The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-06-03
Small burning and Corporations.

The tendency of the present phase in
agriculture is toward the working of
larger tracts of land under one business
management. This mustpTope preiita-
bic when directed bi Srem business
talent A single capable uiihd dftect-.
ing the working energy Of a thousand
men, will accomplish much more than
those Thousand working each on.
his own planning The business talent
is not ,distribyted in equal portion to
all, aud Hheu knBany willing hands are
moved under one expert, they will be-
come a unit OF tremendous force.
Bonanza farming commands all the
labor-saving machinery forl each spe-
ciiic operation, and can use it with the
greatest economy, since the profitin the
use of machinery depends Upon the
amount of work to be performedIqiA
moving machine will do as much, and
better work than eight men; but if there
be only one or. two days work to rI1e
done with it in a year, then, the interest
on its cost would hire the labor done.
and it becomesimproftable yiThe small
farms are, therefore, at a disadvantages
in the use of machinery, and for this
reason, are sold to the larger proprie-
tors, while the. small, independent
farmers are becoming relatively fewer
year by year. The result is not favor
able toieducation or the adtaneementin
civilization Of this glass. Large. farms
lessen the population on a given area of
land, and, therefore, render il more diff
ticult to maintain schools But this is
only part of the injury. inflicted upon
thepopulation. Instead OF being made uip
of independent proprietors,i with a1sniaiI
class of temporary laborerS,r the popu-
lation consists of 9. few proprietor5 and
much larger class Of permanently de-
pendent laborers.
The aggregation of small farms Into
large ones is to be deplored, and the
elective means to prevent this result is
an intelligent cooperation among small
farmers in the purchase of suchG labor
saving implements and machines as
are necessary to perform every
agricultural Goperation most economi-
cally. If afarmer of 400 or 800 acres
can afford to purchase machines that
cheaper farm labor, then eight farmers
of 90 acres, or five farmers of 80. and
two of 20 acres, or an aggregate of 400
acres, made up of any-sized farms, can
quite as well afford to use in common
these machines. These farms should be
contiguous, and nearly in a square BODY.
SO as to lessen the distance of travel.
When this is the@case,- the machines
cost no more per hundred acres;I and us
each farmer takes a share in proportion
to his acreage TO be worked he is placed
upon an equality with the most favored
large farmers, and can compete with
them in the production of the same
crops. These small farms usually fur
nish ample labor to occupy the owner
and his family, and with the aid of the
cooperation here mentioned he might, /
having little active zeal in his occu-
patton, reach much higher proportion
al production than the large farmer.
Let us suppose that the expensive ag-
ncultural machines required to work
400 acres will cost $1,000; this would
make the share of a fifty-acre farm
Sl25-a sum that any wcl.worked farm
OF that size could well afford 1t NAV
be objected that six or eight farmers
could not profitably use the same set of
machines; but this would seem to be
groundless, as one set of implements
would work all these farms in one.
If all these small farms were well
worked. these farm machines would
perhaps do rather more service. and
this would only add to their profit. 1t
would not often occur that more than
one OF these farmers would want to use
the grain drill on the same day, and ten
to fifteen days would usually be suifi-
cient to sow the grain on them ALL The
meadows could all be cut with one
moving machine, or, if not, two of these
could be purchased. A reaper will
easily cut $50 acres of grain. and there
would seldom be more The horse
power, feed cutter, and thresher would
make light work of it all In short,
there could be no practical difficulty in
working out this cooperative problem
with any well-directed effort.
1t would unquestionably improve the
social relations of a neighborhood, which
is sometimes much needed. Farmers
need more business contact with each
other, and this might lead them to wider
co-operation-to unions to secure more
uniform prices for their products. #
small farms are to hold their position,
it must be done by some such co-opera-
ton as we have described. Aggrega-
ton into large farms is step in the
wrong direction--it is a political and
social blunder. Division not addition,
should be the rule for landed property
in this country. National Lire Stock
Journal.