50 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



Ask an average farmer in New-England, in Virginia, 

 in Kentucky, or in Alabama, why the crops of his 

 section are in the average no better, and the answer, 

 three times in four, will be, " Our farmers have too 

 much land" that is, not too much absolutely, but 

 too much relatively to their capital, stock, and gen- 

 eral ability to till effectively. The habitual grower 

 of poor crops will proffer this explanation quite as 

 freely and frequently as his more thrifty neighbor. 

 And what every one asserts must have a basis of 

 truth. 



Now, I do not mean to quarrel with the instinct 

 which prompts my countrymen to buy and hold too 

 much land. They feel, as I do, that land is still 

 cheap almost anywhere in this country cheap, if not 

 in view of the income now derived from it, cer- 

 tainly in contemplation of the price it must soon 

 command and the income it might, under better 

 management, be made to yield. Under this convic- 

 tion or, if you please, impression every one is in- 

 tent on holding on to more land than he can profit- 

 ably till, if not more than he can promptly pay for. 



What I do object to is simply this that thousands, 

 who have more land than they have capital to work 

 profitably, will persist in half-tilling many acres, in- 

 stead of thoroughly farming one-half or one third so 

 many, and getting the rest into wood so fast as may 

 be. I am confident that two-thirds of all our farm- 

 ers would improve their circumstances and increase 

 their incomes by concentrating their efforts, their 



