The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-09-12
Making Money by Farming,

A shrewd writer, says the Country
Gentleman, has given two rules, hereto
fore mentioned occasionally in these col
umns, by following which any one may
acquire more or less wealth. namely: I,
"Cut short your losses" and 2, Let
your profits run on" There is DO kind
of business where the adoption Of these
rules is more needed than in farming !;
but there are many cultivators who do
not know when they are losing and when
they are gaining. The great requisite
for success, therefore, is to determine
this vital point We know the owner Of
small farmland doubtless every reader
may know Of an additional one-who
thought he was gradually adding to his
property. But he kept no account with
his farm, and did not look over his list
OF creditors. Before he was prepared for
it, his creditors came upon him with
claims which he could not meet, and day 5
were consumed in examining his where
abouts He discovered he had gone to
sea without compass or log-book. Some
Of his operations or crops had been profit
able, and others had been losses or fail
ures. Leaving all to guess work, he
forgot the losses and remembered the
profits Had he known precisely how
TO discriminate one from the other, he
could have adopted the comprehensive
rules just cited, to cut short his losses,
and let his profits run on.
The farmer, who determines 30 know
which from which, must, in the first
place, measure all his fields. Until he
does this, he cannot know the amount OF
labor required to till, the quantity Of seed
required, nor the average product per
acre after harvesting the crop.
The next thing Is to set apart few
minutes every daY for recording the OPP
erations of his farm in a systematic
manner. lie must not leave this as the
last to be attended to, and liable to be
forgotten or neglected, but it must be
made as regular and essential as his daily
meals. If regarded as of little conse-
quence it will be neglected if looked
upon IS of vital Importance, on which all
his success hinges, ne will be sure to give
it daily attention. The measurement of
his fields, the accurate record each day, |
under its appropriate page, Of the eX-
penses or profit Of each field, and the
weighing and measuring Of everything |
which passes through his hands, will in a |
short time educate him into regularity, |
system and order, which in itself Will be |
of great value through life. In a |
short time and with Il few minutes |
Of care each day, his land will |
become an experimental farm, on which |
he Will, in time, accumulate a vastamount !
of accurate, reliable, and practical in |
formation, worth more than tenfold all it |
has cost him.
To enable the farmer to work with &C
curacy, he should be provided with |
number of appliances He should pro-
cure a tape lire or surveyors chain, to
measure his fields; the former will be
more easily used, and sufficient for all
ordinary purposes A knowledge of |
common arithmetic will enable him to
calculate the contents. BY measuring
his wagon boxes and granaries, he may |
readily ascertain their contents dividing
the number of cubic inches they contain
by 2, 74S will give the number of heaped |
bushels. The sranaries should be marked |
inside by several horizontal lines, each
numbered with the contents up to that
line. This will show approximately al
any time what grain he has on hand, or
any added amount. He may determine
his barn by measuring the space it occu-
pies, and allowing about 800 or $40 cubic
feet for ton of solid, packed timothy,
and 500 or 500 for clover. But the
most important assistant Of all will be
the platform scale for weighing of loads
of hay and grain. and domestic animals
He may thus determine the amount of
hay more accurately, rs it is drawn in,
than by merely measuring; and he may
know every week whether the food and
mode Of feeding his animals Is proving a
source of profit or loss. He need no
longer sell fat animal by estimate.
For measuring grain, he will of course
be supplied with different sized measures.
Having supposed all these facilities,
the next thing is to provide a distinct
and well.arranged, systematic plan of ac
counts, with space allotted to each field
animal or division of work. After some
practice a few minutes viii be enough at
the close Of each day to record the days
operations, and to place each item of la
Dor or expenditure under its appropriate
head, as well as the receipts or sales.
In this way farming would cease to be-
come a haphazard business, but would
soon arrive at distinctness and certainty.
The owner could easily ascertain where
he is losing and where he is gaining. lie
could then omit understandingly those
operations or crops that continuously
prove a waste Of capital, and retain those
only which result in gain. He
could confidently adopt Ricardo's two
rules, to cut short his losses and let his
profit run on.
This course. may be adopted on a small |
farm as well as a large one; and the small
farm, although admitting less of eXpen-
sive machinery, would have the advan-
Lage of being wholly under the eye of z
the owner, instead of under the hired 5
agents of the extensive domain, and D
would in the long run prove eminently a
satisfactory. I