, 1882-09-22
Two Agricultural Systems.

farm The proprietor Is a rich land
munOpOllst, who owns in one body TO-
ODO acres, amt appears to be doing his
best To- reduce the soil from its original
ilrst.class standard for grain to poverty,
The temptation to this CXccrable abuse
of the land l. present income of 90 per
cent on the invested capital, with Il GER
/ tain prospect that the profits per acre
will every year diminish till the average
7 production Of wheat shall not more than
suffice to pay the average yearly expense
of raising 1t. This year he has $4,000
acres in wheat all looking we'll and pro-
missing yield up to the estimates -
| bushels per acre. The aggregate yield
I of $4,000 acres at this rate will be 77O,-
/ UOO bushels. 1t costs, including interest
on capital, wear and tear of machinery,
implements and horses, wages OF labor,
taxes and all, 30 cents n bushel to lay
this wheat down ut the cars for shipment
1t costs 81 cents to transport 1t 10y rall
to the Atlantic scabOard market where
the average price, one year with another,
does not exceed Sl.25 per bushel. This
leaves the producer net profit of 5S
cents on every bushel of his wheat, after
deducting the costs of production and
transportation. The net profit per acre
at - bushels is S1276. Let us call it
$l275. That makes the Dalrymple wheat
farm of $4,000 acres in crop this year
stand to clear $446,250. This is the
bright side of the picture. Now let us
take the dark side
The crop is wheat every year. After
five years of such cropping the average
yield will fall from ~ TO not over IA
bushels per acre. 1t will cost Just as
much to produce these II as it now does
to produce % bushels 80 cents busheL
at S7.70 an acre. The ira ransportation at
~ cents bushel will be S4.4S an acre,
Add this to the cost of production and
we have total cost Of Sl2lS per acre.
The value OF IA bushels, or average prod
uct per acre at Sl.25 per bushel at New
York, is $3.50. Deduct Sl2.lS as the
cost OF production and transportation,
and we have left clear profit of but
S5.l2 per acre. Every fifth year may
safely be counted on as a total failure,
from the rayages of lOcusts, grasshoppers
or drought. In such years the 35,OUO
acres would be dead loss of $685. ,5UO to
the cultivator. 1t is equal to 20 per cent
deduction from the average crop Of each
of the five years 1t reduces the average
net profit on yield of IA bushels per
acre to "a, 10 per acre. The average of
IA bushels is above the general average
of the country one year with another
Land as good as the best in Dakota,
cultivated every year in wheat for ten
years, do not in California, Illinois, Ken
tucky or Iowa average over III bushels
pei acre, unless they are strengthened by
liberal manuring. Eleven bushels per
acre deducting cost of production, $40
per acre, and cost of transportation, So
50 per acre, would leave the producer
net profit of but $2.53 per acre. AT this
rate the net profit on $4,000 acres would
be but $SS,550 year; in four years,
S354,O0O. Deduct the total failure of the
fifth year at a cost of $770 per acre, ,S269,-
800, and there is left only clear profit
of $S4, 800 for the five years: which is but
$4,000 year, or less then 30 cents an
asre. This is equal to2l3 per cent on
the capital invested in such farm. Nor
do we believe that land-monc poly farm
ers in this or any other State have done
much better than this in cycles of ten
years. What they realize for the first
four years when the land is fat, they lose
in the last six years when the land has
become worn out and poor.
The system of small farming with ro-
tation and diversitication Of crops not
only saves the original strength of the
soil, but improves it. A farmer who has
in this State one hundred acres, forty in
vineyards, ten in orchard, twenty In grass
and the remaining thirty in roots and
grain, can, after the seventh year, realize
$50 an acre from his vines, $l2O an acre
from his orchard, $50 an acre from the
mich cows his meadow will support, an
average of $25 an acre for the rest. His
vine crop will get better and better every
year for the next twenty years, and all
| his acres will be improved and enriched
by that system Of cultivation. In a
cycle OF fifteen years he will be able to
| place more money in bank from his
farm OF one hundred acres than the ave-
rage large wheat farmer who cultivated
1900 acres in wheat during all those
years.
The counties whose agricultural pros
perity is greatest are those OF the small
farms; those in which agriculture is most
declining are the counties Of large land
monopoly. France has more farms than
the United States, and she is the most
prosperous in her agricultural industry
of ali nations. In France 53 out ofevery
100 of the people live by agriculture.
| In England but rs out of every 100; in
the United States but 4S. In France,
in 1875, were 4,570,000 farmers, owning
the land they cultivated. The whole area
of the country is but 13O,673,2S0 acres.
Deduct one-tenth for mountain and
water, and the area cultivated was u.s.
605,952 acres. Divide that by 100000
farms and we have 25li acres as the aver
age farm in France. In 1881 there were4,.
| OsO,OO0O farms in the Unitsd States, and
reckoning their whole area at only
what was cultivated in the ten principal
crops, which is millions Of acres below
| the mark. we have as follows:
Acres. Acres.
/ Corn, 53,OS5, ,450 Buckwh't jjl,lO4
| Wheat. 32.5l5.95O Potatoes, 1.jli,O4
/ nat- - BS3 bDu Uay oI lSD 30 |