1884.] VARIOUS VIEWS OP FARMING. 225 



on the labor of both and the income on the capital all put together. 

 By the later methods, the working capital employed amounted to 

 three-fourths the entire value of the real estate, including farm 

 buildings. The gross income from each acre annually exceeded 

 the market value of the land itself, and the net income, after pay- 

 ing all expenses, left a liberal salary to the owners, and twice the 

 rate of interest, in addition, that the best savings banks pay. 

 These statements are based on farm accounts that have been care- 

 fully kept and balanced annually for nearly fifty years. 



I could point j'^ou to other farms where equal or even better 

 profits have been reahzed. I could name a small farm, managed 

 chiefly by members of a small family, from which more value has 

 been sold within the past three years, above the cost of hired 

 labor, than the amount it would take to buy the farm, were it in 

 market, with all its buildings, including the owner's residence, 

 whicli is really no part of a farm, and should never be carried in 

 a farm account, more than should the private residences of stock- 

 holders in banking corporations be carried in the banking accoun*:. 



One reason v/hy farming everywhere is credited with such 

 small rates of profit is because farmers fail to keep correct accounts, 

 and oftener to keep any at all. They spend all they make, and 

 then because there is nothing left, claim they have made nothing. 



New England has thousands of farms stocked with animals and 

 farm implements, which would not bring, in market, exclusive of 

 the dwelling-house, over two thousand dollars, for land, stock, and 

 tools, the interest on which, at present ruling rates for property 

 well secured, would not exceed one hundred dollars. JSTow what 

 kind of a living would an annuity of one hundred dollars afford a 

 man ? It costs more than that to support the poor in our alms- 

 houses; and yet, on a capital of two thousand dollars or less, 

 in a New England farm, whole families obtain good livings, keep 

 the principal secure, educate the children, ride to church, and 

 have their own way about things generally, more than is possible 

 among any other classes using the same amount of capital in their 

 business. And yet the majority of these small farms, — or rather 

 low-priced farms, for many of them contain from fifty to one hun- 

 dred acres each, — are not half worked ; no, not a quarter. And 

 here we would ask. Does any one know of a farm anywhere, that 

 is worked up to its full capacity ? Has any one yet foimd the 

 limit to the profitable working of a single farm acre ? I once 



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