20 MR, hazen's address. 



the farm are very obvious. It should bear a just proportion to 

 the means of cultivation that will be possessed.* The owner 

 should be able to extend to every acre of it that degree of cul- 

 tivation which subjects the soil completely to the purposes of 

 man. Over his territory he should no where hold a divided 

 empire with bushes, with exhaustion, unruly cattle, or mortgages. 

 It should not be so large as to require more experience and 

 skill than the owner will possess for its management, and its ex- 

 tent should not be such that its proper conduct will involve more 

 business, and require more calculation than the talents and 

 capacity of the proprietor can accomplish. Its size should in all 

 respects be so much within his circumstances that it should in 

 some degree impose upon him the necessity of a thorough culti- 

 vation. It should be such that he may not look for sustenance 

 from the merely natural growth of the surface, but it should be 

 such that he may feel the necessity for using some labor, and 

 some art to increase the powers of production. The chief 

 idea of agriculture in the Netherlands, where it is carried to so 

 great perfection is, " to make the farm as nearly resemble a gar- 

 den as possible." The adoption of a principle like this at the 

 first setting out leads them to undertake the culture of small es- 

 tates only. They have learned from experience, that ten acres 

 under a good cultivation are worth more than forty under one 

 that is deficient. The consequence has been that such is the 

 skill with which farmers cultivate even a bad soil, that they com- 

 pel it to roturn them a produce which the strongest and richest 



* In Scotland the expenditures and proceeds of farms are reduced to 

 great certainty. In a species of banks, combining the capacities of 

 banks for circulation and for savings, casb credits are advanced to the 

 farmers upon the understanding that all the receipts from the farm are 

 to be immediately paid into the bank. There is a difference of one per 

 cent, interest between advances and deposites, in favor of the bank. 

 By means of the accounts thus kept in the bank, the farmer and his 

 creditor are kept accurately informed of the condition and prospects of 

 the farm. In tiiis is seen what may be accomplished by calculations 

 and accounts which doubtless the farmer who values his independence 

 will prefer to make and keep for himself. 



