Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1893-09-14
FARMER AND PLANTER
MIXED FARMING.
Most Farmers VIII DO Best With IA Va
riety OF Products.

While we would not discourage any
one from engaging in special farming,
providing their locality and soil were
such as to enable them TO grow some
one product TO perfection, and place IL
on good market where competition
was small and paying prices assured,
we believe that most farmers viii do
best to grow variety of products so as
to have home supply of nearly every
thing and something to sell of many
things. When the farmer depends upon
speciality, and from failure of crop, or
prices so low as to be unremunerative,
he fails on it, he has nothing to fall
back on, but with variety of products
the income is quite regular, as if some
things are deficient in yield or price
others are likely to make up for this
deficiency.
1t was our privilege, recently, to
spend day on a small farm, less than
100 acres, which the present owner has
cultivated for forty years, following,
more than most farmers do, mixed
farming, and he has been unusually
successful. An inspection of his ac-
count of sales from the farm for many
years proved the truth of his theory
that mixed farming ,tives a regular in
come.
We were interested to note the many
sources of income, and will euumerate
them to give an idea of his plan of man
agement. He grows an average of fl
teen acres of wheat year, not so much
that he has found wheat profitable as
that he wishes to SOW clover and needs
the straw to make his stock comfortable
in the winter, and he sells from
200 to 300 bushels of wheat each
year. Three brood sows are kept and
two litters of pigs year raised, which
are sold for pig pork at four and half
to six months old. In 1892 forty-one
pigs were raised which brought an
average of little over five dollars
each at less than five months old.
Three cows are kept, and small
amount of butter is sold after supply.
ing family of six persons with all the
butter and cream they will eat, per.
haps not more than twenty-five dol.
lars worth, but all the heifer calves are
raised and the males sold for veal, and
as only three cows are wanted, one OF
more is sold each year and a veal OF
two. The work of the farm is done
with team of mares and colts raised
and every year one or more horses
or mules are sold. The owner found
difficulty in selling horses until they
were five or six years old, and this in
volved keeping a larger stock than he
wished, and so for two years past hi
has grown mules, as they are salablt
at any age. A liberal berry patch to
furnish fruit for the family, is kept
and the surplus sold. This summer
from these the income was over forty
dollars. One or two acres of Irish pc
tatoes give some income besides fur
nishing the family, while sweet pota
toes are grown to a larger extent, ant
are quite source of income. Abou
one hundred hens are kept, and thes,
are fed literally three times day
summer and winter, on wheat, brar
and oil meal mostly, and as con
sequence they lay literally, and can b,
depended on for an income of abou
one hundred dollars, in addition to Tho
family supply of eggs and chickens. 4
field of clover is cut each year and tn,
seed forms quite an item of income
while the hay is fed TO the cows, an(
this with the corn fodder, carries tn,
stock through the winter leaving tn,
timothy hay for market, and as ten t,
twenty acres of this is out each yerr i
is quite an important item of income.
An acre of this farm was planted il
Bartlett pear trees some twenty year
ago, aud these have proved quite
source of income, as they miss a cro]
only once in four or five years, and usu
ally bear from 100 to $50 bushel
of fruit. Some years half acr
of tomatoes are grown, or al
acre or two of navy beans
ns the owner of the farm be
licvcs in utilizing all the vacant spots
and these crops can be planted lat
and still make good yield, and thi
year we found a quarter acre of onion
which were grown as an experimen
and promise a good yield and profit
We asked this farmer if he did not fnt
that this kind of management of hi
farm took much larger amount o
labor than would be required in grow
ing wheat, corn, hay and stock, q
most of his neighbors did, but he sale
his books would answer that question
and so we examined them and foun,
out that $4,000 had been paid out 70
help besides the work of the farme
himself, but eight dollars of this wa
for cutting grain, as no binder is KEEP
on the farm, and about as much NOR
was for picking berries the re
mainder being for extra help il
the sweet potatoes and in tn
hay harvest, with an occasional
days hoeing. There are several thing
about the management of this farr
which seem to us commendable: First
the owner has put thought into hi
plans, and, consequently, has great
reduced the risk of failure, Just as
prudent man with valua BILE propert
to insure divides the risk among sevcra
good companies, so this farmer ha
chosen sufficient variety of products
so that he says that not once in thirt
years has his farm failed to produce
fair income. Second, this variety o
products furnishes his family with tabl
luxuries which many farmers do with
out, and at the same time the surplu
brings steady income during a grea
part of the year, so that he has been abb
to adopt the rule, pay as you 60" an
consequently he has no debts to pay a
the end of the year. Third, he ha
adopted simple system of bool1-keer
ing so that he knows just what he pay
out, and what it is paid for, just wha
the farm products bring and what tn