276 Report of Farmers' Institutes 



kinds and breeds of stock were most profitable under those par- 

 ticular conditions ; and then what combinations of crops and stock 

 paid the farmer and his family best for their year's work. The 

 settlers came from many different places and each one had differ- 

 ent notions to try. Practically everything known at the time 

 was tried and the things that succeeded endured — the others 

 were discarded. 



As population increased and markets developed, readjustment 

 became necessary. Extensive building of railroads intensified 

 the competition between dift'erent parts of the state, and with 

 other states. The invention of the mowing machine, the reaper 

 and the selfbinder, necessitated changes in types of farming prob- 

 ably as extensive as would be caused by a 50-day lengthening of 

 the growing season. Shifts in the relative prices of products, of 

 land and of labor, and various economic changes, are continually 

 requiring gradual readjustment of types of farming. 



So the great experiment is continued and every farmer in the 

 state consciously or unconsciously is helping to conduct it. Thou- 

 sands of different ideas are tested every year. Any proving profit- 

 able soon becomes common practice where they apply. Conse- 

 quently the types of farming and the practices that are common 

 in various sections of the state represent the accumulated ex- 

 perience of several generations of farmers. The present genera- 

 tion is inclined to overlook the fact that these types of farming 

 and practices are the result of accumulated experience. It does 

 not appreciate the years of labor spent in getting these results; 

 nor the great degree of accuracy that has come from the careful 

 checking of results by hundreds of farmers year after year; nor 

 the most important facts of all — that the results apply strictly to 

 the local soil, the local climate, the local marketing facilities and 

 all the other local conditions, and that they have been worked out 

 strictly on the basis of real profit. The type or types of farming, 

 then, that are generally followed under any given set of conditions 

 in this state or any of the older states, may be considered the 

 best, everything considered, for those particular conditions. 



