1883.] HINTS TOWARD SMALL FARMING. 271 



tion lies at the door of the farmer, neither is all the suffering and 

 punishment his. 



We can't disgorge our plunder, nor repair the damages in many 

 a year ; but we can at once repent our rural sins, recall the dogs 

 of civil war, and begin a social understanding that shall include 

 the whole commonwealth and all its people. 



The proper size of a farm depends largely also upon natural 

 divisions. I know of spots — remnants and odd corners of three, 

 five, or six acres, or more of land — bordering streams, woodland, 

 ravines, the rocky spurs of a hill or mountain, that could be fitted 

 into as perfect farms in their way as if they contained hundreds or 

 thousands of acres. We may do more for profit and beauty with 

 half an acre than we often see done. We may have small farms 

 for four horses or oxen, and quite as admirable and respectable 

 small farms where a donkey and cart is team enough. 



Farms are well cut out in our broken country, as carcasses of 

 meat are by expert hands, in whatever direction the bones run, or 

 judiciously across, so as to give each piece a streak of fat and a 

 streak of lean, as well as a share of the choicer and tenderer parts. 

 Over-reaching and managing chaps are always on the look-out for 

 good bits of land — hams, so to speak, or clear pork — so that the pa- 

 tient and faithful have to wait a long while sometimes for the over- 

 reaching grip to relax in the natural order of things. Others are 

 smart enough to get a sly law on the statute books under the 

 ruling of which to cover some coveted territory. We continually 

 see much good landed property injured and wasted or in idleness, 

 caused by uneconomic divisions. In this respect the extensive 

 farmer who has spent a long and laborious life in extinguishing 

 many small and conflicting titles, though he has become what we 

 call "land-poor," or possibly "a speculator," may yet be counted 

 an excellent servant of society in providing a fair field for better 

 divisions. 



In this direction, whenever a considerable portion of territory 

 can be controlled in one body, there is a suitable and profitable 

 opportunity for skilled and beneficent capital. There something 

 worthy the name of agricultural enterprise can be carried on to 

 success without involving the capitalist in "fancy "or extensive 

 farming and the acquisition of a landed estate with overgrown 

 buildings which perchance may hang like a millstone around the 

 unwilling necks of his half-bred children. Our western brethren 



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