LINES OF PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE. 357 



duction beyond a certain limit, which will vary with different 

 conditions, involves an increase in the cost of the product, and 

 with low prices an increase in yield, under an intensive system 

 of management, may be made to cost more than its market value. 

 With prevailing low prices for staple products, mixed farming, 

 when conducted on a comprehensive plan, that gives to each 

 interest its legitimate influence on the aggregate of results, has 

 many advantages which recommend it as the best general system 

 of practice. 



Of the available suggestions which the rapid progress and de- 

 velopment of other industries may present for the farmer's con- 

 sideration, strict economy in the management of labor, and the 

 thorough utilization of waste products, are undoubtedly the most 

 significant. These two topics are so closely connected in practice 

 from their intimate relations to every department of production, 

 that they can not be separately considered in planning a system 

 of farm management. 



The direct influence on the margin of profits, of the distribu- 

 tion and efiiciency of the labor performed on the farm throughout 

 the year, is, however, so obvious that it will answer our present 

 purpose to refer to it as an element that can not be neglected in 

 discussing other methods of improvement. The waste products 

 of the farm, which are so generally neglected, require more than 

 a passing notice ; but the limits of this article will not permit a 

 full discussion of the subject, and we can only call attention to 

 their great economic value. 



From a careful estimate, based on the best obtainable data for 

 the year 1884, in which the most important elements of fertility 

 are valued at their market price in the form of commercial ferti- 

 lizers, the barn-yard manure (or what should be utilized as such 

 under a good system of management), in the State of Michigan, is 

 worth at least $35,000,000 ; and in the United States this residue, 

 under the same method of valuation, gives the astonishing aggre- 

 gate of $1,092,950,000, which is more than twice the market value 

 of all agricultural exports for the same year. 



Persons familiar with the details of farm practice in different 

 parts of the country will consider it safe to assume that at least 

 one half of this valuable residue is lost, through neglect and errors 

 in management, from lack of knowledge of the best methods of 

 conserving the elements of fertility. The annual loss to farmers 

 of the United States of a sum equal to, or exceeding, the market 

 value of all agricultural exports, which they may readily prevent 

 by a thorough and consistent system of management, is a matter 

 of the first importance in considering the available means of agri- 

 cultural improvement. 



It does not aid the farmer in the ordinary routine of his work, 



