The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-02-27
FARM AND PLANTATION TOPICS,
HOW TO MAKE FARMING PAY.

the first thing to do is to ascertain why
it is not profitable. There is some
cause for this state of thines-perhaps
many causes. 1t is probable that they
are avoidab!e or removable. Farming
does pay under favorable conditions.
We must learn what these conditions
are and try TO secure them. If Mr..
Smith makes money ON his farm, why
should not Mr.. Brown? Mr.. Brown
should carefully inquire wherein Mr..
Smith has the advantage over him. Is
it in the kind of crops he grows, in his
system of cultivation, in the gen.
ernl management of bis business, or
what? If Mr.. Smith can teach Mr..
Brown anything, Mr.. Brown should not
be asi. AIMED to learn. The great trouble
with most farmers is that they do not
know what pays and what does not, or
if they know what particular crop is
Improbable with them, they do not
know why. They do not farm on bust
ness principles. They do not use the
slate and pencil enough. A little ciph-
eripg and bookkeeping-addit sub
traction, multiplication, and division,
and the simplest form of accounts will
do-would help them more than an
extra hand and tons of fertilizers.
When We have found out why farming
does not pay, we shall be on the right
road to make it pay. Get Rural
Accountant" or some other form of
accounts, and try bookkeeping and
arithmetic as branches of practical farm
education, and one remedy for unprofit-
able farming will be found.
ONE HUNDRED BUSHELS FROM SINGLE
POTATO.
Mr.. d. L. Branning, of Jacksonville,
Fla, made last fall, before the Duval
county agricultural society, a statement
which suggests wonderful possibilities
Tor the sweet potato in the congenial
climate of the south. In 1871, having
a specimen which he desired to null.
tipiy to the largest possible extent, he
first cut it into pieces, each with about
two inches of skin. These he planted
on February 10, in rich, warm spot,
which had been occupied as hog pen.
They grew finely, and on May Is he
took from them two hundred and two
vine cuttings, which he planted, and
he continued this cutting and planting
till the 10Th of August, planting in all
something over ten thousand cuttings.
The crop ives not measured, but expert
| enced farmers, who saw the whole in
heaps, as put up for banking, estimated
that there YVES at least one hundred
bushels. That will do for poor sandy,
barren Florida!
HIGH FARMING IN THE SOUTH.
In no part of Europe or America can
"high farming" be SO advantageously
adopted as in the cotton states. No
other field crop than cotton will give,
under high manuring, an equal return,
unless it may be grass, in favorable
localities. Market gardens within reach
of the cities may give large results, but
the products of these gardens are not
field crops.
The cereals have their ascertained
is an excess of manure the small
grains will lodge and fall, and the crop
be ruined. In England single wheat
crop of few acres has reached ninety
bushels per acre. In Georgia a single
acre has produced between fifty and six
ty bushels of wheat, the exact number
not recollected. But these are excep-
tional and memorable instances. The
general rule holds good, that by the
heaviest manuring we cannot push the
cereals beyond certain limit.
The limit of cotton product from an
acre of ground has not yet been ascer-
tanned. Three years ago. while the
executive committee of the Georgia
state agricultural society were arranging
the premium list for the next year, it
was proposed by one of the members
to offer a premium of one thousand
dollars for the greatest product OF
cotton from single acre, the minimum
to be five bales. The proposition was
warmly debated. Some of the mem
bers commended that the offer of such a
premium would burlesque the whole
list; that it was impossible to produce
five bales from an acre. When the vote
was taken there was tie; tho casting
vote was given by the writer, then act
ing as chairman of the committee, in
favor of offering the premium. At
subsequent meeting of the committee
the subject was reconsidered, and the
premium was stricken from the list
Curiously enough, at the next fair Mr..
Warthen produced ample and salts
factory certificates to the fact of his
having produced five bales of cotton
from a single acre. Although the
amount of manure was greater prob
ably than had ever previously been ap-
piled to an acre of cotton, the profits
were still very large. 1t was the opin-
ion of Mr.. Warthen and his neighbors
that lie would have exceeded this pro.
duct during the past year, but for a
storm which cut off his crop, reducing
it to two and one-half bales per acre.
There can bs no doubt that the i'm
mediate net profits of an acre of heavily
MANFRED grass. in a favorable locality,
would exceed that of the one under
consideration. But the cotton must be
considered as part of a necessary rota-
ton. As cleansing crop cotton is I'M
equaled. In a very heavy manuring.
the constituents unused by and insult
able TO the cotton, would give ample
food for the succeeding crop of oats
and grass, and thus by the indirection
the profits on cotton would he the larger
of the two.
The average yield of cotton in Geor-
gia is one bale to three and one-half
acres. According to this average it
would have required seventeen and one
half acres to have produced an equal