The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1882-07-22
What Poor Lands may be Made
to DO.

to DO.
The editor of the New England
Farmer has proved by crops made on
his Pine Hedge Farm that most of the
poor lands of New England can be con-
verted into paying farming lands He
says: "As farmer we claim to have
won success. A cold, wet, rocky and
unattractive farm, in a poor neighbor-
hood, agriculturally speaking, has been
changed into one of the most produc-
tive and most easily worked, consider
ing the natural character and lay of
land, of any with which we have be-
come familiar, and to our own salts
faction if not to that of others, we
have solved the problem whether
farming upon an average farm in New
England can be made to pay wages for
labor and fair per cent, upon capital
invested What has been done at
Pine Hedge we believe can be done
almost anywhere in New England, and
with greater ofteDer than less satisfac-
tory results"
The cultivated land of Pine Hedge
Farm amounted to twenty-six acres,
and the pasture only five acres, There
were 26 cows, young stock, and horses
on the farm, worth $500. The ex-
pense for fertilizers, grain, feed, ect.,
1925; labor of men, S40O-Sl025.
The sales of butter amounted to
$3.50; beef, store cattle and calves,
SI65; pork, SlO7; poultry and eggs,
S52; potatoes, $25; hay, straw and
grain, 1925; labor done off the farm,
500 increase of live stock, 8 head,
SlZo: Zo:.-.--'-'-.'.----.--.- S2l5O
Expenses --.......-...- 1871
Profits ........... 8779
The editor says: "FuiI one-half of
our own time, and much more than
half of our best thought is given to
the readers of these columns The
farm for the past ten years has had to
take a secondary place in our mind,
and for that reason, if for no other,
the best class of help has been re-
quired, and high wages paid. Most of
the labor performed during the past
four years has been done by American
young men from the high schools,
who are now in college or on their
way there"
" Nothing could be farther from our
purpose in laying these figures before
the readers of the Farmer than to boast
of personal success. We have done it
because we have faith in New England
agriculture, and know of no better
way to show that faith than by an cx-
hibit of works. We believe that farm
ing in New England does pay more |
than farmers themselves realize or are |
willing to admit, but we also believe |
that it might, aud ought to pay better
than it does.
at will be seen by the figures we
have given that, after throwing the five
acres of pasture, valued at 81, which is
all it is worth, out of the account, the
twenty six acres of tillage land have
produced a gross income of 800 per
acre, not by market gardening or frnit
growing, but by ordinary stock and
dairy farming, and on quality of land
which, like most Of the land in New
England, not overfowed by rivers,
would, ifcropped from five to ten years
without manuring, produce scarcely
enough above the cost of labor to pay
the taxes. 1t will be seen also that the
farm has canid an animal to the acre.
More than ninety per cent. of these
have been mature animals, horses, bulls
and cows. 1t may also be noticed that
he butter product sold has been
ninety pounds per acre"
If such lands as those of Pine Hedge
Farm can be made to pay in the hard
climate of New England, where frosts
lFe not uncommon as late as the month
IF May, and also in September, what
ought the ordinary lands of Louisiana
md Mississippi to do IN so genial and
Kindly climate as these states enjoy2
Fhe poor pine lands of these states,
where they have q semi-clay subsoil,
which most of them have, are vastly
uperior to the lands worked by the
,ditOF of tle New FnOland Farmer. |