80 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



Judge whether we judged well. Farmed in 

 the old way through the old years, the value 

 of this land its selling value, I mean had 

 stood stock still for a generation; its intrinsic 

 value its fertility value was growing stead- 

 ily less and less. If the old conditions had per- 

 sisted, the land wouldn't sell for a nickel more 

 to-day than we gave for it six years ago. Han- 

 dled according to our early plan, the market 

 value has jumped from $20 to $100 an acre. 

 If we wanted to, we could sell out to-day for 

 $100 an acre, plus the cost of our buildings. 

 The increase in intrinsic or cropping value of 

 the land has been still more marked; our crop 

 yields now are half a dozen times what they 

 used to be at their best and the limit of that 

 increase isn't yet in sight. Of course crop- 

 ping methods have had a great deal to do with 

 making the increased yields; but the point is 

 that the better methods wouldn't have been 

 possible on the old fields. 



You can see that it's pretty hard to separate 

 the money we've spent into operating expenses 

 proper and permanent investment. I doubt if 

 that's possible on any farm; the two are so 

 closely interwoven that they react one upon 

 the other in a hundred ways. No matter about 



