THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 71 



so great that there is not time to write or to read long descrip- 

 tions of those things which can be as clearly told by pictures. 

 A map can be made not only a record, but a method of keep- 

 ing memoranda,^ so that as far as any particular field or crop 

 is concerned, it will show its profit or loss and the history of 

 its ^^•ork. All the arguments that can be put forward for farm 

 book-keeping can be used for the farm map. Farm plan work, 

 like book-keeping, requires some effort to learn, but when 

 learned, is very helpful and profitable. We cannot build the 

 simplest hen-coop or carry on the smallest farm without a 

 plan, but we may have, and usually do have, that plan in our 

 heads, and not on paper ; but if we are to build a building with 

 many rooms or carry on extensive farming economically, w'e 

 will find the pencil and paper of great help. 



Many consider a map or plan of their place as a sort of an 

 ornamental appendage, which they can show to their friends and, 

 occasionally, bring out for their ow^n inspection, or have it 

 framed and hung on the wall as a picture, or lay away care- 

 fully as the matter of reference, like deeds. Usually, they are 

 made bv surveyors and quite expensive. Now these kinds of 

 plans are very desirable, and I would not belittle them, yet 

 they are not the kind that I imagine the practical farmer would 

 use the most. The plan which I have in mind is made on the 

 larger sized, common wrapping paper, and made by the farmer 

 himself with a lead pencil, and for the doing of which does 

 not require any great knowledge of surveying. To illustrate 

 what I mean, allow me to tell you what I did some twenty-five 

 years ago. One spring I became the superintendent of a 

 country place for a millionaire. The place consisted of 620 

 acres, and employed through the winter about a dozen men, 

 and double that number in summer, a place which I was entirely 

 unacquainted with, having been on it but once before, and 

 then it was covered with snow\ I found myself at the head of 

 these men, most of them as new to the place as myself and 

 depending upon me to direct them as to their work. I had 

 received a brief schedule of what the owner thought might 

 be done with the fields, and his suggestion as to crops. He 

 spent a part of the first day with me. There was no map of 

 the place, but as soon as the men were at work the next morn- 

 inof I besran makinc: one, for I felt that I must have it in order 



