584 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



proportion to the amount produced, than on a large one, while the cultivation, being per- 

 formed on a larger scale of operation, can be done with much more facility, and under a 

 more perfect system of management on the latter. 



A farm of seventy-five or a hundred acres will require nearly as many kinds of farm 

 implements for performing the work, as one of five hundred acres, and they will cost about 

 as much when purchased, as those for the larger farm. The principal difference will be, that 

 the owner of the five hundred acres will have several times as much profit from their more 

 extensive use, as the owner of the one hundred acres; hence, a much larger per cent, of 

 profit on the investment. In fact, on very extensive farms, where a number of the same 

 kind of machines are required, such as sulky or gang plows, harrows, reapers, etc.. 

 these implements can be purchased at a large discount, making the expense for this 

 purpose on the large farms very much less in proportion to small ones. The same is true to 

 a certain extent with respect to teams for the farm. In disposing of produce where mixed 

 farming is practiced, the time and labor spent in taking to market the surplus products of a 

 small farm are about the same as for a large one, with the exception of a difference in 

 handling in loading and unloading, and the heavier cartage. 



While the business of a large farm can be managed to better advantage, and those who 

 are adapted to it can make it more profitable thaji that of a small farm, still there is always 

 more risk attending it. The losses are greater in cases of failure. On cheap lands, and 

 until a section becomes densely settled, larger profits will be found generally in cultivating 

 large areas devoted more particularly to special crops. &quot;When well populated, the land 

 becomes more uniformly divided, the farms, as a consequence, are reduced in size, and a more 

 thorough cultivation is given. The natural result of continued cultivation of large areas 

 devoted to special crops, is to produce exhaustion, while smaller farms under a more thorough 

 system, combined with proper rotation, will not only retain, but increase their fertility. 



Advantages of Small Farms, etc. While large farms possess many advantages 

 over small ones, yet the latter also admit of some especial advantages over the former. In 

 the Western sections, where bonanza farms are under cultivation, corn and other grains 

 bring a much less price than in the East, ^here its cultivation is necessarily limited ; hence, 

 the Eastern farmer receives comparatively much larger returns for his crops, and therefore 

 it is essential that the Western farmer should cultivate more land and secure larger products 

 in order to make even the same profits that result from the crops raised by the Eastern 

 farmer. 



Small farms always require less capital invested, and a man of moderate means can estab 

 lish himself on such a farm without incurring a heavy debt, the interest of which would be con- 

 stantly consuming his profits, while the mortgages would prove the source of a continuous &amp;lt; night 

 mare &quot; if he were a man of energy and business capacity. They also require less hired help, 

 less expenditure in supplying with suitable teams, etc., while there is less care and anxiety, 

 as well as less risk attending their management. 



A small farm admits of more thorough culture, and, if properly tilled, can be kept in a 

 higher state of fertility than a large one, and be made to produce a larger crop in proportion 

 to the area cultivated. While there are some farmers who could increase the size of their farms 

 with profit, yet by far too many own more land than they can properly manage, or their 

 capital will warrant, and are what might be called &quot; land-poor.&quot; As a general rule, it is not 

 profitable for the farmer to hold unproductive property. He should own no more tillable 

 land than he can properly cultivate, and should add to his farm from time to time as 

 his resources will admit. An authoritative writer on agriculture says, respecting capital 

 in farming: &quot; Were I asked to point out the best-paying farms of this country, I should 

 seek them not where land is cheap and agriculture conducted on a vast scale, bxit upon 

 the outskirts of some metropolis, among the market-gardens, the secrets of whose success is 

 hidden only by the shades of night, when cart-load upon cart-load, the waste of cityconsump- 



