Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-03-14
Farming That Dses Not Pay.

Farming That Dses Not Pay.
The attempt has been made to show
that raising and producing little OF
many things beyond the home need, to
be sold in the home markets, is not a
| paying sort Of farming. Right here,
before trying to show a better way,
We want to be clearly understood that
| we deem it is of the greatest import
ancc in securing satisfactory results tn
make the farm self-supplying in the
| production Of crops and products to the
| fullest extent consistent with its
| adaptabiliiy The farmer who should
go into the market and buy his pota-
| toes and other vegetables would be
| thought wanting in enterprise. Every
one would say at once, why don't he
| raise his potatoes and garden vege-
tables on his own land?
The farmer might buy eggs. milk and
butter for family use but had much
| better keep hens and cows instead. If
il is admitted that the farmer would
be acting in a foolish way to buy these
things mentioned why does not the
argument hold good of other crops and
products to which our soil and climate
are well adapted?
Our soil and climate are we'll adapted
to the production of both corn and
grain and yet our farmers depend to a
large extent on the West to grow these
| crops for them. We not only hire the
Western farmer to grow our corn and
provenders for us, but we have to pay
the railroads large sums in freight and
Co !,
them.
Is it any wonder that with all this
outlay the average farmer finds it diff
cult TO meet his taxes and other cash
expenses? Possibly We have dinned
this big drain on our resources into the
ears of farmers until they are tired Of
it. However. to see these things as
others see them. read the following ex-
tracts from an article in Hoard's
Dairyman:
THE KIND OF FARMING THAT
DOES NOT PAY.
Ed. Hoards Dairyman: l have re-
Gently attended sale in my town
where the farm and personal property
were sold to satisfy the claims of the
mortgages. About five years before
the farmer had received money from
his fathers estate to buy this property,
which is worth several thousand dol
lars. This mans failure in dairy
farming and loss of his whole property
in SO short time, if we can learn the
reasons, should have some lessons for
us.
This young man had been brought
UP on his fathers farm. and has lived
on farm all his life, so the reason of
his failure was not a lack of expert
ence in farming. The mortgage on the
personal property was owned by the
grain dealer in our village, who had
sold him grain on credit until the debt
had become so large that the farmer
was unable to pay it, SO was obliged to
give the mortgage.
The farm was q good grass farm and
yielded good crops of hay, yet but little
grain or soiling crops We're grown on
the farm. Grain was purchased for
the cows nearly the whole year. except
two or three months in the summer.
and the milk was sold at a creamery
where the price did not average two
cents a quart for the year. Some 80
cows We're kept on this farm and they
"SiC ASu "a AipNiAt gill iatiot Aot Az
months in the year. There were kept
on the farm six horses to do the work
and for all these grain had to be pur-
chased. With this management the
income from the farm did not pay eX-
penses and the result was that he got
in debt to such an extent that he was
obliged to mortgage his property.
We may say that the two main reasons
of failure were buying too much grain
instead of growing it on the farm and
lack of economy in expenditures. If
this young man had done some figur-
ing it would have shown him that he
must reduce the cost of feeding his
cows to make a profit. He should have
grown crops on his farm that would
have saved him a part Of his large
grain bill. He should have learned the
value of oats and peas to supplement
the pastures with when they get short
and that it is much cheaper to grow
soiling crops than to buy grain to keep |
up the flow of milk.
We see the result of the course he |
followed but we believe that il he had |
given his time to his business, studied |
to learn the best methods, he would |
now be the owner Of farm that would /
provide him with a good living instead
of being obliged to work as a farm
laborer to support his family.
If the facts were admitted would we
not have to acknowledge that the
that led to the failure of this
the buying Of provender in
stead of growing it and surplus Of
horses. has been the principal cause.
If not to the extent of losing his farm.
Of much of the hard times Of which our
farmers complain?