,,aud tbat &'repl4ceume1tWof ,these in., grdc(hlents is called for as tl;e first condition of the restoration to fertility. This is the !cachiarg of the experience of 3,000 years, quite independently of -tlhe reason why," as ,developed by the progress of science. Coll vervely, whetn in one out of tell thousand ea;:rc we iind a soil which continues to bear crops indefinitely without returns being madtle by its cultivators, the first and ,reason able Supposition mriust be that, throug'h some exceptional natural cause, the replacement of ingredients takcs place without the intervention of m;an. In all cases that have been fully investi ga'ted so far, such an outside natural source of supply has been fonndl. That of the "bottomn lands" of the Nile is the flooding from the rivers traversing and washing away the fertile uplands of Abyssinia. Sim ilar cases, ont a smaller scale, are abundant; and, as retar(ls Californi;a, the testimony of many in the flooded district would seem to i show that if the sediment of the Sucramento ( were allowed to cover the valley every six l or eight years, we need seek no farther for c the inexhaustible soil. It is true that'here f we get a new soil with every flood. Then there are cases in which waters nat- v urally hold, in solution. -large :rmounts of e plant food, and therefore continually supply s the latter to the soils which they permeate. 1i This :has, in fact, given rise to the broad t statemeni tht t irrigation will, by'itself alone, i maintain fertility. It will do so in certain c cases, and somrre such seem to obtain in Cali- r fornia. If your correspondent will lefer to ii my late report, he will find on page 50 a h case in point, in the water running from a fi mine in El Dorado county. But there are' b more striking examples found among t.he a "alkali soils" of the State, On pages 45 to 47 of the document referred to will-be found s( analyses of the alkali from some of these` soils occurring in the southern part ot ithe v, State, in which potassium sals form a prom- it merit ingredient. These soils, in all proba- ti Allity, will never need potash manures, even tt if they should be reclaimed by under-drain- R lae-they certainly will not if reclaimed - with gypsum only. Sifice then, soils have come to hand whose alkali contains both of the other chief manurial substances. viz: phosphoric acid and nitrogen, the latter in the shape of potash nitrate. As it is likely tih that these substances wili always be sup- ar plHed in sutlicient q~tantities by the soil wat- bi er, 1 shall not be surprised if the Utopian te "Soil that never gives out" should be found w among the reclaimed alkali lands of Califor- m ~ia. ce wrI+h ,,hn. n...,,.+ + narml ni e .L n -l wv netner or not tne everrasting wneat soils of the Andes, mentioned by Boussingault, owe their perpetual fertility to similar causes we are not intormed, as no special observa tions have been made. Tnere is one other possible cause that has been occasionally noted, in the case of soils formed out of ev ery decomposable volcanic rocks, whose continued weathering irakes up for all the drafts made upon the soil by cropping. As to the assertion that "maize may like wise be produced continually upon the same soil without inconvenience," American farfli have, unfortunately. a very different story td tell. Ask the "prairie farmers" of 1111 nois where are the 80 bushels per aere they used to make when their land was fresh ? It is true that maize is not to be accounted a very exhaustive crop, when all but the ears is returned to the soil, and that it can usual ly be grown without rotation better than most crops. But apart from the Peruvian experience (which probhbly relates to cer tain volcanic soils), more than that can hard ly be said of it. But there are some crops whose nature happens to be such that what they with. t1liw from the soil becomes imperceptible in land naturally strong, whose available plant food receives considerable annumdt accessions through the natural action of the atmos phere, in farther decomposing (fallowing) he soil... Onte such orop is cotton,-ayhieh when) all hut the lint is returned to the field, can be raised on one and( -the same soil al most indefinitely. The simple reason is, that mn the lint only an insignificant amount of soil ingredients is carried off, viz : about one per cent. of what the whole plint re moves; and in strong soils that small quan tity is annually made good by the natural fallow. Such a soil may therehore be con sidered inexhaustible so far as cotton is con cerned, provided the stalks arnil' seeds be given back; but it would not be so for flax or grain, unless these crops were bodily plowed in whole instead of being harvested. In other words, the "residues" of some crops contain the greater part of the entire amount absorbed from the soil during their growth; while the stubble of grain, the vines of potatoes, etc., restored b'ut a smnall percentage of that sum total. When a fresh soil is taken into cultivation it contains the accumnul.ted riches of cen turies in plant food. There is nothing sur prising in a sixteen years' unchanged crop of 50 bushels of wheat, in fact, *I think Cali for.nia could "see" that and "go-better" in-a good many districts. But sixteen years is a very short time to base agricuitural experi ence on, and if Mr. K. were to visit these same Western wheat fields to-day, he would hear"ot 12, 10 and 8 bushels more frequently than even of 20. The truth is that a great many of these broad statements regarding continuous fertility, that have p:assed cur rent in books on agriculture, will not bear investigation' on the spot. Louisiana with her three feet of black alluvial soil, has found out to her cost that sugar-cane cannot be planted continuously on the same land; and the culture of"lnldigo in the Gulf States was well known to be "very hard on" the soil. before it was abandoned for cotton. With the rare exceptions mentioned, the vast majority of mankind will always find it necessary to provide against soil-exhaus tion by rational methods of culture and re turns to the soil.-E. W. Hilgard in Pacific Rural Press. TilE POU LTR Y YARD. THE BEST BREED OF FOWLS. The best fowls are those which will return the farmer the most money for time, labor, and food expended. If'a conmmnon or cross bred lot of fowls will do this, they are bet ter for the farmer's purposes than a breed which, in a fancy point of view, ivill com mand higher prices. As far as we arCK con cerned, we confess a leaning toward tlih'best blood in all kitads of stock, whether in horse flesh or neat-cattle, or other live stock; and we have invariably found it to pay, well. But here's the rub ; many fdrmers dot not care to expend a considerable sum of money to possess an entire flock of pure-bred chick ens,. and so dismiss the matter entirely, not even, in many instances, procuring a good, Dure-b'red cock, to bring up the quality tof their home-grown birds. There are mare y persons who think it not only ;possible, but comparatively easy; to have' both large size anrd superior laying qualities united; and that by uniting a breed `noted for large' size with a breed renowned fir the production of eggs the thing is done. That it is possible to increase the laying properties of the common flocks of the coun try by coupling the best hens and pullets with a first-class cock or cockerel from an egg-producing breed, we wellf know; but we can assure those who are anxiols. to make such a trial that you cannot combine extreme large size' with :ssuperor laying qualities, arid cannot ever tell what will re sult from such a cross until you"see and test the prod(lce, for the more violent'the cross the more uncertain will be the result, invar iably. Triough some breeders overlocok this very important point, and, consequently, fail to succeed. If, for some reasons best known to the pagties,..it is snot'.thougLt beet to have flocks of pure bred fowls, by all means, at least, infuse some new and special blood into your flocks, which wil not only give you chicks which possess much of the qualities of the male used, but will increase the stamina of - the flock-will make them stronger and more vigorous: Where it is more desirable to market the flesh of the fowls and chicks, a large breed of fowls should be looked for to increase the avoirdupois. In such a ca. pacity we can recommend the Light Brahma and the' Partiridge Cochths, having expert mented sevetal times with both on numbers of different flocks, and the result was invarl ably increased size and tardiness. Where nearness to large markets permits the farmer to get the cream of the prices by putting the eggs before his customers nice and fresh, the productiotl of eggs pays hand sornely. WIPsome of the laying breeds, such as the Leghorns and others, be beyond the reach or desire of thl6 farmer, then let us say, from experience, 'hatL will result in the best possible manner to the farmer's inter ests. SelEtct some of -your best and most vigorous hens and 6ullets, and have a well bred, pure-blooded Game cock to run with them, killing oft all other male birds. The result from' such a crdss will be a olass of birds which will lay splendidly; and espe cially are they noted, by those who have tried the experiment, as winter layers; and winter layers; we nil know, are the most proftltable.-Farm Journal. t EGGS. If an iticrease of eggs is desired in the t poultry yard, befbre v'try large sums of money are expended in the purel4ase of ov · erlasting layers, we wouldc recnutariend the e keeping, of no hens after the first, or at most, their second year. E~arly pullets give the increase, and the only wonder is that people persist, as they do, "Ill keeping up a stock of old hens, ýwhich lay one day and stop three, instead of laying tlree d:ays and stopping one. In some parts of England it is the invariable rule to keep pullets only one year. Feeding will do at grat deal-a surprising work, indeed--in the praoduction of eggs, but not'when old hens are concern ed; they' may put oil tat but they calnot put dow'i eggs.'- Their tales are told, their work is over; nothing' rematins to be done with fhem but to give'therr, a smell of the kitch'en fire and the sooner-they get that the betty for all parties. Of course therm are somtnold favorites whose lives can be spared as long as they can send forth their repre sentatives. Jtklicious matihg, by which we mean the advantage of a youthful cockerel, may be the means of even exhibition poul. try mtaking their appearence from the eggs of agood hen, and here we have the excep tion to the rule upon which we insist.-Lon don Agricultural Gazette." THE HOUSEHOLD. BECIPES. Scotch Cake.--One pound brown sugar, ore pound flour, one-halt pound butter, two eggs, one teaspoonful cinnamon ; roll very thin and bake. Apaquiniiities.-Yolks of t*o eggs, one' pint flour,'oue-half pint milk, two teAtspoon luls butter, a little salt;. roll very thin like wafers and bake. Wafles.-One pint sweet milk, four eggs, one large cupful cold rice or hominy, a little salt, flour to make a stiff batter, baking powder in the propdrtion of three teaspoon tuls to a quart of flour. Buttermilk Mu.ins.,-One quart buttertmilk, tyfo eggs, butter the size of an egg, two flat spoonfuls soda mixed in a little watei;, or one spoonful salerat's, two teaspoonftls salt, flour to make a thick batter; bake in rings in a quick oven. Baking Pooder.--Three ounces of tartarle : acid. tour ounces of Babhit's'salertus, nine ounces of flour. Pulverize the acid and sal- - eratus, mix thoroughly, and box:',- Thls'-. quzntity. will make a pound, ..