Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-05-25

FARM. GiRDEs aND RousEaOLD.
From the Daily Evening Wisconsin,
An Argument Against Large Farms.


is" must discover among the farming
, population the prevalence of numerous
agricultural errors, which, if they do
not render the culture of the soil an
unremunerative occupation, do, in
many sections, greatly detraet from the
! profits of this branch of industry.
The mania for territorial extension
was never more popular as a national
evil, than it was, and still is, ia the
minds of settlers. They did not de-
ceive the natives with the strategy OF
tile "Bnll's HIDE" but quite as sadly
did they deceive themselves, in giving
free rein to greedy imagination. The
syren cry of cheap farms led them to
exhaust their funds in the purchase of
large tracts of land, leaving them little
or nothing with which to make i'm
provements. The effects of this first
great mistake are everywhere seen, but
still, not undeceived, they stick to tue
big farm error, as though standing in
the possessiYe case TO numerous
broad acres was the only sine qua
non to agricultural honor and
profit. a policy like this affords
little opportunity and less DIS
position for the study, or the practical
application of the teachings of agricul-
tural science, and hence, thousands of
acres are gone over under pretense of
tillage, that do not yield the fourth
they would under judicious system of
culture. Year after year the shallow
pillow, guided by shallow-pated plow-
man, skins the surface-its diminish
ing harvest taken away, and nothing
being returned, its superficial vitality
is soon exhausted, and ceasing to pay,
even the labor of this inexpensive pro-
cess, is turned out to grass. III per
chance there are no more virgin acres
within his Immediate grasp, ne sells out
his impoverished farm for plttance,
and Is off to some new country, where
the cheapDess of government lands
opens new fields to his ruinous defile-
ment. E.
1t is thus that many of our farmers
lead kind of nomadic life maintain
ing q scanty subsistence, only by keep.
ing on the outskirts of civilization, and
never rising to the dignity and compe-
tence of respectable agriculturaIists. -
We hardly expect this abuse will be
wholly corrected till all our western
lands are settled, and each farmer by
necessity limited In his possessions, for,
so long as vacuum remains, the ex-
panslve nature of human wants, like
the ethereal element, knows no bounds
In the meantime there is vast field
for the working of agricultural reform,
to restrain this extravagant and ruin
GUS system, and teach wOuld-be farm
ers that the superiority of "a little
farm well titled" is not a poetic fic-
ton, but practical truth, which ought
to be chanted in every farmers ears TIL
he is convinced.
The advantage of small farms over
large ones is shown by a variety of con-
siderations. Farmers complain of high
taxes that consume their profits. Very
true; but where is the fault? Taxes
must be had for schools, town, county
and State purposes aud property must
pay them, whether available to the
owner or not. IL man has possessed
himself of more land than he is allie TO
turn to profitable account, it is evident
that be has got more than properly be-
longs to him, and he should not COM
plain of taxation; or, to illustrate: LII
MIR. Hog will spread himself all over
the trough to the exclusion of his
weaker fellows, though he cannot eat
} all the swill. he must not squCal If, in
the "day of pork, he is assessed for
all the food lac greedily mOnOpolized.
Whether justly, or unjustly, it is the
custom to tax farmer In proportion
to his acres, rather than from the in
come he realizes therefrom Conse-
, quently large farms and heavy taxes go
together. These facts ought to point
a moral, and adoIn a sad tale" of many
! an unprosperOus and complaining far
mer ard lead him into the only sensi-
BILE course TO retrieve his waning for
, tunes, viz. selling his surplus soil to
landiess neighbors, and then studying
the science of producing more from
sewer acres, and by SO doing increase
his profits, while his taxes are lessened.
: Nor is this all: Ia lending a helping
hand TO his poorer neighbors-who
will improve the country and share
with him the burden of taxa. ion-he
will not only increase his social priv
leges, but will likewise reflect credit on
the honorable pursuit of agriculture.
These remarks are applicable to a
large number of farmers one meets in
the west.
have in min3 one who feebly typi-
fies the class: A "pOor man who del7es
out meager subsistence by dint of in.
cessant labor from ''little" farm of
half section of fertile land. He tolls
unremittine iy-rarely affording him
self the luxury OF Sabbatb's rest
lives in a small unfinished house-goes
scantily clad, and yet, at each annual
reckoning his gains scarcely balance
his expenses, and he finds that hard
labor has added more wrinkles to his
brow, than dollars to his purse. In
short be Is land poor, nothing but mig
gardly economy keeps "Debt from
/ riding on the back of Industry.
His fertile acres are the envy of his
neighbors. but his prosperity no man
/, covets.
Starting with his land in ''fee sim
pie, and snug little cash capital to
stock and improve it, ten years of toll
have not added a trifie to its improve
} ments, nor single ornament to its
! home attractions.
OF his three hundred and twenty
acres, perhaps fifty are under a sort OF
J cultivation, from which successive but
diminishing crops of grain have been
, taken for a series of years, without a
! particle of return to the soil, while his
]. stable yards are choked with cumbrous
} masses of rich manure.
With some sixty acres of spontaneous
meadow, the early spring finds him
buying hay TO exc out the existence OF
S his little stock, because he had no time
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