Il6 FARM DEVELOPMENT 



plant food production from the soil and from the air; 

 maintains the soil in good condition mechanically; 

 leaves the land more productive at the end of each six- 

 year rotation period; keeps down the requirements for 

 present day high-priced labor; and, for the region men- 

 tioned above, it is the basis of a system of crop and live 

 stock production which yields a high annual net income 

 per acre and per worker. 



Most farms are rather awkwardly organized, many of 

 them not showing any attempt at systematic planning. 

 It is hoped that investigations, in crop rotations, in the 

 cost of making farm products, in the methods used by the 

 most successful farmers, and other like subjects, will ere 

 long give a basis for a literature on farm organization 

 and farm management in each state. 



When this has been done the farmer, often with the 

 help of his son and the teacher in the consolidated 

 rural school, can place on paper a systematically organ- 

 ized plan to be followed in its main features. Keeping 

 an annual ledger map by annually putting yields, cost 

 and other facts in each field on the map, will be a pleas- 

 ant task for the farmer. Duplicate copies of these maps 

 on file in the consolidated rural school, in the agricul- 

 tural high school, and in the agricultural newspaper, will 

 be the bases of very lively discussion of farm manage- 

 ment. This subject will then have changed from an in- 

 definite, if not uninteresting, topic to a fascinating and 

 most vital educational and economic subject. 



