The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1885-09-17
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
1ho money Results of skilled Culture.

product, and that it is compelled to
pay high interest on borrowed money.
A low grade Of farming is cursed with
mortgages and mildcws, with insects
and ignorance. Uncertainty brood,
over its harveSts, and famine decimates
its people. Famine is unknown in a
country of advanced agriculture
though fourth of its Lcople oalv may
be engaged in rural production. On
the contrary mil i)ns Gamish in India,
while most of its people are in agricul-
thrc. 1t is said that in 1870, in Eng
land, "parents ate their children when
wheat rose to 336 shillings quarter
at the present value of money" Five
hundred years ago, when nearly every
Englishman lived by agriculture, the
product only sufficcd for q home sup
ply; now, with a population of 446 to
the square mile, of which only one in
eight is an agricultural worker, six
tenths of all the food required for con-
sumption is produced ut home, though
half the Island is occupied for resi-
dences, pleasure grounds, and hunting
reserves.
The Latin races of Southern Europe,
slower than the Anglo Saxon in utiiiZ.
ing in rural practice the discoveries of
modern science, are still making sure
progress towards o higher and more
profitable agriculture. In Italy lands
hrc more productive, buildings more
numerous aud convenient, and the
peasant is better paid and better lodged
and clothed.
An official commission has recognize
ed the Improvement as measure of
progress IN scientific agriculture, and
fi,f,
dependent upon schools and scientific
experiment.
This Italian commission declares:
The experience of all times and of all
places has demonstrated the fact that
purely agricultural countries arc never
rich, even from an agricultural stand
point, while in those countries where
the arts, industries and commerc flour
lsh private gain creates rural wealth.
Spain is mainly agricultural, vet its
entire value of rnral production could
be purchased with the value of the corn
crop of the United States. 1t is be-
cause the yield is small 9nd the price
low. Russia, with labor employed
prlnclpally i'll agriculture, yicds but 10
bushels of cereals per head, while
Great Britain with scven-eighths of her
people employed on tsido of agriculture
last year produced 10 bushels of cereals
TOR every lnhabitant Of the country.
In Great Britain tte yield per acre of
wheat 1873 bushels; in Russia scarcely
more than third as much. This high
ylcld has been attained by science
applied to agriculture. A single indi-
Vldual has given his life and fortune
to experimental agriculture, and en-
dowcd his experimental farm with the
income in pcrpcutity from half mil
lion dollars.
The average yield of country is no
indication of the natural fertility of its
soil. The richest soils of the world
under the rude methods Of primitive
agriculture, return low Yields. The
progress of skill and learning is indi-
Gated by a country's average Weld.
The Statistical Commission of the IN
tcrnational Congress twelve wears AFRO
made the average yield of wheat 1876
bushels in Hungary, 1872 in Portugal.
III in France, 24.8 in Holland, and
1913 in Great Britain.
In this country, where maize is a
universal crop, the richest districts do
not necessarily produce the largest
yields per acre. New England, with
q soil of sand and gravel, averaged in
the last five harvcsts 3O.S bushels per
acre, with good culture and The use of
fertilizers. The Missouri Valley, fat
with the elements of maize growth,
plcldcd mt the rate Of 29S bushels, and
in the Ohio Valley 26 bushels, while
the Middle States, with much aid from
experimental science, came very near
the best western results with 26.4
bushels.
LII seasons untavorable to production
the money value of skill and science
IN agriculture is immensely enhanced.
It's often remarked that farmers re-
celVc as much for very small crop rs
very large one. In 1881, 1,195 ,O0O,-
OoO Onshols of corn was worth $780,
ooO,O0O; IN 1884, 1895, 600, 900 bushels
were valued at $641 900, 900; a small
crop was worth CSC cents per bushrl.
o larger one 357 cents. Nevertheless
thcre is disaster i'll a small crop. The
lallure IS urequally distributed. The
lew ADVANCED farmers grow nearly
iull crops, and receive larger revenues
ulah usual; and many unskilled and
careless suffer disastrous reduction of
Yleld and quality, and fail to make
return tor seed and labor. Given un.
scientific agriculture, with an un-
"'i'"'O'o ScasOn, ana INC Door NAV
grow poorer while the scientific
farmer farmer in the same year may grow
The contrasts in present production
ana profit ofagriculturc arc sufficiently
striking. But the present will soon he
past. We arc confronted with future
inil ofpossibiities as of dangers and
aIiIlcnltles. Experiment, skill, science
applcd to industry can only avert the
latter. Fifteen years ago AZ per cent.
OF our people were employed in agri.
culture; culture; five years ago Al per cent;
To-Day perhaps AZ. We find in MI
hauons in which more than half thc
laDorers arc in agriculture arc compor.
%,.Ve,y poor, and their rural processes
1re tbc,pL ,p[sm1'iye, rn,n their implements rude,
thet their rate Of productionlow. We find
n;o cnn; III me highest development Of
a9rlcult9re, 20 per cent, or 25 at most
can lurillsn food for all. In this conn.,
Try allowing for surplus productiom %
Az per cent, can readily meet Ih6,
demand OF home consumntiom ot and 'aS 30