Farming

FARMING

CHAPTER I

LAND AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT

An Excellent Means of Making Money—Out-farmed Farms Increasing—The Ruin of ex-Service Men—Old Micawber with Land and Cattle—Water and Weeds and Limited Capital—The New Owner no Philanthropist—‘Pleasure Farms’—Their Uneconomic Rent—Their Increase in Certain Areas—The Advantage of Small Acreage—The ‘Inexperienced’ arrives at an Estimate—The Result of Advertisements—‘Hungry Sharks’ Make Offers—The Gouty Owner Going Abroad—‘Going Concerns’—Factors Governing Value—How to See a Farm—Signs of Bad Farming—Small Fortunes Spent in ‘Spring-cleaning’—Signs of Bad Yields—Punch’s Advice to Those about to Marry—A Small Owner Area—A Good Farm in a few Words—Well-farmed Land—The Importance of Water Supply—Distance from Railway—Household Furniture and Farm Buildings—When the Premises Fall Down—The Way to Find a Farm—Capital Required—The Wrong View of Farming—What Small Capital Means—The Question of Rent—High Rents not Inquisitional—An Agricultural Situation with no Parallel—Buying a Farm—The Public Auction—The Bubble has Burst—The Farm goes Cheap.

IN farming, the bringing of good fertile soil down to its knees is an excellent method of making money, and is therefore constantly adopted. Some men make a practice of obtaining good soils in a well-fed and good yielding condition, and by spending little and taking much, add to their banking accounts. Finally they leave the farm depleted of its growing power and full of weeds. Some ‘out-farmers’, even when the soil is depleted, will stay on, remaining to attack the skeleton. This type of farming is not always ‘greed’, but the result of economic pressure. Thus the number of out-farmed farms are continually increasing and adding to the unfortunate position. These land skeletons are a problem of considerable complexity.

After the War the story of the long dilapidated farms in England is an unpleasant one. To the serious aftermath of war was added the unfortunate plight of disabled and other ex-service men who had ventured on the land. Land speculators bought worthless farms, hurriedly made the old-world houses attractive with tar and whitewash and consequently sold these farms at high prices. Many ex-service men with little or no experience of land, chose the farm solely by the attractive appearance of the house, and not by the quality or cleanliness of the land. They appeared entirely unconscious of how important it was that the land should be able, by cultivation or stock rearing or some other agricultural pursuit, to bring in sufficient returns. Otherwise the tenant-farmer or owner-farmer is a lodger, whether he admits it or not, in the unenviable position of poor old Micawber but, instead of a family of hungry children, he has land and cattle, sheep and pigs to feed.

It cannot be too clearly stated that the taking of a bad farm is often the first step in a financial disaster. £10 or £15 an acre or a rent of 10s. or 15s. seems to be little money for so much soil, including as it does a house with a pleasant appearance. If the soil is a fair one which has been badly farmed, good cultivation and ample manuring will both clean it and bring it to a condition of fertility. It will need much outlay, and for a long time there will be no returns. Farmed without attempting to improve it, the land may yield a bare labourer’s living and no money will be lost, but if improvements are made, every penny the farm produces the farmer will find is again taken by the land. He will not for a living have to depend on the farm at all but from some other source find a means of livelihood.

It is the inexperienced town or city man who takes such a farm and who at once attempts to pull it round. However well the work may be done, if his capital is limited, the more the farmer does, the sooner comes the climax. In his fight against water, weeds and soil starvation, he hurries along the road to disaster. His capital is used up rapidly. Each year the returns in corn, too low to make ordinary farming pay, are, because of the improvements which are being made, quite out of proportion to the heavy additional expenditure. Each year may see slightly better returns in corn, and more feed for stock—the land is paying on the money spent in renovation a small interest.

So a time comes when the work and money invested have succeeded in evolving a good farm out of dilapidation. It must be borne in mind, excellent as this may seem, that by this time a very large sum has accumulated in the soil, money which it is impossible to reclaim. There may come a bad season—low prices—a sudden epidemic of disease, resulting in the failure to pay mortgage interest; to pay bills or to find money to keep the labour going! If the farm is held on a lease the landlord steps in on the strength of the clause dealing with any arrangements with creditors or a bankruptcy. It is to his advantage to do so. He may because of the tenant’s improvements sell the farm at two or three times the price at which the farm was to be sold before the tenant spent his money there. The new owner as often as not is no philanthropist, he finds a business opportunity and takes it. He sets to to collect the benefits of his predecessor’s efforts by recommencing to out-farm the soil. He makes the old farm pay and later a derelict farm is once more for sale.

The successful pulling round of national soil is decidedly patriotic and a great achievement, but by no means is it the farming to be undertaken in a matter-of-fact commercial age, except under certain conditions, namely:—

(1) That the land is the property of the farmer.

(2) That it has been purchased as dilapidated at its proper value, which is very little.

(3) That the farmer goes about the improvements slowly or with sufficient caution to allow no chance of failing to meet obligations.

(4) That if a mortgage is taken, this mortgage is in good hands and not in the hands of the late owner of such property.

(5) That the farm has a marketable value as an improved holding; that is to say within reasonable distance of a railway station, town or city and close to or on good roads.

No wise man who means to farm for a livelihood will attempt to obtain one of the frequently advertised ‘Pleasure Farms’. The description needs no comment. Every practical farmer knows full well what the advertisement means, and keeps well away; and the subject would be of little interest to the reader if it had not somewhat serious consequences for those who do not understand.

It is usual that the landlord (as often as not a land speculator) demands an absurd rent, entirely uneconomic. He requires no farmer but a man of means who wants a house and land and who will pay his rent regularly.

If, as it sometimes happens, a man, innocent of agricultural economics, with a moderate capital and a need to make his business pay, takes one of these farms his pleasure-farming comes to a quick end. The uneconomic rent makes it impossible for him to keep the farming operations going, to keep sufficient stock or to pay adequate labour. He is forced to rob the land: the land becomes neglected, weedy and depleted.

The rapid increase of pleasure farms on the one hand, and the increase in the number of worn-out skeleton farms on the other, makes the problem of entering the farming profession more difficult than ever. To buy or rent a farm of kinds is easy enough; the difficulty is to get one suitable, one which neither in annual rent nor in purchasing price costs more than its economic value.

It is far better to farm a small acreage well than a large acreage badly. It is therefore important to have some clear idea, not only as to the type of farm desired, but how best available capital may be employed. With pen and paper, a copy of the Farmer and Stockbreeder giving the latest prices; the catalogues of leading firms of implement vendors, and Primrose McConnel’s ‘Note-Book’, it is possible for the inexperienced to arrive at a fair estimate of the cost of stocking a farm with all it needs. From this it will be seen how much must be allowed to the purchase of horses—of implements—for the payment of labour, and how much can be put aside to meet unforeseen developments, and to pay for expenses until money comes in hand from crops and other produce sold.

The total sums involved will give a somewhat clear picture of the size of the holding and it will show also with unfortunately painful strength any want of farming knowledge, and suggest further study or the obtaining of skilled advice.

Should the method of searching for a farm be by advertisement, the replies will be found to vary from those of Private Estate land-agents, gentlemen of position and integrity—Estate Agents who are really dealers in properties, and an assortment and variety of the human-shark species who offer property in as many various disguises.

As a general rule these sharks politely or effusively ask high prices out of all proportion to the value of the land however good, bad, or indifferent. The land is nearly always a fine loam! Some of these letters are typewritten, some are printed, for we presume mass circulation. Often personal, they deal, amongst other things, with the neighbourhood’s beautiful scenery and the pretty birds to be heard and seen there. Some give the chances for the ‘young gentlemen’, such as the aromatic air!

The farm is always astonishingly cheap. As ‘times are bad’ and ‘the owner of the property is gouty’ and ‘decidedly anxious to return abroad’ the price asked is low, ‘a mere nothing’, only £5,000 for the 100 acres of rich alluvial loam with the delightful residence and garden.

They are willing to allow easy terms. ‘Immediate possession’ can be obtained of the delightful gentleman’s estate for £2,000 cash, the rest, £3,000, may remain on mortgage at 5 1/2 per cent. per annum! As the land these people offer is probably worth £10 an acre it is hardly necessary to elaborate further to discover that a mortgage of £3,000 on a property value of £1,000 is by no means satisfactory. For the mortgagee has always the power to call in the mortgage at short notice and, if not met, to seize the place and all the crops thereon.

It is not very difficult to see what happens if a buyer accepts the kind offer and agrees to pay £165 a year plus a deposit of £2,000 cash. Sooner or later the mortgagee re-obtains the property and all the money invested by the client in stock and improvements as well as the £2,000. It is a form of money-lending and with all the bloodless villainy of the money-lender, so, need I add, is best left alone.

The farms offered in the Press as ‘Going Concerns’ are also somewhat misleading and with few exceptions not to be recommended. They are offered for sale or to let. They are usually the last attempt of a farmer to save a financial situation; a desire to sell out at a price much higher than market values.

Such ‘Going Concerns’ are to be taken over with the stock, crops and implements thereon at sums which vary from a mere £100 (poultry farms) to £20,000 (stock farms). Where such ‘Going Concerns’ are in the hands of agents you get a long typewritten list of what is in the ‘going’. Viewed in an agricultural light such lists are of interest. They paint such excellent pictures of muddle, misery, hopelessness and poverty. ‘One excellent Dairy Cow in full profit—a garden rake—a hoe—stable lamp——’

Other ‘Going Concerns’ allow the stock, etc., to go at valuation, but this, in many of these offers, does not mean the valuation of an independent valuer.

When stock is taken over lock, stock and barrel, unless it is taken over at or below market value, sooner or later it is disposed of at a loss. Occasionally where it happens to be a good sound farming enterprise with exceptional stock, taking over may be a benefit. But the usual outgoing sale is preferable, ridding a holding of misfits, rubbish, and that for which a new owner has no use.

A prospective farmer, whether to be a tenant or an owner, should view a farm not only as ‘land,’ ‘buildings,’ ‘house,’ ‘situation,’ but from a purely business point of view, judging the property on the chances of making a living by what he sees and what he hears. Farming truths are ascertained by asking questions from the natives in the area and much valuable data for or against the property is discovered. The visitor’s discerning powers are sharpened and subsequently he sees many things which would otherwise have escaped attention. The ‘looking round’ becomes a stock-taking of faults, facts, and fancies.

July is the best time to sell a bad farm, and therefore not the time to buy one, for the worst land looks well, the weeds are hidden below crops, and even if the land is wet, the fallows, to the non-experienced eye, are dry and clean.

Nothing tells the story of the soil better than the weeds in the fields, and the trees in the hedges, for here is the story of the past, the story of the future. Poor, wretched dwarfed timber is not found on good healthy soil. Excellent timber on seemingly bad soils suggests that the soils’ condition is due to bad farming and not to an inherent failing.¹

Broken gates and wild hedges and waterways full of earth and weeds level with the field are signs of bad farming.² Everything that can be amiss will be amiss. The most pernicious weeds; the most virulent insect pests; the most hungry slugs and snails, will be there, thriving amazingly. Water has developed acids and assisted hosts of enemy bacteria to do their worst.

A good farm has a careworn dreary appearance in the month of December during a cold wet winter, but a bad farm is wretched in the extreme.

The undrained land is marked with ponds spreading over the fields and meadows; the winter corn is of a yellow colour.

The ‘excellent loam in good heart’ is decidedly sticky and tenacious. Water standing in the furrows forms small waterways between each ridge of soil. The ‘rich pastures’ ‘squelch’ under foot and you sink well in.

The ‘good’ roadways are impassable because of deep mud, and the ‘well-situated gentleman’s residence’ is marooned on the other side of a quagmire. The ‘well-planned up-to-date premises suitable for stud farm or for pedigree stock’ are deep in mud or water and well-beaten rat tracks run in all directions. The new owner or tenant will needs drain the land, cut down the hedges, clean the ditches, fill the yards with stone and sand.

It may be necessary to cut down some miles of hedges to allow men to get into the ditches to clean them out and get the water off the fields. Gateways will have to be dug up to lay large pipes. So the war to re-make the farm will continue; hedges and ditches; water courses; gateways; pipes; pipe drain furrows will one after another be opened up, men will be busy digging out drains; and the carting of pipes will be done by the thousands. In short, the greater part of the farm staff will be engaged and extra labour will probably be necessary. A small fortune is spent to make the farm workable. Until the work is done the yielding powers of the soil will remain low. Capital will be used to meet living expenses—and, when the work is completed, well above the value of the land will have been spent in the renovation process.

Poor yielding power and the weedy condition of the land is best told by the stackyard after harvest. Unless the corn is stacked in the field a stackyard may be strangely empty. Insignificant-looking stacks are not usually built if returns are good, small stacks add to the expense of thatching and difficulties at threshing time. From 6 acres a good-sized wheat stack is collected if the yield is 6, 7 or 8 sacks an acre. The stalks and flowerheads and foliage of weeds amongst the straw is evidence of the weed condition. The stubbles are noticeably thin and grass-like and spread much about, instead of being hard and thick and close, not unlike a dark man’s beard after two days’ growth. Pastures, when poor, are so clearly so that few can mistake it. There are patches of moss, and the grass appears hard and thin, and after a wet season distinctly yellow-green in colour. Often coarse grass blades predominate. In the summer such pastures are patchy, full of weeds, and some advertised as ‘excellent grazing meadows’ are in truth no more than arable fields covered with couch, bent grass, docks, and thistles and such grass as happens to have obtained a hold.

THOUSAND HEADED KALE

What land can produce, if good land and well farmed, is shown by the above illustration of a piece of ‘Thousand Headed Kale’ being fed off by sheep

A pilgrimage of British farms ‘to let’ or ‘to be sold’ may end in a similar situation as given by Punch to those about to marry—‘DON’T’.

The worst areas are usually where small owner-farmers abound. Thus in districts where estates have been broken up comparatively few well-farmed holdings will be found, and the appearance of such a district is often abject in the extreme. It is reflected in the village people, in the village shops, and to some extent in the neighbouring towns.

It is not that the large landowners interfered with their tenants, but the presence of a landlord meant that the tenants had, in the easily understood wording, ‘to mind their P’s and Q’s’. We have not yet reached a condition of civilization which allows us to do the right thing without having someone to whom we are liable to answer if we do the wrong. It may be unfortunate but true!¹

In the choice of a farm many are the considerations, some of which I deal with here. It is practically impossible to obtain a holding which embodies all the ideals. The advantages and disadvantages of a holding must be weighed and the average taken, but always with one thing in mind—whether or not the holding gives a reasonable chance of making good.

A good farm can be described in a few words—‘one in the best condition, needing least expense to start and keep going’.

Well-farmed land continually adds to its powers and becomes daily more rich in heart. The word ‘heart’ describes a condition difficult to analyse. It is complex, the soil particles are incorporated with organic matter in many and great varieties of conditions due to continual chemical, physical and biological actions and changes under many and varied phases. The soil in good heart is similar to a prosperous commercial enterprise, well housed, well equipped, and with a staff of healthy active people. Such soils produce very heavy yields of corn, and smother weeds, and the heavy yields of straw give the power to produce great quantities of manure by fattening stock. Therefore a cycle of success follows. The good crops allow a large head of stock to be retained, which means heavy yields of manure, and heavy yields of manure mean heavy yields of corn.

Water supply is an important consideration. Insufficient supply may prevent the keeping of livestock in adequate numbers; though the digging out of ponds and the collecting of rain-water from the roofs in conveniently arranged tanks may minimize the disadvantage. But for whole milk selling very large supplies of cold water are necessary. It is wanted to cool the milk and to keep utensils and floors in a thorough state of cleanliness. Though I have seen attempts made to cool milk by drawing water out of a pond and pouring this from buckets through the cooler it has never been satisfactory. Apart from certainty of contamination sooner or later, the water warmed by the sun was for the purpose insufficiently cold. Butter could not be made, as the pond water would necessarily have had to come into contact with both cream and butter during making.

For the cooling of milk and for butter-making, deep well-water is essential or a supply passing through a refrigerator to bring it down to the temperature required. Water, apart from dairy work and the feeding of livestock, is constantly in use on a farm. Ample supplies are required for the use of the engines in steam cultivations, and for threshing.

Distance from a railway is most important. Shorter hours and increasing cost of transport make it essential to keep loss of time down to the lowest point. In whatever way the problem of long distances to a railway is faced, it remains a handicap. The use of a motor circumvents the difficulty, but adds to the annual expenditure. Where the roads are bad or of steep incline, the disadvantage of long distance from a town increases.

Five or six miles is not too far. In some areas, where the farmers are fortunate enough to have motor contractors collecting the milk from wooden platforms at the side of the road, the question, as far as the disposal of the milk, is simplified.

Suitable farm-buildings are important. Personally I have a horror of poor premises. Livestock are always in trouble, and no one can realize the worry and losses and difficulties which poor buildings mean. With such premises the farmer is never at rest, and the night is often busier than the day. At night the cattle break out through the walls, the doors, or the roofs! To circumvent their efforts the farmer uses all spare hurdles and gates as well as sheets of corrugated iron and much binder twine.

On some smaller farms the unfortunate farmer falls back on his household furniture with which to barricade the cow-house or bull-box.

Bad premises are a most serious handicap and the cause of money losses. The roof of the barn may allow water to enter to wet the corn in the heap waiting to be carted to the mill. The corn then must be turned over. It will be necessary to turn it over and over again to dry the grain, or to spread it well over the floor. To dry it is often impossible and the buyer naturally refuses acceptance.

CABBAGES!

Soils are yet, on the whole, unknown quantities. When everything which tends to heavy fields is made the most of, immense crops follow

Faulty walls allow stock to escape and to get into the barn amongst the corn. Calves get caught up in the boarding, horses sprain their fetlocks, bulls break out of their boxes and get in amongst young heifers too young to breed.

Finally the premises may fall down! The removal of the wreckage is costly. Valuable capital, needed to develop the farm, is spent in clearing away the fallen buildings. If the farm is hired, the landlord may have neither the desire nor the money to erect new premises.

Cottages on a farm or a village close by add greatly to its working value. If livestock breeding is undertaken, the cowmen should live within easy distance of their work, so that they can go in and out of the cow-yard and have the cattle constantly under supervision. We find in some of the ‘gentlemen’s’ farms that the farm-house is placed well away from the buildings, with the idea no doubt that the residence suggests more refinement if some distance from the farmyard. A practical farmer looks askance at such arrangements, knowing the importance of overlooking his premises and, in other words, his capital. To be in constant touch is every farmer’s object.

A suitable farm is not likely to be procured by remaining at home, nor on such good terms by advertising. In the latter a man is advertising the fact that he is anxious, and an anxious buyer always pays for his anxiety! He is far better advised to make an unostentatious search. The easiest method is by motor-cycle or car, which will travel down the lanes away from high roads. The result is not only an amusing and interesting holiday adventure, but one of considerable agricultural educational value. There is a great deal to be learnt as to how the land is farmed by looking over the hedges. On the road and in the pastures livestock of all kinds and conditions are met with, and in the towns on market days quite a lot will be learnt as to the suitability of the area for the type of farming desired. In a district to which a liking has been taken, the local hostel will often give useful information. The host, in answer to inquiries or in conversation, will probably say that a ‘Mr. Williams of Pine Tree Farm’ is leaving¹ on Michaelmas next—that it is ‘a rare good farm’—he thinks the owner is trying to sell it if he cannot let it—going to be put up to auction—so he heard at the end of the month, etc., etc. There usually follow some details of the history of the holding and its direction. It may be on the main road just a mile from the village. A red house with the farm premises close by, near a pond.

If the place appears suitable, information from the local people is easily obtained—they are usually only too glad to assist a stranger, and give the address of the owner of the farm—the auctioneer who is likely to sell the farm—the name of the local paper in which such sales are advertised. This may be the first step in success. The advantages of such a pilgrimage is seen from the fact that many good farms each year are ‘given away’ because people out of the immediate district do not know of their existence.

On such tours of search it is advisable to bear in mind the area of the holding desired and to stick to it. It is so easy to forget one’s limitations. The inexperienced farmer with £1,000 cannot venture on much more than 100 acres.

In pre-war days £10 an acre was the arbitrary sum given as required for ordinary farming; probably £12 to £15 per acre is a safer sum, whilst for pedigree stock farming the capital necessary may be twice or three times this amount, and yet, by no means enough to allow the breeder to do exactly what he would desire. But capital depends also on the man: one person will make a pound go much further than will another. As a general rule a man with the education of a gentleman is likely to need far more capital per acre than a working man, for he spends where the other man saves. It is very general to find that the former type of would-be farmer frequently