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Manual of Political Economy.
Large and small farming.The relative advantages of large and small farming have long been one of the most controverted points connected with the subject of this chapter. In England, agriculture has no doubt, within the last few years, been conducted on a much larger scale than formerly. In the best cultivated districts of England, each farmer generally rents not less than three or four hundred acres. In many parishes the land which is now cultivated by one or two farmers was, within the memory of those who are still living, parcelled into twenty or thirty distinct holdings. Advantages of large farming.We will first point out some of the obvious advantages which arise from large farming. The extended use of agricultural machinery has been a prominent feature of that great improvement in the cultivation of the soil which has taken place during the present century. Forty or fifty years since the greater portion of the corn grown in this country was thrashed by the flail; now steam-thrashing machines are used in every district, and the flail has been almost banished; even agricultural labourers rejoice in the change, and confess that they would most reluctantly resume the use of the flail; the young men of the present day would probably not submit to such monotonous work. Steam cultivation is each year rapidly extending. Agricultural machinery more available.A much greater proportion of the farmer's capital is consequently now invested in machinery than formerly. A good steam-thrashing machine costs nearly 400l.; small farmers cannot afford to avail themselves of all this improved and expensive machinery. Not only can they not afford it, but a steam-thrashing machine requires for its working something more than the resources which a small farm can supply; its working must be attended to by eight or ten men; the corn is taken from the stack by two men, another man has to feed the machine with corn; the engine must have an engineer; the straw must be carried away by one man, and stacked by another; another man must take the grain from the machine, and another again will have to carry water to the engine. It is true that a great many even of the large farmers do not now own, but hire, the steam-thrashing machines which they use; such a plan, however, is extremely uneconomical. A farmer who hires such a machine cannot always obtain
