Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-25
WORKING TOO MUCH LAND.

|
WORKING TOO MUCH land.
The editor of the American Cultivator
| says there is an evident disposition among
| the farmers of this country to acquire an
extent of land entirely out of proportion to
| their means of improving it, Thousands of
| hard working cultivators of the soil keep
| themselves in a state of poverty and dis
tress through the insane idea of owning
| large farms, or of spending their entire
capital in the purchase of adjoining acres.
when those already possessed are unpro-
ductive through the lack of means for their
proper cultivation. Such an injudicious
course of controlling large areas by men of
limited means, is as though an individual
should buy wagon for service before he
could command the price of the horse to
draw it; as though a merchant should in
vest his all in a warehouse, show cases,
counters and signs, with nothing left to
purcl ase a stock of merchandise; as though
Il railroad corporation should expend its en-
tire capital, stock and resources in secur-
ing the right of way, steel rails, sleepers
to obtain the rolling stock, the engines,
freight and passenger cars.
What does it avail a man, continues the
Cultivator, to own two or three hundred
acres of unimproved land, if the deed has
cost him all the means at his command. or,
even worse, if he has been obliged TO make
partial payments in notes secured by mort
gage? How is property obtained at such Il
cost to increase the comfort, happiness or
prosperity of the purchaser Large farms,
broad acres, herds of cattle and fiocks of
sheep are perfectly legitimate for those
who possess sufficient capital to pay for
them, but for him who has but limited
means at his command, few acres well
TILED, with little reserved capital for the
purchase of tools, implements, trees, seeds
ard improved animals, is far the wisest and
safest course.
Any farmer, who in his ambition TO con-
troll a large farm devotes his entire capital
TO its purchase, thereby enslaves himself
for many years, perhaps for life. He is
obliged to use his credit in the purchase of
cattle, sheep and hogs, paying far more for
them tnan he would have been called upon
to pay cash down. Then a well-tlled purse
always begets in a man a spirit of independ-
ence that works far in his favor as regards
selection. ''Beggars must not be choosers,"
you know, and the man who buys on credit,
while he is not really beggar, as the term
implies, is asking favor in asking for
credit, and therefore cannot appear near so
particular about the choice he is making as
he would do under other circumstances.
Not having the means TO apply, this man
over-farming himself, is not able to improve
his land as his best Judgment would dictate.
He knows what ought to be done, but has
Il milestone around his neck in the shape of
taxes without corresponding income IL
word, he cannot do more than half cultivate
his large fields; his pastures grow up to
brakes and bushes: his buildings become
dilapidated; he is obliged to sell his crops
at the day of harvesting without any oppor-
tunity of taking advantage of the markets
The difference between the ownership of
a snug farm of moderate size, with well
cultivated fields, adjacent to the home
buildings, and under the immediate super
vision and personal care of the proprietor
combined with few hundred dollars in
hand for the purchase of fine improved
stock, improved machinery, choice seed and
other necessary adjuncts to successful farm
ing, and, on the other hand, that Of farm
remarkable only for its size and forbidding
appearance, stocked with such specimen ami
mails as cOu1d he bought m Siy months,
credit, supplied with such tools and nipple
ments as were bid off at some neighboring
auction sale and paid for with time notes
this difference is simply one of prosperity,
happiness and content in the first instance.
as compared with failure, misery and dis
content in the second.
It is a sad waste of valuable time and
labor for any farmer TO toll on year after |
year, weighted so heavily with the elements
of disaster, with burden beyond the power |
of man TO bear. Every cultiyator knows
that his garden plot is the most productive
area on his farm, aud simply because it is the |
best fortified and the best TILED: while the |
nearer every field can be made to approach |
the garden spot in point of yield, the greater |
will be the profit of the occupation. 1t is |
far more economical and profitable to raise |
fifty bushels of shelled corn ON an acre of |
land, or full bale of cotton, than TO stratch |
over two acres in an accomplishment of the |
same result. The thrifty French, Swiss |
and German farmers, whose ownership of /
land scarcely averages 1--we acres each, gain /