Proceedings of Seventeenth I^ormal Institute 205 



June, and if lie puts in winter grain they may be profitably em- 

 ployed in August and September, It would be easy to multiply 

 examples of the advantages of diversification. I believe in one 

 strong line as a specialty with several side lines. I take consider- 

 able pleasure in thinking that at home we produce ahnost every- 

 thing suited to our soil and climate. More than one-half of our 

 income is from the dairy ; yet we habitually sell timothy, hay, rye 

 straw, rye and buckwheat, apples, small fruits, a variety of 

 truck crops, pork, lambs and wool. I emphatically believe this is 

 sound farm practice. 



Another most important consideration of farm management is 

 the type of farming to be followed. This will vary with the soil, 

 climate, topography and markets. On Long Island you will find 

 exceedingly prosperous farmers growing truck on land worth $250 

 per acre and using condensed milk on their own tables. I believe 

 they are right in this because their lands have special adaptability 

 to certain high grade crops, but is not as well suited to cow keeping 

 as upstate lands at one-fifth the price. Generally, the established 

 agricultural practices of any community are fairly sound ; yet we 

 do find men patiently trying year after year to gTOw potatoes as a 

 money crop on heavy clay land when they ought to abandon the 

 crop and try cabbage or timothy hay instead. 



Sometimes the markets rather than soil or climate is the de- 

 terminant factor in crop selection ; foT example, we grow aspara- 

 gus on soil not well adapted to the crop, but we have exclusive 

 control of the local market and therefore it pays us. It would be 

 folly, however, for us to attempt to grow it and market in the 

 big centers of distribution. 



In a word, we must lay the main stress on the crops which, 

 either by natural adaptability or by special market requirements, 

 are best suited to our conditions. 



Farm management must also deal with the question of how 

 much capital ought to be invested in buildings, improvements and 

 implements. Good old Professor Roberts loved to tell his classes 

 that, when a farmer had made a hundred dollars, it was often 

 much wiser to " bury it in the ground " — meaning thereby 

 drainage — than to put it in the bank. The same is true of 

 purchased fertility and improved implements. There are very 



