The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-04
Unprohtable Fertility.

The best farms do not always pay most
profit to their owners, says the american
Culttudtor. The farmer needs to be busi-
ness man, carefully studying the conditions
of his farm and locality. and adapting his
rotation to it. If he does not the fertility
of his soil will not benefit him, but may re.
suit in damage. Land may easily be too
rich In heterogeneous maDures for small
grains, causing them to grow too rank foli-
age, which breaks down before the grain
can fill. Even when the grain Is not in
jured 1t may be so easily grown on soil far
less fertile that its crop will not sell for half
or even a quarter what the same fertility
would have produced had more skill and
labor been applied. 1t demands good farm
ing TO make the most from the best lands
Cropping simply TO get something from such
soil with least labor is q wanton waste of Its
fertility.
This is the reason why in all the older
states at least land is being divided into
smaller holdings, and more concentration 0f
manure, of labor and of skill is put upon
these than used to be thought necessary or
even possible. 1t is often said that land
cannot be too rich for corn. This is true
But it may be rich and so located that the
corn crop. profitable as that is generally on
rich land, will not produce as much money
as will some other with which the land may
be cropped.
Talking recently with a market gardener,
we were not surprised to hear him say:
ION my land l cannot afford to grow
field corn. Indeed, only grow a limited
amount of sweet corn for the earliest mar
ken
II he grew even in corn and stalks the
feed for the teams he is obliged to keep, it
would use up SO much Of his land that he
would have room for little to sell To buy
hay and grain for feed and the straw,
which is partly feed and partly
used for bedding, is cheaper than
it Is to try to grow them for those who
have nearness to market and plenty of labor
ct reasonable prices with which to grow
more expensive crops
What this market gardener has learned
needs to be impressed upon all classes of
farmers. There are doubtless for all some
crops which their land can grow success
fully, but not profitably. In other words,
there are crops which even when used on
the farm had better be bought than grown.
AT the prices wheat has bought the past few
years it pays most eastern farmers better to
buy fl our for bread than to grow wheat aud
manufacture it from their own product.
This, indeed, is rarely possible anywhere
now. The farmer who takes his grist to
mill is allowed 30 much per bushel, and
takes his flour from that all eady made from
western wheat. He probably gets better
-four than his own wheat ground alone
would produce. But it is easy to take one
short step further, grow some other crop,
sell it, and purchase the wheat flour.
1t is now comparatively easy in most
places to buy linseed and cotton seed meal,
wheat bran and coarse grains, like oats and
corn, for feeding. This MAKES it possible
for farmers who have small pieces of land
to fertilize them highly and gives their at
tention to those crops whlon require most
labor and pay best per acre. IL requires
the use of two. three and sometimes of four
or more acres in hay and grain to keep a
team OF horses through the year. The
farmer who owns ten to fifteen acres can
not afford to devote 50 much land to merely
keeping a team to do blowing. and to mar
ket his produce. Yet he must have a
team, and his alternate must be to grow
more profitable crops than hay and grain,
and buy what of these be needs. There
will still be the necessity for frequent seed
ings with clover, though where land is very
dear it may pay better to use the clover as
green manure, and buy enough more clover
hay to take its place. 1t requires too much
aud too expensive stable manures to main"
tain the highest fertility without the use of
clover in some way.