The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-02-18
A Successful Farmer.

Iuo Augusta ClHo|stCte Waaoo 6o al
teresting statement about Jas. NJ. Smith
of Oglethorpe County, Ga. His exten-
sive farm of $4,000 acres, teemiug eacf
year with such products of the soil a
are needed for home consumption, to
gether with the surplus crop of cotton
shows him to be one of the largest a.
we'll as one of the most successful farm
ers of the South Atlantic States.
He is q practical business man anc
stands as living demonstration of the
success of farming in the South wher
properly conducted. His plans are wise
in conception and satisfactory in opera
ton. His barn and smokehouse are at
home, and whatever may be the huctua-
tions of prices in Chicago, he is safe and
Independent.
Half of his ia rmis planted in cotton
The other half is planted in field crops
for home consumption. That is all
This plan, says Mr.. Smith,-and he
speaks from experience as we'll as from
information-if followed out year BY
year, is bound to be successful in the
long run. His cotton is converted into
ready cash, and with an abundance of
corn, wheat, oats, hay, as " ell as pota-
toes, peas, cabbage, onions, etc., he feeds
his wage hands and tenants, sells con.
siderable quantity, and still has sufi-
cient quantity to feed his horses and
mules and to the hogs and cattle which
further afford handsome income.
Last year he raised 5000 bushels OF
rust proof oats, which he sold for seed
at ST per bushel, after saving enough
for his own and his tenants use. The
average yield was thirty bushels per
acre. From 600 acres he raised 5000
bushels of wheat. A portion Of this he
sold for S1.25 per bushel. The balance
he ground into flour, with which his
hands and tenants were supplied. The
bran was fed to his stock. He raised
175 hogs which averaged 155 pounds
net. He keeps a herd of 600 cattle,
among them number of registered
Holsteips. he is now fattening 60
steers, which he will sell the latter part
of March, and which he thinks will
average 1900 pounds gross. He milks
rs COWS, and after amply supplying his
plantation, sells quantities of milk and
butter and feeds quantities more to the
hogs.
MI. Smith, therefore, naturally con-
siders oats and wheat profitable crop.
Aside from the grain itself, the straw
and bran are valuable for the stock.
Cotton seed hulls and meal in proper
proportion, he thinks the best food for
cattle.
He allows that the average farmer in
the South is not very successful, but
this is, in many cases, the farmers own
fault. What Mr.. Smith has done can
not be disputed. Starting at the close
of the war without a dollar, he now
owns q 6ne plantation, we'll stocked, on
which private railroad fifteen miles in
length is operated, and otherwise is
supplied with every advantage. What
he has done others can do. he advises
them to live within their income and
avoid the credit system. Cotton has de-
clined 30 per cent, but by reducing ex.
penses 80 per cent, they will keep on
level. If they raise their supplies at
home, they may not handle 30 much
money, but they will still be better off.
In two years this plan would show graf
flying results.
Nor are these the hardeat times which
the South has ever seen. Mr.. Smith re-
members that in 1886, when be came to
Augusta, cotton sold at 4 cents. and
good shirting was considered high at 8
cents. Times were shen hard, indeed.
The animus of his argumet is con.
tanned in the advice that farmers raise
everything for man and beast at home"
Thereby hangs all the law and the gos'
pei. He believes it and has demon.
strated it. There Is much in the above
which every farmer in Georgia and
Carolina should take home with him.
The facts should be burned into his
heart until he realizes that he can and
must live at home, and when careful
plans diligently executed on this line
become general throughout the South
many cf the ohimertrical expressions
which distress the farmer will be e1-
ploded, the real ones be remedied, and, 7,
self-sustaining and independent, he will
ride in on the food-tide of prosperi-