[AT] On losing farm land

[Rob Gray]

I put a new veggie garden in thie year. I put it in an area that was 
theoritically clear of stones but my 15' X 25' garden yielded a pile of 
stones 15' long by 3' high and maybe 4' deep.  A few were too large for 
me to extract with the plow or my large steel pry bars.... They say I 
live at the endpoint of the last ice age, so all of the stone was dumped 
off in this region.

Rob Gray
NE PA

Larry D. Goss wrote:

>Cecil, if you want to see what REAL rocky ground looks like, visit The
>Burren on the south shore of Galway Bay in Ireland.  It makes the fields
>of New York and New England look like sandy loam by comparison.  I was
>there just a month ago and was absolutely amazed at its appearance.  The
>"big crop" of the region is the abundance wildflowers that grow in the
>crevices of limestone.  There actually are farmers trying to eke out a
>living in that area growing sheep, goats, and cattle.  The animals were
>"not exactly" fat.  Cromwell investigated the area to see if there was
>any commercial value to it and commented something to the effect: Not
>enough soil to support a man, and not enough to bury him.
>
>Larry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Cecil E
>Monson
>Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 6:45 AM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: Re: [AT] On losing farm land
>
>  
>
>>It never fails to amaze me, the difference in rental rates for
>>    
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>farmland
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>>between our countries. This spring a big farmer in this area rented
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>some
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>>land for the unbelievable price of $35 per acre. Nobody knows how he
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>expects
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>>to show a profit on the land at that price but I guess time will tell.
>>More average rates are in the $20 to $25 per acre range.
>>
>>Ralph in Sask.
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>
>
>	Hi Ralph, I guess it makes quite a difference what a farmer is
>going to raise on the land and what the yield is going to be. (Or, what
>he hopes it will be)  Around here, a lot of the land is rocky and hard
>to farm. You see pictures of eastern farms and all the nice quaint
>looking
>stone walls that look so picturesque. You have to keep in mind that some
>poor devil picked up all of those stones by hand and carried them to the
>stone wall or skidded them in a stone boat and built those walls by hand
>- one stone at a time. At first they thought there was good soil if only
>they could get all the rocks off it and out of the way. Later they
>realized
>that the rocks were under all and only a small amount of soil was on top
>of them.
>
>	Out where you are it is different because it takes a lot of land
>to get enough of a wheat crop to make a living. In the Midwest where I
>am from originally, my BIL gets yields of 200 bushel to the acre on his
>field corn. South of here, I met a farmer who is making a helluva good
>living by growing a few acres of garlic for the NYC market. He doesn't
>even grow it for the garlic bulbs - just the tops. Some of the people
>who rent the County land I wrote about earlier are just taking a crop of
>hay off it - two cuttings if possible. Not good hay either. I buy 50
>bales
>every late fall to bank around the house for $1.50 to $2.00 a bale.
>Takes
>a lot of cheap hay to make that pay when you figure in the labor, fuel
>and equipment.
>
>	My point on the earlier post was that even farmers have to swing
>with the times with the market for land the way it is. If land is worth
>$7 an acre to a farmer and worth $10 an acre to a sportsman, better that
>the farmer rent it for $12 and sublet it to the sportsman. He would
>still
>make out and would not lose the land. If he was lucky, he would be
>making
>out all the way around.
>
>	Don't feel bad if you don't have cicadas out there, Ralph. Those
>grasshoppers are bad enough. ;-)
>
>Cecil
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