Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-21
WORKING TOO MUCH LAND.

WORKING TOO MUCH LAND.
The editor Of the American Cultivauor
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 a wagon Tor service before he
could command the price of the horse to
draw it; as though merchant should in
vest his all in a warehouse, show cases,
counters and signs, with nothing left to
purchase stock of merchandise; as though
a railroad corporation should eXpend its en-
tire capital, stock and resources in secur-
ing the right of way, steel rails, sleepers
and spikes, in the end finding itself unable
to obtain the rolling stock, the engines,
freight and passenger cars.
What does it avail 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
gage2 How is property obtained at such a
cost to increase the comfort, happiness or
prosperity of the pucrhaser2 Large farms,
broad acres, herds of cattle and tiocks 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, a few acres well
titled, with little reserved capital for the
purchase of tools, implements, trees, seeds
and improved animals, is far the wisest and
safest course.
Any farmer, who in his ambition to con-
troll 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 than he would have been called upon
to pay cash down. Then well-filled purse
always begets in a man spirit of independ-
ence that works far in his favor as regards
selection. 'iBeggars 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 a favor IL 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
a milestone around his neck in the shape of
taxes without corresponding income. In a
word, he cannot do more than half cultivate
his large fields; his pastures grow up to
brakes and bushes; his buildings become
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 a 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 1
appearance, stocked with such specimen ami |
mails as could be bought on six months
credit, supplied with such tools and imple-
ments as were bid off at some neighborins
auction sale and paid for with time notes
this difference is simply one of prosperity,
and content in the first instance,
IS compared with failure, misery and dis
content in the second.
1t is sad waste of valuable time and
abor for any farmer to toll on year after
year, weighted so heavily with the elements
If disaster, with a burden beyond the power
If man to bear. Every cultivator knows
hat his garden plot is the most productive
,rea on his farm, and simply because it is the
pest fortified and the best titled; while the
learer every field can be made to approach
he garden spot in point of yield, the greater
Will be the profit of the occupation. 1t is
fifty bushels of shelled corn on an acre of
and, or full bale of cotton, than to stratch
yer TIVE acres in an accomplishment of the
anne result. The thrifty French, Swiss
md German farmers, whose ownership Of
and scarcely averages five acres each, gain