Litchfield enquirer., 1831-11-10
SMALL FARMS MOST BENEFICIAL.

Those who have strictly investigated the
 subject, consider large farms comparatively
 less productive than small ones; while
 they at the same time impose upon thei1
 owners degree of labor much greater in
 proportion than would seem to be required
 by the mere difference of size. A farmer
 m moderate circumstances, with fifty or six
 ty acres ot land, for instance, will bring ev-
 cry inch of it into high state of cultiva-
 t1on-the labor employed in preparing his
 grounds will be more than donbly compen-
 sated in his subsequent exemption from
 toll; while the owner of wide spread
 territory of three to four hundred acres,
 which he has but sparingly supplied with
 nourishment, must work more sedulouslv
 upon every acre during the progress of ve- gotation; and, after all, reap but a mcagre and inadequate harvest. As a single acre of land highly cultivated, can be made to yield crop equal to three or four acres scantily prepared; it must be obvious, that the extra labor in dressing the former is a. bundantly more than saved by the diminish ed labor in attending it. A striking excm- pl'flcation of this fact may be viewed by any ot our farmers, who will take the troub- !e 10 visit the grounds attached to the House ot Industry at South Boston-there, they may have the theory and illustration di- rectly before their eyes. Those grounds, 1t is said, have produced this season, from three 10 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 of making the hay. And this was entirely owing, as we ate told, to the pre- vlous pains taken to enrich ;he soil by plen- lltul additions of suitable compost.
 Were the same policy pursued by the owners of large farms, there would be little need of emigrating from the New England to the Western States: for .he 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 ;oil and in proportion to the quantity culti- vated. Many of our farmers grasp at the of too spacious territory the consequence is, they impose upon lhem- selves state of slavery: they accumulate nothing, except now and then an addition al patch of waste land, which serves only to increase their burthens without augmenting their income. Were they on the contrary to confine their cxertions to smaller spots, while their crops could be rendered equally if not more abundant, they would them selves, enjoy life belter-become more in- dependent, and, with their usual share of frngality, more wealthy; they would ac- qnire fine to institute experiments, and to examine Improvements they would attain what they now scarcely ever possess-leis- we mean not the privilege of being lazy-but that sort of leisure which poor Richard describes as time for doing useful ,-time for study, for re- fiection, for familiar converse, for looking after education of their young-in short, for realizing the blessings after which they are constantly toiling.-Boston paper.