The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1891-02-19

crop, the farmer comes out lacking, and
often with debt, that years of toll, exs
posure and bitter hardship will not meet
The question for US to consider is, how
shall we remedy this ? Permit me as one
of your number who tor years foundered
! in the pitfalls and sloughs of our agricul,
| tural mistakes to suggest that We reduce
our farms. Farming on large scale de-
mands large financial backing, a bank
account that will stand the strain OF occau
sional failure. AS long as the big planta-
tons, with tenents working on shares, or
renting by the year, are kept up so long
will the south be compelled to get her meat
and bread and mules from the west. The
hope of the south, agriculturally speaking
is in smaller farms and diversified crops,
Is 1t not better to prepare and cultivate
thoroughly fifty acres than to scratch over
a.hundred? Does it not seem folly to pay
taxes on land that brings bale to three
acres when, by little more forethought
little more attention to details and the
same labor, we can get a bale from one
acre.
REDUCE THE FARMS.
Let us then reduce the farms, cultivate
only such lands and crops as we find profit~
able, encourage immigration, get rid of the
tenant system as rapidly as possible, and
in its place substitute that of small farms.
This can be done by selling to enterprise
ing tenants on easy terms, much of the
land we cannot now cultivate successfully.
In these bona fide landowners we will have
class that will soon feel and appreciate
all the attachment which the word home
awakens i'll the human heart To illus
trate: Contrast France, the country of
small farms and small industries, shoulders
ing and paying war debt which would
have staggered stouter hearts, and Ireland,
suffering Ireland, at the mercy of alien
landlords, and with at tenantry almost with.
out hope. Coming nearer home let us take
a lesson from Dooly county, in our own
state. quote from recent publication
as to its resources
Her farmers are noted for their pros,
perity and progressiveness, and they furs
nish the most substantial backing to Vien-
ma They supply trade that never fails.
They work in business whose importance
and whose scope never diminishes. Many
OF them have money in the bank of Vien~
na Nearly all OF them are free from obi,
cations. Among them the small farmer
predominates-the small farmer who is not
afraid of work, who is not dependent on
hired labor, who pays for what he gets
when he gets it, WHO'S as independent as
woodNsawyer, and who is, in fact, :he
hope of the country. This class of farmers
accounts for the fact that there is now a
surplus of $4,000 in the Dooly county
treasury"
We want more stock farms, more fruit
farms, more truck farms, more grass farms
| and, fewer cotton farms. We have a glo~
rlous country but we are sadly in need of
men who have the nerve to inaugurate a
different system in our agriculture; men
who realize the Importance of resting their
lands, rotating crops, of feeding stock
vel making and saving good, rich barn>
yard manure as we'll as using literally and
| lntelllgently commercial fertilizer.
SUCCESS IN FARMING.
10 be successful in farming requires, as
in other business, thorough business meth>
DDS, constant effort, and a careful and
patient attention to details. Guess work
will not bring the farmer any better returns
than it does the merchant or mechanic.
When we know exactly where the profits
| and losses come in, we can then intelli>
gently increase the one and avoid the other.
Friendly legislation is good thing, but it
will not bring relief to the farmers, unless
it is suppleme ated by careful and Judi
cious cultivation of the soil. When the
farmers are thoroughly organized, and
farming is conducted on business princi-
Piles, when emphatic" farming is the rule
| and not the exception, then, and not till
then, will we see the farmers begin to pros
per and to receive their share of the longs
looked for profits.
There is another subject to which |
would call the attention of this representa-.
tive body of farmers, and that is the i'm,
perfection Of the laws governing and con-
trolling the department of agriculture, and
more especially to that in regard to the
inspection of fertilizers When this law
was framed there were between 40 900 and
$4,000 tons sold in the state There are
sold now nearly 100000 tons, an amount
OF which the ordinary man has no proper
conception. To bring this subject more
clearly before us, l will state it in this way.
Three hundred thousand tons is 5000, 600
sacks, which is 10000 car loads, 5000
average trains, representing 100000 feet
100000 yards, or no $40 miles loaded
cars.
FERTILIZER BY THE MILE.
Piled in sacks four deep, they would
stretch out nearly 300 miles or across the
state from Columbus to Augusta, and con-
siderably into Carolina Laid down singly
side by side, the row of sacks would be
1000 miles long, or from Savannah to New
York, and nearly back. End to end they
would extend about 2,400 miles, or from
New York to San Francisco. For nearly
four months in the busy season the rails
roads are heavily taxed in moving this i'm
mense pile, hundreds of men are employed
IN sacking hauling, loading and unloading
and otherwise handling this product of
what has become an enormous industry.
In the limits of our own state, the number
OF fertilizer factories has increased from
three in 1918 to seventy six in 1890.
Now, the question arises how shall law
be framed which will work no hardship to
our home manufacturers and dealers, and
at the same time give the farmers the Sc
curity to which they are entitled. Some
of the best men of our state are engaged in
the fertilizer business, but we, as farmers,