ROTATION OF CROPS. 107 



succeed. If he meets with any degree of success while working in ignorance, it is by mere 

 chance that he reaches the result a kind of &quot; guess work &quot; without knowledge of the facts 

 that lead to it. &quot;What could be expected of a mechanic who attempted, in the pursuit of his 

 business, to use tools constructed in a complicated manner, when entirely ignorant of their 

 use and construction? Equally presumptuous would it be for the farmer to expect to cultivate 

 intelligently and with successful results the* most complicated of elements combined the 

 agricultural soil when entirely ignorant of its composition, or of what it was best adapted 

 to produce. 



Relative Cost in Production, etc. Another important point to be considered in 

 the choice of crops is the relative cost in production, and the value of different crops when 

 harvested. There may sometimes be crops in popular demand in the market, for the production 

 of which the soil of the farmer may be admirably adapted, but the expense of which production 

 may so far exceed that of other crops less in demand, that the latter may be found to be the 

 most profitable. When it costs a farmer fifty per cent, more to produce a bushel of potatoes 

 than it does corn, for instance, or any other crop, and the former brings but twenty-five per 

 cent, more profit than the latter, he will find it for his advantage to cultivate the latter, since 

 by so doing he realizes a larger per cent, of profit; that is, his receipts are larger in excess 

 of his expenditures than on the more expensive crop. It is not profitable to raise large and 

 expensive crops that do not bring a large proportionate profit in return. The fact should be 

 kept in mind that that farming is most profitable that brings the largest returns for what is 

 expended. Farmers should keep an accurate account with respect to the expense of each 

 crop (including cost of fertilizers, expense of cultivation, harvesting, marketing, etc.), and 

 determining relatively what the cost of production and receipts of their sale are, they will 

 thus learn which pays best and which are the most unprofitable. By so doing, a decision as 

 to which are the most desirable to raise can easily be reached. 



Where it will be found that the crops for home consumption on the farm can be grown 

 cheaper than they can be purchased, it will, of course, be best to cultivate enough of such, at 

 least, as are necessary for that purpose ; but where certain products for homo production can be 

 bought for less money than the farmer could grow them himself, it will not pay to cultivate 

 such, when money and labor could more profitably be expended on other products. By giving 

 due thought and attention to the subject of a choice in crops, and taking measures to so 

 inform himself as to obtain all the light possible on the subject, the farmer will be liable to 

 make a more judicious choice than otherwise; and having once taken such steps in the right 

 direction although he may make some mistakes, and often obtain benefit from such experi 

 ence yet he will, in the main, with other favoring conditions, meet with success. The 

 farmer who profits by the experience of the past, and wisely appropriates to his use the 

 advantages within his reach that the present affords, must win success, however close the 

 competition with which he meets, or difficult the obstacles he has to overcome. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



IT has become an established fact in agriculture that the continued growth for 

 successive years of the same kind or family of plants on the same soil is one of the 

 surest and most speedy means of impairing, and, in many instances, rendering that 

 particular .soil unfit for bearing further crops of that kind. More especially is this true 

 if the crop matures and ripens its seed, like the various kinds of grain, etc. It has also been 

 ascertained by long practice, that if a proper system of rotation be adopted, exhaustion of 

 soil will be greatly deferred, and that by the use of fertilizers, which will return an equivalent 



