252 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



costs him more, and is procured with greater diffi- 

 culty, than though he were cutting a hole in the 

 forest. Often, when he thinks he has fenced suffi- 

 ciently, the hungry, breachy cattle, who roarn the 

 open prairies around him, judge his handiwork less 

 favorably ; and he wakes some August morning, 

 when feed is poorest outside and most luxuriant 

 within his inclosure, to find that twenty or thirty 

 cattle have broken through his defenses and half de- 

 stroyed his growing crop. 



If, instead of this wasteful lack of system, a thou- 

 sand or even a hundred farmers would combine to 

 fence several square miles into one grand inclosure 

 for cultivation, erecting their several habitations 

 within or without its limits, as to each should be con- 

 venient apportioning it for cultivation, or owning 

 it in severalty, as they should see fit an immense 

 economy would be secured, just when, because of 

 their poverty, saving is most important. Their stock 

 might range the open prairie unwatched ; and they 

 might all sleep at night in serene confidence that their 

 corn and cabbages were not in danger of ruthless de- 

 struction. Among the settlers in our great primitive 

 forests, the system of Cooperative Farming would 

 hare to be modified in details, while it would be in 

 essence the same. 



And, once adopted with regard to fencing, other 

 adaptations as obvious and beneficent would from 

 day to day suggest themselves. Each pioneer would 

 learn how to advance his own prosperity by com- 



