Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-22
INTENSIVE FARMING.
A System of Agriculture Which is Bound
to Become Popular.


Is it not possible to impress young
farmers with the importance of what is
understood to be ''intensive farming"
rhe many articles in the papers all point
TO better farming, of course, but inten-
sive farming has features which many
writer's overlook, and beginners, in par
ticular, ought to understand its charac-
ter and to adopt it when it commends
itself to their Judgment,
What does it mean? Why, in brief,
the greatest profitable amount of labor
and expenditure that can be applied to
the crops On a given area. 1t is exactly
the reverse of land skinning" That
system impels the owner to own .all the
land next to him." and then to scatter
his manure and labor over ten or twen-
ty acres when it had better be applied to
only one acre, or even less. 1t is a sys-
tenn which makes the crops from a field
less and less each year, and the owner
to keep bawling perpetually that farm
ing don pay But it is a great fash
ion among routine and unthinking
farmers to own as much land as is pos
SlLiN, thliNa tiit y vi III
is about as hard to break as the grip of
fashion among silly young fellows as to
smoking or drinking.
Many promising farmers sons and
other country bows despair of success
at farming, and shun it for the want of
capital to start without mortgage
and they are not far wrong. for a mort
gage is a horrible thing. But intensive
farming presents an opening for such,
and We're not their neighb0rs so sense
less as to often cry it down and ridicule
it, it would often be adopted; but it is
reasonably certain to revolutionize
farming vet, and so no young man
should be discouraged.
What should he do? Buy few acres
three, five or ten, according to his
capital, but never so much that the
land absorbs it all. If buildings are to
be erected, reserve for them (cheap
ones at first, of course) and also enough
in addition to buy what livestock and
tools are required
The old granny who thinks no farm
should have less than a hundred acres,
at least, will laugh at the idea of live
stock or tive-acre or ten-acre farm;
but never mind; the intensive young
farmer will not pasture his stock
he knows better. He has
no money to throw away
on pasturlng or fences, nor on big barn
yards where tons and tons of manure
are each year wasted. He will begin
with one, two or three cows at first, ac-
cording to the market he has, or ex-
poets to make for his dairy products,
and soil them. He will know, too,
when he buys them, something about
their value as dairy animals. No guess
work for him, when facts can be had.
What will he raise on such farm?
Why. such crops, of course, as will be
suitable for his locality. The land. the
climate, and the markets must determine
that. in part. In general way, how
ever, one can answer fruit. Plant a
pear orchard, say, with the rows thirty
to forty feet apart, the space between
heavily MANFRED, and small fruits be-
tween, of which straw berries are the
most reliable. Then, with thorough
tillage, no weeds allowed to make seed,
and mulching during the spring. every
thing will .sboom' with growth. No
fears need be felt about deep blowing,
if practiced from the start.
Truck, too, will be raised for a crop
rotation, or principally, if near good
market.
The dairy products, if good and re-
liable-as they naturally will be under
such management-will all find a ready
market. All the stable manure that
can be had from the neighborhood, at
living rates, will be bought and applied
in addition to all that made on the
place. The cows will be furnished
green fodder from the little farm, if
such crop can be grown for less than
green crops, or mill feed and hay can
be bought; if not the whole of the place
will be used for fruit A sensible man
will not try to raise soiling crops in
case, on the whole, it is cheaper to buy
the feed. 1t takes much more labor to
raise crops and to feed them than to
use hay and mill feed and that will be
considered.
Under such management, few thou
san. dollars will not be tied up in farm
machinery and tools. There will be no
continuous outlay of cash and work in
hideous fences; no time lost in driving
COWS each night and morning. and no
waste by them of the 70 dder that it costs
SO much to raise; no loss of manure on
the highway or in the barnyard. There
is economy everywhere, and plenty of
work. but no heavy investment of capt.
tai. The one extra item on such
place will b in the room and comfort
provided for the stock.
A small capital will start such
! place. but then, as profits come in and
the way seems open, other acres can be
| added. The young wife not have to
..slave her life OUT to board gang
of hungry farm hands. At first, the
husband can do most of the work alone.
or all Next, a ''stout chunk of a boy, ~
or good man, will be wanted; and
then perhaps boys grown on the place,
and nice girls, too, will lend a hand and
push things.
These are only gentle hints, thrown
| out to suggest thought, but there is
hope in the system. Young men need
not 90 West, or shoulder big mortgage
! at the East. and bear it until the burden
makes them grey and lettering. 1t re-
quires good sense and judgment, but so
do all enterprises of pith and moment.
| When it has been tried half as long and
half as thoroughly as the land-skinning
system, the latter WILL go to its own
place.-COr. Country Cdutcnaan.