Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1830-08-12

vestigated the subject, consider large farms
comparatively less productive thaa small
ones; while they at the same time impose
upon THEN owners degree of labor much
greater in proportion than would seem to
be required by the mere difference in size.
I The cause it is thought lies altogether in
the difference of management. A farmer
in moderate circumsta noes, with so or 60
acres of good land, for instance, will bring
every inch of it into the highest state of
cultivation-the labor employed in prepa-
ring his grounds will be more than doubly
compensated in his subsequent exemption
from toll; while the owner of wide
spread territory Of or 400 acres, which
he has sparingIy supplied with nourish-
ment, must work more sednlously upon
every acre during the progress of vegeta-
ton; and, after all, reap but meagre and
inadequate harvest. AS single acre of
land highly cultivated, can be made to
yield crop equal to three or four acres
scantiIy prepared, it must be obvious, that
the extra labor in dressing the former, is a.
bundantly more than saved by the dinlin-
ished labor in attending it. A striking ex-
emplifcation ofthis fact may be viewed by
any of our farmers who will take the troub-
lie to visit the grounds attached to the
House ofIndustry at South Boston-there,
they may have the theory and illustration
directly before their eyes. These grounds,
it is said, have produced this season, from
three to four tons Of hay per acre-which
is three or four times the quantity of ordi-
nary crops. So eXuberant was the grass,
that there actually was not room upon the
surface where it grew, sufficient for the
purpose ofmaking the hay. And this was
entirely owing, as we are told, to the pre-
vious pains taken to enrich the soil by
plentiful additions of suitable compost.
Were the same policy pursued by the
owners flarge farms, there would be little
need Of emigration from the New England
to the Western States for the very tracts
which now, under careless system of cul-
ture, barely afford sustenance for single
family, might be made to support three or
four-and that too, with much less toll and
trouble, in proportion to the quantity culti-
waited. Many of our farmers grasp at the
management of too spacious q territory
the consequence is, they impose upon
themselves a state of slavery they aceu-
mulate nothing except now and then an
additional pa!clI of waste land. which
serves only to increase their burthens with
out augmenting their income. Were they
en- the contrary to confine their exertions
to smaller spots, while their crops could
be rendered equally ifnot more abundant,
they would themselves enjoy life better
become more independent, and, with their
usual share of sagacity and frugality, more
wealthy they would acquire time to in-
stitute experiments, and to examine inn
provements; they would attain what they
now scarcely ever possess---leisure---
whereby we mean not the privilege of be-
ing lazy---but that sort of leisure which
Poor Richard describes as time for doing
something useful---time for study, for re-
Election, for familiar converse, for looking
after the education of their young---in
short, for rcalising the blessings after which
they are constantly toiling. We are no
practical farmcrs---but, according to the
proverb, "a wink from blind horse is
sometimes serviceable.---U s. Lit. AdU.