The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-07-07

50 HIS SecOnu squeezed c8rmlne INK over
him. The joke was afterward explain
ed.
Profitable Management Of Small Farms
The tendency of all work is now to-
ward economy of labor by the use of
machinery, by division and classifica-
ton of employments, and by concentra-
ton of capital in large establishments
Small operators work under difficulties
in competition with large ones. The
small factories find q difficulty in keep
ing at work unless, by the careful in
vestments of profits in engagements or
improvements, they continually add to
their business facilities. Now, all this
affects agriculture, indirectly, inasmuch
as if by improvements in methods the
products of manufactures are cheapened,
the prices of the necessaries of life
food and the raw material of clothing
are expected to decrease in q CORE
spending ratio; and directly because the
principle which affects other industries
affects agriculture as well. Every i'm
prOvement in agricultural machinery
and the employment of more abundant
capital, by which labor is made more
effective, tends to lower the prices of
agricultural products. This is the
inevitable result of q fixed law, that
the value of thing is that which
it costs to produce, and that this value
is reached in the market very soon, I'M
less through the operation of monop-
oily or other restriction, such as q
patent, for instance, by which q fictitious
value is upheld. Then if this is true, it
must follow that if by better facilities
or more ample means one farmer can
grow wheat at less cost than his
neighbor can who is less favorably stu
ated, the latter works at disadvantage
or at a loss, while the former makes a
profit. Now this is precisely the relative
position occupied by each of two farm
ers, one of whom has large farm, well
furnished with machinery and the best
breeds of live stock, and another, who
has small farm, although it may be
equally well stocked, but the position of
the latter is made much worse if he is
without machinery, and has but a poor
class of stock. just now the question
to consider, however, is what must be
tie management of small, well stock
ed farm to enable it to compete on
equal terms with one of double or sew
eral times its size.
For instance, if five farms of 100 acres
each are compared with one farm of 500
acres, it is easy to see wherein the latter
has great advantage over the former.
There are, to begin with, in the case of
the former, five families to be support
ed; there are five sets of buildings to be
erected and kept in repair, with five sets
of accessories. The five farms will re-
quire three times as much outlay for
laborers, cost of fencing,
and harvesting because of the
smaller and less convenient size of the
fields. They will require five times as
much outlay for plows, harrows, now
ers, reapers, and machinery of all kinds,
saving, however, possibly something in
repairs and length of service. There
will be five thoroughbred bulls, rams,
and boars to be provided against one of
each on the larger farm. And so On
through the whole inventory of the
farm. All this excess of expended cap
ital falls very heavily on the cost of the
products, and sufficiently so to entail an
actual loss on the working as compared
with the working of the one large farm.
This is so plainly evident that nothing
further need be said upon this point. If
we come to consider the case of farmer
having small farm without any of the
facilities mentioned, the case is evident
ly worse still. From this condition of
things much distress has already arisen,
and promise Of greater Inconvenience
still is apparent. The remedy can only
be found in some change of manage
ment by which the different conditions
may be equalized in some way. How,
then, is this needed change to be brought
about?
This is very difficult thing to state
in such way as shall meet every case,
or even the majority of cases, but in
general it is clear that the equalization |
Of position may be arrived at in some or |
all of the methods here mentioned, viz.
by selling the farm, and renting instead |
Of owning it, and thus setting free the |
larger part of the farmers capital, which
at present brings little or no interest,
and using it so as to greatly increase
prOOucCs OF Dy metnOO VI cO-Operar
lion or joint work or ownership of inn
plements and stock, by which one set
may serve instead of five, or more; or
BY the exercise of greater skill, more
labor, closer management, or some other
improved methods by which labor can
be made more profitable, and which
would tend toward special crops or the
growth of the most valuable products
upon highly cultivated small tracts of
and. In some such ways as these it is
very certain that the small farmer must
look to bring his position more nearly
On q par with the more advantageous
one of his richer rival, and thus help to
remove the disability under which he
now labors by reason of narrow means
and cramped and narrow boundaries.
Alexander Hyde, in the Neso York Times.
American Volcanoes.
Since we now have an active volcano
n the United States, the subterranean
of our neighbors will be-
yin to be of some interest to us. Many
IF the MoYioQn vOlco nooc hovo hoon |