St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-12-10
Large or Small Farms.

Heu anu olteD cUnHlcClng, out 1t seems
to be a generally accepted one that
small farms are better than large ones
1t is quite fashionable for agricultural
writers to decry large farms and to de-
clare that the great reason of the poor
status of agriculture is that our farms
are too large. This is held to be es-
pecially true of the Western States. 1t
may be so. The greed for land has
been great, yet am inclined to think
that the evil is not so great as it is rep
resented to be. Still there is some rea-
son for the idea. There is limit to
the capabilities of every man, both men,
tai and physical; and the cheapness of
Western land has caused many men to
try and farm twice as much land as they
should. But not unfrequently the man
who farms one hundred acres does as
badly as the one who has five hundred.
lie may have proportionately greater
excess. Some men can farm five times
as much land as others. In fact as far
at my own observation goes, it is our
largest farmers who are our best farm
ers. | think that the way the land is
titled does not depend so much on the
number of acres in the farm as on the
system, intelligent brain work and
strict business principles of the farmer
himself.
Large farms have some disadvan-
tages. | do not think that one man
can probably farm more than eighty
acres of good tillable land. If he is
able to run four times this much he
must hire three hands to help till it.
Now this brings labor and capital in
contrast, and makes only one land
holder where there should be four.
Then the hired man has no personal
interest in his work; whether he does
his work well or bad it makes no diff
ference to him, so he gets his wages.
Human nature is always partial to
Sinking: as a consequence four-fifths
of the hired farm hands of the country
shirk their work and the result is poor
farming.
But the great trouble is that the
farmer in his haste to get more land
goes into debt. Probably he has
enough money to buy and well stock
eighty acres. But instead of so doing,
he buys one hundred and sixty, goes
into debt and has no money for stock
or far. ning implements. With no cattle
or sheep to eat the fodder or straw, or
swine to eat the corn. the produce that
can be marketed is sold Off of the
farm. This in time will impoverish
any farm. What we want is stock |
enough to eat the grain, straw and fod-
der raised on the farm. But the farmer
has not the stock, neither has he farm
ing Implements and machinery. He
Uses old plows, rollers, drags, cult
'ators, scythes. hoes, etc., and of
course cannot do good farming with
hem. Just as carpenter could not
10 good carpentering with worn out
ools. He hires his neighbours reaper
md drill, and of course waits until his
leigh5or cuts or drills his own grain.
While waiting. five times out of ten,
lis grain lodges, becomes too ripe, or
Use his wheat ground that he had
eady for the drill that he is waiting
or gets out of condition. This is poor
arming. [ cannot blame farmer so
ituated for complaining of hard times,
While all the time the dreadful thought
nd fact of debt hangs over him and
is wife. to give uneasiness during the
ay and unrest at night.
Suppose that he had purchased only
lightly acres of land. Then he would
ave had money to stock it. buy neces-
arv farm machinery Of good quality,
nd have had a little ready cash for .
afe bargains. Right here is the great
eject OF our farming to-day. So awful
lany of us are always hard up. we
ave none of the wherewithal where
Q can handle it,. A neighbor wants .
sell some calves or hogs at figures
lat will give bargain to the pur-
laser,s but welhave no money to buy J
I'd some speculator pockets the gain.
here is, always, something happening !
herebyswe hiightm money if we q
ID aaitth ready capital tdemploy. I
ould nor adHss Mrm@rss 70 speculate g
ID anegbcf .theha own business, but $
lere are often little speculations per- I
city safe and reasonably profitable t
at the farmer might engage in. Y
hen a neighbor has cheap hogs and p
Other e1 cheap cheap com ,for sale, the farmer
Ith ready capital could buy both, and =
edng the corn tothe hogs reapa rich I
Ward. sIsl .y3f3a II al i,a;a
A, farmer in debtsoften, practices false 2 2
onomy. He has forty acres Of oern q .
put out. He feels poor, resolves to q
does not hire help. but re- y
Ives I'd prepare the ground and Guilt Il
tie the corn himself If he had, moth g
! else to do. lost no time by rain,-or
y other cause, he might put out and
ltivate that area. of corn. But it
to rain, the farmer gets in
hurry pillows when the ground is wet, "
d asa consequence breaks up oioddy, IL
is the corn in the mud. does not cul- b
ate it properly, and gets twenty bush b
of corn per acre. tt
Dr. he concludes that he cannot afford n
fix some weak fence, and that night n
, cattle break over the fence and de- a
oy the wheat and corn. ~. N. Slasl, W
WesteTn Rural. III
%6B ~ ry