Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1875 — The Most Profitable Crops. [ARTICLE]

The Most Profitable Crops.

We are frequently asked for information about the most profitable crops for a farmer to cultivate. Sometimes these questions come from localities with which we are personally familiar, but in a majority of instances they do not; hence it would be folly for us to attempt to give advice. We can readily understand why a farmer in lowa or in a State distant from our seaboard markets should feel interested in knowing how some farmers near the latter can afford to pay one or two hundred dollars per acre for farms and still make the investment profitable. Such tilings are done, however, but they are not every-day transactions, and, although the opportunities are abundant enough, the men capable of carrying enterprises of that kind to a successful termination are somewhat scarce. But a man to be successful as a farmer anywhere must not only know which are the most profitable crops to raise, but how to produce them. Wheat may be a profitable crop when thirty to forty bushels per acre can be produced, and a very unprofitable one with a yield of only fifteen to twenty. Profits, as a rule, appear in our farm accounts after all expenses in the.production of a crop are paid, hence the aim should always be to exceed cost as much as possible. It costs as much to plow, harrow and otherwise cultivate and seed an acre of poor land as it does one that is rich; hence the importance of keeping the soil rich if you wish to obtain large or small profits. Every farmer should keep this point in mind, and then he can readily estimatehow much of his life is wasted in working land which barely pays the expenses in the crops produced. Of course we do not advise abandoning poor land and seeking rich in some other -*loeality, if other circumstances are favorable, such as agreeable surroundings and good markets near at band, because fertility can generally be secured much more readily than the other conditions named.

Admitting, as we think everyone mußt, that the farmer can obtain profits only in proportion as the yield or return per acre exceeds the cost of production, the next question to be taken into consideration is what the crop shall be to produce the desired results. But this leads us not only to consider the kind of crop but the manner of disposing of it as a part of one and the same transaction. A man maybe a good manufacturer or producer of an article, but at the same- time so poor a salesman that he is always playing a losing game. It is right here that we find the secret of many great successes in farming, as well as of lamentable failures. We will suppose, for instance, that two men begin the Gulture of adjoining farms, of 3ual size and fertility, both having equal vantages in every respect. One will sell his crops in bulk, disposing ot wheat, oats, com and hay at the highest market prices for ten years in succession. The other, instead of disposing of his profiucts in this manner, keeps sheep, cows and poultry which consume the bulk of all that is raised on the farm, and instead of his grain and hay going to market in balk it i? taken off in the form of batter, eggs, poultry, beef and pork. It most be quite evident to everyone that the latter will not have exhausted - the fertility of his Jand as much as the former, and the cost of hauling the crops to market has been comparatively trifling. In other words, one man has concentrated his farm products into as small a compass as possible, retaining for himself the cost of the reduction in bulk "and gaining the unavoidable expense Of freights charged for transportation. Now, from this. Jt will be seen that the most profitable crops are those which will

bring the most money, not for one season, but during a series of years, without any regard to the condition or form in which it is disposed of. If a thousand bushels of com can be reduced in bulk to a single two-horse wagon-load and the producer is paid for the cost of reduction it is evident that such a change would be advisable no matter where the crop was raised. One man drives his crops to market in the form of beef cattle, retaining a large amount of it at home in the form of manure, while another hauls it in wagons at an expense which draws heav/ily upon the profits. Cotton has made millions of acres in the Southern States barren, and wheat an equal amount in the Northern, simply because these crops are sold in bulk, leaving nothing, or veiy little, behind with which to keep up the fertility of the soil. They are both, however, profitable crops for the time being, but disastrous to any country in a long run if cultivated exclusively, for they leave little or nothing in the hands of the producer to return as a fertilizer to the soil.

No system of farming can long remain a profitable one which ignores the principle of compensation for loss of fertility on the removal of each and every crop. So when any of our readers are looking about for a profitable crop to raise they should keep in mind the fact that it is not necessary to dispose of the products of their lands in the raw state, but that a little manufacturing may possibly enhance the value very materially. If the brewers drop dow-n on the price of barley, turn it into pork, beef, milk, bqtter or cheese, and then seek other customers for these articles, and while making this change a goodly quantity of fertilizing materials for a succeeding crop may be secured. There may be a little delay in obtaining ready cash to meet urgent needs, but the increase will usually be sufficient to more than make up for any inconvenience on this Score. The further away from market the more necessity for condensation in preparing farm products for market, because freights on bulky articles generally take the lion’s share. The best of butter and cheese should be made where hay and all kinds of grain are cheap, because these articles can be transported long distances quite safely and at low rates; but, unfortunately for consumers and those who might be producers, they are seldom made in any large quantities in such localities. When our Eastern dairymen can afford to feed their cows on Illinois and Nebraska-grown corn, we should think Western farmers could aflord to make butter and cheese out of the same at home, saving a large proportion of the freights on such bulky materials. The most profitable farm crops are not, as a rule, those which give the greatest immediate returns upon cost of production.— N. T. Sun.