Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1875-10-23
FARM AND PLANTATIOA TOPICS,
THE PROFITS OF HIGH FARMING.

II ANN AMI a lNSs
THE PROFITS OF HIGH FARMING.
Large crops are not necessarily profit
able. They may be m ide to cost more
than their market value, on account of
bad management, and uhwise, and need
less expenditures, just as it often hap
pens in trade, where a large and flour
ishing" 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 it shall be 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 a
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 a crop of corn, averaging two hun
dred and ~forty-one bushels of ears to the
acre, which at eighty cents a bushel for
the shelled corn, gave, for the grain
alone, after deducting expenses, a profit
of seventy-one dollars and thirty-five
cents per acre. Hon. Harris Lewis, of
Herkimer CO., New York, raised forty
four tons of beets per acre, at a cost OF
less han five and a half cents per bushel,
or a little over one dollar and seventy
cents per ton, against a market value OF
seventeen dollars per ton. At this price
the cash product per acre would be seven
hundred and forty-eight dollars. De-
Quoting froin this the cost of the acre
(seventy eight dollars,) 1T kaves six
S-1red aud s-&ty dollars KS the net
plOnt. Mr. James Brcule, of New York,
us stated in one of the reports of the
agricultural department, raised a crop of
| turnips at a cost of two cents and seven
mills per bushel. The product was
nearly n thousand six hundred bushels
per acre. Maj. lie BleuX raised clover
near Summerville, S. c., Gas reported in
the Rural Carolinian,) at the rate of
nearly five tons to the acre, at a cost of
seven dollars and fifty cents per ton,
against a market value of thirty dollars
per ton. Mr.. Alfred Rose, of Penn Van,
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 a quarter cents per bushel. A
carrot 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-five and a
half cents per ton "These are exeep-
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 II WORLD MOVE?
An o~ctogenarian, in a late number of
Appleton's Journal, gives some note
worthy facts and figures bearing on in
dustrial progress. In 1910, 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 a single one OF
them, as most striking ard best adapted
E to strengthen the faith of those who be-
lieve, in this faithless age, that the world
moves. In 1910 the entire white OF
, European population of the globe wa:
; one hundred and eighty millions. II
1875 it is three hundred and sixty mil
lions. The producing area of Europe, il
1875, he found to be one thousand anC
q fifteen millions of acres, that of the
United States is about two hundred anC
fifty millions of acres, and that of othel
countries settled by Europeans abou-
thirty-five millions of acres-total, SAY
:. one thousand three hundred millions o
acres. This area, for a population o
three hundred and sixty millions, is bu
= three and two thirds acres each, while il
. 1910 it required five and one-eightl
acres for the sustenance of each person
showing that the productiveness of tn
producing surface of the earth must hav
. become enhanced over fifty per cent, o
- at least one-half, in order that three an
: two-thirds acres should now support a
= many lives as five and one-eighth acre
: did formerly. "Had the acquisition c
N this great, significant fact" our octoge
4 marian adds, "been the only result of tw
h long journeys through Europe, | shoul
20 have considered my time and labor we
spent" That throughout all the Euro
# pean world, three blades of corn no.
% grow where but two grew before, assure
us that four blades may yet be made t
T. grow upon the same area, and put t
h rest any fears that may have grown Il
as to the encroachments of p~opulatio
! upon the limits of subsistence.
N WHAT Do YOU KNOW ABOUT GRASS?
Of We wish here to repeat a request mad
4 several years ago in these pages, with til
E. hope that our readers are now better pr,
r pared than they were at that time to al
N US i'll solving an important problem. W
p wish to know, for the benefit of til
is farmers and planters of the south gene
IN ally, lust where and under what cond
n tions of soil, climate, and season, Glove
t, and the grasses can be raised, and whel
Is and under what conditions they can nt
Of be raised. We care for no mans precol
r ceived notions On these points. w
lie want the evidence of experience. 1t
n hundreds of farmers in all parts of til
ID country each try an experiment wit
lie clover and some n or more of the Gu
Is tivated grasses this fall, if it be on onl
lie a quarter of an acre, and the first ste
h will have been taken toward the solutiO
SIS of the problem. Our own observatio
lie and experience lead us to think that til
d, question is really one of preparation an
fe~rtility-sather than Of locaa-lat
II or general Character of soil, thougnt til
is latter is not without its influence. CT,
N yer and the grasses do well in the sout
N on good, strong clayey soils, well manure
and thoroughly prepared. This is L
re longer an open question. Are there M
Or loanny and sandy soils on which. if mao
h equally rich and equally well prepares
they will do well also? On this poiI
n we need further experiments.
LINE FOR GRASs n HI SMALL GRAIN
A dressing of lime on land to be SOW
with wheat, oats orcloverand the grasse
is, is, in a majority of cases, one of the mo
ne remunerative applications that can
he made, provided lime can be procured
MS reasonably low rates. 1t is not merely
,r- nlant-food that lime Is useful. 1t Is ST