Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-25
FARMING IN TEXAS.

Even Texas has caught it to greater or
,esser degree, but when all the facts rela-
we 10 farming in Texas are clearly under
stood one cannot well help jumping to the
conclusion that if farming don't pay here
the trouble must attach to something else
other than the natural capabilities of the
state.
We have before US paper contributed TO
Farm and Ranch by Mr.. Matt Stevens of
Forney, Kaufman county, which, in our
opinion, makes a very fair showing of what
can be done at farming in Texas, and what
is being done by not a few of our farmers.
We shall proceed to Gull from that paper
some of its leading points for the considera-
ton of farmers living in other regions
where farming cannot be made to pay, sure
enough.
Mr.. Stevens appears not to accept the as
sertion SO often made that the life OF the
snrmer IS life Of thankless drudgery. He
sees in farming a comparatively easy life,
as followed in Texas. Man III his proficiency
may question the correctness of this posi-
ton, says Mr.. Stevens, hut it is correct,
nevertheless. Consider, for instance, the
cotton, corn, wheat, oats and barley crops.
They are all made in three months working
time; and good working man can make
more crop than he alone can gather: but
usually family has as many as two boys,
and with these he can gather his whole crop
without hiring help to harvest it. He has
IN his minds eye such man who has this
year had in thirty acres to cotton, ten acres
TO corn and five acres to oats, and will east
Jy manage it ali within his own household.
That man viii undoubtedly make farming
pay.
Let it be supposed that this man had
rented that much land to good tenant. In
renting the land he had it furnished with
three mules and all the implements ncces-
sary to work it. and with seed. At harvest
time he gets twenty-five and half bales of
cotton and sells it all on an average of S3S 4
bale, amounting to SS55, of which the
renters share is S427.50. On ten acres of
corn he raises 500 bushels, which, at 40
cents a bushel, Is S225, the renters share
would be $l12.50. Dat crop, go bushels at
90 cents. SIS; renters share, $3.50. The
land and four acres of lot (house and garden
plot)-this latter part free Of rent-and ne
gets $3.50, and the renter gets an equal
amount of money for his labor alone.
Now, this is but a fair representation of
both sides of the question as between land
lord and tenant, but the tenant can still
have something more on his side. He can
49,, Ia rAlN OF al
spells, and hence costing him nothing, all
the garden stuff his family needs. He can
Keep two cows to supply him with milk and
butter. He can keep two or three hogs
one 4 brood SOW, from which he can sell
several pigs. When winter comes he can
kill the ether hogs and salt down 600 pounds
of fine homemade pork that has cost him
but little to raise. Then, again, the lady of
the house can raise considerable poultry
for her table, and eggs without number for
her culinary use. Nor is this all, for in our
haying season the renter and his two boys
can work out at hay-making, and earn, say,
500 without at all interfering with the reg
ular crop, for the crop viii then be laid by
and the hay-time viii be over before his
harvest is ready.
SO here we have the tenant at the lend Of
the year with 500 in money, and with
about enough homemade pork to carry him
through, and with provender enough. if he
has ried 10 save it, 10 feed his stock well
till the coming of grass next spring-the
landlord furnishes the feed for the three
mules.
no o. al G.,
continues Mr.. Stevens, viii not exceed SIPS
for the whole year Now, what did this
man and his two boys make per day for
their actual services while at LAHORE We
will suppose that they worked five months.
Five months at twenty-six working days to
the month would be $50 days. Divide this
on the amounts already given and you viii |
ind that tbs three together-One man and |
two 6oys-made $50 day And you can
Got vote this an extreme calculation, for |
with the same force very much larger
acreage than named may be successfully |
cultivated and managed in Texas. The |
writer has known from sixty-five to |
spyenty-five acres TO be fairly well managed |
with NJ greater force, but of course the |
force ha6 to get up and get while they |
we're At it; but such q thing is by no means |
an impossibility. y little additional help |
might be needed at the harvest, provided |
large proportion of the land was 10 cotton. !
but that would be all.
Think of such results to the tenant for |
FIVE months of labor! Cannot you plainly |
see that if it were possible for this farmer
TO occupy all of his time during the whole |
year 10 a crop, with like results, farming |
would be a perfect bonanza but even as it |
is, the renter here working, as he does |
work, 100 days only, and making 4 clear |
saving in mosey of from $3.50 to $780, can |
well afford to rest the balance of the year, !,
provided he has no aspirations TO anything |
beyond really good living.
Let US now indulge in a glance at what
the landlord is making. BY little figuring
you will see. says Mr.. Stevens, that his
land has been rented at sll51 4 year on
each acre. And what was his land worth
when he rented it? Considering II our best
prairie lands it was probably worth from
IS to $50 an acre, depending upon conve-
nience TO market. Thus it clearly appears
that money invested in such lands. to be
rented out to GOOD tenants, is better than
money inreSted in any other way No
oil her invest po.1i1 draw biern q vote |