514 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DIFFICULTY OF TAKING UP A NEW LINE OF FARMING. 



A man who has grown up with the agriculture of a community is slow 

 to believe that the type of farming he has followed and which was at one 

 time profitable has at last become unsuited to his conditions. It is no 

 small task to think out and change his long-used type to some better kind 

 of farming. There are several reasons why such a change is difficult. It 

 may mean a new line of equipment. Buildings may need modification or 

 fences must be rearranged. It may mean the introduction of commercial 

 fertilizers or of more or different live stock on the farm. It may mean 

 that money will have to be borrowed if the proposed changes are ef- 

 fected. Furthermore, the change may not succeed. At best the taking up 

 of a new line of farming requires a readjustment of the usual ways of 

 thinking and doing, a thing difficult in itself and requiring considerable 

 time to accomplish. 



HOW SHALL THE CHANGE BE MADE. 



Notwithstanding habit may set the farmer in his ways, altered condi- 

 tions and lessened yields and income may compel him to change his sys- 

 tem or go out of business. To what shall he change? How shall he go 

 about it? What type of farming is likely to prove more profitable than the 

 kind he is now following? What additional capital is necessary to insti- 

 tute a new and better system? These are the questions that confront 

 him. They are difficult to answer. With pencil and paper in hand he 

 may estimate the returns that may reasonably be expected by introducing 

 more crops that build up the land, by growing more of the crop that is 

 bringing him in the greatest amount of money, hy giving more attention 

 to the live stock that has been found to pay best, and the like. 



If in these calculations he meets with difficulty because of a lack of def- 

 inite information as to what may be reasonahly expected when improved 

 methods are applied in the culture of a crop or in the handling of stock, 

 he may write to the agricultural college, or the board of agriculture, or 

 the agricultural experiment station of his own State, or to the United 

 States Department of Agriculture for help. It is the business of these 

 institutions to discover and gather facts relative to the science, practice, 

 and business of agriculture for the benefit of the farmer, and particularly 

 for the farmer who wants to improve his methods of farming. The agri- 

 cultural press also undertakes to aid the farmers in the solution of prob- 

 lems of this character. 



In addition to these sources a few private firms have been established 

 whose business is to furnish expert advice on farm management for a con- 

 sideration. 



OBJECTIONS TO GIVING ADVICE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF ENTIRE FABMS. 



Not always, however, are the institutions just mentioned prepared to 

 give the farmer information on a plan covering his whole farm. The ex- 

 pert dairyman cares to give advice only on dairying, the entomologist only 

 on insects and spraying, the agronomist only on field crops, the patholo- 

 gist only on plant diseases, the shepherd only on sheep. Not many care 



