Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-12-15

their own business, OF bestOW upon u suit
cient study and thought, to know where the
profit Of farming comes from, or what di-
rection their efforts should take in order to
increase that profit. The philosophy Of
farming is little understood or written upon.
Most Of us stumble along, working by guess,
or "rule Of thumb" without any clear COM
prehension Of the elements with which we
must deal in making the farm pay, far less
any real mastery over those elements.
We set it down as a first principle, though
few will accept it, except after intelligent
reflection. that (unless for a short time
upon new soiD farmers profits do not
como from his land 1t is very easy for
man to be land poor. That is what ails
most farmers. II it were established as a
law, that every young farmer should begin
with five or ten acres, and be allowed no
more land until he had brought that 10 the
highest state of productivencss, we should
see very different farming from what now
surrounds us on every side. Land, indeed
is only valuable as it affords an opportunity
to use labor and the accumulated result of
labor-capital. Without these, land will
yield no profit. And just in proportion as
labor and capital are judiciously expended
upon it, can land he made to add to human
wealth--that is " to pay"
1t is mainly for want Of the knowledge Of
this fact Tor OF faith in it, and for want Of
the practical knowledge how to act upon it,
that farming fails to pay or pays poorly.
There is nothing that so thoroughly demon
strates poor farmer, as to hear one say he
"cannot afford " TO manure and till his land
well, aud cannot afford to employ the la
Dor necessary for its thorough tilage aud
the handling of its crops. One who thinks
this, and cannot be made to think differ
emily, ought to quit farming. lie is bat
cumberer Of the soil.
It is pitiiul to see how men act III these
matters, They have not the least faith in
honest dealing with the soil. Their whole
effort Is to cheat the land-cheat nature
cheat God-out Of living. They have as
little faith in the natural reward Of good az.
riculture as sinners have in the spiritual re.
ward of good moral culture They fear to
trust the soil to return them pay for good
treatment. They fear that if they should
properly manure and properly till q field,
they would lose both manure and labor.
Why is this timility? Part of it, no
doubt, comes from conscious incapacity for
the business in which they are engaged.
But this is not altogether SO. Men who are
capable Of raising large and profitable crops
will not labitually follow that kind Of farm
ing. Having done it ouce-hayug dared
once to sufficiently fit a field for grain OF
roots or grass, and having received their re-
ward they seem to stand frightened at the
result 10 doubt its reality, to regard it as
though it were prize drawn in lottery, an
event of chance, that could not be relied on
to repeat itself. II is sometimes two or
three years before they summon courage to
repeat the experiment. Sometimes they
never repeat it, but content themselves for
the rest Of their life with telling about that
big crop Of corn or potatoes or hay they
once raised
Now this is not farming. Farming is a
legitimate business, not a hazardous specu-
lation. We have a promise which can be
relied upon, that seed time and harvest shall
not fail, and a worldwide record of expert
ence to show that the faithful, earnest labor
of the husbandman is always rewarded.
Either one rthe other Of two things upon
the farm is true--that the labor, care and
manure expended upon crop to bring it
to a high degree Of perfection viii pay, or
that 10 less outlay Of either will pay II
the use OF one load OF manure where there
ought to be two, and of one days work
where there ought TO be two win pay a
profit, the other load aud the other day will
pay larger profit,
Labor has been high, and, perhaps, Is yet
too high. But il it pays a man to put out
his own work on piece Of land. aud that
labor is not all the crop requires to perfect
it, it will pay him still better to hire another
man to help him The second mans labor
in such a case, always pays better than the
first. II the result viii not pay for both, il
does not pay for either, aud the first mar
ought to go at something else And it i,
just the same of manure as Of tillage, aud
just the same in the care and feeding of live
stock. An insufficient expenditure, in eithel
OF those directions, is wasteful, losing ex
penditure, whether it be of labor or capital.
\ great reason for this kind of bad farm
ing is the possession OF too much land fol
the amount Of capital. Yet the farmer can
not bring himself to reduce his land under
tillage in proportion TO his ability to suppl,
manure and pay for labor, because he fear
that he " cannot get living from so little
land" And here is the fundamental mis-
take. We do not get oW HciHg from he hnd
iee get il from The iaJor and capial laid ont on
The idnd This concentration Of labor upon
small areas Of land is something little un-
derstood in America. But it is altogether
different in the old countries, where it is nc
eNaggeraiion 10 say that farmers live better
upon teu-acre farms, and lay up more
money, than they do here upon hundred-acrt
farms. Aud this in sections no more thickl,
populated, and with no better markets. than
New England
Nothing, We fear, short Of miracle, will
make the average hundred-aers Yankee
farmer sense the truth Of this We are 10th
to take our own experience as a proof Of our
argument both because Of the seeming
egotism, and also because many viii say we
have exceptional advantages that our fruit
our seeds, and our nursery pay better than
ordinary crops. To some extent this NAV
be true, yet there is an opening in Vermont
for hundred twelyeacre farms like ours
where now there is one Aud we do not
hesitate to say that il every fruit bearing
plant and tree were swept from our place to-
day, and could not be replaced, we could
take up dairying aud make more money by
1t from our twelve acres than many farmers
we know make from hundred. Yet there
Is nothing we are more conscious of than the
fact that we have scarcely yet begun 70 de
yelop thu capacity OF our land for profitable
production. 10 illustrate the matter stll
further, we take the following instances
from an exchange
SAMPLES OF cONcESTRATID LABOR
correspondent Of the Congreyaiioaaiia tells
one Of those astonishing stories Of great returns
from small area as follows. The farm CON