20 CAMPBELL'S SOIL CULTURE MANUAL 



Agriculture is a science with new problems every year, 

 and where conditions change the application of the prin- 

 ciples must change also. The farmer must meet condi- 

 tions as he finds them. With the true principles well 

 grounded in him he must be ready to adapt himself to all 

 conditions that may come up. 



The problem of farming in what is known as the semi- 

 arid region is quite different from that in the humid por- 

 tions of the country. The old methods will not get results. 

 The farmer who must readily adapt himself to this fact 

 will be quickest to achieve success. Farming, for instance, 

 in the lower portions of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys 

 is comparatively easy. The farmer has water to waste, 

 and he does let it go to waste. Of course he would do 

 better farming if he did not waste his. water, or rather if 

 he had it under control perfectly, as he might have, but 

 in fact, he can farm very well and be indifferent to the 

 waste of water. Not so everywhere. 



As a matter of fact the men who have been making 

 a success of farm operations in the region between the hu- 

 mid belt and the western mountains are men capable of 

 working out hard problems. They have actually been 

 engaged in solving these hard problems for many years. 

 The early land seekers made the mistake of trying to farm 

 as they did in the states where they formerly lived. The 

 later farmers profited by their experience. As a result 

 ideal homes are springing up all over the western states. 



All this may be dismissed as intelligence in farming; 

 but it is true that there has been entirely too much farm- 

 ing done without this intelligence. 



The ideal farmer is first of all a student, then an in- 

 vestigator, and finally a specialist; ever alert for new 

 things and new ideas, open-minded and free from conceit; 



