Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-10-15
Large or Small Farms.
Cornwall, Vt.


There is no mistake more common or more
injurious than that Of supposing the more
land 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 NAV be rem
dered more profitable by the opposite course
but without sufficient capital no land can be
properly cultivated. At the same time there
is nothing to which capital can be applied
with greater certainty of fair return for a
liberal expenditure when correctly employed,
than in land. In fact, assuming that the
expenditure be directed with Judgment, it
will be found that the profits upon the out
lay increase in more than a proportionate
degree to its amount thus, supposing that
twenty-five dollars TO be the lowest and fifty
the highest sum that can be employed in the
common culture of the same acre of land,
it is more than probable that if twenty-fv
dollars 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 agriculturist will doubt it, it
follows that q capital of FIVE thousand dol
lars expended in the cultivation Of two hun
dred acres will only yield profit Of five
hundred, while if it were applied to one
hundred acres it would produce one thou
sand dollars therefore it is evident that his
profit would be increased by diminishing the
quantity Of his land
Many q man has been ruined bys large
farm, who might have acquired a compe-
tency on one with half the number of acres.
Most farmers are anxious for large planta-
tions, and many are thus betrayed into the
error of attempting to work greater guam
tity of ground than they have means of man
aging to advantage-some in the delusive
hope of acquiring these means by future
savings, Others from the vanity of holding
more land than neighbors; hence arises q
deficiency Of stock, imperfect tillage and
scanty crops, with all the train of rent in
arrear, wages ill-paid, debts unpaid and final
ruin.
He who prudently commences with only
such number of acres as he has power Of
cultivating with the proper effect, is certain
OF raising the full return of the soil and
his engagements being in accordance with
his means, he enjoys present ease Of mind,
and lays the surest foundation for future
prosperity. It, therefore, behooves man
to weigh well the charges with his means,
and never allow himself to be succeeded by
any ideal prospect of gain into the impru.
dence of entering upon larger farm than
his capital will enable him to manage with
the spirit necessary to insure 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 expression. If 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, aud not have double labor for double
crops as is usually the case with us.-TGer-
mantown Telegraph.