Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-07-01
agricultural department.
(Original.
TOO MUCH LAND.

q hioui"' Lucy soe" w CsIiIAoLo tue "eaiIi
of an individual by the number of acres hi
owns, without any reference, whatever, to thu
income accruing from those acres. No doub
there is something hereditary in this thing
The old landgraves were made possessors O
forty-eight thousand acres of land, and some
men yet seem to have as Unsuitable desires re
specting land, as the old landgraves.
Land, like any other property, may be s
dead expense to its owner. This is the case
when the cost of owning and retaining it il
greater than the income derived from it. Il
is true, to use an old saying, that ''land eats
and drinks nothing" but because this is true
it does not follow that land, in any quantity
is profitable investment. Land, in order tc
be profitable, must produce something. A
crop of some kind must be annually taken
from it, or it must be so managed that its in
trinsic value is increased. Suppose man
purchases farm of one hundred acres paying
for it one thousand dollars. Suppose he
works only twenty-five acres, and on these
makes good crops. Seventy.6ve acres, OF
three-fourths of the whole investment, is lying
idle or not invested. As matter of course
some portion of each mans plantation should
be reserved for 6rewood, timber, of various
kinds, and for pasture but to invest three
fourths of a mans capital in land for fire.
wood and pasture, seems to be poor economy
1t is not absolutely correct to say, that Gland
eats and drinks nothing" that is, that it is nc
expense to its owner. The tax may be set
down at near two per cent. on its money
value. This is constant drain. Under the
present state of farming, land will not in
crease two per cent. in value in a great many
years. If the tendency of lands in South
Carolina we're to increase in value, as is the
case in some of the other States, then it would
be wise policy in farmers to invest all their
capital in land, but such is not the case
There are only few men who are disposed tc
improve their lands, and thus increase their
real value. The multitude of landholders
in our country, are ready to sell out any day
and 60 to some place else. 1t is rare thing
to see children cultivating the lands Of their
father, and still rarer to see them settled on
the lands owned and cultivated by their grand
father. Such being the case, land never can
increase much in value.
One objection to large farms is that they
never can be properly improved. On the
contrary, in one way and another, they will
be worn out. Properly cultivated, land will
increase in fertility, and consequently in value
each year. Improperly cultivated, it is soon
ruined. 1t would be certainly more pleasant
to cultivate few acres like garden and
reap from it an abundant harvest, than tc
cultivate, in hoggish way, a great number
of acres, and reap from them only scanty
subsistence. There is something elevating
and cheering in the first mode, and something
very depressing in the other.
[orignal.,
Our Southern farmers have never learned
to save. All they think about is gross in
comes. There is scarcely family in the
State but can, with absolutely no expense
and but little trouble, make half enough
meat to supply it. About every farmhouse,
there is, of necessity, a great deal of refuse
provisions, such as bread-crusts, bones, dish
water, bran, faulty potatoes, refuse garden veg
etables, and many other such things, which, il
properly managed, make good hog feed. All
that is necessary to make good bacon hog is
to put pig up in close pen and feed it on
the refuse matter that accumulates about the
farmhouse. A small family should have bu,
one pig, whilst large families may have two
three, or any other number that can be well
fed from the refuse matter that would other.
wise collect about the premises. Such q
course would be far better than to have q
dozen poor hogs strolling about over the old
fields, liable to be stolen any day, and fal
more liable to die with actual poverty. A
hog is lazy creature. Give it enough tc
eat and it will lie down in some cool place
and grow. In pen it will convert all the
food that is given to it into bacon and lard
This is one instance in which much might
be saved. There are others equally as favor
able. Its characteristic of South Carolin
ian to be wasteful, and it once was regarded
by US as miserly not to be prodigal. Oul
farmers must change their mode of conduct
ing their affairs, or the whole world will gel
ahead of US. 1t ought to be shame for q
farmer to buy corn, or bacon, or any thing
that can be produced on his plantation. On
the contrary, it seems as if it is scarcely hon
orable in the eyes of some men not to buy
everything they need. With the present
amount of corn that is made in many sections
of the State, there is really no need for buy
ing so much corn If the crop was economically
managed. There are men in this country
who annually make more than sufficient corn
to supply all their wants, still they buy corn
every year. How, it may be asked, can this
be? We answer, the crop is, in one way and
another, absolutely wasted. The rats of Y York
county, we have no doubt, destroy more than
sufficient corn each year to feed the white pop
ulation. In the feeding of stock, corn i:
wasted in fact, as long as corn lasts, it i:
wasted. Some persons never think of saving
until it is too late.
A CURE FOR Bols.-A correspondent O.
the Department of Agriculture at Washing
ton, writing from Murray county, Georgia
says that whilst different writers on the sub
ect assert that none knew of any certain
remedy for bots:
III Imam of q ronnndu that is safa and cor