118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now, these changes of which the lecturer has been speak- 

 ing lie right along on this line, — changes which have been 

 absolutelj^ necessary ; and I am proud to see that the farmers 

 of New England have had the wit to recoo^uize the demands 

 and requirements as they have arisen and to fit themselves 

 to the circumstances of the case. It is a great deal better 

 than it would have been for us to try to grow cattle on our 

 hills or to make fat cattle, as the " river gods" of the valley 

 used to do, when my friend Taft and the rest of them were 

 driving fat cattle on the hoof from here to Brighton. They 

 cannot afford to do that thing now. 



There is one subject on which Brother Warner touched 

 where I do not agree with him. He said we ought to culti- 

 vate small farms. Now, from the way that he said it and 

 from the way we very often hear it said, it seems to me that 

 the acres are supposed to be at fault. I say no. I do not 

 care how many acres of land a man cultivates, whether one, 

 or a hundred, or a thousand, provided he cultivates each and 

 every acre as it should be cultivated. The point is just 

 here. The more land a man cultivates the more crops he 

 grows, the more he has to sell of any crop that he can grow 

 upon his farm the more profit there is per bushel or per 

 acre in what he grows, provided that that cultivation is as it 

 should be, provided the land is manured as it should be, 

 provided he gives the care to the crop that he should give. 

 If a man cultivates a thousand acres of land he should give 

 the same care to manuring the soil, the same care to the 

 crops, the same care to economically harvesting them in 

 order to save them all, that he would give if he did not cul- 

 tivate but one acre. Then he can make more money per 

 pound, or per bushel, or per acre, and for a great many 

 reasons. I want to know if a man in Sunderland who makes 

 five thousand bushels of onions does not have a greater 

 influence on the market, a greater control over it, does not 

 bring more purchasers to him from all over the country 

 where there are onion dealers, than a man who grows but 

 a hundred bushels? The latter is utterly unknown in 

 the market, has no influence on it, and must sell his hun- 

 dred bushels of onions as best he can and where he can. 

 This principle runs through every branch of agriculture. 



