The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-11-20
savannah Newe
INTENSIVE ~. EXTENSIVE

1t has been we'll said that many farm
ers do not seem to understand what is
meant by intensive farming, and as they
have all their lives been accustomed 10
cultivating a great deal of land to secure
even small crops, in the absence of per-
sonal experience they do not see how they
can cultivate less without diminishing
such crops rs the system affords. But
the numerous experiments on small areas,
published over and over for their benefit,
ought to be good evidence Of what can
be done by the intensive system. Be-
sides, every farmer can try such expert
ments for himself, and know the truth
without dependence upon the testi-
monv of another. They need not be
costly, for the fractional part of an acre
will prove or disprove theory of cuti-
vation with a. much certainty as a whole,
or many acres All the farmers of Amer
ica, it may be said, have abundantly tried
the extensive system of farming, which
is we'll described as broad and loosely
scattering overa large surface" the labor,
capital and anxiety OF the farmer. To
gather up, to contract and concentrate
these on much smaller surface, will be a
mastery move toward the intensive svs-
TEN. The contraction need not be so
great as to embarrass the unnitiated
farmer-he may contract, draw in and
concentrate by degrees until he arrives
at the area of surface he can manage. If
by better manuring and cultivating half
the land he formerly skinned over he
finds that he has not diminished the an
nual supplies of his family from the farm,
he may fairly conclude that lie has made
a great gain in labor, wear and tear, etc,
and that the same operations the follow
ing year will improve his land to still
higher degree, and consequently give him
still better yield This will pnt him on
the up grade, and as his reduced surface
grows in fertility, he may safely contract
a little more, and SO on, to the diminished
area called intensive, which is no more nor
less than the surface area he can thor
oughly tertilize, cultivate and bring up to
the highest capacity of the soil and eli
mate for production. But his advantages
do not end here. His crops thus cultva-
ted are superior i'll qualitv-they 90 fur
ther in supporting his family and the
farm stock, and actually bring more money
tion he has gained a goodly quantity of
open land, heretofore necessary, he
thought, to produce inferior nubbins or
poverty-strlcken cotton to help out the
family supplies; but now this land may
be sowed down in small grain or grass
few good cows kept grazing thereon to
further enrich the land and furnish the
family with good milk and butter If
these lands are very poor they may be
started into paying productions in a sin
gle year by sowing and blowing in field
peas. The poorest drained land in Geor-
gia can be made rich by good system of
grass manuring, and nothing is better
than field peas, unless it be the beggar-lice
or Indian clover of Florida and Southern
Georgia. The first crops, sowed on very
poor land, should be plowed under wien
halfleg high, sowing again As the vines
are turned under. Keep this up until
August, then SOW full crop at the last
turning under, and let the August crop re-
main for fall gathering of the peas and
the vines to rot on the surface. The field
will make good corn the next year.