LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 267 



make it grow better and better and at the same time give forth large returns 

 iu its abundant crops. I believe in mixed husbandry because it is the only 

 practical way of keeping up the fertility of our farms. If our farms are 

 alloAved to get poorer instead of better, it is only a question of time 

 when they will fail to support us, "as some one has said." What would 

 you think of the wisdom of the man having say $4,000 at interest, who in 

 addition to using the interest yearly should also use a portion of the principal? 

 You would say at once he will soon have neither interest or principal, he will 

 be bankrupt. 



A farmer has a farm worth $4,000; that farm is his principal, the produc- 

 ing power of his farm is his interest. As the person having the money at 

 interest will bepome bankrupt if he persists in using a part of his principal 

 yearly besides his interest, just so surely will the farmer become bankrupt if 

 he allows the producing power of his farm to become impaired. The analogy 

 between the capitalist and the farmer is in this respect perfect. This is not a 

 fanciful idea or overdrawn picture. 



The Commissioner of Agriculture of the United States, in one of his annual 

 reports, says : In some of the New England States thousands of acres have 

 been literally abandoned and are lying untilled and unoccupied. These lands 

 were once occupied by an enterprising and industrious people. The same is 

 true of large tracts of lands in some of the Southern States; lands that are 

 completely worn out, starved to death, as it were, by one single line of farm- 

 ing, by not giving back to the soil what justly belonged to it. I know of 

 farms, not a great many miles from here, that are about in as bad condition 

 as those above described. There can be no certain rules for rotation of 

 crops, or the amount or kind of stock to be kept. Every one must decide for 

 himself the rotation of crops best suited to his farm and the amount and 

 kind of stock that he can keep at the best advantage and most profit. That 

 depends a good deal upon the kind of farm, whether it is liigh and roiling or 

 low and flat. Sheep will do a great deal better on a high, rolling farm than on 

 a low, wet, flat farm. On most of our farms I think it advisable to diversify 

 our stock as well as our crops, and what we keep be sure and have good breeds. 

 We cannot afford to keep any other. It costs no more to keep a good grade of 

 any kind than it does to keep a scrubby native, and with the same feed the 

 grade will sell for almost double, and whatever we keep should be well fed. 

 If we are to receive any profit from the stock we keep on the farm, it is by 

 keeping it growing until it is ready to sell. It takes but little more feed 

 to keep a pig, a calf or colt growing and in good condition until they come to 

 maturity or until they are ready for market, than it does to just keep them 

 alive and in a stunted condition. In the one case, you throw away your feed 

 and time ; in the other, you realize a profit. 



A great mistake with farmers, I think, is plowing too much ; the more we 

 plow the more hard work we have to do. The more hay and grass we raise 

 the more stock we can keep, thereby having more butter, more cheese, more 

 wool, more mutton, more beef, more pork, and a larger and better manure 

 pile, which again will give us more hay and grass. The farmer that follows 

 mixed husbandry is more sure to succeed, for if he fails on one crop, or kind, 

 he is sure to hit the market on something else. Besides he doesn't need so 

 much help, he has more time to put in and gather his crops, for the reason 

 they mature at different seasons of the year, and would not have so many 

 acres of each kind to harvest. 



