The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-12-05
Small Farms-Again.


farms, and comments as follows:
"The Dispatch seems to forget that what
was practicable under the old and reliable
system of labor is highly impracticable to-
day, when call by Bureau agent to
political meeting would bring every negro
| from even the harvest field"
Not at all. We said nothing as to the
practicability of cultivating large farms in
Virginia. We said:
"Small farms are best for some people.
| Large farms are best for ether people. No
| man is to be censured for holding as much
land as he cultlvates well and the rest be-
ing equal, it is cheaper to cultivate large
than a small one. Either small farms or
large ones may be the more probably cul-
tivated depending upon the ability of the
owners to cultivate them WELL"
1t is strange to us that anybody should
undertake to deny SO plain proposition.
One gentleman sent us long communica
ton conceding all that is said in our para
graph, but he went on to say that the rea-
son why SO little wheat is raised in New
England is that the lands and the climate
there are not favorable to the growth of
wheat, and the farmers therefore devote
most of their energies to the cultivation of
corn, which he informed us they raise in
immense quantities. Upon referring to the
census Of the United States we found that
Virginia alone raised about four times as
much corn as all the New England States
together. The same writer went on to tell
us that the people Of Connecticut, whilst
they do not grow much wheat, raise mag
nifcent crops of onions, it being no unusual
thing for their lands to average hundreds of
bushels to the acre of this odorous vegetable.
Indeed, he declared that they wouldn't
be satisfied with anything less than one
hundred and twenty-five bushels to the
acre, or five hundred bushels to the acre,
we do not remember which. The census
informs us that Virginia raises nearly
twice as many garden products as Connect
cut. The same writer told us Of a huge,
fine barn which he saw in Massachusetts,.
But as Loudoun county in Virginia raised
in 1860 five times as much wheat as the
whole State of Massachusetts,, we could not
see how that barn helped the cause of
"small FARMS" One such barn would hold
all the wheat seeded in Massachusetts. This
is no joke for as she produced only 1871
bushels, and as such successful farmers
cannot be presumed to have raised less than
ten bushels for every one seeded, it follows
that she seeded only 1873 bushels-a
good deal less than either one Of two mills
in this city grinds in three days. How
many of MCCoRMICK's reapers could Masea-
chusetts afford to purchase?
We do not object to small farms. We say
let those who wish to have large farms have
them, and those who wish to have small
farms have small ones. But let both small
and large farms be well cultivated. How
absurd would it not be for some of these
theoretical small farmers to undertake to
convince WILLIAM T. SUTHERL1S, for in
stance, that he cultivates too much land
One man in Illinois has twenty-five thou
sand acres in corn alone. He has corn
rows miles in length and all the corn IS OF
the finest quality. Would the land produce
more or better corn if that field were di-
vided into five hundred farms? That man
can afford to use all the best and most i'm
proved appliances for cultivating the earth.
He can afford to purchase steam plows, by
the use of which he can pillow more land in
a day, and pillow it better, than the man
who has but fifty acres. He can afford to
build fine barns. He can afford to buy a
threshing machine of his own if he raises
as much wheat as corn. He can save thou
sands of dollars in the matter of fences.
In fact, the man who has g large farm has
an immense advantage over the one who
has small one, provided al,oays that he has
no more land than hecan Cultivate Thoroughly.
The incumbered estates law has been
considered to some extent remedy for
pauperism in Ireland. That is cruel
statute. But the result of the operation OF
it was the destruction of hundreds and
thousands of cabins, and the conversion
into large farms of the miserably small
holdings which had previously had exist
ence. It costs less to manufacture on
large scale any article than to do it on
small one. Who could make pins for five
cents O hundred? Nobody outside Of a
large factory. Yet it would be as sensible
to say that it would be best to distribute the
metal throughout the community, and allow
every woman to make her own pins, as to
say that small farms are necessarily most
profitable. Large farms mean cooperation.
They mean division of labor. They allow
of all those conditions which are said
to be necessary to cheap production. 1t is
true of farms and of the Tredegar Works
in this city that, the rest being equal, the
larger they are and the more hands they
are able to employ the cheaper can the
works produce iron and the farms wheat.
The trouble is-and this We do not defend
that our farmers have more land than they
either do or can cultivate we'll. But that is
their misfortune, not defect in the sys-
tenn Of farming on large scale. Such
men should sell off their lands until they
| reduce their tracts to such a size as they
can cultivate thoroughly.
To us iteeems to be little less than an
insult to common sense to maintain that