The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-07-03
IMPROVING INFERIOR FARMS.

No system of farming can at pres
ent be profitable that does not include
constant improvement on the produc-
tive capacity Of the soil. The farmer
who, by draining or extra manuring
increases the crop may not for the
time seem to be making anything, but
he is laying sure foundations for
future success. In the end, the best
land under good management will
| yield a good profit. The chief trouble
with Eastern farmers has been that
the soil of virgin fertility at the West
has been producing more cheaply than
we could on soils partly exhausted by
continued grain cropping. Of late
years two new e of comparatively
rich soil adapted to grain sowing has
been opened, first in Russia and more
lately in India. But from either of
these sources there is not such likeli-
hood that the supply of wheat will
largely increase unless there is a ma
terial advance in prices.
The farmers Of this country would
generally do better not to try so hard
to make large profits under the pres
ent condition Of things. Attempting
this, while a ruinous competition ex-
lists, exposes them to greater losses.
Possibly this competition may be less
severe the coming season than it
has been. We hope so. There are
some signs that way, and we have
gladly given them to our readers. But
the ambition to make money, to accu-
mulate not merely a competence but a
fortune, is greater in this country than
anywhere else, as indeed the opportu-
mites for it's qualification have been
greater. 1t will hardly do for us to
advise farmers to give up and strive
only for the bare living that elsewhere
all " the world contents the worker
on the soil. Our farmers will not do
it, and we honor them for it. If going
ahead, spreading ones self and grow.
ing as large areas of crops as possible
are to be set aside at all, it can only
be by showing hat there is a better
and safer outlet of the surplus energy
with which American farmers, no less
than all other classes of American citi-
zens, are filled.
This better way we feel certain is in
improving farms to the utmost
capacity that is profitable. We do
not mean putting on fancy and no.
tlonal improvements that will not paw
legal interests on their cost. These
are well enough for those who have
money to spare. The men we appeal
to are those in eager earnest after
money, and in too many cases
without the required capital which
makes money-getting come natural
and easy. These certainly cannot
engage in extensive cropping on terms
where they can hope to reap any
profit. Their only resources, if thew
continue in farming at all, is to oct
hold Of some land, buying only about
what they can work to advantage. and
by improving this build it into a pro-
ductive capital.
The great advantage of this plan is
that strong arms and WILLINGNESS to
work may serve in lieu of capital.
The man who sets his thoughts on
farm improvements cannot possibly
have any waste time. No system Of
cropping will provide him work for
every day in the year as will this.
There is a fascination in the thought
OF making the farm constantly better.
that in time, though it begins in the
love OF money, outgrows that ignoble
feeling and assumes a higher motive.
Men who grow rich in other ways be-
come sordid and mean with their
wealth. This may be, and sometimes
IS, the case with farmers growing rich
by o~vercropping their land. So long
they are engaged in soil exhaustion
they are pluniering those who come
alter them. When they take the
other plan they are benefactors of the
future. They IAN only do this by
pursuing a large and liberal policy,
which necessarily reacts upon their
own characters.
The popular idea of a farmer is of
one narrowed and hardened by a hard
and losing struggle for existence. This
Is, OF course, a %caricature, but because
of this it must have some basis of
truth. 1t is, in part, true only of
those farmers who seek wealth by rob-
blng their soil instead of fertilizing If.