Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-11-22

large and small farms. II is a discussion
equivalent to the can,assing, in q CONNER
cial assemblage. Of the relative prolitaheness
of a small or large store, or among mnufac
turers of the comparative advantage Of a
factory on a large or small scale. There can
be- no doubt that men have accumulated
considerable wealth from a small CONNER
cial business, OF by a manufacturing indus
try conducted ON a moderate scale, and also
by the tillage of small areas Of land. Indus
try and economy conioined with business
capacity and thorough knowledge of the
business pursued, will in time ensure a
competence in any ayocation. BY slowly
laying dollar to dollar, with a shrewd in
vestment Of profits, man can make him
self independent, and even rich at the end
of an average life, though doing but a very
moderate business all the time.
For the majority Of mankind this is the
safest, and indeed the only practicable
method. Out of thousand men, but very
few have the natural capacity, or acquired
ability to conduct any business success
fully, on a large scale. Napoleon declared
that there were only two men in Europe
who could handle an army Of one hundred
thousand men. \ similar rule applies 10
every branch of human endeayor. And one
of the chief elements of success is to know
ones self sufficiently well not to undertake
more than can be successfully carried out
This applies as well to farming as to every
other business.
But farming has never yet been a legiti-
mate business in America. Land has been
too plenty for that, as well as too rich with
the accumulated fertility of ages. So far
we may say that there has been but little
real farming done on this whole continent,
All that men have yet done in that way has
been to reap the spontaneous productions OF
the earth. When it comes to true farming
(and it is now beginning to come to that in
the older states) it will be necessary that
man calling himself farmer shall know
something about his business, and be- to
that extent, a business man.
As business man. his capacity for bust
ness will regulate the amount of business
he will be competent to do. That, and the
amount of capital he can control will settle
his status, whether as a large or a small
farmer. And as farming is more and more
conducted on business principles, and there
is no longer anything to be stolen out of the
treasury Of nature, but every dollar must be
gained by industry under the direction Of
knowledge, the business of farming will di-
vide itself into different classes. 1t will
then become like other businesses, and as in
trade there is a place for the large merchant
and the small tradesman so in farming there
will be large and small farms, and all profit
able in proportion to the capital and labor
intelligently expended upon them for the
production of salable crops.
When agricultural business is thus organ
lied it will be found, in many cases, that
the area of land under tillage will not so
much determine the profits as the amount of
labor and capital laid out in order TO force
the soil to its highest productive capacity.
Therefore the kind Of crops grown will be
an important element in the calculation of
the right ratio of cash capital to acreage
Near large cities or in places where prompt
and ready transportation to large markets is
obtainable, it may happen that large force
of men can be profitably employed ON few
acres, the sales of products running up to tens
Of thousands of dollars annually. In thi.
way large business could be done upon a
small farm. 1t is now so done in many in.
stances, and large fortunes are acquired by
skillful men from the tillage Of five and ten
acre farms. As competition becomes closer
and closer only very skillful men, with a
large cash capital can run even such alt
Tie " farms successfully. But as yet there
are many opportunities for intelligent young
men of small means to "grow mp" into such
business--more opportunities, We should
say, than there are men.
But besides these small farms" RIM at
high pressure for the production of fine
perishable fruit and choice vegetables, flow
ers, trees, plants, etc. etc, there must also be
farms of greater area for the production OF
wool, cotton, etc, etc. Here also, as the
PRESSURE of competition increases, and the
money capital of the nation grows so as Il
tend TO flow out into the country, seeking
investment there and satisfied with safe anc
moderate returns, the kind of earth robber,
known as scrub farming" will cease b.,
suiiocation and starvation. 1t will not tax,
a trained business man long to find out
(what ii seems impossible to teach th,
scrub farmer y that there is no " bust
ness aud no profit in average crops Of
ten aud twelve bushels of wheat, thirt,
bushels of corn, eighty bushels Of potatoes
and other like returns per acre. Similarly
the business farmer is not going to see any
profit in cows so badly bred or so poorly fed
housed and managed, as to yield but on,
hundred and twenty-five pounds Of buttel
or two hundred and fifty pounds of chees,
in season, Such a man is not going t.
rest a minute while ten or fifteen dollars pei
head on his neat stock and horses is wasteC
every year by the bad management OF the ma
nure. lie is not going to lose the legitimat,
earnings of industry for want Of proper i'm
plements, or the proper care of them, or b,
unskilful work in preparing land for crop
or bypoor seed or by want of proper knowl
edge in the choice and application of manures
When farming becomes business, will
business men engaged in it, and none,
capital proportionate to the acreage in
vested, we are going to see land pushed /,
its full capacity for production. Then tn,
ablest man, both in brains and money, viii
do the largest business in farming, as h,
now does in trade and manufactures. II,
viii not be " large farmer" such as tn,
large farmers of the West and of Cali
fornia now are, who plough up ten thou
sand acres of virgin land, seed il TO wheat
and thresh aud bag their three hundred thou
sand bushels. That is not farming an,
more than burglary is banking. 1t is onll
when such operations have become impossi
bic that true farming will really begin il
America