292 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
turns. from it, and imagines himself exceedingly tired. The 
little he has done, comes to nothing, for want of finishing. 
The man wdio produces a good full crop will scarcely ever let 
any part of it go to waste. He will keep up the enclosure 
about it, and allow neither man nor beast to trespass upon it. 
He will gather it in due season and store it in perfect security. 
Thus he labors with satisfaction, and saves himself the whole 
fruit of his labor. The other, starting with no purpose for a 
•full crop, labors less, and ‘with less satisfaction ; allows his 
fence to fall, and cattle to trespass ; gathers not in due season, 
or not all. Thus the labor he has performed, is wasted away, 
little by little, till in the end, he derives scarcely anything 
from it. 
The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farming, even 
with men of energy. I scarcely ever knew a mammoth farm to 
sustain itself; much less to return a profit upon the outlay. I 
have more than once known a man to spend a respectable for¬ 
tune upon one; fail and leave it; and then some man of modest 
aims, get a small fraction of the ground, and make a good liv¬ 
ing upon it. Mammoth farms are like tools or weapons, which 
are too heavy to be handled. Ere long they .are thrown aside 
at a great loss. 
The successful application of steam power to farm work, is a 
desideratum —especially a steam plow. It is not enough that 
a machine operated by steam, will really plow. To be success¬ 
ful, it must, all things considered, plow better than can be done 
with animal power. It must do all the work as well, and 
cheaper ; or more rapidly , so as to get through more perfectly 
in season; or in some way afford an advantage over plowing 
with animals, else it is no success. I have never seen a ma¬ 
chine intended for a steam plow. Much praise and admiration 
are bestowed upon some of them; and they may be, for aught 
I know,-already successful; but I have not perceived the de¬ 
monstration of it. I have thought a good deal, in an abstract 
way about a steam plow. That one which shall be so contrived 
as to'apply the larger proportion of its power to the cutting 
