The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-10-27
FARMER AND PLANTER.
HEERA OF THE SMALL FARM.
The Progressive AGriculturists Are
Abandoning the Big Farm and
Diversifying Products.


The agricuiturists OF America have
entered upon an era of small farms.
They realize more than ever before
that old theories of farming have
passed away and new conditions now
exist. The demand upon the farm
for recruits in the city sweat shops
has lessened the number of young
people who are centent to remain on
the farm. This has also increased the
number of consumers of farm prod
ucts and added to the market re-
quests for everything coming from
the garden, orchard and cereal field.
The important subject then for the
tiller of the soil to consider is how
TO increase the yield of a given acre
age.
The smaller farm of diversified pro-
auctions solves to a certain extent
the question of how to make the farm
pay. Every available foot of tillable
land is utilized on the small tract.
The expense for help, machinery and
interest on investment is not SO large
and the risk of loss is not so great.
Twenty acres well titled in this age
yield more actual profits than .
quarter section did under the
old system of fifty years ago. The
land is kept under better filth, the
crops grown are more marketable,
and the farmers are better equipped
with modern implements and ma
chinery.
Farmers have learned some very
important lessons in the practical
fields of every day life. They use
more brains and less muscle, do more
planning and make less blunders than
their forefathers. They study the
conditions of soil fertility and apply
the scientific or natural remedies for
maintaining land values. l have q
neighbor who, this season, has pro-
duced and marketed 400 crates of
Strawberries from one acre of land.
The berries sold at an average Of
$3.50 per crate, thus making the gross
income from that small area $645 for
one year. Next season he expects to
use commercial fertilizers to supply
the lost potash, phosphoric acid and
nitrogen and increase his crop to 500
crates.
Mixed farming gives the agricultur-
list an opportunity to have something
to sell at all seasons of the year. This
dispcnses with the necessity for mort
gaging crop to secure money to ma
ture it and prepare it for market.
The man with the small farm, located
near railroad. which is almost any
where in the United States, can have
an acre of asparagus, similar tract
in strawberries, some planted to cur
rants, blackberries or raspberries, an
other patch of cultivated crops of
peas, beans, corn, cucumbers, melons
or other marketable products. These
things are always saleable and gener-
ally command good prices.
An acre of well titled land, under
ordinary conditions, will give the
careful man from 500 to $1,000 annu-
ally. / am well acquainted with small
farmers who give conservative esti-
mates of their yearly crops as fol-
lows: Cabbage, 5000; onions, $3.50; to-
matoes, $500; peas, $500; cucumbers,
$50; green corn, $3.50, celery, $500;
canteloupe, 5000; rhubarb, 500; as
paragus, $3.50; potatoes, $3.50, and
caulifiower, 5000 per acre. In the
fruits they report equally good re-
suits. The general average for straw
berries ranges about $500; gooseber-
ries 5000 and other small fruits about
the same. These are not merely the
oretical figures, but actual results
from small farms in the west.
Where irrigation 10 practiced much
soil fertility comes from the silt car
ried by the water from the natural
forests. But every farmer who sue
ceeds knows the value of fertilizers.
In most crops such as above enumer-
ated an application of 500 to 1000
pounds of a fertilizer containing APP
proximately ten per cent. potash,
eight per cent. phoaphoric acid and
three per cent. nitrogen adds to the
quantity and quality of the products
and thereby increases the farm in
come. The outlay is but small in COM
parison to the increased value of the
land and its crops by the reasonable
use of correct fertilizers. They may
be obtained at any of the local seed
houses, and full information as to
how to apply to the several crops is
given free by the dealers. They are
part of the stock in trade of the
small farmer, and should have a page
in his ledger account.-Joel Shoemak-
err, in Farmers Home Journal.
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