Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-06-04
The MOST PROFITABLE CROPS.

| The MOST PROFiTA6l6 CHOPS.
The question of the employment of
farm help is one that confronts the farm
er at present as never before. First, be-
cause of the difficulty of finding reliable
and intelligent men who can be hired to
do farm work, and second, because of
the high prices demanded, not only by
good help when such are possible to be
found, but by those who are incompe-
tent and unreliable. OF course good
help as rule VIII not work on the farm
at less prices than can be commanded at
other industrial occupations, neither can
they be reasonably expected to do so.
But the fact still remains that the ma
jority of farmers cannot pay the high
wages that capable men command in
other lines of business, hence the farmer
is compelled to employ cheap help,
which almost invariably proves unsatis-
factory, or gauge his farm operations to
the standard OF his home supply of
available labor.
1t is rue that the use of improved
farm machinery makes it possible for
the farmer to accomplish very much
more than under the old system, hence
he can handle his work with less man
labor than was formerly demanded. The
farmer 20 help himself out needs to
study carefully the system of farming
that with the least man labor can be
made most profitable. This study will
lead him To devote attention mainly to
those crops that can be produced largely
with the use of team and machinery,
and call for the employment of the least
hard labor. In deciding ON what crops
to produce he will reasonably select
those best adapted to his farm, keeping
in view the art of production, without
going into detail in recommending any
fixed system of farming, as each farmer
is best qualified to determine what lines
of farming to pursue and what crops to
grow. We would, however, call atten-
tion to two crops that for majority of
farmers who are limited for help seem to
meet the wants of the situation, as they
can be produced largely with team and
machinery, at small expense. | refer to
the grass crop as paSturaSe and hay, and
to the mixed grain crop. The grass crop
of Maine is of more value than all the
other products of Maine farms, and yet
no other crop receives so little care and
attention, as rule.
There is no question but that our
grass lands should be given more atten-
ton than they now receive. But our
purpose is to call attention to the i'm
portance of the grain crop to the farmer
who is limited in labor supply. There
is something of a boom ahead in the
production of corn and the silo. While
the corn crop undoubtedly merits all
that is said in it's praise, yet when the
cost of production is taken into account
and its value as stock feed, it seems to
me it must take second place in compar-
ison with crop of peas aud oats.
In one of our wide awake oranges the
farmers were asked to give the cost ex
pense of producing corn per acre and
bushel, mixed grain per acre and
bushel, also hay and potatoes. 1t would
be interesting to give in detail these tig-
ures, but space forbids. Suffice it to say
that an average of these estimates shows
the corn cost just about twice as much
per acre and per bushel as did the grain
crop, neither costing nearly as much as
the market price, proving clearly the
advantage of growing more of our stock
feeds rather than buying.
To sum up, oats and peas are much
more cheaply raised than corn. They
do not require so much hard labor,
which is the article of greatest scarcity
on many farms. They are better grain
feed as they are richer in protein, help
ing to balance the ration with our hay
and other forage crops.
Oats and peas make the best soiling
crops and are most cheaply grown. They
can be harvested before ripeuing and
make valuable hay, much better than
timothy. When ripened and threshed
they are even fed alone, an excellent
feed for dairy cows. Peas being a
leguminous plant they improve the soil
by leaving behind part of the nitrogen
which they gather from the air in the
roots.
For these and other reasons we think
next to hay the mixed grain crop stands
at the head.-H. L.. Leland in Turf,
Farm and Home.