FARMS. 95 



FA EMS. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Report of the Committee. 



The committee are not fortunate enough to be able to con- 

 gratulate the society on an increased interest in the competition 

 for the very liberal premium offered for the best improved farm 

 in the county. No others have been added to the two already 

 entered for that purpose. 



There seems to be a general impression among the farmers of 

 the county, that to keep an exact account of the receipts and 

 expenditures on their farms, for a whole year, is a labor entirely 

 too onerous to be performed. Now, if this account were pro- 

 ductive of no other good than the gratification of those who have 

 curiosity enough to read agricultural reports, this unwillingness 

 would not be surprising; but when* it is considered that no 

 complicated business can be successful without a minute record 

 of transactions, it is no wonder that accurate business men are 

 astonished at the negligence of farmers. Through the length 

 and breadth of our county, with the exception of a few men 

 who are competing for the society's premiums for special crops, 

 no cultivators of the soil are to found who know what it costs 

 them to produce a bushel of corn, to raise a calf, or to make a 

 ton of hay. It seems to be sufficient for them, that, after thirty 

 or forty years of hard labor, they know they have lived ; but 

 whether this has been accomplished by farming, teaming, or 

 chopping wood, is a matter of indifference. Such a practice in 

 commerce would be its ruin ; if manufacturers imitated farmers 

 in this respect, all mechanical employment would cease ; farming 

 alone can survive under such treatment. 



If every farmer opened an account with every crop he planted, 

 in a very short time he could determine with certainty which 

 crops he could produce at a profit. It is not enough, to grow a 

 hundred bushels of corn to the acre, if this corn costs two dollars 

 a bushel to produce it. So large a crop is not wholly dependent 

 on the extent of the farmer's wit, but rather of his purse ; if he 



