BUSINESS ASPECTS OF FARMING 67 



landlord to rent an improved forty-acre farm; neither it is profitable 

 for the tenant; and I do not hesitate to say that with the prevailing 

 high cost of operation, a farm of eighty acres offers but a scant op- 

 portunity unless it is used for some intensive work, such as trucking, 

 or fruit or poultry raising. I wonder how many farms there are in 

 this state so small or so poor that they hold no reasonable chance of 

 success. It is the men on these farms that are most easily capsized by 

 any adverse wind. 



During the period of my experience I have had charge of con- 

 siderable land in other localities; namely, Indiana, Missouri, Miss- 

 issippi, and Tennessee; and the disadvantage of being at such a dis- 

 tance that supervision was difficult and often not as thoro as it should 

 be, leads to the conclusion that such distant holdings are not desirable. 



WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 



In closing this review of the past, I am conscious that my efforts 

 have been almost wholly directed at one phase of the business of farm- 

 ing, viz., that of production. I am conscious that the margins of 

 profit, never large as profits are figured in most businesses, have been 

 crowded down to the danger point, if still visible at all; that the 

 trend of taxes has been upward, with alarming rapidity; and that the 

 overhead costs of machinery, labor, material, and repairs have in- 

 creased very greatly. I find myself wondering how long we farmers 

 can continue to ignore these other sides of our business, and go on 

 producing; how long can we play the game by such a rule and hold 

 a winning hand ? 



What then of the future ? This is oft best foretold in the light 

 of a knowledge of the past, and there comes to my mind this saying : 



"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 

 Where wealth accumulates, and farms decay." 



We are told that when darkness settled over Egypt and she lost her 

 place among the great nations of the earth, three per cent of her pop- 

 ulation owned ninety-seven per cent of her wealth. When Babylon 

 went down, two per cent of her population owned all the wealth. 

 When Persia bowed her head, one per cent of her population owned 

 all the land. When the great empire of Rome fell, eighteen hundred 

 men owned and controlled all the then known world. 



What of our own country? In 1850 our capitalists owned 

 thirty-seven per cent of the nation's wealth. In 1870, only twenty 



