358 Our Farming. 



The ideal farm, to my mind, is a small one, run by the owner and 

 one or two men, if he hasn't sons. But the chances for making 

 much money from so little labor are, of course, small. And it 

 does not seem right to me to blame the wealthy men because they 

 are making so much. This little clipping from the New York 

 Herald, expresses a great fact in few words : "A man who hires 

 another at $60 a month to do work which brings in only $6 1 

 a month, is a philanthropist. But if he hires twenty thousand 

 men at the same rate, he has an income of $20,000 a month, and 

 is a 'blasted monopolist.' ' 



My friend, S. H. Todd, says : " We must do a thing our- 

 selves, or have our shadow fall on the man who does jt, if we 

 want to succeed." It would be impossible to keep one's shadow 

 all over a big farm. When men are brought close together and 

 systematically arranged in factory or store, it can be done. A 

 man who was a slaveholder before the war, told me lately that he 

 had a very large plantation left him by his father. All these 

 years his wife and he, he said, had worked hard in their efforts 

 to keep the plantation together and hold their own. They had 

 been perfect slaves. He had sixteen tenant families to support 

 and worry over, and he says : ' * Now, there ought to have been 

 all these years sixteen separate farms, each owned by its occu- 

 pant." If you can be satisfied with a small business, that can be 

 made to bring a good living, and, eventually, a moderate inde- 

 pendence, if you are economical, then you may go to farming. It 

 can be made to pay better, in proportion to the capital invested, 

 than many large factories pay. What chance is there now to 

 make money in the manufucturing business, with a capital of 

 $4,000 or $5,000 and one or two men to help you ? I hope I may 

 have made this point plain. Now, there are advantages connected 

 with farming. It is a healthful pursuit, as well as entirely hon- 

 orable. You can work in pure air and sunshine ; you always 

 have work ; no one can turn you off ; you are your own boss ; 

 you are reasonably independent. Said a merchant to me once, 

 after smilingly bowing out a customer: "I just hate myself. 

 Here I must stand and take any insult and smile, when I want to 

 kick the party out doors." Again, one can be at home with his 

 family very much more on the farm, and he is not as much tied 

 up as the merchant or banker. One must tend to business, but 

 he can have much more leisure on a well-managed farm than 

 most successful business men in the city have . There is not that great 

 strife and rush to get ahead that there is in the city, and you can 

 have nearly all that is of real value in city life. All do not, I 

 know; few do, perhaps; but you can. I staid a day or two, 

 lately, with a friend living in ttoe suburbs of a large city. This 

 point was particularly noticed while I was there : A young 

 farmer could hardly expect to ever get so extravagant a house, 

 but he could have the beautiful grounds, lawn, trees, shrubs, 



