176 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



business. The plant investment is large, the turn- 

 over is slow, and the gross-profit margin small. The 

 risks are greater, since to normal business risks is 

 added an almost complete dependence on the 

 whims of weather. 



The activities of our government have made 

 most of us familiar with the plight of the wheat, 

 corn, and cotton farmers; we know what causes it: 

 specialization. Nevertheless successful farming is 

 specialization. This does not mean specializing in 

 a one-crop commodity like wheat, corn, or cotton 

 that, no matter how high its quality, must be sold 

 in a world market at world commodity prices. It 

 means specializing in a high quality consumer- 

 product that will command a premium retail price. 

 The farmer who is not geared to do that has no 

 business in commercial farming; he should revert 

 to home-use. 



The best example of the successful specialty 

 farmer I know was my grandfather. At the age of 

 seventy-five, and with no previous practical expe- 

 rience, he bought two hundred acres just across 

 the river from Valley Forge a farm that had been 

 a conspicuous failure at general cropping. He 

 spent two or three years improving the fertility of 

 the soil by unconventional methods he had fig- 

 ured out for himself. He used to storm and curse 

 with tears in his eyes at the cost; I doubt if in those 

 first years he got even a part of his bait back, but 



