Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1846-06-03
AqrifultnraI Department.

Aultl uttltlut, tSSk kQuLlI1tkItA'
SMALL FARMS. AN aged and intelligent
farmer pointed out to us, the other day, his
we'll kept fields, and said,s "My farm is not
very laree:-it is but third of what belong
ed to INV father;--but sometimes think
raise as much from my sixty acres as he did
from two hundred" And our old friend is
right. A very general error prevails as to
the superior advantages Of a large farm
Because three hundred acres indiferently
farmed will produce more than one hundred
acres farmed in the same manner, it does
not follow that it is cheaper tofarm three
hundred acres indiferently thanto farm one
hundred acres we'll. The fact is the very
reverse. Any man who will sit down and
make the calculation can soon convince
himself that the capital laid out in buying the
three hundred is worse applied than if part
of it had been used to improve one hundred
acres. A good farm, in first rate condition,
is worth more than poor and neglected
farm, though the latter covers twice, or even
thrice the area of the former. Agriculture
is like every other pursuit. That is the
cheapest in the long run, which produces
the same, with less expense and labor
And on this principle it can be demonstrated
that a small, and well kept farm is better
than one so large that it cannot be tarmed
thoroughly. &
Take farm of fifty acres for instance.
In the Eastern States such farm, if OF
arabic land. is as much as one man can
attend tom fact even fifty acres is more
than any ordinary family can farm
thoroughly. We scarcely know, indeed,
in this country, of what land is capable. A
garden, we'll handled, and carefully manur-
ed produces twice as much, acre for acre, as
field, however we'll cultivated the latter
may be. Now this is q practical exemp-
LITIGATION of the advantages of small farms;
and centuries hence, when the population in
this country becomes very dense, like that
ofChina or Flanders, and when small farms
will be matter of necessity, and not Of
choice, the soil fthe United States. subject
ed to the garden-like cultivation of the
Flemish provinces, will return three-iold its
present yield. Wherever small farms have
been properly farmed they have proved that
SuCu WOulu Uc luC CdoC' llO opluC3 III
instance, is preferable to the plough; stall
kept cattle pay better than cattle put to
pasture, and liquid manure is cheaper, and
of more value than any other kind. Yet
not one farmer in ten keeps his cattle in the
stall; and not one in three millions uses the
spade or can afford to, except in his garden.
The great error of agriculturists is in
aspiring to own too much land. AS soon as
a farmer saves some money he buys more
land, when he ought rather to spend his
gains in improving the land he already has.
He now finds himself the possessor Of 4
noble farm, when told in acres: but as he
has no money to hire proper help, or pro-
cure sufficient manure, his land does not
produce, acre for acre, more than halfwhat
1t ought to yield. Moreover, he is shorten
ed for money to pay what hands he does
employ, and for other purposes, and conse-
quently has to force his crop into the
market, probably at loss. If he had con-
tented himself for while with his patri-
monial acres, and laid out his money on
enriching them, and giving them garden
like cultivation, he would, in the long run,
have become a richer man anu that too
with less trouble and anxiety.
In Mr.. Laing's late work of travels in
Europe, he states that the soil of France
now produces nearly twice as much us it
did fifty years ago; and that intelligent
traveller attributes this remarkable fact
soley to the small farms into which France
has been cut up since the abolition of the
law of primogeniture. This is fact worth
considering.