The Osceola times., 1875-10-23
Farm AND PLANTATION TOPICS.
THE PROFITS OF HIGH FARMING.

Large crops are not ncctSsdfil. pIoit
able. They may be made to cost more
than their market value, on account of
bad management, aud unwisc, and need
less expenditures, Just rs ii often hap
mems in trade, where a large and flour
,sbipg" business only leads TO heavy loss
and financial ruin. Profitable farming,
like profitable trading, implies judicious
management and wise economies. The
expense per acre may well be large, pro-
vided no part Of il shall he unnecessary.
The point to be aimed at is to make the
expense per pound or per bushel of the
crop grown as light as possible, and to do
this the acre must be made TO produce
maximum number Of pounds or bushels.
We find in the Rural New Yorker some
examples illustrating this principle; Mr..
Luther Smith, Of Chemung, New York,
raised crop of corn, averaging two hun
dred and forty-one bushels of ears to the
acre, which at eighty cents bushel for
the shelled corn, gave, for the grain
alone, after deducting expenses, a profit
of seyentyone dollars and thirty-five
cents per acre. Hon. Harris Lewis, of
Herkimer Co., New York, rnised forty
four tons of beets per acre, at cost of
less than five and a half cents per bushel
or a little over one dollar and seventy
cents per ton, against market value Of
seventeen dollars per ton. AT this price
the cash product per acre would be seven
hundred and forty-eight dollars. De
ducting from this the cost of the acre
(seventy eight dollars) it leaves six
hundred and seventy dollars rs the net
profit. Mr.. James Brodic, of New York,
as stated in one of the reports of the
agricultural department, raised crop Of
turnips at cost of two cents and seven
mills per bushel. The product was
nsarly one thousand six hundred bushels
per acre. Maj. lie Bleux raised clover
near Summerviiie, ;. c., (as reported in
the Rural Caroinian,) at the rate of
nearly five tons to the acre, at cost of
seven dollars and fifty cents per ton,
against amarket value of thirty dollars
per ton. Mr.. Alfred Rose, of Penn Yam,
N. Y, raised Irish potatoes during the
last year at the rate of about six hundred
bushels per acre, of which the cost was
nine and quarter cents per bushel. A
carret crop of over one thousand bushels
per acre is reported from Wisconsin by
L. l.. Fairchild, of which the cost was six
cents per bushel. Corn fodder from
drilled corn) has been reported in the
Country Gentleman, at twenty-five tons
per acre, and at a cost of forty-ive and II
half cents per ton. "Thcse are excep-
tional cases" the reader may say. I'm
fortunately they are, but the exception
may be made the rule. They show what
can be done under favorable conditions.
We may divide the results by two, and
still have a good margin of profit.
DOES THE WORLD MOVE?
An octogenarian, in late number of
Appleton's Journal, gives some note
worthy facts and figures bearing ON in
dustrial progress, In 1870 while yet a
young man, he travelled through all the
principal countries of Europe, making
careful observations and taking notes OF
the people and their industries. During
the present year. he has again Travelled
over the same ground, giving special at
tention TO the same class of facts. The
comparisons made ON several points are
suggestive, as well as interesting, but we
purpose here to note only single one of
them, as most striking and best adapted
to strengthen the faith of those who be-
lieve, in this faithless age, that the world
moves. In 1910 the entire white or
European population of the globe was
one hundred and eighty millions. In
1875 il is three hundred and sixty mil
lions. The producing area of Europe, in
1875, he found TO be one thousand and
fifteen millions of acres, that of the
United States is about two hundred and
fifty millions OF acres, and that Of other
countries settled by Europeans about
thirty-five millions of acres--total say
one thousand three hundred millions of
acres. This area, Tor Il population of
three hundred and sixty millions, is but
three and two thirds acres each, while in
1910 il required five and one-oighth
acres for the sustcnarce OF each person,
showing that the producliveness of the
producing surface of the earth must have
become enhanced over fifty per cent, or
at least one-half, in order that three and
two-thirds acres should now support as
many lives as five and one eighth acres
dd formerly. Had the acquisition of
1he great, significant fact" our octoge-
hafYAn adds, "becn the only result of two
long journeys through Europe, should
have considered my time and labor well
spent" That throughout all the Euro
pean world, three blades of corn now
grow where but two grew before, assures
us that four blades may yet be made to
grow upon the same area, and put to
rest any fears that may have grown up
Is TO the encroachments of population
Ipon the limits of subsistence.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT GRASS?
We wish here to repeat request made
everal years ago in these pages, with the
lope that our readers are now better pre-
'ared than they were at that time TO aid |
is in solving an important problem. We |
,ish to know, for the benefit of the |
srmers and planters of the south gener-
lily, just where and under what condi-
ions of soil, climate, and season, clover |
nd the grasses can be raised, and where
nd under what conditions they can not |
: raised. We care for no mans precon-
lived notions on these points. We
ant the evidence of experience. Let
nndreds of farmers in all parts of the
'untry each try an experiment with
over and some one or more of the cul-
vated grasses this fall, if it be on only
quarter of an acre, and the first step
III have been taken toward the solution
the problem. Our own observation
a experience lead us TO think that the 4
estion is really one of preparation and
.tility, rather than of locality, climate