Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1859-04-14

til it reaches the point where maximum crops
are produced at the least expense Wise
husbandry regards the farm simply aao-
chine for turning out crops. The machine
is the matter of first Importance. This is
always to be kept in good running order,
and it's efficiency is to be increased by all e.
conomical methods. The man who farms
upon this system will never sacrifice soil for
a great crop. His aim is to have every
crop taken off, leaving the land in better
condition than he found it. He aims in eve
ry working of the soil is to increase its depth,
and to add to it more elements than he re-
moves in the crops, and to make the crops
not only pay for themselves, but to pay for
the Improvement of the acres upon which
they are grown.
In carrying out this aim, so as to realize
these results, man shows his skill as a cul-
tivator. It is comparatively easy thing
for any one, who has money, to improve the
soil so that it shall produce crops paying for
the labor of growing them, and the interest
on two or three hundred dollars an acre
Stable manure enough we'll ploughed in will
do this. But it is altogether another mat
ter to make this improvement pay for itself.
Yet it is a possible thing to do this, and
there are farmers skillful enough to accom-
plish this result, and this we hold to be the
true aim in the cultivation of the soil.
all good farming, then, must look to a
permanent occupation of the SOIL Econom-
zeal improvements cannot be made in sin
gle year. The most judicious improvements,
those which finally pay the largest profits,
require several years to bring in their full
returns. It is matter of great Importance
that cur farming population should not only
be settled, but that they should feel settled,
and plan all their operations upon the farm
as'if they expected to spend all their days
upon it,
Here is ten acre lot now in moving,
cutting ten tons of hay, worth one hundred
dollars 1t has in it some stumps, more
boulders, some brush by the wall, and few
wet places, growing nothing but sour grasses
and flags. It can be cleared of all obstruc-
tions, be underdrained, subseiled and manur-
ed. so as to produce three tons to the acre for
1l not pay the present occupant to do this the fs
coming year, if he is going to sell out the
year following. But he may accomplish all
this economically in five years, furnish pro-
ftable employment for his help, introduce
the moving machine, and cut more fodder
upon the field than he now cuts upon the
whole farm. He may getcrops enough from
the field during the five years to pay for all
the Improvements, leaving the increased
value of the land, certainly not less than a
hundred dollars an acre, as the reward of
his skill in husbandry.
This is an illustration of what farmers
aim should be, and good example of the
kind of improvements that are needed upon
most farms, at least upon the seaboard.-
swales need deep underdrains cut through.
them, with smaller side drains running into
them at right angles; old walls want re-
moving, and the fields enlarging to ten or
twenty acres !; the whole surface need to be
thoroughly worked and manured, so as to
produce maximum crops. By this thorough
method, horse labor may be substituted for
that of man, so as to save full half of the
present expense of raising and harvesting
crops. In smooth land. nearly all the plant
ing and hoeing can be done by horse all
the moving, reaping, cradling and raking
can be done by the same method.
The man who will lay his plans wisely to
improve his soil, making this his chief OBJ
ject, and who will judiciously expend his
capital in the improvement we have indica-
ted, is in fair way to gain a competence.
This kind Of farming in the long run, will
pay amply, and we believe more surely than
any other business. The skinning process,
which is reckless of the soil, and looks only
to the crops, is bad policy both for the farm
and its owner. Let it be abandoned.
KNOWLEDGE gives station and commands