28 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



before the ten years expires he is producing more grain than 

 his neighbor, who is cultivating double the acres. He has had 

 less labor, worry, and risk, his wife has had less care, and his 

 farm is in much the better condition. Even if half the sum my 

 figures show could be saved, it would make a great difference 

 in the financial condition of the two farmers, and the succeeding 

 ten years I think would, if the same systems were followed, 

 show a still greater difference in favor of the man who cultivated 

 the smaller area. 



There is still one other way in which to look at this matter. 

 I have already shown that the cost per bushel of grain decreases 

 as the yield per acre increases. The same fact can be forcibly 

 illustrated in another way. Our first farmer, we will suppose, 

 plows and cultivates forty acres of land to raise six hundred 

 bushels of corn and two hundred bushels of wheat, the other 

 but twenty acres to secure the same amount. Now, at first 

 glance one might think that the rent, the plowing, planting, 

 cultivating, and harvesting of the extra twenty acres would 

 represent the difference between the two systems, but looking 

 with a little more care into the matter, we shall see that the 

 extra twenty acres, if in grass or clover, will bring a good 

 income with little or no expense. The twenty acres in grain 

 will be more or less impoverished, while that in grass or clover 

 will have grown a second crop below the soil to enrich the land 

 and improve its mechanical condition, so that, instead of a dimin- 

 ished yield the following year, we can confidently look for an 

 increased one. 



Capital in Farming. Perhaps there is nothing which so 

 cripples the farmers of our country as the want of a cash work- 

 ing capital. A very large per cent of our farmers are in debt, 

 and every spare dollar must go to pay interest or reduce indebt- 

 edness. I know this is an evil more easily pointed out than 

 remedied, but I can at least protest against the practice so com- 

 mon among farmers of running in debt for more land as soon 

 as they can see their way out of debt for what they have. 



The farmer with a fair working cash capital has a great 

 advantage over the one who is always cramped for money. 



