84
THE WEST SHORE.
May, 1 88a
THE MODEL FARM OF EASTERN ORE
GON AND WASHINGTON.
No.
Y HIV. ;. II. ATKINSON.
EXAMPLE.
We learn most clearly from object les
sons. The klea of a model farm grows
from a farm itself. I write this article,
April 17th, while stopping a few hours
on a small farm in Columbia ctunty, W.
T., about three miles from Dayton.
This claim of 160 acres was taken up
nine years ago by a gentleman and his
wife, who had no money, no tools ex
cept a hoe and a mattock, no team and
not an animal of any kind. There was
not a tree, not a rail or board or build
ing of any kind on the place. A little
stream flowed in the ravine between
the steep hills that comprise the farm.
A few boards were bought on credit to
put up a shed, in which to set up their
stove, and a few articles of furniture and
make their house of one room, which
it now given up to the fowls. Now
they thave a comfortable house with
stone cellar, a barn 60x20 feet, a wagon
and tool shed, the entire 160 acres well
fenced, a field and garden and orchard,
cross-fenced and in good cultivation.
They have too peach and apricot trees
in hearing, also 50 apple and pear trees
and 100 more growing and a variety of
small fruit, currants, raspberries, goose
berries, betides 50 timber trees from 10
to 30 feet high, and hundreds more set
out. Two cows were bought eight years
ago, costing $45 on the installment plan
to pay $10 per month until paid for.
The butter made and sold from them,
paid their cost in less than 5 months.
STOCK.
Tho two cows have been sold for
I75, and two of their inciea.se for $7
and the value of their increase now left
at market rates it about $100. The
stock of row, heifer and calves on the
farm, twenty-eight in Ml, art worth in
cah $43; twine worth $50; 60 fowls
worth $15, besides a good supply of
loou, iaa a team, bought on credit and
worth its cost.
monies.
The main product of this farm is food
for stock and the family. One hundred
fv4 Imi.
.-vv-a,c acres art in pasture.
w .miii :j .ere, are yet ploughed
wd for team and cattle and a few
cm of potatoes, turnips and other edi-
feed
ble roots, ine mea i ,
11 the stock regularly and aounoauu,.
Over $6 per week or $300 Fr year
have been paid for bran and snore w
feed the cows.
TWntv tons of turnips per acre is a
common yield. Irrigation is not needed;
it would be an injury. 1 he weupiougn-
ed basalt soil forms a fine, light sponge-
ike tilth, which absorbes the night air
and condenses its invisible vapor, giving
full supply of moisture to the plants.
The increase of tilled farms on the hills
has also increased the condensation of
moisture into dews and showers.
MARKET PRODUCTS.
The dairy and poultry yard have been
the chief source of income from the first.
The average product of butter is thirty
five lbs. per week, for the whole year
of fifty-two weeks, or 1,820 pounds
sold at $30 per hundred and yielding an
income of $546 per year. The annual
cash sale of cows from the farm is $150;
eggs, Jioo;pork,$i5o;small fruit,$i2;
vegetable, $25. In round numbers, the
annual cash income of this 'farm is $1,
000.
The out go for feed and groceries,
$350; the expenses for help, $240,
$590. Leaving a net cash income of
RESULTS IX NINE YEARS.
The buildings erected at a cost of
too; fencing, $600; land cultivated,
twenty-five acres, at a cost of $75; or-
i 1 1
cnaras ana umber trees set out at a cost
of $200; equal to $1,600 in improve
ments.
ESTIMATES.
Every acre well tilled will give addi
tional food enough for one cow, and
thus increase the dairy power of thi
f - w
larra one animal per acre, or the equiv
. w. ,w Auuu5 w ouuer per vear,
or a cash gain of $54 per acre. This re
. ".u uccu me extra cost of care and
mill-feed. But suppose this farmer to
plough forty-five acres more of his claim
and thus put seventy acres in cultiva;
he can add forty-five more cows; make
7,jSo pounds of butter per year, which
I30 per hundred weight, would bring
tJ,t84. Other pioducts sold at usual
rues would bring n cash $1,848, mat
, " ,ncrw 43. The out-go
mowing two extra hands on
the firm and one in the house, would
9o; mui-teed and groceries $1,400
extra team, $300; extra machinery and
repairs, $ 1 o per year. Whole cost of
year's work, $2,750, leaving a net gain
,f $ 1 ,282 . To win this result and keep
up the ratio of products, all the fertil.
izers of the vards and barn will as i
be returned to the fields and pastures.
Wheat hay will be replaced in part by
timothy. Root crops will be grown and
fed in larger proportion and variety
Home raised wheat and oats will be
ground in custom mills to replace the
ess nutritious bran. Labor saving m
chinery will be used in the dairy. P.
ture will be divided and new and old
grasses will he allowed to grow and not
be over-stocked. Fields will be turned
into pastures, and pastures into fields,
while the ten-fold food product of the
tilled acres will add to the permanent
power and improvements of the farm.
Meanwhile the orchards and timber
culture will add yearly value to the
whole.
THE ENERGY AND INDUSTRY AND W1SI
PLANNING DISPLAYED.
The gentleman and lady who hive
wrought out this farm problem thus far
during nine years, are in the 68th and
7istyearoftheir respective ages. They
began in feeble health. Sick relative
and others have had their care and hos
pitality, yet they have wasted no time
or strength or money or opportunity.
While the husband went for boards to
put up their first shed for shelter nine
years ago, the wife took the mattock
and hoe, dug up a patch of ground aw
sowed a bed of lettuces and radish
Within five years she had a flock of
ducks, which brought fifty dollars fa
feathers and eggs. Now the egg pn
duct from sixty hens brings $ioo p
year.
CARE AND FOOD FOR STOCK AND W
SOIL.
Their yearly' success depends up
their gentle and constant care and i
pie food supply of every animal. Evej
cow has a name and comes on call to
her stanchion and mess of bran evenw?
and morning to be milked. Barn
sheds shelter them irom winds V
storms. Water is supplied in the j
The cows are full, always in good or&
and healthy. Sales of stock are freq
of good animals and at high rates. M
ers got the worth of their money
came again. The home market for
products, cows, eggs, vegetables, fr"