The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-13
EARNING For PROFIT.


Ora of the most entertaining and in
struetive addresses delivered before the
7oSNS4 Sugar Cane Growers Conven-
tioe q Macon was that Of Mr.. w. q.
Re- nberry of Cairo. In it Mr.. Rod
denberry described, clearly and in de-
tail, how, by making sugar cane his
money, crop. he was able to take
clear profit of more than $1,000 a year
on his thirteenth horse farm. The ad-
dress is so striking an exposition Of
good farming-farming for profit
that it has been published in bulletin
form by the land and industrial depart
ment of the Central of Georgia Railway
for gratuitous distribution.
First of all. Mr.. Roddenberry does
nothing by rule of thumb" He lays
his plans carefully, and keeps books.
Receipts and expenditures are guard
ed on the farm as carefully as such
items are by the merchant in the store.
He uses improved machinery and APP
paratus; any machine that saves labor
and improved output has his friend
ship and patronage. He pays his farm
hands fair wages, and thus gets from
them good work. He diversifies his
crops and pays attention to cattle and
hogs for market. But sugar cane is
his money crop. He says: "As sugar
cane is my main money crop, I en-
deavor to make the miscellaneous crops
pay every dollar of running expenses of
the entire farm, including the cost Of
manufacturing the cane into syrup,
thus making the gross receipts of my
cane crop represent the net profit of the
entire farm"
Mr.. Roddenberry planted seventy
acres in cotton. the product of which
he sold for $1,000; twelve acres of
Georgia collards brought him 800;
twelve acres of watermelons, $500; ten
acres of sweet potatoes, $240; the yield
of the latter acreage, however, leav-
ing him 500 bushels for his own use
Thirty acres were planted in oats, fol-
lowed by peas, for stock feeding. Six
ty acres were planted in velvet beans,
on which forty head Of cattle were
pastured and came out fat enough for
beef, leaving one third of the vines to
be turned under. One hundred and
fifteen acres were planted in corn and
pinders in alternate rows. All of the
corn was used in fattening cattle and
the pinders in fattening hogs. In ad-
dition there We're twenty-five acres in
pinders alone, for hog feeding. One hun
bred and thirty-five hogs were fatten-
ed making 81, 900 pounds of pork, worth
| 1926. He sold cattle amounting to
$3.50. Receipts from the miscellaneous
crops were $4,696. The total expenses
of running the farm, including the
cane crop and every expense except
permanent improvements, was 81, 420
leaving a net profit of $276 on the items
enumerated.
Forty-three acres were put in cane,
yielding S76 tons or about 20K tons per
acre. From this cane were made 49,
952 gallons of syrup. Fifteen thousand
gallons were put in tin cans and sold
for an average price of 80 cents per
| gallon, exclusive of the package; and
| 1852 gallons were put up in barrels
and sold at an average of q cents
per gallon, exclusive of barrels. The
total amount received by Mr.. Rod
denberry for his syrup, was $5567.
This amount added to his profit on
miscellaneous crops gives a total of
$5,S43 profit for his years farming. Mr..
Roddenberry says that as satisfactory
as this profit was to him, it could have
been made larger with more modern
| manufacturing plant than he used.