Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-08-08
Aaritnltural department.
HOW TO MAKE FARMING PROFITABLE.

AgrHnllMTaI gRPaEImRM.
HOW no MAKE FARMING PROFITABLE.
:, The necessity and advantages of keeping a
strict account of farming operations seems to
be but little understood by farmers, or if un'
derstood, they often feel wearied by the cares
and tolls of the day, and after short trial
neglect this most important duty before they
have even realized any of the benefits to be
derived from it. In the spring of 1853 de,
termined to see if there were any advantages
to be derived from keeping debt and credit
account of my farming; also an account OF
my family expenses, and the dates and time
when crops arrived at maturity, and would
say that since that time I have continued the
practice.
Many will say they have not the time, that
it may do we'll enough for those who are able
to hire their work done, &C., but let me say
that I consider the time spent in keeping these
accounts as the most profitable, in many points
of view, of any of my hours of labor.
The first year found that to raise an acre
of potatoes cost me, including seed, $24, and
that received from them $68.
The next year put the same acre in to-
bacco, and found that instead of $45 above
expenses of manure and labor, $194, and
my land left in far better condition than after
my crop of potatoes. I found in 1865, that
my profit on corn was only $17 per acre,
while an acre of cabbages gave me net
profit above marketing and all expenses,
Of $212. Now, if I had kept no account Of
these crops, I should have known that my
tobacco and cabbages paid me better than
corn and potatoes, but should not have real
lied how much better neither would have
known just what per centage my load of
manure, which had purchased, paid me.
Since I first began to keep farm accounts
am fully satisfied that / have cleared double
the money which I had done before, and I
fully believe that it was mainly due to this
practice. I have been enabled by this means
to do what every farmer ought to strive to do,
that is to improve his home, and to make home
where his children will delight to stay, where
happiness and contentment will reign su-
preme.
How many farmers neglect to make home
the paradise they might, feeling themselves
too poor to surround their places with neat
fences and flowers, and things to crafty the
taste and enlarge the mind! Isit any wonder
that their children, as they grow up, leave for
some more congenial employment, or some
more pleasant home, many of them falling
into vice and ruin, which might have been
avoided, had their parents made home attrac-
tive, and the cultivation of the soil delight
full occupation Gas it might beg instead of
drudgery and hardship?
Let all hope, through the influence arising
from an interchange of ideas, and from the
publication of good Agricultural papers, de-
voted to progress and improvement, that
farming may, as it should, take rank among
the most ennobling pursuits in life- Cores
pondent Boston Cultiuator.
THINKING FARMERs-If farmers do not
make their calling honorable, they have only
to blame. They are always called
by the politicians the "bone and sinew of the
land" and if they neglect the cultivation Of
their minds they will never be any thing else
but bone and sinew. Bone is good, but
brains are better. Muscle is necessary, but
mind must direct.
The poor and ignorant may be just as good
as the rich and wise, because moral worth is
one thing and intellectual worth is another !;
but it is fact that those men ever have been
and ever will be most respected who, with
equal morals, make the best use of their heads
Lawyers and merchants only succeed in like
manner.
A man may, in rare cases, be an excellent
farmer, and yet be unable to read, but he is
always a thinker. His neighbors read, and
he hears them talk. They gather ideas from
books and papers and apply them, and he
watches the results. In his own operations,
every good farmer studies carefully to discov-
er the reason for success or the cause for fail
IRE. Vast good has resulted in our country
from farmers clubs, where the experience Of
! neighborhood is talked over. To be useful,
they must be practical. 1t is not lyceum
for rhetorical culture-although confidence
and ability in public speaking are among the
important incidental results-but the object
should be to compare facts and experience
IF man has raised good crop, let him tell
MS neighbors in little friendly gathering,
what kind of soil produced it, what kind of a
seed was used, and when and in what manner
planted. If failure has occurred, state fully
The circumstances, and your neighbors may
tell you wherein you failed. Even if no valu-
able information is directly elected at meet
ing, hints are often given and trains of thought
are started that result in great good.
Farmers, depend upon it, you too much
neglect your business, and do not sufficiently
honor it by the active employment of your
hand as we'll as your heads. You may rise
early and work late, but for the lack Of fore
thought take many false step and miss many
good crops. No merchant can succeed by
such neglect as is common among farmers.
1t is not that the farmers know less, but they
are not as alert and active to all improve
ments and progress. If they would think
more about their business, success would
oftener crown their efforts, and great honor
rebound to their occupation. Spirit.
BALKy HoRsEs.-The brain of horse
seems to entertain but one thought atthe same
time For this reason, continued whipping
is out of the question and only confirms his
stubborn resolve. But if you can by any
means change the direction of his mind, give
him new subject to think Of, nine times out
of ten you will have no further trouble in
starting him. AS simple trick as little
pepper, aloes, or the like, thrown back on the
tongue, will often succeed in turning attention
to the taste in his mouth. The plan of attach
ing pair of cattle to log chain round the
horses neck, is an expensive remedy, and a
good many people may not be lucky enough
to have yoke of cattle handy for the occa-
sion.
A simpler and cheaper remedy that will re.
suit far differently, is to take a couple of
turns of common wrapping twine, such as
grocers use, around the foreleg just below the