374 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



its strength or the accumulated fertility of the past ages, 

 and as a consequence they have left to us a heritage of exhausted 

 lands, the result of overcropping or mismanagement It is so 

 in the East to-day, and in course of time will be so in the West ; 

 he must restore the lust fertility of his fields and bring them back 

 as near as possible to their original condition; he must feed his 

 land, in order that it may feed him. 



This skinning process is in vogue on too many farms to-day. 

 I have known farmers to raise three crops on their land, seeding 

 down with the last and failing to secure a catch of seed, allow 

 the land to remain idle for a year or two and then repeat the pro- 

 cess without any fertilizers. The care and application of the fer- 

 tilizers made upon the farm is one of the important things neces- 

 sary to success. No farmer is alive to his best interest who allows 

 a dark-colored liquid to flow out of his barnyard, to be washed 

 away by the rains; we must strive to make two blades of grass 

 grow where one grew before. 



Here in Orange county the dairy is the principal source of the 

 farmer's income, and on too many farms the only source. We 

 believe that by weeding out the nonpaying cows, by judicious care 

 in breeding and selecting his dairy a farmer can add $10 to $15 net 

 receipts per cow. On a herd of thirty cows, it would make $300 or 

 $100 per year, the difference between success and failure in farm- 

 ing. We believe we should practice a more diversified farming, 

 not put our eggs all in one basket, so to speak, but cast around for 

 every possible means of swelling the income. Every farmer should 

 keep enough hens to buy his groceries. One of the greatest troubles 

 with farmers is, they do not depend sufficiently upon their own 

 farms for subsistence; they have an idea that they can buy many 

 things cheaper than they can raise them. This is well, if they 

 raise something a great deal more profitable and make the ex- 

 change. 



The successful farmer will apply business to farming; he will 

 keep an account of his receipts and expenses. There is a mine 

 of truth in those words of John Randolph, when he said: "Mr. 

 Speaker, I have found the philosopher's stone; it is, 'Pay as 

 y<m go. ? " Success in farming depends upon the farmer himself 

 more than anything else, upon his industry, frugality, tact and 

 judgment, or, in either words, his methods; he must be a good 

 buyer and a good seller, a director of labor — in short, a business 

 man. The Farm Journal says that the door of success has " Push ' : 

 on it, and we believe that the same amount of intelligence, effort, 

 tact and good judgment that is necessary to work a success in other 



