FARM MANAGEMENT AND FARMER CULTURE. 429 
No man can be a successful Agriculturalist who does not gov¬ 
ern all his labor, enterprise, study and invention by thorough 
system. System , system, SYSTEM is to the farmer, as to 
every other business man, of that importance which Demosthe¬ 
nes ascribed to action in the orator. What celerity of move¬ 
ment—what promptness of execution—what certainty of result 
—what saving of expense and force, where every detail of the 
business is thoroughly mastered by the directing mind! Every 
operation is wisely forcast; each operative drops to his pre-ar¬ 
ranged post of duty, and every motion is directly in the line of 
the desired result—all things moving like the working of nicely 
adjusted machinery. 
The habit of thoroughly systematizing all the operations of 
the farm, tends to cure one of the most prevalent wastes of our 
Agriculture— attempting too much with too little means. Few 
have the peculiar talent requisite to the management of large 
operations economically, or for employing the labor of others 
to advantage, upon an extended scale. How many a man, 
who w r ould be sure of thrift if he could shut in all his labors 
upon forty acres, makes himself too “awful thin” to hold to¬ 
gether, by diluting his force over a quarter or a half section. 
Your safe, systematic farmer, calculating beforehand how much 
grain, for instance, it is desirable for him to produce a given 
year, will set himself at work to see on how few acres of land 
it is possible to grow the given quantity, and cultivate accord¬ 
ingly. There is a kind of certainty in all his operations, the 
season through. His crops escape a score of dangers which 
visit those of his neighbors. At harvest, the compact burthens 
of his field are secured with ease, in prime order, and with 
trifling outlays for extra help. Such a man is safe, because 
his operations, none of them, escape the rule of his management. 
Show an unsystematic farmer a necessity, whether in accumu¬ 
lating liabilities or need of means for improvements or build¬ 
ings on his farm, for producing an increased surplus of grain 
any year, and he will certainly set out to assure it by stretch¬ 
ing his efforts over more land. He starts wrong, and all the 
