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Established 1866.
THE FARM.
FARM ECONOMY.
To th? Editor of the Rural Southerner and Plantation :
Ask ninety-nine farmers out of one hundred
this question : “Is it not to the interest of the
farmer to raise his own supplies, and make the
farm self-sustaining ?” and the answer will be
invariably, “Yes.” And still, in the face of
such knowledge and admissions, eight-tenths of
the farmers are planting large cotton crops and
small provision crops, and buy provisions to
support their farms ; and this is done,
admitting it to be a wrong and ruinous
system. In a word, it is persisting in
error knowingly.
Let us now diseuss it, and try and
show that by making tlis farm self
sustaining, we may make less money,
but what is made will go farther, and
our success is in the accumulation of
property representing solid wealth,
which is the only wealth worth having
or striving for. This cotton mania
proceeds from this idea, that it brings
ready money, and the more cotton
made, the more money had. All such
is true, if there was not a debtor sheet
appended to the cotton account. But
when cotton money has to meet all
expenses, even to the buying of bread
and meat, and everything else re
quired, when the balance is made, we
seetheaccount stands against the far
mer—the debtor side too large for the
credit sheet—the result is, in debt: and
the next year's operations begin with
debt added to all supplies needed, and
have to be bought on credit, enlarging
expense account against cotton hc
cont. Now, let me say to all my broth
er farmers that farming under such a
system insures the same ruin as it would to a man
whose whole capital was in money, and his family
expenses exceeded the interest income, and yearly
he had to draw on the principal to support his ex
travagances. which would be consuming the capi
tal in addition to interest. The judicious farmer
should manage his farming interest as a good
financier would his money. As in all business,
no matter of what kind, one principle must
govern it, and that is, the cost or expenditures
must not exceed the income or profits accruing
from it. That is a rule that holds good and must
govern in all business matters. As such, the
farmer who loses sight of making all his supplies
and necessaries in his power to make on his
farm, is only adding so much to expense and
cost account, which absorbs his money.
PITBLISHEID E3T THE SOUTHERN ETJELISHIKG COMPANY.
I know several fanners who were a little ahead
this year, and not satisfied with letting very
well alone, must go into cotton speculating, buy
ing futures ; their chances for losing the profits
of their farming proceeds are very promising.
Such is all wrong, for I hold that no farmer
should go into speculations of that kind. If he
has money ahead, let him put it into factories,
or lend it to some solvent man, secured by a
mortgage on valuable real estate, where, in all
probabilities, his investment is safe, and at the
same time helping to build up the country. But
the question may be asked, Would it not be a
more judicious investment for farmers who have
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BROWN LEGHORN FOWLS—PROPERTY OF ATLANTA POULTRY HOUSE.
moneys on hand, to invest it in sheep and other
stock, and raise stock for market, a* well as wool
for our factories ? I would recommend farmers
to stick closely to the farm ami its pursuits, and
to let outside speculations alone. Ail the money
they have can be safely and judiciously invested
for the improvement and profit of their farms,
in which there is no risk or loss, if properly
attended to.
Here is but one instance, of my own. I will
recite : I raise colts, and as my old stock wear
out, I have young horses to replace them with,
instead of having to pay out $l5O or $175 to
the drovers. What it takes to raise such colts
you never miss ; and they come in most oppor
tunely. saving an outlay of so much money for
stock coming from other Statee.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MARCH, 1875.
There is this thing, now, the farmers must
bear in mind, and that is, as the manufacturing
and other pursuits haze multiplied, all are to be
supported by the consumer ; consequently, the
less a consumer the farmer becomes, the better
for his interest. To show’ how remote from us
other pursuits are looking to the interest of the
farmers, a few days ago an agent for an organ
and piano manufacturing company happened at
my house ; he seemed very anxious to know if a
stand of cotton had been secured. So anxious
he was, he asked me several times. At last, I
asked him why he was so interested in the cot-
I ton’s coming up. Says he, “My dear sir, the
very prospect of a crop will enable me to sell
more organs and pianos !”
Hence it is, so much cotton is planted to meet
the requirements that temptations lead us all
into. In a word, this wonderful extravagance
of the age has set aside all caution and prudence,
and made us a reckless and speculative people.
But rest assured farming cannot support all
such, unless the farm is first made self-sustain
ing, and its management directed by judicious
economy. The plain truth is, to make farming
profitable, farmers must return to first princi
ples. which is, undived attention to their busi
ness, live within themselves, pay as they go,
and build up their lands by rotating crops,
plowing under vegetable matter, and have stock
yards and save all manures. Jxo. H. Dkmt.
Terms, SI.OO a Year.
For the Rural Southerner and Plantation.
Corn as an American Staple.
In good seasons we raise something over one
thousand million bushels of corn in the United
States ; and allowing as high an average as
twenty bushels per acre, more than fifty million
acres are planted to this crop. In the South
and West very little pains is taken to prevent
the washing of corn ground, when the crop is
growing, or for several years after, if allowed to
rest. This is a great error in farming. At the
last working of corn, a fine tooth harrow should
be used to make the soil fine, clean and level,
to prevent water running between the
rows. Instead of permitting the
ground to lie naked, or grow up in
weeds, it should be seeded at once
with clover and grass seed in the
standing corn. The new crop will not
grow to do any harm before the corn
is ripe; while the Fall growth will
shelter the otherwise nakedness of
recently-tilled land, prevent surface
washing, and recuperate the depleted
soil. All know, or at least ought to
know, that clover is a j enovating
plant, and that ntar y all corn ground
needs some amendment.
By running fifty million acres, more
or less, in corn every year, with much
washing and little or no restitution,
we most certainly fill our country
with sorry-looking old fields. The
intelligence and good sense of every
farmer should condemn this practice,
and try to change it for the better.—
A great deal of Southern land is
planted in corn which is too poor to
produce more than from seven to ten
bushels to the acre. What is to be
done with such ground, to double its
fruitfullness ? We answer let it rest
in clover and Herd’s grass, with one
or two hundred pounds of gypsum to the acre.
Plant much less surface in corn and cotton, and
manure that.
We have so many fields in the South that re
quire additional fertility that, instead of doing
our best to make corn and cotton at once, we
should do our best to raise the raw materials
out of which these great staples are formed.—
To perform all the work on a field that ought
to give a harvest of thirty or forty bushels of
corn per acre, and gather a little crop of less
than ten bushels, may be honest farming, but
it is hot wise farming. Some of the essential
elements used by Nature in forming corn are
lacking in the soil, in an available form. If
these cannot be supplied by the cultivator, he
should try to find something better to do than
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