Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-09-14
Immense Yields.

r,rmors who have plodded along for
,osr. farming in the old way can hardly
made to believe that any other system
:. srperlor to their own, or that 1t Is pos
.ala on scientific principles TO make an
..,.a WELD perhaps ten times as much as
:, f,ss ordinarily; and yet hundreds OF
',.nsripents prove beyond all question
mat such is the fact.
Same time ago, writing on the subject
~ truck farming in this section, we
,,u-ad about 400 bushels of Irish potatoes
the acre as a moderate yield. Soon af-
.or we met on the street a successful
,rucs farmer, who said he desired to see
,s i'm order to correct the great mistake
r.obad made. He then stated that 80
,ns1e per acre was good yield, and
ras Altogether incredulous of our figures.
What will he now think when we state
no Weld Of Mr.. Barnum, as given in the
p,1tcal Fdrqner, at 5000 bushels per
,cre2 1t seems that Mr.. Barnum's ordi-
,ary crops are from 1000 to 1900 bushels
oer acre, but when he puts on his scien-
.ifc metal he can double those figures.
AOnNtN bGIiSNtu lis iONCSb nAuIGS until
he Droyed the higher ones. or course, 1t
was an experiment; but if one row can
be made to Weld so enormously, what is
N preyent the second, third and fourth?
If one-eighth or One-fourth OF an acre can
be wrought up to gigantic yield, would
not the same management bring up the
remainder of the acre? And If one acre,
why not two, three or half a dozen? 1t
is a question of manure and intelligent
cultivation.
ANY kind" of a farmer, we admit.
cannot do it, but the right kind can do it.
Itmay be that Irish potatoes cannot be
made to yield as much per acre in the
South as at the North, where MIR. Bar
nuns experiments were carried on; but
that is OF no consequence In the argu-
nent. The question is, how much more
can they be made to yield In the South
than they now do? If under the present
system of cultivation they yield 250
bushels per acre, would not Mr.. Bar
NUNS system or planting and cultivation
double and quadruple that yield?
We have selected Irish potatoes to talk
about, because Of MIR. Barnum's extraor-
binary yield; but the same thing applies
10 all other crops, whether planted in the
spring or in the fall. The secret is in
knowing how to do thing, and men are
iucredulOus until they see it done, or do it
themselves. Experiment alone can lead
them into the light, and this, because it
requires a little more energy, expense
and knowledge, very few will undertake.
Il Mr.. Barnum's experiment with po-
tatoes surpasses belief, what ought to be
said Of several Georgia experiments with
Indian cornP The highest we recall
among them was 12S bushels per acre.
Now when 1t is considered that the aver
age yield of corr in the State is bushels
per acre, sixteen times that quantity be-
comes quite incredulous; and yet these
experiments are now too we'll known to
be disputed. Likewise, the well-known
Georgia experiments with cotton more
than prove the possibility of the potato
yield.
From three acres to one bale as the
average, science has reversed it and pro-
claimed three bales to one acre, and we
know that five and six bales have been
produced on an acre.
When We say the Fright" kind Of
farmer can do it, we mean the energetic.
ambitious farmer. Such men, thousands
4 Of Illustrations prove, can do almost any
iAing they undertake, because they first
prepare themselves with the requisite
knowledge and then push forward with
saergy to the goal.
They are not dishesrtened by failures or
mlstakes-do not languidly complain OF
the floods and drought, and do not wind
I'D their operations with farming don't
pay" and move to town to commence
some other business they know nothing
about They perceive that If farming
lon't pay, nothing else will; that all
1taer trades and professions depend upon
II Tor support, and if ''there is no money
II, the fault is in the farmer and not the