St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-06-09
INSTRUCTIVE FIGURES.
How to Realize a Fair Precentaps0 of
Profit From Valuable Land.

| no" TO Realize Fair PrecentapSO OF
Profit From Valuable Land.
A reader asks how he can make his
farm of 1870 acres, valued at SIG, 600,
pay per cent. annual income, net.
We will assume that the farm is of or
binary farming land, capable of pro.
ducing good crops of grain, grass or
vegetables, and is in a fair state of fer.
tility; and we must assume further that
the land will be we'll cultivated and
managed by good, practical, common
sense farmer. The farm has thirty
acres of woodland. Allow ten acres
for building lot, yards. orchard, gar
den, roads and pasture, permanent,
and we have then 14O acres for com.
mon farm purposes. This should
be divided into fields as to make it con.
venient to have one-fourth or one-fiftb
in different crops annually, and no
crop to be grown oftener than four or
five years on the same field. Three
years the land to grow grain and
vegetable crops, and two years
grass and clover, to complete a five.
year course. Corn, oats and all refuse
hay, straw and cornstalks to be fed to
stock on the farm and worked into
manure to aid the fertility of the land
The manure to be taken from the
stables in winter and spread as drawn
on clover sod to be plowed in spring
for corn. There ought to be manure
enough made to manure fifteen acres
at twenty loads per acre. There will
then be left thirteen acres of the one.
fifth allotted to the first crop in the ro-
tation, this to be in beans or potatoes:
the second year, this ground to be put
to oats, the stubble then plowed as
soon as the crop is off and sown to
wheat, the land being we'll fitted
with clover and timothy seeding in
spring. The fourth year, the land
moved for hay; the fifth year, to
pasturage. Stock should be kept to
use the pasturage, hay and all other
fodder and coarse grain; some dairy
may be kept, or otherwise beef, pork
or mutton may be made-the latter
will be the better for the fertility OF
the farm, as more and richer manure
will be made.
We will say fifteen acres is MANFRED
in winter and spring, which will be
planted to corn; thirteen acres clover
sod, unmanured, will be planted to
beans; second crop will be oats
- twenty-eight acres. This the
third year will be sown to wheat, and
Ill manure made after spring manur-
ing will be applied as top dressing on
he bean land which was not MANFRED
when the sod was turned The wheat
and will be seeded and moved for hay
The fourth year, and pasturage the fifth
year. The rotation to be repeated
every fifth year. 1t is fair to esti-
mate the gross income, and allow
for use of land, or the land
ord's share, after deducting one-half
he cost of seed sown and one-half the
ost of fertilizers purchased, which
will be applied on wheat and corn at
he rate of 200 pounds per acre of good
uperphosphates, costing $25 per ton.
The income from crops estimated at
rices and yields of the past three
ears would be So, 304; landlord half,
1852 Deducting from The landlords
hare cost of seed, fertilizer, per cent
n capital for repairs, and figure out
Or him a net income from capital OF
l. IT'S, or 1-2 per cent. The estimate
Or crops are above the average,
ut not above what may be real.
zed by thorough cultivation on any fair
arming land, and are below the aver Z
ge on my farm for several years past,
nd much below the possible yield un.
e. better cultivation. In the esti- 8
hates I calculated on the basis of mar 5
ct values of products, assuming that
Il might be sold, but such portions OF ,
he products as arc to be fed on the {
lrm should realize to the farmer in
eef, pork, dairy and growing stock
leir market value, and more. when
diciously fed.-E p Root, in N Y