4 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



capital and can give it the attention, it is more profitable to 

 cultivate on a large scale than on a small one, because in that 

 case each worker necessarily produces more than he gets as 

 wages and we pocket the difference. 



Most American farmers are holding land that somebody 

 ought to pay them a bonus for working, else they must come 

 out of the little end of the horn. They get poor or poorly 

 situated land, because it costs less, and then put three or four 

 hundred dollars' worth of labor and money a year into the 

 land and take out four or five hundred dollars' worth of 

 crops. 



The farmer thinks he must have big fields to feed his cattle, 

 and that he must have cattle to keep the big fields fertilized, 

 so he raises hay. 



In that he makes two mistakes ; hay, like most other low- 

 priced crops, is risky the cost of harvesting is high and the 

 margin of profit small. A week of wet weather at cutting 

 tune or the impossibility of getting enough men and machines 

 in the week when it should be cut, may make a loss. 



But the scientific dairy man does not take that risk, nor 

 let his cattle use up this fodder by wandering over the fields 

 in search of tid-bits of grass or clover, or, goaded by the flies, 

 trampling more grass than they eat and wasting their manure. 



He keeps the cows in cool sheds, feeds them on cut fodder, 

 and saves every ounce of the manure. 



The modern cow is a ruminating machine for producing 

 milk and cares little for exercise and needs little. To exploit 

 the cattle as employers exploit the factory hands, he gives 

 the cows a cool, shady place and food, and they stand there 

 all day long to their profit and his. 1 



1 United States Agricultural Bulletin No. 22 says: "The 

 New Jersey Experiment Station has been conducting a practical 



