124 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Should the majority of the men in the professional callings 

 throughout the country adopt one profession, there would not be room 

 enough in Webster's proverbial "upstairs" and the majority would 

 fail, while those who remained true and unwavering in their special 

 branches previously chosen would do well. 



And yet we, as farmers in this country, too frequently make just 

 this kind of a mistake. Too many of us do not do enough indepen- 

 dent thinking and acting. Like drowning seamen, we are too apt 

 to grasp some project of bright promises that unexpectedly looms 

 up, and swamp it to the inconvenience and peril of the majority. 

 The man who is continually changing the standard of his farm 

 operations, shifting from one specialty to another, in constant pur- 

 suit of that line of farming which is paying the best at the time of 

 the change, usually hoes a hard row. Said a man to me a few years 

 ago, "I do not know why it is so, but it is just this way with me; 

 when I get anything to put onto my farm, let it be stock, or seed, 

 I have to pay exorbitant prices for it, and when I get any farm 

 stock or produce ready to sell it seems to me that all creation has 

 the same article on sale. The price is then always low, and I do 

 not get much for it. If I could sell my farm, I believe that I would 

 engage in some other business." The simple story of this man's ex- 

 perience, so honestly and discouragingly told me is not an uncommon 

 one, and is easily explained. He was always ready for the com- 

 mencement of a new race, for which he paid large entrance fees, and 

 in which he was always just as sure to get left. Always paying in- 

 flated prices for the article most in demand at the time of its pur- 

 chase. 



To illustrate: When butter was bringing a good price, this man 

 was always looking around for another cow or two. Because, as 

 he said, butter paid now better than anything else on a farm. When 

 the usual periodical high prices in sheep came around, he found him- 

 self out of that kind of stock, since he had sold the last ones he 

 had at a sacrifice to get rid of them; but as he always went into 

 the business of sheep raising just under these circumstances, he 

 never failed to buy. But when he again got his stock bred, grown 

 and ready for the market, he found that thousands of other farmers 

 had done precisely the same thing. The market was now glutted 

 with the article he had now on sale and our friend would again be 

 obliged to sell his surplus stock at a sacrifice to relieve his pasture 

 or to get through the winter. When potatoes were scarce and high in 

 price, he bought seed and planted more than his usual acreage to 

 potatoes, and was usually disappointed at the price he was obliged 

 to accept for his crop, after digging, storing, and hauling to market. 

 He would sell his team in seed time or in harvest, lose valuable time 

 in looking for another and finally pay as much more money for an- 



