294 Our Farming. 



or hunting or to the show if he gets a certain job done in time, and 

 see him hustle. Men should be grown up boys. Recreation is 

 good for them, too, although cares and burdens weigh heavily. 

 There are men who carry this matter to excess, who are in town 

 or away altogether too much for their own good. There should 

 be a proper balance. However, the great mass of our farmers work 

 hard enough and need more pleasure and play spells, and by 

 systematic effort they can have them and accomplish as much or 

 more 'than now and life will be sweeter. 



I know some men who get along without help. L,ife is 

 pretty nearly all work to them. There are so many things to do 

 on the farm. Such men must usually grow old before their time. 

 There is often an over-weary, almost sour, expression on their 

 faces. They think they cannot afford to hire help. Well, per- 

 haps, they cannot manage it so as to make it pay, or haven't been 

 able to. But it can be done in some way most always, and I 

 should certainly want to do it. I should prefer to do a little 

 more, enough to pay the man, and then have him to take some of 

 the blunt of the work off of my shoulders. Thus I could man- 

 age to get as large a net income as before, or larger, and it would 

 not be afl work. There would be more time to live as one went 

 along. The model farm for enjoying life, to my mind, is a rather 

 small one. Of course, it will vary in size according to the line 

 of farming pursued. Fifty acres is large enough for my business, 

 plenty. One hundred or more might not be too large for some- 

 one growing less concentrated crops, or keeping sheep largely. 

 On this the young farmer and one good man goes to work. With 

 good management, he ought to get this paid for and improved in 

 fifteen or twenty years, so as to have a beautiful home and still 

 have a fair share of enjoyment of life as he goes along. After a 

 time, unless he has a son that can help, I would have two men to 

 do the hard work, while the farmer did the overseeing and had 

 plenty of time for keeping place in perfect order, tending to fruit 

 garden, flowers, etc., and more and more time for rest and rec- 

 reation as he grew older. And when I speak of the farmer tak- 

 ing life easier, I always mean his wife also. If she hasn't 

 daughters to take some of the heaviest work off her shoulders as 

 she grows older, she should have hired help. 



A man, perhaps thirty years old, came to me once for advice 

 in regard to buying a farm. He had money enough to pay down 

 for a small one, and something over. He had betn looking at a 

 large farm. I advised him not to buy the large one unless he 

 could sell part of it. He would have a hard pull to pay for it, 

 and did not need it when he got it paid for, while he could start 

 off comfortably from the beginning on a moderate amount of land 

 that he could pay down for. He would be his own master tjien, 

 and would just have to work to make a good living and a home. 

 He would start ten years ahead of where I did, or more, and I 



