The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-03-04
FEWER ACRES AND BETTER Gull
FIVATED.

FIvATED.
ThSt tSnc farmer can realize more from
few acaes more thoroughly cultivated, is a
truth to which every sensible man will rea-
Oily consent; and yet, strange to say, not
one in a thousand Southern farmer, wiz
Feduce the theory to practice.
In urging this fact upon the attention of
our farmers you will seldom, if ever, meet
with one who win not assent toevery asser-
ton of its superior advantages but you
will also hear the old fogy reply, that IN
less you plant largely in the spring, you
will have but little to gather i'll the fall. 1t
seems to us that we are so afraid of starva-
ton, that we cannot trust so much to the
result of labor as to the yield of extensive
fields not half cultivated. 1t is hard to
make one who is accustomed to planting
more than he can tend. believe that one
acre with double the manure and double
the cultivation will yield more than t,co acres
with half the manure and tillage. He may
give his assent to the theory; but his belief
ID dead faith, which will never be shown
by his works.
1t has been said by an eminent writer up
Son this subject, "that although millions of
Hebrews inhabited the narrow and rocky
land of Judea, and though restricted by the
Agrarian law of Moses, under which, rs the
population increased, the inalienable patri-
nony of each family became smaller and
smaller, yet thpY made more and more."-
hrr IL
was of course better and better. But let us
come nGasIr home. In the populous North,
we are lold that fifty acres constitute a very
extensive farm, and that few can boast of
SO plde domain. We are also told that
land is not valued there a. in the South
Here, the older the land, the less valuable
it is rated. There it is the reverse the
longer field Tor we should say an acre) has
been cultivated, the more it produces; ana
consequently, the more valuable 1t becomes.
But let us come still nearer home. Look
at your vegetable garden. eve here pre-
sumo that every good farmer has good
vegetable garden. We wonder if we are
correct in our suPpo>ition y How much
does an One-acre garden yield wheE proper
ly cultivated and MANFRED? 1t would sur
prise one TO know how much it can be made
to produce under a system of thorough,
scientific culture. 1t ordinarily takes a
farmers family whole year to gather and
consume what is Produced upon the half
acre gardens, which are too often neglect
ed and more seldom appreciated by these
rampant universal seed-scatterers.
In view of these facts, let us examine
some of the advantages of planting fewer
acres and bestowinS upon them a more
thorough cultivation. Not few of our
farmers plant ten acres in corn, ten in cot
ton, and ten in small grain, to the hand
This is folly. With such a crop he has no
time to repair his fences, attend properly
to his cattle and hogs, make manure, cut
bitches, or do many other things necessary
on plantation, which il the end would be
worth as much to him as his whole crop
Andhow is such crop cultivated Scratch
ed a little in dry weather, plastered in wet
weather: mangled and torn, and probably
throughout the whole year the growing crop
does not receive one good working at the
proper season. When gathering time
comes, it is scanty yield, barely sufficient
for the support of the hands and stock en-
Ployed. Mules to buy, bacon to buy, ne
gro clothes to buy, shoes to Guy, and away
go the proceeds of the cotton crop, and the
farmer is left with his hands in his pockets,
without continental red
Now suppose he had only planted eight
acres in corn, four in cotton and ten in small
grain. How easy to prepare for such
crop in the first place, by thoroughly break
ing the subsoil and pulverizing nicely the
top by cross Flowing. How easily cult
waited would such a crop be, by giving it
just the work it needed, exactly at the pro-
per season. He would then have time to
harvest his small grain, to raise his mules
and hogs, TO repair fences, to build sheds
tor his cattle (Which is equal to half feed)
and TO make more manure than he could
haul out. We now venture the assertion
that the latter method would realize as great
yield per hand as the former we would
have no bacon to buy and need not buy
mules. Our farms would be increased in
value. Our negroes would be more valua-
BILE in consequence of not being worked so
hard.
We need pursue the subject no farther;
our farmers have each and all set their pegs
tor themselves, and all Russia and the Al
lies combined can't pull them up.-[Edge-
hsld A dvert;Csr