LARGE AND SMALL FARMS. 293 



till or even graze several thousand acres of land, 

 so as to realize a fair interest on its value, are even 

 scarcer than the farms so capacious. 



But there is such a thing as farming on a large 

 scale ; and it is a good business for those who under- 

 stand it, and have all the means it requires. The 

 farmer who annually grows a thousand acres of good 

 Grain, and takes reasonable care of a thousand head 

 of Cattle, is to be held in all honor. He will usually 

 grow both his Grain and his Beef cheaper than a 

 small farmer could do it, and will generally find a 

 good balance on the right side when he makes up 

 and squares his accounts of a year's operations. I 

 could recommend no man to run into debt for a great 

 farm, expecting that farm to work him out of it ; but 

 he who inherited or has acquired a large farm, well 

 stocked, and knows how to make it pay, may well 

 cling to it, and count himself fortunate in its posses- 

 sion. But the great farmer is already regarded with 

 sufficient envy. Most boys would gladly be such as 

 he is ; the difficulty in the case is that they lack the 

 energy, persistency, resolution, and self-denial, re- 

 quisite for its achievement. 



We will leave large farms and farming to recom- 

 mend themselves, while we consider more directly the 

 opportunities and reasonable expectations of the small 

 farmer. 



The impression widely current that money cannot 

 be made on a small farm that, in farming, the great 

 fish eat up the little ones is deduced from very im- 



