WHAT CROPS TO RAISE. 105 



and other things too numerous to mention, which, if ignored, would fail of giving success, 

 even with the most desirable choice of crops that might be made ; but where all other condi 

 tions are favorable, a judicious choice is one of the first essentials to success, and a failure or 

 error here will inevitably lead to disastrous results, such results as no amount of labor and 

 care, or skill in culture, can to any great extent ameliorate. 



Choice Of Crops Modified by Demand. It will be generally conceded that the 

 choice of crops is to the farmer what the selection of goods is to the merchant. The selection 

 of goods is to the merchant, a consideration of the first importance in his success, and his 

 study must be to learn the wants of his customers and meet their demands, both in kind and 

 quality of goods with which to continually replenish his stock. If he fails to do this, he soon 

 loses custom, for no one would think of buying things he may happen to have on hand, simply 

 to accommodate him, when they were not what was wanted ; and if he did not have the goods 

 desired, his customers would go elsewhere for them, and other merchants would gain the 

 trade that he had lost. One of the great principles of mercantile business everywhere 

 recognized is to meet the demands of the trade, and if this be ignored, failure of success 

 must inevitably follow. This same principle is equally applicable to the agricultural pursuit, 

 since the farmer as well as the merchant depends upon the sales he makes for the profits in 

 his business, the only difference being that the merchant purchases his goods for sale, and the 

 farmer produces his from the soil by skill and labor in cultivation. 



If the merchant requires skill and judgment in determining the wants of his customers, 

 and in selecting his goods with a view to meet those wants, so does the farmer require an 

 equal amount of skill and judgment to meet the demand for the class of products he is to 

 supply. And if in the mercantile business, there is constantly a demand for something new, 

 the old going out of fashion to give place for the new, so in farming, is there no permanency 

 in the demand for certain products. What is most in demand now, may not be required by 

 the markets a few years hence. 



New varieties of fruits and other products are constantly being introduced, some of 

 which find a more ready market than those formerly cultivated, and it is the farmer s business 

 to learn what kinds of products and the varieties of these that are most in demand, and will 

 consequently bring the highest price, and cultivate these. In many instances the varieties 

 most popular with the purchasers may seem no better to the farmer than the old; but since it 

 is but right that the consumer who pays his money for the products should be the one to 

 decide which Jie will buy, the farmer will find it for his interest to cultivate the kind desired. 

 In other words, the farmer, as well as the merchant, must keep up with the times and the 

 demands of the age in which he lives in order to be successful. The farmer then, as a general 

 rule, must keep himself informed with respect to the state of the markets at which he is to 

 dispose of his crops, and raise such as are in demand there. 



Principle Should be Regarded. There are, however, exceptions to the above rule 

 governing the choice of crops. We cannot recommend it only as far as it does not involve a 

 violation of moral principle. Popular demand should always be subservient to that, and no 

 truly honest man would sacrifice principle for the profits that may be the result. We have a 

 .profound respect and admiration for an old New England farmer, who in a time of general 

 scarcity of apples, being offered a high price for those from his large, well-bearing orchards, 

 for the purpose of manufacturing cider-brandy, replied, &quot;No! though I want the money, 

 I ll let em rot upon the ground before I ll sell em for such a purpose!&quot; 



If all farmers were equally true to principle with respect to the disposal of their pro 

 ducts, there would be less perversion of the good and useful, and what the Creator designed 

 for man s sustenance, into evil, and that element that destroys annually morally, mentally, and 

 physically, so many of the human race. He who administers to an evil habit or depraved 



