With r‘ gard to the question, whether large or small firm,, are gencrally best managed ? we apprehend very 11,w words will suffice. Who keeps good horses, and f_eds thcin Who makes the completest tnlies the deepest furrow, and ploughs best Who has the greatest ntm>bt r of hands, and sufficient strength for catching the proper season, by which the crop upon the best of grounds is often regulated? Who purchases the most manure, and raises the weightiest crops We be lieve, that, in general, these questions must be answered iu fzvour of the large farmer.
It is a popular doctrine, that large farms are unfriend ly to population, and that they ought to be discouraged. We suspect this doctrine is founded in prejudice, and not stand the test of accurate examination. No doubt, if farms arc increased in size, the number of far mers is lessened; this is granted: but with regard to the great scale of population, we are clearly of opinion it is not affected. If a better practice is carried on upon a large farm than a small one, this must be accomplish ed by employing- a greater number of hands. What, therefore, is lost in one class, is gained in another. Be side s, we have often noticed, that upon large farms, most married servants are kept, which aflbrds encouragement to the increase of population. Upon a small farm, from 30 to 100 acres, what is the farmer to do? he has not sufficient business for employing his attention, and the smallness of his possession will not allow him to be idle. fie therefore must work With his hands, which brings the question precisely to the same issue, as if all work was performed hired servants; independent of the arguments we have adduced, that more work is execu ted, and more hands employed, upon a large Lim, wan upon the same extent of land divided into small ones.
It has surprised us to observe many persons taking it for granted, that by increasing the size of a farm you necessarily decrease the number of the people ; without cth.sidcring, that, if the management is equal in every respect, the population must he exactly the same, with the exception of one or two farmers' families. They tell you that cottages are pulled down; whereas the large farmer has occasion for more cottages than the small farmer, as he cannot keep so many house servants, and is often under the necessity of building new houses, in order that the number of servants he keeps may be accommodated. An attentive observer will smile at the doleful pictures often exhibited by such alarmists, which, to do them justice, are not original ones, as they have been borrowed from former times. In a word, wherever
work is carried on, it must be done by employing hands, and wherever work is executed in the most perfect manner, the greatest number of hands must be employ ed. If the system carried on upon the premises is un proved, the population must of course be increased; the one is the cause, the other is the effect, and practice and daily experience justify these conclusions.
On _Hiring or Renting a Farm.
The farmer, who wishes to hire or rent a farm, should, upon such an occasion, call forth all his abilities. He should equally attend to the disadvantages, and to the advantages of the farm, that he may be able to draw a balance, and compare that balance with the rent demand ed. Let him remember, that lie must equally discard a too solicitous prudence, which doubts every benefit, and a too daring courage, which overlooks, or lessens every evil.
It must be obvious to almost every person, that common farmers often lose themselves in deliberating con cerning- a farm. They have so many mistaken rules of judging, that they often reject farms, that soon after make the fortunes of those who rent them. In particu lar, they are very apt to take one false guide,—the suc cess of the last tenant. If a man makes a good deal of money upon a farm, or leaves it for a much larger one, numbers will immediately apply, almost without view ing it ; but, if a tenant fails, most of the neighbours take it for granted, without further consideration, that his farm was a had one. They attribute all to the land, and avoid it, under an idea, that without a reduction of rent, the farm cannot be profitable. These notions are absurd in the extreme ; for the management of various farmers is so essentially different, that success often depends very little on rent. A farmer, with a proper sum of money in his pocket, hires a farm, and thrives upon it; another, with a hundred pounds less, hires it, and starves. Sup pose two farmers of the same substance, and living upon similar farms : one manages his land with judgment and spirit; makes all the manure he can; sells no hay or straw; does not injudiciously crop his laud; drains his fields, and keeps his fences in good order. This'man grows rich. The other, a sloven in these particulars, dwindles into poverty. These are the circumstances that make one man rich, and the other poor; and surely it must be apparent, that succeeding occupiers, judging of the respective farms, by the success of others, arc taking as false a criterion as they eau possibly fix upon.