«H|f ^. ^. ^tU ICthrarg NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES S01 906231 M '#• Date Due - ^H 1 ^^H mm HEC « Ut.v* S501 180V W27 Wmri n c CI "P. WfiTino*' n l^r>r»V 0"P +V>*^ "fnTwi -^ DATE ISSUED TO ' / : '**""■ / / _, ^ . / / / 1 W N^ V 1 WAKING'S BOOK OF THE FARM; BEING A REVISED EDITION OF THE HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. A GUIDE FOR FARMERS. CONTAINING PUACTICAL INFORKATION IN REGARD TO BUYING OR LEASING A FARM — WHEN AND WHERE TO BUY — BEGINNING OPERATIONS — KEY-NOTE OP PRACTICAL FARMING — FENCES AND FARM BI'ILIUXGS — FARMING IMPI.EJIEXTS DRAINAGE AND TILE-MAKING PLOWING, SITBSOILING, TRENCHING, AND PULVERIZING THE SURFACESOIL — MAN- URES — ROTATION OF CROPS — ROOT CROPS — FORAGE CROPS — LIVE STOCK, INCLUDING CATTLE, HORSES, SHEEP, SWINE, POULTRY, ETC., WITH WINTER MANAGEMENT, FEKDING, PASTURING, SOILING, ETC. — DIRECTIONS FOR MEDICAL AND SURGICAL TREAT- MENT OF THE SAME — THE DAIRY IN ALL ITS DEPARTMENTS — USEFUL TABLES FOB FARMERS, GARDENERS, ETC., ETC. By GEORGE E. WARIXG, Jr., OF OGDEX FARM, Consulting Engineer for Sanitary and Agricultural Works. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COAXES, '^^ Eutered accordiDg to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by POUTER & COAXES, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. I HAVE on my shelves an old book — worm-eaten and time-worn— which professes to teach every art connected with the domestic ani- mals of a hundred years ago, from horses and cattle to goats and fighting-cocks, including their diseases, their habits, and their uses, together with every art belonging to the complete education of a sporting man of the last century; — all written "By a Country Gentleman //w// his own experience. ^^ Such originality cannot be claimed for the present work ; for while none of the operations of the farm are unfamiliar to me, and while I profess to be, by education and experience, a practical farmer, I have tried to tell in its pages not only what I have learned over my work, — which, in the case of any individual, is woefully little, — but also what I have gained from the recorded experience of other farmers, who have been accumulating, little by little for 2000 years and more, the precious sap with which our tree of knowledge is fed. I have endeavored, too, to look beyond the farmer who has done so much for the unfolding of the riches that Nature, our universal mother, showers upon her industrious sons, and to question, as well, those devoted friends of the farmer, the chemist and the student, who ask from Nature something more than her material gifts, who seek the very cunning of her deft handicraft, who — not satisfied with the fact that she rolls up her bounty from seed-time until harvest — ask how her work is done ; how the seed sprouts, the leaf shoots, the blossom unfolds, the fruit ripens ; how renewed life and vigor spring from death and decay ; how fields are exhausted, and how made fertile ; how crops are increased, and kine are grown ; how from only ^tl^ V-^ c^^ 4 PREFACE. air and earth and water such a marvel as man is made to live and move. I trust that my experience as a farmer has assisted and guided my effort to separate the chaff from the wheat, or at least to select from the teachings of others (whether in the field or in the study) the information that the farmer, as a farmer, will be most benefited by gaining. I have endeavored to forego all theorizing, and to state the leading facts of the art and of the science of farming as plainly and clearly as I could, so that any man who can read at all, and who has ordinary intelligence, may find my statements as free as possible from "hard words," and that he may feel, as he goes along, that it is a brother farmer who is talking to him, and that what he is saying both his reason and his experience lead him to believe worth the telling. It is now too late in the day for a sensible man to look with anything but profound respect on the invaluable aid rendered to agriculture by the discoveries of science and by the practical ap- plication of these discoveries; and if any farmer feels the old carp- ing spirit rising within him, he will, if he be wise, look for a moment at the other side of the question, and consider in what important particulars his own life has been improved by that which he denounces as book-farming, — to which he owes the iron plow, the mowing ma- chine, and probably the house over his head. This book is intended especially for the use of those practical, work- ing farmers who are willing to believe that, while they have learned much from their own experience, it is not impossible that other farmers (and men in other vocations as well) may have learned some- thing too — something that it may benefit them to learn also ; and who are liberal enough to see that the truth and value of a fact is not destroyed by its being printed. As will be seen by reference to the Table of Contents, a wide range of subjects is discussed : in fact, it has been attempted to write just such a book as a young man leaving another occupation and turning his thoughts to farming would be glad to take for his guide. There is PREFACE. 5 not an important statement in these pages that I do not believe to be reliable, nor a theory advanced that my own experience has not taught me to approve. Calling especial attention to the third and eighth chapters of the book, — "The Key-Note of Practical Farming," and "Manures," — the only ones in which the chemistry of farming is much noticed, — it may be said that they are the result of years of study §.nd specula- lion, kneaded into shape by other years of experience. It is sad to look back to the days when "Agriculture " was a rosy future with me ; when my work was done with the regularity and precision of clock-work by cheap and respectable farm hands ; when my crops were all large and my cattle were all fat ; when an analysis of my soil, and a chemical ledger-account with each field, kept fertility at the top mark ; and when the balance-sheet at the end of the year was always adding to my fortune, — and then to bring my sobered gaze down over the hillside of hard realities that ended in the plain of simple "Farming," of humdrum hard work, dear labor, scant manure, small crops, bad markets, sick animals, and — the least in the world — a sick heart; with "soil analysis" an ignis fatuiis, and nothing but patience and toil and skill and experience and hard study to take its place. I make no complaint of the disappointment, for even the harder experiences of life are not without their advantages, — when they are past, — but the hope of turning the steps of other young farmers into pleasanter paths was not the least motive for the writing of this book. GEO. E. WARING, Jr. Ogden Farm, Newport, R. I., 1877. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FAGB 1. Stone Wall, Cross Section of. Fig. i 45 2. " " Fig. 2.. 45 3. Farm Gate. Fig. 3 47 4. Gate Fastening. Fig. 4 48 5- " F'g- 5 49 6. Outline of Farm- Yard. and Buildings at Ogden Farm 53 7. Sectional View of Barn " " 55 8. Perspective " " " 56 9. Arrangement of Cattle Floor " " 57 10. " Basement Floor " " 58 11. Cross Section of Barn Plan " " 60 12. Arrangement of Root and Manure Cellar " " 62 13. Perspective View of Medium-sized Barn. Fig. 13 65 14. Principal Floor " Fig. 14 66 15. Basement Floor " Fig. 17 68 16. View of Barn Ventilator. Fig. 15 66 17. " •' Fig. 16 66 18. Perspective Elevation of Barn and Sheds. Fig. 18 69 19. Ground Plan of the Same. Fig. 19 70 20. Second Floor " Fig. 20 71 21. Section of the Main Barn. Fig. 21 72 22. Section of Wing. Fig. 22 73 23. Farm Roads. Fig. 23 79 24. " Fig. 24 80 25. " Fig- 25 So 26. " Fig. 26 81 27. Drains, Line of Saturation between. Fig. 27 92 28. " Outlets of, secured by Masonry, etc. Fig. 28 97 29. Drainage Map of a Ten-Acre Field. Fig. 29 99 30. Defective Grade Illustrated. Fig. 30 loi 31. Bracing the Sides in Soft Fands. Fig. 31 103 32. Narrow Ditching Spade. Fig. 32..; 103 33. Measuring Staff. Fig. 33 103 34. Boning Rod. P"ig. 34 104 35. Finishing Scoop. Fig. 35 104 36. Position of Workman and Use of Scoop. Fig. 36 105 1 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PACS 37. Sighting by the Boning Rods. Fig. 37 105 38. Pipe Tile and Collar. Fig. 38 ... 106 39. Pick for Dressing Tile, etc. Fig. 39 107 40. Lateral Drain. Fig. 40 108 41. Sectional View of Joint. Fig. 41 loS 42. Silt-B.\sin of Six-Inch Tile. Fig. 42 109 43. Square Brick Silt-Basin. Fig. 43 109 44. Silt-Basin, built to the Surface. Fig. 44 no 45. Silt-Basin of Vitrified Pipe. Fig. 45 in 46. Mall for Ramming. Fig. 46 in 47. Boynton's Fire-clay Tile. Fig. 47 nS 48. " " " Fig. 48 118 49- " " " Fig. 49 118 50. " " " Fig. 50 119 51- " " " Fig. 51 119 52. " " " Fig. 52 119 53- " " " Fig. 53 119 54. Tile-Draining Implements. Fig. 54 121 55. Opening the Ditch and Laying the Tile. Fig. 55 122 56. Drainage BY means OF Plank. Fig. 56 126 57. Laying out a Field for Plowing. Fig. 57 138 58. Subsoil Plow. Fig. 58 141 59- " " Fig. 59 141 60. Whiffletree and Evener for Three Horses. Fig. 60 144 61. Field Roller. Fig. 61 146 62. Shares P.\tent Colter. Fig. 62 149 63. Horse Hoe. Fig. 63 151 64. Holbrook's Horse Hoe. Fig. 64 152 65. The Muller. Fig. 65 152 66. Corn Crib, rat and mouse proof. Fig. 66 249 67. " " " Fig. 67 250 68. Horses 69. 70. 71- 72. Hoofs and Feet Illustrated. Fig. 68 407 " " Fig. 69 407 " " Fig. 70 408 " " Fig. 71 411 «• «* Fig. 72 411 t^ Book of the Farm. CHAPTER I. BUYING A FARM, — OR LEASING. The very large class of men in America who are either leaving other pursuits to establish themselves in the country, or who, having been brought up on their fathers' farms, are about starting for themselves, find the question of buying a f^m to be, for the time, the all-absorbing question of their lives ; and it is very natu- ral that it should be so, for the business is, emphatically, one of a lifetime. Being, unfortunately, the occupier of leased land, which has so much of another man's affection and interest invested in it, that its purchase is impossible, I can rpeak with very cordial earnestness on this point ; and I can all the more strongly urge absolute ownership, as of all things almost the most desirable, be- cause I daily feel the uncertainty and unsatisfactoriness of a lease- hold tenure. So much of the man himself, so much of the daily sweat of his face, so much of his hope, and of his anxiety, goes to the ground that he tills ; so many of the assoqiations of his home, with its joys and sorrows, are entwined around every tree and shrub in his door- yard, that I can conceive for' him no more dismal thought in life than that, some day, he must pull himself up by the roots, and, further on in his years, must take a fresh start, with all his inter- est to cultivate anew. Apart from any question of economy or of interest, I would strongly urge every man, who finds it possible for him to do so, and who means to end his days on a farm, to buy his land. Let the farm be smaller than he could hire, and less convenient ; let him go in debt for it if he must, but I deem 10 II ANDY- BOOK OF HUSBAXDRY. him to be a happier man who oivns a small place, even with a mortjra