Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1889-09-19
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Small, Farm. Hest.

It is most natural that in this coun.
try, where large tracts. OF fertile land
cen be cheaply secured, the tendency
should be to buying more land than
can be successfully cultivated. We
have improved agricultural implc-
ments more than any other country in
the world. IL it were possible any,
where for men single-handed to till
large numbers OF acres, 1t would be
possible here. After fashion men do
run over and skim over large farms,
but every year il Is becoming more GER
tain tn t this mothod of farming must
give way to the painstaking and care
full cultivation that is found in the old
er parts of this country and in Europe.
We must make the land richer, as they
do in the Old World, grow larger crops
per acre. and make more profits from
u smaller investment OF land capital
and labor.
Does this imply return TO the condi-
tions of the thickly settled portions OF
Europe, where peasant farmers work.
ing land they do not own wiring only
bare subsistence from the soil? BY no
means. In a few respects conditions
will be the same; but there will be
enormous differences. In the farming
Of the future more account will be
made of the richness Of land than of
the acreage under nominal tillage. 1t
is evident to any ono who studies cur
rent events that the wholesale method
of farming no longer pays. Men have
got into it through the fact that land
by cultivation for time tends to in
crease in value. This rise in land has
made many rich, and as it is the east
est OF all ways to make money. thou
sands have bought lands they did not
need, hoping to profit by their increase
in value.
OF late years, especially in the older
parts OF the country, farm lands have
been on the decline. The reason is not
far to seek. Decreasing fertility has
brought many sections below profitable
productive capacity. Under Il system
OF farming that meant q continual de-
crease in fertility, farm lands soon
change from the very best to the very
worst forms OF security. Land cannot
run away. But for farming purposes
fertility is all that makes land valuable.
Fertility is as volatile as ammonia.
A change to smaller farms, with
thorough tillage and increasing fertil-
ity, is the effectual remedy for this
evil. But if the farm be reduced in
size to tho Old World standard, will
not the American farmer become like
the European, merely a peasant, a serf
or n boor? We do not believe this
danger exists. Conditions here are
not, and cannot for hundreds OF years
yet be what they are in Europe. The
land in France is doubtless too much
divided for the public good. There is
yet land enough here for comfortable
sized farms for all willing to work
them. 1t is not and never can be here
difficult to buy land. The trouble is
the question whether it is worth buy
ing and worth cultivating.
Yet with Yankee energy, skill and
tact it is easier here to restore poor
land to fertility tn n it is anywhere
else in the world. OF the scarcest
mineral plant food, phosphate, this
country has enormous supplies in South
Carolina rock. Fertility is going to
waste on every side, and only needs
that men put forth their hand 10 stay
it. With smaller areas under individ-
ual ownership we shall use as much
labor-saving machinery as ever, but it
will be by cooperation among farmers
in eucn neighborhood, who will COM
bine TO purchase and work it. This
will surely be better than individual
ownership of large areas that do not
pay for cultivation. and where each
farmer is obliged TO purchase more
tools than he can afford, with result
of decreasing the fertility and therefore
the productive capacity of his land
with each returning seaso n.-American
Cultivator.