The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1888-06-21
1arirnlfnral.
GRASS CULTURE.


land probably for more than $4,000.
He looks to the North and finds land
ranging from $50 to 5000 per acre
He looks 10 England, Holland or
Belgium, and finds it averaging from
$500 to $500 per acre. Why this
difference ? Is the land in these coun-
tries better than ours! Not by ma
ture-if it be the better it is by the
different treatment. Is their climate
better than ours! The acknowledge
ed superiority is on our side. Are
the prices of their products any bet
ter than ours! On an average not
SO good. Are their taxes lighter
than ours? Ii we we're compelled to
pay their tax, either at the North or
or in England, our land would at
once be sold for taxes. Have they
valuable crops which they can raise,
and which we cannot raise There
is not farm product in either Old
or New England which we cannot
raise in equal perfection at the South.
Is their labor cheaper than ours
The cost OF labor at the North near
ly doubles the cost Of labor at the
South. In England labor is cheaper
than with us. But the difference is
perhaps compensated by the poor
and church rates, and other excess
i've taxes paid by the English farmer.
without exception in Europe and
America, where large portion OF
land is in grass or forage crops, the
price of land is high, reaching the
figures above mentioned. On the
other hand without exception, where
ever in either continent the grasses
do not receive this attention, landed
estate is comparatively of low val
ne.
The conclusion is irresistible that
aIarge attention to the cultivated
grasses is essential, not only to i'm
proved agriculture, but also to a high
value of landed estate. If there be a
flaw in this reasoning, the writer has
been unable to detect it. Fifteen
years ago this solution was offered of
the apparently anomalous condition
Of our lands so favored as to all the
elements. of agricultural and yet SO
ruinously low in saleable value.
Time has but strengthed the convic-
ton of its correctness"
The effect of grass culture in d.
minishing the labor and the cost of a
crop, is we'll put in the following
paragraph
The great advantage of investing
money in banking or other secure
stocks, is that we get our dividends
without labor on our part. We can
get that dividend while we are giving
our attention to something else
Property is valuable in proportion to
its security and the smallness of the
cost and trouble of managing it. II
we cultivate cotton or com largely,
we must hire hands and buy mules,
corn, hay, bacon, and pay black
smiths bills. If at the end of the
year these expenses over run the
sales, then the land has been worth
worse than nothing to us. And if
this process was to be repeated, it
would be wise in us to give it away.
If there should be a small profit after
all our expenses and trouble, then
the land has a small value to us. to
be determined by our net receipts
from it. But if we put down the
same piece of land in grass, this is
done for term of years. If this
land yields only ton of hay to the
acre, and if its salable value be only
$40 per ton, and expenses 5, we have
net profit Of SIS per acre, which is
ten per cent on $50, the actual value
of the land to the owner. The only
labor in this case is the cutting, cur
ing and baling the hay. With a
horse mower, tedder, rake and hay
litter, this expense is not more than
two dollars per ton.
On Belgian farm of one hundred
acres, every acre Of which yields an
income, the steady force is not more
than two hands-extra labor being
required at grain and hay harvest.
The Belgian or English farm of one
thousand acres, under cultivation,
would require twenty hands. The
cotton plantation of one thousand
acres, with the usual proportion OF
cotton and corn, would require sixty
hands, being an excess of forty
hands. In addition, in the one in
stance, capital is diminished by ex-
haustion of the soil--in the other its
fertility and therefore its value, is
An able man exhibits his manhood