The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-10-10
Large vs.. Small Farms.

AN ILLINOIS correspondent states InlC
one man in his county owns and
farms 700 acres of land, and
"makes more money than any other
seven men who together own an equal
area" The latter part of this state
ment was denied by another correspond
ent in succeeding issue of the same
paper, the writer taking the position
that seven men working for their own
individual interests could farm better
and make more money on 700 acres
than one man could by employing la
Dor that had no interest in the bust
ness.
Now this is questionable statement,
whether the preceding one is or not.
One thing is certain, that the man who
owns the large farm will have the most
profit. In these days of improved ma
chinery, when all the varied labor of
the farm is done largely by horse and
steam power, the advantage is all with
the large farmers who raise grain, as
it has always been with the stock
farmer. The small farmer can't afford
to fit himself out with a complete as
sortment of the labor-saving machin-
cry. 1t requires an investment of too
much money. The owner of a hundred
acres, who buys a mower and reaper,
hay rake, horse fork, snlky pillow etc.
just what the average farmer regards
rs indespensable-tinds it a severe tax
upon his income. He may have just
enough land to cultivate to pay interest
on his investment on machinery-just
enough hay to cut, for instance, to jus,
tify the purchase of a machine, rake
etc.-but in all this there is no profit.
Improved machinery has rendered
grain farming on a large scale, not
only possible, but profitable. Twenty
five years ago, when men accomplished
everything by the hardest manual labor,
the grain farmer found eighty or a
hundred acres to be all he could we'll
attend to. But the advent of machinery
has changed the conditions Now, one
man, with a team that then stood idle,
can accomplish as much in a day as
hve men could then. The possibility of
managing large areas in grain-farming
has been fully demonstrated in the
West, where we can enumerate thou
sands of men who count their land by
square miles instead of acres, and who
have also demonstrated that grain
farming on a large scale is most prof
table business. Of course, much de-
ponds upon the executive ability of the
owner. 1t requires more of this to run
a large farm successfully than it does
to manage factory OF store or bank,
though of different kind.
Only one thing appears to be lacking
now to make farming on large scale
not only the most profitable, but abso-
lutely necessary to profit-and that is
the steam pillow of general adaptation.
When this comes, and ten acres can be
turned over and prepared for the seed
at the same expense one acre is now.
the cost of production will have been
reduced to such point, that it will be
impossible for the man who uses the
common pillow to compete with it.
What would be profit in the enc case
would be loss in the other, for with a
decrease in the cost of production will
come corresponding decrease in the
price of the product. This is exempli-
fed in nearly all other departments of
productive industry, where machine
labor has almost entirely superseded
hand labor, and we have no reason to
suppose that agriculture will prove an
exception to the rule.-Practical
Farmer.