PROGRESSIVE FARMING. 23 



cheap, and markets poor, it does not pay the farmer to cultivate 

 highly. He can obtain an equal amount of produce easier and 

 cheaper by cropping his land, and when it is exhausted, shifting 

 his operations to "fresh fields and pastures new." 



The more thickly settled the country, and the greater the de- 

 mand for agricultural products, the more thorough the system 

 of farming that will be most profitable. It is doubtful if the 

 high-culture system of Belgium would be profitable for us, even 

 if practicable to adopt it ; still I think it is time for us to take a 

 long step in advance. It is impossible to lay down a rule which 

 will be equally applicable to every one, for we are all more or 

 less limited in the amount of available fertilizers. 



But I think it is safe to say that if we have more land under 

 cultivation than can be kept increasing in productiveness, it 

 would be more profitable to turn a portion of it to pasture and 

 cultivate less. In other words, if we find the tillage land of 

 our farms is not annually increasing in fertility, economy re- 

 quires us to increase the manure or diminish the extent of land 

 cultivated. 



Another point of importance is to so manage that the land 

 cultivated each year should lie as much as possible together. 

 Many farmers pay no attention to this, and cultivate hoed crops 

 at parts of the farm remote from each other. The time lost in 

 passing from one lot to another in the course of the year, and in 

 moving teams and tools, amounts to quite an item, especially 

 where a large force of labor is employed. 



I have stated the opinion that the most profitable culture of 

 grass requires that as often as once in four to eight years much 

 of our land should be thoroughly enriched and cultivated with 

 some kind of hoed crops. What these crops shall be depends 

 upon a great variety of circumstances. I believe it is sound 

 doctrine that, as a general rule, no hoed crop should be raised 

 which, with average success, cannot reasonably be expected to 

 pay the expenses of labor and fertilizers employed in its produc- 

 tion and leave the land in better condition. We must also be 

 careful to select such products as our land is adapted to produce. 

 This can only be ascertained by actual trial, at the same time 

 taking care to avoid the mistake of going into the culture of 

 any fruit or vegetable too largely at first. Success in the culti- 

 vation of any crop, like the practice of any trade, requires a 



