Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1867-11-28
Aaritnltnral 9epattment,
CULTIVATE A LITTLE WELL.

CULTIVATE A LITTLE WELL.
DR.. George B. Loring, the popular Presi-
dent of the New England Agricultural So
ciety, made some pointed remarks in q re-
cent agricultural address. On the subject
of small farms, the Doctor said: 500
81 have an idea that the business OF
farming in the next generation, will be
brought under as accurate laws ss the busi-
ness of running an engine or woolen mill,
or making steam engines, or carrying on
any of the mechanical arts with which We
are acquainted. I am satisfied that the
loose system of agriculture will be abolish
ed before the youngest man in this room
dies. am satisfied that the business of
farming will be systematised so that every
man will feel he has something behind him
besides accident, to guide him in the busi7
ness of carrying on his farm. Let us see !;
there are men here in this room who are
owners of large farms, two hundred, three
hundred or FIVE hundred acres of land, who
are carrying them on for the purpose of
getting living and endeavoring to reap
from the soil, from these large tracts of
land, competency for themselves and their
families. They are proceeding in their
business Of farming just as their fathersdid'
They raise little corn and few potatoes,
own COW or two, and now and then o few
cattle, raise considerable grass, make some
butter, a little cheese, now and then sell o
can of milk, and few apples with 9 little
cider thrown in perhaps. That is the old
fashioned business of New England farm
ing. Take farm of FIVE hundred acres of
that description and what is the percentage
upon the general average cost Of the land
here in New England? 1t gives a mans
family good living, clothes his children !;
there is school within his neighborhood
and he sends them to it; he carries himself
we'll through the community, is elected u
representative, or selectman, or town clerk,
and he is good citizen any way, because
he owns land and can't help being good
citizen, pays his taxes, does well, has a
good farm house; everybody says, 'There
is good farm and a respectable farmer
lives on it,
ssThe other side illustrates that nice care
full business of New England farming to
which 7 have alluded. I know a man in
Massachusetts, who in 1885 bought twenty
acres of land. He has applied to it all the
accurate knowledge of farming he could
possibly get. There is no month in the
year that something does not bloom on his
farm !; but through the SHOWS of January
and the suns of August there is something
green there, and he always from the first
of January to the last day of December,
has some crop to send to market. Twenty
acres of land is all he has, and you walk
through it, and you find his alternate crops
growing in rows just as accurately as the
web and warp of cotton mill goes through
the loom carefully, accurately and prop
erly-what is the result? From 1885 un-
til this time, that man has made $3.50, 900
off of his farm of 20 acres. He has saved
his money and invested it carefully he has
educated his boys well, kept himself in good
condition, has made his $250,000, and has
done it by that careful, accurate, systematic
farming of which I have spoken. His land
happened to be in good locality, near q
market, but he might have devoted himself
to just the same farming that man does
on 500 acres, could he not? Don't you
know many little farm house in New Eng
land, surrounded by twenty acres of land
and few apple trees, or two or three hard
looking peach trees, with few starved
cabbages in one corner of the ground, with
q COW coming up to be MIXED with small
bag? That man could have done SO with
his twenty acres just as easy as with 500
acres. He didn't choose to do it, but he
applied himself with care and system and
accuracy, and has made just as real for
tune off his land, as the man who has made
SIS, 100000 out of cotton mill in the LAST
five years. That is the business Of New
England farming. There is noillegal farm
ing, no iDegitimate farming, no careless
farming that will apply to New England.
You cannot conceive of such thing"