Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1857-10-17
FARNER'S DEPARTMENT.
Shall We Have More Capital in
Farming.

1t is surprising to sec how little faith
farmers in the East have in the produc-
tiveness Of their own business, and how
much more ready they are to invest capital
in the enterprise of other rather than in
their own. If new Bank wants capital
they are ready to furnish any surplus they
may have for the stock. II new manu-
lacturipg company is started they arc ready
to furnish the money. If railroad is
chartered, or new bonds are issued, they
are ready to purchase. Very many
farmers are conscious that they do not
get their 6 per cent from the capital they
have already invested in their business,
and they jump at once to the conclusion
that every other business that pays 6 per
cent, is better than their own.
They do not consider that the produc-
tiveness of capital depends much more
upon the skill with which it is invested
than upon the skill with which it is invested
than upon the particular business to which
it is devoted. In business so necessary
as tilling the soil, capital well laid out must
be uniformly productive, and pay good
interest with more certainty than any other
business. There never comes q time when
their crops are not saleable, rarely time
whom they are not in brisk demand
There never has yet been a season in which
all crops proved failure. The farmer
has always something to sell, ifhe manages
wisely.
There is much difference in the produce
tivence Of one farmers capital and that of
another than there is between farming
capital and that which is invested in other
pursuits. Some tillers of the soil in this
country make ~ per cent, and show it by
their accounts. Others do not make per
cent, and show it by their slip shod
farming, broken fences, and slovenly house
keeping. -
The trouble with this latter class is that
they have not invested their capital in the
right place. They put it all into the soil,
buying four or FIVE times as much as they
work, leaving thesiarge part of their capi-
tai virtually sunk, where it does not yield
them cent of profit. They have nothing
left for working the soil, no tools, poor
stock, poor labor, and make poor busi-
ness. We were recently conversing with
farmer who had farm Of hundred
acres-run down but easily worked. where
capital could be employed to good advan-
tage. lie had capital enough to make it
highly productive. Bank stock notes of
hand, and real estate to large AMOUNT
Yet he was not employing labor to the
amount of hundred dollars year. Two
cows only were kept where a dozen might
have been pastured in plenty if he would
but put the soil in good condition. His
two hundred dollars invested in his farm
did not probably pay him two per cent,
because he was too close fsted to invest
capital enough in manure and labor to
make his acres profitable. All over
England they spend as much in working
the soil as will here purchase it. From
thirty to forty dollars is common cxpen-
diture for each acre under the plow. A
large crop secured by high manuring and
great care is found to pay better profit in
the cost of production, than poor crops
raised by skinning.