Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-11-20
From the American Eagle
SUCCESSFUL FARMING.


s.AAA SUCCESSFUL FARMING.
The secretof successful farming consists
in the character ndrelative amount oftthe
crops. Articles of necessity that can be
predaced ON "a farm with more economy
, than theytcan be purchased, should not OF
course be neglected and the more that any
given amount of labor and expense can pro-
duce, the better. If a farmer has to buy
his fodder, bacon, Sc, he can't be work
ing things right, unless he has more pro
ftable crop in the ground, and no room or
means for producing them-a condition OF
things not likely TO be met with, at least in
this neighborhood. Our soil here is better
adapted to the cultivation of grain than ii
is to the cultivation of cotton. 1t is true
that the cotton may find more ready mari
ket, but by no means has it such superiority
over the former as to deserve the almost
exclusive attention it now receives. The
cultivation of grain would do more to en-
nance the agricultural resource of West
Tennessee than any thing else. 1t would
open and suggest means for improving the
land, and direct the spirit of domestic en-
terprse in such channels as would enable
our farmers to feel themselves entirely in
dependent of the more northern States.
Under our present system Of farming, the
average crop of corn may be estimated at
about twenty-five bushels to the acre. Now
if the land was we'll MANFRED, and the crop
properly worked, that average would at
least be increased to fifty bushels. The
same amount of land, therefore, can be made
toproduce double the crop that it now does;
this, too, by an actual saving of labor, for ii
is easier to manure an acre and cultivate it,
than to cultivate tUo acres. We must re-
collect also that the manure can be applied
at a season when there is but little doing
when labor is cheaper and more abundant
than at any other time.
Another advantage besides the increase OIL
the crop and the saving of labor that re-
suits from this is, the improvement of the
land and this improvement is sufficiently
valuable to more than compensate for the
cost of manure, supposing it to have been
purchased, instead of collected on the farm
The manure, therefore, makes profitable
return to the farmer; first, in the increase
of his crop, and secondly, in leaving his
land considerably enriched. 1t must con-
sequently be good investment.
But if the economy of farming is prop,
erly understood, there will be no necessity
for purchasing manure. Enough can al
ways be collected on the premises, by hous.
ing the stock during the winter, and resort
ing to the various other modes of making
compost, that are in vogue throughout we'll
cultivated sections of the country. AS fol
penning of the stock, we are certain i
would do them no damage, were they tc
get enough to eat-a favor not always be.
slowed upon them in these parts, were 6
man to judge from the appearance THEN
wo-begone figures present to the eye, a
r. least during the winter season.
If no other reason existed to induce US
to believe in the necessity of paying more
attention to the culture of grain, the for
1orn appearance of our mules, COWS, horses
and other animals, would of itself awaken a
charitable interest in this subject. No man
can see team of poor, emaciated, hungry
looking brutes, without thinking i'll of THEN
owner, and suspectng him guilty of starv-
ing whole plantation for the sake of few
bales of cotton.