Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-06-25
WAsTEFJL AND UNPRODUCTIYE
FARMING.

An author who brings the light Of
science and experience to bear on Mas
sachusetts agriculture makes the fol-
lowing instructive statements: Farm
ing is an occupation IN which a man
with a small capital cannot safely in
vest, unless his nearness to a growing
manufacturing town renders the future
sale Of his land for other than farming
purposes probable" If the above
statement be true, it presents a truth
for our consideration Of almost infinite
Importance. It implies that a imam
with a small capital" (which viii in
clude ninety-aine In every one hun
dred American farmers nay proftably
buy land and wear out its fertilizing
properties, If near a growing manufac-
turing town." and then sell it for
building purposes, and clear some
money by farming and gardening and
on bis real estate bargains. But in
what condition does this system of ag-
riculture leave the soil for the support
of the next generation? Humane So
ciety does not and cannot stop
at the border of an impoverished
field, garden or rundown orchard.
Humanity lives, and must eat often
For the last five years while some farm
ers were burning corn for fuel IN the
West. Massachusetts, farmers have been
paying eight dollars a cord for COM
mon stable manure; and it is this high
price of manure that drives so many
men Of industry an more or less capi-
tai, out Of all farming business into
other pursuits. In all parts of the
United States industry, want, and new
ideas keep the public In active commO-
ton. Industrial revolution is the order
of the day. Our author says: Z" The
day Of large farms with small capital,
1C0rked By individual olUHers, must IN
evitably follow the rapidly declining
number of small manufacturers and
small dealers The enterprise of our
native population is adverse to the slow
methods and improbable returns of
such investments. The West must feed
the East; for there the prairies offer an
opportunity Tor the aggregated capital
and the congregated labor necessary to
the economical production Of food. As
well might we hope to 60 back to the
old methods Of textile production, OF
our large cities depend on the
well and cistern to supply their
wants with water, or the
uncertain yield Of oil with light, as to
hope thag the teaming millions Of the
future are to be fed 10y the wasteful
and unproductive individual farming Of
the present.
The intelligent reader viii recognize
in the above the spirit Of progress and
of prophecy. We all understand that
our population has grown from less
than four millions to over forty million
within a century; but how few realize
the startling fact that within the next
ten decades our country Is likely to
contain two hundred million people, to
be comfortably fed and clothed from
the products Of American soil. Waste
full, unproductive, individual farming
can no more be tolerated then than in
dividual legislation and courts Of JUS
tice now. N-r can our individual COM
petition as farmers and planters, one
again another in all the markets of
the rlt, by which We greatly under
sell each other, and too often rob the
soil Of its resources to attain that end,