A LITTLE LAND 132 



AND A LIVING 



truck farmers and market gardeners have origi- 

 nated most modern improvements in farming. 



The farmer does not usually even notice how 

 much he raises per acre; he has plenty of land, 

 and the only question that interests him is how 

 many bushels he can get altogether and what they 

 cost. Besides, he has neither the time nor the ed- 

 ucation to tabulate results. 



The Experiment Stations are so occupied with 

 more pressing problems insects, varieties, hy- 

 bridization, inoculation, fertilizers, and so on, 

 that they have not given much attention to the 

 maximum increase of crops nor to the proportion 

 of increase of cost. 



A healthy interest could be excited and much 

 valuable information be obtained if the Agricul- 

 tural Societies and Granges would ask the exper- 

 iment stations and progressive farmers to figure 

 out records as standards for each crop raised in 

 their neighborhood by which progress could be 

 measured. We have abundant well established 

 "records" of high jumping, of speed of horses, 

 of automobile runs and a thousand other things, 

 why not of the productivity of acres? 



