New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-09-14
LARGE IND SMALL FdRNS


laid before the public on this subject that care
full. discriminating thought is much needed.
Scores of agricultural writers have poured out
columns of cheap suggestion on the text:
"A little wife well wled, .l
little farm elltiled" s .
On the other hand, the best grain farmer in
this State inherited 800 acres of good, arabic
land, as well adapted to wheat and barley az
any on the continent. Twenty or thirty years
ago he sold all but 300 acres. This, he admits.
was the grand mistake Of his life. "At the
slime I sold it such q step was not q
"blunder," he addss "and how could l have
"knoyn that Mccormick would give va
"such a reaper that my horses would do
''my threshing, my raking my pitching,
"my moving away; that the cultivator would
"set every hoe on the place to rusting; that
"girl would put on her gloves and sun-bonnet.
"and az a mornings frolic do the work OF six
"stout mowers n English farmers and land
holders were startled the other day by some
very sensible but noways inspired remarks OF
Lord Stanley, who, after an agricultural dinner.
said in substance just what our New-York
farmer has said that observation-disclosures and
two hundred acre farms cannot be conducted
on the most economical principles because the
small farmer was unable to purchase the tools
which the large farmer could not afford to ba
without.
But there are limitations upon this line OF
development, set by the very nature of certain
farm operations Lord Stanley was talking OF
grain farms and husbandry tillage. not of the
dairy districts, nor Of root culture, nor OF
market gardening, nor of fruit growing, nor OF
floral culture A British writer of less aristo-
httt tflNr
curate and painstaking, has colated the agri-
cultural statistics of the United Kingdom, ana
he finds that on the chalk formations OF En-
land-that is, on soils where lime is an I'M
portant constituent-tbere is tendency to
large farms and irregular incomes, because the
grain grower is so much at the mercy OF climate
In the grass counties, where potash is the lead
ing constituent of soils, the tracts are smaller.
the fluctuations less, economy stricter, and
profits on the ,Chole greater. There are two
reasons for this which are az applicable TO
farming in this country as in England. First.
as suggested above, in grain farming there are
more risks and greater losses from bad
weather. Second, a grain farm to DO
profitable should be large, but the
business ability that can WELD large
grain farm-do the right thing at the right
time, employ as many men and use as many
implements as true thrift requires, and no
moro that studies the markets, and forms
sound judgment as to the probable price of
the different grains; that knows when to sell
and when to hold back, when to put in more
barley and less wheat, or moro wheat and less
barley-frst class business sagacity like this
is uncommon. Such ability in railroad matters
would make a Vanderbilt; in dry goods,
Stewart in banking, Peabody. The grain
farmer who displays it is just as sure to buy
out his neighbors, and join field to field, as
Stewart on Broadway is to rear his vast pal
aces of trade on the ruins of score Of trades
men less thrifty and sagaciOus. Thus
we see that on soils suited to small
grain there is tendency to agglOmera-
ton founded in human nature and on
economical laws,-a tendency that would con-
dense titles into few hands in many parts
of England, if the laws of entail had not
done so already; tendency that will do it in
certain regions of this country, no matter how
Economically we sell our land by quarter
sections. In regions where butter, cheese.
roots, fruits ard the flesh of small animals give
the husbandman his support, the tendency to
big farms is not perceived, either in England
or in the United States. In beef producing
and sheep herd farming the tendency is to large
areas under the control of one proprietor.
A survey of our National area with these
distinctions in the mind may give us clear Vows
of what the future is likely to develop in this
respect. The Atlantic slope, with few
exceptional strips of limestone, is not well
adapted to grain farming nor to the herdsman
and shepherd. There is no true and lasting
economy in carving it into tracts of more than
200 acres, and hundreds of farms of from
twenty to fifty acres pay better in proportion
to the area than any tracts in the country.
This applies to the hill country-that is, the
dairy counties of Western New York-but not
to the Marcellus OF green shales, extending
from Syracuse westward to the lake, nor to tho
limestone valleys of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Many parts of the great West, as for instance
the Western Reserve Of Ohio, are 50 well suited
to mixed husbandry that farms of from
one to two hundred acres are profitable
and will long retain their individuality.
But regions specially adapted TO wheat rs
Minnesota, or to beef, as the great prairie, are
fast presenting illustrations of Lord Stanley's
theory. We hear of a herdsman in Illinois fat
tening 5000 bullocks, and a wheat grower in
Minnesota requiring fifteen reapng machines
and 1875 harvest hands for two weeks during
August. On the plantations of the South, long
experience has settled upon force OF 80 hands,
laboring upon a surface of about 1000 acres.
as the most profitable division. If good cot
ton picking machine were given to the South
it would prevent the present carving up OF
4I,ooo rToNI IL a