Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-10-04
would be about s1s,Ooo-at per CEN
a little over $4,000.
Clears $4,000 In q Year.

Here is the problem for him tc
solve: Can he make his soil yield suf-
ficient in quantity and quality to pay
him $4,000 annually after meeting al
expenses? II so his money Is a pei
cent investment. AS already stated, he
has cleared as high as $4,000 in one
year, and in a period Of ten years his
profits. have never been less than s19,-
900 at each years end. The expense
account would stagger many man
who calculates on 100 or 500 acres. II
would buy what would be considered
a good-sized farm in some parts Of the
United States, for 1t amounts to $685.
900 a year, but it includes everything
even the depreciation in value each
year Of buildings and machinery, which
the owner estimates at 10 per cent
Therefore every harvest must yield
him at least $4,000 in order to make
the smallest profit recorded. but, as
already intimated, this kind Of farm
er estimates by $4,000 and 100000
bushels, as he calculates his outlay in
tens Of thousands Of dollars. Here is
what was put into his granaries in
one season:
215,000 bushels Of corn.
20,500 bushels Of wheat.
$4,000 bushels Of oats.
He sold the corn for $64,500, the
wheat for $4,000 and by feeding the
oats to his animals reduced his years
feed bill to 5000.
Not an Acre Wasted.
The expert corn grower who reads
this article will doubtless be surprised
at the harvest to the acre-over fifty
bushels-but this farmer, who makes it
his business, does not waste an acre of
cultivated soil, and after 1t is ploughed
gives one part the same attention and
care he gives to all-through his ma
chinery and the men behind it. In the
preparation of the ground the gang
ploughs come into play, each drawn
by six sturdy horses. If the soil Is
heavy even the seeders are drawn by
four horses, never less than two. You
do not see the man with The hoe"
walking over the field and wasting a
half dozen kernels where he plants
one;. then another man following him
to bury the seed in the earth. These
machines drop just three grains in
every space allotted for hill because
they can be adjusted to do 1t, and
cover the grain automatically. In
planting time you can count thirty Of
them in operation, so the thousands
of acres are seeded as quickly. If not
more quickly, than a hundred. To
harrow the surface the farmer starts
out a hundred harrows in morning.
If they were placed side by side they
would cover a strip 1000 feet in width
as they move along. He keeps the
weeds from choking the young corn
with seventy-f1ve ruitivators, each
drawn by two horses. The imam with
the hoe" exists only in poetry on this
place. Time and space are too pre-
cious for him. When the crop Is gath
cred seventy-five four-horse wagons
haul the piles of ears to the barns,
placed here and there at convenient
points to save time.
Everything Kept Moving.
Throughout 1t all the idea is to keep
every man, every animal and every
machine doing what can be done to
the best advantage, each forming a
part Of a system of which the farmer
is the director. Consequently the
same thoroughness Is noted in one
part as in another, and the farm Is as
carefully divided into departments as
an up-to-date factory or store, each
one knowing what he has to do and
how and when to do it.
It Is not strange that this man may
make" his corn crop for 10 cents a
bushel where it costs his neighbor,
who does not believe in new tangled
methods, nearly twice this amount.
When a farm can be conducted as a
business and the cost Of ploughing,
planting, cultivating and every other
expense sum up less than IS for
every acre, while the corn from every
acre sells for two or three times this
amount the business Of agriculture is
worth thinking over
The part which mechanical appli-
ances play in aiding the modern hus-
bandman is one Of the most interest
ing features Of this subject. Ingen-
uity has been displayed in few inven-
tions more notable than those which
concern the soil and it's products. The
inventor has so reduced actual hu-
man labor in field and garden that a
man can perform about every opera
ton required by merely the turn of
wheel here and the pull Of a lever
there with one hand, while he guides
his horses with the other. He can
actually plough, cultivate and seed
| 100 acres without walking a step, and
with his two or four horses and ma
chine will accomplish as much as a
dozen or score Of men with hand tools
Even when the corn Is ready for cut
ting, no longer is it necessary to swing
the sickle blade and get the backache
gathering and binding the stalks. One
reason why the Western corn patch
may extend mile or more in length
is because it can be cut and grasped
by fingers of steel and bound like a
bunch of wheat without a touch Of the
hand.
Machinery Saves Much Labor.
The corn binder and shocker moves
along as rapidly as the horses drawing
it can walk, cutting every stalk Of the
hill close to the roots. Held in the
shock former the stalks are wrapped
into compact bundles ready to be car
ried to the barn or stacked amid the