The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1916-09-21
WASTE LAND EXPENSIVE

Every acre Of non-producing land
should be put to work or sold, $ VS.
rev publication Of TIL. department
Farmers Bull.,;a 7iJ. Many f.tirtr
would make mr., mo-. il .-"ir '"i>
!, fss were larg.-, but the s,Ze Of
farm. from lnanci:l standpoint IS
ensured not ~ the number Of ares
embraced in it but by the number thi,t
are producing crops, pasturing ami
mails or supporting growth Of ma,
ketable forest products. Nonproduc-
five acres are loafcr acres and the
money tied up in them is dead capital.
On every farm, however, there are
certain areas necessarily devoted to
nonproductive purposes. FENCES.
bitches, lanes and building lots pro
duce nothing themselves but they are
frequently essential to production on
the rest of the farm. Nevertheless
they may occupy in the aggregate a
considerable percentage of the avail
able land 1t is part of efficient farm
MANAGEMENT to see to it that this per-
eentage is no higher than necessary.
In this connection some intn~c sting
figures are given by the bulletin al
ready ,ns toned in rerart - tti''
sn..,nt Of land occu0.cl by fences of
different kinds 1t axe: for instance
M. go rods of !'.-.mm"1 hedge
IN. mi: PA rods If zig "a. rail or
worm fence to waste an acre OF what
might be productive land. For the
same expenditure Of land one can
run 495 rods of woven wire and 473
rods of barbed wire. Other considera
lions, of course may make it desira
bic to use the hedge or worm fence
but the waste involved is factor tina
should not be overlooked.
Similarly farm lanes often may BIZ
eliminated by simple rearrangemer'
Of fields; headlands or turning space
at the edges of fields avoided, am
the farmstead itself-the group O.
farm buildings with their lots, yard
the garden and the orchard-mad
compact. IN the case Of the farm
stead however, considerations O.
health and attractiveness may wei
justify slight sacrifice Of economv
While a little planning will ofte~
&c I'll, 1o,,
now devoted to these unproductiv
uses more difficult problem is pre-
sented by waste land-land that
rendered untillable by swamps. re-
vines, rocks, slopes. etc, WOODLAND
that produces nothing salable an
pastures that are too poor to be pro
ftable. Some areas are of coUrs
hopeless and in that case they shou't
be left out of the Reckoning altogeth
or. Before this IS done. however. i
will pay to look into the possibilities
of profitable reclamation. MANY IN
tillable fields, for example, may be
turned into productive pastures. or,
they will not grow enough grass tc
make this economical. they can b.
used for the production Of timber
On the other hand, it often happens
that woodlots which yield nothing but
a little firewood for home consump
ton are permitted to occupy valu
able land. In deciding whether such
lots should be cleared and titled, the
cost of clearing the increased value
of the cleared land, the interest OF
the investment, the salable value Of
the timber products and the added
expense for firewood which will fol
low the disappearance Of the tim
Der must all be taken into account
With unwooded areas, the ADVISABLE
ty Of bringing them under the pillow
may be determined by comparing the
probable cost with the market price
Of good arabic land in the ncighhor-
hood
Obviously. the higher price of the
land rises the more incentive there is
for the farmer to avoid waste in the
utilization Of it. 1t is significant, how
ever, that the investigation of the
department have shown that ire
spective Of the price, tenants put a
greater part of the land to product
i've land to use than owners. The
tenant pays rent for each acre and
he cannot afford to have any Of them
idle. On the other hand the man who
has no rent to pay may be able to
get along on the produce of part
only on his farm and he is therefore
more likely to overlook the potential
value of the part he wastes. By so
doing he is throwing away opportu-
mites to make money but this is
not always appreciated by those who
have not grasped the important fact
that the average farm is too small
for maximum efficiency and that in