238 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



Two crops are said to be competing either when they consume 

 the same properties of the soil or when they consume the same 

 portion of the farmer's time ; that is, when they demand his time 

 and attention at precisely the same time of the year. Otherwise 

 they are noncompeting crops. Two crops may be competing 

 in one sense and noncompeting in the other. The ideal diversi- 

 fication is, of course, a combination of crops which are non- 

 competing in both senses. So important is this principle that 

 it may be laid down as a rule that no farm will pay unless it 

 provides steady and regular work for a fairly permanent labor 

 force throughout the greater part of a year. Even dairying, 

 which may be called a highly specialized form of agriculture, 

 is seldom profitable unless combined with the growing of field 

 crops of some kind for sale. The number of men necessary to 

 do the milking evenings and mornings are more than enough 

 to take care of the cows and grow feed for them. Unless some 

 other products are grown the time of the men is not fully uti- 

 lized. By growing field crops for sale, the cost of producing 

 milk is divided with that of growing these other crops; or, to 

 look at it in another way, these crops are by-products of milk 

 and cost very little. Very little poultry is kept profitably in 

 this country, except on farms where it is in the strictest sense 

 a noncompeting crop or product. Where it is kept in small 

 quantities it forages for itself, consuming mainly waste prod- 

 ucts, besides destroying insects, and does not exhaust the soil 

 at all but tends rather to enrich it. Again, it does not com- 

 pete for the farmer's time, being cared for mainly by the labor 

 of women and children. This will help to explain how difficult 

 it is for any one to make a living raising poultry alone in compe- 

 tition with farm poultry, unless one is prepared to go into the 

 business on a large scale and is equipped with thorough scien- 

 tific knowledge. Where diversified farming means the growing 

 of noncompeting crops, specialization is a long way off. 



