01 FARM MANAGEMENT. 



PRIZE ESSAY — BY J. J. THOMAS. 



The great importance of performing in the best manner, the diffe- 

 rent operations of agriculture, is obvious to every intelligent mind, 

 for on this depends the success of farming. But a good performance 

 of single operations merely, does not constitute the best farmer. The 

 perfection of the art, consists not only in doing every thing well, in- 

 dividually, but in a proper adjustment and systematic arrangement 

 of all the parts, so that they shall be done, not only in the best man- 

 ner and at the right time, but with the most effective and economi- 

 cal expenditure of labor and money. Every thing must move on 

 with clock-work regularity, without interference, even at the most 

 busy seasons of the year. 



As this subject includes the whole routine of farming, in a collect- 

 ed view, as well as in its separate details, a treatise upon it might be 

 made to fill volumes ; but this being necessarily confined to a few 

 pages, a general outline, with some remarks on its more essential 

 parts, can only be given. 



Capital. — The first requisite in all undertakings of magnitude, is 

 to " count the cost." The man who commences a building, which 

 to finish would cost ten thousand dollars, with a capital of only five 

 thousand, is as certainly ruined, as many farmers are, who, without 

 counting the cost, commence on a scale to which their limited means 

 are wholly inadequate. One of the greatest mistakes which young 

 farmers make in this country, in their anxious wish for large posses- 

 sions, is, not only in purchasing more land than they can pay for, 

 but in the actual expenditure of all their means, without leaving any 

 even to begin the great work of farming. Hence, the farm contin- 

 ues for a long series of years poorly provided with stock, with im- 

 plements, with manure, and with the necessary labor. From this 



