Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-05-22
INTENSIVE FARMING
What Can Be Done on Fifteen Acres
With lnteIIiaent Effort.

| america, Dul III EuTOpe IL is dlIlOSl d.
old as the continent. Here, with a
| quarter section to almost every man,
what need has there appeared in the
past for outstanding the soil, nursing
it's resources and making a single acre
do the work Of five? That is the way
the American farmer has viewed the
situation, judging by his methods, but
in Europe, where land Is dear and q
farmer is practically a plutocrat II he
owns as many as twenty acres, the tale
is of a different complexion. We have
laughed in the past at the European
agriculturist nursing every foot Of his
land to increase its productive powers
as carefully as a parent attending to
the needs of baby, but the pendulum
has swung in our direction at last, and
the sense of his good judgment we see
now where before all was ridicule on
our part. Perhaps it was in the east
ern states where intensive farming
was first given serious study and de-
velopment, but be that as 1t may,
strange to relate, it has been the men
of the western cities, craving for an
Independent life. and who have gone
to the country to find it, who have
given the European methods Of agri-
culture their greatest uplift In this
country. Ten years ago the American
farmer deemed himself a pauper, a
man scarcely able to make even a
good livelihood from his property, II
he did not own at least eighty acres,
but thanks to the industry and labor
of the city man gone back to the farm,
coupled with the no less energetic ex-
ample of the foreigners, who have also
| sought farm life in preference to that
of the city. It is a demonstrated fact
that a man full of enterprise and ca
pability for work can enjoy more OF
all manner of the fruits Of life by de-
voting himself to the cultivation Of 4
ffteen-acre farm than he can by
working for SO day in the city.
Growth In the West.
All over the west intensive farming,
the hard hand work applied to a
small tract Of ground, is coming MOI e
and more into vogue. Farmers own
ing eighty or more acres Of ground
are being induced to split their hold
ings, sometimes to the sextuple divi-
sion, and not only is the population in
the rural districts increasing in con-
sequence, but its general prosperity is
swelling as well.
Intensive farming. An interesting
sounding combination Of two words.
1t seems to imply much Of the vague
and nonunderstandable. yet the phrase
means nothing more than the careful
cultivation of just the amount Of land
one man can look after without as
slstance, save that he may receive
from the members of his family-the
| wife or children, or both. 1t Is ration
al, not wasteful, farming, and that Is
certainly a new departure in Ameri-
can agricultural history. 1t Is impos-
sible for one man to care for eighty
acres, or even forty acres, OF land
without expensive machinery and an
abundance of hired help, particularly
| at certain seasons of the year. Fiji
| teen acres, or at the most twenty, Is
about all one man can cultivate prop
erly, and still from a farm Of this size
he can derive enough income through
the sale of farm products to not only
clothe himself and family In good
shape, but also put by a small amount
in the bank annually. This Is a good
deal more than many farmers with a
much larger number Of acres have
been able to do formerly, and the rea-
son for the failure lies in the wastage
that the methods hitherto employed
| have necessarily entailed.
One Crop Was Enough.
In the past the average American
farmer who would put ten acres Gut
| to potatoes never gave thought TO
that tract of land after the crop was
harvested, until next season. That
second crop Of some kind would not
| only prove profitable in a financial
| sense, but also actually keep his land
| I'm better condition, never occurred to
him. One crop and a fair profit was
his motto. but yet, by allowing that
land to run to waste for so many
| months he really injured its bearing
quality for the following year. In in
tensive farming the farmer gets as
much out of his ground as possible. II
the latitude gives seasons long enough
he would seek three crops, were he
reasonably sure of garnering In that
many but even II the last crop were
nipped by frost he would know that
his labors had not entirely been vast
ed, for the land would be better for
the extra cultivation he had given II.
| Where a tract Is permitted to lie fall
| 'ow for many months 1t becomes YER
liable hotbed for weeds. These flour
ish and sap it's best qualities, leaving
| Il poor and impoverishe ! for the crop
the farmer sows in the spring; the
soil is filled with weed seeds and the
task Of cultivation is rendered all the
harder. sometimes even so difficult as
to be wel-nigh an impossible task to
| accomplish. OF course, it would ap-
pear to the lay mind that the more
the farmer cultivates his ground the
shorter it's life as good, productive soil
will become: but this doesn't work out
| in practice. A crop of weeds does IN
| fnitely more harm than a crop OF
oats or corn or potatoes, and 1t Is the
weeds that the average American far
| mer has had on his land in the past
the greater portion of the year. some
thing that never obtains under the In
tensive method.
No Machinery Needed.
The intensive farmer has but little
use for machinery of any kind; he
does not even have to own a pioW'
Such a thing may be the joint prop
erty of half a dozen cultivators OF lit
tie tracts of ground and suffice for all
their needs. The plowing Is only nee
essary when the ground must be
broken originally for each crop; after
that the intensive farmer does all the
work with a hoe and rake. That Is