CHAPTER VII 

 PLANNING THE FARM 



General foundation plans for the farm are next in im- 

 portance to the selection of the farm. It should be so 

 laid out and improved as to make a highly organized 

 structure, even though many years must elapse before 

 its completion. One has an opportunity, in opening a 

 new farm, for making a grand monument to his skill or 

 a discreditable showing of his lack of foresight and 

 ability. In assuming the management of an old farm, 

 one can often make changes which will materially 

 increase the comforts, facilitate the daily work, enlarge 

 the profits, stimulate the pride and build up the character 

 of the owner and his family. 



Organization of the farm business. The farm may be 

 looked upon as an organized structure. The windbreaks, 

 public roads, outside line fences, and the inside road 

 and field fences make up, as it were, a skeleton or frame- 

 work. The buildings, fields and yards are the active 

 organs and the lanes serve as arteries. The main por- 

 tions of the farm are the farmstead* containing, so to 

 speak, the head and heart ; the fields, acting as stomach 

 and lungs ; and the lanes, serving as circulatory organs. 



In the middle northwestern states, and in most other 

 parts of the country, whatever may be the present lines 

 of farming chosen, the foundation plan should be such 

 that stock raising may easily be taken up at once or in 

 the near future, possibly by future owners. This means 

 that in placing the windbreak, the dwelling and other 



*The name farmstead is here used to mean that portion of the 

 farm separate from the fields, chosen for the location of the build- 

 ings, yards, garden, orchard, etc.. and often in part surrounded with 

 a grove left when clearing, or planted to serve as a windbreak. 



