St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-01-28
THE SIZE OF FARMS.
e7ow Small and Medium Holdings Can Be
Made Profitable.

6ow Small and Medium Holdings Can BE
Made Profitable.
The tendency has been toward large
farms. 1t appears to be human nature
to wish to accumulate large tracts. In
Europe long course of this accompa-
MED with the laws of primogeniture
and of entail has concentrated the
whole land of the country in a few
hands.
In our country, more especially in
the West and in California, we have
seen the same process going on, and
though we have neither of the above
laws, corporations that never die as
long as they are successful,
may hold large tracts for grain farms
or cattle ranches equally detrimental
to the welfare of the country.
Large grain farms can not in the end
pay The impossibility of getting suf-
6cient manure to keep up their fertili-
ty, will diminish the crops from year
to year till they are reduced below a
paying point, when cultivation will be
discontinued. leaving a partially bar
rem tract to be divided up into smaller
farms.
The severity of late winters, causing
the death of immense numbers of cattle,
and the low prices obtained for them,
are breaking up some of the largest
cattle ranches, and will probably con-
tinue to do so. Besides, the manure
from the cattle may be said to be lost
scattered over such large tracts, while
on smaller farms it would be saved and
applied properly to the land.
Medium sized farms, from three to six
hundred acres. would probably be
found (where there is sufficient capital
to work them property to be the most
profitable, as on these would be found
use for the latest improved labor saving
machines, by which crops can be put
in. cultivated and harvested at the low
est rate of expense. such as can not be
done on a small eighty or one hundred
acre farm where more manual labor
has to be employed.
Small farms of fifty to one hundred
acres must be intelligently managed to-
make them pay They can not, as
heretofore, be devoted to raising grain,
as without the improved machinery,
they can not compete with the larger
farms which can profitably use them.
But by devoting them to dairying,
poultry-raising, fruit-raising (such as
apples and pears that do not require
much attention}, they can be made to
pay we'll, provided the farmer has suf-
ficient help in his own family to attend
to the work properly. Of course he
will have to raise hay and fodder, and
some grain, nearly all to be consumed
on the farm to feed the cows and poul-
try. There is another class of smaller
farms, from five to twenty-five acres, or
even up to fifty acres, that can be made
profitable, principally by small fruit
raising and keeping poultry, but these
to pay well should be near large towns
and cities where the sales could be per-
sonally looked after.
Mr.. L. B. Arnold, of near Rochester,
N. Y. the well-known lecturer on
dairy matters, has a five-acre farm on
which he has cleared as much as six
hundred dollars a year, principally
from raising small fruit and poultry
He eyaporates all his fruit. which is
principally black raspberries, also some
apples, and makes about one hundred
dollars a year of his poultry of forty
hens. He keeps one COW ON the soil
ing system, and part of the farm is
planted to corn for the poultry, and
fodder for the COW, which has no
pasture. OF coure the income will
vary according to the season. No
small fruit-raiser should commence
without an evaporator, and with it the
distant Turner could do as we'll as those
nearer towns; he would have the benz
eft OF cheap land and low taxes, while
Mr.. Arnold being within three miles
of Rochester. had to pay taxes on a
valuation of some $500 an acre.
We do NOT feel confident to sum up
which is best, and will leave the in
tended farmer TO decide for himself,
according to his capital, etc.-M 4.
Witness.