24 



forty cents per bushel, this will be from twelve to twenty per 

 cent of what he receives, while wheat at one dollar per bushel 

 could be delivered at from four to seven per cent, or a drove of 

 cattle or hogs could be delivered at the same market for a very 

 small fraction of one per cent of their value. 



The effect on the fertility of the soil of the system adopted 

 must be carefully considered. Too much of our farming is illus- 

 trated by "killing the goose that laid the golden egg." The 

 American system of farming has been a prodigal one, for it is 

 not long since the day when it cost less to destroy a forest and 

 thus get a new and fertile field than to enrich an old one; but 

 in most of the States the limit has been reached in this direc- 

 tion, and now the farmer must not only maintain but increase 

 the fertility of his soil. The farm is his capital, and any sys- 

 tem which reduces its fertility is wasteful and improvident. 

 One of the greatest aids in maintaining fertility is 



Rotation of Crops. The fact is well known to all prac- 

 tical farmers that the continual growing of any particular crop on 

 a field will gradually reduce its productiveness until the point is 

 reached at which it can no longer be profitably cultivated. This 

 period may be longer or shorter, according to the nature of the 

 soil or the character of the crop, but the result will be inevit- 

 able. Another fact, equally familiar to the farmer, is that a 

 field partially exhausted by one crop will produce some other. 

 Another fact, not so easily understood, is that after the second 

 crop has been grown for some years the soil will be found to 

 have regained to a greater or less extent the capacity of pro- 

 ducing the first. 



Practically a good system of rotation enables the farmer to 

 grow, at little or no expense, his fertilizers in the soil where 

 they are needed. It also more than doubles the value of the 

 manure applied if used intelligently and judiciously. But as 

 these questions will be more fully discussed in the chapter on 

 manures I will pass them for the present. 



How Much to Cultivate is an important question to settle 

 in your plan of farm management. In large sections the greatest 

 evil is over-cropping. I am familiar, and have been for nearly 



