Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-09-29
Waste LANDS COSTLY
"Loafer" Acres Are a Dead Loss
to the Farmer.
An Acre of Land Is Eaten Up by Every
214 Rods of the OId-F ashioned
ZiqZae Rail Fence.

It takes only PA rods of the old
fashioned zigzag rail fence, once sc
common in the country and still seen
on many farms, to waste an acre OF
what might be productive land. 1t
takes only 200 rods of untrimmed
hedge to waste an acre of what other.
wise might be productive land. Foi
the same expenditure of land one car
run 459 ro;!S of woven wire and 473
rods of Earbed wire fence.
These calculations have been MAIDS
by Uncle Sam and are embodied in !
farmers bulletin recently issued. This
conclusion is reached in this bulletin
that many farmers would make more
money if their business were larger
but that the size of d farm, from
financial standpoint, is measured not
by the number of acres embraced il
it, but by the number that are pro-
ducing crops, pasturing animals eco
nomically, or supporting a growth of
marketable forest products. Nonpro-
| ductive acres are loafer acres, it is
pointed out, and the money tied up il
| them is dead capital.
Farm lanes often may be eliminated
by simple rearrangement of fields,
headlands, or turning spaces at the
edges of fields, avoided, and the farm
stead itself, the group of farm build
tngs with their lots and yards, the
| garden and the orchard, made com
pact. In the case of the farmStead,
however, considerations of health and
| attractiveness may well justify d
slight sacrifice of economy.
| Obviously, the higher the price of
land rises the more incentive there
| is for the farmer to avoid waste in
| the utilization of it. 1t is significant,
however, that irrespective of the price,
tenants put greater part Of their
land to productive use than owners.
The tenant pays rent for each acre
and he cannot afford to have any of
Ethem idle. On the other hand, the
man who has no rent to pay may be
able to get along on the produce of a
part only of his farm, and he is, there
fore, more likely to overlook the poten-
tial value of the part he wastes. By
so doing he is, of course, throwing
| away opportunities to make money
but this is not always appreciated by
those who have not grasped the impor
tant fact that in the majority of cases
to increase the size of the farm busi
Those owners, however, who, realizin.
this, are operating leased land in ad
dition to their own, are, like tenants
careful to see that they pay for N
loafer acres.
) To anyone who is buying or Leasing
land, then, it is pointed out, the impor
J tant question is not show much am
paying an acre for this tract?" bu
show much am 1 paying for the acre
that are going to work for me?" L
t the new bulletin it is calculated tha
t a farm of 100 acres selling at $40
0 an acre will cost the purchaser aetr
q ally $f11.11 an acre if 80 per cen
t of it is productive and 5000 an acre
f only so per cent of it is. AS a ma
d ter of fact, the percentage of improve
/ land in farms east of the Mississippi
: is Only 59.5 and west of that river onl
sos. . Improved land, however, is nc
$ always the same as productive LAM
+ A good timber lot, for example, is III
o improved, but it may be highly produ
10 tive, and farm buildings and fence
J. stand on land that is improved bl
If produces nothing. In the final a
j. alysis, it is the amount of productiN
p land that determines the earning C
A. pacity of a farm and that shoul
n therefore, determine its price.