The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-03-21
THE SIZE Of IN ACRE
Prof L. H. Bailey of the Cornell
College of Agriculture.)

few days ago l hearO a platform
orator in the Tar west extolllhs the
unnderfuI Of his country,
and among the telling periods of his
Dration was the tervld statement that
4ba State Of New York could be placed
inside the State Of Idaho, and room
.gould still be left for a walk arodsid
II could not, of course, attempt any
contradiction of this monlentus tact.
avpn if there had been any necessity
If doing so; yet l wanted to ASK how
hie is an acre of land in dahO.
Rut after much observation OF the
conditions in all parts OF the United
states. have come to the conclusion
sbaf an acre Of land is as large in
Fhode Island as in Texas. In fact,
visited a farmer not long e in Rhode
island who was clearing above three
nundred and twenty-five dollars an
acre: and l visited a farmer in Texas
VINO was making less money on a forty
~4housand-acre ranch tnan a Rhode Is
lano man was making on ten acres.
IN this instance an acre OF Ian was
much larger in Rhode Island than il
Texas. / am sure that l could find
other cases in which an acre is much
larger In Texas inc Idaho than in
Rhode Islant.
am convinced that the size Of an
acre of land varies directly with the
size of the man who manages it. The
Sarger the man, the iaTSeT Tie acre.
do not know tnat it matters very
much whether the man lives West or
East or North or South-What he puts
into the land in the way of intelligence
and energy he will get out Of it in
crops and live stock.
Ina new country and under other
Favorable conditions, an Indifferent
mar may reap much more than he
SoWs: but when the first easy and
simple conditions are past, this man
Is likely to find his Ian reducing it.
self to his own size, n the acre dWin-
dies to a half-acre Or q Quarter-acre;
and the cases are not rare in which
she size has shrunk SO much that the
man has thrown the acre away as OF
no further value. A man is not a good
farmer until his acre grows larger
every year.
[ do not mean that a little farm is
always to be advised, and ] do not
ask any person to live on n acre OF
land; but whether the farm is Of one
acre or one thousand, the productive
ness of it and the satisfaction Of the
farm life should increase continuously.
and I therefore use the acre as the
text Of my appeal.
y man does not expect that his bust
ness as q s~torekeeper or his profession
as q lawyer will lie stationary after he
bias. once entered on it, and no more
nSeu the business OIL d ldIIllcE NC Sld.
tiOnary. If he arrives at the limit or
increase with his piece Of land, he
may buy more land. in order that his
energy may find useful expression,
or h may add to his farming BUSH
ness any one Of a dozen rural mer-
camille pursuits, as the buying and
selling Of farm implements, of apples.
of hay, Of eggs and poultry, or OF
general farm supplies; or ne ma serve
himself and his community by assoc
clating in some cooperative affair IN
the neighbOrhOod, as in q
farmers grain-elevator. or fruit-pack-
ing association: or he may give his
SuperfluOus strength and enterprise
TO the church or the school, the village
library, or other worthy undertaking
but always he make his acre the unit
and the base Of his operations, even
1t in the end he spreads hs influence
over the entire neighbOrhood.
IT is not at all strange that people
left home and comforts to go into the
wide and homeless West. By nature
all men yearn to live their own lives
and TO be free. AS soon as lines OF
civilization become set and hard. as
placards Of no hunting n n tres
passing and no fishing are put up
gains every piece of wood and OF
wild land, when "keep-off" signs are
on every interesting space of award.
when high walls are built begins to
rebel, the man chafes, and II he can
tint the way to do it, he escapes
He appropriates the naked earth IN
order that he may have a free land.
As 1 write these words, I see lit
Tie cabins placed far out in the pitiless
sage-brush deserts, the occupants Of
them foregoing shade and water and
parents and church and roads and
achool. only that they may be free.
1t is the spirit that brought the Pill
Srins to the cold North American con-
tnent, that settled the wilderness be-
yond the Hudson, that severed the
bonds Will England, that charted the
great Northwest Territory from which
noble states have been made, that sent
Lewis and Clark and Whitman and
NrpmOnt and hnn1ra6S of hardy OK