Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-24
Large Farms.

| The desire to be a landowner, to be
| able to look out over broad acres of field
and forest, and say they are mine, has
| been Unborn in man since the days of the
patriarchs. The nobility of the old
countries is a landed nobility to a greater
extent than we of the new world, where
| land is cheap and easily bought, gener-
ally dream of. And with us in the years
that are gone the great ambition of far
mers has been to own large farms-to
| spread out, buying here apiece and there
a piece, as opportunity offered and means
permitted, until the original homestead
was only the center-piece, insignificant
in extent and of small value when COM
pared with the additions and extensions.
| Wealth, prosperity and independence
were measured by the number of acres
owned free and clear of all encumbrance
The science of farming consisted
chiefly in fencing in large tracts of land,
and in spending a mans care, attention
and labor over great fields. And so it
| came about that men owned and per-
tended to cultivate, with but little help
and less manure, farms of two hundred
or three hundred acres each. When the
country was new and grass grew spon-
taneously and other crops without fer
tilizcrs, and when labor was cheap and
abundant, this great farm policy worked
toierablv well but now, when our
farms yield only as they are fed, and
when the price of labor and all the ex
pences of the farm have increased so
largely, it is coming To be questioned
whether the most profitable farms are
not the small ones. ....-..... -.
1t is generally admitted that our far
mers cannot afford to hire help, and con-
sequently that n man can prOfitably cul-
tivate only what land he can take care
of himself Again, our farmers cannot
buy manure, and as only land which is
we'll MANFRED can be made profitable. a
man should have only as much as he can
feed freely and we'll And in New
Hampshire, especially in the vicinity of
the cities and villages, any farmer can
spend all his time and all his manure
upon a very small tract. There is hard
" Il possibility of making any piece of
ground too rich or cultiyating it too
well. The whole farming problem with
us is one of manure and labor. and if
given amount of manure and labor will
produce as much or more when applied
to ten acres as when scattered over
twenty or thirty, there is little to be said
in favor of large farms.
We believe our farmers are running
over too much ground, and they grub
away at three or four acres for what
they ought TO get from one and half
the old fields in the State were turned
out to pasture or left to grow up to
wood, and the labor and manure now
wasted upon them were applied to the
few acres Of good land to be found in
every town, we should be better off
1t may seem small business TO a farm
err who has lorded it over two hundred
acres. to devote himself to ten but the
memorable logic of profit Ond loss is not
to be overcome by pride or prejudice
There are men in the neighbOrhOod of
ali our cities and villages who are max
ing good iivings off of less land than
would make a calf pasture on an old
fashioned farm; but there are not half as
many as there should be- Every month
in the year New Hampshire is importing
vegetables which she ought to raise and
could raise profitably herself if too many
Of her farmers were not raising corn at
a loss and otherwise misapplying their
means and wasting their strength for
naught. We may cheat our fellow men
into giving us living, but when we try
it on nature we get the worst of it ; and
whenever we undertake to do the work,
cultivate the land or reap the reward
which Natures laws would divide
among ten men, we are and ALWAYS shall
be the losers. Thus much for texts on
small farms and thorough farming,
which we shall discourse upon hereafter.
Mirror and Farmer. go .. -.