Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-05-09
Making Farms Productive.
American Cultivator.

Comparatively few farmers realize the
amount of capital invested in there land,
unless it be those most unfortunate ones
who are indebted to others for their land
ed capital, and are obliged to pay inter
est on it. To snch the realizing sense of
tied up capital comes forcibly and fire.
quently enough Yet, where the policy
of renting farms prevails, 1t is often
found that those who rent land often sue
Gee q in making il more productive than
those who own their ceres that they till.
There is in gathering the rent money or
interest money ca incentive to make
every acre produce the utmost of which
it is capable, that doas not apply to the
well-to-do farmer out of debt, and who
has abandoned the hope of making mon
~ rapidly by farming. These are the
rorst obstacles to farm progress. Hav-
ing the money to farm successfully,
which means thorough farming IA every
respect, their influence in keeping on in
the old fashioned, cansious ways is there
fore all the more injurious.
There have been only exceptional trials
of good farming IN this country under
favorable conditions for success. But
there are enough to show that this is the
policy that ali farmers must ultimately
adopt. Almost every farmer has more
land than he ear make the best use of,
To be sure, this is the right of every olti-
zen in this country to add acre after acre
and get little or nothing for their use.
We are sometimes almost tempted to
wish that Japanese laws applied here.
In that country the population is so
dense that it is of national concern that
the land be pushed TO its utmost possibIli
ties. The farmer who let's his land lie
idle or overgrowR with weeds suddenly
finds his acres taken from him and given
to those more provident and industrious.
1t is, we suppose, practically much the
same law that prevails here and every
where else. 1t is the survival of the hit
test, only here the examination requires
much longer time than it does under
Japanese laws.
Perhaps land may never become scarce
enough in this country to make this sum
mary dealing With poor farmers neces-
sity. But it will be because our people
are quick -witted enough to learn that
only good farming pays. THIS has al
waNs bee. true, but with the increasing
competition of European and Asiatic Ia
Dor with the farmers vocation, it requires
a much better style of farming to succeed
now than was necessary fifteen, twenty
OI y
controlled the grain and food markets of
the world, as it does not now, and per
haps never may again. Ii man then
was little more industrious or a little
better manager than his neighbor, he was
sure to make q living and something be-
sides. We were, III those days, selling
the virgin fertility of our soil, and this
lever gave the American farmer his great
advantage. Latterly we have been los
ing this, and we must somehow make up
for it.
Can this be done? We believe it can,
though it will require thought as we'll as
muscle to accomplish 1t. The first of all
the lessons to be learned is 10 increase
fertility and make every acre produce
more than IL has been used to doing.
With our improved machinery and skill
the American farmer can probably still
cultivate and harvest his crops more
cheaply than any one else. II he can in
crease the product per acre, perhaps IN
some cases by growing different kind
of crop from that in which the cOmpe-
tition is strongest, he can evade 1t and
make money, while those who go on in
the old ways must hually succumb.
Some farmers have found this the better
method IL the Improvement of farm
stock, others in fruit growing, and many
more in a iudici0us and intelligent com
bination of both. Good farming is indeed
not merely doing one thing well, but SO
far as possible adopting all improved
methods of increasing the productiveness
of land,