The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-09-06
Mixed Farming.


providing their 10 :ality and soil were
such as to enable them to grow some
one product to perfection, and place ii
on good market where competition
was small and paying prices assured,
we believe that most farmers will dc
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 a 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 a day on 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 gives regular in
come.
We were interested to note the many
sources of income, and will enumerate
them to give an idea of his plan of man.
agement. He grows an average Of fiji
teen acres of wheat a 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 800 bushels OF wheat each
year. Three brood ScWs are kept and
two litters of pigs a year raised, which
are sold for pig pork at four and a 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 q small
amount of butter is sold after supply
ing a 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 or
more is sold each year and veal or
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 he
has grown mules, as they are salable
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 pO-
tatoes give some income besides fur
nishing the family. while sweet pota-
toes are grown to a larger extent, and
are quite source Of income. About
one hundred hens are kept and these
are fed literally three times & day,
summer and winter, On wheat, bran
and oil meal mostly, and as q con-
sequence they lay literally, and can be
depended on for an income of about
one hundred dollars in addition to the
family supply Of eggs and chickens. A
field of clover is cut each year and the
seed forms quite an itAm of income,
while the hay is fed to the cows, and
this, with the corn fodder, carries tho
stock through the winter leaving the
timothy hay for market, and as ten to
twenty acres Of this is out each yerr it
is quite an important item of income.
An acre of this firm was planted in