The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-09-04
Model Farms One of
Uncle Sans Hobbies.


Escambia county has been heretofore
touched upon in The Journal and its
establishment been warmly advo
Gated. By no other method could the
productiyeness of the soil and the
great variety OF plant life which will
flourish in it be more forcibly i'm
pressed upon visitors. And in order
to secure the much needed settler
nothing would prove more effective
than this ocular demonstration.
This has been understood many
years by the national government,
the department of agriculture having
advertised a series of model farms"
located in various states. The jack
sonville Industrial Record speaks in
terestingly on this subject in the fol-
lowing editorial:
Several years ago it occurred to a
practical scientist of the United
States department of Agriculture that
some of the best managed farms in
different sections might be made to
serve as object lessons. The first
fruit of this idea was the published
account OF a Model Farm" in Penn
sylvania, which attracted wide atten-
ton. Since then a number of popu-
lar bulletins have been issued de-
scribing successful farms in different
sections and outlining their manage
meRt. The list 70 date includes "a
Successful Hog and Seed-Corn Farm
in Illinois; a Profitable Tenant Dairy
Farm" in Michigan; a Successful
Southern Hay Farm" in South Caro-
lima; a Successful Dairy and PouI-
try Farm" in Washington; and
Small Farms in the Corn Belt"
The latest bulletin of this class
(FarmeTs' Bulletin No. 364) gives an
account of Profitable Cotton Farm"
in South Carolina The farm in
question was in 1902, when its pres
ent owner took possession, an old
rundown cotton farm. Now it is fer
tile, well improved with fences and
farm buildings. and is producing
crops which yield the owner a large
income and handsome profit. All
this has been accomplished by deep
and thorough cultivation OF the soil,
by the use of barnyard manure and
some commercial fertilizer. by rUta-
tiOn of crops, and by the industry and
good judgment Of. the farmer himself
This farm contains 1872 acres, only
half of which is planted to crops. The
farmer has divided his titled land into
three equal fields on which he raises
corn, oats, and cotton, in succession
Before he took the farm it was pro-
ducing only to bushels of corn or
300 pounds of seed cotton to the acre.
The first year he made it produce
I 1-2 bales of cotton and 81 bushels
of corn TO the acre. Now his yields
per acre are . ii bales of cotton, IS
bushels of corn and so bushels of
oats. He keeps about "a head of ma
tive cattle, mainly for the sake of
the manure, although they yield him
a small profit besides. Altogether,
the outline of this farmers methods
and results ought to prove suggest
i've and useful TO many Southern
farmers. These Farmers Bulletins
are for distribution by senators and
representatives as we'll as by the de
partment.
Dull indeed is the mind that does
not grasp a volume of meaning from
the foregoing. Each OF the farms
named are advertisements of the sec
tions in which they are situated
most impressive and doubtless most
effective in attracting welI-to-do
and thrifty population. The South
Carolina cotton farm brought to such
a high state of productiveness by in
tellisence and careful cultivation tells
a story which may be repeated and
gives assurance of a profit which may
be equally realized in thousands OF
acres near Pensacola. This is not a
conclusion based on guesswork. It is
q known fact; has already been par
italy demonstrated and awaits only
mind and muscle to make the demon
stration complete.
In the interest of the county and
city. however, let US again revert to
the running Of a model farm by the
county government under the super
vision of a scientific agriculturist. As
We have said before, if worked by
convict labor. such a farm would al
most certainly prove self sustaining,
would be the most impressive kind OF
advertisement for the section and