SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CITY PERSONS 145 



do the work himself. There are a few operations at which gangs 

 of men can be used, but there are very few cases in which a farm 

 can make a continued use of a gang of men. It is very difficult 

 to get men to take the necessary interest in large farms. If wages 

 are high enough to attract men who will take an interest without 

 close supervision, the high wages take all the profit. 



A profit of 10 to 20 per cent on the wages of each worker 

 is a good profit in any industry. If the industry employs a very 

 few men, the profits will be small. 



The expense of hauling crops and manure usually makes about 

 600 acres the limit to run from one center. But for general 

 farming this area with half the land in pasture is a business 

 that, measured in workers, corresponds with a grocery store that 

 employs two or three clerks and one or two deliverymen. 



The prices of farm products are based on production by the 

 farm family working as a unit. The hired help is usually boarded 

 in the family at much less than it costs to hire it boarded. The 

 women wash the milk pails, care for the chickens, go to town on 

 errands. They very frequently take the place of a man at these 

 light operations, and also very frequently help with farm work. 

 In Delaware county, N.Y., on 210 of the rather large dairy farms, 

 20 per cent of the milking and caring for cows was done by 

 women and children. On the smaller farms the proportion of 

 such labor is much more. All this labor is directly interested. 

 When men are hired to run large farms, it is exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to produce farm products at the same cost at which they are 

 produced by the family-farm system. 



More conclusive than the reasons for failure are the results. 

 Literally hundreds of successful business men scattered from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific have tried running large farms with hired 

 managers. Most of these' men have demonstrated their ability to 

 make money in cities. The writer has seen many such farms in a 

 number of states, but has not yet seen a case in which a man 

 who made a fortune in a city has ever added to his accumulations 

 by running a large farm with a hired manager. There are many 

 cases in which the live stock has taken premiums innumerable 

 and the crop yields have been all that could be desired, but the 



