CHANGES IN FARMING. o^j 



by confining that labor to their several occupations than if each 

 were to attempt to do a little of all kinds of work. So too, just 

 in proportion as traffic increases, we find dealers to confine them- 

 selves to a more limited range of goods to deal in. For a first 

 division the "dry goods" part from "groceries" and miscel- 

 laneous wares, and these by degrees severally split up into as 

 manj'' branches as will furnish a livelihood to the persons pursuing 

 them, each pursuing that branch which he can carry on to the 

 best advantage. 



It is by no means easy to say to what extent the various 

 branches of farming may now be, or may by and b}' be separated 

 one from another with increase of profit. It is very certain that 

 our farming is " mixed," and not onty properly mixed but exces- 

 sively mixed ; hardly less so than when every man was obliged to 

 have it so in order to supply the wants of his household. But 

 what need exists now of continuing customs adapted only to prim- 

 itive times and to the wants of pioneers ? 



I would not advise a change which would involve need to buy 

 anything which can be grown or produced on the farm as cheaply 

 as it can be purchased, but beyond that I would advocate the 

 direction of the energies of the man mainly towards that branch of 

 agriculture in which he is most likely to succeed ; — toward the 

 crop or the product for which his lands are best adapted naturally, 

 or can easily be fitted, and so will yield most cheaply and most 

 profitably ; and that he make all his labor subsidiary to that. If 

 your qualifications are for eminence in growing fruit, and your 

 lands are fruit lands more than grass lands, why not make fruit 

 your leading aim ? If your love is for domestic animals, and your 

 lands grazing lands, why putter about fruit any more than to 

 raise what the family may consume? 



The most successful farmers are those who do this. Sometimes 

 it has seemed to one accustomed to our mixed farming, that they 

 carried the matter to excess. I have known highly successful 

 dairymen, not in Maine but in .other States, who told me that they 

 bought every pound of butter which went on to their tables ; and 

 others who bought all the cheese consumed by the family ; each 

 allpging that they could not afford to make the other, they could 

 buy cheaper; and this because each was eminent in his own 

 specialty. He could make either after a fashion, but one poorly 

 compared with the other ; and they severally felt and realized the 

 fact that their profits came not so much from butter making and 



