SMALL HOLDINGS 47 



and never hesitate to reply that farming is 

 a difficult business, and that it would be as 

 reasonable to undertake it without experience 

 as to start business as a watchmaker vv ithout 

 the slightest knowledge of the trade. We 

 have been told by men of great capacity 

 that without any knowledge of agriculture 

 they could manage a farm while sitting in 

 their study chair, although there is probably 

 no more complicated business than that 

 of the farmer. We are anxious to say 

 nothing to induce the reader to believe 

 that experience is not essential, or that 

 nothing is more simple than to dig 

 the soil and plant the seed, and thus secure 

 a paying crop, still less that stock can be bred 

 and fed successfully, given the means to buy 

 it and its food. If the crops on the farms of 

 a dozen tenants were inspected, we should 

 find that in spite of their long experience 

 they were not all alike. In some instances 

 they might be abundant, owing to the fact 

 that the growers were blessed with brains, 

 in others they would be more or less inferior, 

 or absolutely foul. In no business or profes- 

 sion do men succeed alike, so much depends 

 upon their grip of principles, their mastery 

 of and their devotion to their work. Success 



