PROGRESSIVE FARMING. 25 



ing during the early part of July, when they are pretty sure to 

 be neglected, and if neglected too long, ruined. 



Another point worth considering in the selection of a crop, is 

 the use that can be made of it providing it cannot be readily 

 sold. 



Articles of good keeping qualities will usually find a market 

 somewhere, but some of the most profitable kinds of produce 

 are perishable, and must be disposed of in some way at once. 



It is a good point in any product that it is worth something to 

 feed to stock, providing there is no sale for it in the market. If, 

 for instance, we raise turnips or cabbages, and by reason of a 

 large crop the price is so reduced that they hardly pay for mar- 

 keting, they are worth what it costs to raise them to feed to cat- 

 tle. If, on the other hand, we happen to have a surplus of 

 onions, tomatoes, or cucumbers, we must encounter loss, because 

 these articles have little or no value, except as food for man. 

 Did time permit, many other points might be mentioned, 

 having a bearing on the selection of crops. 



But after all, nothing can be raised which will invariably 

 prove profitable under the most excellent management. The 

 best rule seems to be to select a few specialties, and make their 

 cultivation a study. It is poor policy to change continually 

 from one thing to another, or to attempt to produce many com- 

 modities at once. If we decide to raise potatoes as a market 

 crop, the fact that potatoes are too cheap to pay well this year 

 is not a good reason why we should not plant our usual breadth 

 of land in potatoes next spring. Those farmers who thought 

 they had discovered in the Early Rose the philosopher's stone 

 wherewith to transmute the baser elements of the soil to gold, 

 will have discovered their mistake, and next year will plant 

 something else, perhaps the Trophy tomato or Norway oats. 



The place which stock should occupy in the best system of 

 farming, is another unsettled question. An abundant supply 

 of fertilizing matter is a prime requisite for successful farming ; 

 and whether it is more profitable to sell produce and buy ma- 

 nure, or feed the products of the farm to stock, depends upon 

 the nearness to market and facilities for obtaining dressing for 

 the land. 



It needs no demonstration to show that raising the common 

 kind of stock, such as is found in the great markets, will not 

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