The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-07-12
What Small Farmers Can Do.

Nan naturally wants the earth, or at
least that part of it which adioins his
particular estate; but he makes 9 great
mistake when he engages in farming on
an extensive scale.
Prince Krapotkine, who has made q
careful study of the subject in France,
gives number of instances in the coun.
try districts around Paris, where compar.
atively ignorant farmers have made small
market gardens enormously productive.
One farm is mentioned by him of two
and seven tenths acres which produces
annually 125 tons of market vegetables
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 fertili-
zers has his little farm in productive
condition from the first of January to the
last of December. By simple and mex:
pensive means he has practically located
bis farm in the tropics.
A French gardener does not care what
kind of soil he starts with. He would be
satisfied with an asphalt pavement,
because he makes his soil, and 80 much
oft that. he has to sell it to keep his
place from being gradually raised above
the level of the surrounding country.
When 9 farmer once understands the
laws of chemistry be has no difficulty in
making soil that contains the materials
needed for plant life.
Prince Krapotkine speaks Of one gar
dener who has covered half an acre with
q glass roof, and run steam pipes supplied
BY small boiler gpder the ground shel
tered by this covering. The result has
been that he has cut every day for ten
months from 1000 to 200 large bunches
of asparagus, product which under or.
dinsry conditions would require sixty
acres of land. But this result has been
surpassed by an English farmer, who has
made 8 one acre mushroom farm yield
him an annual income of So 900.
Under the French method of culture it
would be possible to make one square
mile support 1000 human beings. On
such scale Of productive capacity this
country would support population of
SOOO,00O,O0 Even Rhen We knock off
q fair per csntage for mistakes, e8agger.
ations and unfavorsble conditions, it will
be seen that we are In no danger of hav.
ing an over crowded population for many
centuries to come. There is no reason
Why our eastern farmers should go West
for more elbow room. Their great
drawback il not the want of more land !;
it is the possession OF too much land.
In some localities in Switzerland the
traveller on the plains or In the valleys
looks up to towering precipice 1000
feet above his head. When he labori.
ously climbs to the summit, expecting
to ind nothing but bare rock, ne sees
before him the smiling expanse of pro.
ductiye 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 steep mountain side, and
went to work with will until they
transformed their sterile patches into
blooming gardens. ;,
The success OF European farmers Uith
all the forces of nature against them
should be an inspiring lesson to our til.
lers of the soil. The American small
farmer has only to unite brain work
with hand work to make himself indie.
pendent and comfortable if n9t rich.
But without this union of the brain and
hand there can be no great and permanent
success.-AtLantG Constitution.