148 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



come to adapt his crop to his land, not his 

 land to the crop. 



Tradition that is the starting point. That 

 is what the emigrant leaves behind him when 

 he comes to this country and raises fifteen 

 bushels instead of forty or fifty. The prairie 

 has already selected its own crop, native 

 grasses. It would be futile for the pioneer 

 turning the sod with his oxen to ask the land 

 what crop it will grow best. There is a mar- 

 ket for corn and wheat. Will the land grow 

 corn and wheat ? That is all he seeks to know. 

 And the round of a single season answers this 

 question ; whereas, according to the Old World 

 methods, it would take hundreds of years to 

 determine what crop is best adapted to the 

 peculiar conditions of soil and climate of each 

 acre. There is the belief that the average soil 

 will produce any staple crop, and it is true 

 in a measure. In any event, in any extensive 

 system of agriculture the secret of the indi- 

 vidual acre is not of first importance. It is 

 not until the end of free land, and then of 

 reclaimable land, is in sight that the problem 

 of selective farming becomes vital. 



At home the emigrant possessed the secret 

 of each field, handed down from father to son. 



