The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-09-08
THE FARM AND HOME.
SPREADING LABOR OVER TOO
LARGE AN AREA.
rhe Splendid Results Of Intensive Farm
ing-WaterinE tho Cows-Success and
Grass -Barbed Wire-Far m Notes and
Home Hints.
Intensive Farming.

Intensive Farming.
The figures given in the clipping
below are calculated to make Western
farmers think. They indicate some
very handsome profits How were
they obtained? is a question Missouri
farmers would like to have answered.
Is it possible to get such here? No
one will for q moment assume that
our natural conditions of soil and
climate are not equal to those OF
Massachusetts Why then can't we
produce as big crops?. Are we lack
ing in intelligence and skill? I fear
we are, but not necessarily so.
Western farmers have not heretofore
felt the necessity of extra mental ex-
ertion in making farming pay. As
they come to realize their needs in
this direction they will acquire as
fully as do their Eastern brothers
that technical information which
success demands shall be used in
farming as in other callings, and to
give this will patronize the agri-
cultural college, attend farmers in
stitutes and read agricultural papers.
But these crops were obtained
from very small acres; can such be
got from large acres? asks Levi
Chubbuck in the Rural World. Up to
a reasonable limit. there is no reason
why the same skill and expenditure
OF proportionate amount of labor
should not produce proportionate re-
suits from large as from small acres;
indeed, there are advantages in econ
omy of labor and value of machinery
in the large over the small farm.
The trouble with the great majority
of farmers, particularly here in the
West, is that they are trying to
spread a given amount of labor over
too large an area, spreading it out so
thin that only thin crops result, for
getting that big profits come from
getting 100 bushels of corn from one
| acre rather than from three, and
saving interest and taxes, and labor
of planting, ETC., on two acres. Look
at some of the figures showing cost
of producing the crops mentioned in
the clipping. When would we think
of expanding $87. SO in producing an
acre of corn? don't think we need
to expend anything near that amount
in value to give maximum crops, for
if it was necessary there would be no
profit to us with the low prices OBJ
tanned here.
But why, we may ask. are prices
for farm products so much lower
here than in the East? Only that
there are more to feed there in pro-
portion to producers than here. This
then seems to be the problem to
solve, so far as concerns profitable
western farming, howsto increase the
number of home consumers OF our
| products. We can do this, in effect,
in one way, and that is by initiating
the example of many Eastern farmers
| and ''abandon' some of our farm
land, at least for a season; seed it
down to grass. Much has been said
in recent years about abandoned
New England FARMS" when the mat
ter is investigated, it is found that
the large part of this abandoned"
farm land is such that Missouri
farmers would never have thought
of trying to farm, it is so poor and
rough, and is now being allowed to
grow up to timber. and the farmers
| are putting their time and labor on
reduced area of the best land, with
such results as to prove the wisdom
of the policy, and silence those who
have been saying that farming in
New England did not pay.
We hear in the West might learn a
lesson from this:
Some Prize Massachusetts Crops.
E. c. Little, Haverhill, Mass, raised
the premium crop of potatoes, PSI
bushels, on one-half an acre. worth
$3.50. 30 at cost of $50. so. The pro-
fit was s$131.40 or $262.SO per acre.
The same gentleman raised 74O bush
els of mangel beets on LOG rods of
ground at cost of $85. IS and values
the same at 1918; profit $187.S5. The
only reason this man Gas we'll as
many others) is not millionaire is
because he does not do business
enough. d. A. Carleton, North
Andover, Mass. raised one-half acre
of cabbage worth $3.50 at cost Ct
$51; profit per acre, 1898. e. c.
| Blunt of Andover raised one-half
acre of carrots worth 1852. so at cost
of $54. Is, profit per acre $215.50; also
one-half acre of parsnips worth at 81
per bushel 1926 at a cost of $66 SO,
profit per acre 1857, and one-half
acre of turnips yielding $50 bushels
worth $175 at cost of SIS. So; profit
per acre $319.3O. H. M Killam,
West Bedford. grew one acre of corn
on which the corn and slower was
worth $107. 80 at a cost of $37. SO;
profit $50. 3O-N. E. Farmer
Success and Grass.