FARM IIS Q FOR SUCCESS. 



103 



dollars will now be wanted for a fertilizer distributer ; and a siilkv 

 plow attachment costing $20 will pay- For another year more ground 

 will be plowed. You will have the corn grown the previous year to 

 fatten oft' your increasing herd of pigs that have been grown this 

 season on middlings. Your money will now be coming back from 

 excess crops of last 3'ear, in i)ork, butter, lambs or steers. This 

 will more than pa}' for the $100 in chemicals that j-ou will Iiave to 

 buy, and ncAv tools, $40, or total, $140. So that the capital, as yet 

 involved, is only the first 3'ear's outlay. An increase of stock will 

 have to be made to feed the increased crops of this year, and to 

 buA' cotton seed to match, say fifteen acres of corn fodder and straw. 

 Under such circumstances one's credit would be good for two hun- 

 dred dollars. This would mean more manure and more plowing for 

 the third year. Thus, in four to five years, the whole of plow land 

 could be put under constant culture, excepting ten acres of clover, 

 if the rotation was a five j'cars' course. This ten acres of clover 

 in two cuttings of one year only, would soon be good for the thirtj'- 

 five tons of hay originally got. 



It was not mj' purpose under the heading, Capital Required, to lay- 

 out a course of rotation, nor to pursue the matter- to the end, indi- 

 cating the amount finally required. I onlj^ wished to indicate 

 that little was required to start for the first 3'ear or two, that 

 the system would bring quick returns ; and that while it increased 

 the crops of the fiirm and l)usiness done, that it would substantially 

 pa}' as we go. After having gone over the farm once, the continuous 

 culture, rotation of crops and increased manure used, would increase 

 the crops per acre until we should achieve 65 to 75 bushels of corn 

 as an average, wheat 30, and other crops in proportion. Fifty 

 dollars per acre would then be achieved for 50 acres, at a very 

 handsome profit on present valuations. But land would not long 

 remain at $18.93 per acre under these conditions. The farms are 

 abundant where, out of the wood land and pasture could be carved 

 a total, with the field now in use, of 100 to 150 acres of tillage.- 

 Upon such farms steam power for threshing and grinding will find' 

 their place, along with a full line of machinery and heavy stock, all 

 of which will require a degree of capital and skill, and will yield an 

 income that will give to our business a rank second to none in 

 attractiveness. Our farming is going through its transition state 

 rapidly in the directions named. Intelligence, business energ}^ and 

 capital will carry it to a successful issue. The farmers of Maine, in 



