368 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Farming, unlike most other kinds of business, can in many things be carriep 

 on in a small way more economically than Avhen on a large scale. In other 

 pursuits, where skill is necessary, we find trained workmen, as the carpenter, 

 mason or machinist, in the manufactory, mill, or mine, and the work always 

 gives evidence of the ability of the workman, and the amount he does. The 

 employer can hire nien to do his work and have it done as well or better than 

 he can do it himself. But on the farm, where the labor is even more intricate, 

 we get as a rule almost totally unskilled workmen. 



A farmer who understands his business cannot hire a man who will drive his 

 team as he can drive it, or plant as he can plant, or feed his stock as he can 

 feed it. 



Men who are skilled in the different operations of the farm, and faithful in 

 their performance, are seldom found in the position of employes. There are 

 jobs to be done nearly every day that the ordinary hired man will half-do, and 

 the farmer will not know it. He can't tell how an animal is fed, or how a 

 horse is driven, or whether seed is put in right or not, unless he can see all the 

 work while it is being done. As an argument in favor of small or medium 

 sized farms, I would call your attention to the fact, that while it is not uncom- 

 mon to find in any of our cities men with a capital of ^100,000 or more en- 

 gaged in business of various kinds, we do not often find men with half that 

 capital invested in farming. Yet statistics show that in proportion to the 

 whole number, more men who have commenced with little or no capital have 

 been moderately successful as farmers, than have been successful in other 

 business. 



I believe the greatest success in farming will be attained when farmers, as a 

 rule, will have less than one hundred acres of land, and when the great mass 

 of workmen in tlic soil will be land owners, instead of hired workmen, and 

 when by the use of machinery they will never need more than one or two hired 

 men, and farmers' wives and daughters have tinre for something more than 

 cooking and washing for the hired liclp. 



But to succeed we will be obliged to a great extent to use the same machinery 

 to cultivate our small farms, that is used on our large farms. Without claim- 

 ing to olfer anything new on the subject, I will endeavor to point out some of 

 the ways by which this may be accomplished. 



We must not buy any tool we do not actually need, or one that the expense 

 of working would be more than the labor saved is worth, or one we will not 

 use after we get it. I doubt if there is a farmer present who has not at least 

 one implement lying around that has not been worth to him one-half of its 

 cost. 



I have seldom gone into a farmer's barn without seeing a feed-cutter in some 

 back corner ; yet how few are used? Cutting feed is a good deal like compost- 

 ing and turning over manure, it works well scientifically and theoretically, but 

 practically, it will not always pay for the extra labor. When nuiterial is cheap 

 and labor dear, I doubt if either will pay in ordinary farming. 



It will, probably, pay to cut up rough fodder, when done on a large enough 

 scale to use some kind of power. But taking the whole State, I don't believe 

 there is enough saved or made to pay seven per cent on the cost of all the 

 machines. 



It certainly will not pay to buy those implements for hen-roosts, the purpose 

 for which they are so commonly used. 



Kearly every farmer raises more or less of the small grains; corn, hay and 

 potatoes. To grow these crops economically, he must use a grain-drill, reaper, 



