The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1888-11-22

INCOME FROM THE FARM.

any income over and above the ex-
pense of carrying it ON should be
abandoned or improved. Brain and
muscle are too valuable to be vast
ed year after year to maintain a
scant sustenanee and an uncertain
hold on life.
Farmers, like other men, should
not be content to continue work in
their field without profitable re-
suits. No man has discharged his
duty to himself, his friends and his
fellows until he reaches the posi-
bilities in his power and becomes
the master of the business of his
choice.
No man who has tried it will say
there are no hinderances in the way
to an income from the farm. There
are many, and some of them are Sc
rious. The question is, can they be
met and overcome? Some of them,
such as the control and improve
ment Of our labor, the sale of our
products, the purchase of our ne
cessities, cannot be managed sue.
cesstully by individual effort. These
must be determined by cooperative
action. If the Farmers Alliance
will do nothing more than establish
and maintain standard of indus
try, faithfulness and moral charac-
ter to which our labor must be
brought, and give US system of dis
cipline by which this standard shall
be uniformly observed, iC will bring
millions to the farmers of the south
now lost from idleness and from
theft. 1t can be done, and | believe
this organization will eventually eff
feet it. Then the man who goes
from one farm to another will carry
with him reputation upon which
his living depends and by which the
income of his employer is measured.
The Improvement of our labor is the
first step towards the increase OF our
income.
While it is strange that we expect
to make money from land utterly
exhausted of its fertility. Thou
sands of acres in Georgia are work
ed from year to year that would ac-
tually, in their yields not pay for
the first blowing given them. Oh
what consummate folly are we gull
ty of when we expend twelve months
of industrious effort that will not
pay us for one week of service CIV
en- Poor lands need not be aban-
doned if SO, some Of us might be
altogether without. They can be
and they ought to be improved.
Many methods of Improvement have
been suggested-some of them good
and practical, others expensive and
long continued. | must believe,
however, that the best way co bale
of cotton to the acre, and, therefore,
the best income from the farm, is
through the barnyard. A rotation
OF crops is put upon the land and it
is improved, because it gives of GER
tain elements and retains others, al
ternately. Still it is process of
exhaustion. Green crops may be
put upon the land for the purpose OF
being given eventually and entirely
to the soil. These crops furnished
us no income except such as comes
subsequently, from the same soil af-
ter much time has been expended in
its recovery and its recuperation.
Colts and cattle and sheep and
hogs furnish stock for the farm, milk
and butter, wool, mutton and meat
for our own sustenance, and a hand
some income in the markets, while
at Che same time most valuable
means of recovering our la~-1S to
remunerative yields. Every farm
for its own improvement, to say
nothing Of its income, should be at
least miniature stock farm. The
one, while a valuable adjunct to the
other, becomes itself possibly as
much source of revenue Espec-
tally is this true if the stock is of
the best selection. Farmers look
too much to what we call cheap
things cheap land, cheap labor,
cheap stock, etc. A broken-down
cheap mule will oftentimes not pay