Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1891 — Why Small Farms do not Alway Pay. [ARTICLE]

Why Small Farms do not Alway Pay.

Buffalo Commercial. A good deal is said about the reasons why the farmers of this region do not succeed better in a financial way, ” said one of the larger produce buyers of western New York. “And I have seen one of the merely average young farmers of my town buy rag additional acres and new farms year after year, from the profits of his farming. I have made up my mind that there are important exceptions to any rule about the universal depression in agriculture. But there is one serious thing the small farmer has had to contend with the past, twenty years. Improved machinery has been of less proportionate benefit to him than his large competitors. The farmer with from twenty-five to fifty acres of grain has made a very little saving over the old eraddle cutting when he counts the interest on his investment in a reaper, cost of its repairs; depreciation in value, expense of horse-power and driver. With increase of laborsaving machinery have come advantage for extensive Western farming not shared by the small farmer of this region,”