The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1885-09-17
sAGRICULTURALD DEPARTMENT.
ahe sroney Results of sklned Culture.

ahe Money Results of Skilled Culture.
Statistical research shows that a
crude agriculture is not abundant in
product, and that it is compelled to
pay high interest on borrowed money.
A low grade Of farming is cursed with
mortgages and mildews, with insects
and ignorance. Uncertainty brood,
over its harvests, and famine dccimates
its people. Famine is unknown in Il
country of advanced agriculture
though a fourth of its teoplc oaly may
be engaged in rural production. On
the contrary mil ions famish in India,
while most of its people arc in agricul-
thrc. 1t is said that in 1870, in Eng
land, "parents ate their children when
wheat rose to 1856 shillings quarter
at the present value Of money" Five
hundred years ago, when nearly every
Englishman lived by agriculture, the
product only suffiCcd for home sup
ply; now, with population of l46 to
the square mile, of which only one in
eight is an agricultural worker, six
tcnths Of all the food required for con-
sumption is produced at 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 utiliZ-
ing in rnral practice the discoveries of
modern science, are still making sure
progress towards higher and more
profitable agriculture. In Italy lands
"re more productive, buildings more
numerous aud convenient, and the
peasant is better paid and better lodged
and clothed.
- An official commission has rccogniz-
ed the Improvement as measure of
progress in scientific agriculture, and
made the future prosperity Of Italy
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 commcrc flour
lsh private gain creates rural wealth.
Spain ls mainly agricultural, yet 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 and the price
low. Russia, with labor employed
principally in agriculture, yieds but 10
bushels of cereals per head, while
Great Britain with seven-eighths of her
people employed outside of agriculture
last year produced 10 bushels of cereals
tor every inhabitant of the country.
In Great Britain the yield per acre of
wheat is % bushels in Russia scarcely
more than third as much. This high
yield has been attained by science
applied to agriculture. A single indi-
Vidual has given his life and fortune
to experimental agriculture, and en-
doWcd his experimental farm with the
income in pcrpeutity from half a mil
lion dollars.
The average yield of a 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
ternational Congress twelve years ago
made the average yield of wheat -. G
bushels in Hungary, 1872 in Portugal,
III in France, 24.8 in Holland, and
29.9 in Great Britain.
LIN this country, where maize is a
universal crop, the richest districts do
not necessarily produce the largest
yields per acre. New England, with
a soil Of sand and gravel, averaged in
the last live harvcsts 30.S bushels per
acre, with good culture and The use of
f2rtilizcrs. The Missouri Valley, fat
with the elements Of maize growth,
plcldcd at the rate Of 29.S bushels, and
in the Ohio Valley 26 bushels, while
the Middle States, with much aid from
experimental science, came very near
the pest western results with 2G.4
bushels.
In seasons unfavorable to production
inc money value Of skill and science
IN agriculture is immensely enhanced.
IL Is often remarked that farmers re-
celVc as much for very small crOD rs
avery very large one. In 1881, !, ,195, ,OO0,-
OOO Dnshels of corn was worth S76O''
100000; in 1884, 1895, ,OOO, 900 bushcjs
were valued at $641 900 900: a small
crop was worth CSC cents pcr bushrl
larger one So cents. Nevertheless
there is disaster in small crop. The
failure is unequally distributed. The
few advanced farmers grow nearly
full crops, and receive larger revenues
than usual; and many mskillcd and
careless suffer disastrous reduction of
yield and quality, and fail to make
return for seed and labor. Giyen M
scientific agriculture, with an m-
auspicions season, and the poor NAV
grow poorer while the scientific
farmer i'll the same year may grow
richer.
Inc contrasts in present production
ana profit agriculture arc sufficiently
striking: But the present will soon be
past. We are confronted with n future
imll OF possibilities as of dangers and
ditlicultics. Experiment, skill, science
aPpiicd to industry can only avert the
latter. Fifteen years ago AZ per cent :.
OF % our people were employed in agri-
tei5ure; t hYc years ago Al per cent :;
to-day perhaps AZ. We find in All
nations in which more than half the
laDorers arc in agriculture arc compar-
maVeiy poor, and their rural processes
ere primitive, their implements rude.
their thet ra'e OF productiom.low. We find