The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-19
The Income from the Farm.

The Income from the Farm.
Any business that does not pay our in
oome over and above the expense of carry
inc If should be abandoned or improved,
saws Hon. W. ]. Northen, in the Southern
c,,Itipntor. Brain and muscle are too val
uahle to be wasted year after year to main
+ain a scant sustenance ana an uncertain
hold on life.
Farmers. like other mon, should not be
content to continue work in this field with
ont profitable results. No man has dis
charged his duties to himself, his friends
and his fellows until he reaches the posi-
biIities in his power and becomes the mas
fer of the business of his choice
Norman who has tried it will say there are
No hindrances in the way to an income
from the farm. There are many, and some
of them are serious. The question is: Can
they be met and overcome! Some of them,
such as the control and Improvement of
onr labor, the sale of our products, the
purchase of our necessities, cannot be man.
aged successfully by individual effort.
These must be determined by cooperative
action. II the Farmers Alliance will do
nothing more than establish and maintain
a standard of industry, faithfulness and
moral character to which our labor
must be brought, and give us a system of
discipline by which this standard shall be
uniformly observed, it will bring millions
TO the farmers of the south that are now
lost from idleness and from theft. 1t can
he done. and believe this organization will
eventually effect it. Then the man who
goes from one farm to another will carry
with him reputation upon which his liv-
ing depends and by which the income of
his employer is measured. The improve
ment of our labor is the first step toward
the increase of our income.
While it is strange that we expect an i'll
crease from incompetent, insufficient
oilers, it is equally strange that we expecS
to make money from land utterly ex
hausted of its fertility. Thousands Of acres
in Georgia are worked from year to year
that would actually, in their yields, not pay
for the first blowing given to them. OF
what consummate folly we are guilty when
we expend twelve months of industrious
effort that will not pay us for one week of
service given! Poor lands need not be
abandoned; if so, some of us might be al
together without. They can be and they
ought to be improved. Many methods of
Improvement have been uggested-some of
them good and practical, others expensive
and long continued. must believe, how
ever, that the best way to bale Of cotton
to the acre, and, and therefore, the best in
come from the farm, is through the barn
yard. A rotation of crops is put upon the
land and it is improved, because it gives off
certain elements and retains others, alter
nately. Still it is a process of exhaustion.
Green crops may be put upon the land for
the purpose of being givel eventually and
entirely to the soil These crops furnish us
no income except such as comes subse-
qaently, from the same soil after much time
has been expended in its recovery and its
recuperation.
Colts and cattle and sheep and hogs fur
nish us stock for the farm, milk and butter,
wool, mutton and meat for our own susten-
ance, and handsome income in the mar
kets, while at the same time they furnish
us the most valuable means of recovering
our lands to remunerative yields. Every
farm, for its own improvement, to say
nothing of its income, should be at least a
miniature stock farm. The one, while
valuable adjunct to the other, becomes it.
self possibly as much a source of rev.
enue. Especially 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 for its food. A worthless laborer,
that is cheap because ne is worthless, will do
farmer more good over the fence than in
his fields. A cheap COW that gives gallon
of milk a day may possibly make as much
manure as one that cost more money, but
she gives poor return for the labor be-
slowed upon her and her increase is scarcely
worth the trouble and care given 1t. To
make the best income we must have the
best appliances. This is certainly true of
stock on the farm.
Having in view the Improvement of our
land, we begin the raising of stock for man
ure. This brings about valuable income
IN itself in the use and sale of the products
OF the stock, and encourages diversity of
crops that give us just that many more
chances for increase of our income. Our
lands find rest under crops of clover and
Bermuda, ami at the same time make a val
liable yield in the sale of the crops or the
raising of stock. Every farm in Georgia
can raise barley and rye, clover and Ber-
tnuda, to furnish colts enough to meet its
demands and some for sale; to maintain
cattle enough to make good increase in
sales and improved sheep and hogs, and
Inen enough hay to sell to meet the ex-
pense for the outlay. All this can be done
Without perceptibly hindering the usual
crops Of the farm and the land, at the same
lime broughtto the highest state Of cultiva-
ZION Let us improve our land in such way
as the effort at improvement will itself
orlng an income. Stock-rasing must in
uture be good clement in successful agri-
|2culture at the south and in increasing the
|pncome an the farm.
me Scale Insect on Orange Trees.
4 gentleman of Boardman, Fla, writing
4 y Ine New Orleans Hcdvitne in answer to
p inquiry whether the long insect on the
Prange trees of Plaquemne Parish, La, are
the same az those which infest the