The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-09-29
REFORM IN PLANTING.

The fact that Texas is now seek
ing q grain deficiency in other
states, where the supply is also very
short, is a more conclusive argument
than ever in favor of improved ag-
riculture, and of more diversity
of crops among our farmers.
Had the area of oats,
grown in Texas last spring,
been double what it was, there
would have been plenty of grain in
the state for all home consumption :;
and, had there been more perfect
preparation for the corn crop, it is
equally reasonable to say there
would have been no deficiency in
grain. A colony of admirable farm
ers, foreigners, not very far from
San Antonio, are reported to have
made, even during this very dry
season, forty-fve bushels of corn to
the acre, and the means of their
success was deep ploughing last
winter, with thorough preparation
of the soil for the crop.
The cause of tins grain defici-
ency with Texas farmers is
that they grew too great cotton
crop last year, and that they devot-
ed two or three months more to it
than usual, thus neglecting the vital
interests ofthe present year. There
is going to be no dearth of grain in
Texas, it is true, but there ought to
have been much to spare. AS it is,
but little meat will be fattened, and
the price of most of the necessities
of life must be high. 1t would
be far better to have full cribs and
fat stock and full smoke houses
than to be looking around
with few extra dollars
obtained from blg cotton crop, for
just such means of subsistence as
every farmer ought to have and to
spare from his own home econo-
mics. Henry w. Grady, in Harper's
Magazine, reviews the situation of
the Texas farmer admirably
in an article applied TO the entire
south. He says:
The south must prepare TO raise
her own provisions, compost her fer
tiliZers, cure her own hay, and breed
her own stock. Leaving credit and
usrfy out of the question, no man
can pay seventy-fiye cents bushel
for corn, thirty dollars ton for hay, ,
twenty dollars barrel for pork,
sixty cents for oats, and raise cotton
for eight cents pound. The farm
ers who prosper in the south are the
"cOrn raisers," j. e., the men who
raise their own supplies, and make
cotton their surplus crop. A gen.
tleman who recorded 800 mort
cages last year testified that not
one was placed on the farm of
a man who raised his own bread
and meat. The shrewd farmers who
always have bit OF money on hand
with which to buy any good place that
is to be sold under mortgage are the
cOrn-raisers," and the moment they
get possession they rule out all cot
ton planting and plant corn and
grasses. That the plan of farming
only needs revision to make the
south rich beyond measure is proven
by constant example. A corn raiser
bought place of $40 acres for ST.
10 af OF 70
it, and limited their cotton acreage
to one-thIrd of what they had under
cultivation. Each one of the six
made more clear money than
the former owner had made, and the
rents for the first year were $1126.
The man who bought this farm
lives i'll Oglethorpe, Georgia, and
has fifteen farms run on the same
plan.
The details of the management of
what may be the typical plant
ing neighbOrhoOd of the south
in the future are furnished
me by the manager of the Cape
heart estate, in North Carolina.
This estate is divided into farms of
fifty acres each, and rented to ten
ants. These tenants are bound to
plant fifteen acres in cotton, twelve
in corn, eight in small crops, and let
fifteen lie in grass. They pay
nnr third of the crop as rent, or
unc-half if the proprietor furnishes
horses and mules. They have COM
Portable quarters, and are entitled
TO the use of surplus herring and
the dressings of the herring caught
in the fisheries annexed to the place.
In the centre of the estate is gen.
eral store managed by the
proprietor, at which The ten
ants have such n line of
credit as they are entitled to, of
course paying pretty per centage
of profit on the goods they buy.
They are universally prosperous,
and in some cases, where by skill
and industry they have secured 100
acres, are laying up money. The
profits to DR.. Capeheart are large,
and show the margin there is in
buying land that is loosely farmed,
and putting it under intelligent
supervision. OF the $4,000 worth
of land added to his estates last
year, at a valuation of twenty-five
dollars per acre, he will realize in
rental nine dollars per acre for every
acre cultivated, and calculates that
in five years at the most the rentals
of the .and will have paid back what
he gave for it.