The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-06-09
FARMER AND PLANTER.
BETTER FARMING.


fhe Best Farmer No Longer the One Who
Cultivates the Most Ground.
There is no doubt but what an era OF
better farming than has ever been prac.
ticed in this country is now upon us,
and it behooves our progressive tiller
OF the soil to adopt the very best meth.
DDS and systems of crop cultivation and
farm management if he is to make
his business increasingly profitable.
Smaller farms. fewer acres under cul-
tivatfon and larger yields per acre is
the only way the farmer can success
fully meet competition these times. Our
labors must be directed along intensive
lines, be it in the production of
either stock or grain, and the one who
produces the very best of everything
will find the readiest market and real
ize the largest profits. An illustration
directly in point is that of a neighbor-
ing farmer who by thorough cultiva-
ton, liberal fertilization and good
management the past season realized a
ei,050 upon a fraction more than one
acre OF Strawberries. His wonderful
success was due to his ability to pro-
duce an enormous yield of the vely
finest quality Of fruit, and this success
will follow any other line of farming
when intelligence. thoroughness and a
proper understanding of all the SUR
roundings go hand in hand.
Low prices for grain and stock il GO
ing to make better farmers out of many
OF us, who would otherwise have drifted
along as of old, kept right ahead in the
old ruts. eking out fair living, per-
haps. but nothing more. The farmer
very readily realizes the fact now that
he can't possibly keep up by growing
ten bushels of fifty-cent wheat per
acre. or a fifty dollar horse and care
for him till he is five years old and
ready to GO upon the market. But he
can figure out fair profit on a
yield of forty bushels of wheat
per acre, sold even at fifty
cents, or a number one driving
horse at present market prices. The
best farmer is no longer the man who
can count the most broad acres, but
rather the man who can show the
largest profit upon the capital he has
invested in his business. 1t seems like
it is almost an impossibility to get
some men to realize the fact that the
profits on ten acres of land farmed in
slip-shod manner are much less as a
rule. than the profit frequently made
on a single acre farmed on the inten-
sive plan and made to bring an enor-
nous yield, and an article that will
bring the very highest prices on the
market.
We still have among MS, and pro0a-
bly, always will have, farmers who don't
read up their business and who are
slow in following in the wake of their
more progressive neighbors; but their
success is never likely to excite the
envy of anyone and the Injuries which
fall to their share will never impair
their digestion or shorten their days in
any preceptible degree. Farmers who
have any pride in their calling or am
bition to get ON in the world, are no
longer going to be content with aver
age crops or average stock, but are de-
vising ways and means to keep up with
the procession at least, and begin to
realize the fact that they must get up
near the head if they would have their
fondest hopes and aspirations realized.
w. w. Stevens, in Farmers Home
Journal.