Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-10-27
How Money is Made Upon the Farm.

profit was made upon the undertaking;
at any rate, no such profit as would sat
isfy man with a speculative turn of
mind. The opinion is frequently ex-
pressed that, taking the country over,
but comparatively few farmers make
any money upon their farms over an6
above that made through the steadily
growing value of their acres. There
are, of course, many things produced
upon the farm that are not counted and
charged up as a part OF the yearly ex-
penses, and credited to the farm, as
they should be. Poultry and the egg
product cut quite figure in the living
expenses, yet there are rarely any ac-
count taken of these only when poultry
forms quite an item in the business car
red on on the farm. The same is true
of milk and butter, except where the
farm is a dairy farm; in which latter
case articles used from what is rated as
the leading products are deducted. te
On some farms, the surplus of poultry
and eggs is quite sufficient to pay for
one or two leading articles in the gro
Gerry line for the entire year, if the
poultry is properly managed. Then if
the farm is not dairy farm, the sur
plus product of the farm cows, properly
utilized, will pay the grocer quite an
added amount towards his yearly bill.
The hens CLEAN their living from sources
that are mainly valueless for any other
purpose, and the keep for couple of
COWS is hardly missed upon a farm of
two or three hundred acres, leaving the
main sources of income intact In fact,
if the farmer is following the system of
stock growing he should pursue, his
cattle being well graded up, the increase
will pay expense of feeding such cows
as are kept for family use; if he does
not raise cattle somewhat improved, he
is not worthy to have his milk and but
ter at any less cost than those who do
not live on the farm.
The farmer who bought his land-say
2i0 acres--for $500, twenty-five years
ago, and can now sell at $50 per acre,
has, after deducting compound interest
upon the sum originally paid, an appa-
rent profit on the investment of about
$40 per acre. But it is answered to
this, that he has paid taxes, and placed
fences and buildings upon the property,
and it is largely upon these improve
'ments tbatshe gain from 2125 to $50
per acre has come. But it must also ne
borne In mind, that he has had the use
of the Land during the period named,
worth during the first two or three years,
we will say, nothing; after that, from
one to three dollars per acre, according
to state of advancement in tillage, in
seeding down, and in improvements.
Ii, as is the rule, he has built fences,
and erected buildings out of earnings
from the land, having had no means,
from any other source, to make i'm
proyements with, has had his living dur
ing the years, and has now an accumu-
lation of live stock and other personal
property on hand, without having in
cnrred the risk which so generally envi-
ron mercantile and manufacturing puF
suits, there is no reason why, having
had the use of fences and buildings up
to the period of incipient decay, he
should not count the increase in price
over first cost as resting entirely in the
land proper. If gain is made out of the
products of the farm, it is by common
consent conceded that wheat growing
does not, taking the years together, add
to this gain. Especially is this true after
the first two or three years cropping,
and doubly true after the land has
become, owing to its location, materially
in value. IT ~
During all the years that the average
farmer has kept himself weighted down
with inferior farm stock, on which he
has made no profit, he has, neverthe-
less, secured a living. Under the mere
drift of nts-circumstance beyond
his control-under which the man with 4
ont brains and business tact shares to
quite degree equally with him who
has large gift of both, his land has
yearly grown in value, so that he finds
n customer for his acres in the thrifty
neighbor who has accumulated bank
balance, not by waiting for an increase
in the value of the land he has no in
tention of selling, but through feeding
his grain and grass, not simply that
they may be consumed on the premises,
that he may say his produce is not be-
ing hauled off, but, on the contrary, to
well-bred animals, that pay profit.
We would ask, what source of profit
is there upon the farm, leaving. out the
special lines, dairying, etc., except in
following the plan to regularly turn off
paying live stockp Certainly continu-
Gus wheat growing, with other grains
added, to the exclusion of feeding, can
not be practiced upon lands in general, in
fact not upon any land, without heavy
outlay for keeping up fertility. If the
man who goes along slipshod from year
to year, feeding scrub steers until they
are four or five years old, will 60 into
market with carload, on same train
with his neighbor who has carload of
two or three-year-olds of high breed
ing, he ought to be able, after the