The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-09-15
IMPROVING POOR FARMS

SuCCCSSIUI IS lack OL aVbA4bO10 CaP4SesA
The greed for more land affects all Sec |
tiors of the country, though its exces
sive manifestation is in the West and /
South, where land is, or rather has
been cheaper and more easily acquired |
than in any of the Eastern States. This |
desire to buy as much land as possible
is due to the belief that until recently
was justified by results that land was
the safest kind of investment, and
bound to rise in price with every i'm
prOvement made either on the farm it.
self or in it's neighborhood. But the
siPshod farming which too large faI ms
necessitated made it impossible either
to keep up fertility or to make the i'm
provements required to increase farm
productiveness, says the American
CUltivator.
The result is that in all the older
States are many run down farms, gen.
orally held by farmers with very small
capital, because such farms are the
only ones they have money enough to
buy. 1t is always the poorest farmer
who owns the poorest farm, The man
with plenty of money buys farm that
is making money for it's owner, and he
is accordingly able to continue in the
some line. On the poor farm the pov
erty of the farmer grows worse with
each year, and it is mainly because he
lacks the money to make the kind of
improvements that he we'll knows will
pay. No man should remain long in
this most uncomfortable and unprofit-
able position.
Fortunately it is within the power of
any farmer willing to work to begin
making his land more productive, even
if he cannot get money to purchase
manures or improved stock with which
to make them. If there is an intelligent
comprehension of what the farm needs,
a small amount of money, with what
labor the farmer can himself do, will
make a great change. We knew a
Scotchman many years ago, who, like
most Scotch farmers, was thorough
and intelligent cultivator. Some parts
Of the farm he had lately bought were
wet. With his own hands he dug a
ditch, plowing out as much as possible
so as to lessen the work. After the
ditch was dug he gathered stones and
carefully laid them 50 as to leave a good
water course at the bottom. He had
not the money to buy tile, which were
then scarcer and dearer than now. But
his stone drain kept this land dry for
80 years, while he knew the farm, and
it is doubtless doing good service yet,
But the best way to improve poor
farm is to inteIligently use brains with
labor. Seeding with clover as often as
possible, and using all the home made
manure to make this clover grow, will
bring land into condition for profitable
production quicker than can be done
in any other way. If the land is sandy
use all the ashes possible, and if carn0t
be had in sufici quantities, buy
potash salts. More potash is what
sandy soils need to make clover grow.
After sandy land can be made to grow
even one crop of clover, there will,
with good manag be no difficulty
thereafter in getting either clover or
grass seeding.
Every farmer On a poor farm should
study to take the benefit of every ad-
vantage which even the least fertile
faI M may offer for making money.
Many poor farm has wood lot, from
which, if the farmer is willing to work,
he may cut and haul away enough
wood every winter to make more real
profit than he can get by working the
land in summer IT he uses the winter
earned money in improving his cult
waited land, it may soon be brought into
high state of productiveness. Where
there is much stone on the farm or it is
underlaid by rock, the opening of
quarry will some times prove the most
profitable enterprise that the farmer
can 20 into. In still other places run
ming streams of cold water may be
stocked with trout, and fish may be
grown in large quantities by making
small ponds with dams, and protected
at both inlet and outlet so as to prevent
them from escaping. Wherever these
trouts ponds are provided it is easy to
make the farm on which they are
located a popular resort for city visit
ors, who will leave more money for
their en- tertainment than can be made
by ordinary farming.
In every way the farmer should study
RI Soxiea tho now and mora naviuO