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country is capable of producing*, we see no necessity for hazarding much 
on a single crop. Wheat, corn, oats, rye, flax and broom corn, are all 
crops that flourish in our soil and find a ready market. The extent to 
which a farmer can with profit engage in farming, is a matter which he 
is better able to decide for himself than others, for he is supposed to know 
his own circumstances best. 
Much is said and written at the present day about the disadvantages of 
owning large farms. I have often heard the remark made by those 
whose notions of farming were derived from reading the New York Trib¬ 
une, that a few acres of land are all that any farmer ought to possess. 
These ideas may do for a man living in the immediate vicinity of the 
populous cities of the East, but may not, perhaps, for others differently 
situated. I know not why, if his means will admit of it, a man may 
not as well manage extensive farming operations as extensive operations 
in other business pursuits. For one, I see but a single objection of any 
consequence to large farms in this country, neighbors are thereby thrown 
too far apart and enjoy less facilities for social intercourse among their 
families. I have little sympathy with those who bestow unqualified cen¬ 
sure upon our farmers, as a class, for the manner in which they manage 
their business. More lectures are read to them than to men in any other 
pursuit, and often by those whose ignorance of farming directs them to 
advise farmers to ‘ wade over shoes in mud, for the sake of sowing spring 
wheat in March.’ It is desirable that whatever is undertaken in farming 
be well done, to ensure success, and I apprehend that farmers generally 
have knowledge of this matter, and aim to profit by all the means in their 
power. For this they toil—for this they read—and for this many of them 
experiment. We rejoice at the present signs of their success ; they left 
the green hills of New England and New York for a wilderness, which, 
after years of toil, they have cleared into productive fields; and the rude 
structures, for habitation and shelter, erected in days of poverty and 
want, are now wtih each revolving year, giving place to tasteful and 
comfortable dwellings. Yet a few years and orchards of fruit, waving 
meadows, ornamental groves, and highly cultivated fields, will render 
it difficult for a stranger to surmise, from the appearance of the country,. 
* the date of its first settlement. 
