INSTITUTE PAPERS. I03 



industry of the day, is increased. How shall it be increased? 

 Not by the undemocratic process of adding farm to farm, but 

 by lapping our intelligence over every acre of the farm, assert- 

 ing the sovereignty of mind over matter, the force that is the 

 measure of all success. Old field areas now averaging a torn 

 of hay to the acre must be tripled in acre production under a 

 food rotation and the area of the farm used increased to its 

 tillage limit. The five acres now required to pasture a cow, 

 and the twelve required to keep her the year round, on the basis 

 of better returns, could keep twelve cows. Carry these pastures 

 into fields, cut out your weed wood and grow only economic 

 tiees, making the present area give better returns than now 

 and put the cut area saved into tillage. Put mind at its high- 

 est and best possible service, and extort of every acre of the 

 farm all its resources. By this process I have increased mj 

 own production eight-fold in the past sixteen years. In an- 

 other place and reported in the Commissioner's annual report 

 for a prior year, I have covered the possibilities of income per 

 acre of ground and the methods of securing that income. I 

 have there shown that a revenue of less than $10 per acre for 

 the entire farm must be lifted at least to $65 or $75 per acre 

 to leave the net revenue essential for this larger life thai your 

 children aspire to live. I have there shown that my own eight 

 years' rotation so distributes the labor of the year that I am 

 able to keep men and teams at constant economic service all the 

 year round, thereby decreasing the man and team cost per unit 

 of work turned ofif, giving labor such an opportunity for con- 

 tinuous service that I have no trouble in securing ample and 

 fairly good labor. My friends, catch the spirit of the times; 

 apply capital, labor, tools, plant food and higher intelligence 

 to all the acres of the farm so that the present fixed charges 

 of the farm will bear a much less ratio to total revenue than 

 now. From experience I can assure you that intensive methods 

 applied more extensively solve the problems of higher level of 

 farm life and a less strain of prolonged hours. 



The stumbling block which has prevented the most of you 

 from expanding your tillage area and at the same time secur- 

 ing larger crops from each acre has been the assumed inade- 

 quacy of plant food for the type of farming you are advised to 

 pursue. Crops are the measure of our income and plant food 



