The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-16
Making Small arms PAY.

! American farmers almost always desire
more land than ahey can work, says the
american CuLtiuotor. II they do not make
money they generally think the reason is
they have not land enough. and often run
In debt for more Bet the mortgage runs
on increasingly while ths land produces only
| in the growing season. So in the end the
mortgage usually wins, some one else takes
the farm, and the old process is repeated
with new actors in the programme. This
| fact oft repeated has set may farmers D.
thinking. Possibly they have bean mis-
taken in believing that more land was the
requisite condition of prosperity. Fewer
acres and better tillsge gives better promise
Of success.
Unless farm methods radically change the
advocates Of the large farm are right. If
the su all farm is only half titled its prod
uct will not meet the necessary expenses of
even the most economical living, and the
man, be he farmer or engaged In any other
business, whose expenses regularly exceed
his income, is sure some time to fail. Tenn
| porsry causes may postpone failure, but the
end is certain.
1t is entirely true that if the small farmer
grows only the crops which m Gern har-
vesting machinery enables the large farmer
to grow successfully, he cannot compe e. In
the cost OF such machinery the small farmer
has to pay as much as one who owns several
hundred acres, He does not get tenth
part Of the use from it. Hence he is at a
great disadvantage, the OILY relief from
which is a cooperative owning OF such ma
chinery by q number of small farmers, and
devo,ing most of the land TO crops where
more labor may be required, but where
such expensive machinery need not he pur-
chased. There may be, probably will be,
far more expense Ger acre, but it will result
IN syh la 70 mn lot NrOH
which cannot be done on the large farm. as
such farms must almost necessarily be man
aged.
Most OF the abandoned farms of the east
ern states. and, indeed, we may say ali OF
them, were made Improbable b. attempts
to grow greih or other crops in competitioo
with the west. The eastern farmer has lost
in such competition. Yet his land is worth
more il equally fertile than that of the west
ern farmer. Not worth more, perhaps, for
growing grain, but for Wing something
in which the man cultivating hundreds Of
acres Is less likely to comDete. For that
most eastern farms, especially those that
have been long cropped with grain and thus
depleted or fertility, are not rich enough.
All through the eastern states farmers are
beginning to realize that keeping the best
stock is The basis OF any permanent improve
ment. True, in this the small eastern farmer
is competing with the western man owning
hundreds, ana even thouSanQs, or acres.
But the small farmer makes his farm rich
faster, and when he has te tilted il ne can
make better use of the land than is possible
to the man owning hundreds or thou
sands OF acres. That is his advantage, and
il he makes the most of 1t he can compete
in stock growing with the western farmer,
as he cannot compete in grain growing.
One exhausts soil. the other increases fer
tility.
Some kind of intensive soil culture should
be combined with improved stock breeding
to make both most profitable on the small
farm. In other words the eastern stock
grower looks to his manure pile and what
be can do with it for a considerable part OF
his profits. The western stock grover cares
less for thu manure pile. He has so much
land in proportion to his stock that he cam
not make the soil very rich. II he did he
could only afford to crop it in competition
with grain growers on virgin soil, and ouly
as that became exhausted would his profit
from grain growing begin.