482 AGRICULTURE. 



country, with their older civilization and their more dense popu- 

 lation, have equal charms for another class. There is much to 

 be said in favor of both ; but, as the broader culture and more 

 careless feeding, which are practised on the larger farms of new 

 countries, require less exact knowledge and less close economy 

 than is indispensable on high-priced lands, the object of this 

 work will be best attained if attention is confined to the 

 requirements of the more thorough system of agriculture 

 that small farms make necessary. These are based on uni- 

 versal principles, and the extent to which they may be, or 

 must be, modified, as land grows cheaper, farms larger, labor 

 dearer, and produce less valuable, must be decided by every 

 man for himself. 



While the settlement of wild lands is often a good thing for 

 the settler, and always a good thing for the country, it is often 

 undertaken with the mistaken idea that it offers the only chance 

 for a man of small capital. Choose a small farm, small in pro- 

 portion to your capital. No man is wise who, in the East, goes 

 in debt for more than 50 acres. With plenty of capital, a farmer 

 of good executive ability can hardly have too much land. Any 

 one who has to work himself out of debt, mainly by the labor 

 of his own hands, will find 50 acres better than more. His 

 chances will be better with 10 acres than with 100. So far as 

 one man's work is concerned, especially with small means for 

 the purchase of stock, implements, and manure, the more it is 

 concentrated, the better it will tell in the end ; and 50 acres, 

 brought to the highest state of cultivation of which the land is 

 susceptible, will produce more, at much less cost, than will 100 

 acres only half so well cultivated. 



Buy a farm that is very much run down and out of repair, 

 rather than a good farm with good improvements which are not 

 exactly what you will require, unless you can get the improve- 

 ments for much less than it would cost you to replace them. 

 Better pay $50 an acre for a place that $50 will make exactly 

 right, than $100 for a place that will never be exactly right. 

 Remember that to clear up swamps, build stone walls, and dig 

 out rocks and stumps costs much labor and delays legitimate 

 farm operations. Farmers are not apt to reckon these things 

 at their full cost, because they do not usually pay out money to 



