Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-07-19
SMALL FARMING PAYS.
The Secret of Success in Farming is
 Thorough Cultivation.
Phenix Gazette.

All over the west the question of small farming is absorbing the attention of our land owners. Those who only have small tracts to commence with are beginning to see that their fortunes lie, not in the ad- dition of acres, but in the more systematic and thorough cultivation of that which they already possess. Many of those who own large tracts and have been kept struggling from year to year to pay in terest and taxes, by raising cereals, are beginning to figure or a more business like basis, viz, on less land less labor and larger profits.
 Many large land owners in California are commencing to subdl7lde their thousand acre farms into twenty, forty, and eighty acre lots, and are planting them to trees and vines with a view of selling them to men who desire homes.
 Whenever this sentiment shall prevail a new season of prosperity will be awak- ened for California. New industries will be established. Economic principles on a large scale will enter into the indus tries of that already prosperous state. The same will result in any place that will follow in her footsteps.
 Small farms build up country No inland city can hope to attain much inn
 
 agricultural or mining community, and even the latter is very uncertain as the relics of many once tourishing towns will attest. It has been demonstrated again and again that every twenty acres of our land is capable of supporting family in comfort or even luxury; that eighty acres | thoroughly cultivated will pay better | than thousand handled after the old | slip shod fashion.
 Men who own large tracts complain oi hard times, of high taxes, and of insuffi | clent help. Let them throw off the bur i den, their fate is in their own hands | There are numbers of families seeking homes willing to pay any reasonable price for small farms. Land in the Salt river valley can be sold, and is being sold at { fair price. It is more profitable to loar the money at the going rate than to worE ones self to death in growing grain il which there Is no margin at all
 Our large land owners should begin tc realize this and manifest disposition tC sell of their surplus lands, and once thi' movement is inaugurated the prosperit, of PheniX and the Salt river valley vii forever be assured. Suppose the mai with a thousand acres of land which h, seeds to grain every year makes a com 1ortabIe nVlng, II he can make a bette living with tenth the worry, one-tentl the labor, one-tenth the expense, on on tenth the land, and make ten times tn profit, is he not unwise if he does not d. 1t?
 A great amount of capital has been ex pended in the construction of canals ant waterways to bring the land of the vale into bearing condition. The land itsel must pay for this outlay, and it will do if properly handled.
 It will never do it unless it is place under cultivation, and every acre hel for speculative purposes retards tn growth of the valley. A swarm of httl bees working together can soon fill large hive with honey. Just so, the Sal river valley divided into small farms eac one sustaining family, all working harmony, would soon build up the riche: , community in the United States