FACTORS 01 >i CGESS IN 1 ARMING 607 



has a naturally rich soil. It is usually much cheaper to buy 

 fertility in the soil than to buy poor land and spend years and 

 money in making it productive. 



With any given soil, the crops may be increased by saving the 

 farm manure and by spreading it thin enough with a manure- 

 spreader so that the entire farm can be covered frequently, every 

 five years if possible. It is much better to spread five loads per 

 acre every five years than to spread ten loads every ten years. 



The use of more fertilizers, lime, tile drains, better methods 

 of tillage, and better crop rotations may also be called for. 

 Which of the various means of securing good crops to use, and 

 just how far to go with one before improving on some other point, 

 is a problem that taxes the best judgment of the most experienced 

 farmer. Certainly it does not pay to go on permanently raising 

 crops that are poorer than the neighbors raise. If the results in 

 the entire neighborhood are too low because of poor soil, it may 

 be best to change the type of farming or to go elsewhere. There 

 is no more reason for working a farm that cannot be made to 

 pay than there is for working the abandoned iron mines in 

 New York that cannot be made to pay. 



Apparently a farmer would do well to use some means by which 



he can obtain yields a little better than his neighbors obtain on 



the same S(>i/. About a fifth better seems to be a good standard 



;k tor. If the neighbors raise one ton of hay, it is probable 



that it will pay to raise at least 1.2 tons. If they raise 1.5 tons, 



it is probable that 1.75 tons will pay better. Hut on the soil that 



normally i .5 tons, it is probable that 3 tons can be raiseil 



at l-.ss tost per ton on t\. than on one. In short, it is 



usually not wise to go too far beyond the natural limitations of 



oil. Certainly this is the opinion of the farmers. The high- 



I in Livingston County was 1 86 per cent. There 



Q farmer whoM crops were twice as good as the average. 



There were, of course, instances of a single crop being as good 



as that, but, taking all the crops i(- S6 per cent above the 



..is the hi-lvM \ield obtained. This farm had a soil that 



naturally extra good. 



