258 ^ TRANSACTIOXS OF THE AMERICAN IKSTITUTE. 



JYovember 5, 1860. 

 Present, 40 members. Mr. Adrian Bergen, of Long Island, in 

 the chair. 



LARGE AND SMALL FARMS. 



Judge Meigs made the following statements in relation to large 

 and small farmers : 



Our country can at present have large farmers, and will until 

 population much increases. Machinery is to this class indispen- 

 sable; yet there are 100 small farmers to one large one, even 

 now. The father has a great farm, the sons must have smaller 

 ones; and while the good father still cultivates his 500 or 1,000 

 acres with his machinery, the son finds it necessary to begin 

 small, use a pair of oxen, mules or horses for many years. Let 

 us consider, for a moment, the value of this : The ox is the 

 worker ; he plows and harrows, hauls loads in heavy land, while 

 mules and horses do light work. Now for the real of all this, to 

 say nothing of the moral of it. 



Why has your great supporter of strength — beef — been raised 

 without work? An ox raised without his having worked, is not 

 so good food as one that has worked. The British phenomena 

 of oxen of 3,000 to 4,000 pounds are not wholesome eating. No 

 ox should be without work any more than his master, the mule 

 or the horse. If, therefore, men will have beef, a large class of 

 farmers must raise it. These arguments stand the shock of all 

 the machinery in the world, and forever will. So that man, with 

 all his wonderful, almost miraculous inventive powers, will never 

 invent roast beef and steaks out of the old line. 



We have already felt, in England and here, the rising cost of 

 beef, so great as to drive millions to eat hogs, who, as the black 

 said at the South, " are the only gentlemen. Massa work, missey 

 work, I work, horse work, ass work ; hog he no work !" The 

 hog has never to our knowledge been employed, notwithstanding 

 his health and strength, to earn one cent, in all Ohio, or in the 

 world beside. And it does not appear that if he were to do 

 reasonable work on a sort of tread-mill, that his health and flesh 

 would not be the better for it. This I do know : that the hogs 

 which run at liberty in woods and fields make hams and sides of 

 double excellence. I have seen such hogs leap a low rail-fence 

 in Georgia. The Westphalian hams were of the like character. 



While we are making vast improvements in agriculture gene- 

 rally, we must look next to our roast beef and hams. 



