Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1849-04-26
From the N. Y "Working Farmer"
Large & Small Farms Compared.

Most young farmers are unsuccessful, SIM
ply because their farms are too large, and
the complaint is often heard that no money
can be made by farming.
Examine the directory OF ten years since,
and mark the names of all the merchants
then doing business in New York follow
those names through the directories of SUBJ
sequent years, and see if over one in twenty
have continued to do business for ten sue
cessive years without failing. This is
sorry fact, and arises from the fault of the
merchants themselves In agricultural Ian
guage, they turn too heavy a sward, and do
not lay it regular
So with the unsuccessful farmer he has
too much land; he cannot manure it prop
erly, and his labor bestowed on unmanured
land is not effective. Land fully MANFRED
and thoroughly cultivated, will produce
double the amount of crops that can be OBJ
tanned from half manured land.
Land we'll MANFRED is more easily work.
ed. Its particles more easily disntegrate,
and large crops do not require expensive la
Dor in proportion to results.
Suppose case: Two neighbors each
owning land of the same quality, and hav-
ing each one hundred acres, valued at $50
per acre. Thus their farms would be valu-
ed at $4,000 each; they commence opera
tons with equal facilities for making ma
nures
leases out so acres Of his land for 7 h.
per cent. on its value, and thus has
an income of $l75
He has from his stables, compost, &c.
say five hundred loads of manure,
worth $500
One hundred and seventy-fve loads he
buys with the income named, and
thus has six hundred and seventy
five loads to put upon fifty acres.
He pays for the cultivation of fifty acres
valuing his own labor at 81 ,25 per.
day. using, as above ID and half
! loads of manure per acre, $500
Suppose the product to be worth thirty
dollars per acre, he will receive fifteen hun
dred dollars less five hundred dollars ex-
penses, is one. Thousand dollars. Add to
this sum what he receives for his own labor
for three hundred working days, at 8 ,25
and his income will be 1892, with his land
improved for the next years operations, and
chance thereby of increasing his income
to at least 81 500 per annum.
His neighbor b puts his five hundred
loads of manure and compost on his
whole farm of one hundred acres,
and thus gives each acre but five
loads instead of thirteen and half
loads Nowif six hundred and sew
enty FIVE loads of manure give $500
product, five hundred loads of ma
nure will give but / iii IL, but to
give B all the advantage that he can
possibly claim, we will suppose that
he gets the same value of crops as
A, $500
TO cultivate one hundred acres, he
must pay at the same rate per acre
as A paid, SloO0
Profit, $500
Add what he saved by his own labor, 375
Whole profit Off 1875
Whole profit of A, 1876
But the smile does not end here: A's
land has improved both in quality and value,
while BIS is no better than before. The
following year A can work his land with
less labor and increased results, while II
plods on without improvement.
Now you have only to.imagine that each
of these farmers owe for their farms, and
perhaps for their stock, and you will find
one ofthem bankrupt, and the other rich
man in few years.
i Should they reside near large city, and
A work but ten of his acres, using his FIVE
hundred loads of manure at the value OF
fifty loads per acre, and leasing out ninety
acres, and buying his fodder from Others,
raising more valuable crops HIMSELF and b
} should continue his old course, then A
would gain upon him in still more rapid
ratio. But to do this advantageously A
must be even with the improvements of the
day, in every particular, and above all mus
5 own a subsoil plow