Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1877 — Too Much Land. [ARTICLE]

Too Much Land.

Many a farmer is ruined by his greed for land. He wants all the land adjoining him, ana his poverty is the result of his not possessing the quaint wisdom of the man who was trying to hoe some corn on a fearfully stony patch, when one riding by remarkeafhat he, should think a man must be very poor with such land as that. “0, sir,” replied the farmer, *tl am poor as you think I am* I don’t owiij all this lana. ’ ’ Many a farmer is actually poor—or always In straitened circumstances, which is quite as bad—be-, cause of his mania for land. A farin Is not regarded by such as sufficiently large unless it contains 200 or 300 acres of laud. But there are very few farfners with sufficient capital to own and to advantage such a farm. A business man is only wise to measure the size of his business by the amount of his capital. Occasionally you see a man trying desperately to swing a business which should have a capital of $50,000, on a capital of one-fifth that amount; the consequence is, he is always “hard up” —a wretched pay-master, a victim to loan spongers, and, in the end, not worth a dollar. 8o of farming. A farm which requires, for the proper management, at least $20,000 capital, is run on a quarter of that amount. Mortgages exhaust soil faster tlian crops.? 1 Much qf.the land is Defected. Buildings cet out of repair. Marketing is not properly attended to. Produce has to be sola at spreed prices, and leanness is marked on everything except the circumference of the farm. But too much land is a loss from the inability to work it. We can bring out thq point by citing the experience of two farmers we know well. One has a farm of 150 acres of land, a pasturage of sixty acres, wood land covering thirty acres, mowing and tilling of fifty acres, with some ten acres running to waste. His stock consists of one yoke of oxen, five milch cows, seven head of young cattle, one horse and a hundred sheep. This farmer mows over some forty acres of land to cut thirty to forty tons of hay; cultivates ten acres divided up for planting and sowing crops. He is always short of pasturage, buys hay every spring, and has but little to sell off from the farm. Too much land is that farmer’s poverty. The other man, living in the same town, owning land of the same character, has a farm of seventy-five acres. His stock in the nutobqr of head, is the same, with the exception of a few less sheep. He mows over only fifteen acres; cuts .thirty Jons in the first crop, and about ten of the second. He has produce to sell; his stock looks sleek, and always brings thq, best price. Old hay has not been strange to his bam for years. The farm is carried on with less help, and everything shows thrift. Now, as both are hard-working, goodcalculating farmers, we are satisfied the difference in their circumstances is that one has too much land to work over, fence, take care of and pay taxes on. Over the doors of many poverty-stricken farmers should be written: Too much land.— Golden Rule.