^ Tlie Farm and Garden. 



Vol. IV. 



DECEMBER. 1884. 



No. IV. 



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And when the sUt'er habit of the clouds 

 Comes down upon the autumn sun, and with 

 A sober gladness the old year takes up 

 His bright inheritance of golden fruits 

 A pomp and pageant Jill the splendid scene. 



Longfellow. 



ooldbn opportdnities in the south. 



{Continued.) 



By Joseph. 



In 



GENERAL FARMING, 

 my .several articles treating 



on .Southern 



subjects, I have really not answered the question 

 which is asked ofteuest, and which seems to be 

 of interest to the greatest number of individuitls 

 in this matter, the question: "What chances 

 are there in the South for the general fiirmer' 

 Is the production of cereals, hay, and otlier farm 

 crops more profitable, does capital invested in 

 farms pay a larger percentage of interest in the 

 South than in the North ? " 



I have just traveled through Jefferson county 

 West Virginia, the garden spot of the Virginia's^ 

 Here land is worth from .$40 to $7.5 an acre. The 

 average yield of wheat in the county is very near 

 twenty bushels per acre, while good farmers are 

 raising from twenty-five to forty busliels ' and 

 occasionally fifty. All this is done with much 

 less commercial manures (not over 1.50 pounds 

 per acre), than the fnrmers in other sections of 

 Virginia are in the habit of using. In Jefferson 

 Bcrcley, Clark, Warren, and other counties of 

 the Virginias, I |,assed recently through corn 

 fields, which will hardly yield less than 15 bar- 

 rels of corn, that is 150 bushels of shelled to the 

 acre No extra, culture was given in any instance. 



I average twenty-five 



bushels of wheat to the 

 acre, one year with an- 

 other," says J.V.Weir, of 

 Clark's county, where the 

 average yield is only 

 fifteen bnshels. His land 



years ago used to pro- 

 duce less than the 

 county average. ** I 

 never till land without 

 improving it," If 

 proudly ailds. Thi'. 

 sliows what manage- 

 ment will do. I thouglit 

 that I could discovei 

 the whole secret of his 

 success in the way he 

 know sliow to maintain 

 the i)ioper relation be- 

 tween wheat -growing 

 and stock-keeping. Mr. 

 "Weir has about eighty 

 head of cattle on hi^ 

 480-acre farm, is fat 

 tening thirty steers aii'l 

 as many hogs, pays sit 

 tention to the jiroduc- 

 tion of good manure 

 and uses phosphate 

 liberally. 



Wheat is one of tln' 

 stajjie articles of pro- 

 duction in the Great 

 Valley, but the arcii 

 devoted to it is, by fu 

 in excess of the propti 

 proportion, as com- 

 pared with other farm 

 cro|is; and in many 

 counties it seems to be 

 the aim of the hus- 

 bandman to nifiniif'ir- 

 ture wheat merely Mill 

 of phosphates. Clovir 

 and barnyard manur. 

 should be the founda- 

 tion of the crop, ami 

 these important ageiit>: 

 merely snp|ilenieiiteil 

 by commercial fertili- 

 zers, as far as necessa- 

 ry. More stock, more 

 grazing lands, more 

 manure, and a smaller 

 average in wheat, 



would better many of 



the condition that 



seem to be disadvantageous to he farmer at 

 present. 



. }4'' *h« Southern farmer, often with rather 

 inditlerent management, is making money and 

 improves his land, which had been so recently 

 impoverished and deviustateii, while many of the 

 high priced tariiis in the densely populated North, 

 do not pay .5 per cent, interest on the investment. 



the Northern man, when he gets po.ssession of 

 ? „ ™ .'" t"'' South, at once inaugurates a mater- 

 i.illy different .system of farming. He will do his 

 share of the work, personallv, and not, like 

 many of the "landholders" in Virginia, leave 

 everything to the " servants " anil " hand.s' " He 

 will pay special attention to the great " money 

 crops," wheat, corn, beef, pork, and so forth, yet, 

 not neglecting the "ninety-nine" thinss that 

 bring a small amount each, things which the 

 Southerner considers not worth the trouble ot 

 saving' 



The new comer uses all the means in his power 

 to increase the crop and get their full value. But 



A Bunch of Roses. 



long neglected orchard, he turns his hogs m and 

 makes jiork of the hundreds of bushels of apples 

 now rolling under the trees, he utilizes his fruit 

 in .some way, for cider or otherwise, sells what he 

 can find market for ; he pays for his groceries and 

 dry goods with butter and eggs, while the South- 

 ern farmer runs in debt for them and is charged 

 twenty-five or fifty per cent, extra for "time." 

 The former tries to keep up the flow of milk, 

 either to be disposed of in a paying local market, 

 or to make the largest ]io.ssible amount of gilt- 

 edge; while the latter milks only a part of his 

 cows and lets the calves that he wants to raise, 

 milk the rest. One has the money " all his own," 

 when he sells his wheat or beef, the other finds if 

 half gone, after squaring up those long and large 

 accounts with the merchants. The Northerner, 

 in short, grasps for every chance which offers 

 itself to him, of increasing his income, be it evei 

 so little. In consequence he makes money. 



The general management of the Southern 

 farmer, without the advantage of their congenial 



A very larse portion of our subHcripri 



having done that, he cultivates and trims the i climate, would ruin every mother's son of them 



As it is. they do tolerably 



.... . """"' ^^P'""** with December number, and a notice 



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number TbiJ^nry 7'" ''^"'"V ^''''' ""'" *""""' P'"-™'-" li-' ""d January 

 number. This will be mailed you in a few days. 



well ; but the Northern 

 man w o u 1 d do better. 

 He would starve in the 

 North if he did not. 



Golden opportunities 

 are abundant. 



