The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-09-09

that the farmer can obtain profits only in
proportion as the yield or return per acre
exceeds the cost Of production, the next
question to be taken into consideration Is
what the crop shall be to produce the de.
sired results. But this leads us not only
to consider the kind of crop but the man.
ner OF disposing Of it as a part of one
and the same transaction. A man may be
good manufacturer or producer of an
article, but at the sames time so poor a
salesman that he is always playing losing
game. It is right here that we find the Sc.
cret OF many great successes in farming,
as we'll as of lamentable failures. We
will suppose, for instance, that two men
begin the culture of adjoining farms, of
equal size and fertility, both having equal
advantages in every respect. One will sell
his crops in bulk, disposing of wheat,
oats, corn and hay at the highest market
prices for ten years in succession. The
other, instead of disposing of his products
in this manner, keeps sheep, COWS and
poultry which consume the bulk of all
that is raised on the farm, and instead of
his grain and hay going to market in bulk
it is taken off in the form of butter, eggs,
poultry, beef and pork. 1t must be quite
evident to everyone that the latter will not
have exhausted the fertility of his land as
much as the former, and the cost of haul
ing the crops to market has been compar-
atively trifiing. In other words, one man
has concentrated his farm products into
as small compass as possible, retaining
for himself the cost of the reduction in
bulk and gaining the unavoidable expense
of freights charged for transportation.
Now, from this it will be seen that the
most nrnfito h1o xxl,so1, will
bring the most money, not for one season,
but during series of years, without any
regard to the condition or form in which
it is disposed of. If thousand bushels
of corn can be reduced in bulk to a single
two horse wagon load and the producer is
paid for the cost of reduction it is evident
that such a change would be advisable no
matter where the crop was raised. One
man drives his crops to market in the
form of beef cattle, retaining large
amount of it at home in the form of ma
nure, while another hauls it in wagons at
an expense which draws heavily upon the
profits. Cotton has made millions of
acres in the Southern States barren, and
wheat an equal amount in the Northern,
simply because these crops are sold in
bulk, leaving nothing, or very little, be-
hind with which to keep up the fertility
of the soil. They are both, however,
profitable crops for the time being, but
disastrous to any country in long run if
cultivated exclusively, for they leave little
or nothing in the hands Of the producer to
return as fertilizer to the soil.
No system of farming can long remain
a profitable one which ignores the princi-
pie of compensation for loss of fertility on
the removal of each and every crop. So
when any of our readers are looking
about for a profitable crop to raise they
should keep in mind the fact that it is
not necessary to dispose of the products of
their lands in the raw state, but that lit
tie manufacturing may possibly enhance
the value very materially. If the brewers
drop down on the price of barley, turn it
into pork, beef, milk, butter or cheese,
and then seek other customers for these
articles, and while making this change a
goodly quantity of fertllizing materials
for succeeding crop may be secured.
There may be little delay in obtaining
ready cash to meet urgent needs, but the
increase will usually be sufficient to more
than make up for any inconvenience on
this score. The further away from mar
ket the more necessity for condensation in
farm products for market, be-
cause freights on bulky articles generally
take the lions share
The best of butter and cheese should he
made where hay and all kinds of grain
are cheap, because these articles can be
long distances quite safely and
at low rates; but, unfortunately for con-
sumers and those who might he pro-
ducers, they are seldom made in any large
quantities in such localities. When our
Eastern dairymen can afford to feed their
COWS on Illinois and Nebraska grown
corn, we should think Western farmers
could afford to make butter and cheese out !
Of the same at home, saving a large pro-
portion of the freights on such bulky ma
terials. The most profitable farm crops
are not, as a rule, those which give the
greatest immediate returns upon cost of
Y. Sun.