70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



class, but unless you are going to make more than $60 you 

 had better not stay on the farm, because you are worth more 

 than that in the world. The practical application is to have 

 enough acres so that you are going to get enough crops to 

 keep your horses busy. JSTow, one-half of the farmers in 

 America rent all their land ; that is one way. Another way 

 is, suppose you own some land and not enough, you can rent 

 some of your neighbor; and one-fifth of the farmers in 

 America do that. Another way: there are just lots of 

 farmers, good farmers, who would be benefited, particularly 

 if they are young men, if they would dare to go in debt and 

 buy some land near them. Still another way is not to buy at 

 first the land for farming, but to be a tenant long enough 

 until you get money ahead. Be a hired man until you get 

 money enough to buy a lame horse or two or three, and don't 

 change too soon from a hired man to an owner. Be a tenant 

 until you have got money enough to buy two or three acres 

 of some man, and then you can buy that and rent some more ; 

 and you can do that little trick of throwing the hay over 

 onto yours without taking the manure back, and that is 

 usually done. [Laughter.] It isn't necessary to have all 

 the money in the United States to get into farming that way. 

 The man who has $2,000 can be a tenant on a big farm and 

 do a big business and beat the men with a little patch all 

 to pieces. Another way is, if you have got good enough land, 

 to make the business pay on the same acreage by going into 

 trucking; but don't all raise truck. There is enough pro- 

 duced in Massachusetts now to supply most of the people, 

 and you know what happens to truck crop prices when you 

 get too much. Don't do it unless you have got good land. 



l^ow, about the cows. You have got to buy them because 

 you don't raise them much in this State. You caii't afford 

 to feed 4-cent milk to calves unless you are fairly sure you 

 will some day get the money back. You can raise some cows, 

 but be critical ; don't raise a calf merely because it is a 

 heifer. Raise only the very cream of them. 



Now, as to crops, you don't need to get a double crop 

 yield. If you get 25 per cent better than your neighbor, 

 you are going to do pretty well. 



