San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-06-28
Small Farms and Large Farms.
Indiana Farmer.

The agricultural papers are carry
ing ON quite an animated discussion
on the most economical size of a
farm to be m anaged and controlled by
one man. In the New England states
the proper size of farm for general
cultivation ranges all the way from 5O
to 100 acres of arabic land. In the
south the tendency is to cut up the
great cotton plantation into farms OF
| 100 or 200 acres, while Florida insists
that 90 acres is as much as man
can cultivate proftably. In these
middle western states, where our
farming does not run largely to graz
ing, we have settled down in the opin-
ion that farm of 100 acres, or one
quarter of section, is the proper size
for Economical EARNINGS but the
Northwestern grain fields run up to
! the thousands of acres, while the cat
tie and sheep ranches of Texas, when
any attempt is made to define their
boundaries, are even larger than the
Wneat neluS OF Ddhobd'
But this question must ultimately
depend on the kind of production we
intend to devote our labor and our
land to. Stock raising or pasturage
in any form demands large area of
surface, and as grass requires little or
no cultivation and live stock feed
themselves a large part of each year,
one man can as easily manage 1000
acres of grazing land as he can 100
acres devoted to grain growing. But
even grain farming under the most
thorough cultivation requires much
less hand labor than it did a few years
ago, and the improvement in farm
tools and machinery is diminishing it
every year. 49,.
But fruit growing and market
gardening demand vastly more labor
and attention than ordinary tillage. A
fruit farm of 20 acres judiciously di-
vided between apples, peaches, pears,
cherries and small fruits, will demand
as much care and labor as 200 acres
devoted to miscellaneous farm pro-
ducts, or 500 acres of grass; and
usually it will yield as much clear
profit as either. The objection to
market gardening and fruit culture is
that it gives employment and income
but part of the year. To obviate this
difficulty many have attempted to d.
vide their labor and attention between
grain farming and small fruit; but al.
most invariably such experiments have
resulted unsatisfactory. Just at the
time corn demands cultivation, the
strawberries must go to market with
out delay; and when the harvest de-
mands attention, the raspberries and
blackberries must be picked and mar
keted daily; and at the same time
that the fallow must be broken and
prepared for the wheat crop, the
peaches and pears are pressing for at
tention and will not wait without Sc
rious loss.
1t seems to us that grazing of sheep
and cattle might be made to work har-
moniously with fruit culture and mar
ket gardening. At the season when
his fruits and vegetables demand his
undivided attention, his stock ale
taking care of themselves, and when
the winter care of his stock demands
his constant attention, his orchard and
garden are quietly resting under the
snow.
The admirable arrangement of our
railroads has literally brought the
markets of the cities to our doors and
invite us to greatly diversity the pro-
auctions of our soil. But this will de-
mand that while we cultivate fewer
acres we should cultivate them more
thoroughly. We congratulate the
farmers of Indiana on decided i'm
provement in this direction within the
last twenty-five years. The marked
increase in our wheat crop in the last
ten years is to be credited mainly to
the better preparation of the soil and
the greater care in planting the seed.
The more important question is not
whether we shall cultivate large or
small farms, but how much labor can
be economicallyput on each acre we
till? What our crops need is deep
er seed bed and more thorough pull
verizing and filming of the soil. 1t is
a waste of labor to attempt the cult
walton of more ground than can be
titled thoroughly. 1t is better to
raise 60 bushels of corn on one
acre than 80 bushels each, on two |
acres.