THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



59 



Good Management. A Massachusetts man, 

 driving through New Hampshire, pulled up his horse 

 to chat with a farmer about his crops. Some of the 

 old man's remarks were spiced with humor and some 

 of them, the tourist declares, were almost as good as 

 a sermon. 



" My corn's done fust-rate," the farmer said, cheer- 

 fully. " An' I ain't a-goin' to take no credit for sup- 

 plyin' the preacher's folks with it, nuther. Some say 

 I'm too freehanded but I tell 'em it ain't gen'rosity, 

 it's jest common sense an' forehandedness. I tell 'em 

 my preacher's patch is wuth more to me'n 'tis to the 

 preacher himself. Why, I cal'late it's havin' of that 

 patch that's keep' my whole field a-goin' fer the last 

 five years."' 



!' Where is your preacher's patch situated?' 1 in- 

 quired the stranger, with pardonable curiosity. 



" Right slap in the middle o' the field,'' was the 

 reply. 



"Any special reason for having it just in the 

 middle? '' asked the stranger. 



" Well, yes," said the farmer, with a twinkle in his 

 eye. "Ye see, that's where my long-headedness 

 comes in, stranger. It stands to reason the Lord 

 ain't a goin' to let the preacher surfer an' I never 

 see folks that set so by corn as his do an' so I reck- 

 oned that when He was a-pervidin' rain an' sunshine 

 oer the preacher's patch by havin' of it right slap in 

 the middle o' the field there'd most likely be enough 

 o' both them desirable ingrejients to keep the rest o' 

 the field a-goin' an no harm done! "' 



And with no s.ign of amusement except what ap- 

 peared in his bright old eyes the farmer turned the 

 conversation to the state of politics in New Hamp- 

 shire. YoutKs Companion. 



Do Not Sacrifice the Sheep. The recent tariff 

 law placing wool upon the free list has greatly dis- 

 couraged flock masters in all parts of the country.' 

 In the Western States and Territorres tens of thou- 

 sands of sheep have been sold at; merely nominal 

 figures or slaughtered merely for their pelts. While 

 it may be true that our farmers will be unable to 

 maintain a successful competition against the wool- 

 growers of Australia and other cheapland countries 

 as to certain grades of wool, it is manifestly unwise 

 to enter upon a wholesale sacrifice of flocks. It is by 

 no means impossible that with proper attention the 

 market for mutton can be very greatly extended 

 throughout the United States. Unlike the English 

 we are scarcely to be described as a mutton eating 

 people, and yet the consumption of fresh mutton is 

 said to be largely on the increase. The sheep is so 

 valuable an animal on the average farm that its abol- 

 ishment from the land would entail an immense loss. 

 No more efficient agent for consuming weeds, briars, 

 etc., and converting into cash what would otherwise 

 be a great curse, is known to American agriculture 

 than the sheep. The wools so largely imported 

 hitherto have been mostly of the coarser types, and it 

 will be those large herds of common sheep feeding 

 upon the public domain or other cheap land among 

 the mountains or in the far western prairie states, 

 which will suffer most from the new tariff. Those 

 farmers who handle a comparatively small number of 

 sheep and take proper care of them need not despair 

 of continuing to reap a profit from their flocks. The 

 true course should be to take more pains to have the 

 best breeds, then give the animals extra care and 

 attention with a view to making a lesser number even 



more profitable than the previous herds. Friends of 

 the new tariff measure never weary of asserting that 

 the cheapened price of wool will so stimulate the 

 demand that practically as good results will be main- 

 tained for that staple as heretofore. Practical expe- 

 rience alone can determine the ultimate value of the 

 argument. At all events, farmers generally, may 

 safely consume more fresh mutton anal thus doubtless 

 reap some benefits not hitherto enjoyed, while caring 

 better for their flocks with the almost certain advan- 

 tage of increased value at the butcher's, if not at the 

 shearing shed. 



Necessity of Co-operation. No single in- 

 dividual or weak organization can possibly stand up 

 before the combinations of capital, energy, greed and 

 business cunning which confront growers in every 

 market. The great problem before producers of 

 perishable fruits is not that of growing fruits, but of 

 marketing them, of putting the products of the orchard 

 and vineyard upon the tables of consumers at prices 

 which they can pay, and which will also leave a 

 reasonable margin in the hands of the producer. A 

 careful study of the markets shows that, while the 

 producer often receives but scant returns for his 

 labor, the consumer of the fruit paid a good price for 

 it. These conditions necessarily result from defective 

 methods of distribution. To begin with, all consign- 

 ments of fruit in a promiscuous way to commission 

 agencies in distant markets must be discontinued. 

 And there is no way to regulate shipments so as to 

 avoid gluts in the various markets.and require honest 

 and early returns, except through co-operation. If 

 their own experience does not fully convince fruit 

 growers of the supreme folly of attempting to "go it 

 alone' 1 in their business, the example of men in other 

 lines all about them should certainly afford convinc- 

 ing object lessons. Did any one ever hear of the man- 

 ufacturer sending a carload of his product to the 

 " storekeeper " at Smithville or Milpitas with the 

 request that he sell it out with the best advantage he 

 could and remit the proceeds ? Of course not. Such 

 a proceeding on the part of a cotton manufacturer 

 would at once stamp him as a lunatic whose friends 

 would feel in duty bound to take care of. But this is 

 done every day in the year by fruit growers and farm- 

 ers generally. But, it may be asked, is there a rem- 

 edy? There certainly is; but it does not lie in the 

 continuance of the single-handed struggle which the 

 farmer has so long and so unsuccessfully waged. 

 What would the armies of Napoleon or Grant have 

 accomplished as a struggling aggregation of unorgan- 

 ized and undisciplined men? Nothing, of course. 

 Everywhere and always a platoon of trained veterans 

 under competent leadership is more than a match for 

 an unorganized mob of ten times the number. This 

 is true in war, true in diplomacy, true in business. 

 The first great lesson then for farmers, and especially 

 for fruit growers, to learn is that their interests are 

 common, and that their safety and welfare lie only in 

 the direction of association and harmony in the trans- 

 action of their business. 



Co-operative Poultry and Dairy Farming. 



Diversified farming on small irrigated farms lends 

 itself peculiarly well to cooperative effort. There is 

 an interesting account by F. S. Chapin in the American 

 Agriculturist, from which we abstract: 



The Two Rock Grange, near Petaluma, California, 

 occupies its own hall and is a model of cooperative 



