300 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
GENERAL FARM MANAGEMENT. 
The Essay which was awarded a premium of $25, by the Executive Committee of the Society, 
Dec. 20th, 1859. 
BY JOHN EDWARDS, OP ROSENDALE. 
Nothing presents a more cheerless and disconsolate appear¬ 
ance than an ill-managed farm. Broken down fences, and di¬ 
lapidated buildings; lean-looking animals, and leaner looking 
field’s, are some of the numerous indications that point out its 
location. It is true that only particular cases are especially bad, 
yet the general farm management of Wisconsin and of the West 
is far from being wdiat it ought to be, and what it must become, 
before farming may assume its legitimate rank as a pleasant, 
profitable, and honorable employment. It is therefore not with¬ 
out reason, that the State Agricultural Society of Wisconsin, 
has offered a premium for an acceptable essay, on General Farm 
Management. 
The truth that ought to be continually impressed upon the 
minds of farmers is, that farming, like any other business, must 
be carried on in a systematic manner; and that this is the main 
condition on which it will prosper, and without which, it will 
certainly fail. There is probably no business which is carried 
on with so little order as farming, and this fact explains at once 
the origin of the universal complaint that farming is not a lu¬ 
crative occupation. Did merchants and bankers carry on their 
affairs in the same loose manner for twelve months, a convul¬ 
sion more terrible than that of 185T, would be the inevitable 
result. 
