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A tenant with one mule would rent twenty-five acres, if he had two mules he would rent fifty acres. Now in order to get work done on his farm, he would sub-rent four or five acres, to some one who would do this work for him. It was in this way that my aunt could get land to work. We usually made on these few acres about twenty bushels of corn and sometimes a half a bale or a whole bale of cotton.
And the bread is made of rye, if of any grain at all; I rather think of spent tan, kneaded up with tallow ends, such as I have seen cast by in bushels, when the times were good. And every loaf of that costs two shillings one for me, and one for Government.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was not the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however, it was enough to answer our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we brought in and thrashed out above two hundred and twenty bushels; and the like in proportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me; or, if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world; that is to say, any part of America.
That the yield of clover has decreased from two and eight-tenth tons to one-half ton since 1850. That the yield of wheat has decreased from thirty bushels to twenty-four bushels since 1851, wheat, grown once in four years, being the only crop worth raising as an average of the last twenty years. No, Sir. Neither optimism, nor ignorance, nor bigotry, nor deception can controvert these facts.
In 1912, Colonia Morelos had in granary over 50,000 bushels of wheat, while the orchards, gardens and alfalfa fields had produced an abundance. These Sonora colonists had 4000 acres of cultivated and fenced lands. A flour mill was operated, succeeding one that had been destroyed by fire of incendiary origin. The Morelos canal had cost $12,000.
For two days we went about together, attending all the sessions and meeting many of the delegates, but we found time to discuss the problems which confronted us both. "I am farming nearly a thousand acres this year," he said, "and I'm getting the work systematized so that I can raise wheat at sixty cents a bushel if I can only get fifteen bushels to the acre. But there's no money in the country.
The beautiful avenue of large lemon trees has been defaced by the destruction of many boughs, while the ground beneath is literally covered by many thousands of withered lemons that have fallen neglected from the branches without a hand to gather them. The natives will not eat them, thus the delicious fruit has been wasted; perhaps sixty or eighty bushels have rotted on the earth.
Our neighbor soon paused and resumed: "I guess I'll give you a hint that'll add bushels of pertaters to yer crop. After I've plowed the garden, I'll furrow out deep a lot of rows, three feet apart. Let Merton take a hoe and scrape up the fine old manure in the barnyard. Don't use any other kind.
These refuse no Ground, swampy or dry, but grow plentifully on the Sand-Hills along the Sea-Coast, and elsewhere, and are great Bearers. I have seen near twelve Bushels upon one Vine of the black sort. Some of these, when thoroughly ripe, have a very pretty vinous Taste, and eat very well, yet are glutinous. The white sort are clear and transparent, and indifferent small Stones.
The air above an acre of land contains enough carbon for a hundred bushels of corn per acre for two years, and enough nitrogen for five hundred thousand years; and yet the nitrogen in commercial fertilizers costs from fifteen to twenty cents a pound. At commercial prices for nitrogen, every man who owns an acre of land is a millionaire. "You mean he has millions in the air," amended Mr. Thornton.
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