It seems strange that farmers of the North will purchase land for farming purposes at $100 or more per acre when in the South there is an abundance of land at from $5 to $25 an acre, from which, acre for acre, a larger revenue can be derived. Because of the variety of products raised in the North no farm of less than forty acres is regarded as sufficiently large to maintain a family.
The tendency in the North is towards larger farms, and many farmers are not satisfied with a farm of less than 160 acres. Make the acreage only forty, and the farm is worth $4000. On twenty acres of land in Florida that can be bought at $25 per acre, one can get a larger annual return in dollars than he can from the $4000 farm in the North.
This statement needs no proof. It is being demonstrated year by year all over the State, and only needs to be understood by the great army of home-seekers of the country to bring such an influx of them as will make Florida one of the most populous portions of the country. Thousands of people in the North want just such homes as are within their reach here. They have not money enough to pay for a satisfactory home at the high prices of the North, but they possess enough property to be able to secure a good home in Florida. If they could only be enlightened as to what awaits them here, they would come in force.—The Citizen, Jacksonville, Fla.
Improved Methods of the Southern Farmer.
The Savannah Morning News sees cause for favorable comment in the improved methods of the Southern farmer. It says: “Contrasted with the average Southern farm of fifteen years ago, the average Southern farm of today presents a striking object lesson of the New South’s progress. Plows, hoes and other agricultural implements are no longer left in the fields, or without shelter in the barnyards, overnight, or for weeks at a time, according to the whim of the user. Wagons and carts are not left standing, covered with mud, at the most convenient place to drop them. Harnesses are not thrown on a fence, or a peg, or a hitching post, exposed to the weather, until wanted. These things now have their orderly places under shelter and are properly looked after. Rainy days are no longer spent in loafing about the kitchen, but employer and hired man put in the time of the rainy day in the barn mending harness, oiling machinery, tightening wagon bolts, etc.”
All of this goes to show thrift and economy, and partly explains why many a Georgia farmer has surplus funds to loan at interest.
Condition of Georgia Farmers.
At a meeting of the Georgia State Agricultural Society, held at Brunswick, Ga., February 14, Col. Waddell, the president of the society, said, in an address:
“The condition of the farmers of Georgia is not really understood. The view entertained by the optimist being too rosy, that of the pessimist too depressing. They are nearer out of debt than they have ever been, they have more home-raised supplies than for many years, and they are managing their affairs with more judgment and prudence than ever before. But they experienced the pinching scarcity of money, and some of them are burdened with debts which would have been cancelled but for the shrinkage in the value of their lands and the products of their farms. You who are practical farmers know there is no money in raising cotton at seven or eight cents a pound, and that our only hope of success is in producing every possible article of necessity at home. Fortunately, we are not dependent on the cotton crop, for in variety and diversity of products, and in soil and climate, Georgia produces unequalled advantages, and these advantages are being recognized and utilized more and more every year.”