Morning journal and courier., 1881-11-10
Price Four Cents

farming after the war on grand scale hiring
 large number of negroes and planting all
 the land he owned. In @ few years he had
 lost all his property and was $7,OOO in debt
 He borrowed money to pay this and began
 anew, but on different principle. From
 a twenty-five mule farmer he became a
 two-mule farmer, made his land pro-
 duce all that thorough tilIage and high fer
 tilization enabled him to get out of it. and
 now, at the end of the fifth year of his
 exper1ence as small farmer, he is entirely
 out of debt, has improved his farm and
 buildings, and has surplus on hand Last
 year his cotton land yielded nearly bale and
 half to the acre, the average yield through
 out the State being probably, one bale to
 three acres. This year he gets an equally
 good crop, and on one plot of three acres he
 secured eight bales-two and two thirds
 bales to the acre. Major Jones' estimate of
 the cost of his last years crop, raised on o1
 acres, is made up as follows The labor em
 ployed was three boys. To one hy paid S75
 a year and board, and to each of the other
 two $40 per year and board He hired other
 help for blowing to the amount of $17 He
 estimates the cost of board, outside of the
 value Of the services rendered by the
 boys in milking and doing extra jobs about the house, at $36 each, or S1OS for the three. For fertilizer he used ton and half of dissolved bone costing $90, composted with cotton-seed at the rate of 50 bushels to the acre costing for the
 whole 21 acres $63, a total of $153 for ma nure. For extra labor in picking half tbe crop he paid at the rate of $7 per bale amounting to $9S. The cost of the crop was therefore as follows: Wages, SIP; board, Sl09; manures, $153; picking, 98; total
 S531. He gathered IA, 4O4 pounds of lint. cotton, making 28 bales of 51S pounds each, which 1t had cost him & trife over 3.7 cents per pound to produce. He sold his cotton at little over 10 cents per pound. making S1,4 AIS, and leaving 8 net profit of S917. at the rate of $43 6G to the acre. The hands employed in raising this cotton aided also in ralslug l9O bushels of wheat, of which 100 bus bushels were sold at $l.25 per bushel, 300 bushels of corn, about $500 pounds of fodder and 800 bush els of oats. Mai Jones says noth- ing about the cost of ginning, which, if done with his own gin at @ time when the machine could not be proftably engaged in ginning his neIghbors' cotton at $2 bale, could not be reckoned as very expensive operation. Three and seven tenths cents a pound for raising cotton is not an exceptionally low price, but Maj Jones is altogether an excep tional farmer. There are unfortunately very few who believe with him that a few acres we'll titled will yield a greater profit than a large farm half titled. There are, to be sure. plenty of two and three mule farms in Geor gla, but instead of producing nine bales to the mule they produce two or three The number of bales produced by each blow run on the farms of Georgia is estimated at five. On Maj Jones' farm it is dozen or more The whole secret of successful farming does not lie, then, in limiting the area of cultivation, for the aver age farmer, small or large. is poor. It does lie in high or intensive farming Whether one or 100 acres are planted, the rate Of rofit depends upon the yield per acre. It is the man who raises two bales of cotton Y here others raise one who gets rich Major Jones is doing an excellent missionary work among his neighbors. His success and growing wealth are the best witnesses to the wisdom of farming, and others are adopting his ways. He is able to refer to several farmers in his county who now make bigger crops, selling for more money, on two or three mule farms than they formerly made on IS or 20- mule farms. Their surplus land they have rented or sold in small lots.