238 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



practical value, in each aud all of the departments of farming, and to which 

 we may adhere with a tolerable certainty of securing desired ends. We can 

 only hope to direct your thoughts to what seems to us very grave errors 

 ill farm management, aud to suggest some few fixed rules, that experience 

 and observation commend as always safe to follow. 



Our subject at the outset, suggests the idea of a plan of operations — a sys- 

 tematic adjustment of time and labor to this plan. There can be no true 

 economy in the absence of such plan and system, in farm management. And 

 yet this law is more widely " honored in the breach than in the observance," 

 by many farmers. Fields are sown and planted, manure applied, crops are 

 grown and harvested, with no thought as to the effect of such management 

 on subsequent crops. And so the farmer, in his eagerness to secure a quick 

 and bounteous return for his labor, often robs his fields of such elements as 

 make future returns very meager and unsatisfactory. 



Buckle, in his history of civilization in England, in speaking of the influ- 

 ence of physical laws, says: "Progress can only depend on two circumstances 

 — first, on the energy and regularity with which labor is conducted ; and sec- 

 ondly, on the return made to the labor by the bounty of nature." A plan of 

 work, embracing the rotation of field crops, the proper amount of stock to 

 keep, the breeds most desirable, the arranging of labor for each season, 

 assigning the same, a system of permanent improvements, useful and also 

 ornamental — all these in division and detail form a sort of effective ground- 

 work for judicious, economical management. We need not enter upon the 

 details of a plan, for this must vary with climate, soil, market, cost of labor, 

 etc., but a plan determined upon after careful thought, and amended as 

 changes are suggested in practice, will aid greatly in lessening expenses, in 

 improving the condition of the soil, and increasing products and profits. 

 Without some general plan of management, the farmer will frequently find his 

 work in almost inextricable confusion. Valuable time will be lost, labor mis- 

 directed and wasted, and a shiftless, thriftless husbandry be the inevitable 

 result. Men who manage in this way always complain of hard times, and 

 look with longing eyes for some escape from what seems like bondage. "The 

 fault, oh, Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." The expense of 

 carrying on farm operations, is greatly lessened if work can be attended to in 

 the proper season. 



Eor instance, we have planted a field to corn, which has come up nicely, so 

 that we have a good stand. If we can commence cultivating before the 

 weeds start, and thus take time by the forelock, we shall thereby make a 

 great saving of time and labor; but suppose for lack of proper management 

 we give the weeds and grass a start of three weeks, and then commence our 

 cultivation, we shall find our work has doubled, perhaps trebled, and do the 

 best we can, the loss cannot be made up. Economy of time and labor demands 

 that we be in readiness to commence our work when it needs attention, unless 

 unforeseen contingencies prevent. It is economy on the farm to do what 

 needs doing promptly, thoroughly, and in its due season. Here is a great leak 

 in the management of many farms, and while oftentimes it seems trifling, 

 yet in the aggregate it comes to the point that divides the profit and loss line. 

 It is man's weakness to pronounce some things little, because they appear 

 little to him; but "nothing is little, because nothing in the universe exists 

 segregated from everything else," and to succeed every where we must give the 

 little things close attention, careful study. 



With work all planned in advance, help provided and properly assigned, the 



