EXTENSIVE, INTENSIVE FARMING. 35 



system like my own for illustration of what we should expect 

 from the new method. I have an eight years' rotation, in which 

 we till four years out of the eight. One half of the entire area 

 that can be plowed is plowed every year and every acre fertilized. 

 We will suppose that we are starting on the second round, and 

 that the whole farm has had good tillage, with the best of imple- 

 ments, and every acre fertilized every year and everything done 

 at the right moment. We ought to get the following results 

 per acre: The first year, one acre of corn, equivalent to five 

 tons of hay ; the next year, one acre of oat and pea hay, equiva- 

 lent to three tons ; the third year, one acre of clover, in two crops, 

 equivalent to three or four tons ; the fourth year, an acre of 

 potatoes, 200 bushels, $100; next an acre of hungarian, three 

 tons ; the sixth year, an acre of timothy, three tons for sale, and 

 the seventh year an acre of timothy, three tons, making six tons 

 for sale, which will bring $90. The next year it is pasture good 

 for two or three tons to the acre, on which the cow can go out 

 and fill herself in a short time, and lie down and make milk, fill- 

 ing the pails. We have $175 in cash and an equivalent of six- 

 teen or seventeen tons of hay. Allowing for shrinkage of hay 

 and keeping of teams we still can feed seven cows that ought, in 

 intensive farming, to give $60 cash, or a total of $420 plus $190 

 from this acre in eight years, or $76 per acre per year. Now as 

 the new farming has pressed all the pasture land into fields pos- 

 sible, I assume that the average 100-acre farm has 50 acres of 

 fields. This gives a total return of $3,800 aside from house, 

 garden, orchard and team. This picture may need some shading, 

 yet it is not extravagant. It sets hope where hopelessness was 

 enthroned. As the old way has failed, we turn to the new for 

 inspiration. 



It may profit you if I give my method of fertilizing. For 

 corn I use six loads of manure and 500 pounds of chemicals ; for 

 oats and peas, 500 pounds chemicals ; for clover, 350 pounds ; 

 for potatoes, six loads or ten tons of manure and 1,200 pounds 

 chemicals ; for hungarian, ten tons of manure ; for the hay, six 

 or seven of manure for the first year and chemicals for the second 

 year. We never use large amounts of yard manure to the acre, 

 but distribute it in small amounts over large areas and apply 

 it frequently. When you apply 50 tons of yard manure to the 

 acre, giving 600 pounds of nitrogen that costs 18 cents a pound 



