CHANGES IN FARMING. 



353 



to its size and productive power than the large one, and this dispro- 

 portion promises to increase rather than decrease. A tendency 

 to it is very plain. Therefore the more need of introducing' busi- 

 ness principles into the practice of farming, and to keep a sharp 

 outlook upon all the bearings of what is going on. 



Let me put a question here which may strike you strangely : 

 How has it happened that in a business like farming, which almost 

 invarfubly needs more capital than the farmer can command ; one 

 which takes in so wide a range of methods and processes, — tillage, 

 involving need of knowledge of soils, manures and rotations ; 

 stock raising, requiring experience ; knowledge and judgment in 

 breeding and feeding and buying and selling ; requiring also skill 

 and judgment in planning general arrangements and facility in 

 performing many mechanical processes, — how is it that farms are 

 almost invariably carried on single handed ? Why has never the 

 idea of partnership been thought of as in other business opera- 

 tions ? It can hardly be because farmers are more intelligent, or 

 'better educated, or more specially trained, or naturally more apt to 

 master the details, and better able than other business men to 

 carry on a complicated business without aid. And where is the 

 impossibility ? Union of capital would be a good thing. The 

 plan of having several partners, each attending to different 

 branches of the same business, certainly works well in other kinds 

 of business, for one can do and do well what another cannot do 

 at all, or very poorly if at all. This point is mentioned not so 

 much to recommend its immediate adoption as for suggestion. 

 Let it furnish food for thought, and whether the suggestion be 

 ever acted upon or not, there is one practice which is very 

 common among all business men, whether partners or not, except 

 farmers, which is recommended without any hesitation whatever, 

 for it is a necessity of all business operations, and if generally 

 neglected a lack of profitable results must be generally expected, 

 Book-Keeping . Keep accounts, charge all outgoes, whether 

 dimes or dollars, hours work or days labor of man or beast or 

 implements. Know what they go for and what they produce, for 

 h\j this method alone can you know what your products cost, and 

 whether profit or' loss attaches to this or that. If there be profit 

 anywhere, endeavor to increase it— if loss anywhere, try to stop 

 the leak at once. 



You can surely make all the needful first entries with very little 



difficulty. All that is required for these is a plain statement of 

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