Southern planter - The W&M Digital Archive

1859.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 421
every true patriot should fervently pray that
they might last and endure forever
'Our union of lakes and union of lands,
Our union of States, none shall sever,
Our union of hearts and union of hands,
And the Flag of our Union forever."
Wearing out Land.
" Our land does not produce two-thirds as
much now as it did fifteen years ago."
So writes a fanner from a region which
san not have been settled more than from
twenty to thirty years.
Our reflection is, that the farmers there
cannot be worth more than two-thirds as
much as they would have been if they had
>o managed their lands as to increase in-
stead of diminishing its productiveness.
There may be exceptions—some men
may be keen enough to make money and
year out their land by the same operation.
But the general rule is the reverse of this
—that, the most profitable husbandry im-
3roves the land, and that the husbandry
vhich deteriorates the land is not profita-
)le. We hold that a farmer of only orlinary
means cannot afford to make his own
and poorer ;
and that even if he were culivating
another man's land for a succession
)f years, he could not possibly afford to
eave it much worse than he found it.
American Farmers' Magazine.
LESS LAND OR MORE LABOUR—WHICH ?
We are not one of those who indiscriminately
recommend small farms. We fear
here is a tendency in small farms to make
mall men; and we deprecate the idea that
he farmer is to be a man to be looked
lown upon by men in other callings. There
las been enough of that in the history of
his world, and we want to see the tables
urned. Nevertheless it would be better to
jet a good living from ten acres than to
ail of a living from a hundred.
In another place we have intimated that
t is cheaper to make land more productive
han to wear it out, as the phrase is; that
f we enrich the land, it enriches us ; and
hat if we impoverish it, it impoverishes
is. Something like a demonstration of
his would gratify some of our readers,
rhis we will attempt ; and what we have to
iay shall be in close connection with our
notto, Less land or more labour.
That it is cheaper to raise a farm to a
higher than to sink to a lower productiveness
is our proposition ; and what wo mean
by it is, not that it costs more labour to diminish
than to increase the productive
power of the soil, but that it does require
more unpaid labour to wear out a soil by a
ten years' cultivation than to enhance its
productiveness in the same time.
To simplify as much as may be, we will
suppose here are three acres, arable land,
now in turf, and of a fair quality, to be
cultivated respectively by' A, B, and C, for
the next ten years. A is a calculating,
thinking farmer, in no way extravagant,
but willing to expend money and labour
where he sees a reasonable prospect of a return
with profit. B is a careful soul, wil-
ling to labour, but as shy of all other ex-
penses for crops as of the itch. C takes it
easy, and will reap what his land will give,
without giving it back much of either labour
or manure.
Indian corn, we will suppose, to be the
crop the first year. A turns over the turf
in November to a good depth ; harrows in
fifty loads of compost in the spring, made,
it may be, of twenty loads of barn manure
and thirty loads of something which
his industry and integrity have gathered
up at a cheap rate for the purpose ; plants
the best variety of corn that he can get
any certain knowledge of, about the middle
of March ; tends the crop well, and gets
eighty bushels to the acre.
B wants all his manure for other crops,
and thinks tho turf land will do pretty
well without manure. He plows in March,
five or six inches deep, but very nicely.
His team is not strong enough to plow much
deeper ; and as for paying for extra team
work and manure to warm the deep soil
that would be plowed up, he cannot think
of it. Farming, in his opinion, is not a
business to spend money in, but to get
money by. But he plants in good season,
tends the corn well all summer, and gets
thirty bushels.
C takes it easy; plows when it is most
convenient; plants and hoes when nothing
hinders; does the work shabbily, according
to his wont ; and more by providential fa-
vour, than by his skill or industry, gets six-
teen bushels of decent corn and plenty of
pig ears.
Now B has done more work than C ; A
has expended more labour than either, be-