GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



381 



farmers have reduced their stock and sold their ha} 7 , thereby 

 impoverishing- their farms. It is true the sale has yielded ready 

 money, but in too many instances barren fields. It has been said, 

 you may cheat your neighbor and escape the penalty, but your 

 farm and stock never. I have noticed several instances in my 

 own vicinity where the farmer thought it economy to sell stock 

 and hay in the fall and replace the stock in the spring, but almost 

 invariably in a very few years he has not been able to keep so 

 much stock if he was so disposed. A farm is a good bank where 

 investments are perfectly safe. Contrast tvyo men and their 

 farms, the one who has made ample restoration to mother earth, 

 and the other who has robbed her, and you will find an instructive 

 lesson. It is very burdensome to pay taxes and acquire a com- 

 fortable living on a farm thus sapped, and experience has taught 

 too many the great cost of restoring the soil to its primitive good- 

 ness. 



What products can be sold off the farm with the least detriment 

 to its fertility, is a very important question. It is evident to 

 every reflecting mind that the manure made upon the farm is the 

 only reliable fertilizer upon which we as common farmers may 

 depend, therefore hay, corn and grain should not be sold in any 

 other way than in the form of animals and animal products. Fruit, 

 wool, butter and cheese in our section we consider profitable to 

 the farmer and without detriment to the soil. Which crops pay 

 best is a question of great importance to the farming community. 



This is a world of change, but if we adhere to nature's indica- 

 tions we shall not be likely to go far astray. The Great Creator 

 has made the soil capable of producing a great many crops, and it 

 seems to me to be most profitable to raise a variety. We some- 

 times go to extremes, but it is not safe to push anything to an 

 extreme. Swing the pendulum of a clock farther than its accus- 

 tomed place and in return it goes as far in the opposite direction. 

 There is avast amount of speculation in this 'matter. I have 

 observed that if the potato crop is successful one year, thousands 

 trust their all to the same the next, when perhaps it proves a fail- 

 ure, and so it is with all others. In going to extremes some 

 become rich while others become bankrupt. We should try to 

 follow safe methods in matters of great importance. The almighty 

 dollar should not alone be our single aim but that which secures 

 to us comfort and trust. In past history we read of famines and 

 we find these occurred chiefly where the people trusted to some 



