The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-09-02
!, fight of our Judges and Justices To hold
| their places, and the resulting right to sem.
! tence criminals to the penitentiary.
For the Dispatch.
specialtiea I'm Agriculture.
rEs-AcRE FARM AGAIN.

TEN-ACRE FARM AGAIN.
Although every product Of agriculture
has since the war sold for twice the price
it formerly brought, yet the altered condl-
tions under which the Virginia planter
must till his lands compel an expendl-
ture on his staple crops 80 great that IL eA-
ceeds in many cases his market returns,
and the instances are exceptional IN Whlcn
the years farming operations do not result
in balance on the wrong side while IN
other States in which land, labor, and Ia
borers' board cost three times as mucn ao
we have to pay, the farmer 10 gro%!ns
rich. and the cases are exceptional III ".ion
he is not adding every year TO ms previous
accumulation.
In England, France, Germany, and many
other continental countries, the owner VI Oh
unencumbered patch OF ten 10 MY ~
ranks as proprietaire, and is aole 70 oe'
rive from it comfortably independent SUD-
s;stence and in every State in this Union
outside of Virginia that is as thlckly set
tled az her population is Thirty TO the
souare mile), on improved farm OF nlty
to q hundred acres in thrifty hands sutilces TO
hr;nc No q family of sons and daug hteFs
90 veil educated and qualified by pre-
v;ons associations to take an upper POSI-
t;on in society as those Of any other calling
that can he classified. Whence then the
astonishing paradox that the more iana q
man owns the poorer he is, and the loro Oh
thousand acres knows what II Is 10 wan,
q neck of meal 1t must have been crea!eu
hv nersistence in course Of farming Wnlcn
eynerience proves is no longer prontaole'
and that the commonplace virtue OF aoaPt-
ob;Iitv NAV prudently be substituted for
coma heroic ones in our altered circum-
stoncss IF il costs as much to raise
csreaI "a that cereal will sell for, why not
plant one or other of those crops " Ii
prosperous farmers elsewhere are ,hasins
part of their regular tlllage' anu lioin
which they are deriving large incomes
To this writer it seems demenua not 70
make an experiment, at least, when COSTS
90 little. and may produce so much; and
while the experiment is in progress, until
II becomes fixed fact there is no need to
abate, an acre of the course OF cropping
heretofore pursued, or to add more to the
working force of the farm than the average
labor of one man, and occasionally days
work for the mule team.
A volume of the agricultural commission
er's report is now before the writer, which
contains the accounts for the year Of great
number of farms, and shows the size and
number of each, every item of expenditure
in it's cultivation, the particulars OF each OF
it's products, the amount realized by their
sale. and the net results of the years ope-
rations. It does something to explain the
surprising paradox fpoyerty resulting from
g., hi hJfd "a
markable feature, which runs through the
whole, that these farms which show the
largest profit are those on which the hea-
West return comes in from some special crop
not usually regarded as staple while
those in which the staples form the chief re-
turns show the smallest per centage OF pro-
fits. The selection of none Of these special
crops seems to have depended on any local
popularity, or adaptation to the neighbor-
hood of that particular crop, but to have
been altogether arbitrary, for in the same
township, hops, tobacco, grapes, broom-corn,
berries, hay, cereals, potatoes, onions, or
any one of fifty specialties that may be
named, has been chosen according to the
taste of the farmer, which he, in the indul-
gence of that taste, has made his leading
crop, petted it, and it has become the chief
source of his income. We are so favored IN
soil, climate, cheap labor, and facilities for
marketing, that any one and the whole of
these special crops may be cultivated here
with certainty of as profitable return as
is made in any place where the article has
become fixed staple, and the priority OF
ripeness for marketgives superadded value
| over those grown north Of the Potomac OF
thirty to fifty per cent.
Readers Of the Dispatch who give atten-
ton to the subject will remember that IN
former paper o square plat of ten acres was
recommended as On ample area for com
mencing n plantation Of six or eight CT
those among the special crops which are
easiest to undertake and most profitable
And those who adopted the suggestions
made in that paper have now the land
cleared of surface distractions, its bounda-
ries marked, and it is now ready for cross
ploughing as falloW.,
As soon as cross-ploughed, commensurate
the plat with five divisions of two acres
each, and you will have FIVE parallelograms
of forty four yards by two hundred and
twenty each. The plan and specialties recon-
mended are those indicated by the dia-