58 



their labor was better paid, or enabled them to enjoy more of the 

 comforts of life, or to give a better education to tlicir children. 

 A very few get rich ; fe^ver still absolutely fail ; while the many 

 support themselves and families in all the essentials of comfort and 

 respectability. Can more be said of any other calling ? 



We consider it to be within the scope of our commission to point 

 out errors and deficiencies as well as excellencies. It was our 

 design to do both more minutely and specifically than we are now 

 able to do. One or two instances have attracted our particular 

 notice, and are of common occurrence. 



Farmers here, as elsewhere, attempt the cultivation of too many 

 acres with inade(iuate means. Large farms cannot be profitably 

 cultivated without large capital. Both labor and fertilizing mat- 

 ters are lost by expanding them over too large a surface. IMany 

 an acre in this County might be made to yield double the returns 

 now obtained from two acres cultivated in the usual way, and at 

 much less expense. No error is more common, and none is, at 

 this time, more hurtful to the farmer, than the endeavor to realize 

 greater "profits from many, than from few, acres. 



Comparatively few farmers hnoiv the value of their business, or 

 the amount bestowed upon and taken from the land. This results 

 from the fact that they do not keep full and accurate accounts ; 

 and, of course, do not know what farming costs nor what it yields. 

 A manufacturer of cotton cloth knows, to a mill, what a yard of 

 cloth costs. Where the profits are small, it concerns him all the 

 more to know this. Few farmers know what a pound of pork or 

 butter costs, or what amount of hay and grain is required to make 

 a hundred Aveight of beef. They can make a tolerably good 

 guess ; but an exact system of farm accounts would go a great way 

 towards determining such questions ; and, of course, towards set- 

 thng the matter of the profitableness or unprofitableness of their 

 business. Indeed, there is no other way by which a farmer can 

 tell whether his plan of operations is judicious and profitable, and 

 wherein it is defective. As the merchant, at the close of the year, 

 takes an account of stock, charges himself with the interest of his 

 capital, expenses, bad debts, losses, &c., and credits his business 

 with goods on hand, profits, debts due, &c., so should the farmer, 

 if he would understand precisely the value of his operations. Such 

 a practice would tend to establish habits of order and economy, 



