Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-09-13
Some Hints for FARMERS.

Man naturally wants the earth, or at
lsast that part of it which adjoins his
particular estate, but he makes a great
mistake when he eng ages in farming on
an extensive scale.
Prince Krapotkine, who has made .
careful study of the subject in France,
gives number of instances in the coun-
try districts around Paris, where com
paratiyely ignorant farmers have made
small market gardens enormously pro
ductive. One farm is mentioned by him
of two and seven .tenths acres which pro-
duces annually 125 tuns of market vege
tables of all kinds. The owner of this
farm by building walls to protect his
land from cold winds, by whitening the
walls TO secure all possible radiated heat,
and by the constant and judicious use
of fertilizers he's his little farm in a pro
ductive conditions from the 1st of Janu-
airy to the last of December. By simple
and inexpensive means he has partically
located his farm ia the tronics.
A French gardner does not care what
kind of sol he starts with. He would be
satisfied with an asphalt pavement, be-
cause he makes his soil, and so much Of
it that be has to sell it to keep his place
from being gradually raised above the
level of tho surrounding country. When
farmer once understands the laws of
chemistry he has no difficulty in making
soil that contains all the materials needed
for plant life.
Prince Krapotkine speaks of one gar
dener who has covered half au acre with
a glass roof, and run steam pipes supplied
by a small boiler under the ground shelf
cred by this covering. The result has
been that he has cut every day for ten
months from 1000 to 200 large lunches
OF asparagus, product which under or
binary conditions would require sixty
acres of land. Bot this result has been
surpassed by an English farmer, who has
made oue-acre mushroom farm yield
him an annual income OF $4,000.
Under the French method Of cHlture II
would be possible TO make one square
mile support 1000 human beings. On
SUCH scale of productive capacity this
country would support population of
5000, 100000. Even when we knock off a
fair per centage for mistakes, exagera-
tions and unfavorable conditions, it will
be seen that we are in no danger of having
an overcrowded population for many cen
turtles 10 come. There is no reason why
our eastern farmers should go we3t for
more elbow room. Their great drawback
is aot the wnnt of more land; it Is the
possession OF too much lend.
In some localities in Switzerland the
traveller on the plains or in the. valleys
looks up to a towering precipice 1900
feet above his head. When he laborous-
IL climbs to the summit, expecting to
find nothing but bare rock, be sees be
fore him the smiling oxpanse of produc-
! tive fields, with pretty cottages dotting
the landscape. The peasant proprietors
started with only the naked rock under
/ them. They carried the rich soil Of the
valleys in baskets on their backs up the
stespmouutain side, and went to work
with a viii until they transformed their
sterile patches into blooming gardens.
The success Of European farmers With
\ an the forces of nature against them
| should be an inspiring lesson to ouretii-
! lets OF the soil. The American small
farmer has only to uuite brain work with
hand work to make himself independent
aud comfortable II not rich.
! But without this union Of the brainanc
hand there can be no great aud perman
/ emf success.