Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-12-12
Gte Farm.
CAPITAL in Farming.

There is no mistake more common
or more injurious than that of suppos-
ing the more land a man holds the
greater must be his profits, for profits
do not arise from the land itself but
from the manner of using it. The
best soil may be made unproductive by
bad management, and the worst may
be rendered mere profitable by the OPP
posite course; but without sufficient
capital no land can be properly Guilt
waited. At the same time there is moth
ing to which capital can be applied
with greater certainly of fair return
for q liberal expenditure when correct
~ employed, than in land.
In fact, assuming that the expendi-
ture be directed with judgment, it will
be found that the profits, upon the
outlay increase in more than proper
tionate degree to its amount; thus, sup
posing that twenty-five dollars be the
lowest and fifty the highest sum that
can be employed in the common Gull
ture of the same acre of land, it is more
than probable that if twenty-five dol
lars would return at the rate of ten per
cent. the fifty dollars would yield
twenty per cent, or an intermediate
sum in the same ratio. Admitting
this to be true, and no experienced ag-
riculturist will doubt it, it follows that
capital of five thousand dollars ex-
pended in the cultivation of two hum
dred acres will only yield profit of
five hundred, while if itWere applied
to one hundred acres it would produce
one thousand dollars; thereforeitis evil
dent that his profit would be increased
by diminishing thequantity of his land.
Many man has been ruined by a
large farm, who might have acquired
q competency on one with half the
number of acres. Most farmers are anx-
ious for large plantations, and many
are thus betrayed into the error of at
tempting to work a greater quantity
of ground than they have the means
of managing to advantage some in
the delusiye hope of acquiring these
means of future savings, others from
the vanity of holding more land than
their neighbor; hence arises defcien-
cy of stock, imperfect tillage, and
scanty crops, with all the train of rent
in arrear, wages ill-paid, and debts un-
satisfied, and final ruin.
He who prudently commences with
only such a number of acres as he has
power of cultivating with proper effect,
is certain Of receiving the full return
from the soil and his engagements be-
ing in accordance with his means, he
enjoys present ease of mind, and lays
the surest foundation for future pros
perity.
It therefore behoQYes man to weigh
we'll the chance means, and
never allow himself TO be seduced by any
ideal pospect of gain into the impru-
sdence of entering upon larger farm
than his. capital will enable him to
manage with the spirit necessary to in
sure success. Truly did Judge Buel
say that 'large farms are the curse of
our country" and perhaps no one had
better experience from which to draw
such an impression.
f a farmer has one hundred acres it
would be much better for him to put
the price of another hundred ON it than
to buy one hundred more and make
the same labor produce double the
crops, and not have double labor for
double crops as is usually the case with
ns.- Germsa'stown Telegraph.