94 THE BUSINESS OF FABMING 



or farm products of market value, and in abun- 

 dance, cannot be manufactured or produced from 

 it. 



He who owns this manufacturing plant, the 

 farm, must have a good working soil rich in the 

 elements capable of producing crops in abundance 

 and at a price that will make this manufacturing 

 plant pay dividends. The soil thus becomes the 

 farmer's chief consideration and concern. If the 

 farmer is wise and has a business head, he will 

 see to it that his soil fertility is not only conserved, 

 but is increased. When the farmer realizes that 

 the fertility of this soil is the basis of his pros- 

 perity, his happiness, his existence, then he be- 

 comes a true disciple of the business of farming, 

 not impregnated with that greed and avarice that 

 plunders and robs the soil, but imbued with the 

 spirit that recognizes that soil is a living thing and 

 must be fed and groomed as we feed and groom 

 our beloved domestic animals. 



Had not greed and avarice taken possession of 

 the farmer of the past, agriculture would have 

 never known such a thing as worn and worn-out 

 soil or the abandoned farm. The killing of the 

 fabled goose that laid the golden egg in order to 

 find the mass of gold supposed to be hidden in the 

 goose, and secure it all at once, has had its exem- 

 plification in the constant pushing of the soil's pro- 

 duction to the limit of its power, year after year, 

 for a half century or more, without a thought of 

 conservation or feeding so as to maintain or in- 

 crease its power to produce crops. 



The soil, then, being the very foundation and the 

 chief asset of the business of farming, it should 



